EN ROUTE TO ZION

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5: 11-14).

Hmm! I wonder to whom this writer is speaking. Are you looking over your shoulder?

The very fact that these readers were tempted to turn around and go back to “Egypt” was an indication that they were just as immature as those who literally came out of Egypt. Why were the Israelites so eager to return to the place where they had endured so much? They had no understanding and short memories. Like babies, all they were concerned about was themselves. They had forgotten that God had a purpose for them. They were His people, created for His pleasure, not their own.

Their journey from Egypt to Canaan was part of a much bigger picture God was painting on a canvas too big for them to see. All God wanted of them was to trust Him. It was His plan to get them to their own land where they would live under His covering, protection and provision as a witness to the surrounding nations that He alone is God and that He is a good God. If they followed His instructions, they would live in peace, safety and plenty.

Their faith in God had to be tested to be proved genuine and able to stand up to adversity. Just like us, they lived in the real world. Tough times would come but they were to keep their eyes on God and do the right thing always. This was the purpose of the testing. What would they do when adversity hit? Doing the right thing meant following God’s “path”, living the way He taught them to live, no matter what.

God’s word is His torah, His directions for staying on the path that would lead them to “Zion”, the holy mountain in the city of Jerusalem, in which He had placed His name – the place where He had chosen to make His dwelling. Those who were righteous stayed on the path where they were safe from the dangers of the journey.

However, like the ancient people of God, these readers were still infants, drinking the milk of babyhood instead of eating the solid food of maturity. What did he mean? Like so many of God’s people today, they were still “rededicating their lives to the Lord” every time there was an “altar call” because they were constantly “backsliding” and having to “come back to the Lord”. They never got past the elementary things of the faith, to the place where they could get on with doing “good” and bypassing “evil”.

There are some concepts in the writer’s words that need explaining. From the Hebrew perspective, the migration of God’s people from Egypt to Canaan is a picture of life. We are on a migration from this life to the next. In order to navigate the wilderness, they needed landmarks, recognisable points along the way that helped them to stay on course. There are also “landmarks” on our journey through life; people, situations, experiences that prompt us to follow God’s prescribed way, giving us opportunity to do the right thing – to obey God’s teaching which will ensure that we stay on the path instead of wandering off the path and dying in the wilderness.

The words “good” and “evil” are better translated “functional” and “dysfunctional”. When we obey God’s teaching, our lives are functional, creating harmony and order where we are. When we disobey God’s instruction, we become dysfunctional, causing chaos in our homes and in society.

God’s verdict on His newly formed earth with its vegetation and creatures was:

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good (functional). And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day (Gen. 1: 31).

Sin entered through Adam’s disobedience, causing the earth and everything in it to become dysfunctional. Jesus came to this earth and paid the debt of sin for all mankind so that we can return (repent) to God’s way and become functional again. When we return to God’s way, following His instructions for living, we stay on course for our destination which is to become like Jesus who is the high point towards which we are journeying.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire . . . but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem   . . . to Jesus the mediator of a better covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12: 18, 22, 24).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.