Study Desk

Christian brothers, be careful that not one of you has a heart so bad that it will not believe and will turn away from the living God.

Who made God angry for forty years? Was it not those people who had sinned in the desert? Was it not those who died and were buried there?

We who have put our trust in God go into His rest. God said this of our early fathers, "I was angry and said, ‘They will not go into My rest.'" And yet God's work was finished after He made the world.

In the Holy Writings He said this about the seventh day when He made the whole world, "God rested on the seventh day from all He had made."

But God said this about those who turned against Him, "They will not go into My rest."

God has again set a certain day for people to go into His rest. He says through David many years later as He had said before, "If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard."

The man who goes into God's rest, rests from his own work the same as God rested from His work.

No one can hide from God. His eyes see everything we do. We must give an answer to God for what we have done.

We have a great Religious Leader Who has made the way for man to go to God. He is Jesus, the Son of God, Who has gone to heaven to be with God. Let us keep our trust in Jesus Christ.

Let us go with complete trust to the throne of God. We will receive His loving-kindness and have His loving-favor to help us whenever we need it.

Every Jewish religious leader is chosen from among men. He is a helper standing between God and men. He gives gifts on the altar in worship to God from the people. He gives blood from animals for the sins of the people.

Because he is weak himself, he must give gifts to God for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people.

A Jewish religious leader does not choose this honor for himself. God chooses a man for this work. Aaron was chosen this way.

It is the same way with Christ. He did not choose the honor of being a Religious Leader Who has made the way for man to go to God. Instead, God said to Christ, "You are My Son. Today I have become Your Father."

God says in another part of His Word, "You will be a Religious Leader forever. You will be like Melchizedek."

During the time Jesus lived on earth, He prayed and asked God with loud cries and tears. Jesus' prayer was to God Who was able to save Him from death. God heard Christ because Christ honored God.

In God's plan He was to be a Religious Leader Who made the way for man to go to God. He was like Melchizedek.

Anyone who lives on milk cannot understand the teaching about being right with God. He is a baby.

So let us leave the first things you need to know about Christ. Let us go on to the teaching that full-grown Christians should understand. We do not need to teach these first truths again. You already know that you must be sorry for your sins and turn from them. You know that you must have faith in God.

We will go on, if God lets us.