Hebrews 1-2:4 "What are We Listening To?"

Hebrews



2010-07-27

1-2:4

(v2:1) “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

(v2:1) “…therefore, to what…”

In the first few verses of Hebrews, the word ‘therefore’ in 2:1 leads us directly to the reason and purpose of the writer’s intention.

The whole reason behind the purpose of chapter 1 is to enforce the first few verses of chapter 2, while the rest hereinafter strives to support the intention of verse 2:1. In short the first chapter of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus is the Son of God.

However, the question is, to what? The people who are intended to read this passage have heard some thing or some things previous to this ‘what.’ At this point, the ‘what’ of this mystery can only be presumed by the first chapter (because we have only at the beginning of chapter 2). The extent of the writer trying to clear up the fact that Jesus is the Son of God while the angels are mere ministering spirits sent to help and serve God and us is a precursor to the reason behind the what. From this we can make an educated guess that the intended readers were having trouble in distinguishing Jesus and angels. Or rather they were having disagreements with who Jesus really was. For instance, the Son of God, a glorified angel, an angel named to be Son? Pure guess but by the looks of it, there were people teaching the wrong thing, thus the call for “…more careful attention…”

The notion of having ‘heard’ is not just referring to what the angels are saying but to the “salvation.” Hence, in my own words, ‘If words of angels have consequences, then what of the words of Jesus?’ The writer wants us to grasp the essentials of salvation. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that he came and died for our sins, rose back on the third day, went back up to heaven and sits on God’s right hand and will come and judge all. Away from this, the essentials of salvation, all is just noise in the wind.

-Worm