Hebrews 5:7-14 … Wisdom and Understanding.

Hebrews 5:7 Who [Jesus] in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

The things we will uncover in this section will be very hard for many to accept. They, like I was, are being indoctrinated to a false gospel the same false gospel that Jesus and the Apostles warned us about. The concept preached, among the churches I have experienced, is that the Law of Moses is a bad, bad thing. That faith in Jesus is THE only requirement for salvation as well as redemption leading to eternal life and that following a set of instructions does not apply. Paul will deliver the one-two punch for the knockout to this falsely and widely accepted form of religion. Notice I said religion and not “the faith once delivered to the saints.”

• Mark 14:32-34 “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.”
• Jeremiah 25:14-18 “For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;”
• Mark 14:36 “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”
• Psalm 22:21^“Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me..” And we know from Peter’s writings who the lion is…
  notice it does not say ‘Lion’… lower case is for Satan and the upper case God. Same as the discussion of who the father was that Scribes and Pharisees claimed. Jesus said in John 8:42-44 “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

In his resurrection Jesus defeats the penalty of sin – the sins that were laid upon him as the lamb sacrifice – that is spiritual death.

Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Everyone talks about living ‘God’s will’ for their lifestyles. WWJD bracelets and inspirational quotes galore and yet the church isn’t listening to the very Word they profess to follow. What is someone, heck anyone’s, let alone, God’s will?

“will”; verb; desire, choice, willingness, consent, or in negative constructions refusal; express a command, exhortation, or injunction; to express frequent, customary, or habitual action or natural tendency or disposition.

I do not think one needs be a rock scientist to figure this out. What is God’s command, exhortation, or injunction; to express frequent, customary, or habitual action or natural tendency? Is it not laid out for us in detail? A big YES it is…. it is Torah!

• Proverbs 4:2 “For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.”
• John 7:16-17 “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

Think about that statement…. doctrine is a principle or position; or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief, These actions are the execution of the commands, or instructions of the Father. Why is that such a difficult concept for the modern church system? Meanwhile, over in the corner Satan is whispering…”Hey church….did God really say that?” Same as he did with Eve.

Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

• “made perfect” = G5048 τελειόω teleioo (te-lei-o’-ō) v. to complete.
• “Author” = G159 αἴτιος aitios (ai’-tiy-os) adj. causative.(concretely) a causer (i.e. initiator).
• “eternal” = G166 αἰώνιος aionios (ai-ō’-niy-os) adj. perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well).
• “salvation” = G4991 σωτηρία soteria (sō-tee-riy’-a) n. (the state of) safety. (the quality of) preservation from harm and danger. (properly, abstract) salvation (i.e. an act of rescue or saving). (specifically) Salvation from Moral Failure and Death into Eternal Life through the Anointed-One, Jesus (Yeshua).

While many will argue the perfection mentioned here is a post resurrection stasis, I contend this is an allusion to the preeminence of Yeshua to creation, due largely to the way Paul begins this letter.

• John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
• John 10:1 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”
• John 10:7-10 “Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

In my personal opinion, based upon the position Paul is mapping out for us, Paul did not have a “conversion” on the road to Damascus. Paul came to the wisdom and the knowledge that Jesus IS Melchizedek. With his physical eyes closed, his spiritual eyes began to see the truth. Having the Torah written on his heart, Paul was able to measure the life of Jesus against the Scriptures. He would have had time to figure out the Daniel 9 prophesy, the timing of his birth, the line of his families, and all the things needed to identify the Messiah.

God took Paul, a man steeped in the knowledge of the Torah, to teach the foreign nations how to live a life according to Torah. Seems reasonable. The modern church has us talked into to believing in a Paul that threw away every Biblical principal he had ever learned and starting something completely different, why? According to Deuteronomy 18 that is the exact definition of false prophet.

• Matthew 5:20 “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
• Matthew 19:16-17 “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
• Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.[teach]”

How did Jesus address this? Did He expect anything different? Or did He hold fast to the “law”?

Hebrews 5:10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Hebrews 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

• Ezekiel 3:7-9 “But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

Paul is warning the first century believers of the exact same fate, and for the exact same reasoning. as those in Ezekiel’s day. They will not meet the standard God has set because they refuse to follow Torah.

Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Paul addresses these very topics in the onset of the next chapter. Do these principles sound familiar?

• repentance from dead works,
• of faith toward God,
• Of the doctrine of baptisms,
• of laying on of hands,
• resurrection of the dead,
• eternal judgment.

Do you think that the average church attendee… better yet … the average “spiritual” person that does not attend regularly… do you think they know the position of the church on these matters? I would assume so… they aren’t mind benders..

• Stop doing pagan stuff
• Believe God is real
• Show an outward profession
• Pray for others
• Believe in a heaven
• Believe in a Hell

Yet this seems to be the weekly dissertation from the pulpit. Where is the concerted effort to become a true disciple? Where are we to unlearn the ways of the world and begin to transform into the citizen of Heaven?

• Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

The modern church has become lazy. They sit idle in their pews trying to “get fed” from preacher that has divorced himself from the Torah. After an hour of rock show quality “worship” music… They pander on for 20-30 minutes to the crowd laden with seeker sensitivity and feel good snippets from the Scriptures with New Age psychology and quips from the local life coach sprinkled in.

Hebrews 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

The end result of the lack of knowledge in the Scriptures the modern church has once again fallen victim schemes of Satan. Once the false doctrines of man-made traditions. The traditions of men are those pagan practices that God denounces all throughout the Scriptures. Things like Christmas and Easter are practices that offended God greatly and now they are the mainstay of the modern church. This is an abomination that causes desolation to the faith.

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat [discipleship] belongeth to them that are of full age,[acting like grown ups] even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The only wat we can discern the action that please God and those that do not…. is to hide, memorize, commit, the Word of God in our hearts to create a habitual action or natural tendency or disposition. We are called to BOTH discipleship and obedience.

• 2 Peter 1:5-9 “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”

• Philippians 1:9-10 “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.”
• Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
• Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
• Colossians 1:9-10 “Therefore, from the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all the wisdom and understanding which the Spirit gives; so that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and entirely pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God.”