Daily Meditations

Hebrews 4:14 We have a great High Priest Now we really do have a change of direction! After examining in depth, the provision of God’s rest and the power of His Word, we are asked to consider a subject that will occupy much of this Epistle – the role of Yeshua as our High Priest! Remember that this was written to Jews, for whom the most important and most exalted human person was their High Priest, He alone represented God Almighty, was granted access to the Holy Place where God dwelt, and He was the bridge between their humanity and the spiritual Being who occupied the throne of heaven. The best that such a man could ever hope for was an encounter with the Lord when He entered the holy ground of the inner sanctuary of the Temple, once a year. Thus, to hear that there was a High Priest who had now left this world and entered directly into heaven was extraordinary! There was to be no annual shuffling in and out of an earthly, man-made sanctuary for High Priest Jesus Christ, He had retur...

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing is hidden from God's sight This verse is full of comfort and hope, but it also rings an alarm bell for those of us who have something to hide! We have already considered the fact that God sees and knows everything about us, there is no place we can go, and no shelter we can inhabit, that puts us beyond the scope of the all-seeing eye of the Lord God. Psalm 33:13-15 tells us,  “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth – He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. ” The Lord God does not restrict His scrutiny to just human beings, He watches over the whole of creation and He sees everything. The reason is given to us here; God is not just nosey or even a devoted Father watching over His children, He is a just God and if He is to deal justly with us all then He must be cognizant of all the facts! (For A.I substitute D.I.= Divine intelligence!) One part of me is delighted by...

Hebrews 4:12c The thoughts and attitudes of the heart One final meditation on the power of the Word of God. Note that we are told that it judges  “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart !” This is not easy reading because we are all aware that our hearts are not as pure and holy as we would like them to be! The good news is that nobody needs to ever know what we are thinking or what our intentions and desires and motivations really are. We can live in a thousand fantasy worlds and constantly ruminate over countless images and ideas without anyone ever knowing about it. Isn’t it great to have secrets and to know that even those closest to us are unable to discover what goes on in our hearts? Every one of us has a secret place, a place that our nearest and dearest know nothing about. The trouble is, God knows! Not only that, but His sword penetrates and discerns what lies hidden and it exposes the secrets. At first, He warns us and pleads with us to deal with the issues privately, j...

Hebrews 4:12b God's Word penetrates and divides In addition to being alive and active, the Word of God is literally His cutting-edge tool used to penetrate even the hardest of hearts. The image of the double-edged sword is found again in Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15,21, in every instance this sword comes from the mouth of Yeshua who, as we have seen, is the Word of God. That is why His words, as recorded in the four Gospels, are so important and compelling.  A double-edged sword was much more versatile than a sword that was sharpened on one side, it made it possible to slash and thrush during attacks and to cut from left, right, up down and even in a single, straight line because the blades, having been sharpened on both sides, had an extremely sharp point. This is a very potent weapon and, in the context of this verse, it went much further than just piercing the heart or the vital organs of an opponent, it even exceeded the potential of human swords that were designed to chop off ...

Hebrews 4:12a The Word of God is living and active At first sight, this verse may seem like a giant, sideways leap away from the matters that have occupied our minds since chapter 3:7. After all that discussion about “Rest,” the writer is suddenly evaluating the effectiveness of the Word of God! Is he going off at a tangent then? No, because in the previous verses he has, three times, implored us to not harden our hearts if we hear God’s voice. And what is the primary means by which the Lord our God speaks to us? Through His Word, it is His voice. There follows therefore, a brief but very astute summary of the nature and value of God’s Word to assist us when we are trying to understand how we might enter His rest.  Whilst the Lord is undoubtedly alive and well and seated on His heavenly throne, we His earthly children need constant and immediate instructions about how to live our lives and to cope with the challenges and responsibilities that face every true follower of Yeshua. As ...

Before we move on, we need to assemble our thoughts about God’s REST into some kind of order. This was a simple subject, prior to studying these verses in depth! It is now obvious that the term REST means many different things in the Scriptures and is used in many different contexts. That is why it is helpful to try to put them into order because there are links; of course there are!  The literal meaning of the Hebrew word “Shabbat” or “Sabbath” is “to cease”, “to stop” or to “desist from working and labour.” It implies that certain activities that demanded time and effort have ended, but it does not mean that we replace that busyness with nothing. God does not call us to laze around or to “do nothing!”  God came to REST when He ceased the labours of creation and had permanently completed the work of turning dark matter into a beautiful, productive world pumping with life, energy and productivity. He rested from the work of creating but not from activity. Adam and Eve were at ...