Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Today’s scripture gives us a practical, not idealistic, approach to having a true heart which is full assurance of faith.
The suggestion says two things: first, to sprinkle from an evil conscience and second, to wash with pure water. These are not actual instructions nor something that we can do as a ritual.
It tells us that changes to our heart are not easy and not something that we can achieve in a short time; we cannot wash it, thus we need to sprinkle it, like a gardener who cannot reach a plant or part of it with a hose uses a sprinkling attachment or reduces the opening of the hose to increase pressure to increase the distance of water reach.
When it comes to the body, the scripture does not say sprinkle but wash, for it is something that is fully within our reach. It says wash in true water.
The term ‘wash’ used here is not the term we use in the sense of washing clothes, but a medical term used to clean a wound. It means to cease the infection so that the body’s internal system (symbolising the spirit) can do the healing and restoring. The washing and sprinkling needs to go together else we become hypocrites doing external rituals and not changing internally.
The water is symbolic of repentance. So the sprinkling of our hearts and washing our bodies is not to clean them but to restore them. We were made in the image of God and what we need to do is not just be sorry for the wrong that we did but to direct ourselves to do that what Christ has instructed us for in Him alone was the Image/Name of God manifested clearly.
[Prayer Starter]
Lord, You are Almighty God. You, Lord, are Spirit and not flesh and blood like us humans. Your Kingdom is the Spirit world, which is eternal and not that which perishes. Lord, we pray we understand that our bodies can defile our spirit, and thus we need to constrain them to the obedience of Your Word so that our spirits are restored in You. Lord, we pray we understand our hearts cannot change easily but controlling our bodies daily it can soon change…
We make this prayer in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
[Reference Scriptures]
Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded.
Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.