Fooling Around With A Sword

When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old, we lived in an old farm house up in Missouri that had been vacant since the farmer moved to town a few years earlier. Dad would rent these old places while he pastored a Church nearby.

This house was a two-story job and had a room upstairs that was “locked” by the owner, and filled with lots of interesting things. Even a ten year old could get in – and I did. In that room I discovered a sword. (I know now it was a Civil War sword, in great condition, and probably worth a mint). When my dad was away, I would get that sword out and play with it as if it were made of plastic. I had no idea of the danger, and certainly no idea of the value. . .it was just a toy from my perspective.

In my current study of Hebrews I was reminded of those days – partly because there are so many people in my life now who are making the same mistake.

The Writer of Hebrews says, in Chapter 4, verse 12, 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.

The Word of God is no toy. It will cut you wide, deep, and often. It is a living entity that discerns your heart (read: innermost being), convicts and judges, and divides Truth from fiction. Sometimes we just “fool around” with the Word of God, never letting it work in us. We seem convinced that no one knows how little we value it, how often we “play” with it’s infinite wisdom, or how we ignore its timeless Truth.

One verse farther along the Hebrews writer reminds us that we are an “open book” to the One to whom we must give account.

Don’t be fooling around with the Sword.