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Tag: Psalms

  • Hebrews 12- Reject Not God’s Grace

    Therefore, strengthen your listless hands and your weak knees

    Hebrews 12:12 NET

    The author of Hebrews assures us: “We have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us;” therefore do not grow weary and lose heart.

    Life’s race shall not be to the finish of death, but to our completion in eternity.

    In Christ we have grace. So many witnesses of faith, as the writer of Hebrews points out, from Noah to Moses and David. These pointed to a more perfect place and worship.

    The imagery of the Priest making offerings to the Lord in the Holy of Holies is an earthly imitation of true worship and perfect offering made by our Holiest and Perfect Son of God, Christ Jesus! He alone sanctifies us. By His grace we are saved.

    Hebrews 12:

    a Few Cautions

    14 Pursue peace with all men… and the sanctification…

    The author of Hebrews cautions to believers echo: “Love one another,” and be holy before the LORD your God.

    15 Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God…

    Who is the author addressing? Brothers (and sisters) who believe in the Lord. Yet what is their understanding of the grace of God?

    We often reject the grace of God when roots sprout from our selfishness. He cautions next to make sure ‘that no root of bitterness springs up…

    A ‘root of bitterness‘ springing up draws on the imagery of weeds (among the good crop), an extreme wickedness and hatred growing from the depths of your heart. He compares this by example to the attitude of Esau, of whom the Lord said: ‘but I have hated Esau.’

    Come to the Mountain

    crowd worship at base of Mount Sinai
    Worship at Mount Sinai

    You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai.

    Hebrews 12:18 NLT

    Sinai or Zion: Fear or Joy

    20 [CSB] for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. 21 The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear.

    וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּרַךְ מֹשֶׁה אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי מֹותֹֽו׃

    וַיֹּאמַר יְהוָה מִסִּינַי בָּא וְזָרַח מִשֵּׂעִיר לָמֹו הֹופִיעַ מֵהַר פָּארָן וְאָתָה מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ מִֽימִינֹו אשֶׂדת לָֽמֹו׃

    Devarim (Deuteronomy) 33:1-2 (WLC)

    Do you fear Almighty GOD!?

    Moses did, many prophets did, Saul of Tarsus and others all fell prostate before Almighty God.

    … and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.

    When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

    The REVELATION of Jesus Christ to John 16B-18 CSB

    Since the generations of Moses, priests entered the Holy of Holies with an expectation of meeting the LORD.

    Moses placed a veil over his face after descending Mount Sinai with his face shining with the glory of the Lord. The Holy of Holies was separated from other rooms of the Temple by a veil.

    The LORD is fearful and awesome! What mortal may face Him?

    Mount Zion, above all the high places

    To enter the Holy of Holies is to step across the threshold of holiness to encounter the LORD in a place above His creation.

    Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. – Matthew 27:51-53 NKJV

    22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem)…

    The author of Hebrews describes, in part, the heavenly abode of the Lord God and Christ Jesus. Moses could not fully explain the Face of God. Ezekiel and other Prophets could not fully describe the glory of the Lord. John could not fully reveal the Heavenly Place of the Lord or the Apocalypse of this created heavens and earth.

    Yet here the author assures us of the joy we have in Christ Jesus. He describes this holiest place of the Lord as the place of our Priest making His Perfect Sacrifice.

    … 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

    Do Not Refuse the Voice of Jesus

    New Covenant, therefore, a new Priest – a Perfect Sacrifice and Perfect Mediator between the LORD God and sinful man. Which will you choose?

    25 “See that you do not refuse Him… “ states the NKJV. Once again, the author of Hebrews invokes our natural fear of the Lord quoting well-known scripture. HE WARNS YOU FROM HEAVEN!

    Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

    Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
    at the presence of the God of Jacob.

    eXODUS 19:18; pSALM 114:7

    28 [NIV] Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

    Two covenants, two mountains, two types of High Priests to intervene for you before Almighty God. Will you worship by the grace of Christ Jesus?

    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 12-Grow Not Weary and Lose Heart

    For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

    Hebrews 12:3 NASB

    Endurance for the race

    Life wears me out – daily and year to year. My faith fades into a fog of uncertainty as I wonder if the Lord has any use for me at all. I am weary of sin and sinners, my heart broken and soul suffering. How will I endure this marathon of mortal life?

    Can you relate to that? Do your days run endlessly with all around you asking you to sprint to their end rather than endure the race of hope to finish?

    It was no different for a persecuted church, yet in Christ we have found our Hope and Light to victory over death and the joy of the prize.

    The author of Hebrews has just connected a genealogy of Jewish faith where ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now he urges us to continue in Christ by faith.

    Lay aside every burden

    Cast your burden on the LORD,
    and he will sustain you;
    he will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

    Psalm 55:22 CSB

    Many know well the comfort of our Lord’s invitation to give to Him the great weights of our lives which hold us down.

    At that time Jesus said,

    “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father.

    “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

    excerpt from Matthew 11:25-28

    The author of Hebrews has just shown us many witnesses who have gone before us in this long journey of faith. He has provided the evidence.

    Hebrews 12:

    Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

    Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

    Hebrews 12:1b-2a CSB

    Clear imagery of our remaining days, as well as the persecuted lives of the early Christians to whom the author of Hebrews wrote his letter. We are not in the race alone, but have run it with Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, the many Prophets of God and all the others.

    We have received a baton of hope from our forefathers, which we may place gently into the hand of our children by faith. Jesus, the Messiah is our hope of winning the prize joyfully awarded by our Heavenly Father.

    Fix your eyes upon Jesus

    It bears repeating: Jesus IS our pacesetter. He has run this same race of mortality before us.

    Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

    ἀφοράω – aphoraō

    • to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something

    He exhorts us to turn away from things that are not part of the race of eternity and fix our eyes on the finisher of our faith.

    The once-familiar hymn based on this passage expresses the authors same desire.

     
    O soul, are you weary and troubled?
    No light in the darkness you see?
    There’s light for a look at the Savior,
    And life more abundant and free.
     
    Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
    Look full in His wonderful face,
    And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
      In the light of His glory and grace.
    2
    Through death into life everlasting
    He passed, and we follow Him there;
    O’er us sin no more hath dominion
    For more than conqu’rors we are!
    3
    His Word shall not fail you, He promised;
    Believe Him and all will be well;
    Then go to a world that is dying,
    His perfect salvation to tell!

    Do not lose heart

    These three verses appear as an introduction to Hebrews 12, but they comprise the heart of the author’s conclusion continuing in chapter 13.

    3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

    Fix your eyes upon Jesus. Our race is not ended, but Christ our Redeemer assures our victory!

    Striving against Sin

    Have your forgotten the exhortation, the admonition and encouragement of scripture?

    Proverbs 3:11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son,
    and do not loathe his discipline;
    12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

    7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

    Are you an obedient son or daughter of God our Father? The author of Hebrews continues with the example of earthly fathers. They discipline their child because the love them. It’s just for a few days, but God’s discipline to our holiness ‘yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’

    Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees…

    Hebrews 12:12 CSB

    Walk the straight and narrow so that your woundedness may be healed.

    ἁγιασμός – Sanctification

    We are all broken though perhaps we have not yet shed blood for the sake of God. Our lives, disjointed by the sin that surrounds, wander the paths of unrighteousness.

    What is needed? How will a sinner like me ever get to the holiness required of heaven?

    The writer of Hebrews will continue to chastise us as a loving father when we continue in chapter 12.

    To be continued…

  • Hebrews 10- Sacrifice and Offering

    Offering on the Altar


    I waited patiently for the LORD;
    40:6  זֶ֤בַח וּמִנְחָ֨ה לֹֽא־חָפַ֗צְתָּ אָ֭זְנַיִם כָּרִ֣יתָ לִּ֑י עֹולָ֥ה וַ֝חֲטָאָ֗ה לֹ֣א שָׁאָֽלְתָּ׃

    Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
    My ears You have opened.
    Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

    Psalm 40:6 Masoretic Text; NKJV

    The Perfect Sacrifice

    The author of Hebrews states that in Christ we have a High Priest who does not need to repeatedly make offering and sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrificial blood of the Messiah on the Cross represents a new and better covenant.

    Once again, he logically makes his case supported by the evidence of well-known scripture.

    Hebrews 10:

    Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

    He refers to the many rules and regulations of sacrifice and offering prescribed in the Mosaic law. Moses gave us a law of better things to come, a mere shadow of true worship. When we finally make the perfect sacrifice, becoming completely purified before the Lord, wouldn’t we then stop making more sacrifices? Wouldn’t our guilt be left covered?

    Sin remains in the shadow sacrifice of the Law, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse sin perfectly.

    We have awaited a Messiah.. patiently.. a High Priest Perfect for all time. From
    a thousand years before, the writer quotes David’s well known Psalm 40:

    Patience

    I waited patiently for the Lord,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.
    2 He brought me up from a desolate pit,
    out of the muddy clay,
    and set my feet on a rock,
    making my steps secure.
    3 He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.

    Think of this hope in the hearts of faithful Jews when the writer reminds us:

    6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
    you open my ears to listen.
    You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
    7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
    in the scroll it is written about me.

    Psalm 40:6-7A CSB

    ‘The Lord is trying our patience,’ they must have thought as Rome dominated their land, their city and culture. We wonder why the Lord has not blotted out evil and accepted faithful worshipers only – faithful in these last days.

    Those receiving this letter in the first century would have known the next verses of the Psalm as well. The writer of Hebrews continues:

    Hebrews 10:9 [quote of Psalm 40] he then says, See, I have come to do your will.

    He takes away the first to establish the second.

    The author’s firm reason taken in the second half of verse 9 compare the old and new covenants. He then follows this statement of God’s will with:

    By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

    Hebrews 10:10 CSB

    The priest of their shadow sacrifices stands imperfectly at the altar day after day.

    12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

    Testimony of the Holy Spirit

    Then the writer of Hebrews then adds even more support from Scripture.

    15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

    16 This is the covenant I will make with them
    after those days,

    the Lord says,

    I will put my laws on their hearts
    and write them on their minds

    Hebrews 10:16 quote from Jeremiah 31
    By Микеланжело Буонаротти - Электронная библиотека.Музеи Ватикана., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2284599
    Jeremiah by Michaelango

    A new covenant – ” Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—

    The writer of Hebrews appeals to scripture of the prophet Jeremiah, 600 years before Christ, for support of the New Covenant where sacrifice and offering will no longer be required.

    He concludes:

    18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

    Enter the Sanctuary through the Blood of Jesus

    Several editors of Hebrews take different directions for labeling the next section of chapter 10, which we will examine in my next post. Again the author quotes scripture known to faithful Jews as he pursues the argument for the Messiah Jesus.

    Note just a few headings for the section to come:

    • How We Should Live? – ISV
    • Hold Fast Your Confession – NKJV
    • Exhortations to Godliness – CSB
    • The Full Assurance of Faith – ESV
    • Let Us Come Near to God – GNT

    All, thoughtful considerations of scriptural application to our lives. If you would like to take a preview, take it from the Greek in verse 19.

    10:19 ἔχοντες οὖν ἀδελφοί παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ αἵματι Ἰησοῦ

    To be continued...