Hebrews 2 -- How shall we escape?
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
“Drift away”. You have to carefully tie up your boat to the dock or to the mooring, otherwise it will “drift away”. Sometimes we are wide awake at the helm sailing our boat, but other times we are asleep and at those times we need to pay careful attention that we don’t “drift away”.
2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
How shall we escape? Our great salvation includes everything in the old creation perishing and being rolled up like an old garment. It also includes the enemies of Jesus Christ being made into a beautiful foot stool. Our gospel includes this, that the end of the age will see these things take place. So then, how do we escape? The rapture is referred to as our escape. The greek word actually means to be snatched away right before destruction. You would use this word to describe snatching someone out of the way of an oncoming train. So then, how exactly do we escape? Do we invest in gold? Do we get a rifle and learn to hunt? I have heard messages where they go from discussing the end of the age to the need to invest in gold and silver! That is what it means to “ignore so great a salvation”.
4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
It is miraculous to think we will be saved by this “rapture”. However, God has testified to us that this is the case. The Lord’s resurrection is referred to as “the firstfruits” and the rapture is referred to as “the harvest”. Crossing the Red Sea is a miracle showing that God can snatch up the entire nation of Israel from the clutches of the Egyptian army. That is how Israel escaped Egypt. The book of Esther also describes how Israel escaped the clutches of the evil Haman. If you look and pay attention you will find God testifying again and again concerning how we shall escape. Don’t ignore this testimony.
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
We are going to be kings and priests to God in this world to come. That is why we cannot ignore this salvation, if we do we won’t be ready, we won’t be prepared.
6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet.”
Isn’t that amazing? Right now there are tens of millions of Americans concerned about the election fraud. But it seems like the “powers that be” are doing everything they can to ignore them. Mainstream media won’t cover them, the Tech giants are censoring them, and the politicians are mouthing the words but not walking the walk. The lesson here is that everything is under our feet, not theirs. Would the “Tech giants” be giants if 70 million Americans ceased to use their services? Would the mainstream media continue to be the “mainstream” media if 70 million Americans ceased to listen to them? Could the US government continue to stand if 70 million Americans ignored these politicians the way they are ignoring them? “A house divided cannot stand”.
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
That is nice talk but we don’t see it. Of course if we look back at our history with the revolutionary war we can see it. We can see a rag tag group of settlers who were made lower than the superpower of the day, and yet everything was under their feet. They had to stand by faith, but they did. We saw this with Gandhi as well. We saw this with the church in the age of the apostles.
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Oh yeah, we also see Jesus. This was just one man objecting to the unrighteousness of the times. He was made lower than all those kings and rulers. And yet, we are still here two thousand years later looking at Jesus while all those other “rulers” have become dust and gone into the ash heap of history.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
Can we please pay attention to this verse? Our great salvation includes us being brought into the glory of the Son of God. Yes He was resurrected, but He was also crucified and that crucifixion didn’t condemn Him, it condemned those that crucified Him. That is a path that Jesus pioneered for us. That is how our salvation is made perfect. That is how everything is put under our feet even though we are made lower than all these rulers and leaders.
11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
When we are raptured it is not in shame, in defeat. The Lord’s resurrection was victory over death, victory over the grave. We are going to share that glory, we will be part of the same family.
12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
We will be the family of the resurrected ones, the family of the victorious ones.
13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”
We will be the family of those who trust in God.
And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
We will be the Lord’s family.
14 Since the children have flesh and blood,he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
The only power these ones have over us is the power of death. If we are the family of the resurrected ones, the ones who have conquered death and the grave, then what power do they have over us?
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
So, once again we come back to this question, “how shall we escape?” The same way Jesus did. He is with us to help us take up our cross and follow Him on this path He has pioneered.