Providence, RI. It was interesting to watch the family interact with the employees. Even though the son had what seems to have been a minor role in the family business and perhaps a lower spot on the organizational chart, you knew that he enjoyed a higher status than heads of departments. I enjoyed talking with him about the interests we shared. But the point is this. A son, who has a small part in the family business, has greater influence than the hired employees. In the same way, Jesus, God’s son, has a greater role in God’s unfolding of salvation history than God’s servants.
We miss the point, however, if we only think of Hebrews as elevating Christianity above Judaism. That’s not the point at all. The point is, humans have a poor track record for living faithfully to God. That includes religious people of past centuries. Now we have our own generation to think about. Will future generations look at us and think, “They really dropped the ball in their generation. That was the time when Christians became a minority, when the Bible became an antiquarian curiosity, when people of faith allowed or contributed to violence in the world, when people searched inwardly for meaning and only found an imperfect self.” We must hold tight not just to tradition for the sake of tradition but to the reality of God’s work in the world, that work that brings hope to the human heart.
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When we, as residents of a heavenly home, think about the role of Jesus being like that of Moses, God’s faithful prophet, we realize that Jesus is to be honored even greater than Moses. Jesus is like the architect of the heavenly house and is more than a servant like Moses. Jesus is the Owner’s son and heir to the heavenly estate.
Building houses for poor people is a noble cause. Each one of us, however, works everyday building a house. It could truly by called a habitat for humanity. George Fox, in now famous words, described how we are to live in this world, as people who are leading the way to the heavenly call.
This is the word of the Lord God to you all, a charge to you all in the presence of the living God; be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your life and conduct may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you: then to the Lord God you shall be a sweet savour, and a blessing.1
1. Fox, “Journal,” vol. 1 in Works, 289. Accessed: March 14, 2008. Online: http://dqc .esr.earlham.edu/toc/E12877488A-000.
Arriving at the Destination (3:7–11)
In any type of mission, voyage, or quest, loyalty to leadership is crucial if there is to be success. We’ve heard stories of sea voyages to distant lands. Day after day, the sailors get farther from their homes without knowing if they are getting closer to their destination. When supplies begin to run low and members of the crew begin to grow sick and even die, there begins the talk of mutiny. The crew loses confidence in the captain, and they want to turn back. The day finally comes when they can’t take it any more. They take over the ship, kill the captain, and turn to head for home. The tragedy is, of course, that the destination was within reach, and they aren’t able to survive the return trip home.
We can imagine the wagon trains that made their way west in those days of the American frontier. It must have been grueling, day after day, rattling across the prairie, winding through mountain passes, fording streams. In the morning, pack up the wagons and begin the day’s travel. Travel for a few hours, and then have to stop to fix a wheel. At night, circle up the wagons, care for the animals, prepare a meal, and try to get a night’s sleep. It’s understandable that along the way people would want to give up. Every valley with trees, grass, and a river would look like a promising place to make a home. Why continue traveling for months and months to reach the west, just because it seemed like a new frontier and held out such promise. People may begin to doubt their leaders. Maybe the trail boss does’t know the way or maybe the destination won’t be as good as they say. Why not leave the group and go your own way? Those who did leave often ended up starving, freezing, or being killed by animals.
The ultimate travel story in the Bible is the moving of the Israelite people in the Exodus to return to the area where Abraham had been promised a home-land in Canaan. Moses got the people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and to Mt. Sinai. There they formed the laws and rituals upon which Israelite society was to be based. As they slowly moved northward through the desert, from one oasis to the next, the people continually rebelled against Moses and against God. The result was that the generation of people who left Egypt were to die in the wilderness, and it was the next generation who entered the Promised Land. That wilderness journey came to typify the experience of the Jewish people as they often found themselves oppressed, exiled, and dispersed on the journey back to inherit God’s promises. It has also represented the spiritual journey of people who find themselves captivated by the world and who must learn to follow the path back to enjoy the fullness of what God offers.
The words of God and the works of God should lead us to obedience rather than rebellion (3:7–9). Straying from God’s plan results in us not arriving at the final destination (3:10–11).
The Words of God and the Works of God Should Lead Us To Obedience Rather Than Rebellion (3:7–9)
The author of Hebrews attributes the words of Psalm 95:7–8 to the Holy Spirit (3:7). The first part of Psalm 95 is a beautiful call to worship the God of creation. The end of verse seven marks a transition to a rehearsal of Israel’s disobedience and rebellion, a group of verses the author of Hebrews will reflect on again and again.
O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.” Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Ps 95:7b–11)
In the Old Testament, stubbornness and rebelliousness is described metaphorically as a “hard heart” or “stiff neck.” The Old Testament book of Numbers describes the times when the children of Israel complained and rebelled against Moses.
Now when the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, the LORD heard it and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the LORD burned against them, and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. But the people cried out to Moses; and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire abated. So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned against them. The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Num 11:1–6)
Psalm 78 describes the wilderness wanderings, the rebellion of the people, and the judgment of God against that generation.
Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees, but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. (Ps 78:56–59)
It’s a bit cliché, but the road of life is littered with broken dreams. People set out with a goal in life, but along the way they get sidetracked. Maybe the way gets too tough and people give up on their dream. It makes some people angry and bitter. They had a different vision of what they wanted to do in life, but they’ve had to settle for something else.
Each
