A Truth that Demands a Reaction
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
You don’t have to drive around rural Kentucky for long before you see one of these signs:
“Road ends in water.”
Sometimes you’ll see a few of them. Most of the time it only takes one. Less than a hundred feet behind the sign you’ll come upon a road that maybe used to have a bridge. Maybe it had a ferry.
Now, all it has is the Green River.
I think what I like about this sign so much is the economy of it. It doesn’t hold a discussion. It doesn’t even tell you what to do about it. This is the truth and you need to deal with it.
You’re going to deal with it one way or another. Turn around, hope for a ferry, or drown.
In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets and through the Law, but now in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. That is the opening of the book of Hebrews. Throughout this book, we’ll get deeper and deeper into encouragement to believe, to continue to believe, and to hold fast to what we’ve believed.
The Gospel is a big deal.
It’s salvation for all who believe. It’s serious enough–God cared about us enough–to send His own Son to BE the message of salvation and the messenger. He wants us to believe it. In John 10, Jesus asked the people that didn’t believe in Him to at least believe in His miracles. Jesus came with the message and the Holy Spirit helped confirm the message with miracles.
The Hebrews that followed Moses out of Egypt fell in the wilderness because they didn’t believe the message put into effect by angels. We don’t want to fall because we didn’t believe the message put into effect by God’s own Son. He is giving out gifts and working miracles among us today to cheer us on. He wants to encourage our faith every day. That is His will: that our faith in Him would increase.
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