The recipients of the letter to the Hebrews were Jewish Christians who became weary of following Christ due to pressures and persecutions of their day. Likewise, there are Christians today who have become weary of following Jesus to the point of being tempted to take another course, a course that leads in the wrong direction. To these individuals, the writer of Hebrews continues to speak, exhorting them to hold course and keep following Jesus, our great high priest and perfect model for living right in God’s sight…

The Holy Spirit says in the latter part of today’s text… While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.” (Hebrews 5:7–11, NLT) 

The problem the recipients of this letter had was dullness. They had become spiritually dull, dull of hearing God’s word. Being dull of hearing is not a problem with the ears, but a problem with the heart. The hearer isn’t really interested in what God has to say. Not wanting to hear the Word of God points to a serious spiritual problem. When the Word of God starts to seem dull, we should regard it as a serious warning sign. To become dull of hearing means you started out hearing but gradually, through various circumstances your spiritual ears began to plug, and your spiritual discernment began to wane. Don’t let this happen to you. More solutions will be discovered in next week’s text…

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” (Hebrews 5:12–14, NLT)

Stay strong in God’s word.

Remember, seven days without God’s word makes one weak.

Pastor Mike