The book of Hebrews, in all its depth and sublimity, was, in many ways, just one long exhortation to Jewish believers in Jesus. And what it exhorted them to do is: Stay faithful to the Lord!

This faithfulness, of course, should stem from our love of God, of who He is and of His character and goodness, most powerfully expressed at the cross of Christ. Sometimes, though, human beings need to be reminded of what the terrible consequences of falling away will be.

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

That is, we need to remember that, in the end, if we don’t accept what Jesus has done for us in having paid the penalty for our sins, we will have to pay that penalty ourselves, and that means “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13) followed by eternal destruction.

Read Hebrews 10:28-31. What is Paul saying and how does it apply to us, as well?

How interesting that in order to exhort Jewish believers to stay faithful to God, Paul quotes Deuteronomy, an earlier exhortation to Jewish believers to stay faithful to God! Paul quotes Deuteronomy 17:6 in regard to the fact that someone deemed worthy of death would face that death only after at least two people testified against that person.

But Paul did this to make the point that if unfaithfulness could lead to death under the Old Covenant, how much “worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy [of] who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29). In other words, you have more light and more truth than they did, and you know about the sacrifice of the Son of God for your sins; thus, if you fall away, your condemnation will be greater than theirs.

Then Paul immediately goes back to Deuteronomy, now to Deuteronomy 32:35, simply to buttress his argument. Considering what they had been given in Christ and their knowledge of the great provision made for them, the Lord, who said, “vengeance is Mine,” will “judge His people” (Hebrews 10:30) for their apostasy and unfaithfulness. After all, He had judged their forefathers, who didn’t have what these New Testament Jews did, the fuller revelation of God’s love revealed at the cross. Thus, basically, Paul was saying: Be warned.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(0)

The post Thursday: A Fearful Thing appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/thursday-fearful-thing/

Over and over, the Lord had warned Israel not to follow after the practices of the nations around them. On the contrary, they were to be witnesses to those nations (Deuteronomy 4:6-8). In Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Moses again warns them about their specific practices, which were an “abomination to the LORD” ( Deuteronomy 18.12-13).

Read Deuteronomy 18:15-19. What is Moses telling them there? Then compare this with Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37. How do Peter and Stephen apply Deuteronomy 18:18?

Image © Pacific Press at Goodsalt.com

In reference to the covenant at Sinai, Moses talks about how the children of Israel, at the revelation of God’s law (Exodus 20:18-21), wanted Moses to act as a mediator, an intercessor between them and God. It is then that Moses promises them, twice (Deuteronomy 18:15, Deuteronomy 18:18), that the Lord will raise up a prophet like Moses, the idea being, given the context, that this prophet, like Moses, will among other things be also an intercessor between the people and the Lord.

Many centuries later, both Peter and Stephen quote the text in reference to Jesus. For Peter, Jesus was the fulfillment of what had been spoken of by “all His holy prophets” (Acts 3:21), and that the leaders need to obey Him and what He says. That is, Peter uses this text, which the Jews knew about, and applied it directly to Jesus, with the idea that they needed to repent for what they had done to Him (Acts 3:19).

Next, in Acts 7:37, when Stephen, though in a different context than Peter’s, was proclaiming Jesus, he, too, referred back to that famous promise, and he, too, claimed that it pointed to Jesus. He was saying that Moses, in His role in history and leading the Jews, had prefigured Jesus. That is, as Peter had done, Stephen was seeking to show the people that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy and that they needed to listen to Him. Contrary to the charge against him, that Stephen had been speaking “blasphemous words against Moses and God” (Acts 6:11), Stephen proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, a direct fulfillment of what God had promised through Moses.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

Amen!(0)

The post Wednesday: A Prophet Like Unto Thee appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/wednesday-prophet-like-unto-thee/