Day 1: Hebrews

I read the book of Hebrews this morning. I started reading it like I used to always read the bible. I prayed that God would show me some new truth or encouragement in what I read and then started reading, looking for that one little gem that would be the word to think on for the day.

I got to chapter 4 and realized I wanted to know more, like what this guy was talking about and what he was getting at. So I read the whole thing.

Hebrews reads a little like a sermon. Almost like it was written down after someone preached. Paul maybe? It doesn't say. He's talking to the Hebrews, the people who grew up memorizing the first 5 books of our bible and living by regular sacrifice at the temple. These people understood the meaning of the law. And I can only imagine what a change in worldview it would have been to hear some of these things. Like the priesthood having been fulfilled and sacrifice being no longer necessary.

It starts out by establishing the nature of Jesus, that he is higher than the angels who were created to serve God, but that by becoming a man, he took on our nature, lower than the angels. Being both high and low, he is the perfect leader because he is righteous and yet also knows what it's like to be tempted. Um, wow...

You know how you know things. You hear them every Sunday for years, so of course you know it. I watched this video yesterday about an online math course I'm going to use with my tutoring students. There was a ninth grade math teacher sharing her experiences using this program. She said that the hardest thing about teaching math is getting the kids to understand that they really don't know it. That even though the lectures sound familiar, they never really understood the concept. They only thought they understood. I think my understanding of God is like that a lot of the time. I've spent so much time in church hearing the same message that I think I understand it. But I don't really. I just think I do.

I'm going to read Hebrews again. This time, I'm going to read it knowing nothing. All the things I think I know are going into storage in my brain and I'm going to read it like I've never heard it before.