How to Understand the Book of Hebrews

How to Understand the Book of Hebrews Here s what we show you to make the Book of Hebrews crystal clear for you: 1. We show you to whom the Book of Hebrews was written. 2. We show you how the Abrahamic covenant works. 3. We show you the real purpose of Moses law. 4. We show you how Moses law worked in conjunction with Abraham s covenant. 5. We show you the Six Things Jesus did to Moses law that changed the Old Testament system forever. 6. We show you the skillful way the author used pronouns in the Book of Hebrews. 7. We give our outline of this book at the end of this introduction. In this Introduction, we briefly explain each of these seven items. They are not complicated. You do not have to remember them. Therefore, you don t have to memorize them. After the following brief explanation, we will use them and apply them for you in the balance of this commentary. As we use them, you will clearly see and understand how they work. Then, you will remember them. 1) To whom was Hebrews written? First, it was not written to Gentiles. It was not written to Gentile Christians. There is nothing in the Book of Hebrews that was written directly to Gentiles--Christian or otherwise. Lenski said it well. The recipients of this epistle were not Gentiles although such a view has been advocated. Nor were they a mixed group, partly Jewish, partly Gentile. Hebrews nowhere deals with or addresses Gentile Christian readers; and it is impossible to assume that Hebrews is addressed only to the Jewish members of a mixed group to the exclusion of the Gentile members. (RCHL, Hebrews, P14) Some things in Hebrews apply to Gentile Christians by grafting, but not one thing applies to Gentiles directly. You Gentile Christians cannot find yourself in Hebrews except those places that God grafted you into the Abrahamic covenant on an equal footing with the Hebrews themselves. (Of course, many practical, devotional, and faith building lessons exist for Gentile Christians in Hebrews.) Consequently, you Gentile Christians are grafted into most of the positives in Hebrews. But you are not in the negatives. Second, it was written to the Hebrew people. (The original audience might have been a house church.) Even though the original audience might have been a house church, the Author wrote its message to them as a people, a nation. (In this work, we always refer to the Author of Hebrews as our Author or the Author. ) Furthermore, he addressed certain groups within the Hebrew nation. Actually, he divided them into three distinct groups and addressed each group separately. Finally, he divided the third group below into three more, distinct groups. Group One: He addressed some of the Book to the Hebrews as a complete entity, that is, as a nation of people. Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation Page 7

Group Two: He addressed some of it to the group (out of the nation) who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah, Savior and final sacrifice for their sin under Moses law. Group Three: He addressed some of it to another group of them (out of the nation) who had not accepted Jesus as their Messiah, Savior and final sacrifice for their sin under Moses law. He also divided this group into three more distinct groups. Group 3A: This group had absolutely, finally and irrevocably rejected Jesus as the final sacrifice for their sin under Moses law. Group 3B: This group was considering accepting Jesus as the final sacrifice for their sin under Moses law, but were undecided. Group 3C: This group professed to have accepted Jesus as the final sacrifice for their sin under Moses law, but they had never actually done so. They were professors only. They professed but did not possess. We have Group 3C above in the churches today. How many members of the church do you know who talk the talk but do not walk the walk. How many of them profess but do not possess? 2) How the Abrahamic covenant works In Genesis 12, God made a covenant with Abraham that was composed of Sixty Different Promises. Thirteen of these Sixty Promises pertained to Gentiles. See Chapter 1 in our book, What are Abraham s Blessings Anyway?. for a complete list of the Sixty Promises. (The book is free on the Internet--www.jaysnell.org.) The key term in these Sixty Promises is the word bless. This word contains four basic things that belonged to Abraham, to his physical descendants, and to us Gentile Christians by grafting. 1. Physical Healing for their body 2. Prosperity for their pocket book 3. Family Well Being 4. Salvation for their soul In addition to these four things contained in the term bless, this covenant also contained God s promise of the land. Remember this well: God gave the land in addition to the four things contained in the concept of bless that are listed above. The addition of the land, therefore, gave them these five things: healing, prosperity, family well being, salvation, and land. Later, we shall see that, in addition to these five, He gave them two more, wonderful blessings. The beauty of these four things, plus the land, was that the Hebrews were born with them. They did not have to get them. Because they were born into the Abrahamic covenant, they had them. These blessings were theirs by birthright. They did not have to earn them. They were the givens of the Abrahamic covenant blessing system. Page 8 Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation

Previously, we said that thirteen of these Sixty Promises pertained to Gentiles. As we shall see later, God grafts us Gentiles (who accept Jesus as our personal Savior) into the four blessings listed above, because of these thirteen Promises that pertain to us. The promise of land, however, is exclusively Hebrew. We Gentiles have absolutely no part in the Promise of the land. We do, however, share equally with the Hebrews, the Abrahamic Promise of blessing. Therefore, healing, prosperity, family well-being and salvation belongs to us Christian Gentiles as well as the Hebrews. Dear Reader, as you read through Hebrews, you will discover that its basic message is how to acquire the fulfillment of the promise God made with Abraham. (GWB P246) You will discover that the main purpose of the Book of Hebrews was that Jesus self-sacrifice was the perfect gift needed to motivate God to fulfill for them the promise he had made to Abraham. (GWB P266) 3) The real purpose of Moses law God neither gave Moses law to enable the Hebrews to work their way into heaven nor obtain by works any of the four things contained in the blessing covenant. In other words, they could not earn healing, prosperity, family well-being or salvation by the works of Moses law. This was never its purpose. This was never what God intended for it. Then what was its real purpose? To maintain the Abrahamic blessings for the Hebrew people-- even when they sinned--was its purpose. In other words, God gave the Law not only to deal with the Hebrews sin problem but also to deal with it in such a way that no Hebrew lost one thing promised him in the Sixty Promises. In other words, the Scriptures declare clearly that the Law of Moses was given to maintain the blessings in the Abrahamic covenant while dealing with the sin problem of these people. The Scriptures below trumpet this truth to us: God gave Moses law to maintain the Abrahamic blessings for them even when they sinned. Deut 7:11-12 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: (KJV) In verse 11 above, God commanded the Hebrews to keep the Law of Moses. Then, verse 12 He promised them that if they keep and do the commands of Moses law, then He would keep the blessings flowing for them without interruption. Of course, the uninterrupted blessings were those that He had already given to them in the Abrahamic covenant. See our book, What are Abraham s Blessings Anyway?. It s free on the Internet--www.jaysnell.org. The expression, the covenant and mercy which he sware unto thy fathers, is synonymous with the Abrahamic covenant. Verse 9 below demonstrates this for us. Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation Page 9

Deut 7:9 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; (KJV) In this context, the above Scripture shows that covenant and mercy and the Abrahamic covenant are one and the same thing. See also Luke I: 54-55 and 72. These three verses also show us that covenant and mercy is in fact the Abrahamic covenant. Obviously the keeping of the Law caused God to maintain, or keep, the Abrahamic blessings flowing without interruption for them even when they sinned. Furthermore, He gave them a partial list of these blessings in verses 13 through 15 below. And, in verse 13 below, is emphatic and should be translated even, specifically, or namely. To put it differently, God promised in verse 12, to keep the Abrahamic blessings flowing for them because they kept the commands of the Law, which included making the proper sacrifice. Then, in verses 13 through 15, he lists specifically, by name, some of the Abrahamic blessings that He will continue flowing their way. Deut 7:13-15 13 And (even, namely or specifically,) he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. (Parentheses mine) 14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. 15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. (KJV) Dear Reader, you should make a list of these blessings on a separate sheet of paper and learn them. You should learn them because we Gentile Christians are grafted into them on an equal footing with the Hebrews. Consequently, they belong to us also. 4) How God Made the Abrahamic covenant and Moses law function as a unit. Here s how Abraham s covenant and Moses law worked together. God gave the Hebrews healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation in the Abrahamic covenant. About 430 years later, God determined to deal with their sins in such a way that none of them lost anything He promised them in the covenant. Here s how He did this. When a Hebrew sinned in the Old Testament, Moses law required him to make certain kinds of sacrifices to fit his sins. Keep in mind that the sacrifices were commanded in Moses law. It also Page 10 Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation

contained specific directions concerning what kind of sacrifice to make, when to make it, the manner in which it was to be made and where to make it. When a Hebrew sinned, all he had to do was just make the right sacrifice in the right manner. He just had to follow the directions in the Law about making the sacrifices. When he properly made the sacrifices described above, the blessings in the Abrahamic covenant kept flowing for him without interruption. God simply winked at his sin. He simply did not see it because it was temporarily covered by the sacrifice the sinning Hebrew made for his specific sin. Acts 17:30 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (KJV) If a Hebrew sinned and did not make the proper Mosaic sacrifice, he lost everything he had by birth in the Abrahamic covenant. He lost his blessings of healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation. This loss continued until the sinning Hebrew repented of his sin and demonstrated his repentance by making the proper sacrifice. In this way, God s covenant with Abraham worked in conjunction (as a unit) with Moses law. The Abrahamic covenant was God s promise to bless. The Mosaic sacrifices kept the blessings flowing. The Abrahamic covenant defined the blessings and the Mosaic sacrifices maintained them. As the sinning Hebrew sacrificed, God winked at his sin, because in the mind and plan of God, it was covered by the sacrifice. To put it differently, the sacrifice temporarily blotted the sin from God s view. See our book, What ve They Done with Abraham s Blessing? Again, this book is free on the Internet. Go to www.jaysnell.org. 5) Jesus did Six Things to Moses law that completely eliminated it and changed the entire Old Testament System forever This unit system the combination of the Abrahamic covenant and Moses law--continued until Jesus came. Upon His death, Jesus did Six Things to the Law of Moses that changed the Old Testament system forever. (See Ephesians 2:14-16 and Colossians 2:14 below.) These two Scriptures contain the Six Things Jesus did to the Law of Moses. Eph 2:14-16 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (KJV) Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation Page 11

Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (KJV) From the above Scriptures, we can readily see the Six Things Jesus did to Moses law to get it completely out of the way. 1. He broke it down. 2. He abolished it. 3. He slew it. 4. He blotted it out. 5. He took it out of the way. 6. He nailed it to his cross. Having done away with the Moses law, Jesus became God s final sacrifice for sin. Upon Jesus death, God no longer accepted the blood of bulls, goats, cows, and sheep. Now, He only accepts the blood of Jesus for the Hebrew sin problem. Therefore, beginning with Jesus death and continuing throughout this age, each individual Hebrew must make a choice. He can accept Jesus as God s final sacrifice for sin under Moses law and God will continue the flow of blessings He gave him in the Abrahamic covenant. He will continue for him (without interruption) the blessings of healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation. If he refuses to accept Jesus as God s final sacrifice for sin under the Mosaic system, he instantly loses what he had by birth in the Abrahamic covenant. He loses his healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation. Note this well! He lost the salvation he had by birth; he fell from the grace he was born into. Obviously, the Hebrew who rejected Jesus was as lost (unsaved) as any heathen who ever lived. Previously we said that Gentiles were included in thirteen of the Sixty Promises to Abraham. Those thirteen Promises could not and did not become valid until Jesus eliminated the Law of Moses. Since He eliminated it, Gentiles can be saved. They can accept Jesus as their personal Savior. When they do, they are grafted into the same salvation, healing, prosperity and family well being that the Hebrews have enjoyed since Abraham received the covenant from God, beginning in Genesis 12. See the first three volumes of our books on the Abrahamic covenant: What are Abraham s Blessings Anyway?; What ve They Done with Abraham s Blessings?; and The Unbroken Force of Abraham s Blessings. They are free on the Internet--www.jaysnell.org. These Hebrews were born into these Abrahamic blessings. Gentiles were not. The Hebrews accept Christ to maintain the Abrahamic blessings. Gentiles accept Christ to obtain the Abrahamic blessings. They obtain them because, simultaneous with accepting Christ, God grafts them (Gentiles) into the Abrahamic blessing system on an absolute equal footing with the Hebrews. Page 12 Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation

Remember this! The Hebrews are born into the Abrahamic blessings. Gentiles are grafted into them. Hebrews accept Christ to maintain the blessings. Gentiles accept Christ and obtain them because God instantly grafts them into the blessings. 6) The Skillful Way the Author Used Pronouns You will be amazed as you see our Author skillfully use pronouns to keep himself out of Scriptures in which he does not belong. This Author was a master of Greek grammar. He directed much of what he said to the Hebrews as a people (nation.) When he addressed any of the groups within the nation, however, his change of pronoun coupled with the context itself, shows that he was not addressing the nation anymore. We shall not explain how he did it in this introduction. Nevertheless, we will show you that he did it as we move through this work. Then you will understand how he did it. Follow the pronouns closely and you will see that the Book of Hebrews does not, in any way, teach that a Christian--Jew or Gentile--can lose his/her healing, prosperity, family well being or salvation! 7) The Simple Outline of this Book 1. All seven Major Warnings in Hebrews are interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction. 2. All eleven Lest Warnings in Hebrews are interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction (see below). 3. The Single Most Important Verse in Hebrews interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction. 4. Proof interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction--that the people addressed in Hebrews are Hebrews and not Gentile Christians. 5. All thirteen Let Us Exhortations in Hebrews interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction. 6. Proof that one of the Groups addressed by our Author was continuously inheriting the same healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation that Abraham himself obtained and enjoyed. Furthermore, this group was continuously inheriting them for the same reason Abraham had them; they were born into the Abrahamic covenant. Again, this is interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction. (You Gentile Christians are grafted into the continuous inheriting in this section.) 7. The once for all aspect of the sacrifice, offering, blood, and Great High Priesthood of Jesus demonstrated why they will never be repeated. This, too, is interpreted for you by the guidelines in this Introduction. In the Lest Warnings lest translates the Greek negative particle ma (many times in combination with other Greek words). Translated into English, lest simply means for fear that. In other words, if you do (or don t do) such and such, then certain unpleasant things may (will) happen to you. Hence, a Lest Warning. Read this book and build your faith to a fever pitch. You will never again let anyone place you into Scriptures where you do not belong. You will never again believe it is possible for any Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation Page 13

Christian to lose his/her healing, prosperity, family well being and/or salvation. This book should have been written hundreds of years ago! Page 14 Hebrews: The Abrahamic Interpretation