Help my lack of Understanding

Hebrews 2:10-18

Help my lack of understanding; those were my thoughts while reading these verses.  O’ how I wanted to look at what a commentary had to say, but I chose by faith to believe that the Holy Spirit is my teacher, and I will ask Him to guide my thoughts and to open my spiritual eyes to His truth.  I believe my mother would use the term flabbergasted after reading these verses.  Verse 10-12, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.  Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”  We have stated often that Jesus is God, and that by an act of love and in obedience to His Father, He became a man, born of a virgin, and totally dependent on His Father in heaven.  It is important to understand that this is being written to Jewish Christians who place Abraham in a role of importance, and the writer was warning them of relapsing into Judaism, or putting the importance on ceremonial observances.

It has often been said, the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible, and once more I found the truth in that statement.  Hebrews 5:7-10, “During the days of Jesus life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.  “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” I must be quick to confess much of this is beyond my understanding at this time, but this much is clear, Jesus death was a physical death, and in the garden He was crying out to His Father in regards to the death on a cross, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)  How often I’ve read that and dismissed it as Jesus was God and He knew it had to be done in order to redeem man from the penalty of sin.  But today I saw verses 43-44, “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”  No one other that Jesus Christ has ever faced such a crisis, the real suffering came that night, while the men who were His disciples slept. 

My understanding of these verses is much like my faith, very shallow, very small, but this I know my Lord has total understanding of my trials and temptations.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice