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Introduction

When Paul visited Jerusalem for the last time around 60 AD, he encountered many thousands of Jews who believed in Jesus but who were also still zealous for the Law of Moses (Acts 21:20). After he arrived in Rome a few years later, he wrote them this letter (Heb 13:24). It was titled “To the Hebrews” and its purpose was to wean his fellow Jews from dependence on the Law of Moses by exhorting them to fully embrace Jesus Christ and the salvation He was bringing the world (Heb 1:1-4; 13:8, 22).

Although Paul was from the city of Tarsus, he was brought up in Jerusalem and taught by one of its most esteemed teachers (Acts 22:3). Therefore, Paul could call himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (2 Cor 11:22; Phil 3:5). He never wanted his Roman citizenship (Acts 22:27-29) and Cilician roots (Acts 21:39; 22:3) to cause the native Jews in Israel to discount his views by stigmatizing him as “a Hellenistic Jew” (Acts 6:1) – which would imply that he was “too cozy” with Gentiles to be “true blue” to Israel and its God. Paul did not feel the need to repeat his credentials in this letter; he just “exhorted” his fellow Hebrews from one end of it to the other (Heb 13:22), trusting that his brethren would give it the consideration it deserved.

Like all of the letters in the New Testament, this one was written to believers – not unbelievers. As for Paul’s letters, this one is different from the others, in that they had either been addressed to specific churches with Gentile members (such as the ones in Rome or Corinth) or to fellow gospel workers (such as Timothy or Philemon). This letter was addressed to Paul’s fellow Jewish believers who were clinging to the Law and to the holy land in the hope that Israel and its traditions would be restored to their former glory as part of the messianic plan. But the restoration of Israel’s earthly glory was not in the plan of Christ. On the contrary, Jerusalem would be burned to the ground in 70 AD by the Romans. Subsequently, a Muslim shrine would be built on top of its temple ruins…and thus the ruins of Israel’s once glorious temple lie beneath that indignity to this day.

Paul’s letter to the Hebrews is particularly useful to us today as a reminder that there is no such thing as permanent earthly glory (Heb 13:14). This is an especially important message for those of us who grieve so deeply over the demise of the once great Christian nation known as America. We do not fully know the future that awaits us as a nation, but we do know that no nation, no matter how useful it has been to the cause of goodness in the past, can incessantly and increasingly shake its fist at God and survive. Both Sodom and Jerusalem teach us that.

Let us cling to nothing on earth, but only to Christ our Lord (Jer 13:11; Heb 2:1-4). In Christ alone – not in Israel or America – is the great and eternal salvation God has provided for every human being (Heb 5:9).

For background on the author of this letter, see Paul. Although the legitimacy of Hebrews being included in the New Testament was tied to Paul from the beginning, and even as recently as the King James Version of the Bible in the 17th century it was titled as “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews,” modern scholars – even conservative ones – like to say that Paul couldn’t have written it. They say this primarily based on its dissimilarity in vocabulary and theology with Paul’s other letters. There is no denying that Hebrews reads differently from his other letters, but must every writer make everything he writes uniform? I don’t, and I doubt that you do either. Not only that, but some of the earliest comments on Hebrews was that it was originally delivered as a sermon by Paul, and may have been transcribed by Luke – much like Mark’s Gospel was reported to be a transcription of Peter’s preaching of his remembrances of his time with Jesus.

Besides all this, it’s just common sense that ancient scholars are more reliable judges of ancient authorship for the same reason that the authenticity of Aunt Millie’s recipe for German chocolate cake is best determined by the relatives closest to her. (Modern Biblical Scholarship versus Ancient Biblical Scholarship)

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Hebrews 1

Heb 1:1 – Paul is here talking about what we call “the Old Testament,” which was what the Jews in that age called “the Scriptures” or “the Prophets” or something related.

Heb 1:2 – Let’s unpack this.

• “in these last days” – The 1st century AD was the last days of ancient Israel and therefore of the old covenant.
• “has spoken to us in His Son,” – Everything in the OT pointed to the Son of God so that when He came, He would have the floor.
• “whom He appointed heir of all things” – The Son of God was God’s heir. That’s the way father-son relationships work.
• “through whom also He made the world.” – That God created the world through Messiah was revealed during the 40-day Bible study that Jesus conducted between His resurrection and His ascension – a point confirmed in Jn 1:2-3; 1 Cor 8:5-6; and Col 1:16.

Heb 1:3a – See BSN Glossary entry on “the image of God.”

Heb 1:3b-4 – When Paul says that Jesus “has inherited a more excellent name than” the angels, it is a point he intends to prove with Scripture over and over for the rest of this chapter and well into the next. Thus he now begins a litany of comparisons between Jesus and the other “sons of God,” for this is one of the ways that the Scriptures describe angels…as in the following:

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

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Job 38:4-6 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
…When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Heb 1:5 – Paul is here quoting Ps 2:7 and 2 Sam 7:14 to show that as Messiah, Jesus was spoken to as no other angel had been spoken to. That Jesus was “begotten,” as prophesied in Ps 2:7, is an allusion to His resurrection from the dead (as confirmed by Acts 13:33). He was the firstborn from the dead (as stated explicitly in Col 1:18; Rev 1:5).

Heb 1:6-7 – Paul now quotes Ps 97:7 showing that the angels are called to worship this Son of God (the Messiah), and Ps 104:4 shows that they are to be His servants as they control the elements (reminding us of how Jesus controlled the wind and sea while in the storm-tossed boat with the disciples).

Heb 1:8-9 – Paul now quotes Psalm 45:6-7 to show that Messiah has received an anointing above anything His “companions” (that is, angels) have received.

Heb 1:10-12 – Paul now quotes Psalm 102:25-27 which speaks of the Lord (Messiah) at work in creation. Paul is thus referring back to a point he made in verse 2 – that Jesus, the Son of God, was the one “through whom also He made the world” (the “He” referring to God). Paul will also echo this phrase from Ps 102 – “…BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END” – near the end of this letter when he says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” in Heb 13:8.

Heb 1:13 – Paul is here quoting from Ps 110 – which is quoted over 20 times in the New Testament – this time making the point that God did not say this to any angel – just to Messiah.

Heb 1:14 – Paul is here pointing out that angels are ministering spirits – which is to say “serving” spirits. And they are sent out to serve (help) those who are inheriting salvation. In other words, angels play a subordinate role to the Son of God. They even play a subordinate role to the ones the Son of God came to save – that is, human beings.

All this distinction between Jesus and angels is necessary because it has not yet been revealed that Jesus is God. That wouldn’t happen until the Second Coming, which was, among other things, a day of revelation. At this point, all the disciples knew was that Jesus was more than a man, more than a prophet of God, and – according to the point Paul is here making – even more than an angel.

We don’t need all this proof that Jesus is far greater than the angels, because we know that Jesus is God. Paul’s fellow believing Jews, however, only saw Jesus as a great preexistent heavenly being because that’s all the apostles were teaching at the time. What they needed to be nudged toward, however, was an appreciation that Jesus was far more than just the greatest heavenly being (or angel, if you prefer) that God had ever sent. So, first things first, Paul has to get them to see Jesus as greater than all the angels because they are already becoming dulled to His uniqueness. He’s going to continue distinguishing the Son from “the other sons” into the next chapter.

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Hebrews 2

Heb 2:1 – When Paul says “this reason,” he’s talking about his main point in this letter so far – that Jesus is greater than any and all angels. And because Jesus is greater, we must give correspondingly more attention to the message He has brought. (For that is what the word “angel” means: messenger.) And we must pay this extra attention because the alternative is to “drift away” from what we’ve already heard from Him. This is the whole purpose of Paul’s letter to the Hebrews: to grab his fellow believing Jews by the collar and pull their face right back into the gospel they have heard so that they can quit drifting away from it and go deeper into it instead. There’s much more to be found.

Heb 2:2-3a – This is a point Paul is going to make again in this letter. He’s saying, in essence, if ignoring the law of Moses which was sent through angels was resulting in “the last days” of the nation of Israel because of Israel’s failure to heed that word, how much more harm will come if we ignore the message coming from this one who is greater than all those angels. ***** Connect and compare in order to more fully understand this “salvation” called “great” in Heb 2:3 with reference to its “author” in Heb 2:10, how He became the “source” of that salvation in Heb 5:9, and how is able to “save forever” those who draw near to God through Him in Heb 7:25. ***** Correlate “so great a salvation in this verse” with “to keep you alive by a great deliverance” in Gen 45:7 because Joseph is there illustrating, whether wittingly or not, that he was a type of Christ.

Heb 2:3b-4 – Jesus didn’t write – He spoke. His apostles heard what He spoke, and they wrote it down in the Gospels. God sent His Holy Spirit to bear witness to the reliability of that message by all the amazing miracles performed through Jesus. Thus we have a sure word through the Son. ***** God Speaking by His Actions ***** God Testifying.

Heb 2:5-9 – Paul here quotes Psalm 8:4-6. In the light of Jesus’ resurrection, this psalm lights up as a messianic psalm and explains, in part, why Jesus kept calling Himself “the son of man.” (Dan 7:13-14 was another part of the reason.) For the Son of Man to be made “FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS” meant to be made a human being – which meant to be made mortal. But then the Son of Man was “CROWNED…WITH GLORY AND HONOR” as it says in Ps 8, and this fills out the arc of suffering and glory that runs throughout all the prophecies of Messiah. This is why Paul wrote in verse 9 that it was “because of the suffering of death” that Jesus the Messiah was “crowned with glory and honor” – according to prophecy. In other words, the suffering was not independent of the glory – it was the suffering that led to the glory. Lots of angels had come from heaven to earth in the Old Testament, but none of them ever came to do anything as comprehensive and painstaking as what Jesus did!

Heb 2:10 – As Jesus was perfected through His sufferings so we are perfected through ours.

Heb 2:11-13 – Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. Wow, wow, wow! (In the spirit He is our Father, but in the flesh He was our brother; but I’m getting ahead of myself, the NT saints were not reveling in the revelation that Jesus was God and Father but rather than He was more than just an angel.)

Heb 2:14-15 – He died like us that we might live like Him.

Heb 2:16 – Human beings – not angels – are the objects of God’s mercy.

Heb 2:17 – It took a man (Jesus) to fix what a man (Adam) had broken. That’s why God became a man…because none of us men had what it took to step up and fix what was broken. That’s why God put Himself to the trouble of stepping in to provide the missing link.

Heb 2:18 – He walked more than a mile in our shoes. He knows firsthand what it’s like down here. Specifically, He knows how dangerous it is to pursue righteousness in a world that hates it.

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Hebrews 3

Heb 3:1-2 – Allow me to break down this sentence because it’s pivotal to understanding how the letter to this point connects to the letter from here on.

• “Therefore,” – This “Therefore” is there for the purpose of summarizing everything Paul has written so far in this letter. A summary of the letter to this point could be “Jesus’ superiority to the angels is being insufficiently appreciated by His followers.”
• “holy brethren,” – Remember that Paul is writing to his fellow believing Jews. This is not to exclude Gentiles but to narrow his focus so that he can speak in a way that is particularly meaningful to a believing 1st-century Jewish mind. After all, Gentiles could not be expected – at least not in the 1st century – to fully appreciate the glories of Messiah because none of their cultures were steeped in the Messianic hope, with the Scriptures, and with generation after generation having the ways of God taught in their homes and synagogues and even in their national holidays.
• “partakers of a heavenly calling,” – The calling was from heaven (because that’s where Jesus came from) and it was to heaven (because that’s where human beings would be going).
• “consider Jesus,” – These two words encapsulate the purpose of the entire letter. Paul is writing this letter because his fellow believing Jews have taken their eye off the prize – Jesus Himself, “the pearl of great price” (Mt 13:45-46). And this has continued to be the ongoing problem of believers ever since the 1st century – taking our eyes off Jesus. Taking Him for granted. Not seeking to know Him better with each and every passing day.
• “the Apostle” – The word “apostle” means “sent one.” Jesus was sent from heaven. He did not originate on earth. This is one of the most important things the disciples learned during the 40-day Bible study between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension – the preexistence of Messiah. #RPJ This alone meant that there was much more to be learned about Jesus than just studying His earthly life. The Gospels tells us about His earthly life; they don’t tell us about what He was doing before He came down here. That’s one of the many reasons why we still need the Old Testament.
• “and High Priest” – Paul’s fellow believing Jews knew that the purpose of a high priest was to intercede for the people because of their sins. How was Jesus to fulfill this role – especially in heaven where there were no animals to sacrifice? It’s questions like this one that Paul is going to raise and answer as the letter unfolds.
• “of our confession;” – Jesus was the apostle and high priest of their confession – their confession being that “Jesus Christ was Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11) or some similar formulation like…
  • Matt 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
  • Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ–this Jesus whom you crucified.”
  • Acts 9:20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
  • and so on.
• “He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.” – In the letter to this point, Paul has been comparing Jesus to the angels. Now he begins comparing Him to Moses. Paul’s fellow Jews knew far more about both angels and Moses than Gentiles did; therefore, they could and should better appreciate such comparisons. Similarly, we who read the Bible regularly can and should be expected to better appreciate the many things the Bible has to teach us about Jesus.

Heb 3:3-6 – Just as Paul took pains to describe how much greater Jesus was than the angels, now he points out how much greater Jesus was than Moses. ***** In verse 3, Paul is pointing out that Jesus wasn’t just drawn from the house as Moses was, but He also was “the builder of the house” as Paul had pointed out at the very beginning of the letter when he wrote that the Son was the one “through whom [God] made the world.” ***** Paul had seen that his brothers according to the flesh and the spirit, for all their virtues, were just not appreciating how much greater Jesus was – how much more there was to Him. By not eagerly seeking more knowledge of Jesus day by day, these 1st-century Hebrews were being lulled into thinking that Jesus was just one more great man that God had sent – another in a long line of heroes. No, Paul says, there much more to Jesus than you fellows have realized. He’s not just another of God’s deliverers. He’s not even just the greatest of those deliverers. “There’s more to Him than you’ve realized, guys!”

Heb 3:7-11 – Paul is here quoting Ps 95:7-11. ***** (It is only an unusual coincidence that the NT and OT verse numbers happen to be the same – 7 through 11 – since the chapter and verse divisions post-date the Bible’s authors by more than a thousand years.) ***** When Paul prefaces the quote from Ps 95 with “just as the Holy Spirit says,” he’s reminding his readers of what they all know: that all the biblical authors (OT and NT) were inspired by God – the Holy Spirit working in the prophets and apostles being the means by which that inspiration was achieved.

2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2 Tim 3:17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

In the new covenant, which is to say in the kingdom of God, we all have the Holy Spirit. That’s something worth appreciating more, too.

Heb 3:12-19 – In this passage, Paul is explaining why Ps 95:7-11 is pertinent to the situation he and his fellow believing Jews are facing. Using Moses’ experience in the wilderness as an example to learn from, Paul is asking his readers to consider that as the Israelites failed to faithfully follow Moses’ leadership from Egypt to the promised land, so they themselves might be failing to faithfully follow Jesus’ leadership from physical Israel to the kingdom of God. As Moses and his contemporaries were a generation that fell in the wilderness, Paul was wanting his generation not to fall in its wilderness. The letter of Hebrews was a wake-up call.

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Hebrews 4

Heb 4:1-11 – Paul is making the same sort of argument here to his Jewish brethren that he made to his Gentile brethren in Corinth.

1 Cor 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;
1 Cor 10:2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1 Cor 10:3 and all ate the same spiritual food;
1 Cor 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
1 Cor 10:5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
1 Cor 10:6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
1 Cor 10:7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.”
1 Cor 10:8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
1 Cor 10:9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
1 Cor 10:10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
1 Cor 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
1 Cor 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Because Paul is writing this letter to Jewish believers and not Gentile believers, he’s making a more complex argument. For example, Paul quotes Gen 2:2 in this passage (“AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”) and compares it to a line from Ps 95 which he had just quoted in Heb 3. He does so to make the point to his readers that he’s not just warning them to avoid the temptations that faced the Israelites in the wilderness (about which he’d warned the Corinthians in 1 Cor 10), but he’s also pointing out that Ps 95, because it was written long after the time of Moses, is a separate and more specific warning of the temptation the 1st-century Hebrews were facing. That is, the book of Joshua spoke of “the rest” into which the Israelites had entered (Josh 11:23; 23:1) but Ps 95 would have been written several hundred years after the time of Joshua and therefore made clear that there was a different kind of rest yet to be achieved. So when Paul says in verse 9 of this passage, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” he’s not talking about a day of the week. Rather, he’s talking about the Sabbath Jesus was envisioning when He said:

Matt 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus sure wasn’t saying He was going to be the Lord of one day a week! He was talking about the kingdom of God that was coming – the one in which He would be king. This is something the recipients of Paul’s letter had not been sufficiently considering.

Heb 4:12-13 – Paul here reminds his readers of the power and scope of the utterances of God he has been quoting to them. ***** As for the word of God being like a sword, Paul uses that same analogy in Ephesians 6 and John uses it in Revelation 1, 2, and 19. A sword in the biblical age was the equivalent of a gun in our age. That is, each was the universal symbol of a weapon. If there is a weapon, there must be a war to fight. Paul is calling his readers to arms – though it’s clearly war in a different dimension that he’s encouraging. ***** As for “the division of soul and spirit,” see Soul, Spirit, Body.

Heb 4:14-16 – Having been reminded in the previous verse that “all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” Paul now commends to his readers the high priest from whom they will be able to receive an abundance of mercy and grace to heal the effects of their sins. He’ll have much more to say about this as the letter goes on, but for now he’s just building on what he’s already written about this high priest.

Heb 2:17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

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Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;
Heb 3:2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.

Paul keeps calling attention to this “great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” This high priest was higher than Paul’s fellow believing Jews were realizing.

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Hebrews 5

Heb 5:1-6 – Paul is here building on what he was saying at the end of the previous chapter about Jesus being “a great high priest.” (Chapter and verse divisions post-date the authors) ***** Aaron was called by God to be the first priest of Israel’s priesthood – that is, the priesthood that was established when God gave His law to Moses. A priesthood was necessary to administer that law – to teach it to the people, receive gifts from the people on behalf of the Lord in accord with it, and to offer sacrifices to the Lord for the people when they disobeyed it. If there were no law, there would be no need for a priest. Even so, Aaron couldn’t call himself to the role. Neither could any other man call him to the role. It had to be God calling him…and Moses was the one through whom that call came. With Jesus, however, it was through the Scriptures that the call came. Paul demonstrates this by quoting from two messianic psalms: Ps 2:7 and Ps 110:4. The second quotation mentions Melchizedek, a very-briefly mentioned priest (Gen 14:18-20) who lived hundreds of years before Moses and Aaron. Paul will expand on this reference later in the letter. For now, he just wants to establish that Jesus was called to be a “priest” through Ps 110 and was called to be “high” through Ps 2.

Heb 5:7-10 – In this passage, Paul shows how Jesus is able to “deal gently with the ignorant and misguided” (Heb 5:2); it is because “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” That is, He lived the kind of life we have to live. Obedience was not theoretical for Him; He had to live it out amidst great temptations. And thus He knows firsthand what we go through. *****As for “He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death,” Peter, James, and John had to have wondered why God didn’t answer those prayers they heard when they weren’t sleeping…from the first day until the third of His death. That is, between His death and resurrection, those three apostles must’ve wondered why God didn’t deliver their Master. But, they would learn Sunday that Jesus’ fervent prayers Thursday evening had not been ignored after all. On the contrary, “He was heard because of His piety.” God is able to deliver even after it is too late. ***** We, too, “learn obedience from the things which we suffer.” How commendable would our obedience be if it was always easy to obey? ***** Notice that it is our “obeying” Him that secures our salvation. Sure, everyone is going to heaven, but don’t you want to avoid hell on the way there? Notice also that it’s “eternal” salvation we’re securing and “eternal” means “constant.” We need salvation right now, not just in the by and by. To start with. we need our souls restored with peace and joy every morning. And then, at various points of the day, depending on what happens, we’re going to need help to deal with the evil that stalks us in this world. Therefore, we need salvation in this life as well as in the next. ***** Connect what this verse says about “salvation” to what Paul says about it in Heb 2:3, 10 and Heb 7:25.

Heb 5:11 – At this point in the letter, Paul has taken the gloves off. At earlier points in the letter, Paul hinted at his disappointment in his brethren in terms the inadequate attention they are giving their Savior. And in Heb 3:1, he exhorts them to “consider Jesus.” But here, Paul comes right out and says, “you are dull of hearing.” Some people might think that after all Paul has said about Jesus, that he would still say, “we have much to say” – but here he is saying it. This is a “great” salvation (Heb 2:3) and we have a “great” high priest. You’d better believe there’s a lot more to say about it and Him!

Heb 5:12-14 – Paul thinks his fellow believing Jewish brethren have the right religion, so to speak, but insufficient zeal for, in interest in, its living and more-active-than-ever founder. In expressing this rebuke to his fellow Jews, Paul sounds very like as he when he rebuked Gentiles for their spiritual immaturity.

1 Cor 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
1 Cor 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,
1 Cor 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

The difference is that the believing Jews should have known better and Paul had both the right and the responsibility to expect more from them in the same way that you experct more from an older child than from a younger one. These believing Jews ought to be teachers of believing Gentiles because Jews had far more experience dealing with the things of God at this point in history than the Gentiles did.* But instead of standing behind the lectern teaching, the believing Jews are sitting in the dunces corner with the Corinthian Gentiles, getting the same lecture from Paul. All that said, Paul’s hopes for his Jewish brethren remained high as evidenced by the energy he continued pouring into this letter, just as he continued putting energy into writing the Corinthians after his third chapter to them. In other words, Paul’s rebukes are not a sign that he has given up on his readers, but rather a sign that he has not given up on them.

*While 1st-century Jews had a lot more experience with the one true God than 1st-century Gentiles did, the same discrepancy cannot be said to exist between 21st-century Jews and 21st-century Gentiles. Today both Jews and Gentiles have had varying degrees of experience with the one true God.

***** Some people see a contradiction between “by this time you ought to be teachers” in Heb 5:12 and “Let not many of you become teachers” in Jas 3:1. For a reconciliation, see the BSN notes on the latter verse.

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Hebrews 6

Heb 6:1-3 – Having criticized his readers at the end of the previous chapter for their immaturity, Paul now presses on to maturity – which was his intent all along. Like any loving parent, he corrects for the purpose of lifting up, not with the intent to put down.

Heb 6:4-8 – Paul here distinguishes his readers from those who actually do fall away from the faith. That is, Paul is only mentioning those who fall away in order to contrast his view of them with the view he has of those to whom he’s writing.

Heb 6:9 – Thus the bleak picture for those who fall away is painted in verses 4-8, clearing the way for Paul to pivot in verse 9, and then begin stating his hopes for his reading audience from verse 10 onward. The pivot: “we are convinced of better things concerning you.”

Heb 6:10 – Toward this hope he has for his readers, Paul lays the foundation that “God is not unjust.” That is, God is not going to give up on them easily. He’s the kind of person who remembers favors done and these believing Jews gave the Gentiles their start in the faith. For if there had not been Jews who followed Jesus in the beginning, there never would have been an entrance ramp for the Gentiles to come into the fold. It was Jews who believed in Jesus and suffered for Him that created a movement that Gentiles could join. ***** Besides all that, God has always been, and will always be, the initiator in our relationship. That’s why our hope for the future resides in His initiative, not ours.

1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

Heb 6:11-12 – There is no room for “sluggishness” or “dullness” (Heb 5:11) in our hearts. Paul wants his fellow Hebrews to be “diligent” about their faith in Messiah. Therefore, he invokes the memory of their forefathers in faith. He will begin with the most notable of all: Abraham. (He’ll get to a much longer list in Heb 11.)

Heb 6:13-15 – Abraham was 75 when God first promised to make him a great nation, but he was 100 before Isaac was born. That’s the kind of patience Paul is calling for. That’s 25 years. Assuming Jesus died around 33 AD, and that He came again sometime between 70 AD and the end of the century, these Hebrews were going to have to demonstrate the same sort of patience that Abraham did, and for a longer period of time. (I walk through the timetable in the book The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.)

Heb 6:16-18 – To encourage his readers to believe that their patience would be rewarded, Paul reminds them that God not only made a promise to Abraham, He also confirmed it with an oath. Thus, since it was impossible for God to lie in either case, fulfillment of God’s promise was doubly assured.

Heb 6:19-20 – This “sure and steadfast” hope that Paul is arousing in his readers will anchor their souls even if storms swirl around them. As for Jesus being a “forerunner” who “enters within the veil” as “a high priest forever” for us, Paul is going to explain what he means…beginning with what “the order of Melchizedek” is all about. (See starting in Heb 7:1.)

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Hebrews 7

Although the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were made long after the biblical authors had all died, there are often times when a chapter seems to begin and end at logical places. This chapter is one of them, and it’s very helpful to us that it is. I say this because the topic is the priesthood of Melchizedek and how it compares to the priesthood of Aaron. This subject was right up the alley of Paul and his fellow believing 1st-century Jews. But we are 21st-century believing Gentiles and don’t find this to be familiar territory. Therefore, for a full chapter to be given to this obscure name – Melchizedek – and that this chapter has clear boundaries are helps to us.

As for those boundaries, let’s look at the last of the previous chapter and the first of the next chapter.

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,
Heb 6:20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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Heb 8:1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Heb 8:2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

Therefore, Heb 7 is all about Paul explaining what it means that Jesus – Israel’s Messiah – has been declared “a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Because, without a sufficient explanation, that statement would just sound like gibberish to us. This is not just because “Melchizedek” is a strange name to us. We probably all know someone named “Aaron,” but who knows someone whose name is “Melchizedek”? Moreover, the Old Testament makes hundreds of references to Aaron but only a couple to Melchizedek – Gen 14:18-20 and Ps 110:4. That’s it! Therefore, if Paul’s 1st-century Jewish readers needed him to take a chapter to explain why Melchizedek mattered, we need it even more.

What we’re going to see unfold in this chapter is how the Holy Spirit revealed things to Paul from the Scriptures – things that would have remained obscure and hidden otherwise. It’s one of those many revelations he received and spoke of.

2 Cor 12:1 Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

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Eph 3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3:3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.
Eph 3:4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

Thus when we read Heb 7, we can “understand [his] insight into the mystery of Christ.” Of course, there are many such chapters in Paul’s letters that we can say this about. I’m just using this one as an example because Hebrews is unique among Paul’s letters. And its uniqueness is that the apostle to the Gentiles has momentarily set aside his focus on the Gentiles to communicate with his Scripturally-savvy Jewish brethren. Let’s go.

Heb 7:1-3 – Paul starts with the basics – the name itself. The Hebrew word for “king” is “melchi.” The Hebrew word for “righteousness” is “zedek.” This is how Paul gets that “Melchizedek” means “king of righteousness.” ***** The Hebrew word for “Salem” is “peace.” It’s where “shalom” comes from. That’s how Paul gets that “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” ***** Thus seeing nothing more than the expression “Melchizedek king of Salem” in Gen 14:18, the Holy Spirit shows Paul that this man is obviously a type of Christ because who else would better qualify as a “king of righteousness and peace” than Jesus? ***** Paul goes on to point out that with all the genealogies there are in the Old Testament, there’s got to be some reason Melchizedek doesn’t show up in any of them. That reason is that he is intended to foreshadow Messiah. It wasn’t that Melchizedek did have a genealogy, for every man after Adam has been born of a woman. It’s that Moses didn’t record Melchizedek’s genealogy so that he might stand out more as a type of Christ – for Messiah was conceived supernaturally and had no earthly children. Thus, the way Moses told Melchizedek’s story helped foreshadow Messiah. And thus as the Holy Spirit helped the biblical authors like Moses know what to write, He helps us the readers understand what they wrote. That is, the Holy Spirit is involved at both ends of the Bible experience: the writing end and the reading end. ***** Finally, because Melchizedek was “made like the Son of God” in the way Moses told the story, Paul could use the word “perpetually” in Heb 7:3 and “forever” in Heb 6:20 to describe the “eternal” nature of this priesthood Jesus was fulfilling. Yes, all this is a lot to take in from just a few verses, but that’s the way it works with the Holy Spirit. We can see a lot in a little. And, more importantly, it’s all straightforward and simple. That’s the way it is with God’s revelations: we put a hand to our forehead and exclaim “Why didn’t I see this before?” We’re not seeing something that wasn’t there; we’re seeing something that was there all the time…and that we were just missing.

Heb 7:4-10 – Paul takes what the Holy Spirit has shown him and then logically thinks through what the Scriptures are communicating about Melchizedek who was a priest of God when compared with Aaron who was a priest of God. 

1. Both priests received tithes (a tenth) as just compensation for their mediating work on behalf of the people where God was concerned. Also, both blessed the people on behalf of God as part of that mediating work. (Recall from Num 6:22-27 that Aaron and his sons were to bless the people with the words “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you” and so on.)
2. Aaron received tithes because he was a descendant of Levi.
3. Levi received tithes, but his ancestor Abraham paid tithes. Therefore, Levi – through his ancestor Abraham, was paying tithes to Melchizedek.
4. For the same reason, Melchizedek is blessing Levi when he blesses Abraham.
5. Since Melchizedek is, in essence, receiving tithes from Levi (and Aaron) through Abraham, and since Melchizedek is, in essence, blessing Levi (and Aaron) when he blesses Abraham, then Melchizedek’s priesthood is greater than Aaron’s.

Heb 7:11-22 – Having used the one OT reference to Melchizedek (Gen 14:18-20) to show that Melchizedek’s priesthood was greater than Aaron’s, Paul nows shifts attention to the only other OT verse about Melchizedek (Ps 110:4) to show that there had to be a change in priesthoods at some point. That point was the coming of Messiah. (Ps 110 was widely recognized among Jews as applying to Messiah; even the Pharisees believed that (Mt 22, Mk 12, Lk 20). ***** As the Holy Spirit inspired Moses’ writing of Gen 14, so He inspired David’s writing of Ps 110. ***** I’ll let you work through the logic of this passage since you have all the building blocks you need from what I’ve shown you about this chapter up to this point. ***** The only other point I’ll make is that I want you to notice how a priesthood and a law go together (verse 12). You’ll recall all the arguments you’ve ever heard about “grace versus law.” What some people leave out is that there is an element of law in the grace, for otherwise grace would be lawlessness. That is, Jesus has a law just as Moses had a law. It’s just that 1) Jesus’ law is much simpler to understand than Moses’ law, 2) governs the heart and not just outward behavior, and 3) Jesus can empower us to keep His law whereas Moses had no ability to empower the Israelites to keep his law.

Heb 7:23-25 – Paul explains the obvious: that if a priest is not going to die, there’s no need to designate replacements for him. ***** Connect what this verse says about “salvation” to what Paul says about it in Heb 2:3, 10 and Heb 5:9.

Heb 7:26-28 – Paul now sums up the multiple ways that Melchizedek’s priesthood was superior to the priesthood that his fellow believing Jews kept trying to prop up. Recall from this passage in Acts how even James, Jesus’ earthly brother, had been, at least for the moment, won over to the view that while Gentiles did not have to keep Moses’ law, believing Jews still should.

Acts 21:17 After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
Acts 21:18 And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
Acts 21:19 After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
Acts 21:20 And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;
Acts 21:21 and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.
Acts 21:22 “What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.
Acts 21:23 “Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow;
Acts 21:24 take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.
Acts 21:25 “But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.”

Paul went along with this, but it did no good. His compliance with Moses’ law persuaded none of his enemies. A riot ensued despite all Paul’s peacekeeping efforts, leading to his incarceration and ultimate transfer to Rome for an appeal to Caesar. This letter of Paul’s to the Hebrews was an attempt to get at least believing Jews to recognize that Messiah did not come to perpetuate the law of Moses. The time for the Law of Moses was over. It was time for the law of Messiah.

1 Cor 9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law;
1 Cor 9:21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

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Gal 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

This is change of law Paul was talking about earlier in the chapter.

Heb 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

Thus through this letter to the Hebrews, Paul is using the revelation he had received about Melchizedek to present a more subtle – and hopefully more effective – argument to Jews who believed in Jesus but who were still zealous for the Law of Moses. Paul’s trying his best to get them to see that if they’re still clinging to Moses, it’s because they’ve been giving insufficient attention to the Messiah that Moses proclaimed.

Deut 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

Paul is saying to his brethren both in the flesh and in the spirit: “Jesus did not say ‘Listen to Moses!’ It was the other way around.” For ourselves, we can even phrase it like this: “The red letters do not say “Listen to the black letters! It’s the other way around.”

The very name “Melchizedek” should signal to us that a full pivot must be made from Moses’ Law to Jesus’ grace (in which law is a subset).

John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

***** Zechariah 6:9-15 parallels Hebrews 7 in that both portray the offices of priest and king coming together in one person. This is something only God can do. Judah’s King Uzziah got into big trouble trying to combine the two offices. (See note on 2 Chr 26:18-19).

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Hebrews 8

If we understand Heb 7, then Heb 8 becomes largely self-explanatory.

Heb 8:1-5 – In the first part of this chapter, Paul quotes Moses to show that Moses knew at the time he was building the tabernacle that he was building something duplicative and inferior to the real tabernacle of God which was in heaven. A large part of the book of Exodus is taken up with describing the tabernacle and its construction – 13 of its 40 chapters (Ex 25-31 and Ex 35-40, the interruption being caused by the golden calf fiasco). In spite of the time and effort invested, Moses knew that what he was building would one day be obsolete. The Jews didn’t have a problem letting go of Moses’ tabernacle when David wanted to build a temple to replace it. This is because the animal sacrifices and priestly administration all continued as before. In other words, it was the same old experience – just a grander and more permanent physical complex in which to have that experience. But giving up the temple for a completely spiritual tabernacle – that was much harder for fleshly minds to let go of. This is why the letter of Hebrews keeps going back to the superiority of Messiah over all the people and things that foreshadowed Him – because it was easy to get attached to worldly props.

Heb 8:6-13 – The remainder of this chapter is taken up with Paul quoting what the prophet Jeremiah had to say about the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). ***** The heavenly tabernacle is not new – it long pre-existed the one Moses built. But it is new to us. New tabernacle, new priesthood, new law, new promises, new covenant. All of these new things go together with Messiah. And these new things are all “better.” They’re all “greater.” We just have to let go of our fleshly minds and let the word of God transform our thinking day after day until we have spiritual minds.

Rom 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
Rom 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

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Hebrews 9

Heb 9:1-5 – Here Paul is giving a very short summary of what Moses had spent 13 chapters describing (Ex 25-31; 35-40). (Another reason to be thankful we are under the new covenant and not the old one.) ***** God’s original instruction regarding the keeping of a portion of manna in a jar for a memorial was given in Ex 16:32-34 where the story of manna is first told, not in Ex 25-31; 35-40 where instructions about the tabernacle are given. ***** The record of Aaron’s rod budding is found in Num 17. See also the accompanying BSN notes for reference to Jesus.

Heb 9:6-14 – Paul is comparing and contrasting old covenant priestly work with new covenant priestly work. There are both similarities and differences. Through the comparison and contrast, Paul shows that Christ’s priesthood achieves what was never achieved through the Old Testament priesthood (Aaron’s).

Heb 9:15-22 – Whenever we see the word “covenant” in the NASB New Testament, it is always a translation of the Greek word “diatheke,” which can mean “covenant,” “testament,” or “will.” Generally speaking, “covenant” and “testament” are considered synonyms. However, there is a narrower sense in which “testament” can be defined and used and that is in the sense of a last will and testament. It is this narrower sense in which Paul is using “diatheke” in this chapter. That is, in extolling the provisions and benefits of the new covenant which Messiah has brought, Paul is describing it as a last will and testament of Jesus. And indeed, just like a last will and testament doesn’t go into effect until the testator dies, so the new covenant was inaugurated by the death of Jesus. Of course, because He was going to rise from the dead He would also be the first person to ever be the executor of his own estate. And this role He began fulfilling as soon as He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father. ***** In this passage, Paul quotes Ex 24:8 in which now, with the benefit of hindsight, “THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT” of which Moses spoke was foreshadowing the blood of Christ that would be sprinkled on the altar of the earth. It was shed in the scourging He received…and then completely poured out in His crucifixion. There was no blood left in Him by the end. He left it all on the field. ***** Thus the new covenant God envisioned was going to require death – and He knew this from the beginning though He kept it a mystery. Even God Himself had to die in order to become Christ. This truth also was kept hidden in the beginning – the revelation only came with the Second Coming. And this is why it could be called a day of revelation (Lk 17:30).

Heb 9:23-26 – The “the copies of the things in the heavens” were what Moses built in the wilderness (the tabernacle – a mobile home for God) and what David planned and Solomon built in Jerusalem (the temple – a “permanent” home for God). Paul’s fellow believing Jews just couldn’t accept that the “permanent” home for God in Jerusalem wasn’t really permanent. But if it wasn’t clear before that glorious as it was it wouldn’t be permanent, it should have been clear the moment anyone heard what Jesus told a handful of His disciples about the temple during the week before He was crucified:

Mark 13:1 As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples *said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”
Mark 13:2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

The “wonderful buildings” Jesus was speaking of were just as much copies as were the more modest dwelling places Moses assembled in the desert. All such earthly replicas were like the model battleship that a little boy puts together in the family den with the help of his father…when it is held up to the battleship it is replicating. There is no comparison between the two! Paul’s fellow believing Jews were clinging to a play toy when the real thing was sitting in harbor waiting to be boarded.

Heb 9:27-28 – Jesus came the first time clothed in flesh so that He could bear the penalty for our sins. When He came the second time (the Second Coming), He would not need a fleshly body because He would be “coming in the glory of His Father” – not the glory of the Son.

Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Notice not just that He said He’d be coming in the glory of His Father, He said in the same sentence that His coming would be in that generation. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

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Hebrews 10

Heb 10:1-2 – Paul is, in effect, asking his fellow believing Jews, “If the temple-based animal sacrifice system you’re wanting to perpetuate was working, why do the sacrifices never cease? That is, if God is not appeased by them, how could they possibly be achieving their intended effect?

Heb 10:3-4 – It always was impossible for the blood of animals to take away sins. They were just types and shadows of what was to come.

Heb 10:5-10 – Paul quotes Ps 40:6-8 to show David prophesying this very thing: that is, the replacement of animal sacrifice by the sacrifice of Messiah’s own life – a life of service to God. ***** When Jesus prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane and resolved to do the Father’s will in spite of His completely understandable horror at the thought of crucifixion, it completed a life of living according to God’s will. ***** Thus the ultimate elimination of the sacrificial system was what God had planned all along.

Heb 10:11-14 – Paul now quotes the verse that was so commonly used by NT believers between Jesus’ resurrection and His return: Ps 110:1. They were sitting in the middle, waiting on His return – that is, situated between Jesus sitting down at the right hand…and the time when all His enemies would be beneath His feet. That’s was slightly less than a generation. ***** Jesus’ return was when His enemies would be put under His feet. And indeed the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD was part of that. Do you think Jesus is still waiting at the right hand of the throne of God for His enemies to be put under His feet? If so, how much longer do you think it will take? (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Heb 10:15-18 – Paul now quotes again from Jer 31:31-34 showing that the prophet Jeremiah had actually implied that the new covenant would bring an end to animal sacrifice when he wrote “AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.” That is, Jeremiah was speaking of the time when a fully satisfying sacrifice could be made so that continuing sacrifices would no longer be needed.

Thus Paul is offering multiple scriptural proofs for why there’s no need for any believing Jews to want to hang on to the temple. Yet we cannot look down on these people because we are not tempted to cling to the temple like they were. What are we clinging to that we should be letting go of more readily?

O Lord, show a man what he may let go of
in order that
he may grasp what You are offering.

Heb 10:19-22 – This is the new covenant way to approach God. Paul is calling his Hebrew brethren to fully embrace it.

Heb 10:23-25 – When Paul speaks of “the day drawing near” he is, once again, alluding to the day of the Lord (that is, the Second Coming). Notice that this passage indicates that the purpose of church participation was to prepare for the coming of the Lord and that the attendance was supposed to be “together,” not in separate denominations. It was hard enough to sustain attention in the coming of the Lord for one generation, how in the world could anyone expect it to be sustained for two millennia?! (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again). As the sacrificial system became obsolete, so the practice of churchgoing became obsolete. But this does not mean we should partake less of the word of God; on the contrary, we should partake of it much more. We just do it at home, where we can convert the travel time to church into additional devotional time.

Heb 10:26-31 – The only alternative to being prepared for the Lord when He came was to be caught off guard by the wrath of God. And, alas, this is what happened to many people when that day came in the latter part of the 1st century AD. Even today, though, people still get caught off guard by the judgments of God. Many modern Americans have come to think of Jesus, when they think of Him at all, as some good-time hippie who walked around affirming everyone’s self-identity, validating everyone’s feelings, and building up everyone’s self-esteem. Have such people never read the second Psalm?

Ps 2:12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Have they never read the Gospels?

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Have they never read Revelation?

Rev 6:16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;

Have they never read this passage (Heb 10:26-31)?

If you, too, think Jesus only forgives sin and never punishes it, read this essay: Judgment Is upon Us.

Heb 10:32-34 – Let us add to this something Paul wrote earlier in this letter about the past of these believers:

Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

Paul obvious thinks these Jewish believers started well; this letter is all about imploring them to finish well.

Heb 10:35-36 – Paul is a track and field coach, catching his marathoners about 20 miles into the race, exhorting them that this is no time to give up. They came out of the gates right after Jesus’ resurrection and now it’s all about staying in the race until completion, which is the Second Coming.

Heb 10:37-38 – Paul is quoting the prophet Habakkuk (Hab 2:3-4), whom he also quoted in Rom 1:17 and Gal 3:11. In the constellation of OT verses Paul saw light up in Christ, Habakkuk’s was one of the brightest.

Heb 10:39 – Speaking of the importance of faith (belief), Paul had mentioned it earlier in the letter: (I’m ignoring the chapter division below because in this case it interrupts the flow of thought.)

Heb 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
Heb 4:1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
Heb 4:2 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.
Heb 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
“AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

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Heb 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
Heb 6:12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Thus faith was important earlier in the letter, it’s important now, and next we’re going to see Paul camp on it for 40 more verses in a row!

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Hebrews 11

From the beginning of this letter to Paul’s fellow believing Jews, he has been giving them reasons to believe that Jesus is greater than they have been giving Him credit for being. These reasons come from the Scriptures – what we call the Old Testament – that they all held in common and that they all held dear. Paul was not one to tell someone to believe for no reason; on the contrary, Paul always gave reasons. And in this letter, he has given many substantial and thoughtful reasons that would especially make sense to people familiar with the Scriptures.

Having established that Jesus was greater than Moses, Paul has most recently in this letter called his readers to go back to their faith in Jesus and strengthen it. What caused the Israelites to fail when they were tested in the wilderness was that they lost faith in Moses along the way – specifically, they lost faith in his ability to get them where God wanted them to go. Paul is trying to show his brethren that they have begun to treat Jesus this way – that is, they have begun to doubt that He can get them where they need to go and so they have fallen back on their faith in Moses – in the law and the sacrifices and the tabernacle/temple system he left them. They have chosen to trust in what they can see and touch rather than in the word of God they have heard. This is the very temptation that got Eve off track.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they were going somewhere they had never been before. They had heard about Canaan from their ancestors but had never experienced it themselves because they were born as slaves to Egypt. Since none of them knew the way to Canaan – the land God had promised – they had to trust God for guidance. And to trust God they had to trust His spokesman: Moses. Similarly, Paul’s generation had never been to heaven nor even thought they’d go to heaven. They would have been content with a resurrection from the dead that brought them back to earth. But God had something better in mind, and so as He sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan, so He sent Jesus to lead humanity out of earth into heaven.

Having established by this point in the letter to his fellow Jews that they are at a fork in the road, Paul is now showing them that they must trust Jesus – that is, believe Him and believe in Him – the way the Israelites should have trusted Moses in the wilderness. Instead of falling backward to lean on Moses’ way, Paul’s generation needed to push forward in Jesus’ way. For Jesus is not just another Moses – He is a “greater” and “better” Moses.

Having issued this call to faith in Jesus at the end of the previous chapter, Paul is now in this chapter going to 1) briefly define faith, and then 2) give example after example of faith from the Scriptures. As these believing Jews have been using the Scriptures to justify their clinging to the Law of Moses, Paul is now pointing them to the many examples of faith they can find in those same Scriptures.

In listing these examples of faith from the Old Testament, Paul is not just demonstrating faith, he is also demonstrating Jesus because every example he gives is a type of Christ as well. Therefore, as you read about how each person exercised faith, think also about how each person reflected some facet of Jesus. For, indeed, Jesus Christ is a multi-faceted diamond. #FJOT

Heb 11:1 – Verses 1 and 6 contribute to a definition of faith. ***** You can see from this verse that faith leaves no room for doubt. Treat doubt in your heart as you would a cockroach in your kitchen.

James 1:6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
James 1:8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Heb 11:2 – Paul is pointing out to his Jewish brethren that “the men of old gained approval” not through keeping the Law of Moses but rather through faith. Paul gives so many specific examples that by the time a reader gets to the end of this chapter, he wonders how he could have ever thought that adherence to the Law of Moses was more important to God than faith.

Heb 11:3 – So much for evolution.

Heb 11:4 – Paul starts his listing of faith examples early in the Old Testament. The story of Abel comes in Gen 4.

Heb 11:5 – From Gen 5.

Heb 11:6 – Like verse 1, this verse contributes to a definition of faith. We need to use both verses to help us understand what faith in Jesus involves. It involves hope in Him. It involves assurance of that hope. It involves conviction that this hope will be rewarded. (Hint: It will; over and over again.)

Heb 11:7 – We’re only up to Gen 6. It’ll be verse 23 before we get out of the book of Genesis!

Heb 11:8-12 – Paul has been spending just a sentence or so on each hero of faith, but he’s going to camp on Abraham and Sarah.

Heb 11:13 – These heroes only received a portion of what was promised – the fullness of the promises would only come in Messiah.

Heb 11:14-19 – Paul has yet more to say about Abraham and Sarah.

Heb 11:17-19 – Gen 22 (the account of Abraham “sacrificing” Isaac – see BSN note on it) should be read through the lens of this passage, just as the entire Old Testament should be read through the lens of the New Testament. The New Testament is Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament – the way He taught His apostles to interpret it.

Heb 11:20-22 – Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph each get a mention. Adding them to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah, Paul has so far given eight OT examples of faith – and eight types of Christ – just from Genesis. And it’s not that these eight were the only examples of faith in Genesis – Paul had to be selective because he only had so much ink (Jn 20:30-31; 21:25).

Heb 11:23-29 – Paul now comes to the book of Exodus and the man who gave the Law of Moses – Moses himself. Paul camps on Moses to show that he and the Israelites gained approval from God for their faith in Him, not for their devotion to the Law of Moses. If Moses and the Israelites – the first generation to have the Law of Moses – gained God’s approval by their faith and His disapproval by their unbelief – why should Paul’s generation of Jews think it’s going to be any different for them?

Heb 11:30-31 – Now Paul’s speaks of the next generation after Moses – the one that Joshua led. It’s still the same: God wants to see faith.

Heb 11:32-38 – Paul closes his list by giving a sample of just how many more examples he could have listed if he had more time. The evidence is overwhelming – the Old Testament that Paul’s readers were thinking was all about the Law of Moses was really all about faith in God. Faith was not an appendage to the Law of Moses; the Law of Moses was an appendage to faith – an appendage that was no longer needed in the new covenant just as a caterpillar no longer needs his many legs once he spreads his wings as a butterfly.

Heb 11:39-40 – As Paul indicated in verse 13, these heroes received rewards for their faith but not the fullness of what would come through the Messiah.

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Hebrews 12

Heb 12:1-2 – Earlier in this letter Paul wrote that he wanted his readers to “consider Jesus” (Heb 3:1). By this point in the letter, Paul has developed his argument enough that he can intensify his exhortation to be “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

Heb 12:3 – When Paul’s readers – faithful Jews – first trusted Jesus as the Messiah, they faced persecution. Earlier in this letter, Paul commended them for their endurance in those circumstances.

Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

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Heb 10:32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,
Heb 10:33 partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.
Heb 10:34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.
Heb 10:35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

Paul’s readers had endured, but their endurance needed to continue. They may have thought they’d been through the worst of the persecutions they’d have to face, but Paul is telling them that they need to steel themselves because things were going to get worse before Jesus came. Remember that Jesus said the tribulation would be at its worst just before He came.

Mark 13:19 “For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.
Mark 13:20 “Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

And remember that Paul would write the same thing to Timothy:

2 Tim 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

And Peter, too, said that things would be difficult for believers, though ultimately far worse for unbelievers.

1 Pet 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
1 Pet 4:18 AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?
1 Pet 4:19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

And let us reflect also on the fact that though Jesus faced hostility throughout His ministry, the worst persecution for Him came in His last days.

For all these reasons, we see that while the Jews who first believed in Jesus endured persecution because of their faith, that persecution would become more intense just before the Second Coming. For this is the pattern of God’s judgment:

1. God establishes men in peace.
2. Men forget God and sin.
3. God calls men to repent, hoping to forgive and re-establish them.
4. If men go on sinning, refusing God’s repeated calls for repentance, God eventually must judge them. The wrath of God then comes to destroy their plans for more evil.

In the run-up to to a judgment, things get really bad for the faithful because the men who are doing evil do their greatest evil to those they find following God. Cain had to eliminate Abel because Abel’s mere existence was a testimony to Cain’s evil. But Cain couldn’t avoid God’s judgment. The man who loved to farm was cursed in his farming. (I deal with this in more detail in the book The Implications of Everyone Going to Heaven.)

Paul has exhorted his brethren to faith in Heb 11. Now, in Heb 12, he seeks to fortify them against the intensifying hostility they will face due to their sticking with faith. They went through the greatest tribulation of any human generation, so we can comfort ourselves by knowing we won’t have to face the intensity they faced. Still, we should go to school on what Paul is telling them because it will help us endure whatever we’re going to have to endure.

Heb 12:4-17 – To strengthen his brethren’s resolve, Paul reminds them of the way discipline has worked in their earthly lives. He’s pointing out that the same dynamic works in the spiritual life. The persecutions they endure for Christ are their entrance into His sufferings, and therefore the guarantee that they will experience His glories. (Suffering and Glory) These sufferings they undergo will also mature them in the process just as Jesus Himself was matured by them – a dynamic Paul had already been explicit about in this letter.

Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Likewise, the recipients of this letter can learn obedience from the things they will suffer because they take the letter to heart and live by it. On the other hand, if they elect to forego the pain of discipline, they’ll end up feeling like Esau – full of regret, but lacking the opportunity to do anything about it because the window of opportunity will have passed.

When my drill sergeants made me suffer in Army basic training, it felt at times like I was going to die. But every aspect of that training was actually intended to keep me from dying. Likewise, with the Lord’s discipline. He’s using the evil that unbelievers are inflicting on you for the good purpose of making you stronger and delivering you from potential regret. Don’t you have enough regrets already? I do.

Heb 12:15-17 – The remorse of Esau, accompanied as it was by tears, included no sign of repentance; instead, he just cried about missing out on the benefits that his brother Jacob received. A similar but stronger form of this kind of remorse is ascribed to Judas Iscariot in Mt 27:3-10 (see also associated BSN note) because, despite his remorse over betraying Jesus, instead of repenting, he killed himself. Paul defines the kind of sorrow that Judas and Esau exhibit as “the sorrow of the world [that] produces death” as distinguished from “the sorrow that is according to the will of God” that produces a repentance that leads to salvation in 2 Cor 7:9-11 (see that passage and associated BSN note for more explanation). For more about Esau’s refusal to repent and submit to God and how it extended through his descendants see Num 20:14-22 (and accompanying BSN note) and Mal 1:1-5. 

Heb 12:18-29 – Once again, Paul compares and contrasts the old covenant situation with the new. Judgment didn’t end with the Old Testament. In the kingdom of God, it’s always coming in one form or another for Jesus baptizes in fire as well as in the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:16 John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Luke 3:17 “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Luke 3:18 So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.

Yes, this is the gospel of the kingdom – the good news. Judgment is upon us and everyone is going to heaven. It’s not one or the other; it’s both.

Rom 11:22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

Like any loving parent, Jesus has a soft side and a hard side. The decision about which side we experience is ours. To experience His good side brings out the bad side in men toward us, but that’s way more tolerable than His wrath.

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Hebrews 13

Heb 13:1-6 – As with Paul’s other general letters (Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians), he follows the theology with specific, practical instructions. Granted, the theology section dwarfs the application section in this one, but it’s the same two-part pattern. Besides, as Paul seems to suggest in verse 22 below, he may have been short on time. (As an alternative boundary, one could consider Heb 12:1 as the beginning of the application section.)

Heb 13:7 – Those who led us are the apostles who wrote the New Testament. May what we think of them be what your children think of you and your wife. ***** Note that in this verse, in speaking of the apostles, Paul does not tell us to “imitate their actions.” Rather, he instructs us to “imitate their faith.” In light of this, consider the great variety of actions emanating from faith that Paul cataloged in Heb 11. When people have faith, they don’t always do the same thing. They all take action, but there’s not one action that all take. Individuals motivated by faith do what the moment requires (Eph 4:29); from a broader point of view, they live lives appropriate to the generation in which they find themselves (Acts 13:36). People seem to realize without problem that the Old Testament is a source of patterns and principles for us – patterns to observe, and principles to follow – not actions to imitate. But, for some reason, they are slow to recognize that we should treat the New Testament in the same way. That is, we should no more try to be the church than we should decide to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The kingdom of God has come – it is here and now. Everything in the Bible – both testaments – is prelude to it.

Heb 13:8 – This statement hearkens back to Paul’s quotation of the 102nd Psalm in the opening of this letter.

Heb 1:10 And,
“YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,
AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS;
Heb 1:11 THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN;
AND THEY ALL WILL BECOME OLD LIKE A GARMENT,
Heb 1:12 AND LIKE A MANTLE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP;
LIKE A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED.
BUT YOU ARE THE SAME,
AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.”

Because the words of this psalm were directed to Messiah, Paul can confidently say that Jesus is “the same” and add “yesterday and today and forever.”

Heb 13:9-10 – Even in this closing stage of this letter, Paul keeps contrasting the superior benefits of the new covenant when compared to the old.

2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
2 Cor 3:6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The literal food and literal altar of the Law of Moses, would not bring the riches of grace that arise from the spiritual food and spiritual altar that Jesus brings in the new covenant. ***** It’s interesting that Paul warns his contemporaries against “varied and strange” teachings when such teachers would probably use the same terms to describe his teaching. But Paul has spent the entirety of this letter showing that his teaching came from the same Bible they all use, so I think it’s going to make it hard for that label to stick on this letter.

Heb 13:11-13 – No matter what someone quotes from the Old Testament, Paul is always going to #FJOT. And with good reason.

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

Heb 13:14 – The “city to come” is not the existing earthly Jerusalem but the heavenly Jerusalem come down in our midst – that is, the promised kingdom of God.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
Rev 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

Heb 13:15-16 – Paul identifies for us more “spiritual sacrifices” of the new covenant. No need to kill an animal.

1 Pet 2:4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
1 Pet 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Heb 13:17 – See note on verses 23-24 below. Paul makes no attempt to identify all the leaders of these churches because 1) these believers are in Jewish-dominated areas where Paul did not generally labor and therefore he would be unaware of the identities of many of them, and 2) there would have been to many to name. ***** It is interesting that Paul addressed the letter to the people rather than to the leaders. And the way he wrote of the leaders in this verse may indicate that he was uncertain of how they would all respond. For if he were confident that all the Hebrew leader were teaching this way, why would he even need to write the letter? It seems he is speaking of them all respectfully and in the hope that they will support his teaching, but, if any of them waver, his inclusion of “those who will give an account” should keep them on their toes.

Heb 13:18-19 – Paul told people to pray for him because that was the way to get on his itinerary. He wanted to be in more places than he had time or ability to be. And he was constantly praying “Thy will be done,” so putting a bug in Jesus’ ear was the way to get Paul to visit your church.

Heb 13:20-21 – The bud that is the 23rd psalm comes to full blossom in this statement.

Heb 13:22 – Wouldn’t we love to have seen a longer version of this letter?

Heb 13:23-24 – Paul is writing this letter from Rome to the Jewish churches in Jerusalem, Judea, and Galilee – for that is where the greatest collection of Hebrews could be found at this time.

Heb 13:25 – Paul: “Leaving the Law of Moses for the grace of Christ is a good move, guys.” (It’s one last quick shot of the “exhortation” – verse 22.) John would say “Amen.”

John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

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