There will be no 'Louisiana Sidestep' when we stand in front of God. We will have to give an accurate account to Him. So, verse 13 is showing that it is impossible to hide ourselves from God; and there is no being that is not wholly known to God. All his thoughts, his feelings, his plans are distinctly understood; and all things are exposed to God and open to the eyes of Him, to whom we all must answer.
Now the word open caught my eye, because it means to tilt back the head to expose the throat (as in sacrifice). I majored in Animal Husbandry for a couple of years, and I watched a ram being killed. They put him up on a small trough on a table, so that he could not get his feet under him. And he had his head hanging over the edge of the table. The ram, as I said, could not get his feet under him. He could not run and hide. He was totally defenseless, completely, to the man with the knife. This is why God used that term, you see, because he could not do a thing.
God, who does not want to kill us, but to save us, wants us to understand that we are that exposed to Him. So, in case you or I think that we have hidden thoughts that God does not understand, forget it - because God understands exactly who we are, what we are, and the character that we have established. Turn over to John 4 for a little bit of proof on this. Here Jesus Christ has met the woman at the well.
Of course, the woman at the well did not understand this. And she said, Sir, give me of that water because I thirst, and so that I don't have to come back and draw from this well again. That would be wonderful!
Adam Clarke says:
You see, Jesus Christ knew her heart. He knew all about it, at a simple glance.
This rendering of the principle that is given there in I Samuel 16:7 is much more profound because it shows that there is absolutely no possibility - that it is absolutely vain to deceive ourselves - into thinking that we can somehow escape the notice of God. All insincerity, unbelief, and hypocrisy will be detected by Him.
On the more positive side, we are meant to understand that since are hearts are perfectly open before Him, that we should be sincere and make no attempt to deceive others, because that sin is in reality against Him. All sin is against Him because it is His law that is being violated and all of us are His creation. Everything belongs to Him.
Suppose some little girl had a little doll and you destroyed that doll. On one hand the sin is against the little girl because she lost a cherished item, something that was close to her. But even more so, the sin was against the little girl because the doll belonged to her. Though some damage is against the doll, the greater damage, the greater sin is against the one who owned it.
That is the way it is with us and our sins. People get caught in our sins, but the real sin is against God because He owns us, all of us, the whole creation.
Let us add another thought here. Do not lose your place here in Hebrew 4. We are just going to add something to it out of the Psalms. It is another thought that reinforces the thought that is there in Hebrews 4.
