Tonight, there has been a change in plans. Fr. Gabriel cannot be with us due to a death in his family. Therefore, instead of studying Hebrews 3-4 this evening we will be reading through the Old Testament selections cited by the writer in these two chapters. In Hebrews 3:1-10, the writer quotes Psalm 95:7-11 which recites the time of Provocation (Massah) and Temptation (Meribah) where Moses and the Israelites tested God. The Scriptures tell of us these two incidences in Exodus 17:1-7 and Numbers 20:1-13. In both of these stories, the people of Israel, who are wandering in the desert, complain that they have no water and that it would have been better to have stayed in Egypt. In the later story, God instructs Moses to tell the rock to yield its water, but instead, Moses strikes the rock with his staff. This is the reason given why Moses could not lead the people into the Promised Land. The other reference is found in Hebrews 3:11. This verse looks back to Numbers 13-14 where God instructed the Israelites to go and to take the Promised Land, but instead they cowered in fear and refused. It is for this reason that the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years because God commanded that this cowardly generation had to die out before the people could enter the Promised Land.
Tonight we will discuss these passages from the Old Testament, and discuss where Jesus can be found within these passages. (And, remember that the name “Jesus” is simply the Aramaic version of the Hebrew ”Joshua” and that in the Septuagint they would have had the exact same name.)
Dinner is a 6. The menu is Bojangles’ chicken (another change of plans). Discussion about 6:45. Hope to see you here.
I want you to know brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed thorough the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1 Corinthians 10:1-5.