Thanksgiving And The Book Of Hebrews
November 2007
I am a man doubly blessed with Thanksgivings. I
get to celebrate two of them every year. Diedre was raised in Canada
(born in the USA), and she decided that there was no good reason not to
continue observing Canadian Thanksgiving every year. After all, we want
to make sure our kids enjoy some of their Canadian ancestry and
traditions.
Well, maybe it is not so much that as the fact
that I love the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner! So I cast my
vote for two turkey dinners a year and an Osman tradition was born - two
Thanksgivings. One in October (Canadian Thanksgiving) and one in
November (American Thanksgiving).
Like I said, I am a man doubly blessed with
Thanksgivings. So I find myself purposefully meditating on the subject
of thankfulness twice a year.
It was shortly after our celebration of
Canadian Thanksgiving that I was reading through the book of Hebrews and
was struck by the significance of one particular verse that comes near
the end of the epistle. They were familiar words that I have read dozens
of times and quoted dozens more.
Hebrews 13:15-16 - Through Him then, let us
continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of
lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and
sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Those words are straightforward enough. There
is no “hidden” meaning. We readily recognize the importance of being
thankful to God and praising Him. We view giving God thanks as a
spiritual duty and understand that to not give God thanks for the
comforts and blessings we enjoy, the suffering and trials He gives, the
opportunities and responsibilities He affords, is the height of sin and
pride.
Have you ever paused to wonder, “Why are these
words in the book of Hebrews? Why do we find this command here? Why at
the end of the book? What does the command to be thankful have to do
with the first 12 chapters of Hebrews?”
The “Better Than” Book
Hebrews is the “Better Than” book of the New
Testament. If you want to understand the significance of the book of
Hebrews, you can sum up the argument of the book with two words: better
than.
The author of the book of Hebrews is writing to
Hebrew Christians who were facing suffering for their faith. The
rejection that they were experiencing for their faith in Christ was
acute.
They were viewed as apostates because they had
left their Judaism and embraced the Messiah in the New Covenant. They
had abandoned the law as a source of righteousness and had trusted in
Jesus as their sin-bearing Messiah.
After a while they found that their friends and
families did not respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to their new
faith. They had been ostracized, shunned, and many had their possessions
seized. They were learning what it meant to suffer the loss of all
things for the sake of knowing Christ.
As a result of this hardship, some of them were
setting aside the faith and were returning to their former ways which
offered a far easier road. They were tempted to forsake the New Covenant
and return to the Old Covenant. The book of Hebrews is written to
discourage them from such an abandonment of truth.
So the author writes to them to say, “Hey, why
in the world would you return to those things when you have Christ? They
are the shadows, He is the substance. The covenant that God has made in
and through His Son is so superior to the Old Covenant that one can only
expect sure and swift judgment if he abandons Christ for those things
which could never impart life. Don’t you know that Christ is better?
”
In Chapter 1 we see that Christ is
better than the angels since He has inherited a more
excellent name than they (1:4) since Christ rules heaven and the
angels serve Him.
In Chapter 2 we see that Christ is
better than the angels because all things have been subjected
to Him and He has been crowned with glory and honor (2:9).
In Chapter 3 we see that Christ is
better than Moses since Moses was merely a servant in the
house but Christ is the builder of the house and a Son.
In Chapter 4 we find that our rest in
Christ Who is our Sabbath is better than the Sabbath rest
of the Old Covenant since those in the Old Covenant only enjoyed the
shadow and not the substance.
In Chapter 5 we find that Christ as a
High Priest is better than the Old Testament Levitical
high priests since He was perfect and did not need to offer up a
sacrifice for His own sins.
In Chapter 6 we are warned of the danger
of falling away from the hope we have in Christ which is better
than that offered under the Old Covenant.
In Chapter 7 we are told that Christ’s
priesthood is better than the Levitical priesthood since
it is without weakness and eternal.
In Chapter 8 we see that the ministry of
Christ is better than the ministry which took place in the
tabernacle.
In Chapter 9 the Old Covenant and New
Covenant are compared and the New Covenant is clearly better than
the old.
In Chapter 10 the sacrifice of Christ is
better than the animal sacrifices that could not take away
sin.
In Chapter 11 we see that faith is
better than sight since God is the rewarder of those who
believe in Him and diligently seek Him. Even those under the Old
Covenant “gained approval through their faith” but did “not receive what
was promised” because God had provided something better for us!
In Chapter 12 it is the heavenly city
and church of God which is better than mount Sinai and the
law. We have received a better kingdom which cannot be shaken.
Finally we arrive at Chapter 13 which
is filled with practical exhortations based on the truths just
presented. Now put yourself in the place of those first-century Jewish
Christians. You have just read that everything you have in Christ is
better than everything you once had under the Old Covenant.
Furthermore, there is no need to hold onto the shadows of those things
since the substance has arrived.
The Levitical priesthood? Gone. Animal
sacrifices? Done. No need for those. Feasts, festivals, and sabbaths?
Fulfilled. Temple worship, tabernacle forms and functions? Nullified.
The Holy of Holies, the Ark, the blood, the offerings? Rendered
obsolete! Why go back?! What can you hope to gain?
Does this mean, then, that there are no
sacrifices or services rendered to God? Does the arrival of the New
Covenant mean that we have no spiritual obligations of worship toward
God? After all, the only worship that these believers had ever been
familiar with had been tied up in symbols, incense, forms, rituals,
animals, temples, priests, blood, and offerings. What type of
sacrifices are we to make to God? What obligations does our worship
bring?
That is where our verse comes in. Let’s look at
those words in Hebrews 13:15-16 again and look at how these words
sum up the main ideas of the book of Hebrews, “Through Him then, let
us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit
of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and
sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Through Him then. . . . It is through Christ
that we offer up these sacrifices. We don’t have to go through a high
priest, but we have direct access to God through Christ who is Himself
our great High Priest. We can therefore “draw near with a sincere heart
in full assurance of faith.” (Heb. 10:20-21)
We don’t need to draw near through the Holy of
Holies, through a sinful priest, or through animal sacrifices. We now
offer worship to God through Him.
. . . Let us continually offer up. . .
The offering we give to God is to be done continually. We don’t come on
appointed days, scheduled celebrations, special days and holy days. We
offer up sacrifices continually. How different that is from the
ministry of the priests. They would only enter the Holy of Holies on
one day a year - The Day of Atonement. We offer sacrifice
continually. Notice that the standard is higher under the New Covenant
than under the old!
Continually means that we don’t just offer
praise when the weather is good, life is comfortable, and things are
going good. We offer praise even in the midst of trials, afflictions,
temptations, and suffering. The people that Hebrews was written to were
enduring suffering for their faith (Heb. 13:13), yet they are
told to continually offer the sacrifice of praise. Do you just do
that during the good times?
. . . a sacrifice of praise to God. . .
Are we still to give an offering to God? Yes! It is not a physical
offering (like an animal), but it is the sacrifice of praise. The
sacrifice that God desires from us, is praise. He wants to hear the cry
of our lips in praise to Him.
Praise is the fruit of lips. The mention
of fruit brings to mind the grain offerings and produce that was offered
as a tithe of the produce of the land. Does God want me to bring Him a
basket of wheat, a box of peaches, and a bag of apples? Is He satisfied
with such offerings? No. The Lord wants the fruit of my lips, not the
fruit of my land. He doesn't want me to give him apples, but to praise
Him for the apples He gives me.
“Has the LORD as much delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1
Samuel 15:22)
. . . that give thanks to His name. . . .
After reading what we have in the first 12 chapters of Hebrews we can
see why the author expects us to give thanks. We must give God thanks
for a better priest, a better sacrifice, a better covenant, a better
rest, a better hope, a better anchor, a better city, a better ministry,
a better security, a better position (being sons), and a better
intercessor. Just to name a few.
Are these the only sacrifices we are to offer?
Just words? Is that all God expects? No. We continually offer up a
sacrifice of praise to Him, but he does not only expect the fruit of our
lips. He also expects the fruit of our lives.
Verse 16 says, “And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with
such sacrifices God is pleased.”
So what is our obligation under the New
Covenant? Is it less than under the old? Far from it! It is greater. Our
praise is greater. Our worship is greater. Our blessings are greater.
Our responsibilities are greater. How can we neglect so great a
salvation? How can we do anything but offer praise to such a great God
who has purchased such a great redemption. (Hebrews 2:3)
So if I consider myself to be a doubly blessed
man- Turkey dinners aside - I have Christ and He is better than. . .
. You fill in the blank. We have
been given that which is better than everything else and
so we offer to God that sacrifice of praise which He desires to hear
from us. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Without Wax -
Jim Osman
Pastor/Teacher
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