The issues that the writer to the Hebrews is dealing with are the same issues that the Lord Jesus dealt with while he dwelt in the flesh on this earth. There were Pharisees and teachers of the law who claimed to understand the Bible, yet they didn’t know the one who the Bible was all about—the Lord Jesus. Jesus tried to get the theologians to understand that Abraham knew him, but they did not. The writer to the Hebrews does the same thing.
The context is some of the stuff that we see in the Book of Acts, where there are lots of Jewish people coming to know the Lord Jesus, yet they don’t quite understand the fact that he is for the whole world. They think that people from all over the world who are joining the church need to become Jewish, just like they had to in the Old Testament. The worst case of this was in people who actually thought that the way to be saved was to follow the Old Testament law through their own obedience. Others thought that the Lord Jesus would have to fit into the system of the priests from the tribe of Levi from the Old Testament, that the great stuff was the system of the Old Testament, as opposed to the Lord Jesus himself. The writer to the Hebrews says “no way!”
Chapter one shows us who the Lord Jesus is: he is the Son of the Father. He always has been the Son of the Father, and he is Lord and God.
Chapter two shows us that Jesus became flesh, and that has always been the plan prophesied in the Old Testament.
Chapter three shows us that Moses was a servant of the Lord Jesus, and that sadly, the people under Moses recorded in the Book of Numbers rejected the Lord Jesus. We must not do what they did; we must cling to the Lord Jesus.
Chapter four shows us that the Lord Jesus has always been the one who was pointed to in the Sabbath laws and the Sabbath rest that we still enjoy and that we will enjoy. Jesus is the way to see that.
Chapter five shows us that the Lord Jesus is the great high priest that Aaron was pointing to.
Chapter six shows us that the Lord Jesus is the only way for the church to be blessed—that was the case for Abraham, and it is the case for us.
Chapter seven shows us that the Lord Jesus is the king of righteousness who is mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Abraham served this king of righteousness, and we must serve him too.
Chapter eight shows us that the Lord Jesus is the priest a covenant that lasts forever.
Chapter nine shows us that the Lord Jesus is the one who the Tabernacle and all the sacrifices were pointing to.
Chapter ten shows us that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way for us to be saved from our sins.
Chapter eleven shows us that all of the great heroes of the Old Testament have always trusted in the Lord Jesus.
Chapter twelve shows us that the Lord Jesus has always been the one we look to as the foundation and the conclusion of everything, and that he is the only way to heaven.
And then chapter thirteen has that great verse that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so that he will always be the same, which means that we have to obey him today. We have to hear his voice today; we have to look to him today, and it has practical implications for church life in the same way as it always has.
