Hebrews 13:1-16.  We are very near the end of the letter and the author is getting right to the point.  Remember that we have a group of believers that are both Jews and non-Jews or Gentiles.  The letter is specifically to the Jewish believers.  Many of these people were probably formerly priests in the Old Testament Jewish system of honoring God.  Now they were on the outside, outcasts by their family and friends.  In the Old Testament system priests did not have a territory or land allotment, they earned their living working in the temple and doing other priestly duties.  Being outcast these people would have been out of work so to speak.  It is also quite probable that their wives and children might have deserted some of them.  There may have also been women who had been “put out” by their husbands for giving their lives to Jesus.  It appears that some of these Jewish believers were playing it cool or “laying low” with respect to church (See Hebrews 10:24-25).

In light of that the author tells them in verse 1 to continue to “love the brothers”.  By brothers he means the other Christians in their city.  This isn’t just saying they love them but actually caring for each other, being involved in each other’s lives.  In verse 2 we see this when he instructs them to open their homes to each other.  This isn’t just parties either, this would be providing food and shelter for each other.  In those days there was no “Motel 6” so people relied on the hospitality of others as they were traveling.  You see this idea when Jesus sent out his original followers and told them not to take anything with them.  Jesus expected the people in the towns they came to, to take them in and care for them (Mark 6:7-11).  We see more of this idea in verse 3 when the readers are told to remember the prisoners and others who were being mistreated.  Again he expected the “remembering” to involve action (James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:18).  Notice also in verse 3 how the author uses the idea of a body to describe the group of believers he is writing to.  The idea is that Christians are connected to each other.  According to Paul when one member of the body suffers we all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26).  We aren’t really sure what was going on between married and unmarried people exactly.  Maybe it was what I described above or some other situation.  In any case the author encouraged them to stick with God’s plan for marriage.  In 1 Peter 3:15-17 Peter encouraged another group of believers to keep living for Jesus (v. 15) and to keep living a good God honoring example among the people around them.  In verses 5-6 the author of Hebrews encourages them about their financial troubles; he lets them know that god will not abandon them.  We do know that through the years believers have suffered and even died while trying to honor God.  There are lots of miracles of provision through the years but when Christians do suffer and die they can be sure God is still there for them and will meet them on the other side in eternity.

Verses 7-9 seem to go off in this more spiritual direction.  The believers are told to remember the people who had faithfully taught them and copy their faith.  That would be a faith like the guys back in Chapter 11 who lived looking forward to eternity and the eternal city and kingdom of God.  All of that “cloud of witnesses” served the same God available to the authors current readers.  In verse 9 the author gets very plain by telling them that it is God gift of love and salvation to them (grace) that should be their real source of strength.

In the end of verse 9 he mentions food that did not benefit those who ate it.  In verse 10 he extends the idea in a way that would have meant a lot to former Jewish priests.  The priests got their food from the offering that people brought to the temple.  These former priests no longer got their share; they were outcasts.  So the author reminds them that the food in the temple isn’t worth trading Jesus for.  In the Old Testament rules there was a particular offering designed to symbolically deal with sin.  This particular offering was killed and the blood was sprinkled around the temple.  Then the rest of the animal was taken outside the city and burned.  This particular animal was not used for food.  The death and complete rejection were a symbol of what Jesus would have to pay for our sins to really deal with them.  The author uses that Old Testament picture to remind these former priests that they were on the right track; they were the ones who were really honoring the God of the Old Testament.  In verses 13-14 he encourages them to return to Jesus in an open way and again uses that idea of a different and new home; the eternal city and kingdom.

Verses 15-16 would have been especially meaningful to former priests when the author uses the language of sacrifice.  But their sacrifice was no longer to be animals but rather word of honor to God (praise) and lives of service to others.  These are the things which really make God happy.

God help me not shrink back.  Help me be bold about my relationship with other believers.  Let me not fear whatever bad the world wants to send my way because of you.  Let me be faithful to my brothers and sisters in you.  Just tonight I heard a character in Friends, Joey, tell Phoebe’s husband to be, “Family is everything.”  Help me remember that about your family, our family.  Let me be a faithful son who pleases you.

Hebrews 12:18-29.  Yesterday’s reading was about stepping out in faith.  The readers were encouraged to follow the example of living for God and serving others that was set by the people mentioned in chapter 11 and by Jesus.  The author admited that it would be a hard life but he said the trouble is like the discipline that parents give us; discipline that helps us be what we need to be as people.  The author warned the readers not to be like Esau who gave up all that he could have been for a bowl of stew.

In today’s reading the author explains why the trouble is worth it.  In verses 18-21 he tells them what their new life in Jesus is not about.  The picture he paints is a picture of Moses.  Remember that the original readers of this letter were Jewish believers in Jesus, and there were probably many of them who had been priests who had helped the Jewish people honor God in the ways commanded in the Old Testament.  Those ways were laid out for the Jewish (or Hebrew) people by God on Mount Sinai.  God gave the laws or “Law” to their leader Moses over a period of 40 days (Exodus 24:18; 34:28).  This part of the story is found in Exodus 19-31.  While the people waited they had been instructed that they were not to touch the mountain.  They also saw lightning, fire and clouds and heard what they understood to be the voice of God, though they did not understand it (See especially Exodus 19).  The picture in these chapters is of a very holy God and a less than holy people.  In Romans Paul tells us that the real purpose of the “Law” was to show us how badly we fail in honoring God with our lives (Romans 3:19-20).  Thankfully, remember, this picture of failure and judgment is not what our new lives in Jesus are about; the trouble that we experience as we follow Jesus is not about punishment.  When we keep following Jesus even when it is hard, though, it does show that we really believe.  It’s good to have that assurance.

In verses 22-24 we see what our life in Jesus is about.  There is a new mountain in this new picture, Mount Zion.  This is the place where Jerusalem is.  Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish kingdom under David and Solomon and also the place where Solomon built the temple to replace the Tabernacle (sort of a portable church) where the Jewish people honored God.  The author of Hebrews quotes Psalms 110 a few times in the letter.  In that Psalm Zion is seen as the place from which the Messiah (promised coming king of Israel) will rule.  But there is more to the picture that just a king in Jerusalem, and there always has been.  What God was doing on earth through the Jewish people often was a picture of what was going on in Heaven.  Here in Hebrews 12:22-23 we see that picture.  The real Jerusalem is a heavenly city filled with angles and believers in Jesus.  God is also there.  The end of verse 23 and verse 24 seem to be a sort of repetition.  I verse 23 we see the church and God and  at the end of verse 23 and verse 24 we see mentioned the “spirits of righteous men made perfect” and Jesus.  The end of verse 24 tells us how we are right with God and what it is that has made us perfect, a new contract sealed and paid for by Jesus’ blood.  I’m not really sure what the comparison between Abel and Jesus would have meant to the original readers of this letter.  To me Able was a guy who did his best to honor God and got killed by his brother because of it.  Matthew implies that Able was sort of a prophet (Matthew 23:35, see also Luke 11:51) and the author of this letter included him in the list of Faithful people from Old Testament times.  While these Old Testament people helped us understand our failure and god’s plan only Jesus, by his blood, fixed the problem.

Verses 25 the author makes a final appeal for us to be faithful.  This appeal paints a complete picture about God and our relationship with him.  There is the awesome holy God on mount Sinai and the loving dying God who fixes us; the is the god who judges all men and Jesus the author and perfector of us.   Both are the same and we need to listen.  Many people today what to know why God lets evil continue or even deny God’s existence because evil does continue.  But there is a day coming when God will judge heaven and earth.  Sin and evil will be destroyed and only the things which have been made perfect by god will remain.  Verses 28 and 29 encourage us as believers to be grateful for our eternal kingdom and show it by serving God.  Verse 29 returns back to the picture of Mount Sinai and the holiness of God, a holiness that burns away all the evil.

God thank you for making me right with you.  If I had to face you with my own works they would certainly be burned up, in a flash.  But Jesus is the author and perfector of my eternity so I know I am secure.  Thank you for that eternal security.  Let my life be like the lives of the faithful in chapter 11.  Help me lead men to you and into eternity with you.  Let my service be acceptable.