Category: Hebrews

“There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

As a writer, I try not to insult my readers. The author of Hebrews does not share that perspective. Or perhaps this author is not afraid to confront the readers on their lack of spiritual growth. So far the book of Hebrews has not been light reading material as far as I am concerned. It’s pretty understandable that the readers would need some teaching on the nuances of the nature of Jesus and other heavenly beings. Even the author (or authors? — notice the “we” here) acknowledges it is difficult to explain.

Let’s receive the contents of this letter as if they were written to us today. Are we spiritually dull? Do we have trouble listening? Are we still satisfied with a milk diet rather than maturing to deeper things? If you’ve been a Christian for a year or more, are you teaching others what you’ve learned so far?

When we follow Jesus, we get to live with a continual hunger for more. We can never be satisfied because there is always more of God. We can never go deep enough that we reach the end of God. When we are satisfied with our spiritual lives, we get complacent. When we are complacent, we stop trying to grow. Don’t be satisfied with what you’ve discovered about God so far. Whether you have been following Jesus for one day or fifty years, there’s more to discover. Ask him to show you more of himself in this moment.

“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame. When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.”

Sometimes when you know something, you can’t un-know it. Try to look at these words and NOT read them. It’s impossible. Once you learn how to read you will automatically read words in front of you. When you have heard the good news of Jesus and experienced the goodness of God for yourself, it changes you. You can’t truly un-know God. The Holy Spirit lives within you and shows you supernatural realities to which you had been blind. Seeing into the supernatural is a place from which you can’t really go back.

In today’s passage, there are some hard ideas. Can you lose your salvation? These verses point to the answer being “yes.” That loss will not be accidental, so you don’t need to worry that you will somehow “break” your salvation or mess up too much for God. That’s the opposite of the Gospel. But you can choose to walk away. If the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and then you decide to reject Jesus, there’s really no way you will come back from that. That’s a really significant choice to make.

Every single day of the spiritual journey is a choice. Will we follow Jesus one more step? That gets harder as we grow deeper with him. That’s probably why the readers of this letter were happy with their spiritual baby-milk. If we stay shallow, we can coast. That’s really not what following Jesus is all about. But this passage is a giant WARNING sign — going deeper means seeing more in the supernatural realm and that means harder and harder choices. Are you willing to keep going with Jesus? Are you going to stay? His disciples swore up and down that their answer was “yes,” but when he got arrested they split. Don’t choose to stay because you are coasting and not putting too much into your spiritual life. Choose to stay because you genuinely want to devote your life to Jesus no matter the cost.

“Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.”

If you were worried about losing your salvation after reading yesterday’s passage, you will be comforted by some encouraging words today. While we need to heed the warnings about walking away from God, we don’t need to apply it to ourselves if we have been focused on doing everything we can to follow Jesus. The early Jewish Christians had clearly been an important part of developing the church, and that mattered to God. He isn’t interested in punishing you when you are doing your best to follow him. That’s pretty different from an intentional choice to walk away.

Why are you following Jesus? Most likely, it has something to do with a sense of hope. If you had no hope, why would you try? I find it fascinating that this passage holds the key to all our dreams coming true: love others. If you want all that you hope for in Jesus, love others. That’s the spiritual tool that will bring about the kingdom of God and build a new heaven and a new earth.

We have seen the destructive power of hate in our world. There is no question that hate is an invention of Satan aimed at destroying humanity. But love is more powerful. Love will literally bring about the restoration of God’s creation. However, if it were easy to love more of us would do it. Instead, we find that loving people different from ourselves is hard. As today’s passage shows us, loving requires faith and endurance. Loving others also keeps us spiritually sharp. Get on track today and go find somebody hard to love. Bring a little kingdom moment into a dark place.

“For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying:

‘I will certainly bless you,
    and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.’

Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.

Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.”

One of the things I love most about cultures with an oral history tradition is that the same familiar stories can be told and retold with rich, colorful flavor. Throughout Jewish history, stories that we read in the Bible were primarily handed down verbally (since most people could not read). The Jewish readers (and hearers!) of this letter would not need much explanation about the role of Abraham in their culture. If you are unfamiliar with his story, check out Genesis 17-22.

This passage starts with the words, “For example…,” so recall from earlier in the chapter that we’ve been talking about loving others and holding on to our faith in order to inherit all that God has promised. Today we are given reasons why we can put our hope in God’s promises. I mean, who’s to say he won’t just get sick of us and bail? Turns out God himself says he won’t bail. If there’s one thing that this Jewish audience knew, it was that God kept coming back for his people. It’s the point of every Old Testament story. God has taken an oath on his own name that he will not abandon us. It is because of his trustworthy word that we can have any sense of hope at all.

If you have decided to follow Jesus, then he’s given you an all-access pass straight into the most sacred space: the Holy of Holies. What used to be a physical room in the Temple is now inside you. We are now the temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. In that old physical room in the Temple, there was a curtain blocking the entrance to the Holy of Holies. When Jesus died, that curtain tore from top to bottom and changed all of history (check it out in Matthew 27:50-52). The Holy Spirit ties us to Jesus so significantly that unless we make a deliberate choice to walk away, we are tethered for life. Anchors hold us steady when storms come. They give us our bearings. They allow us to pause for rest. God can be trusted, he’s proven that over and over to his people. You won’t regret tying your life to him.

“This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means ‘king of justice,’ and king of Salem means ‘king of peace.’ There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God.

“Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham. But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed.

“The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. In addition, we might even say that these Levites—the ones who collect the tithe—paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. For although Levi wasn’t born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham’s body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him.”

If you are wondering who Melchizedek is or what made him so great, I have bad news for you. We know very little about him besides what is in this passage and what we know from Genesis 14 and a brief mention in Psalm 110. Clearly the Jewish readers of this letter would have had a better understanding of him than we do. Today’s passage gives us hints. We know he was the first mentioned priest in the Bible, and it is also the first example of the concept of tithing (giving 10% to God). There are parallels drawn between him and Jesus, but the author does not seem to be saying that Melchizedek was Jesus in disguise.

Beyond the “Who is Melchizedek?” question, let’s ask ourselves what the author is getting at in bringing him up at all. It seems that today’s verses are a set up for what we will read as we continue on in the chapter. The set up uses well-known Jewish history to explore the role of priests and how this has played out over time. There’s mention of the humanity (and frailty) of human priests other than Melchizedek, and there’s mention of the power of priests to give supernatural blessing. It’s a unique role set up by God for a purpose, and we’ll find out more tomorrow about the significance of that.

If we ground ourselves in the earthly priesthood, we set ourselves to see what the Jewish readers of this letter would see: Jesus isn’t like anyone else. Humans fail. They can only do so much. Supernatural, eternal power has to come from someone greater. Remember that Jewish priests were the mechanism by which God’s people could fulfill the law. If Jewish priests are mere mortals, then what does that mean about their power to enact eternally significant change? Keep that in mind as we continue to explore.