Hebrews 12.23
November 23rd 2014
Meat
WELCOME
PRAYER
MUSIC
SILENCE
So we left off with the writer telling his readers to not only expect to be chastised of the Lord but for believers to look around and lift up the hands of those who are weary, and to clear our paths so as not to hurt or stumble those whose knees are feeble.
We ended with him saying in verse 14:
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,” and we talked about what this could mean.
The writer continues with his admonitions and says something very clear: (verse 15)
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
(he continues, saying)
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Let’s stop there then come back to verse 18 and beyond as time permits. So back to verse 14.
So . . . in the face of the fact that we all are going to suffer and struggle –
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,”
(verse 15) Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
This passage (and passages like it) must be important because they comprise a major theme in the New Testament.
I want to take a minute and illustrate the preponderance of the theme throughout the new testament before attempting to explain what it means.
We first have to note several things. First, the New Testament audience and the times they were dealing with.
In my opinion the New Testament writers were constantly encouraging the New Testament believers to stay the course and toe the line and hold on because to not would, for them, have meant certain death when Jerusalem was destroyed – instead of being saved.
Plainly speaking this is the context and setting of why these men wrote.
So what does it mean to us? We could suggest a couple things.
First we could say it has no bearing on us today. That hell and the lake of fire and judgment and everything is done – that Christ reigns and He is setting His kingdom in order with each passing age.
We could say that He is coming back (still) and we had better be ready because if we “are not diligent we too might fail the grace of God and be wiped out (or left behind) at His coming.”
Or we might suggest that everything we read in the Bible was written TO (that audience at that time but FOR us today.
If this is the case (and there is very little evidence to support the latter part of this in scripture itself) how would we understand this passage and passages like it?
I would suggest (though many disagree) but I would suggest that the Bible and what it said to them has application to us today spiritually, and instead of “our not being diligent” winding up in our physical destruction (as it would have for the believers in 70 AD) it will wind up with some sort of loss in the hereafter for those who are guilty now.
I cannot believe for a minute that what we do here, and HOW we go about doing it will not play a significant role in our eternal lives in the hereafter both in our salvation and in our rewards.
This is not MORMONISM – it’s biblical Christianity. The difference between the two is what motivates and drives the individuals involved – a “want to or a have to,” a get to or a must.”
The diligence the writer of Hebrews is calling to (contextually) is faith where the diligence other works based religions are calling to is duty and allegiance and works to establish and or maintain righteousness.
Nevertheless, continuing on in faith is a biblical mandate and this seems to be what the writer is speaking to here.
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
The other versions add insight.
“Looking diligently,” from the king James is translated as
“looking carefully”
“watching” and
“being carefully on your guard”
“lest any man fail of the grace of God” is translated as
“lest there be any that falleth short the grace of God.”
“lest there be anyone who lacks the grace of God”
“that there be no one who falls back from the grace of God”
(The RSV says,) “see that no one fails to receive the grace of God” – whoa!
I LIKE THIS ONE (TCNT) “See that no one fails to use the loving help of God”
The writer then gives a specific warning to a specific issue that might cause someone to fail to use the loving grace of God, saying (in the King James)
“lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.”
Some of the other versions read:
“for fear that some bitter root may come up to be a trouble to you, and that some of you may be made unclean by it.”
In the case of some being defiled one translation suggests that this means once bitterness takes root entire communities may fall instead of rendering it that many people fall pray individually.
This is what that translation says:
“Take care that no one fails to use the loving help of God, ‘that no bitterness is allowed to take root and spring up, and cause trouble,’ and so poison the whole community.”
Apparently, amidst the trials, chastisements and pressures heaped upon these believers there was a tendency toward faithlessness, which the writer says could somewhere along the line lead to what is known in scripture as “the root of bitterness,” which can take hold of many.
For this reason he advised individual believers to lift up heavy hands and strengthen feeble knees.
No matter what we say to convince ourselves that drawing back is wholly normative and even expected in believers, and no matter how much we try to convince ourselves that it has no bearing on the eternal welfare of the souls of unbelievers – it does.
And the scriptural warnings are more than clear – draw back too far and “its bye bye fathead” – for the Jews that would fall in 70 AD – for us today, when our respective lives end.
Does this mean a walk from salvation or does it just mean loss of rewards or crowns for the believer?
I’ll let you decide that. But without question, those who embrace faithlessness, loss is certainly incurred.
Some examples (to reinforce and remind).
In John 15:1 Jesus said:
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
As a reminder, all a branch as to do is abide and let the vine and the husbandman do all the work.
We recall the writer of Hebrews saying just back in chapter 10:38-39
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
And the admonition of Hebrews 3:12-14
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.
Again, many – especially preterists – suggest that these words were to these Jewish converts relative to the coming end of the age but do they NOT have ANY bearing on us today?
While I cannot prove they do I believe that the physical lessons have spiritual application to us now.
Hebrews 6:1-10. Remember that long haul and what was said?
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
Speaking of young widows Paul says:
1st Timothy 5:11-12 But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry;
12 Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
1st Timothy 4:1 seems to clearly suggest that departing from the faith by the faithful was possible, saying:
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
After listing a bunch of positive characteristics a believer ought to pursue Peter writes:
2nd Peter 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:22-23 “In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.”
Peter was warning the saints of corrupted souls and their influence and said:
2nd Peter 2:18-22 “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Speaking to the Church at Rome Paul says, speaking of the House of Israel:
Romans 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
The premise to the believers in the early church, at least, is clear – abide and believe in Him and His strength to carry you through and you will come through.
But turn back – whether due to the failure of flesh, the root of bitterness, a desire to be captive to the law – and there remains no more sacrifice for sin.
Where the writer specifically mentions and warns about “the root of bitterness springing up,” there is probably a reference to a passage taken from Deuteronomy 29:18.
The Lord is describing His covenant with the nation of Israel and says He is doing it –
“Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood.”
It seems that the allusion here is to those who were idolaters who instead of bearing the fruits of righteousness were bearing fruits from idolatry – which are bitter in the mouth of God.
In the nation of Israel these “bitterfruit idolaters” and their practices threatened to spread and it seems this is what the writer of Hebrews is warning the early church about – the potential for poisonous bitter fruits to invade and overtake the good. So be diligent.
Spring-boarding off this point we get to verse 16 where the writer says:
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
In our verses from last week the writer encourages believers to lift up hands to assist others, and to pursue peace and holiness, where he then adds:
“Looking diligently . . . and he uses a word three times – LEST.
Look diligently lest . .
any man fail of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; and
lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Look diligently to protect individuals and the flock against these things.
Someone failing to grasp the grace that God has extended them, someone who has allowed for the root of bitterness, and then he adds, “lest there be any fornicator.”
Now, the Greek word translated fornicator here in this passage is “pornos” so we know that in all probability the writer is speaking of exactly this – someone who is engaged in sexual liasons unlawfully.
Why does he warn against this too?
First of all, I don’t believe the writer was called Esau a fornicator because of the conjuction “OR” present in the verse.
The writer has just called his reader to holiness and the crime of pornos is truly one of the most common biblical affronts to it.
That is why I think he appeals to it. Additionally, the purpose of the writer was to try and keep the saints together and protected.
NOTHING breaks up a group or gathering of people more violently than sex among the members – which is why most work places frown on inter-office romance.
I think this is a very practical directive to warn them about.
Then he mentions profane persons – and uses Esau as the example.
The Greek word for profane is bebeylos and it literally means crossing the doorway. Odd, huh.
Do any of you know what a “fane” is? Its an old English word for temple or a shrine.
Profane means to exit outside of the fane, so to speak, to cross the doorway (from the temple) which would infer to be something unholy or outside of holy living.
When the King James translators used profane it was a very descriptive word which today is more related to vulgarities etc rather than brutish, non-holy, outside the temple living.
Why was Esau used as the example of one who is profane?
There may not be a better example of someone who has crossed the threshold leading out of the temple more than Esau.
He was a man’s man, a hunter, rough and tumble and apparently had little care for respected or holy matters.
I’m sure most of us know that for a pot of red lentils he threw away the highest honor a son could have – being the first born.
This seems to be the reason for the reference to Esau – and the writer is warning them not to adopt such an attitude.
Because the word is associated with being outside the temple many people believe that the writer is referring to idolatry.
Perhaps the most important association the writer is trying to make is like Esau, who was profane, the young in the faith to whom he was writing were also seeking to gratify their flesh and were willing to forfeit their place as being in the church of the first born.
I mean the birthright of Esau was huge in the scheme of things.
Abraham, Isaac, and Esau (it should have been).
This meant inheritance of the land of Canaan, being in the progeny the coming of the Messiah, and such a role in the preservation of the true religion through him.
Here’s the deal – Esau undervalued the gift he was given. He did not observe it through spiritual eyes or with the long view.
As a result the perspectives he maintained and the life his cherished and the things he valued were a reflection of this under-estimation of what he possessed by virtue of birth alone, by virtue of nothing he merited but were simply bestowed upon Him.
Ultimately, in a moment of temporary discomfort, Esau sold EVERYTHING for a pot of lentils.
(beat)
I have an admission to make – I am very much like Esau. I have been gifted with many, many things in my life that I do not deserve – the greatest of them being salvation and a knowledge of God in my person.
And yet so very, very easily will I lay it all out on the table – jeopardizing it all – to meet an immediate discomfort . . .
The illustration is amazing and really fits well in the comparison between the glories of being a believer and the tenuous nature of our flesh.
We’ve seen many “fall big” so to speak when they too, have undervalued all they have to engage in just a moment of fleshly satisfaction.
But the reality is we all “fall daily,” don’t we? We take our inheritances of sonship and daughtership, granted by His grace and nothing that we have earned, and lay it on the proverbial table for a
Juicy piece of gossip
A lie or two
Greed
Anger
Lust
Division
Whatever . . . whatever can be deemed outside the fane – we sell it all . . . for our messes of potage.
And the writer is warning the believers then and now to diligently be aware. And correct our course, realign our priorities, and esteem our place with God with the highest regard.
The brilliance of the writer under the Holy Spirit is truly manifest here as he has instructed us along.
He detailed a whole bunch of people who were heroes of faith in chapter 11.
Then here in twelve he said, seeing we have been surrounded by so many examples of great faith let’s set aside whatever it is that interferes with our walk and pursue Christ.
He admits though that the walk is not easy, and describes how difficult it is to undergo the chastening of the Lord.
After that he gives us some directives tied to all he has written, saying
“Lift up hands,”
“Strengthen feeble knees”
“Pursue after peace with all” and he adds, “holiness,” “Diligently . . . following after such LEST . . .
1 any man “fail of the grace of God;”
2 lest any “root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”
3 Lest there be “any fornicator”
4 or lest there be any “profane” person
Like Esau . . . who was a person who stepped outside the threshold of the temple or sacred place where holiness thrived (at that time).
All of the warnings the writer provides against –
“failing the grace of God, or as the TCNT translation puts it, ““See that no one fails to use the loving help of God”
“allowing the root of bitterness to spring up and trouble and defile us,”
“slipping into fornication” which ties sex into faith and makes a mess of everything,” and ultimately becoming “profane,” like Esau will lead to sorrow, which is why the writer is addressing it.
And he uses Esau’ story to illustrate this, saying:
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
When Esau came to his father he sought to receive a blessing from Him.
He was not seeking to regain the birthright as he knew he traded it with his brother Jacob.
But when he would have inherited the blessing that a father would give to his eldest Son he discovered that the blessing was already bestowed upon Jacob through subterfuge.
This is what verse 17 is speaking about.
And it’s a tad bit confusing because the writer appeals to the fact that Esau sold his birthright and so it seems verse 17 is speaking of this event.
Not so.
The birthright was the first tragedy for Esau. The second was the loss of the blessing he sought to receive from the hands of his father as the firstborn son.
Apparently Isaac was not aware of the birthright deal (but Jacobs mother was) and so when he blessed Jacob pretending to be Esau, it was all on the up and up.
But Jacob wasn’t.
The sanction of the father, it seems, was necessary, before the transfer of birthright could be made sure and it seems that Rebecca and Jacob understood that the dying blessing of the aged patriarch would establish it all.
This might be the story behind the story of Jacob and Esau. Maybe Esau frivolously assumed he could sell his brother his birthright over a kitchen bargain but believed it was inconsequential since the bargain had to be sealed by his fathers blessing – and he knew there was no way his father would bless his hairless brother in his place.
But Esau bet wrong – and this is what caused the writer to say when Esau went to get the seal of his father through the blessing on himself . . .
it was too late, and . . .
“he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”
When it says that “he found no place of repentance,” I would suggest that there was no room to alter the course that had been set on Isaac’s part.
No way to change his mind. It don’t believe it means that Esau earnestly sought to repent and could not, but that when once the blessing had passed the lips of his father he found it impossible to change it.
This is a far more reasonable approach in my estimation.
Isaac firmly declared that he had pronounced the blessing, and though it had been obtained by fraud, yet, it was done.
The interesting thing about this is God had esteemed that it would go down this way well before Esau and Jacob ever breathed air. Remember the story? It was Rebecca whom God revealed this too. In Genesis 25 beginning at verse 22 we read:
22 And the children struggled together within her (Rebecca); and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” (In other word what the heck is going on here Lord?) And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
How are we to understand all this relative to the nature of Esau and Jacob and the intervention of Rebecca into the con job on Isaac?
First of all, Esau was a perfect picture of the flesh PHYSICALLY and in his make-up, while Jacob, while a conniving brother, was a man of faith.
Secondly, Rebecca had been told by God that “the elder would serve the younger.”
Was God telling Rebecca to step in and assist the process along?
Was Esau evil and lost and Jacob favored by God who created him?
Did God predetermine this and if so, why castigate Esau – he was made to be this way . . . or no?
Obviously Esau did have some respect for spiritual things – especially the love and blessing of His father (which was very spiritual) and Genesis 27 tells us he wept over the loss. But of course it was too late.
I ask all of this because traditionally speaking Esau is castigated for his personality, and held up – even throughout the New Testament – as being no good (i.e. “Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated”).
The Calvininst’s view this situation as evidence of God predetermining all things but is there another way to see it all?
Yes. And we’ll end with some thoughts on the matter.
First of all Esau was a man of the flesh and Jacob a man of faith – from the womb. And God knew this. Did he establish it through genetic mutation or did He know it was going to be the case?
I would suggest that whichever it was, (and I’m not sure we can say which it is for certain) God uses it all for good.
So where Esau may be the example of what not to follow, and while the end-result for Esau was painful, everything did work out well and according to God’s plan – established by foreknowledge or predetermination.
I make this point to place the focus of all this on God and His will and ways, not on men.
I appreciate the example, truly. And realize I am in way too many ways to be comfortable like Esau. And God has blessed us with this example because He had an Esau come to life and live as he was intended, and to experience what Esau was supposed to experience.
Certainly we strive to be people of faith, and to diligently follow after peace and holiness, but the end story is God is there to make all things good and right, according to His good pleasure and ultimate purposes, not to personally possess animus toward the Esau types of the world.
I say this for two reasons.
First, we note that God told Rebecca that there were two children in her womb.
He could have had it only to have been Jacob. Then we note that while Esau was a man of the flesh, God did bless Him and did make Him a people with a purpose. We note that later when Esau and Jacob reconcile Esau is a blessed man, with a large family with lots of material blessings. And he had a forgiving heart.
We see the same thing with Isaac and his brother Ishmael – whom God loved and made into a great nation too.
I guess the point I am trying to point out today, is that while there are fantastic lessons in scripture to teach us, and guide us, and move us to decisions that are geared toward good and not evil – God is in charge, He has all things in mind, and He will use all factors and situations to bring about His expected end and will.
Okay. Comments and questions?
