“For the word of God is living and powerful.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Edward Bulwer-Lytton famously wrote, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” This was not an empty suggestion, but a keen observation. History has shown the written word to have immense power. Yet, it is not words themselves that contain effective energy. The lesser the power of a position, the lesser the power of one’s words. Words penned by a king in the castle trump those of a peasant in the village. Yet, even the lowest of individuals can be a force if the message they communicate is available to society and resonates with their desires or needs. Men would do well to acknowledge the word of God to be true on both fronts. “The word of God is living and powerful” because its inception is in the mind of the omnipotent God, and its message is timelessly relevant.

It is a sad truth that God’s words are viewed by the majority as antiquated. They were a matter for yesteryear; irrelevant to modern times. Even those who claim to cherish the words of God refuse portions of scripture with the notion that times have changed, so not all of scripture is worthy of consideration. This is folly. It is illogical to suggest only a fraction of the scripture is pertinent. Who is the arbiter regarding the relevance of passages? To take only a portion of God’s word as truthful and relevant implies the remnant is not so. Then why is the selected portion truthful and relevant? To disprove one part of scripture is to disprove all scripture. But the Psalmist wrote, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).

The Hebrew writer said, “the word of God is living.” It is living because of the One from whom it proceeds. It is the word of God. God said, “Indeed before the day was, I am He” (Isaiah 43:13). Jesus said, “the Father has life in Himself” (John 5:26). Paul noted the nature of God’s power manifest in creation – it is “eternal power” (Romans 1:20). The creative power of God transcends time for from it time commenced. That power which does not wane, and knows no end is found in His word. “In the beginning God created…God said” (Genesis 1:1, 3). One does not need to look further than creation today to know that word is still living. Of Jesus, Paul wrote, “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). He upholds “all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). The reason the world continues in the activities of life is the living word of God.

The inspired writer said, “the word of God is…powerful.” Not all things living are powerful. Some are ineffectual and lie dormant. God’s word is not of that sort. Its very essence is one of power. Inherent within God’s word is adequate energy to accomplish its exact goal. Job proclaimed, “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2). Peter reminded his readers of the power of God’s word, saying, “by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5-6). God told Noah the flood was coming, and the flood came with furious destructive power. Some who claim to be of God would do well to consider this truth. Premillennialism suggests God’s word is not powerful; that His will was thwarted by mere men, hence altered to the birth of the church. But there is victory at the cross of Calvary, and the Lord Jesus reigns on the Davidic throne, and that, by the word of God. Indeed, “the word of God is…powerful.”

These were the very characteristics of God’s word which the Hebrew readers desperately needed to consider. For the writer warned, “we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?” (Hebrews 2:1-4)

God “at various times and in various ways spoke in time past” (Hebrews 1:1). The word the angels spoke was the word of God. These words were living and powerful. They proved steadfast, and those who transgressed received the reward promised them. How much greater the word spoken by the very Son of God? These Hebrews were turning away from the gospel of Christ under the pressure of persecution. They needed to understand that the Divine force of God’s word in judgment far outweighs that of the enemies of the cross of Christ – “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

To impress his readers with the destruction promised those who disobey God’s word the writer set before them wilderness wandering Israel. The Israelites had murmured, complained, and tested the Lord in the wilderness. When they reached the threshold of the promised land at Kadesh-barnea, they were not strengthened in faith with the knowledge of God’s presence, but shrunk in fear, and rebelled against God. The Psalmist records, “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest’” (Hebrews 3:11; Psalm 95:7-11). They did not believe, and they did not obey. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. God’s word did not fail. He gave them the choice of blessing or cursing, and with their rebellion they defaulted to the curse, and perished.

Yet, it was not simply Canaan the Israelites were kept from entering. “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). By including his present readers in the promise, the writer confirms that the rest they missed was more than the physical land. It was the ultimate spiritual rest of God signified in the seventh day of time when God rested from His works. It was the rest for their souls – “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

This is that gospel from which the readers of Hebrews were turning away. They needed the encouragement to press on, and the warning against disobedience to do what the Israelites failed to, enter the rest of God. For, “He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:7-10).

The Psalmist was moved by the Spirit to pen the words of Psalm 95 for the consideration of those of his time. The very pronouncement of God upon the Israelites years before the writing of Psalm 95 was alive and powerful even as the Psalmist wrote. Those Jews needed to persevere and remain faithful if they were to reach the rest of God. And still, the words of Psalm 95 rang true for the original recipients of the Hebrew epistle. If they followed in the rebellious footsteps of Israel, they would receive the same judgement.

The same is true for us today. We will not enter the rest if we are not faithful to God in obedience to His word. Not one can slip past God’s powerful judgments. His word is living and powerful, and capable of performing its work without fail. We must beware, and heed the words of God:

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:11-13)