I Will Make My Words a Fire in Your Mouth [Jeremiah 5:7]

"I will make my words a fire in your mouth" [Jeremiah 5:14]

Jer 5:14-19 Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:

"Because the people have spoken these words, I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes.

15 O house of Israel," declares the LORD, "I am bringing a distant nation against you — an ancient and enduring nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you do not understand.

16 Their quivers are like an open grave; all of them are mighty warriors.

17 They will devour your harvests and food, devour your sons and daughters; they will devour your flocks and herds, devour your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.

18 "Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I will not destroy you completely. 19 And when the people ask, 'Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.'

WHAT WORDS?

Jer 5:12-13 They have lied about the LORD; they said, "He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine. The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them."

Jer 5:12-13 They have denied Jehovah, and say, He is not; and evil shall not come upon us, nor shall we see sword nor famine; and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. [Darby]

GOD IS NOT? THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES? THERE WON’T BE ANY CONSEQUENCES?

There is no God? His prophets are bags of wind? Let what they say come back on them?

Let’s hear it one more time.

Jer 5:12-13 The LORD's people have denied him and have said, "He won't really do anything. We won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine." 13 They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the LORD. The LORD God Almighty said to me, "Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up." [TEV]

No wonder the modern church does not like prophets.

GOD SPEAKS WITH FIRE IN HIS MOUTH.

2 Sam 22:8-14 8 "The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook;

they trembled because he was angry.

9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth , burning coals blazed out of it.

10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

12 He made darkness his canopy around him- the dark rain clouds of the sky.

13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.

14 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

And it is repeated in the Psalms.

Ps 18:7-12

7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

9 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him — the dark rain clouds of the sky.

12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

The consequences of rebellion against God is ultimately fire – from the mouth of God. What He speaks – His word – destroys with fire. And He puts that capability into others.

FOUR EXAMPLES OF MOUTHS OF FIRE FOR US:

Leviathan
Horses in Revelation
Two witnesses
Jeremiah

FIRE-BREATHING LEVIATHAN

Job 41:19-20 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.

Job 41:8-11 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!

9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.

10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?

11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

God is talking to Job about some kind of creature that Job was somewhat familiar with. Legends of dragons from the distant past? Or maybe a creature down in the marshes of Ethiopia? Maybe it is one of the dragons that Alexander encountered when he went to India. Where do all those fire breathing dragon stories come from? Absolute figments of people’s imaginations? Isn’t it amazing how consistent the images are in all cultures? An authority reported sighting a flying reptile near Mt. Pilatus, in Switzerland, as late as 1649.

Or is Leviathan a mythical / spiritual creature – maybe a representation of Satan like the snake in the garden of Eden? Whatever it is, it inspires fear in man. God poses the question to Job that if man fears Leviathan, how much more should man fear the One who can create a monster that breathes fire from its mouth? Reality? Supernatural? Mythological? In the local ocean? In Loch Ness?

FIRE-BREATHING HORSES

Rev 9:17-18 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire , smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire , smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.

Again – out of created being’s mouths – comes fire. Are these horses real horses? Or are they spiritual beings of some kind? Does it matter? For either type, fire comes out of their mouths and it is a fire of judgment. One third of mankind will understand the fire coming from a created thing. Will the other two thirds than fear the fire that will come from the Creator.

I tend to not think that these "horses" are simply machines made by man. I don’t think they are Apache helicopters armed to the teeth – or the newest "raptor." I do not see the 200 million army as a military force in the way we understand armies. The scripture in context states clearly that four angels – not men – are released who have been bound at the great river Euphrates. These are spiritual beings and it is they who have the 200 million. Maybe they control 200 million men, but maybe scripture doesn’t say that. Maybe they control 200 million spiritual beings that have horses with faces like lions. If only men, even I can think of a way to "conquer" them or at least frustrate them to some extent. The horses and riders in Revelation do not seem to be frustrated by man’s efforts. And we have seen sophisticated machines taken down by relatively primitive means.

What ever they are, they breathed fire out of their mouths. And the fire is fearsome.

TWO WITNESSES WHO SPEW OUT FIRE FROM THEIR MOUTHS

Going to endtimes accounts we find two men who have been given that "fire" ability. So now we have to think a little. Literal fire? Or allegorical fire? Or maybe symbolical – like fire? With Leviathan, we can assume some poetic license because we "know" there are no animals or creatures that breath fire. That is dragon-legend stuff. And the horses in the endtimes – well – if not helicopter gunships, we can’t explain it too well. But two "hell-fire-and brimstone-preachers"?

Rev 11:1-6 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6 These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.

Figurative language or reality? Just because we westerners have not recently seen a fire-breathing monster in the sea does not mean there wasn’t one in the past. Some call this extinction. Consider the bombardier beetle which currently exists on most continents and is not extinct.

The reason the bombardier beetle is so unique is due to the two small glands located near the end of its abdomen. One gland produces hydrogen peroxide, while the other manufactures hydroquinone. The two chemicals are mixed in an 'explosion chamber', where two enzymes, catalase and peroxidase are added. These enzymes speed up the reaction to the boiling point, and the beetle ejects the boiling chemical stream at whatever predator is nearby.

A natural being that exists now, can be studied, and spews out boiling fluids when threatened. Yet, symbolically or allegorically, there is something else.

Do I think the two men in Jerusalem are going to spit out a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone at their enemies? Not really. But I do think their fiery words will instantly cause destruction. And it will be an immediate destruction very similar to what fire does. Consider what happened to one of the Herods when he did not give God the glory.

Acts 12:23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Was this an immediate event that the people present watched on stage, live? Or did he go to the hospital and deteriorate for the next several months or years and only a preacher would evangelistically tell the story as "immediately"? Do the witnesses do something like this on their own authority?

AND JEREMIAH

Let’s look at the prophet concept again? Jeremiah spoke with the fire of God on and in his words: a chemical coming out of his mouth? A flame like a flame thrower? Maybe a laser beam? I doubt it.

Another way to consider it. Did the words that Jeremiah said, happen or did they not happen? Judah was destroyed. The Temple was destroyed. People were killed. People were deported. The land was destroyed as if and sometimes by fire..

Should the prophet – as in apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher – have the same fiery authority today? Does the gift Holy Spirit provides in 1 Cor 12 have a similar fiery skill? Will the church or community even allow them to have that skill? How can the church or community stop them – if it is of God? But just because they claim the status of prophet, do their words result in fire?

REJECTING THE PROPHETIC

We are right back to the words told to Jeremiah by God: "They say there is no God. And the words of His prophets, the windbags, will not come to pass. Let their words come back upon them." These were the three things said by the community and the religious:

– There is no God – or at least a God that is going to do all those nasty things the prophet is saying.

– The words of the prophets are not going to happen.

– Let the prophecies come back upon the prophets themselves.

This is what a sinful church and a sinful community does when the legitimate prophet, one of the fivefold, speaks the fiery word of God. When the legitimate prophet speaks, it is not some sort of Christian curse that can be prayed against, it is a declaration of what God has done already. We may not see it yet, but it is done. And it is sometimes fiery judgment.

Therefore, who and what a prophet is should be of interest to the local church. The Apostle Paul suggested that everyone should seek the gift of prophecy. Does this mean everyone should have fiery words from their lips? Then there is the five-fold ministry. The second one is prophet. With fire in their mouths? And the people that reject the prophet’s words are the wood consumed by the fire?

The voice of the prophet comes out in two ways and because of two ways.

Amos 3:7-8 Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared- who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken- who can but prophesy?

That is when the word is accepted. But there is the other way.

Jer 5:14 Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:

"Because the people have spoken these words, I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes.

The prophet’s words are fire to those who reject them. And a prophet’s words are prophetic when the prophet submits those words for weighing AND the weighing confirms the fire.

1 Cor 14:3-5 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.

1 Cor 14:29-33 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

We need that fire from the mouth of God. It is His plans we need to know, not ours. And as Paul says, I repeat, "I would everyone would prophesy so that the church may be edified." Why are you holding out?