Project 119: Hebrews 2:1-4
| Project 119
"Pay Attention"
I am a daydreamer. I like to think that’s because I’m a right-brained soul whose imagination tends to be charged up at all hours of the day. But I can’t be content with patting myself on the back for that personality trait. After all, there’s a downside to allowing my mind to wander from time to time—that downside being my tendency to lose focus on the urgent and important, some of which is right before me. Many times during the day, I have to “snap back” to reality and attend to that which I cannot afford to let slip by me.
I know I am not alone in that struggle. The book of Hebrews even warns against the perils of “drifting away” from that which gives us the assurance we need that God’s hand is upon us. While later passages in Hebrews delve more deeply into this notion of “drifting away,” suffice it to say that in the theology of Hebrews, it is a matter against which we should be constantly on guard because of how we too easily lose our focus by attending to matters that make us oblivious to what God wants to do in and through us.
Such a drift comes at a cost we cannot afford. The “message spoken through angels” likely refers to the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai (Acts 7:38), which is how first-century Jews interpreted God’s mediation to Moses. The writer’s argument, therefore, is that the good news of Jesus Christ is superior to that angelic announcement and merits our most dedicated attention since it ultimately derived from the Holy Spirit’s work in us (Hebrews 2:3–4).
This season of the year presents us with all manner of interruptions and distractions. As important as the parties and the gifts, the visits and the engagements all are, they carry a subtle inducement to allow our hearts and minds to “drift away” from that which holds the key to our every hope and dream.
Don’t let that happen to you this Christmas season. Find a way in the midst of your busyness to keep in mind this “great salvation” God has made possible in Jesus Christ. Only then will your wildest dreams come true, and the possibilities for which your soul yearns most will be God’s gift to you in response to how you have set your hopes on Him.
Hebrews 2:1-4 (NIV):
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not 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. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.