Daily Meditations

Hebrews 5:9 The call to obedience Perfect obedience is the key to perfect character! Most of us will have to hold our hands up and admit we are very far away from this kind of commitment to the cause; we are only too aware of our weaknesses and failings and of how far short of God’s standards we fall. Jesus might have been like us, He was human, He did have a choice about how He wanted to live out His time on earth. But He chose obedience, and in order to fulfil that choice to the ultimate degree, He also chose to allow His obedience to be tested to the very limits. The only way to achieve perfection was not by trying to be good, but by allowing every kind of trial and test to be thrown at Him and thus to prove that nothing could deflect Him from His commitment to obey the Father’s will. The ultimate tests were suffering and death. His suffering was not just the tip of the Roman soldier’s spear, or the jagged spikes of a crown of thorns, or even the lashes of the scourging whips. There...

Hebrews 5:8 A lesson in obedience Some of us may have had strict parents who believed in discipline and physical punishment. Some who are older may also remember the days when schoolteachers had canes and did not shrink from using them! Proverbs 13:24 says,  “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him, disciplines him diligently .” The word “diligently” is very important here! The thing is, our Bibles teach us that Yeshua was without sin, and yet His Father chose to teach Him obedience through suffering! To make sense of this we need to understand that true obedience means more than just “do as I say or you will face the consequences!” Jesus did not have a struggle trying to keep His rebellious nature under control and neither did He behave as if doing what His Father required was against His own will! He learned, as a child, to obey His parents and then as He grew up, He was taught the Law of God. When questioned by John about baptism, Jesus replied that He must ...

Hebrews 5:7 What a sacrifice! It seems that the context of this verse is the sufferings of Jesus whilst He was here on earth. His pleas to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane and at Calvary are recorded so that we might have some insight into the agonies He endured. These cries were, of course, very public and thus the Gospel writers could record them, but we know that the Lord Jesus also spent many hours in private, solitary prayer to His Father, often at night! However, the heart of this verse informs us that He pleaded with the  “One who could save Him from death.”    In other words, Jesus knew that His Father had the authority and power to save Him from His terrible fate, God could still intervene and halt the events that led to the crucifixion of His Son. Why did He do nothing? Because of His love for us! Notice that the  “fervent cries”  of our Lord were accompanied with tears. Were these the result of the physical pain and torture or even the effe...

Hebrews 5:6 You are a priest forever et another quote from the Psalms, this time from Psalm 110:4,  “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind; You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”   Melchizedek was a King Priest of God Most High at Salem in the days of Abraham. (Salem means “peace” in Hebrew from which we get Shalom.) As such a King Priest he was appointed to a higher order than even Aaron and his sons and any other High Priests of Israel. The roles of priest and king were not given to any man apart from Melchizedek, a curious figure about whom we know little, but Abraham saw and believed enough to honour the man and make tithes to him. (See Genesis 14:18-20) The two men shared bread and wine just outside Salem (Later Jerusalem), I like to think they did this in the area where Jesus later shared bread and wine with His disciples!   We have already discussed the fact that Jesus was appointed both King and Priest by God His Father and now He is com...

Hebrews 5:5 You are my Son, today I have become Your Father. Having reviewed the processes by which earthly High Priests were appointed, we now turn to the appointment of Yeshua! The author is quick to point out that Jesus did not claim this role for Himself, in fact when we look at His life and His relationships, we could say that He steered well away from the earthly priesthood and had little time for their status or roles, as they did of His!    There is no evidence that Jesus was ambitious or eager to impress His fellow men – anything but. His appointment was by the Father, but the terms of engagement are mind-blowing! In selecting His Son, God the Father speaks in the language of Psalm 27:7 “ You are my Son; today I have become Your Father.”  He then goes on to describe the kingly rule of Jesus and His role in subjugating all the nations of the earth. Thus we must assume that, in God’s eyes, the roles of King and High Priest overlap, and that the position that Jesus ...

Hebrews 5:4 Called by God Aaron was chosen by God to be the first High Priest of Israel (Exodus 28:1) and the choice of family to continue this privileged role was also in God’s hands. The Lord said to Aaron,  ”But only you and your sons may serve as priests on connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you’re the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.”  Numbers 18:7. Traditionally, the role of High Priest passed from father to eldest son, and it was a “job for life!” However, by the time of Jesus these traditions had been taken over by politics, for centuries it had often been the Monarch who appointed the priest or later, government officials, the Priests were even appointed by lot and bribery was part of the process!  This does raise the question of how ministers, clergy, pastors, bishops, elders etc are all appointed today. Each denomination has its own methods but there is ...

Hebrews 5:3 Sacrifices for sins The writer is still seeking to draw our attention to the weaknesses of Jewish High Priests for he has a greater aim, that is, to show how Jesus exceeds their earthly ministry in every way. When Aaron, Zadok, Eliashib, Caiaphas and Co entered the Holiest of all, once per year, they had firstly to offer sacrifices for their own sins. In fact, they must have done this on more than just one annual occasion because these men were aware, more than anyone, of the far-reaching threat of the Law and their inability to keep it. Therefore, they would ensure their own holy state before God before interceding for their fellow Israelites.  The rituals of the Day of Atonement were especially strict and are set out in Leviticus 16. Before entering the Tabernacle / Temple the High Priest must bathe and put on special priestly robes. He must then sacrifice a bull as a sin offering for himself and his family. (Leviticus 9:7. 16:6.) The blood of that same bull must be t...

Hebrews 5:2 cont Purified from all unrighteousness We need to continue with this verse simply because its meaning can pile condemnation on all of us who are aware that we have indeed sinned intentionally and dared to defy the commands of the Lord. Let’s repeat that the ancient Israelites had no way out of this dilemma, they were scarred for life if their sins were public. But it was also the knowledge that God knew everything about them that must have filled them with dread! In fact, we have seen exactly how the Lord God reacts to defiance in the previous 2 chapters of this Epistle. Chapter 3 goes into great detail in describing the disobedience and open rebellion of a whole generation of Israelites who were excluded from the Land of God’s rest because of their behaviour. Their sin was not one of ignorance but of open defiance. Many of those Israelites must have spent their lives pondering their foolishness, wondering if they would ever find absolution and fearing the judgement tha...

Hebrews 5:2 Sins of ignorance This verse is packed with truth. The first thing we notice is the tolerant attitude of the High Priests; they were aware of their own sinfulness and thus they must deal gently with the people they represented. Some believers beat themselves up all the time because of their weaknesses and failure to live lives worthy of their calling. Others seem to carry on as if nothing had happened, they hold their relationship with Jesus Christ very lightly. Notice that it is the  ignorant who are going astray  that are treated gently by the Priest, because He understands their weakness and unawareness of their sin. It is a beautiful picture of our relationship with our High Priest – Yeshua. This verse brings into focus the Scriptural division between unintentional sins of ignorance and those of rebellious defiance. Many Christians are surprised to discover that there is a difference!  Leviticus 4 explains, in great detail, the nature of the sin offering m...

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...

Hebrews 4:12b God's Word penetrates and divides In addition to being alive and active, the Word of God is literally His cutting-edge tool used to penetrate even the hardest of hearts. The image of the double-edged sword is found again in Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15,21, in every instance this sword comes from the mouth of Yeshua who, as we have seen, is the Word of God. That is why His words, as recorded in the four Gospels, are so important and compelling.  A double-edged sword was much more versatile than a sword that was sharpened on one side, it made it possible to slash and thrush during attacks and to cut from left, right, up down and even in a single, straight line because the blades, having been sharpened on both sides, had an extremely sharp point. This is a very potent weapon and, in the context of this verse, it went much further than just piercing the heart or the vital organs of an opponent, it even exceeded the potential of human swords that were designed to chop off ...

Hebrews 4:12a The Word of God is living and active At first sight, this verse may seem like a giant, sideways leap away from the matters that have occupied our minds since chapter 3:7. After all that discussion about “Rest,” the writer is suddenly evaluating the effectiveness of the Word of God! Is he going off at a tangent then? No, because in the previous verses he has, three times, implored us to not harden our hearts if we hear God’s voice. And what is the primary means by which the Lord our God speaks to us? Through His Word, it is His voice. There follows therefore, a brief but very astute summary of the nature and value of God’s Word to assist us when we are trying to understand how we might enter His rest.  Whilst the Lord is undoubtedly alive and well and seated on His heavenly throne, we His earthly children need constant and immediate instructions about how to live our lives and to cope with the challenges and responsibilities that face every true follower of Yeshua. As ...

Before we move on, we need to assemble our thoughts about God’s REST into some kind of order. This was a simple subject, prior to studying these verses in depth! It is now obvious that the term REST means many different things in the Scriptures and is used in many different contexts. That is why it is helpful to try to put them into order because there are links; of course there are!  The literal meaning of the Hebrew word “Shabbat” or “Sabbath” is “to cease”, “to stop” or to “desist from working and labour.” It implies that certain activities that demanded time and effort have ended, but it does not mean that we replace that busyness with nothing. God does not call us to laze around or to “do nothing!”  God came to REST when He ceased the labours of creation and had permanently completed the work of turning dark matter into a beautiful, productive world pumping with life, energy and productivity. He rested from the work of creating but not from activity. Adam and Eve were at ...

Hebrews 4:11 Make every effort to enter the rest So what do we learn from all of this? We have been treated to a series of allegories, and the author of Hebrews has been trying to get his Jewish readers to understand. They were new-born followers of Christ and they, more than anyone, should understand the lessons from their history. These lessons are for us too as part of the wider church of Jesus Christ. Firstly, when we rest in the Lord, we do not put our feet up, but we do recognise that everything necessary for our salvation and future peace has already been done. We cannot add to it any more than God could add to His perfect creation. Secondly, once we have been delivered from sin and bondage we must be prepared to move on, sometimes through wilderness experiences, because the Lord is preparing us for the Land of Promise, where we can be at rest. There are those that inherit His promises but many others who do not. The major obstacles to exclusion from the Land are disobedience an...

Hebrews 4:10a Israel and rest Continuing on from our previous musings, we have seen how Israel, under Joshua, learned to remove the pagan gods and their adherents from Canaan; this involved military conquests and a great deal of effort but, eventually, the land was at rest, and it fulfilled its description as the Land of Promise. However, it was not long before the tribes of Israel compromised themselves and their relationship with the Lord God and they turned to worship foreign gods. Whenever they did this, they lost their “rest”. It was not just that they built idols and sacrificed on the high places but in so doing they rejected the provision and protection of the Lord, they preferred to worship man-made gods. This idolatry led to 10 of the tribes being completely overcome by the Assyrians and they were lost to civilisation to this very day. The southern nation of Judah also indulged themselves in paganism and they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians; there was no rest for ...

Hebrews 4:10 Resting from our own works Perhaps the greatest lesson of these verses in Hebrews, has been staring us in the face for days! It began in chapter 3:7 and the writer has subsequently bombarded us with examples and twists on his main theme, that when we hear the voice of the Lord, we are required to obey and in so doing we enter God’s rest. It is a physical and mental rest as well as being a spiritual rest and it is so important that even God rested after the 6 days of creation. Three times we have been reminded that, “ Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”  We will now spend a few sessions unpacking what this really means. If we go back to the book of Genesis, the first scenario that unfolds is of the Creator speaking into the darkness and bringing light and life to barren and shapeless masses of rock! After 6 days of commanding astonishing energy and life into the cosmos, God’s steps back with satisfaction and rests!  All is good! Does this...