Friday, March 14, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Hebrews 5-6
Key Verse
Hebrews 6:4 — “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,”
Devotional Thought
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers who knew the temple, the altar, and the priesthood down to the last detail. They had watched the high priest go in before God year after year, a man taken from among them, wrapped in the same frailty as they were. He could deal gently with the ignorant and the wandering, the writer says, because he himself was compassed with infirmity — he knew what it was to need a sacrifice for his own sins. But then the argument turns: no man takes this honour to himself. Aaron was called. And so was Christ, only His call came with a voice from heaven: “Thou art my Son.” Not after Aaron’s line, but after the order of Melchisedec, a priesthood older and stranger and unending. And how did this High Priest learn His compassion? Through tears. In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers with strong crying unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
That is the heart of these chapters, and it is either a comfort or a rebuke depending on where we stand. The same passage that lifts our eyes to a sympathetic High Priest also warns a people who have grown dull of hearing. They should have been teachers by now, but they still needed milk. There is a call here to leave the foundation stones and go on unto perfection — not to lay again the same repentance and faith, but to build upon them. The writer is not asking for novelty; he is asking for growth. He pictures the earth drinking in rain and bringing forth herbs fit for the gardener, and then the ground that yields only thorns. And then, tenderly, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you.”
This is mid-March, when the ground is beginning to soften and gardeners are turning soil, deciding what will be planted. The rain has fallen often enough. The question Hebrews presses on us is what our lives are bringing forth from it. And for the anxious soul, there is an anchor: God swore by Himself to Abraham, and after Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Two immutable things — His promise and His oath — and in them we who have fled for refuge have strong consolation. The hope is not in our grip on God but in the forerunner who has already entered within the veil for us.
Reflection
- Where in your life has the rain of God’s Word fallen often, and what is the ground actually bringing forth — herbs or thorns?
- If your High Priest learned obedience through suffering and intercedes with compassion for the ignorant, how should that change the way you bring your own failure to Him?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, our great High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, we come to You who wept and prayed and learned obedience in the days of Your flesh. You know our frame; You remember that we are dust. Forgive us for the dullness of our hearing and the milk we still cling to when You would feed us with strong meat. Wean us from the foundations and lead us on toward maturity, that our lives might yield herbs and not briers. When the ground of our hearts feels hard, soften it with Your grace. Thank You that You have entered within the veil as our forerunner, and that our hope is anchored in You, sure and stedfast. Amen.