Hebrews 5:12
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
Picking back up where we left off, yesterday with our thought on Hebrews 5:12.
See this is the whole idea. If we learn these things then it is so easy to share it with others. We don’t have to get out on the street corner and preach at people or collar them. But when they ask a question, we have both barrels cocked and fully loaded. Now, I’m going back to the old single-barreled 16-gauge shotgun that I grew up with. And when we were pheasant hunting, I know it was probably not the safest thing to do, but when we knew that there were birds not too far away, we walked with the barrel cocked and ready. Well, you see, this is what people should do, when someone asks you a question and it opens up, be ready! Be ready! Don’t hem and haw and say "Well I’m afraid to say something for fear I’m wrong." Allow the Spirit of Christ to give you the words to say because as He promised Moses that He'd not only give him the words but that He'd also put them in Aaron's month as well (Exodus 4:11-16).
Hey, if we’ve studied, and if you’ve done your homework, the Lord will give you what it takes to share. And it will be the most exciting thing you’ve ever experienced. Well, that’s what Paul is dealing with. But these people weren’t ready. And he said, "You need to be taught again the principles."
Now what are principles? The foundation. See? We’ve got kids now parents themselves, and grandkids, unbelievable; they’re all in school. Well, I wish I had the time and the where-with-all to just sit down and teach all of them. But you see, there’s no use trying to teach them say algebra unless they’ve got what? Plain old basic math. There’s no use trying to learn algebra unless you know the principles of mathematics. This is the plan God used for our training and teaching ages ago and He hasn't changed it one bite. So why is it so many want to skip right to the meet of the scriptures without the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ it just doesn't work that way. We are to pass through each level just as we did when in school without failure or without short cuts.
This is the same way with Scripture. People have to know the basics. That’s why when people need a home Bible study and they ask what we recommend, we tell them to start in Romans and slowly work through to Philemon and then repeat them again. We've got to get people into an understanding of Who God is, and how it all came about. Then they need to start with Genesis and how did it all start? What happened? How did sin enter? How did the need of redemption and salvation come about? And so we start with the principles of Paul which Paul says, "you people haven’t even got that. You cannot pass on the principles of the Word of God." Now, look what he says next.
Hebrews 5:12b
"…and are become such as have need of (what?) milk,…"
Goodness sakes, who starts out on milk? Babies! We all know that babies start on milk, because they can’t handle beefsteak. They can’t handle the stronger foods, so they must start on milk. The basics of our faith. Well, it’s the same parallel spiritually. You don’t take a new believer and take him into prophecy, or the Levitical Law because he’s not ready for that. But you take a new believer and build him on the oracles, the basics of the Word of God, and that’s why we like to teach the way we do starting in Romans and just come on up through the Scriptures. And have people mature progressively in a knowledge of the Scriptures. Then we'll take them into Genesis and work them through Acts. Some will surprise you and begin to ask spiritual questions as they're a little deeper than the average they're hungry and thirsting for the meatier matters of scripture.
Now this remind us of a scripture found in Matthew chapter 9 and verse:
Matthew 9:16-17
Jesus is here speaking “No man putteth a piece of new cloth (the new covenant) unto an old garment (the old covenant), for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse (there is no mixing of fabrics of cloth). Neither do men put new wine (again new covenant) into old bottles (the old system of Law as it related to a corral or tutor): else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”
Now this fits with what we saw above as both are speaking of the old and its replacement by the New. (Psalm 119:83; 1Corinthians 3:1-2, 13:13) This is an example of the meat of the word verses the milk that seeks to stay within the confines of the old corral and under the bondage of legalism. Why? Because of a rebellious heart that seeks its own.
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