We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Hebrews 2:1-4
OK, loving this new format of studying the scripture! Totally learned something new today.
"For if the message spoken by angels was binding..."
This message refers to the teaching that angels, acting as God's messengers, brought the law to Moses.
Galatians 3:19 says What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.
And in Acts 7:38 Stephen says "He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us."
And again in Acts 7:53 Stephen says "you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."
In Deuteronomy 33:2 we read He [Moses] said: "The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran, He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes."
Apparently, angels acted as messengers when God gave the law to Moses. That is fascinating to me! And even though it's mentioned 5 times in the Bible, and I've read it now at least 3 years in a row, I have never noticed that before!
Paul's point here is to show how, even though knowledge of and obedience to the law was very important, and it was spoken by angels and was binding - how much MORE important is salvation given by Jesus Christ Himself! The readers were 2nd generation believers so they had not seen Christ personally. Just like us, they were relying on eyewitness accounts of those who had seen Jesus in the flesh, whose words were confirmed by signs, miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The point? This is important stuff! And we are in danger of falling away from the Truth if we do not pay careful attention, if we do not make it more than mere intellectual assent, if we do not actively pursue Truth, if we do not focus and hear and obey, if we do not continue to walk out our faith every day.
Because Jesus is superior to angels, because salvation through Christ is superior to the law alone, we need to pay careful attention to this truth so we do not drift away!
3 comments:
today is the first day of the new format i've been able to read and my goofy self googled the focus passage not realizing you had copied/pasted it for me!
i look forward to reading more as the year continues!
Glad you're joining us Brooke!
You should never have to google it, even if I don't copy/paste it, it's linked in the post too. Easy peasy! ;)
I totally never noticed that angels acted as messengers to Moses either! Very cool that we keep picking up and noticing new things from the "same old" Book! :)
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