“Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9).
When God’s word really becomes a part of one’s soul, that one can never be the same again. As dejected Jeremiah said in his imprisonment: “The word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily” (Jeremiah 20:8), he testified; so he said: “I will not . . . speak any more in His name.” But he could not quit! God’s word was burning in his bones, and he must let it out. “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).
The psalmist, David, had a similar testimony. “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue” (Psalm 39:2,3). When the resurrected Christ “expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” the two disciples from Emmaus later testified: “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:27,32).
Of all the symbols applied in the Scriptures to God’s word, that of fire is the most awe-inspiring. Fire was not a discovery of some primitive man, as evolutionists imagine, but has always been an instrument of God’s judgment, from the flaming sword in Eden (Genesis 3:24) to the lake of fire in hell (Revelation 21:8). In fact, God Himself is said to be “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).
The word of fire in the burning heart cannot be contained, but must be proclaimed at any cost. As Paul acknowledged: “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (I Corinthians 9:16). HMM
