Hebrews chapter 3

vs 12

Does this mean that the Hebrews to who this letter was written are dropping their spirituality altogether, or their faith in God in particular? I don't know about that. I mean, perhaps they were. But I can't imagine post-exilic Jews going back to idol worship in any great way. And there weren't really many other options.

I think more likely he talks about turning away from God as not taking Jesus to his full account. That seems to be what is being addressed in the surrounding ideas, anyway.

vs 13

I nice, poetic little concept, that as long as today is today you should be encouraging one another in your faith. However, I don't think it's unique to the Bible - I believe the author of Hebrews got the idea from The Littlest Hobo. Hey, everybody else has their crackpot theories.

Anyway, the author ultimately puts this loss of faith to a hardening of the heart through the deceitfulness of sin. Although that's a fairly wide-angle opinion, it probably makes it true. The Bible is full of such statements - have we as a modern civilisation become more interested in the minutae and lost the desire for the big picture ?

vs 14

This is an interesting idea - the idea that you can only "come to Christ" once, which is hinted at by the word "original" (or "at first" in the NIV). Automatically, I can feel my evanglical spidey senses tingling at the idea. They come up with all sorts of excuses as to what this really means.

Something new came to me this morning, though. We read the language as "falling away" language - that is, that people stop believing in Christ, fall away from their faith. But if you were to apply this idea to those who "move past" Christ - those who see Christ as a stepping stone to "true spirituality" like gnostics, it doesn't sound nearly as bad. Then it becomes about "getting back to your roots" of faith in Christ alone, and not piling up other stuff next to him or after him.

I don't know that that's exactly what's going on - perhaps there was a "new Jewish spirituality" that saw Jesus as a strong teacher, but which they felt eventually just honed your Judaism, rather than focussing on Christ as Christ.

vs 15

Here's the kicker - if you read this at surface value, it sounds like an altar call, where in reality, the letter of Hebrews isn't written to people in synagogues asking them to become Christian, but to Hebrew Christians who are struggling. It's Christians who are not to harden their hearts to Christ.

vs 16

Ie it wasn't the Philistines or Egypt themselves. Now, don't get me wrong, you can make arguments that both of these (as well as many other gentile civilisations) heard the voice of God in some way or another. But this is specific for two reasons - firstly, it's probably in reference to the verse, and secondly, it's being specific to the Jewish transgression in the desert. They are The people who heard and rebelled, if you like.

vs 17

With relationship comes responsibility. It's just as true of family relationships as it is of vassal covenants.

vs 18

Again, referring specifically to the verse quoted above. But also making the very interesting point that you can't be promised "You will not enter my rest" unless you were going to in the first place. God has never said, "The earth will never enter my rest" or "all the peoples of the earth will never enter my rest" - that's not what the Bible is about at all. No, it was Israel who was promised that rest, and is now denied it through their rebellion and hard-heartedness.

vs 19

They didn't stop believing in God, per se. Well, actually, some of them might have. Certainly they stopped believing that he was acting in a sovereign way that they should respect.