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God’s Final Word: His Son
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
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do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
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God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
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Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
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In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
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This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
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This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.
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They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
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Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
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so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
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But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
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and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
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“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
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Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
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And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets,
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No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
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At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”
