Category: Devotions

Throughout this letter the Pastor will pause from the main subjects to bring a warning to the people. This is the third time in the letter. This warning passage is again quite long starting here in verse 11 and continuing into chapter 6 v12.

”We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.“ Hebrews 5:11-14 

The section of the letter doesn’t pull any punches:

They had stopped trying to learn – Today is a day to learn. Let Him direct your paths. Grow. Mature. Be self-aware. Be better.

By this time they should be teachers – disciples make disciples and so if no disciples are being made what does that mean?

They needed milk not solid food – they have slipped backwards and become immature.

They do not know the teaching about righteousness – they don’t know how to live the Christian life.

They cannot distinguish good from evil – they don’t know how to make wise decisions. 

Now think for a moment on what has already been told them previously.

Chapter 1: The Son is better, greater, superior and He is supreme than whatever you are hearing or seeing.

Chapter 2: Seeing Jesus is to see how He suffered but won; how His victory is our victory; to live in Him not at the mercy of this world. 

Chapter 3: ‘hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory’

Chapter 4: ‘hold firmly to your faith’

Chapter 5: Psalm 2:7 and 110:4 which are quoted here reveal the status of Jesus and how it came about. He is the Son and the High Priest. This has come about because of the declaration of God. This will never be altered.

They have been told all these things. However look at those 4 verses again. 

They are not where they should be by now. They are in danger of slipping backwards. In fact they seem to have done so. 

It’s a challenge to us all. 

Are we moving forward? Are we growing? Do we know Him more? Asking yourself these 5 questions each day may help to redirect your paths. 

What will you learn today?

Who will you teach today?

How will you grow today?

What acts of righteousness will you do today?

What wise decisions will you make today? 

“I’ll pray for you” is often said and we often say it.  But there are times when behind the scenes where no one is hearing and seeing you feel like you are crying out to God to change your circumstance and to do something so that what looks inevitable doesn’t happen! Do you know those moments? Of course you do and you maybe in one of them right now. That’s what our next verses speak to us about today.

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5 v 7-10)

He prayed, was heard but was not saved from death but through death.

Perhaps the thought here is Gethsemane and though there are other times we see Jesus praying and there are many occasions we are not privy to, but what is written here would suggest his time in that garden. A place of grief and sorrow. He knows what it is to be hard pressed. Gethsemane means oil press.

He prayed to the Almighty, the all-powerful One. To Him who placed the stars in the sky and created the gardens of Eden and Gethsemane. The Father of Jew and Gentile, of all. He prayed to the Covenant-maker. Jesus was fully aware of the prophecy of Jeremiah in 31:31-33 where God promises a new covenant, for the old was broken. That’s why Jesus personally battles with the cup before him. He has Isaiah also racing through his mind where the prophet is alarmed at Gods people drinking the cup of terror (51:17). He knows he will drink the cup of wrath and judgment in order to create the new covenant made with his shed blood.

He learned obedience not because he was disobedient but because of his submission to what he suffered.

The mark of any disciple is obedience.

“Son though he was” reveals that the One who had it all needed to submit.

There are times for whatever reason that we should not stop and admire the view but submit. We should just go through it as best as we can. This place is not your destination nor is it a resting place. It is a going through place. Do not be distracted or attracted to whatever you see around you, just keep walking through.

He was declared as High Priest.

The ‘Pastor’ will speak more about this in chapter 7 and it seems like we are being simply introduced to this name Melchizedek for that reason, whetting our appetite for more!

But Jesus was called, appointed, designated High Priest not by ambition. This role is as we know from the Old Testament system one of intercession and we have seen this already.

Today Jesus is interceding for you.

Gethsemane and submitting to the destiny on your life will crush you. He hears your cries. He hears and He is praying for you.

To learn obedience is to know we are not first but second. We are not leading everything but following. We are not in charge but conforming ourselves to Him and not to our rights. But in doing so we cry through the battle of that transformation. He hears and He is praying for you.

Finally, this war with your soul is the prayer that brings the eternal part of you, the God-focused, Christ-centred, Spirit-dwelt part of you to the surface and to make this the loudest voice, the clearest vision and the most powerful thought over what your body is experiencing. He knows this, He hears this and He is praying for you.

Thank you Jesus!

In the verses before we see the requirements of the High Priest and one of them being that no one takes the honour themselves, it is given, v4.

“In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” ⁶ And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5 v 5-6)

These 2 verses from the Psalms (Psalm 2:7 and 110:4) reveal the status of Jesus and how it came about. He is the Son and the High Priest. This has come about because of the declaration of God. This will never be altered.

He did not appoint himself.

He had no priestly family connections. He was not in the line of Aaron.

He wasn’t interested in joining a Temple to carry our priestly duties in the way everyone was used to.

He did not enter into political shenanigans like what had been happening in the culture of his day.

He had to die and rise from the dead to become the High Priest (we will read this in verse 9 soon). It showed that he was different to Aaron who also had to have atonement for his own sin before atoning others.

His priestly ministry is forever. Like Melchizedek’s It never fades.

You may in the eyes of some not be good enough. Your family tree may be conspicuous to say the least.

You may be completely different to anyone else.

Your way maybe the sacrificial way.

And what you think disqualifies you may actually be the reason you are qualified.

A message for those in the pulpits (and the pews!)

Over the next few chapters we will be reading beautiful things about Jesus our High Priest but before we get there we are reminded about what the qualifications are for priesthood. So whether we think of the high priest in Jewish history, or the church minister today or wherever you might be serving the Lord in whatever capacity that is, here are the instructions.

“Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. ³ This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. ⁴ And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.” (Hebrews 5 v 1-4)

It may look like you have gone through a human selection and then appointment process but actually you are called by God, v1 and v4

Do you believe this?

Being appointed by man can be encouraging and even empowering. But that is nothing compared to knowing that the Lord has appointed you, that He has chosen you, that He knows you and wants you.  In the same way even if man rejects you, even if they don’t see the potential in you, even if they say ‘NO!’ as the friends of Jesus did when he tried to share with them his appointment, it matters not. God appoints where man disappoints. It takes courage to hold on to this and to know you are appointed.

Deal gently with people, v2.

Into a context of being interrogated over who he is, where he is from and why he is here, Jesus tells a story. Was it going to be a story showing the power of who he was? A warrior leading the people into battle over the Roman Empire? No! He tells the story of a shepherd (John 10). The story is not of a powerful leader but of a caring and loving shepherd who deals gently. The Bible is full of a God who loves as a shepherd. We need more gentleness in our world.

Don’t let the sins of others become more important than your own sins, v3.

Maybe you wake to the hurt of yesterday. Every day there are wrongs done to people. You may be reading this carrying such a horrible weight of wrong that has been done against you.  There are unbelievable tragedies today. There are many victims. Since the beginning of time God has seen what mankind can to each other. “The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10). Today you may be the victim because someone made the wrong choice. When we are the sinner we cry for mercy. But the natural response when we are sinned against is to cry for justice. The blood of Abel in Genesis 4 cried for justice. It was a prayer of ‘Get him God.’ The blood of Jesus is not ‘Father get these murderers’ but “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Receive this honour, don’t grab it, v4

Jesus had said he was going to suffer and the disciples wanted to talk about who is the greatest. The whole team were battling over their positions. They were full of ambition. Still today even leaders want to be a higher leader, members want to be pastors, Pastors want to be apostles, apostles want to be bishops, bishops want to be archbishops and archbishops want to be Popes. That’s in the church but it is everywhere. Naked, raw ambition, climb the ladder, get to the top, it is better up there. Ambition is a killer of the church. We need to stop looking in the mirror. We need to find another visual aid other than ourselves. In the incident I mention remember the visual aid Jesus chose? He brought a little child amongst them.

After each chapter I want to pause and reflect and ask this question. Why?

Over the last several days we have discovered the answer.

If you are struggling in this season of your life then this section of the letter is an encouragement and a command to ‘hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory’ and ‘hold firmly to your faith’. Accompanying this command are several practical instructions; listen and obey His voice, know His ways, watch your heart, continue to move, move into His rest, don’t work for righteousness and take care of your soul. 

But maybe someone needs to hold on to these commands today.

To ‘hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory’ 3 v 6 and to ‘hold firmly to the faith’ 4 v 14.

We don’t know exactly what struggles of persecution this community of believers were facing but they were told to hold firmly to their confidence, hope and faith. 

Yesterday the World Watch List 2024 was published and launched by Open Doors at Parliament, Westminster. Along with many church leaders there were 130 MPs present. The 10 most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a Christian in 2024 are:

1. North Korea
2. Somalia 
3. Libya
4. Eritrea
5. Yemen
6. Nigeria
7. Pakistan
8. Sudan
9. Iran
10. Afghanistan

But those are nations and it doesn’t impact us. We need stories. 

I stood amongst the crowd with tears in my eyes as I heard first-hand stories of a Nigerian Pastor who was away on a ministry trip and Islamist’s came to his house and abducted his wife and 4 girls. They were taken far away but the wife couldn’t make the journey physically so they abandoned her and continued the journey with just the girls. Months of anxiety went by and then the ransom demand came. They could have them back for an equivalent of £20,000. The Pastor sold all that they had, their house and farm, and even the clothes on their back and borrowed to get the money. Then came the day for their release and the handover of the ransom. Before their release all the girls were raped before being let go. This family are now seriously in debt and are traumatised by the evil.

Story after story.

Evil.

And I was in tears. 

Hold firmly to your faith. 

For far less a story people have abandoned their faith. 

And whatever your circumstance. Whether you are one of the 2 Christian women stripped, paraded and sexually assaulted on the streets of Manipur in India on 4 May last year, having watched your younger brother and father killed before your eyes because they tried to intervene, the video was seen all over the world on newscasts on 19 July; or your name is Saleh (not his real name) who today is on Yemen’s most wanted list because he is a Christian Pastor; or you’re an Iranian Christian who is weekly being interrogated by the police having had your home ransacked again; and we can go on and on; or you are reading this and maybe you are not being persecuted but you are thinking of giving up because the devil is constantly plaguing you; then the reason why you should read chapter 3 and 4 is this: hold firmly to your confidence, hope and faith! 

Some days we need someone to represent us. It can feel like even our self is against our self! The evidence can be stacked against us and we know more than others know. We are simply not good enough for this world we live in. And as for another world after this one? Well, if we don’t qualify for this one then how will we make the next one?

We need a lawyer to get us through this season. We need a lawyer who though might know the truth about us can masterfully still defend us and find some mitigating factor that means though we are guilty that we survive.

I’m thankful this morning that we have someone who is far better than the best lawyer. The actual need is not for a lawyer but a High Priest.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16 

Jesus the Son of God is our great high priest. 

The Pastor has told this community already that Jesus is greater than the angels and the prophets. But there is a higher position because of its function and that is Jesus is the great high priest.

The priest was crucial to the life of a believer in that they taught the law of God and represented God to the people but they also stood on behalf of the people before God and did so through the sacrificial system. They were the intermediary, pleading to God for the people.

But it was the high priest who was most important in keeping the relationship with God good for the people and the special Day of Atonement was his day as he went into the Holy of Holies to cleanse the people through the blood sacrifice. 

Today I want to tell someone who needs to know this truth. No matter what this world throws at you and you might deserve everything, there is one who stands in the gap for you, Jesus your High Priest.

Your prosecutor, the devil, wants to stop you from approaching God and if he cannot then he definitely wants to remove your confidence in doing so. He wants you to fall away and if he cannot make that happen then he definitely wants you to approach God with your head down and await your judgment and condemnation.

There is a gap though and Jesus is standing in it. More than a lawyer. A High Priest. More than the best High Priest of history. One that has ascended to the throne room, the place of judgment, as the one who knows what is to be fully human, he knows how you are feeling, he knows how you are thinking, he knows not only because he sees but because he has been where you are today. Maybe you have fallen into temptation and perhaps you have failed the test but He had the same experience but He didn’t. He is your confidence because He didn’t sin. He is your confidence because He became your sacrifice.

And today the throne is one of grace and mercy and the greatest lawyer, intermediary, High Priest is there representing you, calling out your name. So hold on, stand firm, not because you are right but because He is your righteousness.

How is your soul? And how is your spirit? Which submits to the other?

At the start of this second warning in the letter the community of believers are encouraged by this ‘Pastor’ to listen to the voice of God and through a number of other instructions it ends with bringing us back to the voice through the word of God.

1. Listen and obey His voice, 3:7-9.
2. Know His ways, 3:10-11.
3. Watch your heart, 3:12-15.
4. Continue to move, 3:16-19.
5. Move into His rest, 4:1-5.
6. No works for righteousness, 4:6-11
7. Take care of your soul, 4:12-13.

^“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4 v 12-13)

Look what the word of God accomplishes: it divides the soul and spirit.

On the cross Jesus cried out, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Matthew 26 v 38)

The 3 functions of our soul: the will, intellect and our emotions must be directed by our spirit which was created to be in direct contact with God.

In the order of God’s kingdom our souls direct our bodies but our spirit (which God constantly moves upon) masters our soul. This is why the Bible is essential to keep the order of God in our lives.

If I allow the primary focus of my life to be my soul (my will, intellect and emotions) then not only will that dominate my body but it will negatively impact my spirit (my contact with God).

Jesus reversed soulish living so that it is possible to be restored to the original kingdom order. But to do that his spirit, soul and body took a battering for us.

Jesus’ cry is an anticipation of 2 deaths. He knows the pain his body will go through but he is also anticipating being forsaken by God the Father. His spirit will soon lose contact with his beautiful union with God. The result is, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death …” The soul of Jesus was beginning to rule his life through grief, pain and hurt hours before he lost contact with God (his spirit) and his body killed.

He did that for us. Why?

So that our souls are submitted to our spirit and our spirit is in direct contact with God and we live as the nail-printed body of Christ in the world today.

And so that is the warning. Let us make sure the word of God continues to speak to us and let us be obedient to it so that we remain in His rest/in the finished work of Christ.

How many woke up this morning knowing that today they want to please God?

Do you ever worry about being good enough for God? Do you wonder if He is pleased or angry or is He someone who is rolling His eyes at you? How debilitating that must be! And more important what a waste of time as a follower of Jesus!

The Word of God is the same in 2024 as at the time of Israel’s Wilderness years:

1. Listen and obey His voice;
2. Know His ways
3. Watch your heart.
4. Continue to move.
5. Move into His rest.
6. No works for righteousness

“Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, ⁷ God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,just as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4 v 6-11)

Every generation must enter into the rest God has given. Whether that be the Moses generation, Joshua’s, the Psalmists who is quoted here (Psalm 95) and our own generation. There is a greater Joshua who we know is Jesus and though we have rested in Him we know we are also looking forward to that final rest in God when we step into heaven. Jesus finished what Joshua failed to do.

For that then we recognise there is no place for working for your salvation. This is to have the Sabbath rest. We don’t work for our righteousness. Yet ingrained in us is the belief that God is not pleased with us and He wants more from us.

There is nothing you can do to cause you to be saved, not one thing, it is total grace. Not one performance, not one sin-free day, not one commandment or act of purity or sacrificial giving, nothing. Get rid of the whole notion.

I met a man the other day who had achieved so much for God but he was incredibly miserable. Happiness is only found when you receive from God and not when you have earned something from Him (or think you have).

Sit back, receive His presence, be thankful for His forgiveness and be happy today. That’s not as easy as it sounds and for some we have to ‘make every effort’. This is of such importance because if we fail to do so then where is there left to go? Everything hangs on this one thing that our obedience is to enter into the finished work of Jesus. This is incredible but true.

In 2024 God has so much for you but you have to move forward into them not to gain, achieve or grab but to enter in the finished, completed work of Christ. It is called His rest.

Throughout this letter the Pastor will pause from the main subjects to bring a warning to the people. This is the second time in the letter. This time the warning passage is quite long starting in verse 7 and continuing into chapter 4 v 13.

The battle is the same in 2024 as at the time of Israel’s Wilderness years:

1. Listen and obey His voice;
2. Know His ways
3. Watch your heart.
4. Continue to move.
5. Move into His rest.

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. ³ Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” ⁵ And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” (Hebrews 4 v 1-5)

I find it a little strange that the Pastor again has said ‘for somewhere he has spoken’ which even for the least experienced student of the Scriptures is obviously Genesis. Didn’t the Pastor not know the Scriptures? It can be proven that he did with so many Old Testament references within this letter. Perhaps it is simply that nothing should distract us from Christ and although David is mentioned the rest of the Old Testament authors are not.

This rest that the Wilderness generation failed to enter because of disobedience, not knowing His ways, having a hardened heart and refusing to move forward into the Promised Land was a foreshadowing of what was to come for us in Christ but also is the Genesis rest of God. This was not a tired God but a God who had completed and fulfilled everything. The Pastor is warning the people not to fall short of that rest where everything has and is being completed. What do I mean?

Because you have entered that rest and as a pilgrim continue to journey further into that rest then you can know for sure that God has your life in His hands.

There is nothing too immense or too numerous or too intense or too small or too detailed in your life that God cannot and will not bring into an order and arrangement that glorifies Him where He can say ‘it is completed, it is finished, it is good, let’s rest!’

It’s what it looks like from God’s vantage point that matters.

Enter into this relationship with Him where He is your source and everything comes from Him and is for Him and then rest. Move into that rest.

I think some of the saddest verses in the whole of the Bible are these, “These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. For the Lord had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.” (Numbers 26:63-65)

They were counted in but they were not counted out. They failed to move forward. They became stuck and died.

Throughout this letter the Pastor will pause from the main subjects to bring a warning to the people. This is the second time in the letter. This time the warning passage is quite long starting in verse 7 and continuing into chapter 4 v 13.

The battle is the same in 2024 as at the time of Israel’s Wilderness years:

1. Listen and obey His voice;
2. Know His ways
3. Watch your heart.
4. Continue to move.

“Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷ And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? ¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3 v 16-19)

That generation wasted their opportunity. They blew it and never became all that they could become. Or as Ravenhill’s haunting book title says: They drank from the River and died in the Wilderness. Frightening.

 Read it again. They drank from the River (the rock) and died in the Wilderness.

Many go into the desert as a Christian. It is a place where we must travel. But few come out of that experience.

We serve a God who moves out and moves in.

He takes us as we are but loves us so much He will not leave us as we are but bring us into an ever-increasing likeness of His Son, Jesus.

Therefore we need to be counted in, stay in and counted out.

The Wilderness is there to travel through and to learn from not to die in.

Do not blow your experience of God. Don’t give up in the difficult season. Move forward in it.