Dullness

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (Hebrews 05:09-11, NKJV).

First drifting, then departing, and now dullness, the third in the progression of dire warnings in Hebrews directly related to neglecting so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.

Christ, our Sacrifice, who learned obedience through the things which he suffered, has been perfected (made complete, fulfilled, finished) in that He became the final and comprehensive payment for our sin and our entrance into Heaven. Just as omniscient God voluntarily taking on a subservient role learns obedience, so a divine Being complete in Himself, becomes perfected as a payment for sin by voluntarily dying on the Cross in our place. This is utter humility on Christ's part, in absolute accordance with His teaching that the Son of Man came to serve and not be served.

This aspect of the  Lord's earthly mission and ministry is yet another integral part of His overarching superiority to all things, and is the common theme woven throughout this magnificent book of Scripture. In inconceivable condescension, God Himself became Man, divesting Himself of all the inherent privileges and power of His eternal godhood, to suffer and die for creatures miserably dead in their own trespasses and sins. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

And in that perfection, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. That word translated author here is aitios (ah'-ee-tee-os) in Greek, and means essential cause. In other words, by His ministry and death He caused salvation to be possible. Prior to the completion of His work, salvation was impossible.

As a reminder to us that these events were ordained before the foundation of the world and foreshadowed throughout the events of human history, the writer refers again to Psalm 110 and the ancient order of Melchizedek as the prototype of a High Priest called by God, rather than one genetically inheriting that position. This fact of being called to, rather than inheriting the priesthood as a descendant of Aaron, will be used later in Hebrews to continue the presentation of the superiority of Christ. For now, it serves as a rebuttal to the anticipated Jewish argument against Jesus being considered a legitimate priest because He was descended from the royal line of Judah, from which tribe no man has officiated at the altar.

Now, at this point in the discourse, the writer would like to expound even further on this distinction, but can't because his audience has become dull of hearing.

Dullness is the inevitable and tragic result of selective inattention to the things of God. It is what happens to a person who claims belief, for whatever false reasons, but does not invest in the relationship he or she is to have with the Lord. Like a ship dismissive of needed course correction that drifts from its intended destination, and ultimately departs from safe waters, the inattentive Christian becomes spiritually dull, and unable to hear the urgings and will of his Lord.

Discover a man who is oblivious to the walk of obedient faith, and you will find beneath his lackluster witness a purposeful ignorance of the doctrines of the Christian faith.

It is inevitable, for you become what you pay attention to, and become less like what you willfully ignore.

This is a spiritual principle as adamantine as the laws of sowing and reaping, forgiveness and forgiving, and humility and exaltation.

You become what you meditate upon. If it is the things of the world, you become like the world. If it is the things of Christ, you become like Him.

As a Christian, friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).

Look, superficial Christianity is like anything superficial. It is a veneer easily tarnished or scraped off, that neither protects, encourages, nor nourishes.

Someone who cannot hear the Good Shepherd cannot follow Him.

Dullness of hearing can quickly become fatal, like that sheep of the field left behind and subject to the ravages of the wild because it simply ignores the shepherd's call to the safe haven of the sheepfold.

The only protection against dullness is diligence.

Diligence in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship, and obedience.

There are no shortcuts, loopholes, and scant margin for neglect.

When It All ends

That night Seth dreamed.

It nearly killed him.

He was in a normal place at first. A place with sunshine and green leaves, a blue cloudless sky and a breeze that gently wafted the aromas of honeysuckle, lilac and cedar in perfect combination.

Outwardly idyllic, the effect this scene had on him emotionally was one of longing and poignancy that caught his breath. Somehow and in someway, while in this dream setting he was not part of it, like it was enveloped in some kind of crystal clear shrink-wrap that he could not penetrate no matter how hard he tried.

The feeling of loss this engendered seemed to go on forever, and sink whatever hope may have lain dormant in his heart.

He wanted with all his will to awake from sleep and have this fade into memory, but it stubbornly remained and entrapped him on the outside.

After some timeless and excruciating interval, he began to move away from the warmth and sunlight. He could still see it sharply, the image cutting open his heart even as it became smaller in perspective.

He began to bleed copiously from his chest, at first brightly red, but then becoming dark and sluggish; thick like the sludge that sometimes comes from a long disused water faucet.

As his blood spread, it blocked out the rapidly dwindling panorama of sunlit forest still receding from him. It became like a pitch-black curtain admitting not even the smallest photon of light.

In turn, the curtain began to enfold him in greasy, smothering folds of lead-heavy and coarse cloth.

And then it drew tighter, like a cocoon, or a mummy wrap.

Now all was fathomless darkness, intolerably close and hot.

His breathing became more labored, each laborious inhalation taking minutes to satisfy his imperious need for air.

He could not move arms or legs.

The terror of suffocating intensified. His entire existence focused on the next unsatisfying breath.

Until an even greater fear engulfed him.

At first it commenced as an unnoticed rumble of thunder on the very edge of perception.

It sounded like a cataract of water roaring over the edge of some great cliff.

Then it became much louder very quickly as he seemed to be falling toward it.

As he descended the heat became unbearable.

The blackness around him began to deteriorate. Bright orange writhing worms of flame seemed to be consuming it, replacing it with a deeper, more pervasive red glow.

Now the heat became so intense it felt like icy fingers slicing away his skin and scorching his very bones with acid tongues of flame.

The agony nearly overwhelmed him. Never in all his years had he felt such physical pain.

He opened his mouth to scream and the worms of fire leapt down his throat, searing his lungs and burning him literally from the inside out.

And still he fell into increasing heat and crushing depth.

Now the far memory of sunlight and leaves seemed only to exacerbate the torture as he uncomprehendingly longed for the pain to cease, yet it did not.

It maintained itself unabated, feeding endlessly on his flesh, but never consuming it.

Always the same indescribable torment, not for a second abating...

Finally, mercifully Seth awoke.

His body and the bedclothes around him were drenched in sweat.

His heart was racing almost to the point of bursting, and he was gasping for air.

He suspected he was near death, and that thought for the very first time in his self-centered life brought not a hint of relief from the cares of this world, as it had done in the past.

Instead, it filled him with a dread that made the darkened bedroom spin in a sickening spiral.

When he awoke again, he found himself on the floor, having lost consciousness and having slipped noiselessly from the bed in a tangle of drenched sheets.

He was shaking as he extricated himself and walked unsteadily into the bathroom.

He reached the toilet just as an unstoppable wave of nausea engulfed him.

He remained kneeling in front of the bowl in the dim illumination of the hall night light, too weak to move.

Seth tried to dismiss the nightmare and chalk it up to the deleterious effects of all the pressure about Jill's incident he was feeling.

But a very small voice in the back of his mind kept asking himself inconveniently, "Is that what death is really like?"

It's Not What You Think

Life returned to normal once Jill returned home from the hospital.

Except Seth became obsessed with keeping her safe and stress free so that her weakened cerebral arteries would never again be overburdened. And when he was not overzealously pursuing her preservation to the point of his own physical and emotional exhaustion, he expended whatever was left of his obsessional energies on ensuring that all the memorabilia of his wife - photos, letters, videos, artwork, crafts, everything that had her imprint upon it - was categorized and in safekeeping. It was absolute torture for him, the more so because to not do it was completely unbearable.

Seth was almost a person in that his love for Jill sometimes approached the border beyond the sphere of himself and ventured into the realm of actually caring for her, for her sake alone. Those times, infantile and clumsy, were nonetheless what endeared him the most to his wife and daughters. They were what gave Jill the most hope that perhaps it was not too late for his heart to soften and his his eyes to open to how things really were in the world.

For his part, Seth desperately avoided facing the reality that everything he depended upon to cope with life could be ripped from him in an instant. The fragility of his  wife, his girls, his job, his health, his security - all these fundamentally essential things - he could not afford to look at honestly because if he did, his sanity would run screaming into a black hole never to reemerge. It had come close in the back of that ambulance, and he must avoid at all costs a repeat of that glance over the abysmal event horizon.

"You can't keep this up," Jill told him gently two weeks after the hospital. "You are trying to control the universe. It won't work."

He looked at her, exhaustion evident in his face and eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying, and failing, not to be annoyed.

"You are worried about things you can't control. My life is not in your hands."

He looked at her, his red-rimmed eyes like a lost little boy.

"Look, I'm just trying to minimize the risks."

"Seth," she said, "life is not what you think. It's not what you think at all. You and I don't control anything. We can either submit completely to the One who does, trusting that He knows best and loves us. Or we can engage in a hopeless and purposeless battle that cannot be won unless we surrender."

"I don't know what that means." It was almost, but not quite, a plaintive whine.

"It's like Jacob wrestling with God. He was losing as long as he continued to struggle. It was only when he gave up the fight and asked for a blessing that he began to understand. And then the Lord graciously gave him a limp for the rest of his life as a reminder of how things really work."

"Bible stuff again," he said. "You know I don't get it. You know I don't get how you can believe it."

She sighed. For a smart man he was incredibly thick.

"Seth, you are holding onto the wrong things. You are striving against forces over which you cannot prevail; like a solitary man trying to hold his ground against a tidal wave. It's not possible. It's not even sensible."

"I get the tidal wave bit," he said. "I do. I'm just trying to get away from the shore."

"But I like the shore," she said with a smile. "Some of the best times, the times most worth living are right on the beach. Despite the dangers. Maybe even because of them."

"So what are you saying? Just give up and let you die without a fight?"

There was a fierce anger just underneath his voice. Anger at her for being mortal. Anger at himself for being so dependent and weak. Anger at life itself.

"It's not up to you, Seth. It's not up to me either. And I'm not saying 'give up and die'. I'm saying give up and live!"

"I don't know what that means!"

She growled.

"You are blind to how gracious God has been to us. To you. You are so afraid of things getting worse that you have no clue how good they have been! How many families out there in the world suffer loss every day! How many moms and dads weep over the graves of their children? How many watch as loved ones go through unmitigated agony helpless to do anything? I love you, Seth but you are an incredible idiot!"

"I don't care about all that other stuff. It doesn't mean anything to me. They're just words!"

"Bingo!" she said, an expression of equal parts of love, pity and exasperation. "And until they're more than that, your life is going to be a living Hell!"

"I'll try," he said to mollify her, to keep her calm so her brain wouldn't die.

The School of Suffering

As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 05:06-08, NKJV).

The contempt with which modern, enlightened secularists hold faith in God, and the study of God, is rife with a certain kind of arrogant and mind-numbing delusion. So confident are they of their materialist/naturalist/educated world view that they routinely scoff at even the name of Jesus Christ, or at the thought of Biblically-based Christian faith. They hold true Christians as mentally defective, and the most rabid among them would seek to outlaw religion, and especially Christianity, itself. Their current chief public spokesman is Richard Dawson, who makes a substantial income from deriding God and those who follow Him.

It would be more than a little infuriating if it wasn't so… tragic.

The pressure to conform to this elitist view is overwhelming in some circles, and it is subtly reinforced by popular culture and the western entertainment media. We who believe are stereotyped in any number of vile ways, and are marginalized as being on the fringe of "proper" society.

But the greatest intellectual and societal equalizer of all is the very nature of life on this fallen world. It is best summed up by this:

"…All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades… Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades…” (Isaiah 40:6-8, NKJV).

And,

…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14, NKJV).

And,

…Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psalms 39:5, NKJV).

Physical death is the enemy that conquers all conceit and false self-assurance. And inevitably, before the final battle, a conscious life lived with even minimal self-examination is full of suffering. I dare any vaunted intellect to honestly claim otherwise. I challenge any self-assured secularist or elite academic to squarely face suffering and death personally with the same mocking derision heaped upon followers of Christ. Try gritting your teeth and not aging, or avoiding the loss a loved one, or blithely watching a family member suffer and die.

It is only Christianity that gives assurance that life has ultimate purpose and meaning, and it is only a follower of Christ that can know that the final enemy, death, has been defeated.

One of the most common modern criticisms of faith in Jesus is that it is too simple, too easy, too much of wishful thinking.

That is a criticism founded on nearly complete ignorance of at what cost the war against death has been won.

Imagine being exquisitely alive and powerful and at the pinnacle of your experience as a human, and then voluntarily becoming an invalid. Think about it for just one second, as life goes on around you unfettered and free. Imagine surrendering all your authority and influence and control over your own immensely significant life and becoming completely subservient, and doing so out of a love so indefinable that no words exist to convey it. 

In that dependent state, imagine being not in the company of loved ones or friends, but in the the thrall of implacable enemies who are not just ruthlessly hostile, but wish you the worst imaginable harm.

Now imagine going through all this suffering and humiliation for the sake of the very creatures who are killing you and at the behest of the One Being in existence who is your equal.

Perhaps such images will give some insight, some scant glimpse, into what it means for God to become Man to provide the example of learning and suffering, and to die for the utterly unlovable, and in so doing accomplish the impossible: saving the world.

Suffering is the Grand Teacher. Without it in this world, nothing of any lasting importance can be learned.

Without suffering as contrast, any enjoyment in this life is shallow and without real appreciation. It is a lure into a trap of self-entitlement and eventual jaded bitterness.

Without suffering there can be no true thankfulness in the human heart, for it is by genetic inheritance as hard as stone, requiring the furnace heat of pain to soften.

Without suffering the human mind remains as ignorant and self-centered as a newborn, incapable of knowing where she ends and the universe begins.

Even the most decadent, and supremely self-confident man, woman or child, is guaranteed at the moment of death to face the fathomless black abyss of death without God, and if the lesson of dependence on Him and obedience to Him has not been learned in the light of this life, the fiery darkness of eternal suffering will teach it.

But then it will be too late for the lesson to have any effect other than to solidify forever a life lived in ignorance.

The Son of God was perfected as our sacrifice by learning obedience by the things which He suffered.

He did so for us, and for the Father.

No amount of lofty, conceited intellectualism, or blithe animalistic living, can, in the end, effectively deny the reality and truth of our lives being in the hands of the One who made us.

To attempt to live life without acknowledging that fact, and respond accordingly, is the ultimate stupidity.

And it is tragic beyond words.

God allows us pain to combat the deadly anesthetic of sin.

Like leprosy of old, if left unchecked our inherent sinful nature deadens our sensitivity to the truth of God.

Without the lessons offered through suffering, every human soul would be guaranteed to fall inevitably into everlasting torment, after living a purposeless life.

Only Christianity can make sense of suffering.

Only Christianity can make life-giving use of suffering.

Thank God for suffering. It is the key that opens the door from ignorance to intelligence; from darkness to light.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2, 3, NKJV).

The Vehement Cries and Tears of the Son

As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 05:06-08, NKJV).

Perhaps one of the most mysterious mortals mentioned in Scripture is the man, Melchizedek.

He is introduced once in Genesis as the King of Salem, a Priest of the Most High God. He is extolled once more in the Messianic Psalm 110, and the 9 remaining occurrences are all in Hebrews.

We are told that Abraham met him after winning a war in Genesis 14, was blessed by him, and gave him tithes. It is fascinating that in a largely pagan world, there existed in the city that would become Jerusalem, a ruler who knew and followed God, whose very name and title together meant King of Righteousness, King of Peace, and who was of such authority and godliness that he was accounted not only as King, but as Priest.

Melchizedek was, therefore, astoundingly suited as an ancient picture of Christ, a point that is made in exquisite detail in chapter 7 of Hebrews, while in the verses above he is cited as an example of Christ's Priestly role being both different than the Levitical priesthood, and based upon a far more ancient precedent. Beyond these sparse facts, we know very little  of Melchizedek's life, and it is clear from this, that the main purpose of his inclusion in the Bible, and perhaps of his entire existence, is to provide striking foreshadowings of Christ.

The writer of Hebrews rightly uses Melchizedek as one of the foundations of his argument that the superiority of every aspect of the Savior was predicted from the very beginning of human history in countless typologies and historic incidents. Christ as Lord, Christ as Savior, Christ as Messiah, Christ as Priest, Christ as King, were all part of God's redemptive plan before the foundation of the world. He was no new and novel idea. He was the fulfillment of the eternal counsels of the Godhead established before there was ever time or space or matter. In this way, the first part of the focus verses above, serve as the capstone of the presentation of Jesus as our Great High Priest, more venerable and significant than any priest under the Mosaic system.

From that height, the writer plunges us into the inconceivable depths of the Son's vehement cries and tears. As a Man, a partaker of flesh and blood, Jesus suffered in unimaginable ways, and not just physically. In fact, in one sense the physical torture of His scourging and crucifixion were perhaps the "easiest" to bear, particularly in comparison to the emotional and spiritual anguish we are told He suffered prior to the Cross.

To descend from being Ruler of All to earthly poverty and powerlessness, to experience the unjust, insane, and evil hatred of the very beings He created and sustained, to be falsely accused by man, and then to become sin itself in the eyes of the Father - there are no words to portray the depth of His anguish and pain.

But we know this: His suffering caused Him to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and to offer up up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. (Or more accurately translated as to save Him out of death.) We know that while He set His face like flint to complete His journey of death to Jerusalem, it was also His fervent desire to have the cup of God's judgment and wrath pass from Him.

If the Son of God Himself could barely tolerate the holy judgment of the consuming fire that is our God, imagine the reality of it being poured out forever upon mere mortals who reject the only way of salvation.

These verses in chapter 5 also raise some very pertinent questions. 

Has life given you cause to express pain and suffering with vehement cries and tears? Have you been in that place where the darkness was so complete that the very idea of comfort and relief filled you with longing so intense your heart felt like it would explode?

Have you ever screamed out to God to spare you from an intolerable fate?

Has the prospect of continuing even one more moment in inconsolable anguish (let alone another day or week or month or year), left your spirit so trampled and weak that all hope fled?

If so, know that your magnificent Lord and Savior has been there, too. He knows your pain, and more. He came for the express purpose of suffering that which you could not bear so that He could set you free.

His cries and tears ripped apart all Heaven and earth, and in so doing, broke the chains of condemnation forever.

His cries and tears are an ageless tribute to His love for you, and your worth to God.

Do not waste His suffering on your behalf.

Do not, in your arrogance and pride, reject the tears of the Son, and count them as common.

Do not trample the Son of God underfoot.

You can't take the consequences.

And there will be no escape from your suffering if you do.

If you are His, however painful your earthly life is, or becomes, it will be the closest you will ever get to true Hell.

If you are not His, if you die in your sins, whatever paltry earthly joys you may have experienced in this life will be the closest you will ever get to Heaven.

Forever.

You Are My Son

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” (Hebrews 05:05, NKJV).

What is it about humanity that is so important to God?

From Genesis, we know that man is His ultimate creation, made in His own image, modeled after God Himself in terms of moral agency and reason-informed will.

Even angels will one day be subordinate to redeemed mankind.

It even appears that from a spiritual perspective, Earth is the center of the universe. This may also be true physically, as well, given some very interesting hypotheses put forth by believing theoretical physicists, like  Dr. Russell Humphrey's and his work on quantized red shifts. 

Some have likewise concluded that all of Creation is oddly anthropocentric, finely-tuned in fascinating ways to ensure and sustain life, and especially human life.

Of course all of these ideas are roundly criticized and mocked in the world, despite objective evidence to the contrary, and much propaganda has been offered by the secular scientific community in order to combat them from taking hold - a tribute to their power and reasonableness. For by their own admission, naturalists and evolutionists cannot allow even a divine foot in the door lest their whole materialistic worldview crumble.

Yet the question remains. Why is God so very, very concerned about human beings? What is it about us, or at least His plans for us, that would cause Him to take the unexpected and extravagant measure of becoming a Man to save us?

As a species we are certainly not that lovable. Our history is rampant with far more evil than good, and even the ostensibly beneficial things we undertake are soon corrupted by impure motives.

In recent history, our race has ruthlessly murdered hundreds of millions of unborn babies through legalized abortion. We have enslaved, imprisoned, or committed genocide against others who are weaker and more vulnerable. In short, mankind on the whole has behaved diabolically throughout its tenure on this planet, and there are no realistic prospects of the our track record improving.

So why does He love us?

I believe part of the answer lies not in what we are, but what we shall become in Christ. He became a Man so that we could become like Him.

The Sonship of Christ is the ultimate expression of humanity being created in God's image.  While in one sense, it is an existential "step down" for God, in another very real sense, it is the ultimate uplifting of what we were intended to be from the very beginning.

That we fell and rebelled was part of the risk in gifting us with free will. But without that very sharp two-edged sword, our fellowship with God would be meaningless. If we could not choose to be His, then we would be mere chattel, not sons and daughters; members of His family.

So Christ's humility in becoming Man, His voluntarily taking on that role as our great High Priest, was not to glorify Himself, but us.

This is important to understand because it makes even a single human life vastly more significant than we can imagine. And it makes the redemption of that life the most costly thing in existence.

In our fallenness, we have lost the glory that was ours at Creation, and we only retain far-off glimpses of what it means to walk in perfect fellowship with our Creator. 

We are very defective merchandise in our current state.

We cannot conceive of what we will be like in that Day when our salvation is fulfilled, and we are fully redeemed and glorified.

But we know we will be like Him.

And it is our future, not our sin-riddled past, with which God is most concerned.

In our glorified state to come, even the least of us would be seen as someone heroic and worthy of awe-inspiring honor; someone in whose presence we mortals today would not hesitate to fall face down in trembling worship.

God sees us as we will be in Christ, not as we are now.

That is how He has always seen us.

Photographs and Memories (2)

"Transient Ischemic Attack," was the diagnosis received from the physician in charge after he and Jill spent more than four hours in the Emergency Room at the local hospital.

"Does she have a history of circulatory problems?" the doctor asked.

Seth nodded his head in the affirmative.

"Numbness sometimes in her extremities. Cold feet. And it runs in her family. Mother, siblings, all suffer from a variety of symptoms."

"Migraines?"

"Not her, but others in the family. And hers seems to be more frequent lately, particularly in the last year or so."

"Has she been under any particular stress over that time? Has she lost anyone close to her?" he asked.

Seth thought about the past twelve months, and all that was going on. "Yes," he said.

"Not surprising, then," the doctor concluded. "These things tend to be genetic and prone to be exacerbated by stress. Especially long-term stress."

"So this was a precursor to a stroke?" Seth asked, battling ferociously against a growing feeling of helplessness.

"It could very well be," he replied. "Technically, a typical stroke is caused by lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. Your wife suffered a brief overabundance, causing her to lose consciousness this morning for a time."

Seth felt a chill descend across his chest. Images of Jill being stricken at any moment by a massive stroke filled his mind. Paralysis, even death could be the at-any-time result. Each morning, each moment could be her last. He would never hold her or speak to her again. Their children could be without their mother at the tick of the clock.

He tried to bury these mental images but they would not stay covered, bubbling horribly to the surface of his thoughts no matter how hard he tried to suppress them.

As an intellectual possibility, the sudden loss of a loved one was always in the back of his anxiety-ridden mind, but this was an immediate, and clear and present danger. This was real. And there was very little he could do about it. Whatever medications or therapy regimen recommended would never really mitigate the risks in his mind. 

This woman with whom his life was inextricably intertwined could suddenly cease to be. For real. Today. Tomorrow. Any moment.

The prospect was unbearable. It made every single second with her intolerably poignant. How could he live with this hanging over his head?

And his girls, could he, should he, tell them? He knew Jill would want them to know the truth and then just get on with their lives. Of all of them, Seth knew that Jill and their daughters would be the stronger. He was the one who would undoubtedly collapse, and his weakness would, in effect, leave his children orphans.

"I am in the Lord's hands," she had told him as he grasped her hand in the back of the ambulance he had finally had the sense to summons. "He knows the number of my days, and will work all things together for good, even this," she assured him.

He was buying none of it, and yet - and yet - what else could he do?

"You cannot die before me," he told her. "You cannot leave us," he begged.

"It is not up to me," she said with a weak smile. "Or you. He knows what's best."

A desire to scream his frustration at her swept over him almost uncontrollably. Almost. He clamped down on it with all the will power he could muster. How could he possibly ever be angry at her again given that she could die at any second?

But how could she believe such nonsense, really? If there was a God, and this God loved her, why would He do this to her, or, at the least, allow it to happen to her?

Of all the people he knew in the world, his wife deserved this fate the least.

"I know what you're thinking," she had said to him. "I always know what you're thinking, husband. And you're wrong. It's not nonsense. It's the truth. And all of us deserve death."

"Not you," he choked out.

"And I am not worried about our girls. Not really. They know the Lord, and He will take care of them. I am worried about you, though. You are so very thick-headed and stubborn."

"You cannot leave me," he said through tears. "It is too soon. You are too young. The girls are not all grown."

"When I die, Seth, I will be with the Lord in Heaven. If He takes me home now, or 20 years from now, I know where I will be. But you…"

She did not finish the thought, and for the first time since this all began, he saw fear and unutterable regret in her eyes. Her sudden tears were not for herself, but for him. It broke his heart even further.

And it made him want to throw himself out the ambulance onto the highway.

The anticipated grief and pain of loss was simply too great. He wished with all his heart he had never been born.

Photographs and Memories (1)

He awoke, as he always did during the week, just before 5:00 AM, walked stiffly down the steps and gingerly endeavored to complete his morning workout. It got harder as the years rolled by, but he gritted his teeth and 45 minutes later ambled less stiffly back upstairs to take a shower and get dressed for the office.

His wife had not moved in their bed which was unusual. Normally, she made her way to his side, once vacated, to put her head on his pillow and hug the covers to herself. She did it, she always said, to keep the memory of his presence next to her for as long as possible before she started her day homeschooling their girls, and taking care of the thousand little details necessary for the efficient running of a large and busy household.

"I miss you when you leave," she said in the same explanation over the last quarter century of their lives together. "It helps to lay on your side of the bed."

It was too endearing to him for words, especially after all this time, so he always said nothing and kept his face expressionless lest something, he didn't know what, break.

This morning was different, and a secret stab of deep panic knifed into him. She lay absolutely still, not having moved from when he'd first awoke.

She was breathing, he discovered quickly, but just in odd, shallow and silent inhales that barely moved her chest.

"Jill!" he called her name close to her ear in an intense whisper, his own heart beating wildly.

No response.

"Jill! Wake up! I'm going!"

She would never let him leave the house without saying goodbye and telling him she loved him.

Nothing.

It was inexpressibly odd how quickly the chasm of unbridled terror opened up inside him. She would not wake up. What if she never woke up again?

She was the anchor of his soul. She was why he did nearly everything he did; the background engine of his life; the thing that kept him going despite the ever-growing and unavoidable conviction of the poignant futility of life.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, desperate for some response.

She lay like a warm and lifeless doll, her hair askew, her consciousness far away and unreachable.

"Jill!" he called again louder, more evident panic in his voice, like a lost little boy in a huge shopping mall.

Then the thought that she was dying descended upon him full force, a crushing, paralyzing weight that froze him in time and space.

Never, ever in his life had he felt… so abandoned and alone. 

What followed was an endless 20 minutes of frantic, and quietly desperate efforts to wake her. 

Adult rationality had fled. Rather than call 911, or yell for his daughters' to get help, or do anything remotely sensible, he was caught up in a mindless attempt to get his beloved wife back from wherever she had gone.

In retrospect, it was the stupidest, most irresponsible thing he could have done. He risked her life by not thinking. Rather than act as quickly as possible to get an EMT or an ambulance, he knelt on the bed over her, tears streaming unnoticed down his face, shaking and pleading wordlessly for her to wake up.

It worked.

In the muted daylight of the bedroom he saw the glint of her brown eyes as they slowly opened.

She tried to speak, and couldn't at first, but then, "Something's wrong..." she slurred.

© aqvik 2011

Taken From Among Men

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. (Hebrews 05:01-04, NKJV).

The book of Hebrews has already revealed that integral to Christ's superiority over everything is that He is our Great High Priest. Here in Chapter 5, we are given a fourteen verse expansion of this thought, providing more background, and ending with another exhortation and yet another dire warning.

These first four verses explain with succinct brilliance the purpose of the ancient Jewish priesthood, opening with an unusual statement that is, in fact, central to this book's emphasis on Christ.

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins…

These words illustrate the need for the Savior, who has fulfilled the ultimate role of Priest, to have been a Man. The entire institution of the priesthood was established by God to foreshadow the coming of our Great High Priest. From inception to fruition, the ancient office of the Jewish High Priest pictured the Coming One who would be tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. 

The One who would, by the sacrifice of His own body on the Cross, forever pay the price of man's iniquity. Jesus' shed blood did far more than temporarily cover sin for a day, or a year, as the prescribed animal sacrifices did. His death took away the sin of the world.

Christ was appointed by God, for men, to mediate between a holy and righteous God, and an evil and rebellious human race.

As the human high priest was required to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, so Christ would be required to do the same, with the exception being that the human descendants of Aaron, Moses brother, had to do offer these repeatedly. In contrast, Christ's gift of His own life on the Cross was sufficient to be a once-for-all offering, cleansing completely from all unrighteous those who believe.

This was possible only by God becoming a Man, to die on behalf of Man, as a Man. 

It can only be appropriated on an individual basis, and only by faith, precisely mirroring all that was memorialized-in-advance by the centuries of daily and yearly Jewish animal offerings. 

The writer of Hebrews here also emphasizes that the role of High Priest was an honor that no man takes…to himself, but is something that can only be fulfilled by someone who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

Aaron did not lobby or campaign for his position of religious and spiritual authority. It was not an office he sought or lusted after to obtain power or prestige. It was a solemn responsibility of sacrificial service bestowed upon him and his descendants by God Himself.

So too Christ was appointed by an oath from the Father, who swore that His Son would be a Priest forever.

This speaks too of the Son's perfect compliance with the will of the One who sent Him, so much so that Jesus was able to declare that He always did what pleased the Father, and all that He did pleased the Father.

It is by His perfect obedience that we are saved. It is imputed to us by faith, which is good news indeed, since we could never ascribe to such perfection ourselves. 

One final point. By being human, Aaron (and his successors) could have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself [was] also subject to weakness. The Lord Christ's humanity is meant not only to be the perfect sacrifice, but also to show that Jesus' compassion for sinners was not abstract. His was a compassion born of personal experience as a Man, and should serve to allay any doubts that our Savior does not understand what we may be going through at any point in time.

Remember, He knows, as God and as Man, all that it means to be human. He grieved. He hungered. He required sleep. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

And He knows more than we ever will what it cost to save us. 

The Throne of Grace

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 04:16, NKJV).

Access to power is a valuable thing, no matter what anybody says or would like to believe. 

Power in the human arena takes the form of authority. A president has more power than a governor, a police officer has more power than an unarmed citizen, an adult has more power than a child, and an unborn child has the least power of all.

In ancient Judaism, and all subsequent Monotheistic religions, the most powerful Being conceived of is God, and access to the Throne of the Almighty was the ultimate goal of religious practice and belief. His power was sought against enemies and for personal prosperity, for health and safety, for happiness and satisfaction. And when things went badly, God's intervention was sought to make things right.

In Judaism, access to God prior to Christ was entirely conditional. A penitent could not approach Him without strict adherence to Jewish law, and only after propitiatory animal sacrifices had been made. The one place where God had decreed He would meet His people face-to-face, the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, had very restricted access. It was only the High Priest, once yearly, who could enter in, and then only after the requisite shedding of sufficient innocent animal blood.

With faith in Christ, the separation has been broken down completely. There are no more restrictions and the only prerequisite is faith in Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. His death provides the perfect means to continually draw near to God.

But please note something else, something entirely unexpected. While God is sovereign and has all authority, His throne is referred to here as the throne of grace. It is, and could rightly be, called by other names: the throne of power, the judgment seat, the throne of life, the throne of light, and the throne of justice. Yet here, the emphasis is on it being the seat of grace.

This cannot be fully appreciated until we understand what grace really is, and how and why God is the only true source of it.

First, a technical definition. Grace is unmerited favor; undeserved reward; the receiving of good things that one does not deserve. It is the opposite of mercy, which is not receiving deserved punishment. One way to think of this is the acronym God's Riches At Christ's Expense, which is precisely the basis upon which grace is bestowed. Without Jesus going to the cross on our behalf, this kind of grace and mercy would have been impossible. In it's place would have been only judgment.

But in the life of a Christian walking closely with His Lord, grace is best viewed more personally.

Grace is God bestowing upon you loving children despite having looked upon them as parasites or inconveniences, or even as disposable, in the past.

Grace is God blessing you with health and well-being despite having a past rife with alcohol or other substance abuse.

Grace is God giving your life purpose and meaning in Him regardless of your having lived in the past only for yourself.

Grace is God providing you with the certain knowledge that this world is not your home, nor is this life all there is.

Grace is God showering you with joy and assurance that you are Christ's and no one can snatch you out of His hands, not even you.

Grace is God pouring out the love of the Holy Spirit in your heart so that you can love those of the faith with more depth and abundance than unbelieving members of your own flesh and blood family.

Grace is God having that love returned by your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Grace is God gifting you with the sure knowledge that you are never alone, and that He is always with you.

Grace is God showing you the immensity of His love toward you in that He gave His only Son to the cross on your behalf.

And now we are told, that His very throne is the origin and fountain of grace, and that we can come boldly to it, as a beloved little child goes without hesitation into the presence of a loving father.

And we can go there to find three of the very things we need each moment of this travail-filled earthly existence: mercy, grace and help.

This is why we worship Him. This is why we love Him.

The all-powerful ruler of all existence has thrown open the gates of His court and has invited us in freely, and without appointment. Not just to be in His magnificent Presence, which would be astounding enough, but also to go and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

As a believer, if this does not make your heart soar with gratitude, love and endless joy, you are not paying attention.

It'll Take a Miracle!

He was a decent enough guy; a faithful husband, a good provider for his wife and children. He was even lovingly tolerant of their rather fanatical (to him) religious beliefs. Or so he thought, anyway.

He went with them to church multiple times a week, and even sometimes stayed to listen to the sermon, er, message, that the casually dressed pastor gave for an hour.

The worship beforehand was OK, too, mostly modern choruses with some modernized old-timey hymns. Some of the post-concert preaching afterwards wasn't horribly boring, either, but it was mostly stuff that didn't scratch where he was itching.

What he really tuned out was all this talk of prophecy and end-times. It sounded pretty much like all the crazy stuff he heard about on the news - this or that loser setting dates or claiming the world was coming to an end soon. Hadn't they been saying that, like, forever?

In truth, he held his wife in a little contempt for being so gullible, and propagandizing his daughters with the same silliness, but he loved her and his kids, and she was an otherwise stellar wife and mother, and his girls were the most delightful kids he knew. They seemed to be immune to the normal preadolescent and adolescent craziness and nastiness that seemed to plague his coworkers' children. 

Secretly, he credited his own parenting skills for their outstanding character and sociability, and found the complaints of the men and women he worked with about their own children to be more than a little disloyal.

Obviously, they were doing something wrong.

The craziest notion by far taught at their little fundamentalist church was the whole bizarre idea about being raptured up into heaven before things really fell apart here on the planet. The concept just made him want to laugh. How could anybody take it seriously?

He had discussed it once with his wife on the ride to church in what turned out to be a very unsatisfying dialog.

"You mean to tell me," he asked as kindly as he could, "that Jesus will come down and take all his favorite followers into heaven before 'pouring out His wrath on the rest of the world'?" He thought he was being respectful, but the others in the car would have said he was obviously condescending.

"It has nothing to with favoritism," his wife replied gently. "It has to do with faith."

"Don't you know, Daddy?" his nine year old chimed in worriedly. "All we have to do is believe in Jesus, and He forgives us our sins, and we get into heaven? Can't you just believe, Daddy? That's all it takes! You don't have to be perfect or anything!"

She was really concerned , and that bothered him a lot. It was almost like she couldn't love him as much unless he went along with her mother's crazy beliefs.

"Don't worry, honey," he reassured her. "Your daddy's a pretty good guy, all in all, even if I do say so myself. I'm sure God will take that into account."

"That's really not how it works, Daddy," his middle daughter said. "Nobody can be good enough to get into heaven on their own."

"We're all stinkin', rotten sinners, Dad," his 17 year-old declared emphatically. She never said or believed anything halfway, he had to say that for her. He admired her passionate conviction, but wished she would develop a more nuanced world view. She was clearly headed for a life of unpopularity. That was a shame for someone as pretty as she was, but what could you do? 

Maybe her looks would allow her to get by. He hoped so. Loneliness was a terrible way to live.

"Wow!" he cried in mock surrender, deciding to end the conversation before they all ended up preaching their gospel to him. Again. "You guys are pretty convinced you've got everything wired, I see. Well good for you. Maybe I'll get there some day."

"We are praying for you, hon," his wife said, knowingly.

"Every day, Daddy," his youngest affirmed.

"Do you think it'll work?" he asked, quoting one of their favorite movie lines from a classic comedy.

"It'll take a miracle!" the middle daughter replied, in perfect imitation of the actor playing the scene.

© aqvik 2011

The Great High Priest

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 04:14-15, NKJV).

From a religious perspective, the role of priest can be seen as that of a representative intermediary; one who represents man before God, and mediates between God and man. For Christians there is no longer  a need for such a mediator. Christ fulfills that role forever, as our great High Priest, and, through His finished work on the cross, has provided for us direct and immediate access to the Father. In Him, we are now exhorted to go boldly to the throne of grace ourselves.

This is affirmed by Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John:

“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; “for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. (John 16:26, 27, NKJV).

The book of Hebrews will make this same point repeatedly in its brilliant presentation of Christ's superiority to everything, arguing irrefutably that the wall of separation between fallen man and holy God has been torn down in Christ, enabling perfect access for His people to draw near to God.

In Jesus' day, this put a lot of people out of business, especially those in ancient Judaism, a religion which relied upon the God-ordained office of priest to perform the required sacrifices, and officiate at the altar and in the Temple. It is not surprising that the rise of early Christianity met with intense resistance from its Jewish origins, as it involved the demolishing of a venerable, 1400 year-old cultural and religious institution that was an integral part of what it meant to be a Jew.

With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., all remnants of the official priesthood and animal sacrifices were rendered obsolete; a painful, but prophesied end to the Old Covenant predicted by Jesus just before His execution.

The verses above, then, begin the comparison between Christ's priesthood, and the Levitical priesthood of Judaism by contrasting the origin and qualifications of Christ with that of the priestly descendants of Aaron, Moses' brother.

First, unlike all human priests before and since, Christ passed through the heavens. This is true in at least two ways: Jesus came down from Heaven through the Incarnation as a human infant, and then returned there, literally ascending into the clouds of glory after His resurrection. No merely mortal priest approaches such a distinction.

Secondly, Jesus is the Son of God, not a son of Aaron. His divinity is inextricably related to His role as our High Priest. For what better intermediary could there be between God and man than the God-Man Himself? Again, the human priesthood cannot begin to approach His level of qualification.

Thirdly, as a Man, Christ was clearly able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He knows in ways we can barely comprehend what it means to be tempted as we are, yet without sin. I suspect that, given His purity and holiness, even the slightest temptation to sin was excruciating. We have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin, but He did, most notably in the Garden of Gethsemane when, as God, He could have obliterated all who came to torture and kill Him, but humbly submitted as Man to the terrible and loving will of the Father. 

For these reasons and more, the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to hold fast our confession of faith, against all and every impulse to forsake it in the face of opposition and trials in this life; to remain steadfast in clinging to the truth of the gospel at all costs, no matter what temptation to do otherwise confronts us.

The logic behind this exhortation is flawless. To the Jew, the argument is couched as a pointed question. Why go back to a faith and practice that was a mere shadow of what has now come? Why settle for a flawed and imperfect priesthood, when Christ, the Son of God Himself, has become our great High Priest? Why return to limited and constrained access to God, when we now have unlimited and personal access through faith in Christ?

To the Gentile, the argument was even more direct. Without Christ, all that is left is to die in sin and suffer the consequences of eternal separation from all that is good. With Him, comes an immeasurable inheritance of blessing and life in the heavenly places. What does it make the most sense to choose? What seems more reasonable to hold onto? The old way of death or the new way into life everlasting?

Clearly, Hebrews' author desired to provide more than ample reasoning to make the steadfast Christian walk the most sensible course of action. To choose anything else is to forsake freely offered deliverance for guaranteed condemnation.

The choice is obvious.