It's All About Him: Hebrews Lesson 53

When the Son Speaks

In the opening verses of this letter, the Writer wrote:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2, NASB 95)

With these opening words, he began his proclamation of the greatness of the Son and the covenant that He mediated. "God...in these last days has spoken to us in His Son" is the cornerstone for understanding these next words from the Writer:

See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven." This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:25-29)

It is the Son who speaks now. He speaks through the gospels. He speaks through the Holy Spirit that can now live in us, because of the blood carried by the Son into heaven.

The greatness of the Son can mediate a greater blessing or a greater curse. To be joined to the Son by faith and to "hear" his message is to have access to a great salvation and access to the presence of God. To refuse the Son is to place yourself in great peril. The generation of the children of Israel that left Egypt died in the wilderness, because they did not listen to the words of Moses. "How much more!" says the Writer if we do not listen to the Son, who has spoken more clearly about God and has done so much for us.

We are also to pursue things that cannot be shaken. I have no better words than these from Rick Warren. Speaking on CNN's Larry King live after hurricane Katrina:

I would not focus on what all's lost, but focus on what all's left. Not what all's lost, but what all's left. And if you all are going to help people get over their insecurity, then you must teach them, whether children or adults, that they have to put their confidence, their trust into something that can never be taken from them.

Now, if you put your trust in your career, it can be taken from you. If you put your trust in material possessions, they can be taken from you. If you put your trust in your husband or your wife or even your children, they can be taken from you as we have seen this week.

The only thing that cannot be taken from you is a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ, as I know him. He gives me strength and you know, America could be taken over by a foreign country, we could be put in concentration camps and they could strip us naked and take away everything, including my wedding ring, but they cannot rob me of my personal faith in God. (Hat tip: The Thinklings)

Test everything. Cling to what is good.