THE LORD SPOKE (July 29)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Job 21-23

The last thing in the world that you want is for God to leave you alone! You’ve probably heard someone’s testimony of when they told God to get off their back, as if He were some leech to be flicked away. When He goes, He takes everything with Him. When He forsook His son, even the lights of the world went out for three hours.

Job tells of some who say to God, “Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?” (Job 21:14-15). The result? Read on. Their lamp is snuffed out; calamity comes upon them; they’re like straw in a wind. Eliphaz gets this part right in the next chapter when he refers to these people (Job 22:17) and advises them to “Submit to God and be at peace with him...then the Almighty will be your gold...then you will find delight in the Almighty...” (Job 22:21f).

The context of the book seems to indicate that the words of Job’s worthless physicians and miserable comforters are mere theory. Though they sometimes get it right (not everything they say is false), theirs is not the advice of one who’s been through the fire. Job speaks out from the crucible of divine testing. From the midst of his struggles he can say,

He knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold...I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. (Job 23:10-12)

He is true gold and He produces His gold in us. Have you treasured His words today?


New Testament: Hebrews 6

One commentator says it is “one of the most disputed [texts] of the New Testament”. Another calls it the “Rubik’s Cube of the Bible”. Hebrews 6 is one of the most notoriously hard passages of Scripture.

First, it helps to look at what these people have done (Heb. 6:4-8). In their doctrine, they are “slow to learn” (Heb. 5:11) and “not acquainted with teaching” (Heb. 5:13). In their duty, they “ought to be teachers” (Heb. 5:12,14). In their diet, they should have moved beyond “milk” to “solid food” (Heb. 5:13). In their destination, they should by now be able to “go on to maturity” (Heb. 6:1). Instead, five participles define where they are spiritually:

• “once been enlightened” = regeneration (used thus in 10:32)
• “tasted the heavenly gift” = experienced (Christ “tasted” death in 2:9)
• “shared in the Holy Spirit”
• “tasted the goodness of the word of God”
• “[tasted] the powers of the coming age”
• “if they fall away” (there is no “if” in Greek)

The Greek term parapipto is not the normal word for “apostasy” (apestate - see Heb. 3:12 where it is used!). This “falling away” is used only here in the N.T. but it is used eight times in the Septuagint for the Hebrew term ma’al, which means “to act unfaithfully”. Therefore, this does not mean that these people have lost their salvation. It means that they have drifted away from Christ.

So, who are these people? There are four different primary views in answer to this:

1. These are saved persons who subsequently lose their salvation. These are terms we would use to describe believers, not unbelievers. But look at Romans 8:28-39; John 10:28-30; and Hebrews 8:12. There is no such thing as being saved a second time.
2. This is a hypothetical argument to warn immature believers. If they could fall away (which is impossible to do), it would be impossible to bring them back to repentance. But, what kind of “warning” is it, if it can’t really happen? (Furthermore, there is no “if” in the Greek text.)
3. These are professing Christians whose apostasy proves that their faith was not genuine (I John 2:19). They are “enlightened” but not on fire; they “tasted” but did not digest; they are “partakers” but not possessors. But: these are not descriptions of an unregenerate person!
4. They are saved persons who backslide to the point of divine judgment. It involves a decisive refusal to mature. They are nothroi (“sluggish”, “slow to learn”, and “lazy” in Heb. 5:11 and 6:12.

What about me? I need to move on to good deeds (Heb. 6:9-10) and I need to move on with great diligence (Heb. 6:11-12). As a believer, I can fail to achieve God’s purpose for my life and can forfeit earthly blessings that He has planned for me.

May it never be!