The Word of God – Part I
HEBREWS 4:12-13
SO IMPORTANT A PASSAGE AS THIS AND SO OVERWHELMING ITS MESSAGE, PLEASE CONSIDER THIS FIRST PART BUT AN INTRODUCTION.
PONDER FOR A LONG MOMENT, IF YOU WILL, JUST WHAT THESE FOUR WORDS OF THE TITLE SAY: “THE WORD OF GOD”! Communication, revelation, inspiration from God Almighty to mankind – to us, no less, to you and to me today! “The Word of God from God” to us! Incredible!
NAS Psalm 19:7-10 The law (i.e., Word – TAR) of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. 10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
THIS IS ANOTHER OF THOSE BLOGS IN WHICH I FIND MYSELF WISHING we could play an accompanying rousing orchestral section of classical music, say, Handel’s “Messiah”; so grand is the scope of Hebrews 4:12-13 to engender such awesome thoughts as these…
NAS Hebrews 4:11-12 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
WE ARE CONTINUING OUR WONDERFUL STUDY OF THE BOOK OF HEBREWS. I hope you agree that our messages thus far have, indeed, been wonderful. Hebrews is simply a special book, full of sweeping images, fascinating insights into the Old Testament, as well as the first century church, and numerous encouraging and convicting applications for us today. It is a letter of warmth and exhortation from a loving God to His children. Hebrews was written to exalt Christ and to strengthen the faith of the discouraged Christians as they – we – obediently live the Christian life…
“DISCOURAGEMENT: What believer through the ages, at one time or another, has not felt its numbing grip pulling him or her toward the mire of self-pity and despair? Life, and thus the Christian life, is fraught with trials that suck the emotional winds from our sails. When discouragement comes – the kind of discouragement that screams questions at the faith – we need encouragement and perspective; we need the community of faith (our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ – TAR); we need help to stay the course of commitment. Hebrews was written to offer such help.” – George Guthrie
HEBREWS GETS AT THE VERY INNER RECESSES OF OUR INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. The book of Hebrews – and that most certainly includes our passage this morning – calls us to reflect on the reality and nature of our spiritual condition before God. As we read the book of Hebrews we must ask ourselves the question that may be said without exaggeration to be the most important question of all: what is my standing before God? Allow me to pose that question to you and to me at the start of our message: “What exactly is the current state of my relationship with God?” First of all, have I truly become His child? Am I really a Christian, or someone who is merely playing at faith, putting on a good show but not really committing myself? And if I can truthfully say that I am a Christian and have entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, then am I living obediently to Him? Remember that the failure of the nation of Israel to enter into the rest of the Promised Land related directly to disobedience.
“THE PARENETIC (hortatory, persuasive – TAR) UNIT BEGUN IN 3:7 IS BROUGHT TO A BRIEF AND VIGOROUS CONCLUSION IN VV. 12-13, where the writer provides the supporting reason for the diligence enjoined in v. 11: The Sabbath observance now demanded of the community is diligence to enter God’s rest through the exercise of faith in the word of promise and response of obedience to the voice of God in Scripture. God’s word, whose sanctions were imposed so effectively upon the Exodus generation, is performative today and confronts the Christian community with the same alternatives of rest and wrath. Those who remain insensitive to the voice of God in Scripture may discover that God’s word is also a lethal weapon.” – Lane
“THE WORD OF GOD POSES A JUDGMENT THAT IS MORE THREATENING AND SHARPER THAN ANY DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD BECAUSE IT EXPOSES THE INTENTIONS OF THE HEART AND RENDERS ONE DEFENSELESS BEFORE GOD’S SCRUTINIZING GAZE.” – Ibid.
THOSE WORDS ARE HARSH, BUT HEBREWS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. Our relationship to God is serious business. This passage is serious business. I don’t think I emphasized this important aspect enough in the previous blogs covering the opening verses of the context of Hebrews 4:12-13, for this brief but momentous section of Scripture forces us to spiritual reflection concerning our very relationship with God. Do we actually believe God and act upon the promises He makes in His Word? That’s what faith means: believing God, believing that what He says is true and then living in accordance with that belief. Hebrews is a book that tests our faith.
ISN’T IT STRANGE THAT YOU HARDLY EVER HEAR THIS HARSHNESS BROUGHT OUT WHEN THESE SPECIAL VERSES ARE PREACHED OR TAUGHT?
“WE TEND TO THINK OF GREAT FAITH IN TERMS OF FOLLOWING GOD in the accomplishing of great deeds in the world or of overcoming great obstacles. Yet, true faith must begin with a face-to-face experience with God, by which we journey into the inner recesses of our own hearts. The great sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, serves as our guide in following Christ through the inner corridors of our heart. This confrontation by God’s living, piercing Word begins and must be a trademark of the true life of faith.” – Guthrie
WE CONCLUDED OUR LAST MESSAGE WITH 4:11. You will remember that message was entitled “God’s Promised Rest.” In Verses 1-11 of chapter 4 (which is really a continuation of the passage that began in 3:7 and continues through our passage now) we saw that God has, since the time He created the earth, prepared a rest for those who would place their trust in Him for salvation. We defined “rest” generally as ceasing from works, effort, action, and depending entirely on God. We saw that the pattern for rest comes from God Himself, who rested from His own work at creation. We saw, through the vivid illustrations taken mainly from Psalm 95 of the ancient nation of Israel, that this all-important rest is presented to us in several dimensions or aspects. Generally speaking, these dimensions or aspects may be categorized as past, present, and future. When a person places his trust in God for salvation he enters into the protective rest of Christ. That dimension of rest is permanent: “Once saved, always saved; once in the rest of Christ, always in the rest of Christ.” That is the past dimension. But there is a dimension of rest that paradoxically is not permanent. Seen from this dimension, rest may be lost. We lose this aspect of rest through disobedience, doubt, and disbelief. Therefore, we must constantly and diligently strive to enter this rest. Positionally we enter God’s promised rest when we are saved; practically, however, we are to continually work to enter that rest. There is throughout Christianity this fundamental perspective of “Already, not yet.” We have salvation; it is forever, yet we are to constantly strive to be saved: “Already, not yet.” That is the present reality of our Christian life (most all scholars agree – TAR). Then the Bible speaks about a future aspect of rest which is the heavenly rest that awaits us. So the seemingly simple term “rest” is a complex and foundational principle for Christians. We have it, but God commands us – warns us, actually – to strive to enter it.
AND ON THAT NOTE OF WARNING, I WOULD LIKE US TO BEGIN at v. 11…
Our passage today is but two verses, but we must keep in mind that these two verses are part of the larger context dealing with God’s rest. In order to correctly understand our two verses we must see them in their context. The best way to do that – in the limited time we have this morning – is to focus our attention at first on v. 11. The writer is speaking to the Hebrew Christians of the first century, drawing from the illustration of Psalm 95 concerning the ancient and disobedient nation of Israel. I will include Hebrews 7:10, as well. First the O.T. context, then the N.T. connection…
NAS Psalm 95:8-11 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness; 9 “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work.
10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. 11 “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
NAS Hebrews 4:10-11 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
“IT FOLLOWS LOGICALLY FROM THIS that the readers should, along with the author (note, Let us), ‘make every effort to enter that rest.’ Unlike the assurance which all Christians have that they possess eternal life and will be raised up to enjoy it in the presence of God (cf. John 6:39–40), the share of the companions of Messiah in His dominion over creation is attained by doing His will to the end (Rev. 2:26–27). The readers must therefore be warned by Israel’s failure in the desert and take care that they not follow Israel’s ‘example of disobedience.’” – Hodges
Doctrinal Considerations in 4:6–11
If Joshua, leading the Israelites into the land of Canaan, had given them rest, the psalmist would not have had to repeat the promise of rest (Ps. 95:11). The rest promised in Psalm 95 and explained in 4:10 is a copy of God’s rest; this rest is attained by the believer in personal repentance and an ardent dedication to obey God. When the believer rests from his evil works, he enters the Sabbath-rest granted to the people of God.
God commands us to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy and, referring to the creation week and his rest on the seventh day, instructs us to follow his example (Exod. 20:8–11; also see Deut. 5:12–15). The noun rest does not convey the thought of idleness but rather of peace. “It stands for consummation of a work accomplished and the joy and satisfaction attendant upon this. Such was its prototype in God.”
One of the motifs in the Epistle to the Hebrews is the author’s recurring use of statements that describe a condition contrary to fact (see Heb. 4:8; 7:11; 8:7). The writer employs a conditional sentence in each instance and shows that in the Old Testament era rest (Heb. 4:8) and covenant (Heb. 8:7) were incomplete. Perfection, he writes, could not be attained (Heb. 7:11). But Christ brought fulfillment to promise and prophecy when he delivered the fullness of God’s revelation.
The name Joshua (Heb. 4:8) is equivalent to the name Jesus in the Greek New Testament. Joshua, the son of Nun, led the Israelites across the river Jordan into the Land of Promise where they enjoyed rest and peace from wandering and warfare. Jesus leads his people into the presence of God and grants them the eternal Sabbath-rest. – Kistemaker & Hendriksen
THE WRITER TO THE HEBREWS IS ISSUING A SOLEMN WARNING in v. 11. God’s perfect rest, His heavenly eternal rest awaits His children. It is the inheritance of every believer. Yet there is a dimension of this rest that it is possible to miss. God lovingly does not want us to miss the fullness of our faith, and, so, through the writer to the Hebrews, He warns us to diligently strive to enter this perfect rest. God has graciously provided His heavenly rest and given it as an inheritance to every true believer. But individual effort is necessary to enter it.
REST IS CEASING FROM EFFORT, AND YET EFFORT IS ESSENTIAL in order to fully realize this rest. That is one of the many paradoxes of our faith: salvation is both an event and a process. This rest of God is an urgent reality for us; we should diligently, with intense purpose and effort, seek to secure it. Rest for the Christian is realized in three dimensions: past, present, and future. We entered into rest when we were saved; we will enter into our final, heavenly rest when we get to heaven; and now while we are on earth we are commanded to diligently enter into a present dimension of rest. This rest is entered into by faith. It is entered into by obediently following God’s will and trusting in Him in all areas of life.
“URGENT”… Let me ask you focus your mind again for a moment upon the urgency that is obvious in this passage. “Urgent” means requiring immediate action or attention. These words from Hebrews 4 demand our immediate action and attention. All of God’s words to us should be given our urgent concern and obedient response.
IN THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT THE READERS WERE NOT FULLY trusting Christ. They were being persecuted, most probably, for their faith. They were being scorned by their Jewish friends. They looked at their meager surroundings – meeting in home churches; they did not favorably compare with the elaborate Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Consequently, the readers of the Hebrews were considering going back to the Judaistic system from which they came. The Temple was impressive. They would not experience the persecution from the government and, probably, from their families. We can understand their feelings. Some Christians today certainly must entertain similar thoughts” “Why put up with all the obligations of Christianity? Why not just go back to the world and its go-for-the-gusto life?” God in His Word warns against these feelings. God wants believers to go on to Christlikeness.
VERSE 11 TELLS US WE SHOULD URGENTLY WORK TO ENTER REST. Now v. 12 tells us that the Word of God will seek out and expose any hypocrisy or false profession. When read in context, we see that the Hebrew readers – and us – are plainly told that.
YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING FROM GOD. If you are playing games with God, putting on a good religious show for your family and friends – and even yourself – the Word of God will find you out. We are to diligently strive to enter God’s rest because the Word of God will find us out and judge our wrong thoughts and deceptive intentions.
A POWERFUL PASSAGE THAT WE WILL CONTINUE NEXT WEEK, LORD WILLING…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
