I know I am not speaking anything new or groundbreaking here . I am simply trying to remind us that the way God works is upside-down to us . Or rather , we are the ones who are upside down . Human beings step on each other to get ahead , we hurt one another , and we cut people off if they offend us . This is the experience of many people , both in doing these things and in having them done to us . The entire book of Hebrews is focused on faith in the power of God ’ s oath . Although there is debate on who the author of Hebrews was , our writer compares two camps of people :
Those who did not believe God when He made a promise and those who did .
The truth is — although our human hearts long for the pure love of God , our souls crave to be saturated with the glory of God , and our spirits yearn for His unbridled presence — we do not live in His economy . In God ’ s economy , the lesser is blessed by the greater . In God ’ s economy , the strong lays down EVERYTHING for the weak . In God ’ s economy , the highest seeks out the lowliest . As we read the Scriptures , we find that when Yeshua walked the earth , He spent so much of his time and ministry with the underdogs of society . Human beings by-and-large do not live this way .
The ones who did not take God at His word hardened their hearts , rebelled , and ended up not receiving what was promised to them . ( Heb . 3:7-4:13 ) In reflecting on the dangers of the hardening of the human heart , Parashah Beshalach at Exodus 17:1-2 states ,
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 • T I K K U N A M E R I C A R E S T O R E | 2 1