AS I begin meditations in this letter to the Hebrews, I would like to say that they will be my humble attempt to share with you the understanding of this Scripture that I have been granted by God, and my reflections from this understanding. My approach to my writing is from the knowledge of my limitations. I don’t come to the Word of God as a great teacher and expositor with great powers of intellect, but rather as an ordinary Christian, seeking from the Holy Spirit nourishment for my soul. I believe that whatever our powers of mind and intellect, whether small or great, we are meant to hear God speaking to us in his Word, and that God does speak to those who diligently seek him.

I know that many, if not most, today doubt that Paul wrote this letter. I am one of those who accept that he did. As I read the closing chapter, and specially verse 23, I hear Paul speaking. I don’t feel that the style of writing makes Paul’s authorship doubtful.

The letter is addressed to the Jews, and its purpose is to show that Christianity is the true revelation of God, and does truly supersede the revelation given to the Jews in the Old Testament, and truly does fulfil the prophecies of the Old Testament. The Jews, even when they came to faith, found it difficult to accept that the faith they had been nurtured in was imperfect and only a stop-gap until the truth had truly been revealed, and tended to mix Judaism with Christianity to the detriment of their spiritual life and blessing. The way this purpose is addressed is to show the excellence of Christ over all that is found in the Jewish faith founded on the Old Testament revelation, and to show how the Old Testament really is pointing to Christ.

So the letter begins with Paul acknowledging God did speak and reveal himself in the Old Testament, but now in the present has given a fuller and more perfect revelation of himself in his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The wonderful and amazing thing to me, as I read the opening of this letter, is the fact that God has spoken to us sinners, in this fallen and corrupt world. God created this world good and for his glory. Mankind was created for the glory of God. Yet mankind has turned from God, obeyed Satan, and corrupted God’s glorious creation. In spite of this God has not forsaken us, and did not forsake us, but has spoken to us, and communicated with us.

It is even more wonderful what these words of God contain. God has spoken, not words of judgement and wrath, but words of grace and love. God has spoken to us of the great salvation he has provided, so that we may be redeemed and saved from our folly and sin. God’s speaking reveals amazing love and grace.

So as God has spoken to us in this gracious way, let us listen to him. Let us praise him for his gracious condescension, and receive with thankfulness the love he communicates to us.

How has God spoken to us. He has spoken from the earliest times. He has always been speaking to us and calling us to listen. He did this in the past, that is in pre-Christian times, through the prophets. This encompasses all the revelation we have handed down to us in the Old Testament. He spoke at many times, that is he was always speaking all down the history of the world from the creation to the coming of Christ. He spoke in various ways. In other words he revealed himself through the prophets, that is through human beings he specially spoke to, and did this in all sorts of ways, so that his revelation may be received and understood. In other words, God went out of his way to make himself heard and understood. He reached down to sinners and yearned over them in love. God took pains that we might hear his message of salvation.

From this we learn that the Old Testament is God speaking just as much as in the New Testament. However we need the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament if we are to hear God speaking clearly and truly. We who have the New Testament can see how the Old Testament proclaims Christ, and leads up to Christ, and prepares for Christ. In one sense, until Christ came, the Old Testament was covered with a cloud that obscured things, unless the cloud was lifted by the Holy Spirit to those who diligently sought God by faith. This does not mean that the Old Testament saints were not saved in the same way as ourselves. This letter tells us later that they were saved by faith. They believed God, and although they saw things from afar, they saw them, and were heirs of heaven. They believed the revelation they had, and so believed in Christ, even though they may not have seen things with the clarity we have from the New Testament.

God never meant the Old Testament to be definitive, he spoke then, but was leading up to greater and more wonderful speech, and so he sent his Son, and speaks to us in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God has appointed his Son to be heir of all things. God has always been speaking by his Son, for God created the universe through Christ.

So when we look on Jesus as we read of him in the New Testament, and look on his life, and see his works and hear his teaching, and above all view his death, we hear God speaking to us. We hear this speaking, this message through Jesus, as we read the exposition of Jesus in his person and work, given to us in the rest of the New Testament. Christ is the voice of God. Christ reveals the character of God, the wisdom of God, the purpose of God, the righteousness of God, the redemption God has worked. Christ is the substance and whole of the Christian faith. It is in Christ we hear God speaking to us.

Christ should and must be at the centre of our faith, and centre of the work and ministry of the church. Christ must be at the heart of preaching and living and worship in the church. We need to pray that the church today may take hold of this truth that God has spoken, and chiefly in his Son, and so exalt Christ above all else in the work and ministry of his church.