Title: Prescription/Hebrews 4:12-13
Content Ⅰ. entry
When I looked up the word “prescription” in the Korean dictionary, it was described as “a document containing the name, amount, and dispensing method of a drug that a doctor will give to a patient.” The subject was clearly stated, that is, {doctor}. Therefore, the word "prescription" seems to be not a word I can use. Moreover, there is a good reason why doctors dared to steal (?) the word prescription in many churches like ours. This is because there is not necessarily only a prescription in a pathological sense. It is a prescription for diseases that come to our spiritual life. However, it does not seem like a prescription is just held and you have to take it to a place where you actually administer or dispense it. Therefore, no matter how good a prescription is, it is of no use if you do not take the medicine according to the prescription.
Although the autumn leaves are almost withering now, it is still the season that makes you want to go on a trip. Sometimes I feel the urge to get away from the hectic daily life without thinking much, leave the car that binds us, and ride the train to see autumn. When I think of trains, there seems to be some romance and it seems to make me feel better. But it is the locomotive that moves this train. And only a few crew members in the locomotive move the big car. The direction of the train is adjusted depending on whether the locomotive is running in front or behind. But even more importantly, if the locomotive steers or derails, the train overturns or is in great danger. The carriages are only driven as the locomotive leads. Therefore, the locomotive is the key to our train journey.
For the same reason, the question of what drives the train of the religious life is very important. If you have a locomotive of emotions, your car will not only go and stand depending on your mood, but will also derail when you are in a very bad mood. Some people often use the locomotive of false passion. So Jesus is nowhere to be found, and someone else takes its place, or a vision or experience takes its place. This train may have started properly, but it has the potential to end up somewhere other than Heaven-Kingdom of God. The train of faith life must be connected to the locomotive of the Word, so that it can travel to the final station without being derailed. It is better to understand that what is expressed as the Word here includes not only the Word but also prayer, fellowship evidence, and obedience. This locomotive of the word is safe and secure, although it does not allow me to travel on my own terms.
In the end, what I want to talk about in this story is about what should be the top priority in our religious life and lead us.
Last time we thought about "trying to enter into rest". And we looked at the reasons why we should strive to enter into rest. I explained that it is because of fear that we may not enter, although there is eternal rest to enter, just as our ancestors in the wilderness could not enter into Canaan because of disobedience in faith. This does not mean that our salvation was lost or gained, but clearly the Israelites in the wilderness did not receive Canaanite rest based on God's firm promise. That is a sufficient explanation for why we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Now the writer of Hebrews is prescribing where the drift symptoms come from. The prescription given by the writer of Hebrews is about the locomotive I have already mentioned. Why do they float away and why do they fluctuate? We are looking for the reason why we neglect the great salvation we have received from neglecting the Word. Therefore, today we must carefully examine the prescription that the writer of Hebrews is giving to the recipients, then prepare and take the medicine according to the prescription. Because that is how you can live a healthy Christian life. So let's start scrutinizing the prescription.
II. text observation
The text is easy to understand if you fold verses 12 and 13 while thinking of decalcomania. Because verse 13 is an explanation or a different expression of verse 12. As we deal with this text, we talk about the Sabbath with great enthusiasm, and suddenly we get the impression that "the word of God is alive" and it seems to be a completely different topic. But the reality is that these two verses are the real prescription for the preceding stories. In other words, the word is presented as a prescription for spiritual indolence and all disobedience that fails to enter into rest, and the word is presented as a sharp two-edged surgical knife.
Verse 12 says, “The word of God is alive and has power.” But verse 13 says, “Not one thing made is not made visible before him, but all things are revealed naked before him with whom we have relations.” Therefore, the Word of God is described as having an authority equal to that of God. It's not like human speech. Regarding this, the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 55:11: “The word that goes out of my mouth will not return to me in vain, but it will accomplish my will and prosper in the work for which I sent it.” In other words, the word of God is dynamic. God's word still has power. When we often express the Word as a mirror, the mirror has the power to reflect our inner state as it is. So the Word points out that there are problems here and there. And it is a blessing for those who agree with it and accept it by faith, but it is a declaration of judgment for those who do not.
The following expression, “He sees the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” clearly expresses that people cannot hide from God. Minds and thoughts are things that are deep within us: our feelings, our desires, our instincts and our passions. If we have to distinguish the meaning, it means the motive. In other words, when the word of God is used as a surgical knife as a mirror for wrong life, that is, as a prescription, it captures the deepest inner human being, that is, the world that no one wants to know and only knows, the mind, thoughts and intentions that have no substance and cannot be decomposed. It is to inspect. The word "watch" means to watch over and oversee, but when used in the text, it seems rather to mean to illuminate and reveal. In other words, it teaches us that we should reflect our inner world in the mirror of the Word, rather than comparing our inner world to the lives of other bodies, just as the off-white only appears in front of white.
Therefore, this explanation makes it possible to understand the expression in verse 13, "There is not one thing that has been made that is not hidden before him, but all things are revealed naked before the eyes of those who have dealings with us." By “everything that you made” I mean literally all of creation. Of course, that includes the recipients of this letter and you and me who are studying this letter today. By "not appearing", we literally mean that there is no such thing as invisible. The writer of the book of Hebrews uses a form of explanatory exposition, and naturally converts the Word and God. After all, it seems that the writer of Hebrews has a natural consciousness that the Word is the presence and living of God. Because the Word is God's action and revelation to God. After all, the expression to appear naked has the same meaning as the expression to inspect. The pretense or falsehood of all creation before God is exposed. For those who acknowledge this and repent, it is a blessing and an opportunity, but for those who do not acknowledge this and live a life of pretense and pride, it is a curse.
Ⅲ. Conclusion and application
It reflects the situation of the recipients from Chapter 1 to the present. The prescription is being given that they have installed the wrong locomotive behind their rocking, stiff, and drifting side. In other words, the indirect rebuke is being given because they neglected the Word and forgot God who inspects them. As I said during the day, there are people who water once a week or once a month, and there are people who water only twice a week during the week, but this prescription is basically for those recipients. The power of the word is that it has the power to operate on your situation, but because you are focusing on something other than the word, you have to be afraid that you will not be able to enter the rest, and it is flowing away. Now, the recipients of this book of Hebrews are on the verge of derailing their religious life. This is because the locomotive was mounted on the wrong locomotive.
Through chapters 3 and 4, we had to continue to listen to the harsh rebuke and exhortation of the writer of Hebrews. Indirect reproof (3:14) as to why we do not hold on to what we started at the end, and to encourage each other to avoid being hardened by the temptation of sin (3:6). , admonishment to think deeply about Jesus, exhortations to fear that we will not fall short of the promise given to us to enter the rest (4:1), and exhortations to enter into rest (4:11). And behind these reproofs and exhortations lie verses 12-13. We have these
What you're going to learn is that this is a prescription for the recipient's situation. And the prescription was not just for them, but for generations like that to come and go. The prescription for that prescription was the Word that was {New Testament and Old Testament}. Everyone! When you take medicine, you must continue to drink it with a prayerful heart to see improvement and get better. In other words, sincerity in eating is important.
Likewise, eating the New Testament and the Old Testament also requires constant devotion. Above all, sincerity is required.
Dear all! Now we need to remember the heartbreaking words of Elder James. It is also a saying that we know so well that we almost memorize it. "Be ye the doers of the Way, and do not listen only to deceive yourself. Anyone who hears the Way and does not do it is like a person who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself and goes and sees himself, and what kind of appearance he is. He soon forgets things, but he who is looking into the perfect law of liberty is not the one who hears it and forgets it, but the one who puts it into practice, and this man will be blessed in what he does."
That's right. Not only should we not neglect to reflect ourselves in front of the mirror of the Word, but we should also look into it and forget it. Because the forgetters that Elder James is talking about are the drifters the writer of Hebrews speaks of. Now, I hope that you and I will be able to eat the medicine with sincerity and heart while dealing with this heartbreaking prescription from the writer of Hebrews. ( * )
Let's take the medicine honestly.