THE SLACK BOW-STRING EK-LUO Εκ-λυω
In our last meditation we referred to Gal. 6:99And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9): "Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not." We saw that the word translated 'be weary' is en-kakeo, 'to give in to evil', but generally translated 'faint' in the New Testament. However, you will notice that we have the word 'faint' near the end of this verse, and it was mentioned that this is an entirely different word to en-kakeo. The word used here is ek-luo, 'I loose,' or, 'I unloose,' as, for example, a bow-string: letting it become slack.
When I was a boy my father took me down to a wagon shop (I suppose there are no such things now) and there he got a piece of nice, well seasoned ash; and from this he made me a beautiful bow. The good piece of ash alone could not make the bow, there had to be a strong cord, or thong, tied from end to end of the wood, and tightened till the wood was well bent, and the cord was taut. Then with a good straight arrow, what a joy it was to any boy!
But suppose the cord got slack, and loose, what then? The bow is useless in spite of having such a good piece of ash to make it. One secret of a good bow is having a good tight bow-string.
The Spirit of God uses this illustration in the verse we have referred to in Gal. 6:99And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9). We find this word, ekluo, five times in the New Testament, and each time translated 'faint'. In Matt. 15:3232Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. (Matthew 15:32) and Mark 8:33And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. (Mark 8:3), the Lord Himself uses this word of the people who had been with Him three days, and had nothing to eat, and He would not send them away fasting to their homes, for some of them came from far, lest on the way they would faint (ek-luo). And so He fed the four thousand men, beside the women and the children, with the seven loaves of bread and a few little fishes.
We find the word twice more in Heb. 12 Verses 3 & 5: "Consider Him.... lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.... Ye have forgotten the exhortation.... My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." The word translated 'faint' here is, in each case, ek-luo.
Notice that in the Gospels it is our body that faints, and in Hebrews it is our mind. In the verse in Gal. 6, "Let us not grow weary in well doing; for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not," I suppose it might be both body and mind that faint. But in all these cases we grow slack, like the bow-strong: and a slack bow-string is no use to its master.
How important then for us to find out the remedy, so that we shall not grow slack. In the case related in the Gospels it was eating the loaves and the fish, provided by our Lord, that kept the men, women and children from growing faint. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself has told us that He is the Bread that came down from Heaven; so we know that by feeding on Him as the Man down here, we may be kept from growing faint, or slack. When He fed the Five Thousand, John tells us that He fed them with 'barley loaves'. Barley bread was the cheapest kind. See 2 Kings 7:11Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. (2 Kings 7:1) & 18, where you will find that barley flour was just half the price of wheat flour. This tells us, surely, of our Lord Jesus, not only come down from Heaven, but despised and rejected of men. And what of the 'few little fishes'? The Greek word for 'fish' is i ch th us. (The ch and the di are each only one letter in Greek.) The word used in this story in both Matthew and Mark is i ch th u d i o n, only used in these two places in the New Testament, and is the diminutive of i ch th u s, fish literally meaning 'little fish'. Now let us arrange the word for fish, i ch th u s, in a vertical line, thus: —
I is for lesous = Jesus
ch is for Christos = Christ
th is for Theou = of God
u is for Uios = Son
s is for Soter = Savior
So the Greek word for 'fish' meant to a Greek Christian:
“JESUS CHRIST, GOD'S SON, (the) Savior”
Because of this meaning the Christians often used the picture of a fish to mark the graves of Christian friends who were buried in the catacombs under Rome. So the "two little fishes" tell us of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Savior. The bread on which the people fed to keep them from fainting told of our Lord Jesus as the Man come down from Heaven; the fish tell us of Him as the Son of God, our Savior, glorified in Heaven. If we feed on our Lord Jesus Christ in these two ways we need never fear that we will grow slack.
=============================
And what do we learn from the two occasions in which ek-luo is used in Hebrews? Oh, ponder well those two first words we quoted: "Consider Him!" "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." As we feed on Him in His humiliation and in His glory, as we "consider Him", we will grow strong in spirit (Luke 1:8080And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. (Luke 1:80)), and never grow slack.
But I cannot resist a little note about the word "Consider". The Greek work is ana-logizomai, and is only used here in the Old or New Testament, so is quite different to the word translated "consider" in Heb. 3:11Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; (Hebrews 3:1). We get our word 'logarithm' from the root of the last part of this word, so you may see there is in it something of the thought of 'reckon'. Bishop Westcott says of it: "It expresses in particular the careful estimate of one object with regard to another. The use here in respect of a person and not of a thing is remarkable. The writer seems to say, 'Consider Christ, reckoning up His sufferings point by point, going over them again and again, not the sufferings on the Cross only, but all that led up to it."'
With our eyes fixed on Him, and on His sufferings, and feeding on Him despised and rejected, but now exalted in the Glory, we are safe from ever becoming slack.