The same holds true when steering our lives. We get distracted in life by those things around us. When we watch too much TV or the wrong kinds of TV, our values begin to be shaped by what attracts our attention. We may hang around with people that don’t have the same worldview we do. We want to get along with people and be liked, so we begin to talk and act like they do. Fellow travelers in life are sometimes driving toward places that emphasize selfishness and pleasure, and we are drawn into that flow of traffic. Before we know it, our spirituality and our morality has been left to the side and we are heading for a collision. We can’t lose site of what God has done in this dawn of the kingdom brought about by Jesus and the presence of God’s Spirit.
Warning against Neglecting Salvation (2:2–3a)
The author of Hebrews warns about the dire consequences of ignoring this salvation. The author wants us to consider two things about what people experienced in the Old Testament. First (2:2a), we shouldn’t forget God gave the Israelites the law. In fact, Jewish teaching was that angels were involved in the giving of the law. The book of Acts mentions this: “You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it” (Acts 7:53). Second (2:2b), the record of the books of Moses is that the Israelites always received a just punishment for transgression of the law and disobedience of God.
Since these two things were true about what we read in the Bible, how can we expect to escape from due judgment if we neglect such a great salvation that has been offered to us (2:3)? This same message is repeated in 12:25: “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!” The author of Hebrews wants them to understand the real danger inherent in disobeying God and being led astray.
This danger does not seem real to us. Nowadays kids have video games that simulate exciting adventures. When I was a kid, the most exciting kind of a game was to play cops and robbers or play war games. I remember one time I was playing cops and robbers with this girl. We were visiting her family in another town, so I was making the best of the day. She and I were on the same side and we were pretending to be in a gun fight. We were huddled down behind some furniture in the family room. There we were, pinned down. I’m sure I was deep into the game and my little heart was pounding. I was going to make a run for it. As I began to make my move, I told her, “Cover me!” Instead of a hail of gun fire from her, she picked up a blanket and put it over me. That completely spoiled my ability to imagine any real danger.
The story goes that there was a boot camp that was having trouble getting proper weapons for war games. Instead of real rifles they had toy guns. The guns didn’t have bayonets, so they cut off broom stick handles and strapped them to the end of the gun barrels. A soldier asked the drill sergeant, “How are we supposed to use these things.”
The sergeant replied, “For now, just go ‘bangety, bangety’ when you’re firing your weapon.”
“But what about the bayonet,” the soldier asked.
“Well, just say ‘stabby, stabby,’” were the instructions. The time for training arrived and the two teams faced off in their bunkers. As the one team was advancing, the soldier noticed a man on the opposing group coming towards him without any weapon. He fired at him with his toy rifle, “Bangety, bangety.” The man kept coming closer to him. He wasn’t falling down as though shot. When he got close enough, the soldier used his bayonet, “Stabby, stabby,” he yelled. No effect on him. The other soldier kept walking straight toward him, stepped on his toes, ran right in to him, knocking him down. As the soldier lay on the ground, his enemy walked over the top of him. As the man stepped off his chest, the soldier could hear him muttering in a low voice, “Tankety, tankety, tank.”
The experience of the Israelites was real enough. God promised to bring them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the desert, and into the Promised Land. Moses had gone up the mountain at Sinai to listen to God’s instructions, to give the new people of God a constitution, a set of laws for how to live together and how to be God’s people. When Moses returns to the people, he finds that they have abandoned the worship of the one God and are having a wild party worshipping a golden calf. In the ensuing years, time after time, they are led astray. “We’re too hungry; we’re too thirsty. We’ll never make it. Moses, are we there yet?” God had told them what to do. When they transgressed and disobeyed, the consequences were real. But now, the author of Hebrews is saying, we’re not just talking about obtaining rest from a long journey. We’re talking about our ultimate destiny, the very immortality of our souls. This isn’t your father’s or your grandfather’s school of life, this is life that schools us for eternity.
Reminder of the Validity of the Gospel (2:3b–4)
Jesus preached the saving gospel, according to the second part of verse three. The first generation of Jesus’ followers confirmed the validity of the gospel (2:3b). The audience of Hebrews were people who heard the apostles talk about what Jesus had said and done. The apostles and others attested to it. The author of Hebrews is saying in 2:2, the law had been valid (Gk. bebaios) and, similarly, in 2:3 the gospel had been validated (Gk. bebaioō) by the apostles and other witnesses.
The language of verse four is reminiscent of the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts the message of the gospel is confirmed by the presence of supernatural phenomena. It was the same signs of God’s breaking into the world with the coming of the end of the age in the ministry of Jesus. The beginning of Hebrews 2:4 reads, “God added his testimony by signs (Gk. sēmeion) and wonders (Gk. teras) and various miracles (Gk. dunamis).” Compare this to Acts 2:22: “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power (Gk. dunamis), wonders (Gk. teras), and signs (Gk. sēmeion) that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know.” Hebrews says the Holy Spirit was distributed (Gk. merismos) among those who were the first witnesses. The narrative of Acts deals with the sign of God’s acceptance of Gentiles by the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is first signified at Pentecost with the image of the lightning that forked like tongues of fire and spread itself to each of the apostles. Acts 2:3 says, “Divided (Gk. diamerizō) tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.” The wording of this text and Acts 2 clearly shows a connection between these texts. For the author of Hebrews, there should be no doubt what has happened is the real thing. Jesus said it, the apostles confirmed it, and God corroborated it with supernatural signs.
When new things happen to us, we sometimes become disoriented and wonder if it can be true. When my wife and I traveled to England, it just didn’t seem real. You wake up in the morning, and you have to remind yourself, I’m really here. You walk outside, and the signs are everywhere. Cars—mainly small cars—are driving on the left side of the street. Double-decker buses are swinging their way through round-abouts. There’s no mistaking the signs that this is not just a fairy-tale land, but it’s a real place, with real people, living real lives.
We need reminders sometime that our lives are not just an illusion. Christian faith is not just religious practice intended to give life added significance and a way to cope with the pressures of life. If we do not pay attention to Christian teaching and practice, we can be distracted into thinking that this mortal life is all there is. We might tell ourselves, if we have one chance, only a limited time to experience life, why shouldn’t we take the greatest advantage