The author of Hebrews is concerned about an unacceptable attitude toward the Word of God in the Christian community in Rome. Due to the threat of persecution and hardship in the church, these first century Christians were giving up on their commitments to Christ. There was an attractive appeal among them to go back to Moses and the old sacrificial system as something that seemed to provide more access to God, more power for the present.
There was little confidence that God was among them, and the reign of Christ seemed like a myth since, as the author acknowledged, “we cannot see everything put under his feet (Heb. 2:8).”
The way the author addressed the problem, after explaining the supremacy and the superiority of Christ to everything in the Old Testament, was to set up a parallel between Israel and the church. What these Christians did not realize was that they were in the same position as Israel was when they reached the border of the land.
Just as God delivered Israel from Egypt, plundering the Egyptians by great signs and wonders, and brought them through the wilderness with the goal of entering Canaan, so too the Christian community had tasted of the deliverance of the cross but did not appreciate that the present life is one of wilderness testing.
Just as Israel grumbled and complained against God during their pilgrimage desiring to return to Egypt, so too the believers in Rome wanted to go back to something greatly inferior, something from which they had already been delivered. Read more»
Chris Gordon | “Are We Listening Carefully To God’s Word?” | March 18, 2022
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