A Hebrew mind should have realized long ago the sacrificial system commanded by Moses was only ever symbolic. Yes, it was surely commanded by God. But it takes a hard-headed fool to never make any effort to understand why. God is not a closed book, but had from the very first moment of Creation sought to reveal His very nature to any creature who sought to know Him. If so very many people prior to Moses understood the blood ritual of making a covenant was entirely symbolic of a much higher truth, how is it the Jews lost sight of that? It was a concerted effort they made not to know, largely because empty ritual was a whole lot easier than commitment in faith. So our write bluntly states what should have been obvious: The blood offering on the Day of Atonement was an empty gesture if you didn't bring your heart to God.
David saw it so clearly in Psalm 40, when he prophesied on behalf of the Messiah, his own descendant, the clear declaration of what really mattered. And just like dead-hearted Jews of Jesus' day, we could argue all day long whether the proper reading of the Hebrew text in Psalm 40:6 is "a body you have prepared for me" (Septuagint) or "you have bored my ear" (Masoretic), and thus easily lose sight of how little difference it made from a proper biblical Hebrew point of view. Frankly, our author passes right over that phrase to point out the obvious: God never cared about the details of ritual offerings if He had your faith. When the Messiah came into the world, says David, He would come offering the only thing acceptable to God in the first place -- the whole self. So whether it's a matter of hearing clearly, or reflects a public ritual marking entrance into permanent slavery (Exodus 21:1-6), or it was a reference to the Virgin Birth of Christ, it really doesn't matter. In the Hebrew mind, they all result in the same thing, because it was never about precise wording any more than it was about precise ritual observance. If God owns your ears, your lifelong service, or your body on the Cross, each is a mere image of what He demanded from the beginning.
So in following Christ to the Cross, we fulfill all God ever commanded of anyone anywhere. This is the summation, the ground of truth to which the author was taking his readers all along. Going back to the Temple and slaughtering an animal was worse than wasteful, for it would support a system which had far removed itself from the original meaning given by Moses, and even that original was meant to pass away. Jesus paid it all, and the Temple was just a neat pile of rocks on a far away ridge in a land of no great significance any more. The Law of Moses was a poor shadow of the much higher Law of God. That higher Law of God can be written only in human hearts. Where it is written, no other law is binding, because God has declared that heart acceptable in His sight -- He is the Law.
Faithfulness to God now is defined in walking with Christ. He is the ultimate High Priest, He has brought us Himself individually into the Presence of Almighty God in the only real Temple in Heaven. How can we not in Christ have full assurance His Father will receive us gladly? The only thing left is to remember a part of us is stuck temporarily in this fallen world of human flesh, and we need to keep an eye on each other. Not in terms of behavior, but in terms of fruit of the Spirit. This requires by its very nature we meet together regularly to celebrate this grace and love we share in Christ, all the more so when we consider He's coming back.
Even though the Law of Moses was a mere shadow of God's Law, we note those who defied it died without mercy. But they lost only their earthly life, and who's to say they went off into Hell afterward? People entrusted to execute the Law of Moses were hardly perfect. But if we defy the Law of God, it's no longer a matter of mere physical death, but an eternal death. We don't even have words for what happens to someone who treats God's own Son with contempt. If, after all you've tasted in this life of the life to come, you heap contempt upon God's living Word of Grace, where can you go to escape God's wrath? What happened to that strong stand of faith you first took when you turned to Christ? You seemed quite willing to stand with others who suffered oppression for that declared faith. Even our writer was arrested for it. And everyone had all their stuff confiscated, but everyone also had the riches of faith by which measure stuff was of no significance. Is persecution from Rome so different? Where did that bold confidence go in the face of persecution from Jewish leaders?
Habakkuk said it so well in chapter 2 of his prophecy: God does not operate on a human scale of time. A couple of years loom large for us, but in His eyes it's just a moment. We should be striving to make our senses adjust to His. The ancient biblical concept held time was not a thing to divide into regular units of measure. You did not schedule events by counting those units, but by counting the completion of spiritual marks in the soul. If your faith is not complete, then it falls to you to climb a little higher. Take that gift of grace which empowers the firm stand in trying times, and wait out God's schedule. God sees your sorrow; you need to see His power. You won't escape human sorrow until He's finished remaking you. It's not God delaying things; it's our sin. Cut off another chunk of fallen nature and grip your faith a little tighter. To draw back now into the false womb of Judaism is the road to Hell.
As a historical note, we see the writer refers to the Temple as present reality in his world, still standing. We know Jesus warned His disciples it would all be destroyed, and there would be a day when His followers must flee Jerusalem. Historical records indicate Rome invaded in force around 67 AD, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's not hard to imagine our writer sees this on the verge of coming true. As tensions in Palestine heated up between Rome and the Jews, it would be easy to see Roman soldiers harassing Jews and Christians alike, so Jewish Christians were hardly exempt. All the more so, living as they did in the imperial capitol of Rome. Soon there would be no Temple service to which they could return for the sake of familiarity and comfort. They were literally on the verge of being cast adrift into Christ alone, and they needed to see this as their new home of the soul.
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Ed Hurst
21 April 2008
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