#DailyDevotion Let Us More Faithfully Preach & Listen To His Word

Jeremiah 23:²³Am I a God who is only near and not far away?” asks the LORD. ²⁴“Can anyone hide in a secret place so that I can’t see him?” asks the LORD. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” asks the LORD. ²⁵“I’ve heard what the prophets say; those who tell lies in My name say, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will the hearts of these prophets tell lies and invent dishonest prophecies? ²⁷By their dreams which they tell one another, do they plan to make My people forget My name, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal? ²⁸If a prophet has a dream, let him tell it, but he who has My Word, let him faithfully speak My Word. Why mix the grain with the straw?” says the LORD. ²⁹“Isn’t My Word like fire?” says the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

We see some important teachings of the bible here, God’s omniscience, i.e. knowing everything and God’s omnipresence, being everywhere. Since the LORD is the creator of everything, seen and unseen he is bigger than everything. The LORD stands outside of time and space and he also fills time and space. But the LORD is not creation itself. He is its creator. So we also see that the Lord is transcendent and he is also immanent, i.e. he is above all things and he also penetrates all things.

So the LORD our God is near and far away. No one can hide from his presence. He fills heaven and earth. So Jesus the LORD tells us, the kingdom of God is within you.

Now this can either be a very comforting thing or a very disturbing thing. For the false prophets in chapter twenty-three of Jeremiah, the LORD is telling these things to disturb them. He’s letting them know he knows what they are doing. He knows they are preaching false teachings and false messages from him. How long will they continue to misuse the name of the LORD their God, telling people what they want to hear, lulling them into complacency just to earn a piece of bread? By their false teaching they are getting the people to forget the name of the LORD their God, that is to say his true nature. They were filing his name with falsehoods and therefore presenting a false god that is not the LORD, even is this false god bore his name.

Never the less, the LORD tells them if they have a dream, let them tell it. However, the one who has His Word, let him faithfully speak His Word. We have similar problems in the Church today. Not only do we have teachers in the Church who teach things the Lord Jesus Christ did not say, but they put their dreams, visions and the speaking to their hearts above God’s Word. Maybe the LORD spoke to them, gave them a vision or dream, maybe he didn’t. In the Torah, the LORD says he will let prophets receive such false things to see if they will be faithful to his Word. The written Word of God has more authority and is more authoritative than any vision, dream or voice from heaven. St. Peter, who saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory writes, 2Pe 1:19-21 “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,  (20)  knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.  (21)  For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”



Jesus has left us this prophetic word more fully confirmed. You have a dream, vision, hear a voice? Great, but judge it all by the Word of God, written down for us so we know exactly what it the mind and will of the Lord Jesus Christ toward us. For those who trust in his word, he promises eternal life. He gives us the kingdom of God. The written word of God is like wheat that gives life. Vision, dreams and voices are like straw that are used to burn the fire and do not last. Trust in Jesus’ word given us in the Scriptures always.

Heavenly Father, grant that we may always have your word and men who will faithfully preach it, that we may know your word to repent of our sins and to trust in your son Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.