The Book of Hebrews – Heb 2:1-3 “We Ought to Give the More Earnest Heed” – Part 1

[Study Aired May 28, 2020]

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 
Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 
Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The word spoken by angels was stedfast, and Christ was stedfastly about our Father’s business in the old covenant just as He is today within the body of Christ which is where our Father’s business is being conducted (Luk 2:49, Heb 13:8, Zep 3:17, Php 2:13). The body of Christ is to be of the same mind (Php 2:2, Col 1:24), speaking the same thing stedfastly as we are guided and led by God’s holy spirit that bears witness that we are His sons who are about our Father’s business through Christ and as Christ’s body (Rom 8:14, Rom 8:16, 1Jn 4:17). It is Christ who is that angel working within the seven angels of  Revelation 8:6 (Mat 22:29, Rev 8:6) fulfilling God’s purpose in this age within the life of the bride of Christ, actions that were typified for us with Israel in the wilderness (1Co 10:2-6).

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Zep 3:17  The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. [It takes power to blow the trumpet; “the seven trumpets“.]

Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [Rev 19:7]

This section of Hebrews we will examine is filled with admonition for Christ’s body to be stedfast and confidently believing (Joh 6:28-29) that He is doing this work today within us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Eph 2:10, Php 1:6, Luk 12:32), which involves our overcoming the powers and principalities that would have us neglect so great a salvation by not stedfastly keeping our eyes on the mark of the prize of the high calling that is in Christ. As we look to the Lord we grow in our ability to discern good and evil which is the exercise we are enduring through together so that we can blow the trumpets of God having had our senses exercised to be able to do so  (1Pe 5:8-9, Php 3:14-15, 1Co 14:8, Heb 5:12).

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [“resist stedfast in the faith” (Heb 4:11, Joh 6:27)]
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” is the first verse we’ll look at in our study and the “therefore” being spoken of, is all that was discussed in the previous chapter that reassured us of the “kingship and priesthood” that we have become a part of by the rich mercy  that is expressed to us through the grace and faith of Jesus Christ. That kingship and priesthood in the making (God’s workmanship) requires that we take heed of the things being established, and “to be holding fast unto the things that have been heard, lest, at any time, we drift away” [Rotherham].

(Eph 2:5-8, 1Th 5:21) The Corinthian church was slipping in regard to not discerning the need to ordain those who should be judging the matters that required mature leadership and they were obviously not getting any Godly results as they ended up turning to the courts of this world to resolve issues between brothers in Christ (1Co 6:2-11). This story is written for the admonition of God’s kings and priests who have been called to go on to perfection and reach that level of maturity which will be required for us to judge the world and angels one day (Eph 4:13).

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
1Co 6:4  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
1Co 6:5  I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
1Co 6:6  But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. [“drift away” – caught in a spiritual worldly undertow or riptide]
1Co 6:7  Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
1Co 6:8  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
1Co 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

[“The exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” of  Ephesians 2:5-8 is to be “washed” and “sanctified” and “justified” through Christ in this age, which will take a steadfast life of overcoming so that we can one day judge angels, and how much more the things that pertain to this life as stated in 1Corinthians 6:3.]

Now we know we have a high priest in heaven, a Savior who is stedfast and who we cry out to as he did himself when he was in his flesh and was delivered in that He feared God (Heb 5:7, Psa 34:4, 1Jn 4:17). Christ tells us to not cast away that confidence that we can have in him, telling us to cast all your cares upon him and to look stedfastly to the Lord for deliverance that He has promised will be given to those who seek him with all their hearts (1Pe 5:7, Jer 29:13).

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Psa 34:4  I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Our flesh does not naturally want to seek the Lord out, and like Christ himself, we must learn obedience by the things we suffer in order to cease from sinning, or as it was in Christ’s case, to never let sin ever manifest in His life, which is something we must strive for all our lives (Rom 6:11). Our high priest, who was tempted in all diverse manner, never sinned so that we could have a spotless savior who, “being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” We would just not naturally “obey him” without the power of God’s holy spirit being shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5). It is the grace and faith that work together through our hope of glory within which accomplishes that end of obeying God or fearing God and working righteousness (Heb 4:15, Eph 2:6, Joh 14:20, Eph 2:8, Col 1:27).

[(Heb 5:8-9) works of the flesh in which we naturally walk until we don’t; (Gal 5:16-26) how those who are bidden to the wedding supper will obtain a wedding garment (Mat 22:8-10, Joh 21:18).

We are admonished to press forward and fight a good fight of faith and know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1Co 15:58, Psa 127:1). Our diligence, our striving (Christ’s work in us – Col 1:27-29), will be rewarded and that reward in earnest today is to have the mind of Christ and the strength to die daily and put off this flesh to the glory of God so we can endure until the end and receive the fulness of that reward (Heb 11:6).

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Satan’s goal is to circumvent that steadfast diligent desire to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first (Mat 6:33) and to make us feel that we are unworthy (Act 13:45-47, 1Co 6:2), as he accuses us and tries to hold us back from laying hold on eternal life (fighting for everlasting life – 1Ti 6:12, Rev 12:10, Rev 3:11). As God’s elect we die daily and have our conscience sprinkled by the blood of the lamb (1Co 15:31, Heb 10:22-24, Act 13:45-47) as we go forward with that confidence in Christ that He will make it possible for us to receive the recompence of the reward for which we have respect today as “the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” by “the power of his Christ” (Heb 11:26, Rev 12:10, Luk 10:18).

Act 13:45  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming [1Co 11:19].
Act 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you [1Co 1:19], and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. [Luk 14:23]
Act 13:47  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [judging yourselves unworthy], and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised😉
Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward [Moses example is a type and shadow of Colossians 1:24 that is required to make us worthy to rule under Christ (2Ti 2:12)].

Before we look at the first three verses of this second chapter of Hebrews we’ll be studying, let’s consider this word “stedfast”. Strong uses three different numbers for this word, each one helping us understand more clearly God’s mighty hand in our lives.

G949 From the base of G939 (through the idea of basality); stable (literally or figuratively): – firm, of force, stedfast, sure.

Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast^G949, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast^G949 unto the end;

Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfastG949, and which entereth into that within the veil;

2Co 1:7  And our hope of you is stedfastG949, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

firm, 1:  Heb_3:6
force, 1  Heb_9:17
steadfast, 4 2Co_1:7; Heb_2:2; Heb_3:14; Heb_6:19
sure, 3  Rom_4:16; 2Pe_1:10; 2Pe_1:19

G1476  From a derivative of hezomai (to sit); sedentary, that is, (by implication) immovable: – settled, stedfast:

1Co 7:37  Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast^G1476 in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast^G1476, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

[Fleshly works are vain and won’t inherit the kingdom of God, but God’s work through the church is “not in vain” and is treasure laid up in heaven (Mat 6:20), negative laying up (Rom 2:5), positive laying up (1Ti 6:19, Tit 3:8)]

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settledG1476, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

G4731  From G2476; stiff that is solid stable (literally or figuratively): – stedfast strong sure.

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Strong uses this number “G4731” three other times besides 1Peter 5:9, giving us that sense of the immovability of God’s hand in our life (verse 6).

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. ¹
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731  in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

stedfast^G4731 defined by Thayer as

1) strong, firm, immovable, solid, hard, rigid

1a) in a bad sense, cruel, stiff, stubborn, hard

1b) in a good sense, firm, steadfast

Total KJV Occurrences: 4
•strong, 2
Heb 5:12; Heb 5:14 [strong meat]

•steadfast, 1
1Pe 5:9  [solid/stedfast in the faith]

•sure, 1
2Ti 2:19 [the foundation of God]

This stedfastness is what we pray for each other every day that we may be resisting stedfast in the faith keeping our eyes on Christ the author and finisher of our faith who makes that possible (Heb 12:2), knowing we are accepted and called to overcome through many afflictions (Act 14:22) and all for the sake of others who will see Christ’s example within us that forms the discipleship of love [obedience to God’s commands] that we are so blessed to share today and that will lead to our being saviors who come up on mount Zion to do for others what Christ has done for us (1Pe 2:12, Joh 13:35, Oba 1:21).

Our attitude must be “to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip“, and God willing He will use each of us to hold fast to this high calling and help each other to be stedfastly looking unto our Lord, following each other as we follow Christ (1Co 11:1) so that we can endure unto the end of our lives and be saved through each joint that supplies in love (Mat 24:13, Eph 4:16).

God is telling us, His kings and priest, to understand that we have been called to witness to the world how God has made us worthy or accepted through Christ (Eph 1:6). To despise that high calling is to despise Christ and His sacrifice and all he has suffered for us. That rejection, although it is caused by God, will still lead to a sorer punishment those who are not granted to be made ready must endure, and God is doing this to show the world His severity and goodness and how He will do what He wants with that which is His (Heb 10:29).

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

God willing, we won’t lose sight that the stedfast and zealous relationship we have with Christ today is the gift and blessing to which we have been called (Tit 2:14, 1Pe 3:9), and the holy spirit will show us if there is anything that needs to be corrected, as there will be, or purified and sanctified, as there’s going to be. In the end His faithfulness will prevail through the fiery trials and judgment (God’s wrath [1Pe 4:12] is God’s judgment upon us today [1Pe 4:17]) that we all must endure through together stedfastly unto the end, in order to be raised in that blessed and holy first resurrection (Php 3:14, Rev 20:6).

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

1Pe 3:9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

The thought “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard” is another way saying “Despise not prophesyings” (1Th 5:19-28) by showing contempt to God’s word. Christ is faithful who will preserve us blameless until his coming (Php 2:13), and that will happen while we “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). Does that mean that we are never going to slip and is that what it means to be “preserved blameless” of 1Thessalonians 5:23? No we are preserved through the fire in this life, through the wrath and judgement that God brings upon our old man as He causes us to stumble and fall a complete seven times (Pro 24:16) in order to learn of His mercy that we will in turn administer to the rest of the world, seeking the occasion against their flesh during the period called the thousand year reign and then administering the great white throne judgment in the lake of fire.

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.
1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings.
1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.
1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. [Joh 21:22]

To be “preserved blameless” is to know that we need a physician (Luk 5:31) and that we are going to need our advocate throughout this life (1Jn 2:1), and because God is dragging His elect toward Christ (Joh 6:44) we can “give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard” and know how to make war with sin in our heavens through Christ who sets us free (Joh 8:36).

Sin will manifest and we will “slip” in that regard, and if we say otherwise we deceive ourselves (1Jn 1:8). The good news is that we will gain dominion over sin in this life if He is working with us (1Co 15:56-58) and learn that God is the one who allows sin to manifest the light and the darkness, the good and the evil (Isa 45:7). If we are His in this age, He will cleanse us, wash us, sanctify us, justify us and give us victory over the giants of our land [sin and temptation] that will be bread for us. “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31-35, 1Co 6:10-11, Num 14:9).

Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

This verse ties in perfectly with what we’ve just discussed about the grace of God, and reveals to us that God’s mercy toward the elect in this age does not mean that He is going to be mocked (Gal 6:7) and so He tells us “the word spoken by angels was stedfast“, another way of saying “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17).

That is the deception God is burning out of us, to bring us to see His holiness and how he requires that same holiness within us that can only be obtained through the fire, through the Red Sea, through the lion’s den (1Pe 1:16). That is why it is only those who are bound to the altar in this age who will drink the cup (Psa 118:27, Mat 20:23), the altar being the cross of Christ which we are able to endure by the strength of Christ as we mortify the deeds of our flesh and live by the faith of the son of God to the glory of our Father (Gal 2:20).

In order for us to become holy, we need to have God’s wrath and judgments poured out upon us as we learn that “every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward“. We learn through this life that God is not mocked, and whatever we sow we’re going to reap. We also learn that God’s mercy rules over the judgments and wrath the elect are experiencing in order to be received of our Father (1Pe 4:17, Heb 12:6). There are equal measures and weights all along the way (Deu 25:15, Rom 8:18), and as His mercy prevails, we give thanks and praise to God for these wonderful works to the children of men as His kind of first fruits who are blessed to be the first to be judged and brought unto perfection on the third day (1Jn 4:17, Psa 107:25-32, Luk 13:32). It is a “just recompence of reward” we receive for our sins that God causes, and we naturally cannot understand this until we come to see His sovereignty over the entire process, and we become convinced of His loving purpose for doing things the way He does that will not let any one of us be separated from His hand.

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Isa 45:9  Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? [Rom 9:20].

Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The “great salvation” to which we have been called is accompanied with a great process that we know was explained to us in type and shadow through the nation of Israel who represent the “Israel of God” who we are.

Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. [Exo 19:6, 1Pe 2:9, Zec 2:8]

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

If we are blessed to go through that judgment in this age, it will bring about a peace that passes all understanding (Rev 20:6, Php 4:7) as we experience the fruit of that judgment in our lives bringing about the righteousness of Christ in our heavens (1Jn 4:17, Isa 26:9). It is that process of fiery judgment to which God’s elect have been called that is going to make us “blessed and holy” and no longer conformed to this world but “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:2, Heb 5:14).

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

What was “confirmed unto us by them that heard him” was that it is through much tribulation we will inherit the kingdom of God, and God is faithful who has started this process within us of dragging us to Christ through a lifetime of overcoming, so that we can obtain to that blessed and holy first resurrection, and do so with a mind of peace that passes all understanding. We are being formed and fashioned through a lifetime process of overcoming confirmed in type and shadow with the life of Moses and all the prophets who were types of that longsuffering process to which we have been called (Jas 5:10).

(40 typifies the number for tribulation in God’s word, and 3X40=120 shows us that this process of judgment (3) were going through will occur through a lifetime of much tribulation (Act 14:22) and that thought was already being confirmed in type and shadow in the life of Moses who died at 120 years of age [Deu 34:7].)

What is also confirmed is that hearing (“confirmed unto us by them that heard him“) is the miracle that is the litmus test for God’s elect today to know if someone is of us or not (1Jn 4:6-8). Israel heard the sound of Yahweh on Mount Sinai, but that hearing was only type-and-shadow hearing, and no one was converted at that event where “there fell of the people that day about three thousand men” (Exo 32:28). When we hear Christ’s voice today we hear the voice of the true Shepherd which is made possible by receiving the holy spirit as the church did on pentecost when 3000 were baptized and began to die daily spiritually (about 3000 [Act 2:41], about 5000 [Act 4:4]). The numbers are signified and tell the story of the process of judgment (3) through grace and faith (5) that add up to the new man 8000 (8x10x10x10).

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Deu 34:7  And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the next six verses of this chapter that reveal more of the same true witness of Jesus Christ spoken of in the old and new covenant typifying for us the reality of Christ in the lives of those few who are called to be His witnesses with Christ in us as our hope of glory (Col 1:27) in this age (Luk 24:48-49, Rev 11:3)

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 
Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.