Kollel Reh

Kollel Reh

Hebrews chapters 3 and 4

If you have not already read the introduction to Hebrews from last week’s Parashat, please do so.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and Kohen Gadol of our confession, Yeshua;

Heb 3:2  who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moshe in all his house.

Heb 3:3  For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moshe, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house.

Heb 3:4  For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.

Heb 3:5  Moshe indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,

Heb 3:6  but Messiah is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

“Our Hope” is resurrection and inclusion in the Messianic Kingdom.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:7  Therefore, even as the Ruach HaKodesh says,  “Today if you will hear his voice,

Heb 3:8  don’t harden your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,

Heb 3:9  where your fathers tested me by proving me, and saw my works for forty years.

Heb 3:10  Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways;’

Heb 3:11  as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’”

This passage comes from the Psalms and is based on several passages, including:

Exo 17:7  He called the name of the place Massah, and Merivah, because the children of Yisra’el quarreled, and because they tested YHWH, saying, “Is YHWH among us, or not?”

And…

Deu 8:1  All the mitzvah which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which YHWH swore to your fathers.   Deu 8:2 You shall remember all the way which YHWH your Elohim has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his mitzvot, or not.

And finally:

Psa 95:6  Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before YHWH, our Maker,   Psa 95:7  for he is our Elohim. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!   Psa 95:8  Don’t harden your heart, as at Merivah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,   Psa 95:9  when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.   Psa 95:10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”   Psa 95:11  Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”

“My rest” is synonymous with “my sabbath,” referring prophetically to the 7th day (that is, the 7th millennium) which is the Messianic Kingdom.  Those who will not keep his mitzvot, his commandments, will not enter it.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:12  Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living Elohim;

Heb 3:13  but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today;” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“Falling away from Elohim” has no other definition than throwing off His Torah and living in sin.  Sin is the transgression of the Torah (I John 3).  “Today” is the present apostolic age, the “church” age, since Yeshua’s ascent to Heaven.  This age will end when He descends again to call his Obedient Believers to their marriage feast with him, resulting in immortality and service as kings and priests in the Messianic Age.  Sin, that is, violating Torah, will absolutely prevent you from being included in the Parousia.  As in the parable of the 10 virgins, who went out to buy oil on the Sabbath/Festival (representing Yom Teruah), those who refuse to conform their life to Elohim’s commandments will have the door slammed in their face, with Yeshua inside saying “I never knew you” (Matthew 7 and Matthew 25).

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 3:14  For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:

Heb 3:15  while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”

Heb 3:16  For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moshe?

Heb 3:17  With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Heb 3:18  To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

Heb 3:19  We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Sin and unbelief are deeply linked and intertwined.  Obviously, a person who doesn’t believe isn’t going to obey, but more subtly a person who won’t obey doesn’t really believe, either.    If they say they “don’t have” to obey Torah, aren’t they basically saying that yes, they know the way that Elohim prefers people to live, since He gave those commandments, but they aren’t willing to live the way they know Elohim prefers?  They are saying other considerations in their life, such as fitting in with the world, are more important to them than pleasing Elohim!  A person can’t build a life of faith on such an attitude of disobedience and rebellion.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

Heb 4:2  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.

Heb 4:3  For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:4  For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “Elohim rested on the seventh day from all his works;”

Heb 4:5  and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”

Here the link with the prophecy of the 7th prophetic day and a necessity for obedience to qualify are indeed linked.  Someone who doesn’t observe the weekly 7th day Sabbath isn’t going to be included in the 7th millennium sabbath.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

Heb 4:7  he again defines a certain day, “today,” saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

Heb 4:8  For if Yehoshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

Joshua led them to a temporary kingdom.  Yeshua HaMasiach will lead us to a permanent one.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:9  There remains therefore a Shabbat rest for the people of Elohim.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as Elohim did from his.

Heb 4:11  Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

The audience here are believers – therefore we can presume some were in danger of not obeying Elohim’s Written Torah commandments, which would disqualify them for the kingdom.  Just “believing” in Yeshua as a fact in your head is not Hebraic “belief.”  In Hebraic thought, “belief” is the basis for a course of action in the physical world, not a virtual reality only in your thoughts.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:12  For the Word of Elohim is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Torah and the teachings of the rest of the Tanakh are the plumb line, the measuring stick by which we are measured.  If we are failing to obey any part, we are shown to be crooked and not in alignment with Elohim.

Hebrews, continued:

Heb 4:13  There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Heb 4:14  Having then a great Kohen Gadol, who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of Elohim, let us hold tightly to our confession.

Heb 4:15  For we don’t have a Kohen Gadol who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

Amen, let us all do just that – confess our transgressions of Torah, our sins, and repent.  Only then will we gain admittance to the Kingdom.

Next week:  Parashat Shoftim.