Morning Musing: Hebrews 4:12-13

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“For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten in over your head? You started some project or set off down some path and quickly (or not so quickly) discovered that it was going to be a whole lot more than you bargained for. What did you do then? Did you give up or push through? The path of wisdom in such situations isn’t always clear and is going to vary from one situation to the next. Well, something that can become more than we bargained for in the beginning is engaging with the Scriptures. We are always wise to do it, but as the writer of Hebrews cautions us in this well-known passage, we are playing with fire when we do it. Let’s unpack this and talk about why.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 4:10-11

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“For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

My family is in a season of life when we’re tired just almost all the time. Nearly all of our time these days is occupied by school activities, sports or other extra-curricular activities, or church activities. I’d add work activities to that list, but one of us works at school and the other works at church, so I didn’t feel the need to repeat myself. There aren’t very many days when we just get to rest. We long for them, but that’s just not the season we are in. I wonder sometimes, though, if it’s really our season or merely the choices we make and the priorities we set. Either way, we yearn for rest. The author of Hebrews has been talking about rest, but it’s not the same kind of rest we want. It’s better. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 4:3-9

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“For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what he has said, ‘So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest,”‘ even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: ‘And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.’ Again, in that passage he says, ‘They will never enter my rest.’ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, he again specifies a certain day – today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Let me state the obvious right out of the gate here: This is a much bigger block of text than I normally put at the beginning of a post. I had to do it like this. I’ve honestly been sitting with this text for over a week now, trying to find a way I could break it down into smaller sections without losing the argument entirely, and there’s just not a way I could have done it. Maybe you can think of one, and please share it if you do, but every part of this section is all feeding into where the author lands in v. 9. And that point was to completely reorient his audience’s understanding of Sabbath. His words here should probably change yours too. Let’s break this down together.

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One more thing…

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So, when today’s message accidentally went out on Thursday, when it officially went live this morning, the normal alert email didn’t come…because it already went out. Here’s the link so you can get to the message this morning. Thanks for your faithful reading and sharing.

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This past Sunday was our Graduate Recognition Sunday. We had the privilege of highlighting the excellent work of 12 incredible students. What a treat it is to celebrate the hard work of bright young people as they prepare to move into the next phase of God’s big plan for them. This past Sunday was also the first Sunday of a new teaching series called, Generations. For the next few weeks, we’re going to be talking about whole generations of people each week and what they need to be doing that is unique to their generation to be an active part of the advance of the kingdom of God in their current place of life. This week, since it was Grad Sunday, we started with Generation Z. Tune in for this one and all the rest to find what your generation needs to hear about following Jesus well.

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“If only they understood!” I want you to think for just a second about the last time you thought something like that and what age you were when you thought it. If you have lived through multiple generations, I suspect you’ve thought it more than once and in more than one generation. And, no matter which generation you happened to be in when you thought it, you were absolutely convinced your frustration and exasperation were completely justified. But let me add one more challenge to this. If you’re from an older generation—let’s say older Generation X, Boomers, and Builders—it’s really tempting to look back at folks from a younger generation—perhaps your kids or grandkids—who are thinking this and laugh at them as silly because of course you understand them. You’ve been them. It’s you and your situation that they need to try to understand, not the other way around. 

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