Wednesday, Sept 23 –
Sorry for being tardy in posting this...it was supposed to be posted yesterday. We are in the last quarter of this year as we
keep reading thru the New Testament in one year. Today’s reading is the first of several
readings that will disregard chapter divisions.
We’re reading Hebrews 3:1 – 4:13. Please come back to take some time to
think about all he’s saying to us today.
If you haven’t noticed, I want to draw your attention to a simple observation. The writer of Hebrews uses the name “Jesus”
over and over instead of other designations such as “Christ,” “Lord,” “Son of
God.” He wants us to make sure we see that
Jesus is identified with us in our humanity.
It’s not to say that Jesus is not more than human, even as we read in
the opening of this passage -
“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider
Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to
him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house” (3:1-2).
He refers to Jesus as “the” Apostle – literally, “the Sent Messenger” – who came
from Heaven, sent by the Father “who appointed him.” Having made clear that Jesus is superior to the
Angels, he now opens a new way in which Jesus is “better than” something. This time it is Moses – Israel’s revered Lawgiver. Moses was one of Israel’s greatest leaders
and deserves honor as the mediator of the Old Covenant law. Yet, even though Moses was great in God’s
plans, he was a “servant,” and that is how he stands differently from Jesus –
“ For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much
more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is
God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to
the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s
house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and
our boasting in our hope” (3:3-6).
Servants, by necessity, work under their Lord to be faithful to their Master. The servant, no matter how reliable, does not
own the house. Moses was a great servant
who kept the household of God’s people through the Exodus and wilderness
wanderings. Yet, Christ is not a servant, but the Son over God’s household, and
is therefore over all of God’s household.
The question that surfaces at the end of this comparison is simple: “will
we stay in the household?” (3:6).
Once again, borrowing heavily from Old Testament stories,
the writer makes the application that follows in 3:7 – 4:13, as an example from
Israel’s history that references a time when Israel failed to obey God even
after he had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The first part in 3:7 – 19 refers to Israel’s
rebellion in the wilderness that he references from Psalm 95:7-11. I’ll refer you back to the passage you read,
but note some highlight summaries: “…the
Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts…as in the rebellion…where your fathers put me to the test…I was provoked
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart...’ I swore in my wrath, ‘They
shall not enter my rest.’” (3:7-11).
The children of Israel had been “redeemed,” “delivered” from slavery in Egypt through
the miracle of the Passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea. They went to Mount Sinai, and met with God,
and Moses received the Old Covenant Law, which they all agreed to obey. As they entered the wilderness after Mount Sinai,
they began to face many difficulties, and they grew rebellious – some wanting
to go back to Egypt. This is the
background to the point the writer of Hebrews is referencing. Some of the Jewish believers were complaining
about the suffering they were going through as believers in Jesus. They were tempted to renounce Jesus as Savior,
and go back under the Law, go back to Moses. Like the children of Israel in the
Wilderness, this was doomed to fail, and they most assuredly would not enter
into the rest (Sabbath) God had prepared for them in Jesus – “As I swore in
my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (3:11). This story comes from the experience all Jews
remembered when God announced (Numbers 14:21 – 30) that none of the generation
of Israelites, except for Caleb and Joshua, would enter into the Promised land. What God had promised, they had rebelliously thrown
away.
I can still hear the voice of my friend Mike who quoted the
verse from Hebrews to remind all of us as Christians, that even though we are
saved in Christ, we do not have a license to disobey. We still must listen and
respond in obedience to Christ – “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any
of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living
God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,”
that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (3:12-13).
Again this section is a warning. It
began in 2:1 when he warned them not to “drift away,” and now he is warning
them “not to rebel, and fail to enter into His rest.” How does this happen? Believers can become “hardened” in heart,
mind, soul, “deceived by sin.” The contrast
is from the story is very clearly connected to their faith in Christ – it is not
optional, something to be set aside because of difficulties.
“For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original
confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who
heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who
sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear
that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So
we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (3:14-19).
The point is clear – even after the exodus from Egypt, marvelous as it was; and
even after the amazing experience of hearing God’s voice, receiving the Law at
Mount Sinai; and even as they walked towards the promised land, they lost it
all through rebellion (vs. 16), sin (vs. 17), and disobedience (vs. 18)…all of
which was rooted in their unbelief, their failure to believe God’s promise (vs.
19, 4:2-3).
Naturally, we want to know how does this applies to us
today? He begins with a warning to his
readers, and that includes us: “Therefore, while the promise of entering his
rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to
reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they
heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those
who listened” (4:1-2).
The good news of the Gospel comes to us that we might believe and then enter
into a faith that directs our lives, and not a belief that merely resides intellectually. There are no formulas for living out our
faith in Jesus. In this passage, the
writer outlines hearing, followed by believing, resulting in rest. What does he mean by “Rest”? In the next eleven verses, the writer keeps
emphasizing that the goal of listening and believing, which is what it means to
enter into God’s rest –
“For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my
wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from
the foundation of the world” For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh
day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” (4:3-4). Whatever else, entering into God’s rest is
anchored in creation, as God “rested” on the seventh day. God did not rest because he was tired, but he
rested because creation was complete. That,
I believe, is the argument the writer of Hebrews is making. Jesus has died to make salvation
complete. There is no other way to God
than through Jesus Christ. To try to achieve
God’s rest by going back to Moses, by law-keeping, circumcision, sacrifices, is
to enter back into working for salvation, and it is also rebelling against
God. “Listen, believe, and then rest” that
is the way forward – it is all in Jesus.
The rest that is in Jesus is more a spiritual condition of faith
than anything else. It does not mean an
inactive faith as some holiness movements have taught, but an active faith that
cooperates with God in leading us to a trust that obeys –
“Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly
received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he
appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the
words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts”
(4:6-7).
The message to them, as to us, is a “Today” message. It is not a future, “let’s sit back and just let
go and let God,” as some had taught. It
is a message that is always current, always relevant, and always about Jesus at
work in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
Unbelievers and hardened-heart believers care nothing about conforming their
behavior, attitudes, values to Jesus, but a Christian sees the life of Christ
as the “pearl of great price.”
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for
whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from
his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall
by the same sort of disobedience” (4:9-11).
He does not mean to work for salvation when he says “strive,” but rather
that we fix our attention on the prize of Jesus Christ that we might live at
our best for Christ, our Lord.
Raymond Brown, in his commentary on Hebrews, sums this last
part so well. “Christian pilgrims in the
contemporary world must realize that, in the light of a passage such as this,
it will not do to confess a merely nominal allegiance to Christian truth or pay
occasional lip service in meetings and services to faith in Christ. Our commitment
must be sincere and genuine, and it can be so for two reasons given at the
close of this passage: what God says and what God sees”[1] What he refers to is the final verses in this
section where the writer reminds us that God has spoken to us through his Son,
and he sees very clearly what is there in our lives -
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is
hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom
we must give account” (4:12-13).
Jesus Christ has accomplished all that we must have to have life in Him; but
now we must continue to hear, believe, obey, and share His grace that we might
rest in Him. The Israelites in the wilderness
served as a warning that refusing to listen, believe and obey, was pride, which
in the end was their destruction (Proverbs 16:8). Make our goal every day to turn everything we
have over to Jesus.
Peace
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