7Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. 8Jesus [is] Messiah, the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. 10We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. 15Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. 16And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. 17Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.
Hebrews 13:7-17
It has taken us six Gems, counting this one to cover this complicated section of Hebrews. I have resolved the difficulties in the text to my own satisfaction; I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily as well. Of course, Ross is still waiting for an answer to his question, only because his question is found in the closing segment. So hang on to your hat Ross, I will address your question when we get to it.
You will note that I have opted for a different title than the one I chose in Gem 2176. There I said my working title would be Remember Your Spiritual Leaders and Follow Their Example, unless I, or one of you, came up with a better title. You can see I have chosen Follow Your Leaders; Fix Your Eyes on Jesus Your Messiah as my title for this section. See if you can spot my subtle change to the text of Hebrews 13:7-17. Have you picked up on what I have done to the text in accord with what I have suggested when dealing with the difficulties in this passage? It is ever so small of a change that I think many of you will miss it. But the observant ones among you will notice it for sure and the crusaders for the fidelity of the text of the Word of God will find it glaringly obvious. If you haven’t seen it yet, go back and read the text I have given you above once more or twice more but stop at seven times. Beyond that is overkill. If you still haven’t noticed it by then I will point it out when the time is right. My small change is in keeping with the title I have given this segment.
Now let’s put all the pieces of this section together to glean all the author was telling the Christians of the time, both Jews (and Gentiles) as well as those down through the ages until these modern times. Remember your leaders and the things they have taught you from the Word of God, along with the good things they demonstrated about life in Christ, the Messiah. Remember the examples they have been of the life of faith and trust in Him. Those examples include the men and women of faith of yesterday (Chapter 11) and of these days, your current brothers and sisters who have not given up on the life of faith (Chapter 12 – those among you who are part of that great cloud of witnesses).
Realise that Jesus is Messiah, the same yesterday, today and forever. Allow me to remind those of you who have done Deeper Bible Level 301 that the tetragrammaton [YHWH] embodies the sense of the ever present, ever consistent nature of Jesus as LORD.
Yesterday | Today | Forever |
---|---|---|
I Was what I Was | I Am what I Was | I Will Be what I Was |
I Was what I Am | I Am what I Am | I Will Be what I Am |
I Was what I Will Be | I Am what I Will Be | I Will Be what I Will Be |
Have you got the message yet? So don’t be attracted to strange new ideas which may entice you back to Judaism. The message of God and Messiah is very consistent. God has spoken in His Son and through the Prophets, Angels, Priests, The Mighty Ones of faith, the ancient righteous Ones, the Patriarchs, the Judges, the best King and all others, the same message that the Old Covenant would be superceded by the New Covenant. So don’t come up with strange new ideas or try repackaging the Old. Leave the Old Covenant behind with its brōmata, trivial minutiae of rules to govern food and all other regulations to tie you to the Law. We have the Messiah living within who has freed us from that old way of being right with Him through endless sacrifices and offering. He is our once for all time offering and sacrifice and our Great High Priest. He alone covers all the requirements of the Old Covenant.
While the priests of the Old System couldn’t eat of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, Jesus has opened the way into the Holy Place for us to enter into His presence at any time. But not only that He has told us to feed on Him, to take our spiritual bread and water directly from Him, the Bread of Life and the Fountain of Living Water. We can do that daily as He told us in John 6:48-51; 53-58.
Just as the sacrificial animals had to be burnt or released outside the camp, as Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, we need to go outside the Camp of Judaism to Jesus our Messiah, the author and perfector of this New Way. Don’t stay within the system of the Old Covenant, that will not save you. Don’t set your eyes on the city of Jerusalem as being the city of your focus for your future life in Him. The city of Jerusalem is not our focus. Our permanent home is not found in this world. Just as we need to leave the camp of Judaism, we also need to look beyond the city of Jerusalem. We are looking to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem. That is where we find the Life of the Age to Come we have been promised.
Therefore let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith and through Him offer our sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to Him! Not looking back to the Old Covenant but pressing deeper into Him to appropriate all that He has opened up for us. Staying true to this new found faith in Him and doing good and being good examples of faith to all those around us. Obey your current spiritual leaders, follow their lead and do what they tell you. Their role is to watch over your souls and your journey toward your salvation and the Eternal Life that God purposed for you to gain – the upward call to your eternal reward in Christ Jesus. They are accountable to God to ensure you get there and win the prize of your salvation. Give your leaders joy by the fact that you won’t shrink back at this stage when you can almost taste the joy of Life in Him. Don’t give them anguish and sorrow because you turn back now to the synagogue and the Old Covenant; that would not be to your benefit nor to that of your leaders. Hang in there; keep your eyes on the prize.
Do you see how this final chapter closes the whole book or letter? Go back to look at Gems 2025 to 2027 and take note of how deep and meaningful the opening of this letter was. Then consider all the way this author has led us, to come through to the Chapter of Faith and then beyond to the cloud of witnesses in the time before Nero’s persecution. In the same way the author was encouraging the Christians of his day to hang in there, we need to do the same in these modern times. Nothing has changed! Jesus is still the author and the perfector of our faith in Him no matter what the world may throw at us.
Jesus came to pay a debt he did not owe for those who owed a debt they could not pay.
Max Lucado
The human race crave the experience of awe & wonder. And there is no reality more breathtaking than Jesus Christ.
John Piper
Jesus is NOT my crutch – I’m FAR MORE DEPENDENT on Him that that! I can’t even guarantee my next breath without God’s grace.
Rick Warren
According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.
Dr. Simon Greenleaf (a Harvard University professor of Law)
If Jesus can raise the dead, surely you don’t have a problem He can’t solve!
Ian
Do you realise the hardest time to trust Jesus is when you “know” best?
Ian