Have you ever thought about walking away from your faith in Christ?The first readers of Hebrews thought about it. Living in, or near, Rome they were beginning to feel the pinch of religious oppression. We learn in the letter that no one in the church had yet died for their faith; that persecution had not reached its peak, but things were starting to get worse.

As a result, some of these first century, Jewish Christians were thinking about returning to their old way of life and abandoning the faith that was causing them grief. “Life will be easier for us,” they thought, “if we go back to following Moses rather than Jesus.”

The writer of Hebrews, as you might imagine, had some thoughts about that. First, he reminds his friends that while Moses was a great man and a faithful servant, Jesus was, and is Messiah and the Son of God. Then, using the sad story of Israel’s forty year wilderness journey as a warning, he lets them know that failing in faith has cascading consequences that are impossible to calculate. See you on Sunday.