The book of Hebrews is structured in an interesting way.
The book is divided into 4 main sections, each one comparing Jesus to a certain aspect of Jewish history and tradition.
The first (Hebrews 1-2) contrast Jesus with angels and the Torah.
Now, this may seem silly at first. Why would the author compare God to his angels? But there is a point here. In Jewish tradition, it’s believed that Moses receives the Ten Commandments from an angel sent by God. Meanwhile, Jesus was sent for us to receive his good news. The author is stating that, if Israel was called to obey the Ten Commandments, given to them by angel, how much more are we called to obey Jesus’ commandments, given to us straight from the mouth of God?
The second contrast (Hebrews 3-4) is between Moses and Jesus themselves.
Moses was leader of Israel, and he built for them the tabernacle. Jesus is also the leader of Israel (being God after all) and he built all of creation. The author goes onto say that Israel rebelled against Moses, and God, and were thus barred from entering the Promised Land. This is a warning to us, who are also in a wilderness like environment, to not rebel against Jesus, or we rick being barred from God’s New Earth in the next life.
The third comparison (Hebrews 5-7) are between Jesus and Melchizedek, and the priests of Israel as a whole.
The priests from the line of Aaron, the Levites, were morally flawed and constantly sinful against God (after all, they were only human). As a result, they constantly had to offer sacrifices to God for not only their own sins, but for the entire population of Israel. Jesus, on the other hand, is morally perfect, and sinless. His sacrifice on the cross is the only one needed. The blood of the truly spotless lamb cleanses all of us from our sins, and no more sacrifices are needed.
The fourth, and final, comparison (Hebrews 8-10) compares Jesus to the sacrifices of the Levite priests, rather than the priests themselves.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is the only one required for us to be righteous before God. The Jewish sacrifices had to be made on a daily basis, and yearly on the day of atonement. There was always a need, but in Jesus, our needs are met.
All of these comparisons point to Jesus, and how he is the most important and superior way God has chosen to reveal himself.
Any need that the Torah failed to fulfill was finally met in Christ.
All of these contrasts point to how important it is to not reject Jesus and his message. To do so would mean rejecting eternal life in God’s new creation, rejecting your only way to be right with God, and to reject God’s forgiveness of your sins.
As such, we must follows the great models of faith (as listed in Hebrews 11) and know that God will not abandon his people, so we must not abandon him.
God is life, and rejecting him would mean rejecting life itself.
God bless, Jesus loves you ✝️❤️
(Paraphrased from this Bible Project video)
