4.12. For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
At first this verse seems totally out of place in the context of the previous lengthy discussion about entering God’s peace. However, the use of the word “for” at the beginning shows that the writer clearly saw them as not only linked, but linked in a cause-and-effect relationship. This verse is particularly tied to the one before it – “Let us labor to enter … because the Word is alive and powerful.”
This is yet another warning not to miss what God has said. In the past, God declared that because His people had failed through rebellion and unbelief to enter His rest, they would now forever be cut off from entering it. Through the Psalmist, He has also said to us, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” And He has promised that there remains a rest for the people of God.
Putting all this together, one thing is clear: if we neglect or despise God’s Word in this matter, we can expect the same consequences as those who neglected and despised His Word in previous generations.
When I was a little girl, there was a saying about anyone whose word was considered not entirely to be trusted. Often I heard my parents say of someone (often a politician), “His promises are like pie crusts – made to be broken.” God’s Word is not like that. What God has spoken will stand. That is because His spoken Word (and, for us, His written Word), is the expression of the living Word – God the Son who became man in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God’s spoken and written Word is the expression of the living Word, it carries that same life.
And because it has life, it is powerful. When men speak, they may have the greatest of intentions, but still not have the ability to actually carry out those intentions. Or circumstances and problems may arise to hinder and prevent them following through on the things they have spoken. God’s Word is not like that. It carries with it the power to bring about the thing that is spoken. That is the great difference between prophecy and fortune telling. Fortune tellers (genuine ones) have the ability to look into the future and predict some of the things that are going to happen, but they do not have the power to actually make them happen. But when a prophet of the Lord makes a declaration in the Name of the Lord, that word actually has the power to set in motion the things predicted. That’s why one of the tests of prophecy is “does it come to pass?” If the prophecy did not have the power to set in motion the things prophesied, then it was not the Word of the Lord.
… piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit…
When we look at a person’s life and work, it can be difficult sometimes for us to tell whether they are operating out of the realm of the soul or the realm of the spirit. People may seem to be walking in righteousness, but underneath they are operating out of their own strength. They have not entered into God’s rest; they have not ceased from their own works. Of course, if we know them for long enough, and observe them closely enough, their true position will eventually become obvious, but often that time and closeness of observation is not available to us. The Word, however, has no such difficulties. We cannot escape the consequences of breaking the Word by pretending that we are not. The person who has spent his life acting like a follower of Christ, without ever having truly surrendered his life to Him, will not find admission to heaven on the basis that he looked like a Christian.
… and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Doing the right things for the wrong reasons will never get us anywhere. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were in covenant relationship with God because of His grace – He brought them into covenant because they were descendants of Abraham, and that had nothing at all to do with their efforts. He gave them the Law to show them how to live in that covenant relationship, and they were supposed to do so by faith. (Romans 9:32) Instead, they embraced the Law as something which, if they observed it correctly, would give them the right to be in relationship with God – in other words, they tried to make it a relationship of works rather than of faith and grace.
Not only in relation to God’s rest, but in all things we need to understand that God’s Word cannot be broken, nor can it be fooled by outward appearance.