Do you yearn to hear God’s voice?

Most of us have experienced God’s “silence”…Those moments where it feels for all practical purposes that God is not speaking, will not answer our cries, and for a time, nothing but deafening silence.

In these moments of desperation have you ever said, “Oh, God if you would only speak. If I could only hear your voice. If you would only not be silent.”

The author of Hebrews longs for us to see that God has spoken and even if he never said another word, he has said enough.

For the Fall semester, I am teaching a class on Hebrews and that is where my Wednesday posts will come from. The semester is going to be a time of sustained focus on what God has spoken; we are going to concentrate our hearts, souls, strength, and minds on God’s Word; we are going to listen to God speak through his Son.

This is exactly the point Hebrews begins with…In the past he spoke in through the prophets, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” God’s speech in Christ is the main point of Hebrews, and it shows that while there is continuity with the past, God’s speech in Christ is superior. A constant refrain in Hebrews is…CHRIST IS BETTER!

Hebrews 1:1-3 sets the table for all that will come by highlighting:

The Significance of Christ: God has appointed him heir of all things and through him created the world;

The Identity of Christ: He is the radiance of God and the exact imprint of his being;

The Actions of Christ: He upholds the universe by the word of his power and made purification for sins;

The Consequences of Christ Significance, Identity, and Actions: He sat down at the right of the father.

Hebrews is going to try to draw us into the reality of life in Christ, by painting the picture of who he is. To show that life in Christ is better because Christ is better. In Christ, we find a better hope (7:19), a better covenant (7:22), a better ministry (8:6), a better possession (10:34), a better country (11:16), and a better word (12:34), not because of who we are but because of who he is.

The author of Hebrews hopes to reinvigorate a sense of wonder with simple fact that God has spoken; leading to the climax when the author calls us to respond:

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28-29).

Hebrews will constantly put one question before us: does your reaction to Jesus match the weight of his glory?

“Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps. 33:8-9).