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Today we begin our study of Hebrews. It is entirely fitting that, after studying Leviticus and the establishment of the law, we should study Hebrews and its discussion of the fulfillment of that same law.
In my estimation, Hebrews is one of the most difficult books of the New Testament, perhaps only less difficult than Revelation in the topics it presents. Part of that difficulty stems from the books original intended audience, that is recently converted Jewish Christians of the first century Mediterranean world. That is not to say that the book is not relevant to us today, on the contrary, this different worldview invites us to dig deeply into our own faith to understand the message contained therein.
I personally do not recommend studying Hebrews without help. There are piles of commentaries and online resources, and I do not personally recommend any one of them over another. As always, a good place to start is the People’s Bible Commentary on Hebrews available from the Northwest Publishing House of the WELS. Also, here is a parallel bible study based on the same study program from the WELS. Since we are using BibleGateway.com for our references, here is the link to their commentary.
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As mentioned before, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews was speaking to new Jewish Christians in the Mediterranean world. Those Christians were troubled by many things, and the author sought to allay those troubles by contextualizing the Gospel to their view as people who understood the Old Testament and the teachings of the Judaism of the time.
Of most importance to the author in the first chapter was establishing the nature of Christ as God and the Son of God, a place of most importance for the understanding of faith, because unless Christ is God, then the sacrifice that He made in his death was not the redemptive fulfillment that we believe.
But there is no doubt for our faith that Jesus Christ was indeed the promised Messiah. It was He who fulfilled the law and the prophets, who died on Calvary, and who rose again. It was He who ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for us in his Father’s kingdom. In this hope we rejoice, just as did the Christians to whom Hebrews was written. Praise be to God that this is so.
DLH
