Today’s Reading: Hebrews 13 -James 2
“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Hebrews 13:6
Here is a word of promise from our great God.
This is a quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures. How many times have you heard someone deny the application of a promise, a warning, or a doctrine by saying, “That is in the Old Bible,” or “That is in the Old Testament”? Many are of the opinion that only a very small portion of the Bible was really intended for us in this day. They say, “The Old Testament was for the Jews. The four Gospels are for the tribulation saints. The Book of Revelation is for the Millennial saints. The epistles of Peter, James, and John were for Jewish believers in the first century. And Paul’s epistles alone are really intended for the Gentile believers of this age.” Rubbish!
God the Holy Ghost caused the inspired writer here to quote a promise from the Old Testament. In doing so, he teaches us to honor the Old Testament Scriptures as the Word of God, just as we do the New Testament. And he tells us that the promises of God made to his ancient people are the promises of God made to his people today (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Five Times
We find this promise given five times in the Old Testament.
Lessons
What are we to learn from the fact that the inspired writer here gives us the same promise that God gave to Moses, Jacob, Joshua, Solomon, and Israel? You will notice that he gives us the sense of the promise, not the very words of the promise, teaching us that the sense of Scripture, the spiritual message of Scripture, is the meaning of Scripture. Many know the Scriptures “by heart” who do not know the heart of the Scriptures!
I know there is a danger here. We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture. But we do not interpret the Scriptures in a strictly literal way. The Spirit of God gives us spiritual understanding to discern the message of Scripture. And the message is always a spiritual, Christ centered, Christ honoring message (Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44-47).
It is also evident that every word from God to any believer is the Word of God to every believer. God who made the promise never changes (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20),