My brother, a fine Wednesday morning to you! May Our Lord bless you with in every way as you go forth today!
Read Hebrews 13:5 – 21.
Our reading contains timely and powerful exhortations for every Believer. To me, it is remarkable that the Spirit, using the writer of Hebrews (likely Paul), seems to be speaking directly to us by this passage; guiding each of us through the many challenges we face in today’s world.
Just consider the following:
In vv 5, the Spirit tells us that we are to be different – that our conduct should be different from the world’s; and certainly our conduct should transcend our own fleshly desires. In fact, we should “be without covetousness”. So, what is covetousness? The Greek word for covetousness here is used only 1 other time in the New Testament (I Tim 3) and it means to be “greedy for gain” – certainly, “greedy for gain” is one of the primary and most common characteristics of man in his natural state. Then, in the same breath, the Spirit tells us what our walk should actually look like because we have God “on board” – we are to be content. Simply put, man separate from God is greedy; but man with God is content.
And then the writer of Hebrews provides additional support for the contentment of the Believer by quoting Deuteronomy 31 (twice) along with Joshua 1: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”. This promise, made by the LORD before the children of Israel entered into the land that had been given to them, is as applicable to each of us today as it was when the promise was originally pronounced. Deuteronomy 31:8 reads like this: “And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”. My brother, be encouraged! The LORD, creator of the heavens and the earth, He is the One that goes before you as you go out today! Receive this magnificent declaration – and walk in the fullness of His contentment!
Before we move on from the promise contained in vv 5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, there is one other important point to be made – in the English, this promise might be considered bad grammar, due to the use of double negatives. But, believe it or not, the statement in the original Greek contains a total of five negatives! And several of those are an absolute, emphatic form of the negative. It is as if the LORD is capitalizing, emphasizing, and underscoring His faithfulness to each of us. Charles Spurgeon said this about the five-force promise as presented in the original Greek: “It is as though it said, ‘I will not, not leave thee; I will never, no never, forsake thee.’ “.
Thank You, LORD, for Your eternal and unshakable faithfulness towards me! Amen!
And that, my friend, brings us to the end of our consideration of the opening verse of today’s scripture. God willing, we will continue on with our survey of the remainder of the passage tomorrow. In the interim, be content!
Finally, receive this amazing and very personal declaration contained in Hebrews 13 (vvs 20, 21) as you begin your day: “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”