Are you a Hebrew: a believer who knows that you are a stranger and a sojourner here in this world, on your way to the inheritance which God our Father has promised us in the New Heavens and New Earth that God will create for the rest of eternity? The New Covenant in the blood of the Son of God secures this promise for the believer, and we are not going back to what we were before we were set free through our repenting and believing the truth of the gospel. The New Covenant is the covenant of redemption and salvation for “all Israel”, and for whomsoever from out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
I do not believe that any born-again believer can read what the Spirit of God has inspired the author to write throughout this “short exhortation”, and honestly say that Yeshua HaMashiach/Jesus Christ is not God, in the full sense of that. He is the embodiment and personification of YHVH God in the flesh, who took on flesh and blood as a human being, in the full sense of that, in order to be not only our Creator, but also our Redeemer and Savior. God came to us as a Servant of servants, stripped of His glory; and He was fully human, but without sin. Yeshua/Jesus is the Holy One of God, the Holy One of Israel, the Holy God YHVH – the Name above all names!
The Letter to the Hebrews was written for Jewish believers firstly – from whom, according to the flesh, Messiah came — and also to all other believers from the nations who have been brought into the New Covenant of YHVH, the Creator and King of the Universe, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Many times in this epistle, the writer quotes, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, from the whole of the Tanach — the 5 Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings; and he assumes that the readers are familiar with the Holy Scriptures that they had available to them. So do we who teach in our generation, even though it is evident that fewer believers are familiar with the whole counsel of God, as the Apostle Paul wrote about in another place.
Through this epistle, the writer tells us to listen to the Word of God “today”: do not harden your hearts as Israel did. He is both exhorting us and warning us: the character of YHVH God has not changed, and does not change – Yeshua the Messiah/Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:8; Mal 3:6) If God judged those who disobeyed the first covenant by the Law of Moses and the shed sacrificial blood of numerous animals, He will certainly judge those who disobey the New Covenant of the grace of God and the shed blood of His beloved Son on the cross, as He sacrificed Himself so that our sins could be forgiven. For the believer in Yeshua, the Law of Moses is changed, since the priesthood has changed. This is emphasized in five (!) of the 13 chapters of this letter.
If we want to enter into God’s rest, let us believe Him when He tells us that the New Covenant is not like the first covenant, which is passing away, but is different, and has some significant changes. Yes, we see in the Torah the grace and mercies of God, in that He gave sinners to sacrifice specific animals instead of having to die themselves. God gave them many opportunities to turn from their wicked ways, but most would not. But the glory of the gospel was not revealed or known to the chosen people of God until after Yeshua/Jesus was resurrected and returned to glory at the Father’s right hand. Yeshua/Jesus is outside the camp of what is passing away, and He calls all of His disciples to join Him outside the camp.
God still loves those in those camps, but He has moved outside for all who would join Him and the others whom He has called, as the gospel continues to be proclaimed until the end of the age through fishers of men. His Kingdom is not of this world, and its many camps. (Gal 6:13-15; Phlp 3:4-16) The Lord, and His Apostles, motivate us to endure in the faith until the end, and to receive the promised redemption of our bodies and of the inheritance, with Yeshua, of the whole Kingdom of God! Far better than the Old Covenant, or any other law or culture or religion, can promise. Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of the living God, alone has the words of eternal life! (Jn 6:68-69)
I want to go through the verses which speak of the “better things” regarding Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah and the ministry of the gospel of the New Covenant. The Greek words used convey better, greater, superior.
—Heb 1:4 much better than, and a more excellent name than, the angels: we do not pray to angels, or go to God our Father through them, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ/the Lord Yeshua haMashiach
—Heb 6:9 better things concerning us in our walk of faith
—Heb 7:7-9 Abraham blessed by the greater Melchizedek, and the priesthood of Messiah (and of the believers in Him) is greater than the Levitical priesthood and Aaron
—Heb 7:19 a better hope than the Law could provide
—Heb 7:22 a better covenant in Yeshua/Jesus
—Heb 8:6 more excellent priesthood (ministry), better covenant, better promises
—Heb 9:23 better sacrifices
—Heb 10:34 better and an enduring possession in Heaven
—Heb 11:15-16 a better and heavenly country promised for us
—Heb 11:35 a better resurrection, by which we will never die again
—Heb 11:39-40 something better for us together with all the saints historically
—Heb 12:22-24 better things spoken by the blood of Jesus/Yeshua than by the blood of Abel: Abel cries out for vengeance, and the Day of YHVH will settle that; the blood of Yeshua cries out for salvation to all who genuinely call upon His name
Not to mention that Yeshua/Jesus is greater than Moses; greater than David; greater than Solomon; greater than Jonah; greater than the Temple.
Do not retreat, but press on for the promised inheritance to those faithful to God’s call on your life. Why should we want less than the better, the greater, the superior of God’s perfect will and intentions?! There were two-and-a-half tribes of Israel who decided that inheriting land on the other side of the Jordan was “good enough”; but that was not the land of promise which God was promising His people. Okay, God (and Moses) said; but first, they had to help the rest of their brethren capture and possess the land which YHVH had promised them all, and then they could return to their families in their “good enough” territories. They were among the first to fall away, and to be carried into exile by the Assyrians years later. Persecution, worries, fear, disappointments, unbelief/lack of faith will all try to draw us back to our former life, like the Israelis in the desert wanted to go back to Egypt, despite all of the signs and miracles that they witnessed that He did for them, with whom God was not happy.
We do not want to complain and go back; neither do we want to remain where we were found, or get too satisfied in one place along the way, or too tired to believe that God will give us His strength to continue. Faith in the great and precious promises of God for those who abide in Christ are our hope for an eternal and far better life. We love Him more than all else! Yeshua is our inheritance, and with Him the Kingdom of God: He is ours, and we are His. There is nothing greater or better than that!
