Hebrews 5:11-14 Are You Ready For Your Upcoming Trial?

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Are You Ready for Your Upcoming Trial?

Introduction: For some, the above question might seem a bit odd. “My upcoming trial? Why would you be so sure that I have a trial coming up?”

The answer is fairly simple. First, God has repeatedly warned that every person will suffer trials/tribulations. There is no escaping it. It actually falls within the purposes of God. Second, all one needs to do is observe the lives of men and women over time. Severe tribulations happen; eventually they always happen.

Job was quite surprised by his trial. That is something we often do not consider. Job was not just mildly surprised, he was shocked! He argued for 28 chapters the injustice of it all. “Trials were not supposed to happen to me!” We can easily watch others go through it, but deep in our minds think it wouldn’t happen to us. Somehow we will be wiser! We will be able to escape it!

You will remember that Job had a fourth friend named Elihu, who listened to all the erroneous speeches of Job and the other three friends. Elihu spoke last, and in his first speech he addressed this issue of why Job was suffering the trial.

1. Your Upcoming Trial: Job 33:13–30
   1. Vs. 13: Elihu began by rebuking Job’s words that God does not answer any of man’s words. In other words, God let’s man suffer, but never gives him any answers. “It would sure be nice if I could get an explanation!”
   2. Vs. 14ff: Elihu’s answer is that God does speak to man in two different ways (14). You will note this in verses 15 & 19:
      1. Vs. 15: “In a dream, in a vision of the night…” We know from our OT studies that though dreams and visions were not necessarily a regular part of the lives of the patriarchs, they were the primary way God revealed himself to his people (Joseph). Since the first century God’s revelation has been through Jesus and his apostles (John 16:13; Ephesians 3:3-5).
      2. Vs. 19: “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones…” Thus Elihu points out that though Job had desired a verbal interaction with God, the suffering he was enduring was another way God “spoke” to him. Just as God would train and discipline his people through his words, so he also disciplines him through trials. This is confirmed in Hebrews 12.
      3. Further, you will notice in verses 17-18, 27-28, & 29-30, Elihu repeatedly mentions that God does this to keep a person from “going down into the pit.” Those words do not just refer to physical death, but primarily losing one’s soul in the eternal second death.
      4. Notice further in verse 29 that Elihu says that God does this two or three times in a person’s life.
   3. Finally, two reminders:
      1. As we can see in this text, the type of trials and tribulations spoken of are not minor bumps in the road. these are major events that at the time feel to be hopeless, or at the very least, beyond bearable.
      2. Would any of us have believed that Job needed a trial to bring his soul back from the pit? Remember God’s words: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (1:8). If God would have a man like Job go through a horrifying trial – all ten children killed in one day and an illness so terrible that his bones were sticking out – then how could we possibly think we do not need a trial, or that God would not put us through a trial?
      3. After all, Hebrews 12 tells us that if God did not discipline us in trials, then we are not consider children of God!
2. Preparing for Your Upcoming Trial, Hebrews 5:11-14
   1. The letter to the Hebrews is specifically written to help Christians go through suffering without falling away or failing our calling. I don’t think we typically read Hebrews for that purpose, and that is what caught my attention as I was re-reading Hebrews and restudying certain parts of the text, especially Hebrews 5:11-14.
   2. It also struck me that the Hebrew letter follows the same principles that we just read from Elihu’s speech. Not only did Elihu direct Job to the ways God speaks through his revealed word and suffering, but he even speaks of a “mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him” (Job 33:23)
   3. We tend to think of Hebrews 5:11ff as a rebuke, but it is more than that. The writer is giving a reason why the Hebrew Christians were on the verge of falling away (6:4-6). The way they approached their Bible study over the last number of years had left them seriously vulnerable.
   4. Consider, do you think the Hebrews saw themselves as vulnerable? Likely not. After all, just like us, they were still going through all the outward steps of Christianity. That’s the danger in “slipping” or “drifting” as mentioned in 2:1. It isn’t noticed until it is too late. Further, the writer compared them to the “wilderness generation” of Israel who were too fearful to enter the land. It wasn’t that they quit believing in God or in the classic sense of falling away just quit altogether. That is what is subtle – falling away in 2:3 happens simply when we are neglectful.
   5. Proverbs 1:24–31 “Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.”
   6. We Christians can have a bad habit of putting our confidence in our past forgiveness of sins without being acutely aware that we are still in grave danger! Is there any living Christian that is no longer vulnerable to sin?
      1. Hebrews 3:12-13 “Take care, my brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Does that text not apply to you? Does it not apply to me?
      2. Even Paul said, “So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
3. Trial Preparation: Not Lazy in Hearing
   1. The Hebrew writer had a nearly impossible task. How does he get the attention of listeners who aren’t listening! He is trying his best to get them to understand how spiritually endangered they are to losing what God had promised. As he was attempting to explain the amazing high priesthood of Jesus in order to increase their zeal, he finally just says it: you are lazy Bible students!
   2. Compare 5:11 with 6:12. The whole text is bookended with the same word: lazy, sluggish, dull! This sluggishness has caused them to be weak and vulnerable to their trials.
   3. Notice the words: “we have much to say, and it is hard to explain.” Their laziness in their study of the scriptures made it difficult for even an inspired writer to explain biblical concepts that are more difficult. Consider the implications:
      1. The difficult parts of God’s word are not optional reading. In is unimaginable the insult we give God when we neglect major parts of scripture because these sections of scripture make us work hard.
      2. The message of the writer is, we cannot be content with the knowledge we already have and be too lazy to increase it without losing our ability to stand in the day of trial. It is learning God’s word, all of God’s word that gives us the “shield of faith” that we need to overcome tough trials.
   4. “Ought to be teachers”: Considering the typical church culture of today, these words completely obliterate us! The writer is not talking about standing in front of an audience, but he is talking about being able to explain the biblical text to someone who needs it. Consider:
      1. This is an expectation, a goal of growth and maturity(Cf. Eph. 4:15)
      2. When we never strive to verbalize God’s word we never really know it.
      3. Further, by not reaching the goal of “speaking the truth,” we remain a spiritual child even to the point of forgetting the basic principles of the oracles of God. We continue to need milk endlessly!
      4. Finally, we are missing solid food. Can you imagine watching a 10-year old, a 20-year old, a 40-year old getting up to the table a sucking on a bottle! That is the writer’s analogy.
   5. “The mature”: Verse 14 defines the mature. Not only is a mature person able to explain God’s word, he has attained to that goal by training his “powers of discernment by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” The idea of knowing good from evil is not simply knowing what is moral and immoral. It includes recognizing when my heart is being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and when the deceitfulness of Satan’s doctrines are causing me to be weakened in faith.
   6. Finally, the writer defines maturity as one who is skilled in the word of righteousness as opposed to a spiritual child who is unskilled in the word.

Conclusion: This text should be a wakeup call to young and old. Until our death, we live in grave danger of slipping and drifting. Hebrews 5:11-14 is one of the key ways of winning this battle. The more we know the word, the stronger we will be.
“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stand, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it” (Hebrews 4:1)

Berry Kercheville

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