THE HEART-SEARCHING WORD OF GOD.
Hebrews 4: 12 -13 For the Word of God is Living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Continuing THE SECOND WARNING
Hebrews 3:7- 4:13.
Not to come short of the promised Rest.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
They have been earnest words with which the writer has been warning the Hebrews against unbelief and disobedience, hardening the heart and departing from God, and coming short of the promised rest. The solemn words of God's oath in Ps. 95: 11, I have sworn in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest, have been repeated more than once to urge all to give diligence lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. He is about to close his warning. He does so by reminding them of the power and authority of the Word of God as the Word of the omniscient One, of Him with whom we have to do, before whose eyes all things, our hearts and lives too, are naked and open. Let each student of this Epistle make a very personal application of the words. Let us take the oath of God concerning His Rest, and the command to labor that we may enter in, home in to our heart, and say whether we have indeed entered in. And if not, let us all the more yield ourselves to the Word to search and try us: it will without fail do its blessed work in us, and prepare us for following with profit the further teaching concerning our Lord Jesus.
For the Word of God is Living and Active. At times it may appear as if the word effects so little. The word is like seed: everything depends on the treatment it receives. Some receive the word with the understanding: there it cannot be quickened. The Word is meant for the heart, the will, the affections. The Word must be submitted to, must be lived, must be acted out, all through our receptivity. When this is done it will manifest its Living, quickening power. It is not we who have to make the word alive. When, in faith in the Life and power with authority, there is in the Word, the heart yields itself in humble submission and honest desire to its action, it will prove itself to be Life and power within us.
And sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. The first action of God's Word is to wound, to cut, to divide. In the soul the natural life has its seat; in the spirit the Spiritual and Divine. Sin has brought confusion and disorder; the spirit is under the mastery of the soul, the natural life. God's Word divides and separates; awakens the spirit to a sense of its destiny as the faculty for the unseen and eternal; brings the soul to a knowledge of itself as a captive to the power of sin. It cuts deep and sure, discovering the deep corruption of sin. As the knife of the surgeon, who seeks to heal, pierces even to the dividing of the joints and marrow, where it is needed, so the Word penetrates all; there is no part of the inner being to which it does not pass.
And quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is specially with the heart that God's Word deals. In chapter 3 we read of the hardened heart, the evil heart of unbelief, the erring heart. When the word heart occurs later in this Epistle we shall find everything changed; we shall read of a heart in which God's law is written, of a true heart, a heart sprinkled with the Blood, a heart established by Grace (8: 10, 10: 22, 13: 9). We have here the transition from the one to the other. God's appeal was, To-day, "if" you hear His voice, harden not your heart. The heart that will but yield itself to be searched by God's Word, to have its secret thoughts and intents discerned and judged by it, will be freed from its erring and unbelief, and quickened and cleansed, and made a living table on which the Word is written by God Himself. Oh! to know how needful it is, but also how blessed, to yield our hearts to the Judgment of the Word.
And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight. God's Word bears the character of God Himself. He is the all-knowing and all-pervading: nothing can hide itself from the Judgment of His Word. If we will not have it judge us now, it will condemn us hereafter. For all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Yes, the God with whom we have to do is He of whom we later read: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." And again: "Our God is a consuming fire." It is this God who now pleads with us to enter into His Rest.
Let each of us gladly yield ourselves to have to do with Him. If perhaps there be a secret consciousness that all is not right, that we are not giving diligence to enter into the Rest, Oh! Let us beware of setting such thoughts aside. It is the first swelling of the Living seed of the Word within us. Do not regard that thought as coming from thyself, or from man who brings you God's Word; it is God waking you out of sleep. Have to do with Him. Be willing that the Word should show you what is wrong. Be not afraid of its discovering or the uncovering to you your sin and wretchedness. The knife of the physician wounds to heal. The Light that shows you your sin and wrong will surely lead you out. The Word is Living and will give you Life.
1. God has spoken to us in His Son. This is the keynote of the Epistle. To-day, "if" you hear His voice, harden not your heart: this is the keynote of this long and solemn warning. Let us hearken, let us yield to the Word. As we deal with the word, so we deal with God. And so will God deal with us.
2. Judge of your life not by what your heart says, or the Church, or the so-called Christian world but by what the Word says. Let Him have His Way with you: it will greatly bless you.
3. All things are naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have, to do. Why, then, through indifference or discouragement, shut your eyes to them? Oh, lay everything open before God, the God with whom we have to do, whether we will or not.
4. The Word is Living and active. Have great faith in His power. Be sure that the Holy Spirit, that the Living Word, that God Himself works in it. The Word ever points to the Living God, who is present in it, and makes it a Living Word, in the heart that is seeking for Life and for God.
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