And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? – Hebrews 3:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 18, 2015): Hebrews 3

Texting while driving is universally recognized as a bad thing, even though a lot of us seem to do it. In the early days after Bruce Jenner’s auto accident a couple of weeks ago, that seemed to be the question that needed to be asked – was it possible that Jenner was texting while driving. And maybe we all would have felt just a little better if the answer was yes. We seem to need to find a reason why things happen. If he was, then we probably don’t need to look any further for a cause to the accident – the accident was nothing more than the consequences derived from bad driving habit. If this is proven to be the case, then there will likely be more negative consequences that have yet to happen.

And I think that we get that. But what is the qualitative difference between a consequence and punishment? I was asked this very question this past week, and I can’t say that I had a good answer. In so many ways they seem so interconnected. And in a perfect world maybe they are the same. Or maybe the punishment is what happens after the consequence. Maybe it is just that punishments are nothing more than negative consequences.

But the best consequences and punishments are intimately tied to the events that precede them. An auto accident because we are texting while driving makes sense. And because we realize that the law makes specific demands of us in such cases, we know that there must be more consequences or punishments. Connection between the cause and the result is essential.

This is precisely the point that the author of Hebrews is trying to make. There was an intimate connection between God’s decision to not allow Israel to enter into her rest (insert ‘enter the Promised Land’ here) and the disobedience of Israel. This was not an arbitrary moment. It was a consequence – or a negative punishment – that naturally followed the disobedient actions of Israel that preceded them.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. The idea of consequences to our actions is an ancient one, and it is literally written all through the pages of the Hebrew Bible. It is also this reality of actions and their consequence that makes the actions of Jesus so remarkable. It is not that the consequences are voided, some of them still remain to be borne by the offender. But the worst of them, the ones that are owed to God himself, are paid by Jesus. It is an almost unbelievable plot twist. One that we still find hard to believe.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hebrews 4