“the head rules the belly through the chest”

Download discussion questions:  Hebrews 8:6-13

I encourage you to look at the passage in Hebrews before you read this Blog entry.  What do you see in the text yourself?  What questions come to your mind?  How would you interpret what the writer says?  After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.

[NOTE:  Although this group has been together for some time, our study of Hebrews was interrupted for several months.  When we recently resumed, I was able to begin the blog here at a key point in the sermon to the Hebrew Christians.  Be sure to read the first seven chapters to better understand the flow of the writer’s argument. – mw]

Does God Care?

One simple way to begin a discussion of a Bible passage (after the group has had time to read through the text a few times) is to ask the question, “What confuses you about this passage?” or “What questions come to mind as you read this?”  Several members of our group pointed to the end of verse 9 where God (speaking through the prophet Jeremiah) says of His people, “I did not care for them” (NASB1995).  Quite a startling statement from the God who is Love.  As our discussion pointed out, that statement could be taken in at least two different ways:

• A lack of affection: I didn’t really like them, as in, I don’t care for cats, OR,
• A lack of attention: I didn’t watch out for them, I didn’t “take care” of them.

Clearly God did care for His people in the first sense, since, as one group member pointed out, when exiting Egypt, God “took them by the hand” (v. 9a), a very intimate picture.  But breaking the covenant (see below) changed something.  Using a handy phone app, another person found that the word used for “did not care for them” is elsewhere translated “neglect” (1 Timothy 4:4) and even by the writer to the Hebrews (Hebrews 2:3, “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”).  The Israelites chose to go their own way and not to enter the promised land.  The result was forty years of wilderness wandering.  The care that God had intended was described as His “rest,” repeatedly mentioned earlier in Hebrews (3:11, 18; 4:1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11).  Someone asked how God could have “neglected” or “not cared” for them when they had miraculous food and shoes that didn’t wear out during four-decades.  One suggestion was that God provided what might be seen as His “common grace,” supplying their survival.  But they had forfeited the proffered rest and relationship with Him.  They had earthly blessings, but they missed out on the relational part of His covenant.

All About Covenants

The concept of covenant is the theme of this passage (as well as of other sections of Hebrews).  If asking a question about confusion is one way to stimulate discussion, another suggestion is to look for repeated words.  What word or phrase does the writer keep using?  That is probably a clue to what was on his mind as he wrote.

The word “covenant” occurs or is implied[1] seven times in these eight verses.  The covenant was made with “their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt” (v. 9a).  That was clearly the arrangement made with Moses at Mount Sinai:  the giving of the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law.  That Mosaic covenant depended on perfect obedience and faithfulness,[2]  a “system that was fair but unlivable.”[3]  The writer to the Hebrews (a congregation who had grown up under that first covenant) quotes extensively from Jeremiah.  Over five-hundred years^[4] before Jesus was born, God revealed that He did not implement a “fair but unlivable” system as the permanent arrangement with His people.

The writer to the Hebrews clearly intended this as encouraging news to people who were struggling as Christians in a hostile world.  The Hebrew congregation was facing

• Public reproach and ridicule (Hebrews 10:33)
• Significant economic losses (10:34).
• Great conflict and sufferings (10:32)
• Possibility of future physical harm (12:4)

What would be a pastoral response to such circumstances?

What do you say to Christians who become overwhelmed with the sense of their own defenselessness in a hostile world?  Do you comfort them?  How do you reassure them when their strongest impression is the felt absence of God?  That was the problem faced by the preacher who prepared Hebrews as a message of encouragement to his frightened friends.^[5]

The writer to that congregation reminded them of the most encouraging news he could offer, the new covenant.

A New Covenant

Our group spent most of our time considering what the writer said about that new covenant.  The writer to the Hebrews saw the new covenant as reassurance to God’s struggling people.  Perhaps we would be encouraged as well as we understand that new arrangement that God has provided.

One question that came up was, does this apply to us?  The text says it is a covenant with Israel (v. 10a) or with Israel and Judah (v. 8c).  But, as another member pointed out, we (Christians) have been adopted into God’s family, and the inspired writer was addressing Christians.  In fact, he was motivated by concern that some might abandon their faith.[6]  His approach was to remind them of the new covenant that they enjoyed as Christian believers.  The new covenant is with the people of God.

An Unconditional Covenant

One person observed how frequently the words “I will” occur in the passage (seven times).  Someone else pointed out that there is no hint of conditions required for God’s actions of the new covenant, no “I will if you…”  Another noted that all of the “I will” statements are positive with one exception, “I will not remember their sins” (v. 12) – a welcome negative.

A Personal Covenant

The new covenant is directed to the minds and hearts of God’s people, not, as one person commented, written on stone tablets.  He promised to “put” the laws into minds but to “write” on hearts, perhaps with the implication that writing was a more definitive or precise communication.  As we read and study Scripture, we benefit from that new covenant focus as He uses His Word to teach our minds and change our hearts.  Another question related to the meaning of “laws” in verse 10.  Does that mean this covenant is just another expression of the old covenant, the Law and the rules recorded by Moses?  But the new covenant was expressed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, when He made clear the heart-focus of the law:  “You have heard…but I say to you…”  Not just “Thou shalt not kill” but “If you are angry…”

The observation that God puts the laws into minds and writes them on hearts brought another thought to mind (after the group had ended).  C. S. Lewis suggested that the head (or mind) is the seat of reason, of knowing what we should do.  He described the belly was the seat of our desires, what we want to do in the moment.  But the chest (or heart) was ‘the spirited element,’ “magnanimity or sentiment, the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man” or, in much more pithy Lewis-style, “the head rules the belly through the chest.”[7]  In other words, using Lewis’ imagery, God puts the laws into our minds, but He writes them indelibly on our hearts.  Thereby He enables our sentiment or attitude or trust in Him to rule our desires.  We may know His commands and teaching in our mind.  It is our trusting relationship with Him that facilitates our obedience.

A Relational Covenant

The old covenant was very clear and absolute, and that covenant promised clear consequences.

• Obey God and enjoy blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)
• Fail to obey God and suffer cursing (Deuteronomy 28:15-68)

The new covenant has a different focus, all about knowing God (v.11 and elsewhere in Hebrews, “drawing near to God” in 4:16, 7:25, 10:1, 10:22, 11:6).  Knowing God, trusting God, drawing near to Him will be available to all who are or who become believers.  The climactic conclusion of Jeremiah’s prophecy quoted by the writer to the Hebrews is the heart of the new covenant: “I will remember their sins no more.”

A New Freedom

The writer to the Hebrews brackets his lengthy quotation from Jeremiah with observations about the old covenant.  Clearly the first arrangement was not “faultless” since God planned its replacement (v.7).  But clearly, the problem was not with the covenant but with the people.  God “found fault” with them, not with it (recall the “fair but unlivable” description above).  Then, after describing the new covenant (v.8b-12, quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34), the writer offers the unequivocal conclusion: the new covenant demonstrates that the old way was “obsolete and growing old and ready to disappear” (v.13).

The new covenant is not an option, not an add-on or an accessory to the old covenant.  The new covenant was not some “Plan B” that God used to patch the problems with the old covenant.  The old covenant is not still in force with the new covenant as a supplement.  The old covenant has been spectacularly superseded by an incalculably better way of relating to God (Hebrews 7:19, 22; 8:6).

As someone described, we have the freedom because we are no longer under the burden of trying to measure up to God’s standard – Christ did that by living His perfect life.  We are no longer under the burden of fear of God’s punishment – Christ did that by dying His perfect death.  Relieved of those unbearable burdens we are free to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:34-40).

We are free to love God without fear of His anger or disapproval.  Our focus is on growing in Christlikeness and displaying His righteousness.  We are free to pursue righteousness not out of fear but out of desire.  Righteousness, our growing sanctification, can be thought of eliminating distractions.  The appeals of the world are what distract us from the promise of “drawing near to God.”  Some of those appeals are clearly sinful, but some are quite innocent, even blessings from God when received and used properly.  Sanctification consists in recognizing how any or all of those appeals distract us from the ultimate goal, drawing near to God.

We are free to love people without relying on them for our joy or satisfaction or fulfillment.  If we see the glory of the new covenant as drawing near to God, He becomes our source, not other people.  Rejection or disappointing relationships still hurt, but they are not the source of our joy.  Drawing near to God frees us to love people without demanding or expecting anything from them.  We can rejoice in human relationships without depending on them.  We are even free to be loved by God and by others when we fail, since the love is not dependent on our success or our usefulness to anyone.

I think those are drawing near to heaven who in this life find that they need men less and love men more and delight more in being loved without being needed.[8]

May we fully embrace the new covenant and the freedom it provides to love God and to love others as we grow in the character of Christ.

For additional comments about the New Covenant and the central role it has in living the Christian life, see the essay Two Covenants.

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[1] In some English translations, such as in the New American Standard Bible, words that are not actually in the original text but are clearly implied by the context or the grammar are printed in italics, such as covenant in verses 7 and 13.  For example, the literal Greek text in verse 7 would be translated “the first” or “the first one” (ἡ πρώτη, prōtē) clearly picking up the idea of covenant from verse 6.

[2] See, for example, Deuteronomy 28, “if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today” emphasis added.

[3] Larry Crabb, , The Pressure’s Off:  There’s A New Way to Live (New York:  Waterbrook, 2018), 32; Kindle Edition location 487.

[4] Leon Wood, A Survey of Israel’s History (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), 370.

[5] William L. Lane, Hebrews:  A Call to Commitment (Vancouver, British Columbia:  Regent College Publishing, 2004), 42.

[6] Kenneth S. Wuest, Hebrews in the Greek New Testament, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament; Volume II (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973), 50.

[7] C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York:  The MacMillan Company, 1968), 34.

[8] C. S. Lewis, “Agape” in The Four Loves Read by the Author (Dallas, Texas:  Word Audio, 1994), audio cassettes, tape 2, side 2, 20:12.  Note that the text of the printed versions of The Four Loves does not include the same wording as the audio production (a talk delivered by Lewis himself).