Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

God’s Word Will Reveal the Problem (verses 12–13).  The subtlety of the temptation in self-dependence is highlighted by these next verses. The opening word, “For,” strongly ties them to the previous verse since they explain what the Israelites who fell in the wilderness failed to heed. David asks, in Psalm 19:12, “Who can understand his errors?” The answer he gives in the psalm and that of the writer of Hebrews is the same. Only the “Word of God,” which “is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” is capable of exposing the thoughts and attitudes of a single human heart! We do not know ourselves. The prophet Jeremiah stated the human heart was a wicked and deceitful thing, and he asks the same question David did (Jeremiah 17:9). We do not even know how to distinguish, by feelings or rationale, between that which comes from our souls (psyches) and from our spirits (pneumas). Even our bodily functions (symbolized here by “joints and marrow”) are beyond our full knowledge. Only the all-seeing eye of God knows us thoroughly and totally (Psalm 139:1–18), and before Him we will stand and ultimately give account.

The images the author employs in this marvelous passage are effective ones. Like a sharp sword which can lay open the human body with one slashing blow, so the sword of the Scripture can open our inner life and expose it to ourselves and others. Once the ugly thoughts and hidden rebellions are out in the open, we stand like criminals before a judge, ineffectually trying to explain what we have done. Yet such honest revelation is what we need to humble our stubborn pride and render us willing to look to God for forgiveness and His unlimited gracious supply.

Plainly, Scripture is the only reliable guide we have to function properly as a human in a broken world. Philosophy and psychology give partial insights, based on human experience, but they fall far short of what the Word of God can do for they are in themselves flawed. God never intended them to replace human knowledge or effort, but rather they are designed only to supplement and correct them. Surely the most hurtful thing pastors and leaders of churches can do to their people is to deprive them of firsthand knowledge of the Bible. The exposition of both Old and New Testaments from the pulpit, in class rooms and small group meetings is the first responsibility of church leaders. They are “stewards of the mysteries and oracles of God” and must be found faithful to the task they were called to perform. This uniqueness of Scripture is the reason that all true human discovery in any relevant situation must fit within the limits of divine disclosure. Human knowledge can never outstrip divine revelation.

In going back through Hebrews we can read that Jesus is far greater than any angel, eclipses Moses as the spokesman of God, and leads believers into a far superior rest than Joshua led Israel into. All these things we read about are but mere shadows of the ultimate, eternal and life-giving plan that God the Father wanted to share with human-kind through His Son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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