Jeremiah 23:16-32

Straw, Fire, and Hammer

Introduction: The Market for Lies

We live in an age that has a voracious appetite for lies. Not just any lies, but comforting, therapeutic, and affirming lies. We want to be told that we are fine just the way we are, that our brokenness is actually our beauty, and that the God of the universe is little more than a celestial therapist whose primary job is to endorse our life choices. The modern evangelical landscape is littered with the ministries of men who have gotten very rich by meeting this market demand. They preach a vision of their own hearts, a gospel of fluff and vanity, and they promise peace to those who have made a treaty with their sin.

This is nothing new. The spiritual sickness of our day is the same sickness that afflicted Judah in the days of Jeremiah. The nation was on the brink of catastrophic judgment, and the people, rather than repenting, were shopping for prophets who would tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear. They wanted spiritual junk food, and there was no shortage of chefs willing to serve it to them. They wanted straw, not grain.

In this passage, God Himself takes the stand. He is not amused. He draws a sharp, brutal line between the prophets He sends and the prophets who simply run. He distinguishes between the Word that proceeds from His mouth and the self-help pablum that bubbles up from the deceptive hearts of men. This is not a polite disagreement over secondary doctrines. This is God declaring war on the counterfeit gospels of the age, and He provides us with the diagnostic tools to tell the difference between the wheat and the chaff, the hammer and the styrofoam, the fire and the fog machine.


The Text

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into vanity; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of Yahweh. They keep saying to those who spurn Me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace” ’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Evil will not come upon you.’ But who has stood in the council of Yahweh, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and heard? Behold, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling storm; It will whirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of Yahweh will not turn back Until He has done and established the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it. I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have caused My words to be heard by My people And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds. “Am I a God who is near,” declares Yahweh, “And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares Yahweh. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares Yahweh. “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy a lie in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy a lie, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they recount to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? The prophet who has a dream may recount his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares Yahweh. “Is not My word like fire?” declares Yahweh, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who take their tongues and declare, ‘Yahweh declares.’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied lying dreams,” declares Yahweh, “and who recounted them and led My people astray by their lying and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them, and I did not command them, and they do not furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares Yahweh.
(Jeremiah 23:16-32 LSB)

The Anatomy of a False Prophet (vv. 16-18, 21-22)

God begins with a command and a diagnosis. The command is simple: "Do not listen." This requires discernment. It means we are responsible for what we allow into our ears. The diagnosis lays out the defining marks of the false prophet.

"They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of Yahweh... I did not send these prophets, But they ran." (Jeremiah 23:16, 21 LSB)

First, their source is corrupt. Their message originates in their own heart, their own intuition, their own clever ideas. It is not "from the mouth of Yahweh." They have not, as verse 18 says, "stood in the council of Yahweh." A true prophet is an ambassador who delivers a message from the throne room. A false prophet is an entrepreneur who has a great idea for a new religious start-up. God says, "I did not send them, but they ran." They are volunteers for a position to which they were never appointed. They are driven by ambition, not commission.

Second, their message is poisonously sweet. They tell the rebellious exactly what they want to hear. To those who "spurn Me," they say, "You will have peace." To everyone walking in the "stubbornness of his own heart," they say, "Evil will not come upon you." This is the gospel of affirmation. It is the message that there are no consequences. It is cheap, greasy, deadly grace. It is telling a man who is driving 100 miles per hour toward a cliff that he should enjoy the scenery.

Third, their ministry is fruitless. This is the acid test. Look at verse 22: "But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have caused My words to be heard by My people And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds." The goal of true preaching is repentance. It is to turn people from their evil way. The false prophets entertain, they encourage, they affirm, but they do not convert. Their message has no power to change anyone because it is not God's message. It is a blank cartridge. It makes a noise but cannot pierce the heart.


The God Who Is Not Tame (vv. 19-20, 23-24)

The false prophets operate as though God is either absent, blind, or senile. They have a domesticated deity, a God who can be managed. But Yahweh crashes their little tea party with a terrifying reminder of who He actually is.

"Behold, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath... Am I a God who is near,” declares Yahweh, “And not a God far off? ... Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” (Jeremiah 23:19, 23-24 LSB)

The God of the Bible is not a gentle breeze; He is a "whirling storm" of wrath against the wicked. His anger is not a petty tantrum; it is a holy, purposeful force that will not be deflected "Until He has done and established the purposes of His heart." The false prophets may promise peace, but God promises a storm. And He adds a chilling note: "In the last days you will clearly understand it." There is a day coming when all the comforting illusions will be stripped away, and reality will hit with the force of a hurricane. On that day, there will be no more confusion.

Furthermore, this God is inescapable. He demolishes their functional atheism with two rhetorical questions. First, "Am I a God who is near, and not a God far off?" He is both transcendent and immanent. He is high and lifted up, but He is also intimately aware of every whispered sin. Second, "Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" The answer is a resounding no. There are no secret places, no lead-lined rooms, no dark corners of the heart where God cannot see. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" His presence is the very fabric of reality. To sin is to sin in His immediate presence. The false prophets and their followers act as though God's jurisdiction ends at the door of the temple, but God declares that He owns and fills every square inch of His creation.


Straw, Grain, Fire, Hammer (vv. 25-32)

Here we come to the heart of the matter. God contrasts the substance of false prophecy with the substance of His true Word.

"The prophet who has a dream may recount his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares Yahweh." (Jeremiah 23:28 LSB)

The currency of the false prophets is the dream, the subjective experience, the "word" that came to them in the night. God does not deny that they have dreams. His point is about category. A dream is a dream. It's straw. It's light, flimsy, and provides zero spiritual nutrition. God's Word, in contrast, is grain. It is solid, weighty, life-sustaining truth. The command is to keep these categories distinct. Tell your dream as a dream, but speak God's Word as God's Word. The great sin is to present your straw as though it were grain from God's granary.

And what is this grain like? God gives two metaphors. "Is not My word like fire?" and "like a hammer which shatters a rock?" (v. 29). God's Word is not passive. It is an active agent. Like fire, it consumes, it purifies, and it judges. It burns away the dross. Like a hammer, it is powerful. It does not negotiate with hard hearts; it shatters them. The false prophets offer pillows. God offers a hammer. The false prophets offer a nightlight. God offers a consuming fire.

Because of this great contrast, God concludes with a threefold declaration of war. "Behold, I am against the prophets..."


The True Word and the True Prophet

This entire chapter forces us to ask the question: Who then is the true prophet? Who has truly stood in the council of Yahweh? Who speaks the very words of God? The answer, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). He did not speak a vision of His own heart, but said, "I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me a commandment, what to say and what to speak" (John 12:49).

And what was His message? It was not an unconditional "peace, peace." It was a call: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). He did not offer straw, but declared Himself to be the Bread of Life, the true grain from heaven (John 6:35).

The Word of God is indeed a fire and a hammer. And at the cross, the full force of that fire of God's wrath against sin, and the full impact of the hammer of His justice, fell upon the Son. He absorbed the storm so that we who take refuge in Him might have true peace, a peace the world cannot give and the false prophets cannot imagine. This is not the cheap peace of ignoring sin, but the costly peace that comes from having sin judged and forgiven.

Therefore, we must be a people who love the grain. We must refuse the straw. We must not be afraid of the fire that purifies or the hammer that breaks our stony hearts. We must demand from our pulpits the faithful preaching of the Word of God, in season and out of season. For it is this Word alone that has the power to turn us from our evil ways, and to turn us to the one true Prophet, Jesus Christ our Lord.