The Word That Lives
Words can be powerful – they can be a catalyst that brings change; words can bring reformation, renewal, inspiration – think of speeches given by great men and women reverberate down the years. Martin Luther King Jr and his “I have a dream” speech or Queen Elizabeth I speaking at Tilbury, Essex in the face of the oncoming Spanish Armada in 1588 or in Church History, Martin Luther in 1521 at the Diet of Worms, these speeches and many more ring down the years words that inspired change and inspired action changing the very course of history.
Yet above all every speech ever spoken stands the Word of God! The Word of God is unique – God’s Word is power, it is life, it is eternal. This is what the writer to the Hebrews wishes to bring us face to face with this daunting realisation, Hebrews 4:12–13:
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. 13 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.
In the book of Hebrews the generation of Israelites that the Lord rescued from Egypt is held out as a warning to the current generation of God’s people. Despite many rebellions on the way to the land of Canaan, the Lord continues with the people. Yet when they refused to enter the Promised Land because there were “giants in the land”, the Lord declared terrible judgment over his people. He says that they would not enter his rest, they would die in the wilderness outside the land. In response to this Word from God the Israelites rebelled again after that and attempted to take the land despite Moses’ warnings, and then we read:
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.
Israel disregarded God’s Word in the wilderness and they fell by the edge of the sword – it was a sword that condemned, a sword that destroyed. In the context of what the writer of Hebrews has been speaking about respecting the nature of God’s word. This history provides an important insight to us – The word of God is two edged because it saves and it condemns. He tells us three things about this Word: that it is living, piercing, and revealing.
A Living Word
For the word of God is living and active…
One of the amazing characteristics of God’s Word is that it is unlike any other word. It is a Word that is a living word, a word that is necessary, relevant, and life giving in every generation. In these last two chapters (chapters 3 and 4) the writer uses Psalm 95 (the ancient words of David) to speak to his audience. He wants to stress the relevance of David’s message for his generation. David wrote that psalm to his generation warning them to listen to the voice of the Lord, take heed of God’s word in order that they may enter His rest (obtain the inherited salvation), otherwise they would end up like the generation in the wilderness who grumbled, complained, and disregarded God’s word. They died in the wilderness outside of God’s rest.
The writer says to his own generation: listen to David’s words, because they apply to you today, they hold the same life giving and life taking power as they did then, because it is the Word of the living God, and His words contain the same power, the same life giving and life taking power as they did 1000 years previously!
It is why the author of Hebrews in these chapters focuses his attention on the word Today – as it was Today for David, it was Today for those congregations in the 1st century, it it’s been Today for God’s people in every generation since. This word, written 2000 years ago, reflecting on a word written 1000 years before, rehearsing an event which took place over 1000 years before that, has the same relevance and the same power today. It is still a living and active word today. Listen to the voice of God, hear His words, or you will be left outside in the wilderness, under wrath, outside of His rest. What other word contains such power, such life giving and life taking power?
A Piercing Word
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.
The writer of Hebrews is not the only one who teaches us that the Word of God is like a sword. Paul tells us the same thing in Ephesians 6:
“17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
The Apostle John in Revelation describing the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ writes:
16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
As we hear the messages that our Lord had for the 7 churches we see clearly that the sword was His word – a word that saves and a word that judges, a word for every situation.
As a sword that pierces to the very centre of our being, we are being told that is a word that can cut us to the core, that deals with us where we are, that addresses us, a word that judges us. Look at Acts 2, when the gospel message was being preached by Peter on the Day of Pentecost. Peter declared that what had happened to the Lord Jesus Christ just seven weeks previously had all happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God – but as He had died on the cross at Calvary, so God had raised Him from the dead, but while it was God’s plan, that did not stop the apostle telling the people that they had sinned, they had broken God’s commandments – This Jesus, you killed! You are guilty of killing God’s Messiah – This was their response:
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
How the Word of God, this living and active word, had pierced them to the very core of their being – they were convinced by the Word that they had sinned before God – convicted of their sin, as Jesus had been pierced by the nails and the spear, so they had been pierced by the sword of the Word – and they came looking for a remedy, searching for mercy and for grace, and it was provided by the glorious Gospel - “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is also a word that judges us as we go through life, it discerns us, it assesses our attitude toward the one who sent it. This is why people turn away from it – as they hear it, they rebel not only against the Word but against the God who gave it. God’s Word challenges the way that people live,by changing what they think, what they say, and what they do. It is why there is such a visceral reaction to the Word of God and to God himself. As a living, active Word, that pierces the soul it judges them, and they feel that judgment and their soul rises up against it, and they hate it, and they hate the God who gave it, because it uncovers their dark hearts, as the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1 demonstrates.
On the other hand, when the Christian hears the Word, and we hear God speaking through his Word, we are called out on our sinful thoughts, words and actions, and our attitudes are laid bare. By God’s grace, like David in Psalm 51, we see that we have broken God’s law, and the response to that piercing word is to come to our Father, confessing our sins, and seeking forgiveness, sanctification, and reconciliation. And God hears and responds through that same living, active word, reminding us of our Saviour Jesus Christ, directing us to the cross, and speaking the sweet words of forgiveness in our ears. It is the great power of God’s Word, living, active, and piercing to the very core of our beings.
A Revealing Word
13 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.
As the Word pierces us to our souls, it reveals our natures, uncovers who we are, what we are, and the way we have been living. It leaves nothing untouched, so the God whose word it is knows all, nothing remains hidden from him. What other word is like this? The Israelites in the wilderness heard the Word of God, and it exposed them and the state of their hearts. God judged them for it. They were judged for their sinfulness, God had seen it all, heard it all, knew it all and His judgment was that they would be excluded from His rest.
The Scriptures show us, in frightening ways, how the Lord sees all – think of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were not God’s people, but God had His eye on them, as it were, he knew their hearts, he knew the heart of every single person in that place, and we discover there were not even ten righteous men in those cities! God destroyed those cities with fire from heaven.
Listen to the Psalmist in Psalm 139, because he brings out this truth so plainly:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
There is no escape from God, as there was no escape for Jonah when the Lord called him to go and preach a message of Judgment to the Assyrians and He wanted to run away – the Lord was there, even in the belly of the whale, the Lord was there.
We read many times of our Lord Jesus Christ that he knew the hearts of the people, he knew their thoughts and their intentions, nothing was hidden from Him. His word and His actions had revealed the state of their hearts; the good, the bad and the ugly.
And the message is God sees, God hears, God knows, and God judges. He will judge according to His Word and He will judge by His Word. And a day is coming when we will all have to come before His judgment seat and give account to Him. We will all have to give account for how we have responded to His Word!
But the writer of Hebrews encourages the people to whom he is writing. If we listen to God’s voice, if we respond to His Word, if we hold fast to our confession, then we have an advocate with the Father: 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.
15 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. 16 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.
