How many times have I heard, "oh...your going through the book of Hebrews...umm..." As if I am about to go build my own pyramid in a day or cure cancer. I was frustrated by this response and gathered all my resources together...be it various translations, commentaries, and web resources. I spent a week on chapter 1:1-3....hmm. Yeah Hebrews is quite a difficult book of the bible.
I would like to think of it as rich and rewarding. However, right now, I have found myself groaning (literally) in aggravation. How do I express the beautiful message of Hebrews without boring students out of their minds with fact after fact? Let alone, discerning which direction to take the passage because there is so much information packed tightly into each word!
A letter that recognizes the rich history of the Jewish tradition and the heavy plee to not ignore the salvation of Christ. That He is greater than the law, and that He is the completion/fulfillment of the law itself. The persecution that was going on at the time and the groaning of the author for the readers of this letter is so emanate in the beginning of this book. The warnings and the longings to remain steadfast...
What can we take from this? What is so deeply embedded in this book that charges us to live faithfully and longingly? Maybe people were right, this is a difficult book to work through and warm up with. But something inside pushes me to keep on kneading the passage and to challenge my students to do the same.
3 comments:
Sometimes it helps to memorize things, especially if you've already decided to devote so much time to it.
Don't give up. God puts it on our hearts to read and to study and to teach certain things to certain people at specific times for specific reasons. I totally understand where you are coming from....especially since I went to Westminster and am now at a secular institution as well. Call me if you need encouragement or if you want to flesh through some of these things! I've been and continue to be there! *hug* Prayers and blessings to you...
it was a great study...i think that my struggling matched a lot of theirs and in that was rich learning.
I guess my tone in writing post is more of a deep longing for them to wrestle with the text.
Thank you for the encouragement, and yet I think it is healthy to struggle through words and passages of the bible. Often times I think it is needed that we groan outwardly in frustration too.
My post here is a deep rich tone of the importance of Hebrews.
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