Day 314

Ezekiel 21:1–22:31; Hebrews 10:1-17; Psalm 108:1-13; Proverbs 27:12

YESTERDAY IN HEBREWS, we explored the Hebrew-centric nuances that we often miss, nuances that reveal how revolutionary the gospel was to first-century Jewish people. In our reading from Hebrews today, the author definitively stated the argument for the end of one covenant and the beginning of a new:

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

Within the Hebrew context, the above statement would have been extremely controversial. Many considered it heresy. The people reading Hebrews already considered themselves to be God’s chosen. These were not people who were coming to God for the first time. They were people who, at least culturally, attempted to follow God’s law.

Let’s reverse the scenario: Suppose a letter circulated throughout the Christian world indicating that God was doing a new thing. This new thing required all Christian believers to return to the sacrificial system of worship; everyone needed to prepare for the Day of Atonement by acquiring an unblemished goat or calf for the blood sacrifice.

It would take a significant amount of discernment and a serious move of the Holy Spirit to compel a modern, non-Jewish Christian to move in this direction. Some would call it heresy and fight against it. Others would simply dismiss the notion. Embracing this new thing would be a difficult hurdle, to say the least. First-century Hebrews faced a similar dilemma.

The compelling argument unveiled in Hebrews was that this was all to be expected. The new covenant was a hoped-for development that had been foretold. In Hebrews, God used His Word —in this case, Old Testament prophecy —to prove and reframe what He was doing among His people. God was not attempting to get Jewish people to change gods (obviously). He was seeking to reshape their understanding of Him.

With that in mind, we must ask ourselves, could God do a new thing in us? If He did, would we embrace it? Would it reshape our understanding of Him? Or would we reject it?

God clearly isn’t afraid to shatter paradigms, and He’s not afraid to use His Word to do it, as we see in Hebrews. We may pray earnestly for God to do a new thing in us —but the answer to this prayer will require a reshaping, and we might find that we struggle as much as the early Hebrews did. But are we willing to settle for “only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves” (Hebrews 10:1)?

God continually invites us into something new with Him. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal ways you may be resisting moving forward into a new thing because you are afraid to take the leap of faith.

WORSHIP:

Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.