Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 4

                                                    Hebrews 2:1-4

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ² For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, ³ how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴ God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.


         The writer of Hebrews is continuing on with the thought from Chapter 1 that if Jesus is far superior to the angels, then it follows that His words, the gospels, the writings that the Hebrew churches are reading and hearing from, are far more to be relied on than the Law which they attributed to angels. Not only that, but since it was very difficult to change from one way of life - offering sacrifices, temple worship, dietary laws, special days, possibly even Sabbath worship - to a life of freedom where Christ has fulfilled all those, God gave them special grace by providing signs, wonders, miracles, and sign gifts to confirm that Christ's new "wineskins" replaced the old. My thought is that since we now have the word of God and we don't need that extra grace or proof, we shouldn't expect the same miracles and signs and wonders that were seen in those days.

      I see several potential pitfalls that the writer of Hebrews is trying to thwart. First the danger of falling back into the Old Testament way of living. Paul noticed the same thing with the Galatians and the whole thrust of that book was to warn them of the chains of the law, the purpose of the law, the fulfillment of the law and the freedom from the law. The writer says, be careful so you don't drift back into that. I see this happening with a friend of mine who was delivered from 7th Day Adventism and even had a Bible verse on his license plate Gal 5 1

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

However after 20 years of going from church to church, trying to find one he fit with, the dietary laws, Sabbath worship, holy days, etc. just sucked him back in because that was his comfort zone. The writer knows of this pull and is warning the people to stand firm and don't drift.

        Another warning is the danger to us of seeking signs and wonders. John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Church, which is based on sign gifts, miracles and wonders is known for this

"A professional musician who played the Las Vegas circuit for 5 years, John later signed with the Righteous Brothers. When John was gripped by God in 1963, he was a “beer-guzzling, drug abusing pop musician, who was converted at the age of 29 while chain-smoking his way through a Quaker-led Bible Study.”
He soon became a voracious Bible reader and after weeks of reading about life changing miracles in the Bible and attending boring church services, John asked a lay leader:"
“When do we get to do the stuff?  You know, the stuff here in the Bible; the stuff Jesus did, like healing the sick, raising the dead, healing the blind – stuff like that?”
He was told that they didn’t do that anymore – only what they did in their weekly services. John replied, “You mean I gave up drugs for that?”
 I believe the writer would say that that "stuff" was given to help the Jewish Christians make the transition. If we are still needing that "stuff" we have trust and faith issues.

       Lastly, I found myself almost apologizing at the corn maze last night, for sharing the gospel to people who have heard this from infancy here in the Bible Belt. Really, another salvation message? But I think the author of Hebrews would say that is important to continue to preach it and not ignore it because we all need to hear it over and over again or we might tend to drift, we might tend to forget that the greatest miracle of all is being born again and our transformation. We need to be reminded of our salvation daily, so never apologize for that!