Worthy of man’s obedience
Key Verses: 1, 3, 8, 12
It can be easy to get distracted during our walk of faith. There are so many “shiny objects” that vie for our attentions. Even spiritual things can distract us from our walk of faith. Good things and more often than not, bad things pull us away. We must purpose in our hearts to stay focused on Jesus. It doesn’t mean we have pictures of Jesus plastered all over our physical world, but that our minds are aware of His presence always.
And why should we accord Jesus this place of honor? The writer tells us that Jesus is greater than Moses, occupying a greater place. Jesus is over God’s house. He is the owner and the one in charge. If we were in England we might say that Jesus was lord of the estate. He owns everything His eyes can see, and His eyes see everything.
Now remember, for the Jews of the writer’s day Moses was their ‘numero uno’, their number one. Moses was the central figure in their redemptive history. He led the people out of the slavery of Egypt. He was their national hero. And yet, their ancestors had not even listened and obeyed Moses. They had been judged for their disobedience by wandering in the desert for forty years, enough time for all of them to die, except the two who obeyed. Even Moses did not enter the promised land due to disobedience.
Thus the warning: If those who followed Moses were judged, how much more those who rebel against Jesus. They hardened their hearts. We might say thy became more and more stubbornly stuck in their decisions despite evidence that should have convinced them to repent.
They were all delivered from Egypt’s bondage, and yet they rebelled. And as a result they lost their reward of the Promised Land. The warning is that these Jewish believers to whom this letter was written were also in danger of losing their place because of rebellious unbelief. We must keep our spiritual life focused and on track. It is easy to get distracted into rebellion and disbelief.
Our culture screams at us, trying to get us to switch to an alternate truth. But of course, by its very nature, truth excludes some things, declares some things lies. But in our day and age, our culture wants to remove any semblance of truth except the truth that there is no truth. It wants to unhook us from anything that is solid and dependable, and release us into the morass of self-satisfying, ego-feeding, narcissistic, ‘everything goes’ self-destruction.
Don’t be caught up in this rebellion. Keep focused on Jesus. That is the message of this chapter. Just as Moses gave the Israelites a focal point for their deliverance from Egypt, so Jesus gives us a focal point in our journey out of sin and into the fullness of our redemption.
The Arnold Journey 