Hebrews Chapter Twelve, Healing Waywardness

 

Hebrews 12:12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, [13] and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

 

Referencing Hebrews 12:1 once more, the author directs the Hebrew Christians to their walk. They are to heal, strengthen, and straighten their paths. God leads His children through the valley of the shadow of death, not around it. We need fortitude, and that fortitude is found in the person of Jesus Christ, Hebrews 12:2. Our focus as saints is Jesus Himself.

The hands hanging down indicates idleness. Christians are not to be idle, even in secular matters. Paul writes of idleness, “if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat,” 2 Thessalonians 3:10. This command was leveled when the accusation in the Thessalonian church was raised that some professing Christians were idle gossips, 2 Thessalonians 3:11. Paul commended himself and his peers as examples of diligence in service, so as not to burden others; a trait we ought to adopt. But this instance especially has nothing to do with commerce or secular conduct, but the dissemination of the gospel, and living our lives in love, caring for those around us. Active hands do not hang down; they are engaged in a flurry of activity as we reach out to a lost world as ambassadors for Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:20.

 

Feeble means weak. Weak knees indicate a slow or halting walk. We know where we ought to go, but active hands can’t reach the intended work if feeble knees can’t bend to take us there. The mission field is wherever you find yourself, see John 4:30. Jesus called the lost to salvation. We likewise are to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19. More than that, we are to not just preach the gospel and baptize, but genuinely disciple newly born Christians. But wait, isn’t that the pastor’s task? No. Every Christian taught by the Holy Spirit is a competent teacher to not only lead others to the Lord, but to further their understanding and maturity by sharing their knowledge and their life with the new convert. My understanding of Scripture is that this is a universal task, not left to an elite clergy class with doctorates in theology. This is an every man commandment, without exception. We need hands that do not hang, but reach out in love to the hurting. We need to care for the lost and lead them to Christ. We need to support fellow saints and prove ourselves members of the same body, 1 Corinthians 14:14, 27.

 

The Hebrew Christians were instructed to make straight paths for their feet for a reason: so what was lame wouldn’t suffer further harm, but have the opportunity to heal. The notion of healing implies that the Jewish Christians had previously harmed themselves, and so it was. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God,” Hebrews 5:12. These believers had taken their eyes at least partially away from Jesus and looked (or walked along) the thorny by-path that was the Mosaic Law. They needed straight, or flat paths for their feet to tread so their (currently) feeble knees can conduct them in a way that promotes healing, rather than harm. That way is in Christ alone. If we as Christians follow the formula of Christ plus (insert additional requirement here) we fall into the same snare, suffer under the same weight, with limp hands, feeble knees, and dislocated limbs. Our faith, and therefore our witness, is rendered ineffective. We ourselves suffer the need of having another saint come beside us and reteach what we formerly knew but deliberately forgot.