Wednesday - When the Word Cuts

Read: Nehemiah 8:9; Hebrews 4:12

Key Verse: "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." (Hebrews 4:12)

When the people heard the words of the law, they wept. All of them. They had stood under the open sky, hour after hour, and the Word did what the Word always does: it convicts.

Have you ever had that happen? You're listening to preaching, or reading a passage in your quiet time, and suddenly it pierces your soul. The Word cuts. It exposes. It shows you your sin.
Don't run from that. Tears of conviction are a good sign. It means the Word is getting through. Better to weep under the Word than to yawn under it.

But notice what the leaders told the weeping people: "Mourn not, nor weep" (Nehemiah 8:9). Conviction is a doorway, not a destination. God doesn't cut us to wound us; He cuts us like a surgeon, to heal us. The same law that exposed Israel's sin also gave them the sacrifices, and every lamb on that altar preached a message: God has made a way for sinners.