5 Now God[a] did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6 But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them,[b] or mortals, that you care for them?[c] 7 You have made them for a little while lower[d] than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,[e] 8subjecting all things under their feet.” Now in subjecting all things to them, God[f] left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9 but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower[g] than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God[h] he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:5-9

What would you do with a 19-year-old Christian young man, who wrote in his diary, “9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death”? As you read through his 70 resolutions, you encounter things like, “7. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.” “17. Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.” If that young man lived in a modern evangelical home, his parents would probably be looking for a good Christian psychologist to get this kid’s focus off of such morbid subjects. Maybe a prescription for Prozac would help!

That young man was Jonathan Edwards, who went on to become the great revivalist preacher of the First Great Awakening. His writings are still immensely helpful to believers, 300 years later. Lest you think that he was a gloomy, depressive type, I should point out that his first resolution was, in part, “1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence.” Edwards realized, even as a teenager, that to live for God’s glory in light of death and eternity was to live for the greatest personal good, profit, and pleasure.

It seems to me that modern evangelical Christians are far too focused on the here and now. We’ve lost the central focus that Edwards had, even as a teenager, of living each day in view of death and eternity. The modern view is, “Heaven is a nice thought, but I want the good life now. If Jesus can help me succeed in my family, in business, and in my personal emotional life, that’s what I want! I’ll think about heaven when I’m in my eighties.” As a result of our shortsightedness, we don’t handle trials well. It is unknown how we might handle persecution, should such arise against the church, but it probably would free up a few seats on Sunday mornings.” (Our Glorious Destiny in Christ, bible.org, Steven J. Cole, 2003)

We do not handle trials well, do we? We are so quick to bail out of most things when we do not get our way, do not see immediate success, and do not sense immediate change. If it seems the diet is losing instead of us losing weight after a week, we try something else. If someone looks at us the wrong way, we immediately think they are an idiot. Why do humans think we are entitled to things — that life owes us something? G-d has placed humans, at least according to the writer of Hebrews, G-d has placed humans lower than the angels so that we learn from the trials of life — and that we learn to live as if this might be the last hour of our life. We need to appreciate the blessings we have today — not expect that we deserve the blessings to which someone else has been blessed.

The trials of today teach us the wisdom we need for tomorrow so that we can appreciate the suffering and death of Jesus — from which comes life for all people.

Pastor Dave

“Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4 while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.” Hebrews 2:1-4

“How many Old Testament saints failed to finish well, falling to one kind of evil or another? I believe that when the author of Hebrews warns us of the danger of “drifting,” he is speaking of the same problem. This is a danger that every Christian faces, and thus we would do well – as our text exhorts us – to listen more carefully to the message that God has for us in the person and work of His Son. As our text urges us, let us listen well to the Word of God, lest we drift into dangerous waters.

We should observe that this is the first “warning passage” in the Book of Hebrews. The writer has changed from exposition to exhortation. “Therefore, since God has spoken finally and fully in His Son, who is vastly superior to any other being, we should listen most carefully to what He has said.” There are two particularly important questions we must answer before going any further. First, who is meant by “we”? And second, “What is meant by the expression ‘drift away’?” ” (A Word of Warning and Exhortation, bible.org, Bob Deffinbaugh)

After the author of Hebrews has established his course of thinking in chapter one, he immediately moves on to his teaching. The audience of this letter is most likely Jewish Christians, most likely living in Jerusalem. And it appears that these followers are beginning to falter in their belief that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah.

Since Jesus was not the “militaristic” Messiah expected, many must have begun to question that Jesus was the right guy. As such, the author of Hebrews is exhorting them to stand firm in the faith. He is afraid of “faith-drift” — the same faith-drift that is endemic in our society today. If G-d does not answer our prayers right now, we cease in praying. If G-d does not solve our problems today, we find a different “messiah” — one whose instructions and promises fit our own world-view. That is why the author is so adamant that we do not drift away from the words of promise about Jesus. When things do not go our way, we need to trust, to persevere, to endure, and to keep on believing — with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dave