Book of the Hebrews

[Hebrews 1:1-4] Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs.

The Book of Hebrews is, without a doubt, one of the most significant epistles in the entire Bible. Why you ask? Because, it provides a concise overview, and answer to all, of what Scripture ever pointed to: Jesus as Messiah, Lord and Savior.

The prophets are acknowledged, but it is clear that in these last days it is Jesus upon whom we must rely and find our solid ground. He is …

 Heir of all things

 The exact expression of God’s nature

 Sustainer of all things

 God’s powerful Word

 At God’s right hand

 Higher than the angels

In these last days when the rapture is nearer, and the times are a signal that evil is seeping out into our spiritual groundwater like never before, we need a Savior who is all of this and even more! Our God is bigger than our biggest problem!

[Hebrews 1:5-9] For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, or again, I will be His Father, and He will be My Son? When He again brings His firstborn into the world, He says, And all God’s angels must worship Him. And about the angels He says:

He makes His angels winds, and His servants a fiery flame, but to the Son: Your throne, God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of justice. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; this is why God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy rather than Your companions.

Jesus the Christ is uniquely selected and qualified as anointed to be the Son of the Most High God. What other but Jesus can truly be elect?

The only One counted from the beginning of time is Jesus, who is Creator and God incarnate. In that way He was certain from the beginning, God from God, begotten and not made. There is no other elect!

God made His angels winds, and His servants fiery flames, but He clothed His Son in flesh and sent Him among us … knowing that if we knew Him we would have known God Himself.

There is no greater statement of love and adoration than to emulate the one you love. Our proverbial tradition says that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; and while we know that God is not One to fall prey to baser instincts, we should be honored that God so loved us that He literally gave us His Son.

And what is it that we have done to Him … the anointed One of God?

(see Psalm 45:6-7)

[Hebrews 1:10-14] And: In the beginning, Lord, You established the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain.

They will all wear out like clothing; You will roll them up like a cloak, and they will be changed like a robe.

But You are the same, and Your years will never end.

Now to which of the angels has He ever said: Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool?

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?

Now, we can rest assured, and have a certain peace, knowing that God has made His enemies and our enemies His footstool. He has subjected all things to Jesus Who reigns now and forever victorious over sin and death. All of the things that have mattered, and will matter to us, will wither, dry up, and be blown away; yet, Jesus will remain fresh and vibrant to us …

He is the same and His years will never end. James tells us that there is no shadow of turning for the One who is generous beyond measure.

All of the heavens and the earth, which is the work of His right hand, will serve us, “those who are going to inherit salvation.”

We are the point and purpose of all that God has wrought.

Praise Him!

(see Psalm 110:1)

[Hebrews 2:1-4] We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to His will.

Not only must we pay attention to what we have heard and seen, but we must dig ever deeper into our faith, and into the truth of our Scripture. So that we make no mistake, God has made His will clear enough through:

 Signs and wonders

 Various miracles

 Distributions of Gifts

 Presence of the Holy Spirit

Now we are called to be archeologists and anthropologists; to dig through carefully and unearth what is embedded there in Scripture like a rare fossil ready to be excavated, assembled, and put on display for all to marvel at!

It is easy to drift if we do not put on our armor and remain aware that the enemy is very persistent and incredibly dedicated to his craft. His job is to coerce and to misdirect so that we willingly stray from the Way, Truth and Life which is Jesus Christ. Do not stray, and when you do, return, repent and accept the Father’s loving embrace. Do not hate yourself for that is of the Devil.

[Hebrews 2:5-9] For He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about. But one has somewhere testified: What is man that You remember him, or the son of man that You care for him?

You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death. (see Psalm 8:5-7)

All is subject to Him who is subject to no one but the Father! In that Jesus was, and is, fully man and fully God He fulfills the prophesy of being lower than the angels for a time and crowned with glory: all things subject to Him.

We see this extracted from the Psalms but also reiterated in [John 1:1-5] where it is made clear that Jesus is the One who was with God in the beginning and He is the author of all things … that nothing was created that was not created through Him and by Him.

Jesus in death went lower and in His resurrection went higher. We worship a God who has been lower, and more weighed down with cosmic burden, than we have been, and He has risen far higher. He has seen all things both low and high so that we should trust His every word and His singular purpose: to lead us to, and to glorify, the Father.

[Hebrews 2:10-13] For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God all things exist for Him and through Him should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying:

I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation. Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me.

(see Psalm 22:22)

Jesus sings to His children just as God sang to His Son, and that song was by His breath, the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit was the breath breathed upon the Disciples by Jesus on the day He arose, and it was the breath that God breathed into Adam. It is the same breath that is the breath of life itself by which all things large and small grow and prosper and multiply as God once commanded.

Jesus is not ashamed because we have one Father. And because we have believed as have the saints before us we are made sacred and holy, sanctified by believing and by His blood.

He proclaims the names of all believers to the heavenly host and a hush falls after each name is loosed in glory!

We claim Jesus because we are not ashamed ...He claimed us first;

We proclaim the name of Jesus to our brothers and sisters;

We sing hymns to the person of our Savior Jesus openly where we gather.

[Hebrews 2:14-19] Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death that is, the Devil and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.

We are the children who have flesh in common. Until God decided to come to us as Jesus we did not have that in common with Him because God is spiritual by His very nature. But by the incarnation, He put on our flesh that he might come to know us and know us more intimately by being one of us.

He didn’t reach out to angels but to the children who wandered, cast from the Garden, but still loved by them. I do not know about angels, how they are made or what they think, but I know that we have a special relationship that allows us to wander and return.

Jesus gives us a taste but not the full brunt of it. He is a good God ...

Propitiation: an atoning sacrifice.

[Hebrews 3:1-6] Therefore, holy brothers and companions in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession; He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.

Jesus is:

 The Apostle and High Priest of our confession

 Faithful to the One who appointed Him

 He is considered worthy of more glory than Moses (as the builder has more honor than the house)

 Houses are built by people; everything is created by God

 Moses was faithful as a servant

 Jesus was faithful as a Son over His household; we are that household.

Jesus is the One who pleases the Father, and the Father placed Him over the whole household of His creation.

[Hebrews 3:7-11] Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.”

So I swore in My anger,

“They will not enter My rest.”

What is the consequence of hardened hearts and outright rebellion? One will not enter God’s rest. Things haven’t changed from the time of Moses until Jesus Christ and to the present day.

The difference for us is grace and not the outcome of God’s unrestrained wrath on a disobedient people … those who could not maintain the tenants of the Law.

The upshot is to heed the actions. and outcome, of those who came before. In the broad scheme of things the results are the same: distance from God and no rest from toil and wandering.

(see Psalm 95 7-11)

Our trajectory must remain unwavering so that we cross the finish line … not the one we have set up or the one the Enemy has devised, but the finish line that takes us to glory when we cross it. Then we too can say,

“It is finished!”

[Hebrews 3:12-19] Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. As it is said: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses? And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

(see Psalm 95 7-11)

Our author continues to build on the understanding that ignorance and disobedience are not going to lead us to anything good in this life or the next. Sin is the factor that separates all of us from God to varying degrees. Only Jesus can stand in the void! Notice I said that sin always separates us from God … He cannot be in it’s presence … and that our separation from Him is to a greater or lesser degree based upon our personal behavior. We have choices every day to engage or disengage, to act or not to act, to do better or to do worse.

The levels of persistent hardening and disobedience are not accidental. They are the increase of sin and the decrease of Jesus at any given moment. Our spirituality is a very fluid experience. However, the outcome is not accidental. It is absolutely “cause and effect.” Be effective in all faithfulness: worship the Cause of all things which is Jesus the Christ.

Do not be restless; be at rest in Him who lives within us and is all around us.

[Hebrews 4:1-7] Therefore, while the promise to enter His rest remains, let us fear that none of you should miss it. For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith (for we who have believed enter the rest), in keeping with what He has said:

So I swore in My anger, they will not enter My rest.

And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world, for somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way:

And on the seventh day

God rested from all His works.

Again, in that passage He says, They will never enter My rest. Since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, again, He specifies a certain day today speaking through David after such a long time, as previously stated: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

(see Psalm 95:7-11)

God’s anger is finally satisfied in the gift of His Son on the cross. Just how does giving a gift of a Son satisfy one’s anger? It is obedience, and a personal commitment to do the next right thing, just because it’s right.

The vows we swear in anger are often vengeful and retaliatory. I suspect that God discovered eons ago what we now know to be true: fear will not motivate anyone for very long. This is also why we need to understand that when we say “the fear of the Lord” what we actually mean is a very healthy respect for the Lord who is consistent and predictable in His responses. (James 1:16-17)

To rest means to be at peace, not to be in fear and to be protected by a benevolent overseer. Rest is refuge and sanctuary. Generations since the “Garden” have missed this key distinction in their daily living.

Katapausis: Greek for rest

[Hebrews 4:8-14] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

It would appear that the author of Hebrews is making a case for rest as a method of getting at the reasons we may ultimately find ourselves in disobedience. Reclining in Christ ushers in true rest, and only in that place of peace are we open to the word of God. True refuge and sanctuary is in a place of steadfast belief. It is almost like saying that until we slow down we will never appreciate the smell of the most fragrant roses or the refreshment of a cool glass of water.

If we do not rest we are more easily distracted; and then we attempt to make up for being overly active by behaving in ways that are disobedient. A sad example is the use of alcohol or drugs to slow ourselves down long enough to catch our breath. But this attempt at recapturing our rest can easily wind up in a full-blown addiction which is a far worse consequence than simply taking time out to catch our breath. Find your Sabbath.

As we read, “No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.”