You Are Here
By Sam Kwon
February 28th, 2025
I’m not too bad at finding my way while driving.
Usually, in my head is a decent map of the area, and I can pretty quickly figure out which way I should head. But not if I’m inside a mall. Then all bets are off. I struggle to orient myself. I almost always walk the wrong way before course-correcting. So, when I get inside a mall, I try to look for a map, and breathe a sigh of relief when I locate a sign on the map, usually in red, saying, “You are here.”
* * *
The picture below is a “map” of Hebrews. (We saw this when we were introduced to a literary structure called chiasmus.)
And if we zoom in a bit, we see this design.
At the center is a long exposition of how Jesus is our new high priest.
Immediately surrounding the center are two sets of repeating exhortations.
The first is “to draw near”: (i) “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (4:16) and (ii) “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (10:22).
The second is “to hold fast to our confession”: (i) “Since then we have a great high priest…let us hold fast our confession” (4:14) and (ii) “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23).
These two sets of exhortations are surrounded by warnings of judgment should we fail to heed the word of God (4:12-13) or follow the new high priest (10:26-31).
Then surrounding all those are the writer’s plea for us to have “faith.” In 4:1-11, the plea is to not be like the generation of Israelites who did not have faith and thus did not enter the promised land after the exodus from Egypt. In the matching section of 10:32-39, the plea is to “live by faith” because we are “of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
And who exactly are “those who have faith and preserve their souls” of whom we are a part?
The people in Hebrews 11! Yes, those people in the chapter known as “the hall of faith.”
Now, we are properly oriented in this “mall” that is Hebrews, and ready to explore what it looks like when people “live by faith” the way the writer of Hebrews encourages its readers to.
Shall we?
Sam serves as one of the elders at ODPC EC. Please feel free to contact him at sam.kwon@odpcec.org with any questions or comments. Please join him and fellow brothers and sisters for the monthly study of Hebrews by signing up here.
