Hebrews 3
“... think carefully about this Jesus
whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest. “
7 That is why the Holy Spirit says,
“Today when you hear his voice,
8 don't harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled,
when they tested me in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
10 So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
15 Remember what it says:
“Today when you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled.”
8 The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
9 For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
even though they saw everything I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
Someone once made the case that Apollos, a contemporary and colleague of Paul the Apostle, was the author of the book of Hebrews. The language and literary style of the author of Hebrews is quite different to the Pauline books and yet the theological points agree with Paul.
In the world of art, some of the most famous works of art attributed to a famous artist are the work of several artists, and sometimes the work of art in question will be designated from the school of (fill in the artist’s name). This is both an ancient and modern practice. I remember an art exhibition I worked on in Sheffield, England for the children’s illustrator Lauren Child, who had created the Charlie and Lola series, but that had been taken over by a production house for the BBC. In that exhibition was a painting from Damien Hirst's spot paintings series, because Lauren Child was the actual artist who painted at least one of Damien Hirst’s paintings in that series. You may have seen the painting in a Hirst exhibition and not have known that the ‘real’ artist was actually Lauren Child.
Peter is claimed to be the real author of the book Mark wrote. That is, the gospel of Mark was probably penned by Mark from what Peter dictated.
What does Apollos or Paul bring to the attention of the reader in the book addressed to the Hebrews? Jesus! I particularly like verse one of chapter three today. I like the injunction or warning to THINK, and what are we to think about? JESUS! And then where do we have the author of Hebrews taking us again? To the book of Psalms.
In Hebrews 1 I suggested it was Psalm 2:7 that we are asked to consider as pointing to and linking with Jesus as well as Psalm 45:6-7, 102:25-27, 104:4, 110:1 (according to the footnote cross references in my Bible and my own search and memory).
And in Hebrews 2 verses from Psalm 8 (8:4-6) and Psalm 22 (v.22) are quoted.
And in Hebrews chapter 3 we see that again the author is using Psalm 95 to make his point about Jesus, and that is where we are warned to think carefully about Jesus.
But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
I have been thinking about our charge as humans to have dominion. As we strive to have things go according to our will and way in life, it is to some extent good because we are meant to have dominion over the earth. But we have failed in this task because we are to do it as representatives of God. We were created in God’s image and this in some ways speaks of our task as image bearers in the role of dominion. And it was God who gave the task, it was God who set the rules and boundaries and it was God to whom we must answer. The nature of work and rest changed after the fall of man, and so we must strive in the task of dominion against the flow of atrophy and death in the earth. But if we are connected to Christ Jesus as He invited us to be, then we are His channel to a dead and dying world so that we can once again have dominion under God and give life to the earth. Now Christ Himself is the perfect man and His dominion as the perfect man brings life and rest back to humanity and to all the earth. So we are back in business, the business of a life-giving, rest-giving extension of the work of God on earth as it is in heaven through Christ.
The author of Hebrews tells us that it is faith or belief in the promise of God that enables us to cash in on the rest and in other places the dominion role of God through us. You may yourself see the link between the task and role of dominion holder and the phrase ‘kingdom of God.’ Jesus is the king and He has announced the kingdom of God. He has invited us to hold positions of authority in His kingdom. So a kingdom is a dominion, and to have a domain is in this case to be a king. And the failure through unbelief to go into the promised land and to enter the rest of God is a failure to exercise dominion in belief where God says we must take the role of bringing order and imposing holiness from the kingdom. Holiness is to set something apart, to designate it, to decide the purpose of something. And so to exercise dominion in this world is to set it aside for the work of the King. To deny our thoughts, bodies, families, children, nation, communities the usage of darkness or the purpose of disorder. It is to declare as a representative of the King, this must be used for royal purposes and this must be kept pure for kingly use. We agree with God that His ways are best and we see to it that our minds, bodies, work, families, communities and world conform to the ways our King says are right, good and holy.
This is why God responds in Hebrews 3:10 (quoting Psalms 95),
So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
God was being ignored in His right and role of dominion and royal functions. The chosen people had the role and responsibility to extend the values of God’s kingdom. But they refused. But Jesus in His role as perfect human succeeds where Adam failed. Jesus in His role as Head of the church succeeds where the people of Israel failed to obey the leadership of Moses. The real followers of Jesus hear His voice and obey. They make sure that in faith they bring all things under the dominion of Christ. But “So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest” (Hebrews 3:19).
In contrast to Psalm 95 and to Moses and the Israelites, Jesus calls us to once again come to Him to enter the rest. We have been given the freedom, the right and the responsibility to have dominion and to obey the command of God.
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