Useful Bible Studies > Hebrews Commentary > chapter 4
This verse teaches that God knows everything. He sees the things that we do. And he also sees the reason why we do these things. He knows our thoughts, intentions and desires as well as our behaviour. No plan is ever secret from him. That is why God is the judge of all. And that is why all his judgements are right and proper (Genesis 18:25, Revelation 16:7).
For example, a person may seem to do the right things. And he may seem to live a good life. But that person’s attitudes may still be wrong. Jesus spoke about people who carried out holy acts merely to impress other people (Matthew 6:1-6). He too emphasised that God the Father sees our private actions. He rewards us for good deeds that other people do not see. But he will punish those people who are merely trying to impress other people (Mark 12:38-40).
The Bible’s authors often used parts of the body as word pictures. For example, a man’s arms mean his strength. In the same way, they used inner parts of the body to describe where thoughts came from. So we often read that thoughts, plans, and emotions come from a person’s heart. This does not mean that the heart ‘thinks’ these things. It is a word picture to help us to understand that they are from inside a person.
Sometimes the Bible’s authors wanted to show that a thought was very private. So they described it as from a part of the body that we do not see, for example, the liver, kidneys or bowels.
But there is no thought, idea, or attitude that we can hide from God. We cannot even hide it in the most secret part of our bodies. Every part is open and bare in front of God. Psalm 139 is also about this subject. And Psalm 139:15-16 says that God even sees the unborn child inside the mother.
Next part: Jesus, our great chief priest (Hebrews 4:14)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.