Study Desk

The message given to our ancestors by the angels was shown to be true, and those who did not follow it or obey it received the punishment they deserved.

There they put me to the test and tried me, says God, although they had seen what I did for forty years.

And so I was angry with those people and said, ‘They are always disloyal and refuse to obey my commands.'

I was angry and made a solemn promise: ‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!'"

We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said, "I was angry and made a solemn promise: ‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!'" He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world.

For how can those who abandon their faith be brought back to repent again? They were once in God's light; they tasted heaven's gift and received their share of the Holy Spirit;

they knew from experience that God's word is good, and they had felt the powers of the coming age.

And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.

And those descendants of Levi who are priests are commanded by the Law to collect one tenth from the people of Israel, that is, from their own people, even though they are also descendants of Abraham.

There is another difference: there were many of those other priests, because they died and could not continue their work.

The work they do as priests is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. It is the same as it was with Moses. When he was about to build the Sacred Tent, God told him, "Be sure to make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain."

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them.

Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

but only the high priest goes into the inner tent, and he does so only once a year. He takes with him blood which he offers to God on behalf of himself and for the sins which the people have committed without knowing they were sinning.

since they have to do only with food, drink, and various purification ceremonies. These are all outward rules, which apply only until the time when God will establish the new order.

If the people worshiping God had really been purified from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop.

It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.

Instead, it was a better country they longed for, the heavenly country. And so God is not ashamed for them to call him their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

It was faith that made the parents of Moses hide him for three months after he was born. They saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king's order.

Through faith they fought whole countries and won. They did what was right and received what God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions,