Text: Hebrews 12:15-29
Have you ever noticed just how much of the bible is narrative? It’s one long story – a true story and part of world history. Much of it is told without commentary, leaving you and me to judge the people and the events for ourselves. It is not that God is neutral about what’s gone on, it’s that He wants to get us involved
This is interactive story-telling at its best. God wants us to read and judge…using the same standard that He does. He wants us to evaluate what we are reading by applying the standard set out in his word. And then, from time to time…God speaks up as part of the story to tell us, who it was that pleased Him and who did not.
Some of the people in the Bible set a bad example. God want’s us to learn from them, what it is that we should not do. He encourages us to imitate the good and be warned by the bad.
The great thing about the narrative of the bible is that we get to see history from the vantage point of God. We can go back and forward in the story to see where we came from and what is coming. We don’t get to do that in our own lives, except perhaps in broad brush strokes.
The text for this article takes us back to a man named Esau and warns us against ‘coming short of the grace of God’ (Heb 12:15-17). He is talking about giving up on our faith by giving up on God before the time comes for God to bless us with his eternal presence.
Here and now, we’ve only just started to enjoy God’s grace. But it is eternal life with God….to which God calls us by his grace. If we give up before we get there, we lose everything that God has promised
That’s what Esau did. He was a godless person…both irreligious and irreverent. Were he alive today, some might say that he was just a good-old-boy. Yea, he was worldly minded, but totally likeable and the life of the party. He was a guy who lived for today and could care less about tomorrow, until tomorrow came. He cared less and less for the things that endure, and in the end, received none of them.
He sold his birthright, for a meal. He took a “bird in the hand” instead of waiting for his father’s fortune. And having done the deal and eaten the meal, the bible says that he ‘despised his birthright’. He told himself that it was a nothing-burger…but it made him bitter
By today’s standards – Isaac was a millionaire and Esau was the next head of the family. Two thirds of that estate was his – until it wasn’t. All it took was enough time for one really really bad decision, followed by a lifetime of regret. Once the deal was done, it was done. He had to live with it. He spend the rest of his life beating himself up. He seized the moment and said ‘nuts’ to the future.
Now it may seem that Esau just had a run of bad luck, but Esau’s life to that point…set him up. What he did at that moment was very much like the rest of his life
He had married two Canaanite women who were Hittites and pagan. His parents were displeased, so he married a girl from Ishmael’s family – who was not much better.
Esau didn’t get it. He did not understand his parent’s concerns, for he was a godless man. He was not living for the promises of God or understand the importance of faith in God and what it meant for family life. He was careless, thoughtless and heedless of where he was going. And when he realized where that was, he couldn’t change it. He could not get his birthright back, and God saw to it that the promise of Abraham was not bestowed on an unbeliever. As it turned out,Jacob received the blessing as well and that blessing was worth far more than the birthright.
The point is that just like Esau, each one of us have have a birthright. We received it when we were born again in Christ. We are the children of God…by his grace, and like firstborn children, we stand to inherit. The blessings that God has in store for us belong to us already, and like a birthright…they are ours to lose. All that we need to do is to remain faithful, trusting God by obeying him as we wait upon the Lord. Not like Esau, who in a moment of weakness, traded a fortune for a bowl of soup.
Now It’s true that no one knows if they will be alive tomorrow. But If Esau had had faith in God, he should have known that God would continue to bless his father and there would be an estate to inherit. And had he believed in God’s promise to Abraham, he could have received that which may only be had by faith. If is a very big, little word.
So this text is both a warning and an encouragement. There is something that we must know(vs 17-24), and there’s something that we are supposed to do (vs. 15, 25-29)
Notice that verses 15 & 25 both begin with the phrase “see to it”
Verse 15 – see to it that you don’t fall short of God’s grace
Verse 25 – see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking
The writer begins with a contrast between two sons to a contrast between two mountains. One you can see with your eyes…but not the other. The second mountain is visible, only to the eyes of faith.
The two mountains are actually two covenants, the old and the new. Both were given by God, but now, only one remains. The first, came lots of tangible signs. There was a mountain that smouldered and shook and those who got too close or who touched it, were to be executed, unless God had already done so. God forbid it, because He is Holy and Israel was not. So the first covenant was all about the distance between God and his people.
Now to be fair, the covenant was spoken from heaven. The people heard God’s voice and were terrified. Even Moses shook with fear. They pleaded with God to stop speaking for they could not endure it.
God was way up there at the very top, in the smoke and clouds while the people stood afar off, way down at the mountain’s base. But way off, was still too close for sinners, and way too far to take comfort in being the people of God. Yet, it was as close as the blood of bulls and goats could get them, for that blood could not remove sins.
Mt. Sinai was awe-inspiring and terrifying, a combination of sensory overload and divine revelation. Unfortunately, most of the people there…did not get it, for not many days later, an orgy broke out at the golden calf. They had heard the voice of God – but rejected what he said. They saw signs and wonders, but did not perceive their invisible God.
When the earth shook, it shook them too. But they were not shaken out of unbelief nor did they let go of the pagan gods who lived on in their hearts.
Now I have to admit, that there’s a part of me that would like to see and hear what they did. At least I think that I would. On some level, a physical experience seems to trump spiritual knowledge. And, I’d like to believe that my faith would grow stronger.
In that sense, it may seem like the good old days happened a long time ago.
But that’s not true. Mind-blowing miracles do not change our hearts. They do not take away our sinfulness, nor do they rid us of our love for sin. For that to happen, God needed ‘another mountain’.
You see, God never has had anything in common with rocks and dirt. It’s not the sort of place that God calls home. And it’s not a permanent place where God can take up residence.
This other mountain, is a place that our writer calls Mt. Zion…it is the city of the ‘living God’, the heavenly Jerusalem. That name takes us back to the city that David took from the Jebusites. The temple of Solomon was in Jerusalem this was where God had caused his name to dwell.
The name remains but the location has changed. The new Jerusalem is heaven. It is a city built by God and there are angels there, without number. God has built this city as a place where his people can come and live with him.
When the writer of Hebrews says that we have come to Mt. Zion, he means that our lives as Christians pertain to heaven. Spiritually speaking, we have been brought to the gates of heaven. We are residents in waiting and God has made us into the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
Now we started out talking about Esau and the rights of a firstborn son. Every christian is a firstborn. In Hebrews 12, the word firstborn is not about birth-order, it’s about rights and privileges. And among the privileges of God’s children is citizenship in heaven.
We stand to inherit…heaven. Our names are written in God’s book of life which lists each one personally. The apostle John calls it the “lamb’s book of life” in Rev. 21:27
Jesus said:
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. (Luke 10:20)
God has reserved a place for us in his city…but not just for us alone. The spirits of men and women who lived righteous lives are also waiting. Heaven is their home too
The difference between us and them is that they are one step closer. They have now been made perfect, in the sense that they have reached their final spiritual destination. They have been made righteous in the same way that we are, through the blood of Jesus, for the blood of Jesus was shed for all the righteous of every age.
They are no longer tempted to sin…that danger is past. They are rewarded and comforted as they wait. Death is behind them and eternal life stretches out in front. And we are with them, in the same kingdom, the sphere of God’s rule.
It’s pretty obvious, that the city of God is the place where God the Father is. He is the living God, the judge of the living and the dead. This is by the way, good news, since He is the one who has declared us righteous in Christ
This is the place and these are the people to whom God has brought us. It is the place of His eternal presence.
As we read these words, the Father is surrounded by angels. Jesus is there, mediating for us. His blood continues to purify as we continue to draw near to God. Unlike that blood of Abel that cried for vengeance, the blood of Jesus empowers God’s forgiveness and mercy. The Holy Spirit lives inside each one of us, and in all of us together. God in us, is the glue that makes us one.
This is the city, the spiritual reality in which we are citizens. The thing is…that we not there yet.
So our writer puts our feet back on the ground one more time….saying
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven”.
These verses take us back to the start of Hebrews, which begins with all of the ways that God has spoken to men over the centuries. But now, in these last days, he has spoken through his Son.
The first covenant arrived at Mt. Sinai – with a theophany. God was there, but unseen in all the smoke. But in order for God’s final covenant to arrive, God came in person. He came in the person of his Son Jesus Christ
What God accomplished in Jesus is once-for-all. And what Jesus has spoken on earth and taught through the apostles and prophets. That word is both full and final and for that reason, we need to listen. God is speaking to us in his word. The words on the pages of your bible, are words from heaven. They tell about salvation from heaven and about heaven itself. And because of what we stand to lose, they warn us.
The book of Hebrews is filled with warnings like the one in 2:1-3
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
God’s been shaking things up all along and he’s not finished. When He shook Mt. Sinai he ratified a national covenant. When He shook the nations, those nations let Israel come back from captivity. Haggai 2:6.
But there’s one more thing that God intends to shake…which means, that it’s not permanent. It is the ground we stand on and the universe all around. God spoke it into existence, and at his word, it will pass away. When that happens, only unshakable things will be left, like God’s heavenly city.
The only thing in this whole world that God will keep are the people who belong to Him. We will remain, because we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken
So, let us thank God for His kindness and mercy and praise him for His grace. All power and glory are his from everlasting to everlasting. Let us come into his presence with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.