Fire on the earth
By J.P. Thackway
“I am come to send fire on the earth.” Luke 12:49
When we think about the coming of God’s Son into the world, we think cheerfully. Scripture conditions our minds that way. His coming drew down the blessings of heaven for us: light and hope, grace and salvation, God as our Father and heaven as our home. Paul sums it up in those well-known words of 1 Timothy1:15“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Opposition
While all this is blessedly true, there is another side to our Lord and to following Him, that one of the Puritans called “The stormy, north side of Christ.” The text quoted above illustrates this: Christ came to send fire on the earth. He means that if we cleave to Him, it will excite opposition from those who reject Him. Our discipleship will ignite the enmity of others. What we stand for will be hotly contested, the flames of opposition and even persecution will be stirred up, and we will feel the heat.
That this is the main meaning is clear from verses 51-53 of this chapter, where our Saviour said: “Suppose ye that I am come to send peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division …” He did come to send peace on earth concerning our reconciliation to God (Luke 2:14). Nevertheless, in our relationship with the unsaved, it will usually be the opposite.In the parallel passage of Matthew 10:34-36,the picture is not “fire” but “a sword.” It means the same thing. Both come between people and alienate them from each other.
Whether fire or sword, this is something very painful. Our Lord said that a son would be against his father (see Luke 12:53). There are families where unconverted sons are against Christian fathers. I saw such a father’s Bible, a man who had an unconverted, alienated son for whom he was praying, and at this verse he had written in the margin the son’s initial, the date, and the words “How long, Lord?”
Blessing
However, there is another way to understand verse 49, “I am come to send fire on the earth”. The “fire” stands for the Gospel or the Word of God. We know that our Lord came to send His Word upon earth, because after His baptism “he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all” (Luke 4:15). This is related to the fire of division, because it is the Word that causes the opposition and persecution, as later it did for the Lord (verse 29). If we stand for nothing, we will suffer nothing. For our Lord, it would result in the ultimate fiery persecution, the baptism of suffering upon the cross (12:50).
Certainly, our Lord’s Word was like fire in His hand, and He cast it upon the earth. How it enlightened and warmed Judea and Galilee! How it caught hold and spread everywhere! It burned up much that was rubbish, but for others it proved the Word of salvation and eternal life. Truly, it was “already kindled” when He spoke these words.Moreover, it was as if, in His omniscience, He could see its entire future course, for this “fire” was destined to spread throughout the whole earth.
Let us think about God’s Word in this way, as a fire sent upon the earth; in particular, its spreading power, and its blessed effects wherever it goes.
1. The Word itself
Fire is a common picture of God’s Word and its effects. “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:29). This is an instructive figure.
i] Fire is an emblem of God.
When God signified His acceptance of Elijah’s sacrifice, He sent fire to consume it (1 Kings 18:38). Fire symbolises His protecting presence: “For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” (Zechariah 2:5). Fire also came in judgment upon guilty Nadab and Abihu, “There went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them” (Leviticus 10:2). God expressed His holiness on Mount Sinai in the form of fire (see Hebrews 12:18).
ii] The Word is like fire.
Our Lord equates God with His Word: both are fire. In Scripture what is predicated of God is also predicated of His Word. For example: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) and “from his right hand went a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33:2); “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psa.119:89) — and that is true of God on His throne above. The apostle Paul wants the Word to “be glorified” (2 Thessalonians 3:1) — something that we can only say of God, who will not give His glory to another. The Word of God “liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23) — just like the everlasting God.
a] God is inseparable from His Word.
The Bible is from God; it emanates from Him. Everything that is true of God, is true of the Scriptures. The Word of God and the God of the Word are one. For a professing Christian to say “I love my Bible, but I love my God more” is to drive a wedge between what God says and who God is. It is not the high view of the Bible that is found in the Bible itself.
b] The Bible’s integrity.
This settles the question of the authenticity of the original Scriptures and the manuscripts we have today. The simple and believing answer is this: God and His Word are one. Therefore, He is not going to overlook this question of the transmission of it. It belongs too much to His honour and glory for that. This is why we believe He has providentially preserved His Word in the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Received Text of the New Testament. He has ensured that an authentic stream of copies have come down to us, and are faithfully translated in our Authorised Version. Here is the fire!
This is why, when God calls a man to preach, the Word is like “a fire in his bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). It inflames the preacher today just as it always has. This “fire” often seems missing in preachers who use modern translations of Scripture. Sermons tend to be like damp squibs. Sadly too, where hearers use a variety of Bible versions, the preacher tends to quote less Scripture (it would be unrecognisable for some), thus depriving the message of its light and heat.
c] Application.
Therefore, we must treat this Book as we would treat God. The “poor and contrite heart” that trembles before God is the same that must “tremble at His Word” (Isaiah 66:2). Someone once said, “We should almost worship the Bible.” We know what he meant. When any believer is heard to say, “I know it is in the Bible, but…”, the implications of this are staggering, are they not? May we ever esteem the Word as we esteem God Himself.
2. The Word Read and Preached
“I am come to send fire”Luke 12:49. If the Scriptures are likened to fire, it suggests certain things about their effect. We must take notice of this metaphor.
1] The Bible warms and quickens, just like fire.
This is true when God gives converting grace. We can instance John Wesley, not because we agree with all his theology, but because his experience is authentic. Brought up in Anglicanism, he was ordained a deacon, then went to America to convert the Indians, only to discover that he was not converted himself. A conversation with the Moravian Peter Boehler led him to be “clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved.” Then, on 24 May 1738, as God would have it –
I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death … Then it pleased God to kindle a fire which I trust shall never be extinguished.
For us, the Scriptures, when applied by the Spirit, can deal with a cold, dead heart. David’s testimony was: “My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned” (Psalm 39:3).How did his heart grow hot? It was while he was “musing,” meditating upon the Word, that “the fire burned.” The Lord applied it in heart-warming blessing. Likewise for the two on the Emmaus road, Jesus caused them to ponder the Scriptures in His presence, and their testimony was, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).
2] Fire tests and proves.
Genuinely precious metal will not be harmed by fire. It has been used for smelting gold and silver since ancient times. This refines them. Fire will prove the difference between say, gold and gold-painted metal. In the same way, the Word proves real believers. Although we find an all-round, pastoral ministry challenging and convicting at times, we will willingly put ourselves under it. We come back for more because it is having a sanctifying effect. It is purifying the gold of our graces, and the Master’s face is being reflected more in us. Unregenerate “Christians” will be found out just here. They will draw back and seek a ministry that is not so serious or searching (John 6:66). Pure gold believers, however, will stand the refining because they love the Refiner (Malachi 3:3,4).
3] Fire destroys things.
Whatever is combustible, fire will consume. The Word of God is like this concerning everything that is contrary to God: religious error, hypocrisy, and all kinds of sin.
The history of Israel encourages us in this. The oracles of God were held within the nation, but think of Rahab and Ruth, and other proselytes. Prostitution, idolatry, heathenish practices were all burned up by the Word of His grace! When our Lord came, He scorched the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the liberalism of the Sadducees (Malachi 3:1,2). Then, as He went about and preached, saving love consumed the fraud of Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene’s slavery to devils, and Saul of Tarsus’ self-righteous persecution lay in ashes.
Think of the ministry of the apostles. As the Gospel spread into all the world, the pagan religions and philosophical systems were burned up. Where are emperor worship, Roman gods and the Greek philosophies now? Druidism also yielded to the fire of the Gospel.
Then consider how popery was seared and melted at the Reformation; and ignorance and vice during the 18th Century. The 19th Century missionary expansion saw servants of God going to various lands aflame with God’s Word: John Eliot to the North American Indians, Adoniram Judson to Burma, William Carey to India, John Paton to the New Hebrides, Hudson Taylor to China, David Livingstone to Africa, and a greater host of lesser-known missionaries. Wherever they went grotesque religions, barbaric practices, and moral evil were burned up and replaced by civilized and sober Christian living.
The story is told of a visit to Fiji by a sceptical academic. He critically remarked to an elderly chief, “You’re a great leader, but it’s a pity you’ve been taken in by those foreign missionaries. They only want to get rich through you. No one believes the Bible anymore. People are tired of the threadbare story of Christ dying on a cross for the sins of mankind. They know better now. I’m sorry you’ve been so foolish as to accept their story.” The old chief’s eyes flashed as he answered, “See that great rock over there? On it we smashed the heads of our victims. Notice the furnace next to it? In that oven we formerly roasted the bodies of our enemies. If it hadn’t been for those good missionaries and the love of Jesus that changed us from cannibals into Christians, you’d never leave this place alive! You’d better thank the Lord for the Gospel; otherwise we’d already be feasting on you. If it weren’t for the Bible, you’d now be our supper!”
As we remember what God has done in the past, through His mighty Word, it makes us want to pray in the words of the prophet: “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” (Isaiah 64:1,2).
No secret sin or error can exist in our personal lives while we are in the Scriptures. They burn up the dross and purify our hearts: we are sanctified by the truth (John 17:17). Someone once gave a Bible away, and on the flyleaf were written these words: “This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book.” How true this is!
3. The Word Spreading
“I am come to send fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49).One great property of fire is that it radiates outwards; it spreads. It can end up affecting an enormous area. We think of a prairie fire or a forest blaze. The Word of God is like that.
1] Here is encouragement for the work we support.
The Bible League contends for the reverent study and defence of the Bible. It might seem small and inconspicuous. Yet we think of the fire of the Word; it has energy and power. From just a small beginning it can result in a blaze. “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” (James 3:5). Only one spark is needed. It could be a Bible League Quarterly, or any of our publications, or our website, or a message preached at one of our public meetings around the country. Who knows what will come of it!
2] The Word spreads with divine energy.
When the Lord sends His Spirit along with His Word, it is like the wind fanning a flame, “the gospel … with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was the “rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2), and how the Word spread then. The Lord who sends the Word also sends the Spirit. This is why all our endeavours at defending and spreading the Word must not only be with zeal but with prayer — prayer for the Spirit of God. May much prayer go with all our labours, and may that prayer be abundantly answered in the words of Charles Wesley: –
See how great a flame aspires,
Kindled by a spark of grace!
Jesu’s love the nation fires,
Sets the kingdoms on a blaze;
Fire to bring on earth He came;
Kindled in some hearts it is:
O that all might catch the flame,
All partake the glorious bliss!
When He first the work begun,
Small and feeble was His day:
Now the work doth swiftly run,
Now it wins its widening way;
More and more it spreads and grows,
Ever mighty to prevail;
Sin’s strongholds it now o’erthrows,
Shakes the trembling gates of hell.
Sons of God, your Saviour praise;
He the door hath opened wide,
He hath given the Word of grace,
Jesu’s word is glorified;
Jesus, mighty to redeem,
He alone the work hath wrought;
Worthy is the work of Him,
Him who spake a world from naught.