Tuesday 9th
Hebrews 4:12-13
NIV (v13) – ‘Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.’
ESV (v13) – ‘And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.’
This verse continues from our verse about the living and powerful Word of God (v12) to remind us of a very sobering thought, ‘that nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.’ Just stop and ponder on this for a moment. That action we may have done, thinking no one will know, God knows because he saw! But even more sobering perhaps is that thought that we had, which no one will ever know about, but God knows! He sees every action we do, and he knows every thought we have thought! It is mind boggling, for we can be in a room with someone who we may have spent the best part of our lives with, and we haven’t a clue what they are thinking, and they haven’t got a clue what we are thinking, but God does, but more seriously it is a challenging thought in that the Hebrew writer continues that one day every action and every thought is going to be uncovered in the presence of God and we will have to give an account for it. I suppose at this moment my sobering thought and hope is that when it happens there will only be me and God in the room, for it will not only be our good thoughts and good actions made bare but all the wrong thoughts and all the wrong actions!
How do we tie this in with the good news of the gospel that in coming to Christ we have been forgiven, therefore every wrong thought and wrong action has been forgiven and not only forgiven but cast into the sea of God’s forgetfulness? The answer is that all that has taken place before conversion has been dealt with and will not be laid bare again in the presence of God, because it has already been laid bare at the Cross and dealt with. I think we tie it in with the previous verse, as we read the Word of God and it does its penetrating work like a two edged sword, we need to put right the wrong that it reveals in our lives, if it uncovers our conscience and brings to mind thoughts we shouldn’t be harbouring, or of actions we should not have done or should not be doing, then we need to bring it to the mercy seat, (I am jumping the gun a little as this is in our next group of verses) we need to do as John reminds us in 1 John chapter 1, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ Therefore any sin we have committed but have truly confessed of and repented from while we are walking our Christian pilgrimage is also forgiven and forgotten, the matter lies with the thoughts and the actions we wilfully continue with, the thoughts we harbour, the actions we continue in doing, knowing they are wrong thoughts and actions and they will be laid bare in the presence of God. The key word here is the word ‘uncovered’ It is far better to allow the Word of God to do its work in our hearts by ‘uncovering’ the thoughts and actions in our hearts and lives so that we can deal with it now, than to reject the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the piercing of the Word of God and to continue with the wrong thoughts and actions and have to have them made bare before the Lord God to whom we will have to give an account. It is better to set the record books straight now! For the day of reckoning will come, we cannot kid ourselves and think that we have plenty of time to get the records straight, as we keep coming back to in these studies, ‘‘today’ if you hear his voice do not harden your heart.’ Let us allow the Holy Spirit to do his work, allow the Word of God to do its work in our lives. Remember back in Genesis we read that after Adam and Eve had sinned, they became aware of their nakedness and they became ashamed. When we stand ‘naked’ and ‘exposed’ as our text says, in the presence of God may we not be ashamed, because we will have let God’s Word do its work.