Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4 with notes
Guide: CJB emphasis
in bold (CJB online), mine in green with footnotes replaced in blue; NIV in magenta ;
Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my
comments in gray.
*Participative
Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenneth Tipton. My continually improved statement
about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this. Also, this issue introduces the
question: Why did The Church canonize this particular literature? (To be
answered in future.)
Phil’s
heartfelt concerns from the scripture, Chapters 3 and 4.
1. Ken’s message this morning emphasized
today is the time to hear The God.
My work today recognizes the importance of Genesis 1:26-28 more than ever. I
review it at the end of this report.
2. The writer uses colloquial visions,
yet seems to expand from Israel to humankind.
a. I address intentional omissions
rather than primitive innocence.
b. Nomads class persists to
discover the good, regardless of appearances.
3. V 1 interprets NIV’s “apostle”
as emissary. Today, Nomads thought of Gospel representative and advocate.
4. V 2-4 seems to juxtapose “all God’s house” versus “everything”
or Israel vs humankind.
5. V 5-6 seems to defend failed Moses yet compare Yeshua
as ADONAI’s or The Trinity’s reliable
representative.
a. However, the writer attempts imposition: “provided
we hold . . . what we hoped for.”
b. V 7 the writer accuses the Holy Spirit of anger.
6. V 12 “hardened by the deceit of sin” seems to invoke habitual erroneous choices.
a. The Israelites never trusted ADONAI.
b. Christians don’t juxtapose ADONAI as The Trinity.
c. Should warriors in Palestine consider this passage?
d. Is sin prevented by not repeating human error? (James v Paul debate)
7. V 14-15 “Messiah” refers to anointed one to unite
Israel rather than Paul’s savior of souls.
a. A human-unity goal is consistent with Genesis
1:26-28.
b. The Messiah would correct Moses’s error of drawing
attention to himself rather than to ADONAI.
c. The writer interjects The Trinity, citing God, the son, and the Holy
Spirit.
8. Sin and disobedience prevent rest. (In the story, entering the Promised
Land.)
9. V 4:3-7 Trust is essential to “rest”.
a. Goodness was at the beginning of the universe.
b. The Sabbath renews rest.
c. V 7 don’t repeat error (pursue perfection).
10. V 8-13 Joshua entered the Promised Land but did not invoke rest.
a. Beware disobedience.
b. “Before God, nothing created is hidden.”
11. V 14-16 hold firmly to Yeshua, because
a. Passed through heaven
b. Son of God (not ADONAI)
c. Weak to temptation like us
i.
Yet did
not sin.
d. Confidently approach humility.
i.
In
order to accept mercy.
Yale Video; Hebrews
→ Moses and the Promised Rest – Video - Yale Bible Study
1. Ch. 3 compares Moses and Yeshua, I think not
representing the literature.
a. Moses failed ADONAI: Yeshua does not fail.
b. Today is the day we hear this sermon. Hear The God every moment.
c. Compares the desert generation’s trials and hopes.
d. Sabbath rest and promised land. Psalm 95.
2. “Rest” in Psalm 95 and in Genesis 1 and 2. Ch 4 V
4.
a. Carrot and stick story: don’t disobey like the
desert generation did.
b. Hardening of hearts; hard, soft, tablets.
c. The homilist is brilliant.
3. A Greek, hearing Y’hoshua in V 3:8 would
know it did not refer to Yeshua in V 3:1.
a. Better Yeshua gets us into the Promised Land.
b. Word of God sharper than 2-edged sword. We hear
today: will we obey?
i.
Recalls
John 1.
4. Don’t hear about high priesthood. Check V 3:1, “apostle
and high priest”.
I don’t trust the
professors -- think sometimes they express memory rather than the text.
Yale Study Guide, Session 2,
covering Hebrews 3 and 4:
1. Motifs:
a. Priesthood
b. Today: Psalm 95, call to Israel, all humankind
c. Rest: the Sabbath in Genesis, Israel into promised
land, all listeners to The God.
2. Strategies
a. Jewish listener knows the background
i.
Moses
prefigures Yeshua
ii.
Abraham
prefigures Christ.
b. Yeshua’s contemporaries comprehend the story.
3. Similarities
a. Joseph in Genesis and Yosef who marries pregnant
Miryam
b. Moses to Jesus in Matthew 5 and Moses to Jesus in
Hebrews 3:3-6
c. Joshua who led Israel into promised land and Jesus
who is pioneer and high priest
d. Contrast Adam to Jesus in Romans 5 and 1
Corinthians 15
e. Disobedient Israel and listeners who disbelieve
the homilist
f.
“Therefore”
signals a new section that applies the previous sub-homily
4. Moses served Israel in the desert: Yeshua serves
humankind.1.
2. The people of Exodus disobeyed with bad
consequences: people of today are warned.
a. Numbers 14:18-19. “’Adonai is slow to anger,
rich in grace, forgiving offenses and crimes; yet not exonerating the guilty,
but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by
their children and even by the third and fourth generations.’ Please!
Forgive the offense of this people according to the greatness of your grace, just
as you have borne with this people from Egypt until now.”
b. Partnering with Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
For,
brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our
fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed
through the sea, and in connection with the
cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, also they all
ate the same food from the Spirit, and they all drank the same drink from the
Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that
Rock was the Messiah. Yet with the majority
of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.
Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not
to set our hearts on evil things as they did. Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as the Tanakh puts
it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in
revelry.” And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of
them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day. And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them
did, and were destroyed by snakes. And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and
were destroyed by the Destroying Angel. These things happened to them as
prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us
who are living in the acharit-hayamim. Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful
not to fall! No temptation has seized you
beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you
to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the
temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.
and 1
Corinthians 12, about using your unique talents to follow Yeshua-Jesus.
c. Look to Yeshua and to each other.
d. Obedience a double edged sword. [Civic integrity
is mutually rewarding to practitioners.]
Yale Q & A
1. Does the image of Moses depicted at the
beginning of chapter 3 resonate with you or does it strike you as somewhat off?
[I think ancient divinity school depicted
ADONAI jealous of Moses seeming to produce water from a rock. I
think it’s unlikely and would be concerned for my welfare if I wrote such an
idea.]
2. The homilist makes a great effort to
let Scripture speak to the “today” of his addressees. Do you think he is
effective? Does his method work in a twenty-first century context? [I think I
got the message, so others do, too.]
3. Does the example of the Exodus
generation resonate with a contemporary audience? [I don’t feel antinomian and
like that I do not feel “chosen”. With the power of the Internet, we can be
released from the impositions of divinity schools, so I feel more independence
than I think they could feel.] How might the warning against disobedience be
understood helpfully in our time? [I think societies are still in the grips of
divinity schools – so much so that they can’t imagine humility to The God,
whatever it is, and that the Bible’s ineluctable truth begins with Genesis
1:26-28: you may and can constrain chaos in the way you choose to live.]
I
appreciate the writer of Hebrews and Nomads class for helping me earn these
opinions.
The scripture, CJB:
3:1 Therefore, brothers whom God has set apart, who share in the
call from heaven, think carefully about Yeshua [When this person spoke in Aramaic, his mom and dad called him “Yeshua”;
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshua.], whom we acknowledge publicly
as God’s emissary and
as cohen gadol [our apostle and high priest; head of the Israelite priesthood]. 2 He
was faithful to God, who appointed him; just as
“Moshe was faithful in all God’s house.” Numbers 12:7, “But it isn’t
that way with my servant Moshe. He is the only one who is faithful in my entire
household.”
3 But
Yeshua deserves more honor than Moshe, just as the builder of the house deserves
more honor than the house. 4 For
every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. [Moses, receiving the 10
commandments, then built Israel.
It seems The God built humankind.]
5 Also, Moshe
was faithful in all God’s house, as a servant giving
witness to things God would divulge later. 6 But
the Messiah, as Son, was faithful over God’s house.
And we are that house of his, provided we hold firmly to the courage and confidence
inspired by what we hope for [This feels like divinity-school coercion if not Pauline imposition on
human being (verb).].
7 Therefore,
as the Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] says,
“Today, if you hear God’s voice,
8 don’t harden your hearts, as you did in the Bitter Quarrel
on that day in the Wilderness when you put God to the test.
9 Yes, your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, and they saw my work for forty years!
10 Therefore, I was disgusted with that generation —
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
they have not understood how I do things’;
11 in my anger, I swore
that they would not enter my rest.” Psalm 95:7-11 Note: NIV differs and so
does CJB.
[“Rest”
refers to entering the Promised Land, which the Israelites refused out of fear
of the Canaanites. At least two generations cover 40 years. This passage
reminds me of Jesus’s 40 days’ fast in the desert.]
12 Watch out, brothers, so that there will not be in any one of you
an evil heart lacking trust, which could lead you to apostatize [renounce] from the
living God! [What if Today’s
Palestine warriors need to consider this message? Is there any other way to
eradicate jihadists?] 13 Instead, keep
exhorting each other every day, as long as it is called Today [Even
though their ancestors had faltered, the present generation was forgiven and
could take rest.],
so that none of you will become hardened by the deceit of
sin. [That is,
habituated error. The book of James gave me the impression that “sin” is
repetition of human error. See 1:12-14, “How blessed is the man who perseveres through
temptation! For . . . he will receive . . . the Life which God has promised to
those who love him. [E]ach person is being tempted whenever he is
. . . enticed by the bait of his own desire. Also,
see 2:9-10, “if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are
convicted under the Torah as transgressors. For a person who
keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty
of breaking them all.] 14 For we have become sharers in the Messiah [the Messiah is the anointed
descendent of David, who would unite the 12 tribes of Israel], provided,
however, that we hold firmly
to the conviction we began with, right through until the goal is reached.
[Genesis 1:26-28 informs
that the goal is humankind ruling (to the good). Yeshua affirms this goal in Matthew
5:48 (be perfect), 18:18 (heaven won’t change human consequences), and
elsewhere.]
15 Now
where it says,
“Today, if you hear God’s voice,
don’t harden your hearts, as you did in the Bitter Quarrel,” Psalm
95:7-8
[After Moses struck a rock and produced water
instead of leaving that miracle to Adonai: Numbers 20:12-13, “But Adonai said to Moshe
and Aharon, “Because you did not trust in me, so as to cause me to be regarded
as holy by the people of Isra’el, you will not bring this community into the
land I have given them.” 13 This is M’rivah Spring [Disputation
Spring], where the people of Isra’el disputed with Adonai, and he was caused
to be regarded as holy by them.”]
16 who
were the people who, after they heard, quarreled so bitterly?
All those whom Moshe brought out of Egypt. 17 And
with whom was God disgusted for forty years? Those who sinned — yes, they fell
dead in the Wilderness! 18 And to whom
was it that he swore that they would not enter his rest?
Those who were disobedient. 19 So
we see that they were unable to enter because of lack of trust [unbelief]. [I prefer trust-in and
commitment-to rather than either belief or faith.]
4:1 Therefore, let us be terrified [careful]
of the possibility that, even though the promise of entering his rest remains,
any one of you might be judged to have fallen short of it; 2 for
Good News has also been proclaimed to us, just as it was to them. But the
message they heard didn’t do them any good, because those who heard it did not
combine it with trust. 3 For it is we who have trusted who enter
the rest.
It
is just as he said,
“And in my anger, I swore
that they would not enter my rest.” Psalm 95:11
He
swore this even though his works have been in existence since the founding of
the universe. 4 For there is a place where
it is said, concerning the seventh
day,
“And God rested on the seventh day from all his
works.” Genesis 2:2
5 And
once more, our present text says,
“They will not enter my rest.” Psalm 95:11
6 Therefore,
since it still remains for some to enter it, and those who
received the Good News earlier did not enter, 7 he
again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David, so long
afterwards, in the text already given,
“Today, if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden
your hearts.” Psalm 95:7-8
8 For
if Y’hoshua [must be Joshua,
since Yeshua is cited above.] had given them rest, God would not have
spoken later of another “day.”
9 So
there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God’s people. 10 For
the one who has entered God’s rest has also rested
from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Therefore,
let us do our best to enter that rest; so that no
one will fall short because of the same kind of disobedience.
12 See,
the Word of God is alive! It is at work and is sharper than any double-edged
sword — it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit and joints meet
marrow, and it is quick to judge the inner reflections and attitudes of the
heart. [What is this
word and who delivered it. Perhaps it is Yeshua, in Matthew 5:48, informing us
that if we intend to, we can live the image of goodness – affirming Genesis
1:26-28 NIV.] 13 Before God, nothing created is hidden, but all
things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.
14 Therefore,
since we have a great cohen gadol who has passed through to the highest heaven,
Yeshua, the Son of God,
let us hold firmly to what we acknowledge as true. 15 For
we do not have a cohen gadol unable to empathize with our
weaknesses; since in every respect he was tempted just as we are, the only difference being that he did not sin. 16 Therefore,
let us confidently approach the throne from
which God gives grace [humility], so that we
may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. [Yeshua informs us in Matthew 5:48 that we can be
perfect. Also, sin is repetition of error. To be sinless we can constrain
ourselves so as not to repeat an error, even 1 that invokes all the rest. I
doubt this practice can be real if we do not accept Genesis 1:26-28 as the personal
intentions.]
[Genesis 1:26-28:
Then God said, “Let
us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they
may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground.”
So God
created mankind in his own image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed
them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in
the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
This, the conclusion of the
first chapter of the Holy Bible informs Today
that humankind may and can rule on earth. The rest of the Bible demonstrates
the chaos that ensues if most individuals do not constrain chaos in their
personal way of living. Yeshua affirmed the above passage. Today there are more than 8,000 religions and 45,000 Christian
sects on earth. Today is time to
accept the power, the authority, and the responsibility to practice civic
integrity.]
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