Category: Hebrews

“God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

‘In my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’

even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: ‘On the seventh day God rested from all his work.’ But in the other passage God said, ‘They will never enter my place of rest.'”

Today’s passage references Psalm 95 in which God cautions his people to remember the story of Moses and not harden their hearts. God has created a place of rest and his desire is to share it with us. Entering his rest was significant all the way back to the creation of the world. But if we harden our hearts and turn from God, how can we enter it? He’s not going to force us to be with him.

In Romans 5 the Bible says that we are “friends of God.” But as in any relationship, if we take that friendship status for granted we might very well lose it. Moses thought that he and God were on good terms and nothing could change that. In the end, a serious wrong move kept him from entering God’s rest. When we focus only on God calling us “friend,” we sometimes lose a healthy level of fear. Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true knowledge. If you are really smart you will maintain an awareness that God is not to be taken lightly.

The good news — the heart of the Gospel — is that God has prepared rest for you and he has invited you to join him in it. I don’t believe that we have to wait for heaven to enter that place with him. We can access it in glimpses and pieces here on earth. In fact, the church’s mission is to usher in the kingdom of God and help prepare the new heaven and new earth. We create Heaven moments right now when we participate with God in the peace he has for us. God’s prescription for our time on earth is to follow his example — 1/7th of our time is set aside for rest. Don’t miss out!

“So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

‘Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts.’

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.”

After Moses led the Israelites in the desert and failed to enter the Promised Land, his successor Joshua took over. It was Joshua that finally led them into the land God had promised to their forefather Abraham after they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. I would imagine that after 40 years of wandering around hungry and thirsty in a desert, the Promised Land seemed like the fulfillment of everything God had for his people.

If the Promised Land had been all there was, then God’s promise of rest would have been fulfilled right then and there. But God has much more in store. Anyone whose heart is turned toward God will enter this eternal rest. Let’s not forget that the author of Hebrews has taken great pains to explain that Jesus is God himself. Therefore, accepting Jesus’ divine status is central to entering God’s rest.

In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way. He is the path that leads to this rest that God is talking about. The Israelites wandered around in the desert for 40 long years. They rebelled against God at many points and their hearts kept hardening. They needed to stay soft, trust God, and follow his lead. Today, we have a path that God has laid out for us: Jesus. Believing in Jesus and seeking him is how we will find God’s rest.

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”

Hopefully you are aware that the Bible was not written in English and sometimes it is helpful to take a look at the original language in which it was written (in this case, Greek). The word for “word” here is the Greek word “logos,” which is the same word used in John 1:1 where it says, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Sometimes we think of the Word of God as the Bible or Scriptures, but in today’s passage the meaning is much deeper.

If this “logos” already existed and was with God and in fact was God, then it is certainly a direct reference to Jesus. With that in mind, read the verses above thinking of Jesus where you see “word of God” instead of thinking of the Bible. It would read, “For Jesus is alive and powerful. He is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword… He exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” Certainly this makes sense with the sentence that follows, again showing a fluid continuity between Jesus and God.

How do you respond to the idea that God can see the deepest places of your heart? Your reaction is revealing in and of itself. Those with nothing to hide who just want someone to love them are reassured. Those who are trying to pretend to be important when they really aren’t will feel scared. Make no mistake about it, Jesus has a supernatural power that will cut deeply through you. That can either be a life-restoring process (like the knife of a surgeon) or an act of destruction (like being stabbed in the heart). The difference lies in the posture of your heart.

“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

When I hear the word “priest,” I picture a Catholic priest with fancy robes in a huge cathedral. The Jewish people of this era (just after Jesus’ life, probably around 64 A.D.) might have pictured something a little similar but simpler. The Jewish temple was a stone structure that was mostly square/rectangular. Priests had rules that were described in Leviticus 21 as well as other portions of the Old Testament. They had unique garments and performed sacrificial rituals to mediate between God and his people. They followed the Old Testament laws about giving different types of sacrifices or offerings depending on the reason (atoning for sin, praise offering, etc).

The High Priest was the most highly ranked of all the priests, as Leviticus 21 tells us. Recall that the author of Hebrews just finished telling us that God sees into the deepest places of our hearts. Jesus is God, but he also has walked in our shoes. He gets it. All of this together means he is a perfect priest who can mediate our relationship with God better than any earthly priest.

It might have felt intimidating to approach the High Priest with a hope that the animal you brought is good enough for God’s standards. There’s a lot that depends on you and the priest getting it right. We know that Moses’ brother, Aaron, led the people into idol worship in the desert when he was appointed as the first priest. A lot can go wrong when humans are involved. With Jesus, we don’t have to have any fear. He is the perfect and ultimate priest, he gets your struggles on a deep level, and he is able to mediate your relationship with God because he is God. This is why we said before that Jesus is the path. He is the way into God. He joins humanity and God in a way that nothing and no one else could. All of these truths give us permission to be bold before Jesus. He wants to help and he’s ready to show you mercy.

Take a moment to read Hebrews 5:1-10 before reading the devotional below.

Yesterday we began to talk about the Old Testament concept of a high priest. The readers of this letter (broadly titled “Hebrews” as it was clearly written specifically for a Jewish audience) would have needed no explanations about these ideas. They routinely memorized the entirety of the Torah (our first five books of the Bible). They regularly went to the Temple and offered sacrifices in accordance with Old Testament law.

Throughout Hebrews we have seen how Jesus is compared to others, including humans, angels, and God himself. In today’s passage the author compares Jesus to the other Jewish high priests. What makes Jesus the highest of all high priests? First, we know that God appointed him. But God appointed the other high priests, too. He offered prayers to God on behalf of the people, but so did the other high priests. The key difference lies in the fact that Jesus was perfect. If you were as familiar with the Old Testament as the Jewish readers of this letter, you would immediately know that the Jewish priests were anything but perfect. Some, like Melchizedek, stood out above the rest. But some, like Aaron and the sons of Samuel, led the people away from God. Malachi 2 offers a look at what God thought of bad priests.

It is an unfortunate reality that a lot of people have been led astray by bad leaders in the church. Priests and pastors have harmed people. Of course, many good leaders have also helped a lot of people. Jesus is a good leader. In fact, he is the perfect leader. What’s interesting about God is that he alone is good. We throw around the word “good,” but in describing Jesus as a “good leader” I am saying that he is the most perfect leader in the deepest sense. He is not a good leader among other good leaders. He is THE good leader. He will never abuse you, harm you, or lead you astray. At the very core of his character, he is perfectly good.