Hebrews: Chapter 2
September 7, 2008
Dangers of Drifting
Heb 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. Heb 2:2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. Heb 2:4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Last week we looked at Hebrews chapter 1 and the superiority of Christ to the angels. This week we move into chapter two and we get a better picture of why this is so important. So if you want to turn and hold your place in Hebrews 2 that is where we will be today. The law that was received by Moses on Mount Sinai was delivered by the angels. While these Angelic carriers may be missed if you look strictly at the OT in Exodus and Deuteronomy, Stephen in Acts 7:53 mentions them as does Paul in Galatians 3:19. So this message being the law of God given in the OT was spoken by angels and is a binding message. If you have ever taken the time to read through Deuteronomy and the other books of law in the Old Testament you might have developed a mild fear of God. As you read through the laws of God what you find is that the Old Testament is filled with punishments to go along with crimes that are committed. If a man works on the Sabbath he is to be taken out and stoned because he broke the Sabbath. In the Old Testament almost every crime has a just punishment. The OT law was clear in both its expectations and what should be done to those who did not live up to those expectations. We even see a warning similar to the warning in Hebrews 2:
Dt 4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
The OT law was not something to be taken lightly. It was severe and inescapable. Every violation had its due punishment and those who ignored or deliberately set out to defy it were to be punished with the death sentence. Anyone who broke this word spoken by angels would be punished according to their crime.
The Jewish people were all too familiar with the consequences for breaking the law of God. So this question would strike a particularly powerful note in the mind of a Jewish reader. When they rejected God’s law they were taken captive by enemy nations. They were robbed, killed, or sold as slaves driven from their homes and scattered among pagan lands. They had seen the consequences of their disobedience. At this time there was a powerful movement within the Jewish faith trying to correct this problem. The Pharisees were trying to lead the Jewish people to a new level of righteousness according to the law. They saw that the punishments for breaking the law were carried out and that the law was obeyed by the people of Israel. They had felt the pain of God’s discipline for their disobedience. Now they were going to follow the law. How many people do you think were punished? How many times do you think they saw the consequences of breaking God’s law? The Jews revered the law and were certainly very familiar with the consequences for breaking it.
So if there was severe and inescapable punishment for those who violated the message spoken by angels how much greater then would the punishment be for defying this greater message? This Jewish argument of lesser to greater reflects the point that our author here is trying to make. Angels are messengers, they are merely servants in the kingdom of God. If the message that they brought was binding then how much more would the message be that was brought by the Son of God Himself? If the punishment for defying God’s word spoken by His servants was great how much greater would the punishment be for breaking God’s Word spoken by His Son? If breaking the Old Covenant brought punishment how much more are we in danger of punishment if we break this new and greater covenant? So the author here tells us in verse 1:
Heb 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
The author tells us we must pay more attention. We must be very careful not to drift away. This is not a new point the author is making he is continuing on from what he was saying in chapter one. The word therefore in verse 1 indicates that we are to view this text in light of what has already been said. Christ is superior to the angels therefore we must pay more careful attention. Jesus has spoken we better listen. We should pay careful attention to what Jesus has said or we will be in danger of drifting away. We could flow on by and miss our destination.
A few years ago I was at an internship at a church called Harvester Christian. A few of the staff members took all the interns out canoeing for a team building exercise. We begin to canoe down the river. Being that the staff and all the interns were guys this quickly became a competition. We began to race down the river as fast as we could hoping to be the first canoe to finish. Eventually we realized that the river was a bit longer than we had thought and we did not have the energy to race all the way down it. When our arms would start to cramp we would stop rowing for awhile. Strangely however, when we stopped rowing we didn’t stop moving. Even though we were not paddling we began to drift down the river. You see water has currents that flow and if you are in the current you will move with it. This was fine until we wanted to stop. There was this place that we were supposed to stop for lunch. It was a nice little area where we could pull up our canoes and sit and rest comfortably for a bit before continuing down river. We got a bit side tracked and were not watching where we were going. By the time we noticed where we were we had drifted past the place where we were supposed to stop. We had drifted too far down river and missed our point of contact. We could try to paddle against the current but it would have been fruitless effort.
If you have ever been canoeing you know that there is a small window of time when you want to stop and pull the canoe up onto the bank where you are able to do that. If you wait too long then you will drift past it and miss your destination all together. Most of the time it is not a big deal on our trip we just hopped out at the next bank and stopped there for lunch. However, if the stop you are looking to make is your final destination it is very important that you don’t drift past it. This is what Hebrews is trying to say: We have this point of contact and we must be careful not to miss. We cannot let ourselves drift by this great salvation. We have an opportunity to be saved. To have the blood of God’s Son wash away our sins so that we might be made righteous in God’s sight. We must be very careful so as not to drift by and miss this great salvation that is offered by the Son of God.
Heb 2:2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?
The word here ignore is probably not the best translation of the word that is used here. The word literally means to be unconcerned with or stop caring. The author here is actually connecting this word back to verse 1 where he tells us to pay attention. Pay attention do not stop paying attention. Focus do not become unconcerned with. He is issuing a very important warning. We have to remember here that this is not written to non-Christians. This is not a warning for those who have never accepted the Gospel message. This is a warning for those who are Christians and are considering giving up. This is a warning to those of us who start to wonder if maybe the life the world offers is better than the one Jesus brings. This Hebrew church has faced some persecution and some of them are being backslide into old habits and their old lives. Some of them are considering tossing in the towel and calling it quits. Christianity might be a little more than they bargained for. Perhaps it was harder than they thought. Now they may be considering just walking away.
To be honest they are not alone in these concerns. There are people in the church today, perhaps even some of us who have considered walking away. Have you ever felt like these Hebrews? Have you ever wondered if life would be easier if we didn’t have all these rules? Have you ever considered that the morality and demands of Christ are just a bit too much to bear? Have you ever just felt the pressures of life pushing down on you? Life can be hard sometimes. It can be painful. Sometimes we just feel tired and worn out. We know we should keep paddling. We know we should pay attention but we are so tired. With all the demands and requirements of this life sometimes do you find yourself just wanting a break? Do you ever find yourself wanting to take a vacation from your faith? Most of us have probably had times where we wished life was easier. A lot of people walk away from God not because they no longer believe that God is real but because they are tired of living His way. They have grown weary of all the rules and responsibilities of the Christian life and just want to live for themselves. Certainly this idea has crossed your mind. Christianity is not easy. It can be tempting to just let go and to give in to the desires of our flesh. It can be tempting to try and take a break and to let ourselves just drift alone in the current.
There are dangers that Christians face in their Spiritual lives. Some of us just give up and walk away from the faith. Others by focusing on other things in life drift away from our relationship with God without really noticing. We must pay attention so that we do not drift past the great salvation that Jesus offers. For this life is not like a river where there is one clear path that we can just flow down to reach the destination. This life is an ocean with many currents that can pull you in many different directions and they may not be the direction you want to go. In order to find your way you must pay attention so that you do not drift off course and become lost. On a river you drift the same direction you paddle. Drifting is just a lazier way to get to the same place. On the ocean the longer you drift the harder it will be to find your way again. If you drift away from the shore or lose sight of land and you may not know how to find it again. In our lives the further we drift away from the truth the harder and harder it gets to find it again.
The church is not just in danger of drifting. It has been drifting. We have stopped working against the tide of this world. The church was meant to influence society as salt and light but in recent times the church has been more influenced by society than anything. We devote ourselves to the pursuit of our own interests rather than the kingdom of God. We invest everything we have in hobbies and entertainment. We have become lazy sitting back in our canoe letting the current take us away. At first it was nice. It was good to take a break and to relax for a bit. So we allow ourselves to keep our bad habits and refuse to make good ones. Our prayer lives suffer, the time we spend reading God’s Word dwindles, and we do not even really notice. We drift further and further from God and our relationship with Him suffers because are not harmlessly drifting down river. We are drifting further and further from our Savior. We have taken the path of least resistance when we should have taken a strand for the truth. We are being pulled away by the tides of this world. But we are not alone in this. It seems that the Hebrews has the same problem. They had begun to backslide into old habits. They were being drawn toward sins of the past. So the author of Hebrews warns them earnestly to pay strict attention so that they do not drift away and become lost. A ship that has drifted can get to its destination with some proper correction. A ship that is lost is almost completely without hope. This warning to the Hebrews is one we should take seriously. For if we drift of course too long we can become lost and separated from the only one who has the power to save us.
We must be alert so that we do not drift past this great salvation. For the consequences of missing it are unimaginable. For some of us this is a good reminder to stay on course. It is nice to be reminded from time to time that we need to prepared and alert so that we do not forget and start to drift. For others of us this is not a reminder but a warning. Some of us have already started to drift. You may not be lost yet but the window for your point of contact is closing rapidly. Some of you are aware of this. You know that you are further from God than you were because He just isn’t a priority in your life and your really don’t care. Others of you this will come as a shock and you may not even have realized it yet. Your attention had been somewhere else for a bit and now you look up and…you see how far you drifted. But for all of us we need to see the significance of our relationship with Jesus Christ and the priority it should be. In the end how will you escape punishment if you miss the salvation that only Christ can offer?
Do you understand just much Christ has done for us? He did not just die for us. He left behind His glory and power to become like man. He shared in our humanity and become like us so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He became the blood that frees us from our slavery to sin and death. Not only was He the sacrifice that had to be slain He plays the role of the priest who mediates on our behalf. So Christ the perfect lamb of God became both our priest and the sacrifice for our sins so that we can have life. There is life in no one else. No other man and no other religion can offer the life that Jesus does. If Jesus is the only way and in our lives we have a point of contact with Him, how can we have life if we slip past that one way? If we neglect and stop caring about the Word of God and let ourselves drift away from Him how can we be saved? Hebrews 6 will tell us if we drift to the point of falling away then we can never come back. If we become lost, if we shipwreck our faith then there is no hope for the life that Jesus offers.
There is one way to life and it should be the focus of everything. Christ should be center of all we do and all that we are because if He isn’t we can easily find ourselves drifting from Him and the life He brings. So is Christ your center? Is He your focus?
