Fallen Into Knowledge

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened you hearts in a day of slaughter. You have murdered and condemned the righteous one, who does not resist you.

The above passage first struck me hard in high school: it was then that I first thought that perhaps we Americans should be identified as the rich person, as our riches are largely provided at the expense of the rest of the world. Time and education has only served to solidify that idea. At this point, this passage scares me. I am no longer concerned for the nation, but I think that God’s anger must be kindled against the american church because we too have participated (and encouraged, in many cases) in this plundering.

A couple thoughts that surfaced on this reading:

1: “and their rust will be evidence against you” We have an abundance, more than we need and use. Metals tend (at least in these parts) to rust with neglect - for the lack of use.
2: “you have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you” The Righteous One (singular) refers to God’s messiah in the Old Testament, and pervasively. Because of this, I think this must be an (relatively) oblique reference to Christ. If that’s so, then we must draw some interesting conclusions;
A. the oppressed in this passage is identified with Jesus - in a way that the wealthy are not.
B. The wealthy are placed in the role of the Priests and Pharisees who had Jesus Crucified; as in, “you wealthy whose wealth is acquired at the expense of others, you are just like those who had the Christ killed.” Ouch.

Observations:

1. The book of Hebrews depends heavily on the Old Testament to make its argument. It is arguing from the Old Testament.
1a. We cannot assume that our audience is similarly familiar with the Old Testament.
2a. We must respect the authors movement in arguing. We cannot preach through Hebrews while ignoring the indebtedness on the Old Testament.

2. The author frequently offers “applications” in the midst of the argument

3. Hebrews describes, in a sense, the mechanics of Christ’s work as embedded in Israel’s story. In that sense we can use Hebrews to (re-) build theology for the church from the ground up, as it were.

4. Everything in Hebrews relates back to Jesus either as the high Priest who accomplished the task, or to His death on a cross.

Key ideas: Made Perfect, Rest, High Priest, Mediator, Faith