Hebrews 2:1-4 (ESV) – Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. [2] For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, [3] how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, [4] while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
The author of this Letter wants to make sure that those he is writing do not forsake Jesus and go back to Judaism. Because Christ is better. He tells them to pay attention to what they have heard. If we do not want to drift away we better hang on to Jesus.
What did they hear? They heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What was preached to them? The Scriptures. What Scriptures? The only Scriptures that they had at the time – the Old Testament.
The very Scriptures that their opponents use to discredit the Gospel are about Christ Himself. If they truly pay attention to what they have heard they will not abandon Christ. They will embrace Him as the one who is portrayed throughout the whole Old Testament. The author of this Letter goes on to demonstrate again and again that the whole Old Covenant economy is about Christ. If we truly pay attention to the Old Testament Scriptures we will not surrender up Jesus. We will cling to Him all the more.
If you do not see Jesus in your reading of the Old Testament; if you do not recognize the Gospel of grace through faith in the Messiah, then you are not reading your Old Testament properly. This whole Book, Old and New Testaments, is about Jesus Christ. Read your Old Testament through the grid of Jesus Christ. You must.
To not see Christ in the Old Testament is to miss the whole point for which the it was written. It is to miss the point of why the things that we see happening in the Old Testament stories, actually happened. It is to read a book and not know what the plot line is. And the plot line is so good, so magnificent, that to read the Book wrongly is to rob ourselves of immense blessings, and that is not what God wants for us.
God has given us a record of His work to rescue mankind from the consequences of the fall in the Garden of Eden. The Rescuer is Christ and God starts telling us of Him in the very beginning of the Book. It is marvelous to read what God has done and is doing to bring His people, Jew and Gentile, back to Himself.
Read your Bible today, find Christ there and worship Him.
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