#focr 48

A "Dangerous" Weapon

One Sunday evening at church a short-term missionary reported on her overseas experiences and told about crossing into a communist country. At the border, the guards asked, "Do you have any guns, drugs, or Bibles?"

Although they probably hadn't read it, those communist border guards apparently believed Hebrews 4:12,

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

To them, the Bible was as dangerous as guns and drugs. Guns injure and kill the body. Drugs alter and distort the mind. The Bible exposes and destroys falsehood.

But the Bible threatens more than their religion of atheism. It threatens their place of power and control over the people because it gives to the people what no government can. The Bible enriches lives, instills hope, and frees the human spirit, which makes it as threaten­ing to an atheistic government as guns and drugs.

In Psalm 119, the psalmist refers to some of the powerful effects of the Word of God on his life. It revives his soul (Ps 119:25); it imparts inner strength (Ps 119:28); it guides him into truth (Ps 119:30); and it enlarges his heart (Ps 119:32).

We who are blessed with both the Old and New Testaments have God's full and final written revelation of Himself. When we meditate on the truths of this powerful book, we experience its impact on our lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who makes it real to us. Guns, drugs, and the Bible all wield power, but only the Bible destroys what is false and builds what is true.

The Human Spirit Is Like Marrow (Hebrews 4:12)

Notice how the passage mentions both soul and spirit. And while it doesn’t explicitly mention the body, it is implied by the references to joints and marrow.

Hebrews compares soul and spirit to joints and marrow. The mention of marrow caught Major Ian Thomas’s attention. He initially studied to be a missionary doctor and knew something about the importance of the marrow.

Marrow is the nutrient-rich spongy tissue at the center of large bones. Among other functions, the marrow produces blood cells. As Thomas noted,

It is a physiological fact that the blood is manufactured in the marrow, and this “source of life,” being of such paramount importance to the body as a whole, is buried and protected deep within the joints and the bones (Thomas, Mystery of Godliness, 62).

The marrow manufactures blood. That is highly significant for Thomas because of what blood symbolizes. Throughout the Bible, blood was sacred. You could not eat it (Gen 9:4; Lev 7:26; 17:10; 19:26) or shed it (Gen 9:6) because blood was life (Deut 12:23), and life belongs to God.

For Thomas, understanding the meaning of marrow and blood is the key to understanding the passage in Hebrews:

[T]he blood is sacred in the Bible. It represents the very life of God Himself—the Spirit of God within the human spirit, as the blood flowing through and from the marrow, imparting the very Life of God to the human spirit, from whence this Life must flow to activate the ‘joints’ within the human soul, and produce that pattern of behavior which enables man to bear the image of the Invisible, and give expression to the Indwelling, Quickening, Motivating Life of God (Thomas, Mystery of Godliness, p. 62).

Just as you need marrow to produce blood to give physical life to your body, so, too, you need the Holy Spirit to give life to your human spirit, and through it, to give life to your whole person (cf. Rom 8:11).

The Human Spirit Is Like Marrow (Hebrews 4:12)

"Just as you need marrow to produce blood to give physical life to your body, so, too, you need the Holy Spirit to give life to your human spirit, and through it, to give life to your whole person" (cf. Rom 8:11).