Context! - Hebrews 4:12

As indicated in earlier posts, I worked on memorizing Hebrews about a year ago. There were a few verses that I was fairly familiar with...verses that I had heard taught on occasion. One of these verses was Hebrews 4:12:

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

This verse would often be used to show the power of God's Word. I don't necessarily remember being taught an incorrect interpretation of this verse. However, I also don't remember ever being taught the context of this verse. And when I learned the context of this verse about a year ago, I realized a greater depth to it than I had known...and I found it to be much more uncomfortable than I had originally thought.

To give a little bit of background, Hebrews 3 & 4 relate the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land to the promised land for believers in Christ. The Israelites had been rebellious. They hardened their hearts toward God. And there were consequences for those that rebelled against God...namely, that they did not enter the Promised Land. They died in the wilderness. Hebrews 3:7-11 gives a warning to believers, which is repeated a few times throughout chapters 3 and 4:

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'"

After repeating that warning, Hebrews 3:16-19 says:

"For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."

Although I won't go too far into it (at least not in this post)...I do want to point out something that struck me when studying this passage. Look at these verbs in the text: rebelled, sinned, were disobedient...and then look at what it's connected with: unbelief. There is a definite connection between faith and action. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), but obedience is evidence of true faith (James 2:14-26). Think about that a bit. What do your actions indicate about your faith in Christ?

Now we jump into chapter 4, which talks about a greater "rest" than what the Israelites had been journeying toward. It's a "rest" that is promised to those who truly put their faith in Christ. Joshua had led the Israelites (those that didn't die in the wilderness, of course) into the Promised Land. Yet, years later, the warning not to harden your heart against God was spoken again through David (Hebrews 4:6-7; Psalm 95:7-10). As Hebrews 4:8-10 says:

"For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his."

And that brings us to Hebrews 4:11-13:

"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Interesting to now see that verse in context, huh? God's Word holds us accountable to Him. It gives the standard by which we are to live, and everyone falls short of that standard of perfection. God sees the very depths of our hearts. We cannot hide from Him. And if we don't have our hearts right with Him, we will not enter His ultimate rest. We will face eternal judgment. Yes, Hebrews 4:12 shows the power of God's Word...but we often miss the clear warning of the passage because we neglect to look at the context. Examine your heart. Have you truly put your faith in Christ and repented of your sin? Is your heart right with the Lord?

I'm thankful that after this clear warning that is rather uncomfortable (and even painful), there is hope given. You may recognize a couple of these verses as well, which have also been often taught outside of the context. Great verses, and again, the context shows a greater depth than what I'm used to hearing taught.

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Our hope is Christ. He is the only one who can make our hearts right with the Lord. As a high priest among the Israelites had been "appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews 5:1), Christ is our high priest, who offered the ultimate sacrifice (Himself) for our sins. (Check out Hebrews 5, 7:23-28, 8, 9, and 10 for more on this.) And if our hearts are made right with God through Christ, then we can draw near to His throne with confidence to find mercy and grace. So, although Hebrews 4:12 (along with much of chapters 3 and 4) give a crucial warning to us, there is also hope given to those of us who have truly put our faith in Christ.

Context! Context! Context!

I must admit, before even diving into this topic, that I'm writing about points that may seem really obvious. However, I've come to learn that people often don't put these points into practice. And I must admit, for much of my life, I also failed to do the obvious when it came to Scripture. As the title of this post indicates, I'm talking about context...the vital necessity of studying, learning, teaching, and living by Scripture in context.

Several years ago, I attended a seminar at church that hit me pretty hard with the reality of how often we miss key messages in Scripture. We tend to focus on the portion that applies to our own lives. We’re concerned about the truth in God’s Word as it relates to our own relationship with Christ. And in our desire to glean the promises that apply specifically to our own lives, we miss God’s heart for other people, God’s heart for the nations. Let me give a very simple example, an example that was used in the seminar that brought me to a point of conviction. Finish the following well-known verse:

Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and…”

Congratulations if you finished the verse with “know that I am God”. You are of the majority of those I know who know 1/3 of the verse! What??? There is more to the verse??? How often do we ever hear more than just “Be still, and know that I am God”? Ummm…hardly ever! So, what is the whole verse?

Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

So why don’t we hear the other 2/3 of the verse all that often? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. The conclusion I’ve come to is that the last 2/3 of the verse really doesn’t seem to have much to do with us directly. It’s all about God. (Gasp!) Yes, I’m saying that we tend to care more about what concerns us that we do about what God says about Himself and also His heart for the nations. Yes, I’m saying we tend to be very self-centered. From the very beginning of our own personal existence, we’re focused on ourselves. And it’s only by the hand of God that we can ever take our eyes off of ourselves in order to see God and others. Frank Turk had a blog post a few months ago about Jonah, which talks about this very issue. It’s pretty challenging and will give some good insight into this.

I admit, after being hit with the realization that so few know 2/3 of Psalm 46:10, quoting only the first 1/3 of the verse has become a pet peeve of mine. And over the past year, as I’ve been digging into God’s Word even more than before, taking verses out of context has also joined my list of pet peeves.

Now that I’ve mentioned pet peeves, I do want to make a comment before going further. In thinking of this post (which I’ve wanted to write for a few months now), I’ve been so hesitant about writing a seemingly negative post. It’s not my intention to come across in with a really strong negative tone, though I know this is a risk I’m taking in such a post. However, I hope you will be challenged to dig further and deeper into God’s Word in order to learn and grow in His Truth.

As I started memorizing Scripture last summer, I found myself “stumbling” upon verses I had often heard throughout the years. My reaction to some of these verses was rather unexpected. Nathan often heard me say things like “So, that’s what that means?” It became a huge wake-up call to me how much some verses were taken out of context and some even interpreted in error quite often. Amazingly, looking at the context of a specific verse has a tendency to shed so much light on its meaning. Unfortunately, it would take a really long time to go through all the verses that I’ve come across that have been taken out of context and then dive into detail on what I’ve learned from those passages. And when I use the word “unfortunately”, I don’t mean that it’s unfortunate that I don’t have enough time to dive into each passage (although, that is true at this point). Rather, I mean it’s unfortunate that there are so many that have often been taught out of context.

Before you start getting all defensive and yelling, “Who do you think you are? How do you know you have the right interpretation instead of a bunch of pastors?”…let me say a couple things. First, I have so much to learn and do not even pretend to claim that I “know it all”. Therefore, I highly value the teaching of those who have been studying God’s Word for years. In fact, when I memorize Scripture, I spend hours listening to sermons given by servants of God who highly value teaching the truth of God’s Word without apology. Sometimes I wrestle with some of what I hear in those sermons, often because the teaching is either not fun to hear or is contrary to what I had been taught for a long time. I want to seek and know and walk according to the Truth. So when I listen to sermons, it’s not for the purpose of learning what James MacDonald or John Piper or John MacArthur might think about various topics. I am more concerned about learning God’s Word…just as these men of God are more concerned about preaching the truth of God’s Word than they are about sharing their thoughts about various issues. Second, as I study God’s Word, I’m also seeking to learn it in context. Quite often, the context makes the meaning of the verse glaringly obvious. The surrounding verses make that specific verse’s meaning very clear. And other times, even if the meaning isn’t clear at first, the context indicates an error in a common teaching of that specific verse.

My plan is to do a series on various passages that fit into the category I’ve just talked about. Since life can tend to be rather busy, it’s sometimes a challenge to find the time to blog. I’m thinking that if I focus on one specific passage per blog post, I’ll be more likely to keep up with it.

Here are some of the passages you will hopefully see blog posts on soon:
Hebrews 4:12
1 John 3:20
Jeremiah 29:11
Lamentations 3:22-23
Romans 8

Overdue Answers

Ok...so it's been almost 3 months since my last post. My lack of blogging isn't necessarily from a lack of desire to blog. It's mostly from a lack of time. I hope to start blogging more regularly, and I even want to do a "series"...which will be explained in the next post. We'll see how that goes, though.

In my last post, I had given 3 quotes and asked if anyone knew who the speaker of each quote was. No one commented. So in case anyone has been sitting on the edge of his/her seat, waiting for nearly 3 months for the answers...here they are...

Quote #1:
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"
Speaker: Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:34-35)

Quote #2:
Now I...praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
Speaker: Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:37)

Quote #3:
for he is the living God, enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth
Speaker: Darius (Daniel 6:26-27)

At the time I wrote that original post, I was going through the book of Daniel, and it amazed me that these pagan kings would acknowledge and praise God like they did. And it's also rather challenging and convicting. Two pagan kings (who were into worshiping things other than the true God) recognized the work of God and ended up praising Him for who He is. How much more should I be oozing with an attitude of worship and praise for Him?