Hebrews Part Two Dive

MY DAD IS BETTER THAN YOUR DAD

From the beginning of the Book of Hebrews you get a sense that the author wants us as the audience to move on. Beginning in Hebrews 1:1 with ‘In the past, God’, he then shows the other side seen throughout the book with the word ‘but’ or ‘today’, Check out Hebrews 1:2, ‘but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son’. You can feel the sense straight away that the author is trying to get them to keep going – it’s time to move on, there is a new thing now!

The author of Hebrews is showing how Jesus is better and more superior to what these Jewish Christians had come from. Remember what we discussed in the Snapshot: the author is encouraging his audience, Jewish Christians who are being persecuted and suffering for Christ. They are discouraged and wanting to return to their old way of life, so he systematically shows them the superiority of Christ. It reminds me of a story of when I was young.

When I was in primary school, I had an argument in the playground with one of my friends. It went like this:

“My Dad is better than your Dad because my Dad has a motorcycle.”

“No, my Dad is better than your Dad because he drives a red car.”

“My Dad is better than your Dad because…”

You get the gist. Well this went on for about 5 minutes and I was over it! So, I brought out the big guns – literally! And I said, “My Dad is better than your Dad because he is a policeman and he has a gun and he will shoot your Dad!”

Well with that the girl was in tears, the argument was over, and I had won!! My Dad was the best!

I was super proud of myself and my doubts had been quenched – my Dad was in fact the greatest Dad ever! Well as you can imagine, the victory lasted for about half a day. It came crashing down when I walked into my house just getting home from school and I heard my mum on the phone.

“Katie said what?”

“Oh – OK!”

“Well I’m sure you assured your daughter that of course Katie’s Dad is not going to kill her Dad!”

I was terrified and ran into my room!

That is what we have here in Hebrews, with a little more tact and grace than I displayed. The author of Hebrews is showing why Jesus is superior to anything the Jewish faith holds onto: the prophets, angels, Moses, Sabbath, High Priests, Melchizedek, Aaron, Enoch, Covenant, Tabernacle, Sacrifices, Mount Sinai – it’s incredible. You can imagine the argument – but we have the prophets – Jesus is better! But we have Moses – Jesus is superior! But we have Angels, or better, Aaron! – Jesus is superior!… and it finishes with our response to this new and better covenant – faith!

As you read this book you are going to do so much highlighting! Highlight what he addresses, then highlight the two ways. Let me show you what I mean, as you read Hebrews I want you to highlight the language of comparison used by the author:

H 3:5 Moses was faithful as a servant.
H 3:6 But Jesus is faithful as the Son over God’s house
H 7:27 Unlike the other high priests
H 11:27b He sacrificed for their sins once for all
H 9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations.
H 9:11 But when Christ came as high priest
H 9:12 He did not enter by means of blood … but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all

You are going to be a highlighting machine in this one!

As I study Hebrews, one more thing jumps out at me. The topics the author is showing them not 100 years ago were the right things, they were God things. God gave them the angels, the prophets, Moses, Joshua and Aaron. So why are they now obsolete?

See, the audience wanted to go back to comfort, the things they knew, the world they had come from and God had moved on. God had given those things for a time and now He had fulfilled it all through Christ. But the people had gotten stuck in the past things, the human tradition, they had got stuck in their own ways and when God moved on, they didn’t!

How essential is it to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit at all times? Move when He moves because something that He used yesterday might be ‘old’ today!

So how do we know when God is moving, how do we keep soft to His Spirit? In amongst this incredible letter, the author shows us:

H 3:7-4:11
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8     do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
    during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
    though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

We have to keep our hearts soft to what God is doing, not only to see what He is doing but acknowledge and know His ways.

The author keeps going Hebrews 3:12 ‘See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness’.

What a warning! Don’t let unbelief or sin harden your heart so you miss what God is doing.

What is the antidote to hardening your heart? How do we keep our hearts soft before God? Check out Hebrews 4:12-13 ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’.

The Word of God divides our thought and attitudes of our heart and keeps us in line with what God is doing. It softens our heart, it transforms our thinking.

Wow, what a book. I bet you can’t wait to read it! Have a great time in Hebrews, see you in the next part for the response to all of this–faith!

Hebrews Part Two Dive

MY DAD IS BETTER THAN YOUR DAD

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