Special Feature - How to Make Sense of the Old Testament References

Running the Race, Following in Faith

Spring Disciple Formation Focus

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Special Feature: 
"I thought I was reading the New Testament...what's all this about Moses, Aaron, and Melchizedek?"
Dealing with the Old Testament References in Hebrews

Up to this point in the book of Hebrews, you've no doubt noticed that there's a lot of talk about, well, "Hebrews" - as in God's people whose story is told in the pages of the Old Testament (a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible).  You might be wondering what function it serves, all of the references to the exodus and wilderness wanderings and Moses and Aaron.  It's easy to get bogged down in these sections, many of which feature multiple quotations from OT scripture.  For people who are unfamiliar with the stories, these chapters can leave a big question mark hanging over their heads...and (on the plus side) perhaps lead them into studying this important era in the history of God's people.  For those of us who are familiar with these stories, there's a temptation for our attentions to wander off the main point of Jesus and into a detailed Bible study of Exodus.  Not a bad thing, but not necessarily what the writer of Hebrews has in mind.

One helpful way of looking at all of the OT references is that the author of Hebrews is using the "exodus journey" as one overarching and unifying sermon illustration as he encourages us along our journey of faith.  At North Creek PC, we tend to link Sunday sermons together into series, and often times the pastor(s) select one theme that links them all.  Sermons come back to this theme over and over again to shed new light on the topic.  One recent example is our Fall 2015 series on the Fruit of the Spirit.  We used the Washington State apple harvest as the overarching illustrative theme, returning to it again and again throughout the entire series.  The important aspect for us to remember about this series is that if you thought hearing about apple harvest was a "one-and-done" proposition, you were in for a suprise - we squeezed this illustration for all its worth, week in and week out, just like squeezing apples to make cider!

So we find that the preacher of Hebrews is repeatedly turning to the "exodus journey" them, over and over again identifying elements from this story that he thinks might help us understand his main point about Jesus and following him.  Here's a summary of how the main point intersects with the illustration:

• We're on a journey to God/glory (God's people were on a journey to the Promised Land)
• There are dangers along the way that might cause us to fall away and never reach our goal (God's people wandered in such a way that many of them didn't make it to the land of "promised rest")
• In order to reach our goal, we need to keep our eyes on our leader & helper, Jesus (God's people needed to keep their eyes on their leader Moses and their helper Aaron the Priest)

Throughout the sermon, in our reading of Hebrews, it helps to keep these two questions in mind:

• How do we struggle on the journey of faith?
• How does Jesus help us in our struggles?

Every page of the book of Hebrews will suggest answers to these two questions.  The concept that emerges that links the two is Jesus' unique role as our Great High Priest.  

That's our next focus ....