“Listen up”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Hebrews 2:1-10 (Forward, p. 74) CEV p. 1259
I hate to say just how often God in the Holy Scriptures has to remind His people to pay attention or to ‘listen up’. At times, God seems like the proverbial ‘broken record’, repeating the same thing over and over and over again. And why is that? Because we forget, or we don’t listen very well in the first place. Instead, as today’s author says in verse 1, “We must give our full attention to what we were told”. And what were we told, but God’s great message of how we can be saved, a message that God confirmed by means of powerful miracles and wonders and by the gift of His Holy Spirit.
And, what is the particular appeal of this message, this good news? Not only was it proved to be true (our author mentions this fact twice, in verses 2 and 4), but it was also manifested in great power. (It is interesting just how often the word or idea of power also shows up in the verses of today’s passage).
To start with, we see this power evidenced in a number of expected ways, in the creation of the world (verse 10), in Jesus’ death and resurrection (verses 9-10), and in all kinds of powerful miracles and wonders at the hand of Jesus (verse 4). But then our author throws us for a loop. After saying that God did not put the future world under the power of angels, he says that God has put everything under our power. We don’t see the fulness of this as yet, but that is our destiny and our future. Because of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection we are saved and now share in His glory. Wow! If you are like me, this comes as a total surprise. In fact, I really don’t know what to make of it.
So, Jesus’ appeal to us to ‘listen up’ has to do with far more than just escaping God’s wrath or punishment due to us rejecting or disobeying His message. Much more than that, it has to do with the possibility of us missing out on all the incredible prospects and promises of what He has for us who know, love and follow Him. He loves us and has so much in store for us, and so, if only for our own sakes, He doesn’t want us to drift away and thereby lose out on what He has for us. Surely, this is a consideration, a truth, that should weigh heavily in all of our minds. Amen.
Forward notes: “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (verse 10).
“I used to think that suffering was a useless phase. I looked at experiences of loss and struggle and wondered why I needed to go through those experiences. I spent countless hours asking myself and God what lesson I was to learn from being homeless for a short time. What purpose did that suffering serve?
“Now that I’m twelve years removed from that time in my life, I can see exactly what I needed to learn from that suffering. Those times of utter failure (in my eyes) and seemingly endless heartache ultimately drew me nearer to God and God’s grace.
“Sometimes suffering is simply suffering. But other times, it can lead us to great blessings. In the midst of our suffering, we may not understand where it ends and grace begins, but we take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows our suffering and abides with us always.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Think back to a difficult time in your life. In retrospect, can you see God working in and through even those hard days?”
