James 1:1 "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting." Now do you see the difference? James is writing to the Hebrews in the dispersion wherever they were. Now if you will come back to Hebrews chapter 3 as we get ready to move on. This Epistle to the Hebrews is more than likely addressed to one rather substantial Hebrew congregation, and not just to the Jews out in the dispersion, but to a particular group. Now, of course, there is controversy. What group was it? Was it the Jerusalem church? We don’t think so. Was it the Alexandrian church, because Alexandria, Egypt always had a large Jewish community, a large Synagogue? And for that reason, remember, the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek was done by 70 Jewish scholars, not in Jerusalem but down in Alexandria. So, there is that possibility that it could have been addressed to a Jewish congregation in Alexandria. But, we don’t think so.
My own personal idea and we can’t find anyone else to agree with us to confirm it, but my own idea is that it may have been a place like Pella. Now Pella was one of the Decapolis cities of Rome located just east of Galilee in what today is Jordan. The reason we kind of pick on Pella in our own mind, several years ago we read an article in one of the archaeology magazines and later reported on T.V., where archaeologists had found potsherds. Now remember that is bits of clay out of which the pots and the kettles and so forth had deteriorated but those little pieces of clay are what the archaeologists can more or less reconstruct. You see they found potsherds in the ancient city of Pella that in the same piece of clay, not in separate pieces, but in the same piece of clay they would have the mark of the fish which, of course, designated the early church. But also, in the same piece of clay, a menorah which spoke of the Jews. So, we know that there had to have been Jews living at least in Pella and we're sure many other areas who were adherents of "the fish," the followers of Jesus of Nazareth and Peter’s preaching and so forth, but were still clinging to their Judaism and consequently the mark of the menorah.
So, we have to feel that this Epistle of Hebrews was written maybe to a Synagogue of Jews like that. We're not saying that it was Pella but we think it had to be a congregation on that order where you had Hebrews still clinging to Judaism and yet they have seen enough of Jesus of Nazareth and now here in Paul’s approach to the crucified, resurrected Lord that Paul is now admonishing these Jewish people to just simply come away from their Judaism, from all of their roots of their religion of the past and step into this Gospel of Grace and the New Covenant of which Christ became the Covenant by way of His last supper and the fulfilling of all righteousness. So maybe that will help a little bit to understand the approach of Hebrews.
It has no real Church language, per se, for example. When we say there is no Church language, you understand, never do we see and hear a Gospel of Christ having died for the sins of the world. Rather, we see Christ in His High Priestly role and as an Apostle. We don’t see faith in the death, burial and resurrection promoted as a means of justification. It’s just not in here. We don’t see any reference to pastors and deacons and bishops and so forth, like we do in Paul’s other epistles. So this is why we say that you cannot find true Church language in Hebrews but everything that is in Hebrews is for our learning as the other books of the Old Testament are.
My it’s just a wealth! Every time we go into another verse, here’s just a whole truck load of wisdom and knowledge for us today. And so this is the way we are approaching this Epistle of Hebrews even though it is written to Hebrew people and yet, my, what we can learn from it! So now let’s begin our study with verse 12.
Hebrews 3:12a "Take heed, brethren…" Take heed. Now that is a Warning! Take heed, brethren. Now again we think Paul uses that word brethren in the vernacular of the Jewish people as his brethren in the flesh, but also there were some true believers. Who he considered brothers in the spiritual sense. Now we're saying some, because not all of them were. And we will be looking at that a little further as we go back to Kadesh-Barnea as well. Alright, so he can speak to the group and include some of them as brethren either from the Jewish point or from the fact that they were Believers. So he says:
Hebrews 3:12 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart (of immorality? No. An evil heart of drunkenness? No. An evil heart of anything else you can think of? No! But what?) of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Unbelief! Oh! it’s an awful word. Now remember the only sin that will send people to a devil’s hell is unbelief! They refuse to believe what God has said to believe for our conversion and then redemption leading to our salvation! So here again this is the whole point! Take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief. Remember we are never going to lose sight of the fact that that is what kept Israel out of the Promised Land when Moses took them up to Kadesh. It wasn’t anything else. Unbelief!
Now let us rehearse again. We know we covered this quite in detail. So we have to kind of remember that. But on the other hand, remember that when the children of Israel had received the Law and the Tabernacle and the whole religion, as we call it, of Judaism. They were now ready to go into the Promised Land. And what had God told them? "You won’t have to lift a sword." Today we would say, "You won’t have to fire a shot. I am going to drive the Canaanites out ahead of you. I will use hornets. Whatever it takes. I am just going to drive them out!" God said, "I am going to drive them out slow enough that you can occupy it without the vineyards growing up in weeds, or wild animals taking over. We will just push them out. And, you can come in and settle."
What an offer! Was God serious? Absolutely! He meant every word of it. Then we remember the first step of unbelief was, "Well can we send in some spies?" God didn’t tell them to send in spies. That was Israel’s idea. That was their first step of unbelief. They couldn’t take God at His Word that the Promised Land was there for the taking.
But they asked, "Well, let us send in spies." So, God in His love and His grace condescended and He said, "Alright, I will let you do that. Pick out one man from each tribe and they can go in." So the spies go in and they see the fruit of it and they come back with the fruit of it. The proof that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. Now we always have to explain that. That didn’t mean that the honey was coming down through the gullies. It didn’t mean that milk was running from the other side, but all the attributes of a country or a land that would promote the production of milk and honey was there. Then all you’ve got to do is just use a little common sense. What does it take to produce milk?
Well, we have to have grass and pastures and cattle. And that, of course, this gives rise to all the by-products of a dairy cow or of sheep. It brought in their cheeses. Now if we don’t think the Jews don’t like cheese, we haven’t been to a Jerusalem breakfast. Oh, all the cheeses are laying out. Well, you see that was all implied with that statement, the land of milk. That would require grass and forage and so forth.
Now then honey, of course, as most of us are aware that we don’t get honey unless we have bees and bees can’t make honey unless they’ve got what? Flowering things. Fruit trees and flowers and so forth and so when we hear the term "land of milk and honey" look at the big picture. It was a land that provided all the necessities of dairy cattle of some sort. It had all the things necessary for the production of bees and their honey which spread out into a land of beauty. Production.
Alright, and they brought back the fruits of it. But, what did ten of the twelve say? The majority report of ten of the spies was, "Can’t do it!" The minority report says, "Yes we can!" by Joshua and Caleb. But, what did the nation listen too? The majority. That’s why, when it comes to the things of God and the Spirit, the majority is usually wrong. We can’t follow the majority. And we always have to come back to the verse that the Lord Himself spoke.
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