Jeremiah 23:28
“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says Yahweh.”
What does Jeremiah 23:28 mean?
Jeremiah lived in a time when false prophets were everywhere, claiming to speak God's words while actually speaking their own opinions and dreams. God here is making a sharp distinction: if you have a dream, fine, tell your dream as a dream, but don't mix it up with God's actual word. The final question, "What is the straw to the wheat?" is asking which one has real substance and value, which one actually nourishes, which one matters. Straw is light and useless; wheat is the real harvest. This speaks to something many of us still wrestle with today: our own thoughts, feelings, and interpretations versus what God has actually revealed. It's an invitation to be honest about the difference, to speak what we genuinely know rather than claiming certainty we don't have, and to recognize that God's word carries a weight and truth that our own musings simply don't match.