OPEN YOUR HEART

It is always with great pleasure that I turn to passages like today where the Lord's servants comment on other passages in His word so that we may more clearly understand what is necessary for our salvation. Our passage in Hebrews is such a passage. Our verses follow immediately on six verses that inform us as the subtitle outlines it: Jesus is greater than Moses. And so, the writer of Hebrews would encourage us to pay careful attention to this One who is greater than Moses. Look at the admonishment in verse twelve where we are strongly encouraged to resist the normal worldly human reaction to God's voice. When the Lord our God speaks, our hearts and minds, our emotions and our wills should respond to the King's voice.

How often do we have a minimal appreciation for the Kingship of our Sovereign Lord? How often we are content with a minimal kindergarten understanding of the riches and complexities of the glorious grace of our God and King. A news commentator once made lite of a common baby boomers experience. He held a mock interview with some upwardly mobile yuppies who were horrified of turning forty and terrified of being fifty! He well understood that there are very many overage teenagers in this country who finally are being forced to consider the fact that growing up is hard to do. Life is finally passing them by and they have yet to consider the meaning of life.

One of my students once shared her disgust with some forty year old teenagers who hung around with her "ex-father". While she was walking home from school a car load of lewd and crude drunks tried to pick her up. As she hurried to cut across a yard, she heard her father's voice telling the others to leave that bird alone because she was his daughter!

Our writer urges us not to be like these worldly, but instead to listen to the Master's voice in the inspired script of Scripture. In the lifetime of this letter writer, the Jews of Jesus' time were on the verge of making the very same mistake as those who accompanied Moses in the Exodus. In the case of the reader's of Hebrews, the author's goal is to show how the Way of Christ is the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. The author as one commentator urges us, "viewed any return to Judaism as an act of unfaithfulness towards Christ and unbelief towards God."

As one Catholic priest, who was fired from a position of critical studies in Israel, had it: modern Judaism is a dead end street. Judaism was indeed God given, but having served its purpose it must of necessity give way to Christianity. Paul in his time lamented the failure of many of God's people to come fully to Christ. Even today, there are some who little appreciate the fullness of Christ. Six years ago, the United Church of Christ "summoned its people to a changed, positive reassessment of Judaism." This same Church went on to circulate a document stressing the permanent validity of the Jewish faith.

The article where I found this went on to imply that any Christians who believe that God rescinded the covenant with Israel are on the wrong bus! And in some places those who take this position are even shamed as being anti-semitic! So we see that even today people will harden their hearts and refuse to hear the sovereign words of our King and God. The writer of Hebrews encourages us in chapter four to be careful that we have not fallen as short because the promise of entering His rest still stands. Let us within Christ's Church pay particular attention to the Gospel of Grace preached to us from Scripture. Even so, let us accept that Gospel in full faith so that we may partake of salvation rest today, tomorrow and forever more.

Our writer is careful to point out the necessity of focusing on today by showing that Joshua's occupation of Palestine was not the final focus but through the psalmist's offer, found in the book of David. it is still available. Today is still the day to accept the offer of salvation and to make Jesus your Lord and King. Would you wait, would you wander through life straying farther and farther from the Kingdom of God? To not listen and accept God's free offer of grace is to remain disobedient, and we see in the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the quoted psalm, that the disobedient will not enter into the Kingdom of rest.

If you have any concerns that you have not completely accepted Christ as King of your heart, you ought to spend much time with verse eleven before you today: Look carefully there at the words, and may the words be engraved upon your heart to set your sight on heaven and eternity with Christ. "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience."