...someone's said it first! Hebrews 6-7

     For a month and a half I've been stuck in Hebrews 6-7 with nothing worth writing. This is not to say that these chapters are not filled with profound hope and truth...just that I've found no way to write about them. It occurred to me today that what should be said has been said by someone else and so I share these thoughts...not my own, except that I wholly agree!
"...original sin leads us to doubt the benevolent love of the Father and to close our hearts to the gift of his '...proposal' (offer of Himself). John Paul II wrote that 'faith, in its deepest essence, is the openness of the human heart to the gift..." This life is poured out for us in Christ's self-gift to His (people) on the cross. In essence, Christ's self-gift says to us: 'You don't believe in my Father's love? Let me make it real for you; let me incarnate it for you so that you can taste and see. You don't believe that God wants to give you life? I will bleed myself dry so that my life's blood can vivify you. You thought God was a tyrant, a slave driver? You thought he would whip your back if you gave Him the chance? I will take the form of a slave; I will let you whip my back and nail me to a tree; I will let you lord it over me to show you that the Father has no desire to lord it over you. I have not come to condemn you, but to save you. I have not come to enslave you, but to set you free. Turn from your disbelief. Believe and receive the gift... I offer you." Christopher West, prologue to: Theology of the Body Explained
     In this description of God's intense love for us and the communication of that love through Christ; we read of the powerful hope the life of Christ provides us. We read and are reminded to accept God's love, initiated and secured by Him through his Son.
He purposed to love us when He created us. He fulfilled His promise to love us in the gift of Jesus' life. THAT is the nature of our God. Unchangeable in His purpose; unmovable in His promise.
Heb. 6:19 "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil," ( veil...the depth of God's existence that we cannot see and remains a mystery to us apart from the intercession of Christ). "...where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us,"
And there, before God, Jesus continues to act on our behalf.

"Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us (exactly what we need) to have such a high priest (facilitator of forgiveness and restoration with God), holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners (un-compromised by sin) and exalted above the heavens;" Hebrews 7:25-26

That was harsh! Hebrews 6:1-9

Hebrews 5:11-14, that was harsh; why was it necessary? Because it's time to grow up! What happens if an infant stops growing? He/she cannot survive.
Grow or perish.
So, is the provoking talk necessary? Absolutely.
The Hebrew believers who've understood the message of the Gospel of Christ and experienced God at work, MUST continue to grow in that understanding and experience. No matter how discouraging and defeating the times feel, if a Christian stops growing, He/she cannot survive.
Grow or perish.
If there is anything I have learned about the "Christian" life it is that it is an ongoing process.
We must be brave.
We must battle on.
There is no life in going back.
The harsh words of chapter 5: 11-6:8 are an intense warning, not from judgment or disgust but from godly men who love God's people:
v.9 "But, BELOVED, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way...
v.10 For God is not unjust..."

Christians have been brave for millennia. We will read this in Hebrews 11. But for now, be encouraged by these:

"I have given Him my faith and sworn my allegiance to Him, how then can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor?" John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress -1678

Christian's journey to the "Celestial City" takes him over the "Hill of Difficulty", through the "Valley of Humiliation" and through "The Valley of the Shadow of Death". Those whom he met along the way, in choosing other paths, never made it.

1	I’m pressing on the upward way, New heights I’m gaining every day; Still praying as I onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
2	My heart has no desire to stay Where doubts arise and fears dismay; Though some may dwell where these abound, My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

                                                                                               Johnson Oatman- 1898

Heb. 5 :12-14wah...

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

Though written to the Christian Hebrews in the first century, this passage is for the church today-

You've been a follower of Christ for quite some time; plenty of time to have learned enough to pass on. But now it seems you need to start to learn all over again, the wisdom God has shared with you. Just like a newborn, instead of gaining head control...your's wobbles about. Instead of feeding yourself, chewing and swallowing the new things God has to teach you, you have go back to the basics: You are a sinful human being who is in need of God's forgiveness, based on Christ's righteous life, death, and resurrection, to establish your faith. Aren't you hungry? Aren't you yet craving something more substantial...something to chew on? Aren't you ready to take the nipple out of your mouth and say, "I am not a baby anymore?" How has this happened to you...
this reverting back to infancy?
You've been lulled to sleep and nothing seems to wake you.
Groggy
Dull
Thick-headed
...membranes must be still clogging your ears!
Claiming to be a Christian is about becoming skilled in the knowledge of what is good and right and godly AND in the practice of living it out. Trials can make living our faith out a real challenge; but until your persevering and disciplined faith lines up with your doctrine, you cannot expect to be wise and godly people.

What's in a name? Hebrews 4:14-5:10

 
What's in a name? Quite a lot when you're reading the Bible!
Sometimes the Bible throws in names or stories that get lost and misunderstood outside of ancient Jewish culture. Hebrews 5 introduces such a name that refers to such a story, Melchizedek. The story is two short verses in Genesis 14. Melchizedek, King of Salem (to become: Jeru-salem), brings a meal to offer friendship and encouragement to Abram (Abraham). This mystery king however, is referenced in Psalm 110:4 and Heb. 5,7, 8,13 as a priest. The Levitical priesthood did not exist when Melchizedek showed up in the Genesis account. Israel was not yet a nation and the Jewish people would later establish an intercessory office after the tribe of Levi. This king however, appointed by God alone, played the role of priest for Abram. On the one hand blessing Abram, on the other blessing "God Most High".
Not yet "Abraham", Abram was young in his faith in YHVH or LORD; "The One Almighty God" whose name is so precious and sacred that the Jewish people took out the vowels to prevent misusing it. Abram was still learning the truth about the One whose voice he served. He was a truth seeker, a man who'd left his home and family to obey a voice he had never heard before to go to a place he'd never gone before. It was a long journey.
And Melchizedek went after Abram
with a meal
and a prayer
and Abram received what was offered, was helped and gave an offering in thanks.
What's in a name?
Abram was later renamed as a sign of YHVH's promise: Abraham- "Father of Many".
Melchizedek bore a name which links him to Christ: Melchi-zedek, King of Salem "The personal righteous king, who brings peace through truth".
Jump to Hebrews...
"So also Christ (appointed by God alone) did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but He (God the Father) who said to Him, 'You are My Son, Today I have  begotten You';
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 5:6
And this Jesus Christ- "God delivers His people", is our
PERSONAL
RIGHTEOUSNESS KING,
THE ONE WHO BRINGS PEACE
through
TRUTH.
Jesus comes after us
offering himself
and
goes before YHVH
on our behalf.

So, call on His name.

"Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." Hebrews 4:14

Who am I to say? Hebrews 4:12-13

WHO AM I TO SAY?

If men may wander
from their homes
and leave a wife
and children prone
to borrow, beg and steal...
who am I to say?

If wives, alone are
left to fend
and spend their time
with other men
whose wives are left as well...
who am I to say?

If children left to
raise themselves
and entertain
with lusts un-shelved
a fading, starving soul...
who am I to say?

If those who lead in
office, grand
with gross resource
at their command
wield their vice with heavy hand...
who am I to say?

If someone's wid'ning
emerald eyes
feast upon
another's prize-
to glut and then reclines...
who am I to say?

If enemies swing
guns and swords
believing
they've divine support
to fight and maim and kill...
Who am I to say?

If all that's in a
hidden muse
Reeks rancid
poison to infuse-
blotting beauty from the world...
Who am I to say?
But there is One who may.

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Hebrews 4:12-13

It's time for some good news... Heb. 4

     

It has been a week of bad news, coming in waves from far and from near. Bad news is wearisome, isn't it? Doesn't your soul just get tired? Doesn't bad news make you want to throw up the white flag? Hebrews 12 says to "run with endurance..." But sometimes it is hard to crawl out of bed much less run. 

How then are we to endure? By focusing on the good news, by  "fixing our eyes on Jesus..." Hebrews12:2
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Rom. 8:18
 Jesus endured and Jesus was raised. Jesus intercedes and Jesus will make ALL things right again.

“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Hebrews 4, Rest, God's Rest. It doesn't mean inactivity...it means deep soul rest. IT means peace in spite of circumstances, it means an end of attempting to make sense of what doesn't and make right what we cannot. It means trust in God's character and in His work.

v.2 "For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard."

v.6 "Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it (rest) and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience..."

God's rest is offered but not received. Why? Distrust and disobedience. What often leads men to distrust and disobedience? Suffering. 

Men suffer...men reason,
men "store the sand and let the gold go free."

"The sages have a hundred maps to give

That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,

They rattle reason out through many a sieve

That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:

And all these things are less than dust to me

Because my name is Lazarus and I live."

The Convert-G.K. Chesterton (I've quoted this before and will again!)

Here's the hard truth: though we may reason and reason away ...we will never be able to make sense of suffering. We will never make sense of God through suffering if we do not trust in His healing and restoration of all things. 

And if we never trust
we will never obey
and if we never trust and obey
we will NEVER rest.

“Today, if you hear His voice, 
   do not harden your hearts.”
                                          Heb. 3: 15, 4:7b

  

Consider This...Hebrews 3

My house is silent except for the humming of my space heater. This is a part of my love affair with winter. Winter freezes you! It forces the busy Northeast into some measure of stillness...and the busy bees hate it so! How dare nature intervene in production!
...gotta get the nectar
...gotta work the hive
...gotta make the honey
      Even if we are lazy in our work ethic we may still be frantic in our spirits...restless, seeking, striving. People, God Himself rested! AND He offers us rest.
Why can't we let ourselves stop? Hebrews offers an answer: unbelief.
My daughter shared this thought from Beth Moore- "We may think we believe in God...but do we BELIEVE God? Do we believe what He says...do we believe what He promises? Do we believe what is true about who He is?"
Hebrews 3:1b "...consider Jesus".
Stop your crazy pace and take the time to get to know Him and what He taught about His Father. And as you do consider this as well:  Our opinions on God's wrath can be a barrier to belief and consequently, rest. Verses like: "...I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest." Heb. 3:11, cause us no small measure of doubt.
I offer the following thoughts on what wrath is and how it perfectly fits with the character of a loving God,
a God we can trust,
a God we want to believe.
Wrath is anger producing/inflicting injury.
Anger is a strong emotion that sets us into action. Godly anger is specifically against wrongs, injustices...all that is less than all that He made it to be.
Inflicting means to impose something unwanted.
Injury can be redefined by the word humiliation...i.e. mortification.
Mortification means a cutting away, a death of a part for the life of the whole.
In putting these together, my opinions on God's wrath have shifted profoundly.
God in His complete revulsion over the destruction of His creation was set into motion against the destroyer. His acts of violence are His stand against death, against disease, against injustice for men and women who think His ways an imposition. When men trample each other in pursuit of more nectar, when they work and worry themselves to death, when they sicken themselves with sweets that are bitter to the core...God says "NO!  You will not get away with it because I made you for so much more" To which men cry..."God, you're a tyrant or you don't exist!"
It often seems God is against us;
But here's another definition for you-
Against means both "opposed to" and "in contact with"
Our creator made us to know and be known by Him. He has not deserted us. He does not hate us. He must cut away what is killing us and oppose what is robbing us blind while remaining in contact with us.
Every person has within them a spirit that was made to know God, but in His love He offers each one a choice. For there to be love, there must be a choice. For there to be a choice, there must be opposing options. If there are opposing options, there will be conflict. Where there is conflict, there will be pain.
But for the pain, God gave us Himself.

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died FOR us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him."
1 Thessalonians 5:3

So, "Consider Jesus..." (v. 1b)
believe
rest.