There is a reason why when Time magazine recently published their magazine touting the title "Are you mom enough?" that it caused quite a stir. When looking at the cover a child, who appears to be plenty old enough to be eating normal food, is happily breastfeeding. This is disturbing for the simple reason that there comes a time when it is time to stop breastfeeding and start eating real food. The appropriate age to stop breastfeeding is not something I'm interested in; instead I'm more interested in the simple fact that at some point everybody realizes that it is time for a kid to mature and start eating real food. There is not a culture in the world that would be okay with a sixteen year old walking off the football field ready for a meal and asking his mom to lift up her shirt so he could eat. That's ridiculous.
When the writer of the book of Hebrews speaks to his readers of their spiritual life, this is exactly the picture he is trying to paint,
"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truthsof God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant,is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." - Hebrews 5:11-14
The writer is telling the people, "There's a lot we want to say about God's role as our high priest, but there's a problem. You are too immature." He's saying, "I'd like for us to dive into the depths of this truth, but the problem is that you barely have an understanding of the basics." The writer is saying, "It's time to get off the boob!" He is speaking to a group of people that have been fed the basics their whole lives, but have never grown into a mature enough faith for them to feed themselves and study the depth of the truth of God's word.
Feed Yourselves
My son needs my wife in order to eat. And if my wife isn't around, he needs a bottle and someone to feed him the bottle. But if he grows up and is a teenager and still cannot make himself a sandwich and feed himself that is going to be a huge problem. As Christians, it is easy for us to rely on somebody else feeding us. It is easy for us to grow content with the basics, but at some point we need to grow up and feed ourselves. At some point we need to dive into the depths of the scriptures and study the words that God speaks to us.
"Oh, the depth of the richesof the wisdom andknowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!" - Romans 11:33
Don't rely on somebody else to spoon feed you the scriptures, open the Bible and start reading it for yourself.