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THE BOOK OF HEBREWS.
INTRODUCTION.
The Book of Hebrews looks at Christ in the light of all that had gone before Him and declares -
”OH HOW MUCH GREATER AND MORE GLORIOUS IS HE.”
God spoke through Prophets, but Christ is greater than the Prophets.
God spoke through Angels, but Christ is greater than the Angels.
God spoke through Priests, but Christ is The Great High Priest.
God spoke through Moses, but “How Much Greater and More Glorious is He than Moses.”
God also spoke through sacrifices, but Christ offered Himself as the supreme sacrifice.
God spoke through the symbolism of the ancient sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, but Christ has gone through the Heavenly places themselves and entered the true Holy of Holies above the heavens.
That old symbolism was temporary. Christ is eternal.
What we can now find in Christ is better - supremely better - than all that has gone before Him, than all the collected greatness of human wisdom, than all God’s past revelation.
God created humankind to rule creation, and Christ is the supreme Man, the head of the human race.
Reading Hebrews is like looking at a vast and beautiful range of mountains, each magnificent in itself, but all overshadowed by one supremely great mountain towering above them.
That supreme mountain peak is Christ. He towers over every other message or messenger of God’s Truth.
Hebrews, like most of the New Testament, was written between AD 60 and AD 70. We do not know the author. Maybe several apostles agreed that it was needed, and chose one with special ability as a writer and scholar of the Old Testament to write it.
Perhaps the author remained anonymous because he wanted no personality to distract attention from Christ. It has some personal greetings in it but on the whole is is a great work of art and literature rather than a personal letter.
Like all New Testament books it was copied and passed on to others by those who received it. (They had no photocopiers in those days. Copying by hand was hard work, but they thought it was worth the effort.)
PARAPHRASE OF THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
1:1 - 3 GOD’S SON IS GREATER THAN THE PROPHETS.
Many and varied were the ways God spoke
To our fathers of old by the prophets.
But Now -
In these last days -
He has spoken to us by His Son.
Whom He appointed heir of all things,
By whom He created the Ages,
Who is the brightness of His glory
And the perfect expression of Himself,
Who by Himself took away our sins
Then sat down on the right hand of the greatness on high.
1:4 - 14 GOD’S SON IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS.
He far surpasses the angels, excelling them in personal worth by as much as His inherited rank is above theirs.
To which angel did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” (Psalm 2:7) or, “I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.”
When He brought His firstborn into the world He says, “Let all the angels worship Him.”
What He says about angels is, “Spirits are His messengers, flames of fire serve Him.”
But just listen to what he says about His Son.
Your throne Oh God is from age to age.
Integrity is the sceptre of your kingdom,
You love Justice, hate lawlessness;
So God your God has anointed You above all others
With the oil of Joy.
You founded the Earth at the beginning.
The Heavens are your handiwork.
They perish but You remain.
They wear out like old clothes.
You will fold them up and put them away,
Replace them with new ones.
But You are the same for ever.
You never grow old.
Did God ever say to an angel, “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”? No; angels are spirits sent to serve those whom God rescues.
2:1 - 4 THIS TREMENDOUS RESCUE.
So take care, don’t drift past and miss it. If what angels said was reliable, and those who disobeyed it had to take the consequences, how shall we escape if we ignore such a tremendous rescue.
It was the Lord Himself who told us of it first. Those who heard it assured us it could be relied upon; and God demonstrated its truth with miracles and wonders; a wide variety of powerful actions which the Holy Spirit shares out in His own way.
2:5 - 9 JESUS - HUMAN AND SUPREME.
It is not angels that God set to rule over the world. In Psalm 8 He says;
What is Man that you think of him
The son of man that you visit him
You made him a little lower than the angels
You crowned him with glory and honour
Put him in charge of your handiwork
Made everything subordinate to him.
So nothing is left that the human race is not intended to govern. But we don’t see that happening yet.
What we do see is Jesus, who for a short time became lower than the angels, suffered and died, now crowned with glory and honour. By God’s free goodness he tasted death for everyone.
2:10 - 18 GOD’S GREAT FAMILY.
God has brought a great family to glory, and the way He did it perfectly fits His character. Even though all things were made by Him and for Him, suffering was still necessary. Christ who planned their rescue had to suffer in order to qualify Himself to carry it through.
The amazing thing about this family is that God is not ashamed to include Himself in it; so those He has made “special” and He who made them special, are now united into one. (In Psalm 22:22 He speaks of people as His brothers and as His children in Isaiah 8:18)
This family is a flesh and blood family, we have physical bodies and so does He. In it He went through death. By dying He brought to nothing the Devil’s power of death and set people free from lifelong fear of death which holds them in its grip.
He did not become an angel, but was born into Abraham’s family. Once again the way He did it perfectly fits His character - He was made like His family in everything. This experience qualified Him to be a merciful and faithful High Priest to represent us before God - to restore our relationship with God when we have sinned. He has been through the same temptations that we have and knows what it feels like.
3:1 - 6 THINK ABOUT HIM.
So, fellow-members of this holy family and Heavenly calling - I want you to think about Him. He is the starting point of the Truth we hold and declare; Christ Jesus the apostle, the pioneer, the initiator and the High Priest.
He was faithful to God who appointed Him, as was Moses in his day, but Oh how much greater and more glorious He is than Moses. A builder has more honour than the house he builds, and the builder of everything is God. Moses was living evidence of Truth that would later be told. Moses was a faithful servant in the household, Christ is the Son over the household.
As for us, we are that household, if we hold firm to this hope, confidently and boldly to the end.
3:7 - 19 DANGER, HARD HEARTS.
So, as the Holy spirit says in Psalm 95, “Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as your ancestors did in the wilderness, when they provoked and tested me and saw my works for forty years.” As that Psalm goes on to say, “I was fed up with that generation, their hearts kept turning away from me and they would not know my ways. So in anger I declared on oath; They shall never enter the rest that I had for them.”
Take care my brothers and sisters that there is not in any of you an evil heart that will not trust the living God but turns away from Him. Encourage each other every day, as long as you have the day, not to let sin trick you into hardening your hearts. If we hold on to the end we are Christ’s partners.
So; the Psalm says, “Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.” Of those who came out of Egypt with Moses, some provoked God - not all - and it was the ones who sinned who died in the wilderness. God was angry with them and swore they would not enter His rest. The ones who disobeyed failed to enter the promised land because they did not trust God.
4:1 - 4:11 DON’T MISS IT.
We have a promised land too, a “rest” that is offered today. Take care that you don’t miss it - or give it up by thinking that you have already missed it.
We have been told good news - as the Israelites in the wilderness were told of the promised land. But it didn’t help them because they didn’t trust it - good news needs to link up with faith in its hearers before it can do them any good.
If we do believe, we enter into what they missed, even though it was prepared before the world began.
Even God rested from creation on the seventh day, and this rest that the people in the wilderness missed is re-offered by David in Psalm 95 updated to “Today.” Joshua led the way into the promised land, but if that had been the final rest, David would not have promised another.
So now God’s people have a new kind of sabbath-rest by which we stop doing our own work by our own effort - just like God rested from His. So take it seriously and get into it - don’t miss it as they did.
4:12 - 4:13 PRETENCE IMPOSSIBLE
God’s Word is alive and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. It can slice between joints and marrow, between soul and spirit. It cuts right into the heart exposing its deceptive tricks and secret motives.
In all creation, nothing can exist which is not crystal-clear to Him. All pretence is stripped away and everything shown up for what it really is, before the eyes of Him to whom we are responsible.
4:14 - 4:16 OUR HIGH PRIEST
We have a High Priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus God’s Son. So hold on tight to the Truth we declare. Our High Priest is not immune to our feelings, He knows our weaknesses and has been through every temptation we suffer, and He came through it all without sinning. So don’t be afraid of Him, come with confidence before God’s throne and you will discover that it is a throne of free ungrudging open-hearted open-handed goodwill. There we can receive mercy and the kind of help that exactly fits the need of the moment.
5:1 - 5:6 MORE ABOUT THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD.
Human High Priests are appointed to relate to God on behalf of people - to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Being human themselves they can be gentle with ignorance and weakness, they are subject to it themselves; so these High Priests have to offer sacrifices for their own sins first, then for the sins of the people.
No one takes for himself this honour of being High Priest - it is strictly for those whom God calls to it, as He called Aaron. Even Christ did not set Himself up as High Priest. The One who said to Him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you,” (Psalm 2:7) also said, “You are a priest for ever, in Melchizedek’s priestly order,” (Psalm 110:4).
5:7 - 5:14 JESUS IS QUALIFIED.
During His physical life on Earth, Jesus presented His petitions and pleas with heartfelt cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death. Although He was a son He had to experience what it is to obey even when it hurts. Thus he became fully qualified to be the one on whom eternal salvation depends for those who obey Him.
So God appointed Him, High Priest in Melchizedek’s order. (About whom we could add quite a lot. The trouble is, it would be difficult to understand and you are slow on the uptake. You who ought to be teachers yourselves by now, still need basic teaching in what God has to say. Babies feed on milk, solid food is for those who have grown up - solid teaching for those mature enough to take it; that is, those who have taken the time and put in the effort to learn spiritual perception and distinguish between good and evil.)
6:1 - 6:3 MOVING ON.
So let us move on from the starting point of Christ’s Truth to its completion. Don’t re-lay the foundations. Build on them.
Those foundations include such matters as:
Turning away from the dead lifestyle,
Trusting God,
Baptism,
Laying hands on people
(healing, empowering, appointing or identifying with them)
Resurrection from death,
Eternal judgment.
Now if God lets us move on, it is time to do so.
6:4 - 6:12 PEOPLE CAN REFUSE.
If people turn away with their eyes open, there is no power can force them to turn back again; not those who have already tasted the Heavenly gift, shared the Holy Spirit’s life, heard God speaking and experienced the power of the coming age. Their choice is to crucify the Son of God to themselves and openly disgrace Him.
Good soil drinks in rain and gives its farmers a worthy crop. Bad soil produces only thorn bush fit for burning. So it is with people; some share God’s blessing, others come near to His curse.
We say this to you, whom we love, but are convinced of better things concerning you and your salvation. God is not so unfair as to forget your loving efforts to serve His people, but what about your own hope and confidence to the end? Are you sure of it? We want you to put as much effort into making sure, like others who are inheriting God’s promises by their patient faith.
6:13 - 6:20 YES, HOPE CAN BE SURE AND CERTAIN.
When God made His promise to Abraham, He left no room for doubt. He took an oath. Having nothing greater to swear by, He swore by Himself. “I will bless and multiply you” (Genesis 22:16-17). After long and patient waiting, Abraham did receive the promise.
So when God wanted to leave the heirs of His promise with no doubt that what He said was unchangeable, He confirmed it with and oath. God cannot lie. God has sworn it. That is double assurance.
This is great encouragement to us who have run to Him for safety. Grasp hold of the sure and certain hope He has put within our reach. It is like a ship’s anchor rope, holding the vessel safe while it rides out a storm. The seamen know their lives depend on it, yet the far end of it is out of sight.
For us, the end of the rope is not in the sea-bed but out of sight because it is firmly fixed in highest Heaven - in the Holy of Holies - in the very throne-room of God.
Jesus led the way for us into that Holy of Holies, just like the High priest of old. so we come back to what we were saying about Jesus, the High Priest in Melchizedek’s priestly order.
7:1 - 7:21 PROTOTYPE PRIEST.
Let us take a look at this Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of God Most High. (His story is told in Genesis 14 and he is the first person ever to be called a priest.)
As Abraham returned after the defeat of the other “kings” (local chieftains) Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Abraham gave him his tithe - one tenth of his goods. The name Melchizedek literally means “King of Righteousness” and the title King of Salem means King of Peace.
We know nothing else about him, he just appears in the narrative once - no record of his father of mother or ancestry - no date of birth or death.
There is a similarity here between him and the Son of God - a priesthood not dependent on line of descent or passed to a successor.
Consider Melchizedek’s greatness. The Patriarch Abraham paid a tithe to him - now the priests of Levi’s line receive tithes from the people, and they descended from Abraham - but this man who was no Levite received Abraham’s tithe and gave Abraham his blessing. Now the one who gives the blessing is clearly greater than the one who receives it.
Mortal priests of Levi’s line receive tithes, but Levi was yet unborn when, in his ancestor Abraham he paid tithes to this Melchizedek who is only reported living.
The point of all this is that Levi’s line of priests, set up by the law of Moses, is neither complete nor final. Why otherwise would there be a promise of a different kind of priest, belonging to the priestly order of Melchizedek. And if the priesthood is changed, so is the Law.
The One we are speaking about came from a tribe that has never officiated at the alter. Our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah. Moses never made that tribe priests.
So we have a new priest, like Melchizedek, not appointed by human law but by the power of indestructible life.
That old law is discarded because it never really worked, never made anyone complete or perfect. In its place we have a better hope which brings us near to God.
Those priests were appointed without an oath, but now God has sworn irrevocably, “You are a priest for ever in Melchizedek's Order.”
7:22 - 7:28 A BETTER PROMISE AND A BETTER PRIEST.
Jesus guarantees God’s promise - a better promise than the one under the old law.
In those days priests acted as mediators to help people relate to God. They all died; so their priesthood had to be temporary.
Now we have an unchanging priest who is alive for ever. He is able to save, permanently and completely, those who come to God through Him, because He is always living to represent them to God.
This is the kind of High Priest we need - holy, blameless, unstained by sin Himself and now raised up higher than Heaven.
He does not need, as the old priests did, to make sacrifices first for His own sins and then for the people’s. He has made one sacrifice only - Himself - and met every requirement.
The old law had to make do with failing priests. Now God by a solemn oath has appointed His own Son; perfect for ever.
8:1 - 8:6 PRIEST OF THE TRUE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN.
One main point stands out. The real holy place is in Heaven and our High Priest has gone there. He sits at God’s right hand and serves, not the man-made tabernacle Moses pitched, or any other human temple, but the one God Himself set in place.
High Priests are appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; so what does This Man have to offer. On Earth He would not be allowed to be a priest because earthly priests already exist. The temple they serve is only a shadow, a picture. When Moses prepared to make the tabernacle, he was told to follow the exact pattern given him on the mountain.
Our High Priest has something better, much better. Just as He brings to us from God a better promise (covenant, contract, guarantee); so he has a better priesthood.
8:7 - THE OLD CONTRACT NEEDED REPLACEMENT.
No new promise would be needed if the old were faultless, but the need for a new one is shown by the prophet Jeremiah:
The time will come, the Lord declares,
When I shall make a new contract with the family of Israel and Judah
Not like the old one I made with their ancestors
When I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt.
They broke that contract and so ceased to enjoy my favour.
But the new contract will be;
I will put my law in their minds
Write it on their hearts
Be their God and they my people.
No longer will they need to teach each other to know me
Because they will all know me
From the least of them to the greatest
I will forgive their sins and forget them
Says the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31 - 34)
So by speaking of a new contract, God makes the old one redundant.
9:1 - 10 SO LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE OLD ONE.
The first contract had its earthly tabernacle and system of service.
The Tabernacle was a movable structure of richly embroidered linen, hung over boards which were made of wood, overlaid with gold, and supported by heavy silver sockets. It was constructed to directions given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Its dimensions were 10 cubits (15 feet) wide and high and 30 cubits long divided by the veil into two compartments, first 20 x 10, then the veil, then then 10 x 10. The Tabernacle had no flooring; so the priests stood on bare earth while surrounded by symbols of heavenly glory. See Exodus Chapters 25 - 30 and 35 - 40.
In the first compartment, called the Holy Place, stood the golden lampstand and the table on which bread was placed. The second, beyond the veil, was called the Holy of Holies. At the entrance to it stood the golden alter where priests burned incense daily and from which once a year the High Priest put incense into a golden censer and carried it beyond the veil.
Inside the Holy of Holies stood the Ark of the Covenant - a chest of wood overlaid with gold, containing a golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod which budded and the two stone tablets on which were engraved the ten commandments (called tables of the covenant).
On top of the Ark was the “Mercy-seat” (symbolic meeting place for God and Mankind) with two cherubs of glory overshadowing it, all beaten out of one piece of pure gold.
We cannot go into greater detail about these things now, but when they were set up the priests went daily into the first part, serving God, but only the High Priest went into the second, once a year, and not without blood. This blood meant that a sacrifice had been offered, for his own and the people’s faults.
The Holy Spirit was saying, through all this, that while that Tabernacle stood, the way into the Holiest place was not yet shown to us. That was a parable, appropriate in its time, yet the gifts and sacrifices of those days could never fully clear the conscience of the offerer. Those ceremonies involving meat and drink and various washings were all temporary measures, until the time when it would all be put right.
9:11 - 14 AND NOW LOOK AT THE NEW ONE.
That time has come. Good things are ahead. Christ is the High Priest and serves in a greater, more perfect tabernacle, not made by human hands or built on earth.
And He does not offer the blood of bulls and goats. He shed His own blood. With it He entered once and for ever into the real Holy of Holies in Heaven, having achieved for us, eternal redemption.
The old rituals - the blood of bulls and goats - washing with ashes from a sacrificed heifer - if they could make dirty people clean and holy - how much cleaner can your consciences be made now. Christ Himself has shed His blood - offered Himself to God by the eternal Spirit as a faultless sacrifice. Now you can be really clean from your old dead lifestyle. Now you can really serve the living God.
9:15 - 22 ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT IT - A WILL.
Think of this contract as a will. It is not valid until the testator is dead. Even the old contract involved a death - a sacrifice - to ratify it.
Remember the ceremony by which Moses set it up (Exodus 24). He read the law to the people, then took blood from the sacrificed calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and a bunch of hyssop plant and sprinkled it on the book and the people, saying “This blood seals the contract.”
The Tabernacle and its furniture, indeed almost everything under the law, was symbolically purified with blood. As the old saying goes, “You can’t get rid of evil without bloodshed.”
9:23 - 28 THAT WAS ONLY SYMBOL. THIS IS REALITY.
All this ceremony and symbolism was to purify earthly things that were only pictures of the real heavenly ones.
But in Heaven, those realities need a greater, finer, nobler sacrifice to make them clean.
Christ went in, not to a man-made copy of the true, but into Heaven itself. He is there now, appearing before God for us. He did not need to go in over and over again like the old High Priest. In that case He would have needed to suffer over and over again.
But now Christ has appeared publicly on the scene. He rolled up all the ages into one and sacrificed Himself once and for all to make sin null and void.
It is laid down that people die once and after that face judgment. Similarly, Christ died once. He was offered for the sins of the many.
He picked up all our sins, carried them Himself and will come back without them. Yes He will come again the second time to all who are waiting to be rescued.
10:1- 9 SUMMARY SO FAR
Good things were on the way, but only their shadow was visible in the old law. Those sacrifices, year after year, were supposed to make the people right with God, but they never finished the job. If they had, the worshippers would have stopped feeling guilty and the offerings would have ceased. The very fact that they go on, reminding people of their sins year after year, proves that the blood of bulls and goats can never take those sins away.
Christ came into the world saying, “You did not want sacrifices and offerings. You made me a body instead. Here I am God - come to do your will.” (It is all there in Psalm 40:6-8.) Along with the statement that God does not want sacrifices come the other statement, “I come to do your will.” The first is removed and the second put in its place.
What was the “Will of God” that Christ came to do? Why the very thing the old order could not do. We really are made holy now, by the body of Jesus Christ offered for us.
10:10 - 14 ONCE AND FOR ALL AND FOR EVER.
The priests stand to do their daily tasks over and over again, never taking our sins away; but Christ offered one sacrifice, then sat down at God’s right hand with the task complete for ever. There “He waits until His enemies are put under His feet,” (Psalm 110:1.) Just one offering, and His people are complete for ever.
10:15 - 18 EXACTLY AS PROPHESIED
And isn’t this just what the Holy Spirit said through Jeremiah’s prophecy, “I will make a new contract with them - my law in their hearts and minds and all their sins forgotten.” Now if sins are forgotten, no more sacrifice is needed.
10:19 - 23 NEW CONFIDENCE
So, brothers and sisters, let us come confidently to God - it takes courage - but a new route into the Holy of Holies has been opened for us; a living way - we come with Jesus who is alive - yet still with a sacrifice - Jesus shed His blood. His humanity is our way in. He is our great priest, ruling God’s household.
Come with true hearts. Come with total trust. Come with consciences that have been washed clean (and bodies too).
Hold on steadily and openly to our sure and certain hope. God keeps His promises.
10:24 - 25 KEEP TOGETHER.
Study one another carefully to see how we can stimulate each other to love and good works. Do not give up on each other or try to go it alone or in little cliques as some do. Keep gathering together in one - more and more as the coming day draws nearer.
10:26 - 31 WILFUL REJECTION
If, knowing the truth, we wilfully choose sin, there is no alternative sacrifice for us. What there is, is a kind of terrifying expectancy of facing God’s judgment and the fierce fire that burns up His enemies.
Those who despised the Law of Moses, died without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. What then does one deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, despised the blood He shed to make us holy and insulted the Spirit of Grace.
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord, (Deuteronomy 32:35).
“The Lord will judge His own.” (Deuteronomy 32:36).
Falling into the hands of the living God is an awesome and terrifying thing.
10:32 - 39 YOU HAVE COME SO FAR - DON’T THROW IT AWAY NOW.
Remember the pain and struggles you suffered when you were first enlightened. Why you were made into a public exhibition, slandered, pressurised, and you identified with others receiving the same treatment.
You cared for me in prison. When your possessions were taken you rejoiced, knowing you had better and more permanent possessions in Heaven.
Don’t give up on it. Don’t throw away your confidence, it carries a great reward. You need stickability - determined persistence that will not give up; so that after doing God’s will you may receive His promise.
It will not be for long. “The Coming One will arrive on time” and “Those who are right with God will live by trusting Him.” (Habakkuk 2:3-4) but “I have no pleasure in people who turn back.”
We are not among those who turn back and are wasted - rather those who keep trusting until they obtain full possession of their souls.
11:1 - 3 FAITH.
Sure and certain hope of unseen realities - that’s faith.
Confidence with a solid foundation - that’s faith.
A witness, giving evidence that this unseen hope is indeed reality - that’s faith.
From ancient time, people with faith gained a good reputation, which in turn is evidence that their faith was not misplaced.
By faith we perceive that God spoke the worlds into existence out of nothing; what we see was made from what we don’t.
11:4 ABEL
It was Abel’s faith that made his offering to God a better sacrifice than Cain’s. God showed that Abel was right with Him by accepting his gift; so Abel still speaks though long dead.
11:5-6 ENOCH
By faith Enoch was taken from the earth and disappeared without experiencing death. Before God took him he had the reputation that he pleased God, but no one can please God without trusting Him.
Coming to God implies taking on trust that He is there and rewards the search of people who seriously try to find Him.
11:7 NOAH
Noah trusted God enough to take His warning seriously, build the ark and so rescue his family. He thus showed up the rest of the world and himself joined the ranks of those who inherit the “rightness with God that comes by faith.”
11:8 -10 ABRAHAM
Abraham trusted God. He packed up his entire possessions and set off with his flocks and herds and camels and their keepers to travel across a desert - all without knowing where he was going - all because God called him to the land he would eventually inherit.
By faith he remained unsettled in the land God had promised him, a traveller living in tents with Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise.
He had a city in view - a solidly founded city - designed and constructed by God Himself.
11:11 - 12 SARAH
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, trusted God for the ability to conceive. She was too old, but she affirmed God as a trustworthy promise keeper. So, from one as good as dead, came descendants countless as the stars, countless as the sand on the shore.
11:13-15 VISITING FOREIGNERS
All these people trusted God but died without having received the promises they trusted Him for. Fully convinced, they clasped the promises to themselves, hailed them as their own. By doing so they declared themselves to be only visiting foreigners on the Earth. Such people make it clear that it is their own country they are looking for. If they had preferred what they left behind, they had the chance to return.
11:18 - 20 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.
By faith Abraham stood the test of offering his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. He had received God’s promises for his descendants who were to come through Isaac, and counted on God’s ability to raise him from death (from which in a sense he did receive him back).
11:21 - 22 THE PATRIARCHS.
By faith Isaac foretold what would come to them when he gave his blessing to Jacob and Esau. Jacob had the same faith in old age and, leaning on his stick as he worshipped, gave his blessing to Joseph's two sons. And when Joseph came to die he, by faith, foretold the Israelites’ return to their promised land, even leaving instruction that they should take his bones with them.
11:23 - 29 MOSES
Moses’ life was saved by the faith of his parents. They saw their beautiful baby and hid him for three months, choosing to trust God rather than fear the king. (Pharaoh had ordered the death of Hebrew baby boys.)
Moses grew up and became great; but then refused the status of prince, identified himself with God’s suffering people, suffering with them rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
As Christ was a social outcast; so Moses, long before Him, shared His stigma, valuing it more than all Egypt’s wealth and looking for no other reward.
It was faith, not fear of the king, that took him out of Egypt and held him to his purpose as one who can see the invisible.
By faith Moses kept the Passover - the people of Israel marked their houses with the blood from the Passover lamb so that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.
By faith they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. When Pharaoh’s soldiers tried to follow them they were drowned.
11:30 - 31 JERICHO
By faith, “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down” after the Israelites had marched round them for seven days. The life of Rahab the harlot, who sheltered the spies, was spared because she to trusted and obeyed God.
11:32 - 38 AND MANY MORE
What more can I say. There is no time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, Samuel and the prophets. They all trusted God and kingdoms were conquered, justice was established and they discovered God’s promises. Lion’s mouths were shut and the power of fire put out. They escaped from the sword, became powerful in war and routed their enemies. Dead children were restored to their mothers.
Others had faith which was demonstrated in a different way - they suffered torture, refusing release so that they might have a better resurrection. Others passed the character-test of being mocked, flogged, bound and imprisoned. For others the test was death by stoning or the sword or being cut in pieces. Others wandered, homeless and destitute with only sheepskins or goat skins to wear, victims of oppression and ill treatment. Refugees in deserts, mountains, caves or dugouts, the world was not worthy of them.
11.39 - 40 NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT US.
All these witnesses gave their evidence, trusted God and showed Him faithful, yet none of them fully received The Promise. God was looking forward to something better, something for us, and they were not complete without us.
12:1 - 4 NOW IT IS OUR TURN.
This great cloud of witnesses all, in their lifetime, gave their own evidence and now, like spectators at a stadium, they surround us watching us give ours.
The race is marked out in front of us. Run it. Run with determined persistent concentration. Discard everything that might weigh us down or hold us back. Get rid of the sin which can so easily tangle itself around us.
Keep all attention focussed on Jesus Himself and only on Him. He began our faith. He will complete it. He endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, looking ahead to the joy that lay beyond it; then He sat down at God’s right hand.
Think about Him, how much He was spoken against by sinners and how He took it patiently. When you get sick of going on, think of Him and don’t give up; after all your resistance to sin has not yet been to the death.
12:5 - 11 WE ARE IN TRAINING.
“My son, don’t make light of the Lord’s training programme or give up when you are corrected;” - you have quite forgotten that exhortation. It assures you that you are God’s children, that He is bringing you up well. He trains every son He receives, punishing where necessary.
Earthly fathers bring up their children - well perhaps not, they may have illegitimate children they don’t want to bother with, but the ones they do bother with are the ones they acknowledge. So parental training is a mark of acceptance. God accepts you as His own.
Out earthly fathers brought us up and we respected them. How much more shall we find real life in submission to our spiritual Father. Our earthly fathers trained us for a while as they thought fit. Our heavenly Father does it to benefit us; so that we shall share His holiness.
Training seems tough at the time, the hard regime of the athlete, more of a misery than a joy; but afterwards it produces the peace-giving fruit of righteousness.
12:12 - 17 GO FOR IT.
Right then, athletes in training, go for it; no more hands hanging down or knees too weak to walk. Clear the path in front of anyone disabled, so they don’t trip - you want them well.
Go for peace - peace with everyone.
Go for holiness - no one will see the Lord without it.
Go for grace - God’s attitude of free ungrudging open-hearted open-handed goodwill to all, take care that you have that same attitude to others. Without this generous attitude you are in danger of allowing bitterness and resentment to take root and grow up fast around you like choking weeds. It defiles and the contamination spreads, affecting many others.
Watch carefully to protect yourselves from committing sexual sin. Watch carefully that none of you make the bad bargain Esau made. He put a low value on his position as firstborn, sold it for a single meal, and all his tears could never bring it back.
12:18 - 25 MOUNT SINAI - MOUNT ZION.
You have not come to a tangible mountain as the people of Israel came to Mount Sinai in Moses’ time. For you there is no vision of burning fire, no thick darkness, no hurricane, no trumpet sound, no spoken voice which so terrified the people that they asked to be spared from hearing it again.
They were overwhelmed by the awesome holiness of that mountain and the instruction that not even a beast may touch it on pain of death. Even Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.”
No, you have come to Mount Zion, the City of the Living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, the great universal throng. You have come to the community of God’s firstborn whose names are written in Heaven. You have come to God the supreme judge and to the spirits of righteous people now made perfect. You have come to Jesus the mediator who has set up a new contract between God and us; whose blood, shed for us and presented to God for our sins, speaks of something better than the blood of Abel which cried from the ground for vengeance. So mind you don’t opt out from listening to what it has to say. When God spoke on Earth, those who took no notice did not escape. What about us then, if we ignore what He says from heaven.
12:26 - 29 THE SHAKEN AND THE UNSHAKEABLE.
Then His voice shook the Earth, but;
“Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
Yet once a little while
And I will shake the heavens and the Earth
The sea and the dry land
And I will shake all nations - - -”
Haggai 2:6-7
He promises to shake both Earth and Heaven just once more - and what is shaken will be removed, leaving only the unshakeable standing.
We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us thank God for it, and give Him pleasure by serving Him in reverent fear. For, “Our God is a consuming fire.”
13:1 BROTHERLY LOVE
Let brotherly love be at home as a permanent resident among you.
13:2 HOSPITALITY
Never let strangers find anything but a warm-hearted welcome into your homes and hearts. (That way some have unwittingly entertained angels as guests.)
13:3 PRISONERS AND SUFFERERS
Let your attitude to prisoners be as if to fellow-prisoners; to sufferers as if you were in their bodies suffering with them.
13:4 NO SEX WITHOUT MARRIAGE.
Marriage is valuable, something to be held in high esteem by all, keep it that way. Let your beds be uncontaminated. God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
13:5 - 6 LOVE OF MONEY
Let love of money have no place in your lifestyle. God has promised emphatically, “I will never leave you or abandon you in any circumstances whatsoever,” and with a promise like that you can be satisfied with your circumstances just as they are. You can say boldly, “The Lord is my helper, I fear nothing anyone can do to me.”
13:7 YOUR LEADERS
Remember your leaders who taught you God’s word. Think about the effect of their conduct and imitate their faith.
13:8 STABILITY
Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and for ever; so do not be carried around by all sorts of different teachings. Your hearts need to be securely founded on God’s grace (free ungrudging open-hearted open-handed goodwill) not on petty dietary regulations which benefit no one.
Those who serve the tabernacle, follow the old rituals, have no right to eat the food from our altar. (So don’t be drawn back to their ways, we have something better.)
Remember the most specially sacred of the offerings (such as the sacrifice for sin on the Day of Atonement). From those the High Priest takes the blood right into the Holy of Holies; and the carcass is not eaten but taken away and burned outside the camp.
Jesus too was an outcast, crucified outside the city gate, yet His blood was offered up to God to make us, His people, holy. Our place is to follow Him outside the camp and share His rejection.
Here on Earth there is no permanent city for us. The one we seek is yet to come.
13:15 - 16 OUR OFFERINGS
But we do have some sacrifices to offer, our praises for a start, let is offer through Him the fruit of our lips declaring His praise. Then there is a lifestyle that is pleasing to God and shared with one another.
13:17 LOYALTY
Your leaders keep guard over your souls like sentries who must stay awake all night. They are responsible for you and have to answer to god for their care of you. Accept their leadership and obey them. Let their task be a joyful one, to make it a misery for them will not benefit you.
13:18 - 25 PERSONAL NOTES IN CLOSING.
Please pray for us, I believe our conscience in clean, we certainly want it that way, and pray that I may be able to come back to you soon.
Are you worried that you are not fitted for this lifestyle that pleases God? May God Himself fit and prepare and equip you for it - He is the God of peace and He brought back from death the Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd whose blood seals the new and eternal contract between God and ourselves. Glory be to Him throughout timeless ages, Amen.
I hope, my brothers and sisters, that you will put up with these few words of exhortation that I have written you. Our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon I will see you with him.
Greetings to all from Italy.
Grace be with you all, Amen.