Deeply Rooted (When I Read Your Word)

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 3:7-12 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? This one is a little confusing and honestly if I was reading this in my Bible, this would be a passage I would skip over because I didn't know what was going on. But, after doing some research, what the Holy Spirit says in this passage is being quoted from Psalms telling people not to harden their hearts like how people did in Exodus when they fought with M...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 3:1-6 1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? We get hit with a classic “therefore” at the start of this passage, which means it’s important that we keep in mind what was just written before it. We learned yesterday that Jesus was fully God and fully human, tem...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 2:14-18 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? This passage is a perfect explanation of the idea of Jesus being fully God, and fully human. Jesus came down to Earth as a human for the sole purpose of dying, which is kind of crazy. He knew the one thing that united His whole creation beyond any belief, race, or gender was that, at the end...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 2:10-13 10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.  12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? This is the way that these verses make sense to me: Jesus and people in general are similar in that they endure suffering. People suffer in their sin, while Jesus suffered for our sin. It only makes sense that Jesus, the one who saves us from suffering, would have to suffer for it. As someone who has felt what we have felt, He is not ashamed to be seen as a person just ...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 2:5-9 5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet.”  In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? This entire week, we have been saying a very similar message: "Jesus is greater than..." We have talked about how He is greater than angels and how He had the greatest message ever told. But today, we are going to focus more on what makes gr...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 2:1-4 1 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. WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Fun fact: In Jewish tradition, it was believed that an angel was a mediator between God and Moses when Moses received the Law (Exodus 24). This concept is said multiple times in the New Testament (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19), so in verse 2 when it talks about a message spoken through angels, it is referring to the Law. The point is that angels were messengers who brought the Law, something that changed how the Israelite...

R EAD THIS: Hebrews 1:10-14 10 He also says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”  13 To which of the angels did God ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? The last few days, we have focused on the fact that Jesus is greater than anything and everything, and yesterday's post was specifically about Jesus being greater than angels. They say this because angels worship Him, because He is God's Son, and because He reigns forever. The author has been using a bunch of different Scripture references to back up these claims, and this passage refer...