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Sabbath Afternoon,
Read for This Week’s Study:
Memory Text: “This is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1, NKJV).
Jewish document written a few decades after Hebrews, around 100 A.D., contains a prayer: “All this I have spoken before you, O Lord, because you have said that it was for us that you created this world. … And now, O Lord, behold, these nations, which are reputed as nothing, domineer over us and devour us. But we your people, whom you have called your first-born, only begotten, zealous for you, and most dear, have been given into their hands.” — James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, [New York: Hendrickson Publishers, 1983], p. 536.
The readers of Hebrews probably felt something similar. If they were God’s children, why were they going through such suffering?
Thus, Paul wrote Hebrews to strengthen the faith of the believers amid their trials. He reminded them (and us) that the promises of God will be fulfilled through Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and who will soon take us home. In the meantime, Jesus mediates the Father’s blessings to us. So, we need to hold fast to our faith until the end.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 8.
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