Daily Meditations

Hebrews 5:1 Our High Priest This opening verse of chapter 5 describes 3 facets of the high-priestly office. Firstly, these men had to be  “selected from among the people.”   Their life, their devotion, their wisdom and their experience raised them above their contemporaries in the minds of the worshippers. Of course, as is the way of human successions, it became who you knew and how wealthy and influential you were! Politics got in the way – doesn’t it always?  The role of High Priest was  appointed to represent the people  before God, thus the closer to the Lord a priest became, the better he could fulfil His calling. He was the go-between, the only man in the entire nation who had the right to approach the Lord God on behalf of everyone. Later in verse 4 we will see that there was another qualification, this calling must also come from God. What was the principal function of a High Priest? It was to  offer gifts to the Lord and to offer sacrifices fo...

Hebrews 4:16 Approaching the throne of grace Imagine that we have been invited into the throne room of the Lord God. It’s bad enough having to face up to an earthly ruler, let alone one who occupies the heavens and is the Creator of all things, as well as being our judge! We are not only conscious of our appearance and our manners but are painfully aware that this ruler knows our thoughts, our words and our deeds – intimately. Nothing is hidden from His sight; He knows us better than we know ourselves. So, perhaps we might feel a bit like John when he was ushered into the throne room of God, “ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.”   (Revelation 1:17.) John found that he was not about to be reprimanded and judged but instead he was granted an audience with the First and the Last, the One who lives forever, who holds the keys of death and Hades! Our Lord will not reprimand us either, instead He encourages us to draw near to the throne of God’s grace, we need not be hesi...

Hebrews 4:15 Yet He did not sin It is not unusual for us to carry a mental picture of Jesus Christ that elevates Him way above us all. He is often presented as the sinless, perfect One who lived a spotless life and who occupied a sphere outside of normal human experience, in this image He is dressed in white and has a halo around His head!   Nothing could be further from the truth, Jesus was  “tempted in every way, just as we are .” Whatever lures and fantasies and enticements the devil puts in front of you and me, Jesus knew them all. He faced every attempt that the enemy could dream up to put Him off His mission, in fact, it should not surprise us to learn that Jesus endured more than we ever can or will. For instance, we are told that one of the greatest urges that we humans possess is self-preservation, we will go to incredible lengths to fight for our lives and reputations. If there is any means by which we can avoid death, we will take it. Jesus surrendered all of t...

Hebrews 4:14 We have a great High Priest Now we really do have a change of direction! After examining in depth, the provision of God’s rest and the power of His Word, we are asked to consider a subject that will occupy much of this Epistle – the role of Yeshua as our High Priest! Remember that this was written to Jews, for whom the most important and most exalted human person was their High Priest, He alone represented God Almighty, was granted access to the Holy Place where God dwelt, and He was the bridge between their humanity and the spiritual Being who occupied the throne of heaven. The best that such a man could ever hope for was an encounter with the Lord when He entered the holy ground of the inner sanctuary of the Temple, once a year. Thus, to hear that there was a High Priest who had now left this world and entered directly into heaven was extraordinary! There was to be no annual shuffling in and out of an earthly, man-made sanctuary for High Priest Jesus Christ, He had retur...

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing is hidden from God's sight This verse is full of comfort and hope, but it also rings an alarm bell for those of us who have something to hide! We have already considered the fact that God sees and knows everything about us, there is no place we can go, and no shelter we can inhabit, that puts us beyond the scope of the all-seeing eye of the Lord God. Psalm 33:13-15 tells us,  “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth – He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. ” The Lord God does not restrict His scrutiny to just human beings, He watches over the whole of creation and He sees everything. The reason is given to us here; God is not just nosey or even a devoted Father watching over His children, He is a just God and if He is to deal justly with us all then He must be cognizant of all the facts! (For A.I substitute D.I.= Divine intelligence!) One part of me is delighted by...

Hebrews 4:12c The thoughts and attitudes of the heart One final meditation on the power of the Word of God. Note that we are told that it judges  “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart !” This is not easy reading because we are all aware that our hearts are not as pure and holy as we would like them to be! The good news is that nobody needs to ever know what we are thinking or what our intentions and desires and motivations really are. We can live in a thousand fantasy worlds and constantly ruminate over countless images and ideas without anyone ever knowing about it. Isn’t it great to have secrets and to know that even those closest to us are unable to discover what goes on in our hearts? Every one of us has a secret place, a place that our nearest and dearest know nothing about. The trouble is, God knows! Not only that, but His sword penetrates and discerns what lies hidden and it exposes the secrets. At first, He warns us and pleads with us to deal with the issues privately, j...