Tie Off The Boat

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” (Heb 2:1 AV)

 

We live in a culture that expects things to be new and fresh.  The old is discarded as passe and irrelevant.  We learn things in high school that we never use again and because we don’t, they are forgotten.  Who remembers all the formulas we learned in geometry or the dates of important events in ancient history?  Who remembers it all?  Whatever we do not use, we lose.  It is incumbent upon us to rehearse the old things we have learned with a fresh perspective.  It is important that we remember the old things and seek new ways in which to apply them.  We can learn of the attributes of God, but if they are forgotten soon after they are learned, we become weak in our faith.  Paul is telling the Hebrews (Yes, Paul wrote the book of Hebrews) they have forgotten the pattern of things in the Old Testament that pointed to Christ.  He reminds them throughout the book God gave them a lot of light that was neglected when the Messiah appeared.  He is asking them to go back into their limited old testament scriptures to discover afresh that Jesus is their Messiah.  The application to reflect on things already known does stop with the Jews and salvation.  This reminder applies to all the doctrines and principles of life which we have learned.

The Greek word for the phrase ‘earnest heed’ is an interesting one.  One to which I can relate.  The primary definition is “to bring to, bring near; to bring a ship to land, and simply to touch at, put in.”  Going further in the levels of definition for this word, there is an understanding of devotion and addiction.  In other words, when giving earnest heed, one would not let go of a doctrine, principle, or truth until he has gotten everything he could out of it.  The docking ship comes to mind.  My father-in-law and I did a lot of fishing back in the day.  He pulled his sixteen-foot boat to the dock and we would launch it.  My job was to hang on to the ropes connected to the boat and when it was free from its trailer and the trailer was out of the way, to pull the boat on the other side of the launch and tie it off.  If we did our jobs correctly, the boat would be launched out into the lake and I could go around to the other side of the dock and pull it back in.  When we returned, it was my job to disembark first and tie off the boat to the dock.  The thing is, when a boat is docked, it is for the purpose of loading or unloading.  The laden ship needs off-loading or the empty hull needs provision.  A ship does not dock for no reason at all.  It docks so those aboard can come ashore, or those things which are needed for the next journey can be loaded.  The number one fault I could have ever made was to forget to tie off the boat, or not to do so securely.  If the boat was not secure, it would be set adrift and be useful for nothing.  If left adrift long enough, it would be lost to the sea.

The writer of wisdom put it this way.  “There is nothing new under the sun.”  It astounds me how many doctrines or theological schemes have come about and become popular because we think we are smarter than the previous generations.  We think that because we have more information than any other generation, our theology is more accurate and up-to-date.  In reality, we have rejected the tried and true for the ‘more enlightened.  We don’t need the new.  What we need to do is tie the old to the dock and muse over it.  We need to look at the same truth from a different perspective without changing it.  It is a temptation to come up with something new.  As a preacher, we are tempted to think our audience needs something new a revolutionary.  When in reality, what they need is for the ship to dock.  They need to be reminded of things they already know lest they completely slip from the mind.  This is Paul’s opening argument to a people that should have seen and understood that Jesus was their Messiah.  They let slip the things they knew and when He came, they could not, or would not, accept Him as LORD and Savior.