Heb 13:9 | KingComments | STEP | . After the exhortations about the conduct of the Hebrews toward those who surround them and about being content with the things they have, they are reminded of encouraging examples. Already in chapter 11 a whole row of examples was presented to them. These are the believers from a distant past. Now the writer points at those who led them who are neither alive among them, but whom they have known among them. These are men who spoke the word of God to them. They could remember these believers as people who really lived up to what they said and who died in the faith in which they lived. The writer tells his readers that they should carefully consider the result or outcome of their conduct. They persevered till the end. Now the Hebrews are to follow their faith. In their faith the Lord Jesus was centered. It is also significant for you to follow the faith of people who spoke the Word of God to you. Thereby you could think of the explanation of the Bible by believers who are now with the Lord. By reading their comments you have spiritually grown. Follow their faith. The idea is not to parrot or imitate them. You are not a copy. What you should follow is what was in them, what drove them. . The leaders who have spoken the Word of God to you may not be there anymore, but Who still is, is “Jesus Christ”. He was there yesterday. I write ‘was’, but it is said that He ‘is’ the Same yesterday and today. He is also the Same tomorrow and forever and ever ( ; ). By ‘yesterday’ you may think of the past, of the days of the Old Testament, but also of the days that He was on earth. As He committed Himself ‘yesterday’ to His people, so He does now and so He will always do. When you will be with Him you will not encounter a Christ Who will suddenly act differently. We change, our thoughts change, but He does not change. You really do need Him Who is the unchangeable One in a society in which everything always changes. . Changes also cause unrest. How good is it to have a source of rest in Someone Who is always perfectly stable in the midst of all those changes. Christ is the Rock Who remains perfectly firm and untouched through all kinds of teachings. If your heart finds no satisfaction in Christ anymore you will open yourself for “various and strange doctrines”. You will be carried away by them, which may result that you are more and more separated from the Rock. Finally you will lose every connection with Christ and therefore without any hold become a victim of strange teachings. The end will be horrible. Strange teachings are teachings that are strange to the new things that has come in Christ. They are there in many varieties. These are errors or traditions that are attractive to the flesh ( ) and with which people can achieve honor. In such teaching Christ is indeed good, but not sufficient. Christ alone is then too limited, too little. Isn’t life much broader with many interesting things? If this reasoning takes a grip on you, you will get carried away from the steadfastness that you have in Christ. You become open to new forms of faith experience with mainly or only emotion. But what you need is your “heart to be strengthened by grace”. If you are deeply aware of that, it is a great liberation from each own effort. If you think that it is about the experience in itself, the kick that you get out of it, it will not make your heart to be strengthened. In this way you are only satisfying your religious emotions. It really is not easy to be dependent on grace alone. Grace means that nothing is expected from you, but that you expect everything from God. Is that too meager, too easy or meaningless to you, then you will seek your salvation in “foods”. ‘Foods’ stand for things that will perish ( ), what only has a temporal and no permanent value. Here it is about walking in foods and is therefore a reference to the Jewish tangible, temporal worship service. This worship service had brought no profit at all. That’s what became clear from this letter. It didn’t bring man to God, but only demonstrated all the more strongly the distance from Him. . If I clearly understand this verse, you may read it like this: We, Christians, have a place of worship service where we are allowed to draw near to God to have fellowship with Him, while they who still think that they have to serve God according to Jewish tradition, are totally excluded from that. Here it is about ‘eating from the altar’. ‘Eating’ is a symbol of having fellowship. The ‘altar’ is a picture of Christ. Those, who hold on to the Old Testament worship service, do not partake of Christ and therefore have no right to ‘eat from the altar’. . In this verse we find the explanation for that. The writer points at a ritual these Hebrews were familiar with. When they were still Jewish, they were entirely involved with this ritual. This ritual was yearly performed before their eyes on the day of atonement ( ). Now, because they are thoroughly taught by the writer through this letter about the reality of the sacrifice of Christ, they will understand that he is speaking about Christ even now. What happened on the day of atonement with the blood and the body of the animals that were offered, shows what happened to Christ. First of all the blood was brought into the holy place, the sanctuary, for the purification of sins. Christ Himself entered the holy place with His blood ( ). As a result of that the access to the holy place now has also been opened for both Hebrews and Christians and for you, and they and you are allowed to enter it freely ( ). Something also happened to “bodies” of the animals. These were “burned outside the camp”. . The writer gives the explanation of that now. The burning of the bodies of the animals outside the camp indicates what happened to the Lord Jesus outside the gate, that is the gate of Jerusalem. It might have been quite shocking to the readers to see this. They must have realized that what the writer showed, makes a murderers’ city of Jerusalem. They were still having difficulties with separating themselves from that city. It still had such a great place in their thinking. Now they understood that it was that very city that threw its King out and killed Him. That means that that city means nothing anymore to God and it should be the same to them. At the same time that place “outside the gate” is the place where Christ has sanctified the people “through His own blood”. Therefore that place has a double meaning. It shows what people, and especially the religious people, did to the Lord and that in that place God’s counsel, concerning His people, has been fulfilled (cf. ). . And just like the shedding of the blood of Jesus had the consequence that the way to the holy place was opened for His people ( ), the blood of Jesus that He shed outside the gate also has consequences for His people. The consequences are sounding in the call: “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp.” You show true respect for the work of the Lord Jesus if you, on the one hand enter the sanctuary to draw near to God and if you, on the other hand take the place of reproach on earth. To go outside the camp, or outside the gate, means outside an organized system of religion. Formerly the camp was the place where God was dwelling and where He ordained everything in the laws and commandments. But when Christ came there, they threw Him out. He who now wants to belong to Him cannot remain in a religious system that is established after an Old Testament model. This is strongly characterized in the roman-catholic church. The call also implies a warning not to allow anything in the Christian worship service that, by outward rituals, gives the appearance of a better way of drawing near to God. There is an essential difference between the Christian worship service and the way God was served in the Old Testament according to His commands. That difference is caused by the fact that the Lord Jesus is now in heaven and the Holy Spirit dwells in the church on earth. Ever since the Holy Spirit dwells on earth the Christian worship service is not characterized by an earthly place and earthly means of praise, but by worshiping God in spirit and truth ( ). The outward fuss that is still found in protestantism has no right of existence. However, the reality is that more and more elements of the Jewish religion are reintroduced in the Christian worship service. Therefore the call to go out outside the camp should sound louder. Bearing the reproach of Christ goes together with abandoning the organized professing Christianity after the Old Testament model. In professing Christianity at large you are irrelevant if you do not cooperate with them. But is there a better place on earth than with the Lord Jesus, even if it is a place of reproach? Asaph puts it this way: “Whom have I in heaven [but You]? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” ( ). If you want to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven then you will surely want to be with Him on earth also. Now read Hebrews 13:7-13 again. Reflection: Have you gone out to Him outside the camp?

‏ Hebrews 13:9

Let Us Go Out to Him

Heb 13:7. After the exhortations about the conduct of the Hebrews toward those who surround them and about being content with the things they have, they are reminded of encouraging examples. Already in chapter 11 a whole row of examples was presented to them. These are the believers from a distant past. Now the writer points at those who led them who are neither alive among them, but whom they have known among them. These are men who spoke the word of God to them.

They could remember these believers as people who really lived up to what they said and who died in the faith in which they lived. The writer tells his readers that they should carefully consider the result or outcome of their conduct. They persevered till the end. Now the Hebrews are to follow their faith. In their faith the Lord Jesus was centered.

It is also significant for you to follow the faith of people who spoke the Word of God to you. Thereby you could think of the explanation of the Bible by believers who are now with the Lord. By reading their comments you have spiritually grown. Follow their faith. The idea is not to parrot or imitate them. You are not a copy. What you should follow is what was in them, what drove them.

Heb 13:8. The leaders who have spoken the Word of God to you may not be there anymore, but Who still is, is “Jesus Christ”. He was there yesterday. I write ‘was’, but it is said that He ‘is’ the Same yesterday and today. He is also the Same tomorrow and forever and ever (Heb 1:10-12; Psa 102:27). By ‘yesterday’ you may think of the past, of the days of the Old Testament, but also of the days that He was on earth. As He committed Himself ‘yesterday’ to His people, so He does now and so He will always do.

When you will be with Him you will not encounter a Christ Who will suddenly act differently. We change, our thoughts change, but He does not change. You really do need Him Who is the unchangeable One in a society in which everything always changes.

Heb 13:9. Changes also cause unrest. How good is it to have a source of rest in Someone Who is always perfectly stable in the midst of all those changes. Christ is the Rock Who remains perfectly firm and untouched through all kinds of teachings. If your heart finds no satisfaction in Christ anymore you will open yourself for “various and strange doctrines”. You will be carried away by them, which may result that you are more and more separated from the Rock. Finally you will lose every connection with Christ and therefore without any hold become a victim of strange teachings. The end will be horrible.

Strange teachings are teachings that are strange to the new things that has come in Christ. They are there in many varieties. These are errors or traditions that are attractive to the flesh (Mk 7:3-8) and with which people can achieve honor. In such teaching Christ is indeed good, but not sufficient. Christ alone is then too limited, too little. Isn’t life much broader with many interesting things?

If this reasoning takes a grip on you, you will get carried away from the steadfastness that you have in Christ. You become open to new forms of faith experience with mainly or only emotion. But what you need is your “heart to be strengthened by grace”. If you are deeply aware of that, it is a great liberation from each own effort. If you think that it is about the experience in itself, the kick that you get out of it, it will not make your heart to be strengthened. In this way you are only satisfying your religious emotions. It really is not easy to be dependent on grace alone.

Grace means that nothing is expected from you, but that you expect everything from God. Is that too meager, too easy or meaningless to you, then you will seek your salvation in “foods”. ‘Foods’ stand for things that will perish (1Cor 6:13), what only has a temporal and no permanent value. Here it is about walking in foods and is therefore a reference to the Jewish tangible, temporal worship service. This worship service had brought no profit at all. That’s what became clear from this letter. It didn’t bring man to God, but only demonstrated all the more strongly the distance from Him.

Heb 13:10. If I clearly understand this verse, you may read it like this: We, Christians, have a place of worship service where we are allowed to draw near to God to have fellowship with Him, while they who still think that they have to serve God according to Jewish tradition, are totally excluded from that. Here it is about ‘eating from the altar’. ‘Eating’ is a symbol of having fellowship. The ‘altar’ is a picture of Christ. Those, who hold on to the Old Testament worship service, do not partake of Christ and therefore have no right to ‘eat from the altar’.

Heb 13:11. In this verse we find the explanation for that. The writer points at a ritual these Hebrews were familiar with. When they were still Jewish, they were entirely involved with this ritual. This ritual was yearly performed before their eyes on the day of atonement (Lev 16:27). Now, because they are thoroughly taught by the writer through this letter about the reality of the sacrifice of Christ, they will understand that he is speaking about Christ even now.

What happened on the day of atonement with the blood and the body of the animals that were offered, shows what happened to Christ. First of all the blood was brought into the holy place, the sanctuary, for the purification of sins. Christ Himself entered the holy place with His blood (Heb 9:12). As a result of that the access to the holy place now has also been opened for both Hebrews and Christians and for you, and they and you are allowed to enter it freely (Heb 10:19). Something also happened to “bodies” of the animals. These were “burned outside the camp”.

Heb 13:12. The writer gives the explanation of that now. The burning of the bodies of the animals outside the camp indicates what happened to the Lord Jesus outside the gate, that is the gate of Jerusalem.

It might have been quite shocking to the readers to see this. They must have realized that what the writer showed, makes a murderers’ city of Jerusalem. They were still having difficulties with separating themselves from that city. It still had such a great place in their thinking. Now they understood that it was that very city that threw its King out and killed Him. That means that that city means nothing anymore to God and it should be the same to them.

At the same time that place “outside the gate” is the place where Christ has sanctified the people “through His own blood”. Therefore that place has a double meaning. It shows what people, and especially the religious people, did to the Lord and that in that place God’s counsel, concerning His people, has been fulfilled (cf. Acts 2:23).

Heb 13:13. And just like the shedding of the blood of Jesus had the consequence that the way to the holy place was opened for His people (Heb 10:19), the blood of Jesus that He shed outside the gate also has consequences for His people. The consequences are sounding in the call: “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp.” You show true respect for the work of the Lord Jesus if you, on the one hand enter the sanctuary to draw near to God and if you, on the other hand take the place of reproach on earth.

To go outside the camp, or outside the gate, means outside an organized system of religion. Formerly the camp was the place where God was dwelling and where He ordained everything in the laws and commandments. But when Christ came there, they threw Him out. He who now wants to belong to Him cannot remain in a religious system that is established after an Old Testament model. This is strongly characterized in the roman-catholic church.

The call also implies a warning not to allow anything in the Christian worship service that, by outward rituals, gives the appearance of a better way of drawing near to God. There is an essential difference between the Christian worship service and the way God was served in the Old Testament according to His commands. That difference is caused by the fact that the Lord Jesus is now in heaven and the Holy Spirit dwells in the church on earth. Ever since the Holy Spirit dwells on earth the Christian worship service is not characterized by an earthly place and earthly means of praise, but by worshiping God in spirit and truth (Jn 4:21-24).

The outward fuss that is still found in protestantism has no right of existence. However, the reality is that more and more elements of the Jewish religion are reintroduced in the Christian worship service. Therefore the call to go out outside the camp should sound louder. Bearing the reproach of Christ goes together with abandoning the organized professing Christianity after the Old Testament model.

In professing Christianity at large you are irrelevant if you do not cooperate with them. But is there a better place on earth than with the Lord Jesus, even if it is a place of reproach? Asaph puts it this way: “Whom have I in heaven [but You]? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psa 73:25). If you want to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven then you will surely want to be with Him on earth also.

Now read Hebrews 13:7-13 again.

Reflection: Have you gone out to Him outside the camp?