(*number 2 missing in BE).
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No.3. “Dullness” in hearing.
“Sloth” in following.
Our possessions in Christ, as we have learned and believed are riches beyond the power of the mind to compute, and consequently any light that the Scriptures may throw upon sources of danger or anything that threatens the full possession of these priceless possessions should be a matter of immediate concern to every believer.
The early church by putting sloth among the seven deadly sins, exercised clearer discrimination than we have credited, for it is against sloth that the Apostle warned his readers, whom he exhorted to go on unto perfection. Sloth is a derivative of the word that gives us the English word ‘slow’, and those who were ‘slow of heart’ to believe, were rebuked by the Lord (Luke xxiv. 25). The epistle to the Hebrews has as its historical background:
(1) In chapters iii. and iv. the failure of Israel to enter into their ‘rest’.
(2) The failure of the Levitical system of priest and offering to touch the conscience and put away sin (Heb. v.-x.).
(3) The examples of faith, set structurally over against the examples of unbelief of Heb. ii.-iv., and which commence with Abel and traverse O.T. history (Heb. xi.).
Each of these typical and historical backgrounds have key words that indicate some special danger, and which point to the remedy provided. The change of priesthood from that of Aaron to that of Melchisedec, the stress on the fact that faith sees the ‘invisible’, the inability of any typical offering to touch the conscience, will occur to the reader.
The section of Hebrews which demands our present attention is Heb. v. & vi. and the structure forces into prominence the two occurrences of the Greek word nothros which are found in the N.T. The one occurrence translating the word ‘dull’ the other rendering it ‘slothful’.
Hebrews v. and vi.
A | v. 1-6. Melchisedec. Priest.
B | v. 6-10. Perfected.
C | v. 11 - vi. 1. The SLOTHFUL (dull) versus the perfect.
B | vi. 1-10. Perfection.
C | vi. 11-19. The SLOTHFUL versus the overcomer.
A | vi. 20. Melchisedec. Priest.
One of the values of the structure of a passage of Scripture is that one can as it were see the parts that have been underlined by God. The structure compels us to notice the two occurrences of nothros which might otherwise slip our attention.
Lexicographers differ as to the derivation of this word. All of course are agreed that the letter ‘n’ is an abbreviation of ne which stands for the negative. Parkhurst derives the word from a Greek word meaning ‘to run’. Thayer derives it from either a word meaning ‘to push’ or ‘to care about’, while another derives it from a word meaning ‘to leap’. Whatever the actual ancestry of this word may be, it is clear that unreadiness and consequent unwillingness to exert oneself, the lack of ‘push’ and the lack of ‘care’ are implied.
The Apostle, quite apart from the question of Inspiration, was familiar with the language and figures of the O.T. Scriptures, and doubtless some of the passages to which we now refer would be present to his mind.
“We have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not SLOTHFUL to go, and to enter to POSSESS the land” (Judges xviii. 9).
A reference to I Kings xxii. 3 will show that ‘still’ is a synonym for ‘sloth’ in some contexts:
“Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the King of Syria.”
When the question of “possessing” one’s “possessions” is the matter before us, we should emulate the spirit of Isa. lxii. 1:
“For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace (same word as ‘still’), and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”
Salvation and righteousness must ‘go forth’ before the prophet can rest satisfied. Not only would the prophet not hold his peace but he exhorts the watchman to ‘keep not silence’ and to give the Lord Himself ‘no rest’ until Jerusalem is made a praise in the earth.
After Israel had entered the land of promise, Joshua had to say to them:
“How long are ye SLACK to go to POSSESS the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?” (Josh. xviii. 3).
“I will not fail thee” the Lord had said (Josh. i. 5) using the very same word which is translated “slack”, for as Peter said “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise” (II Pet. iii. 9). The two hindrances that are emphasized in Heb. v. and vi. are, as we have seen, “dullness of hearing” and “slothfulness in following”.
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(From The Berean Exxposxitor, vol. 41, page 181).
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