For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?

But to which of the angels did he ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?

For he did not put the coming world we are talking about under the control of angels.

For it is clear that he did not come to help angels. No, he came to help Abraham's descendants,

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me during the time of testing in the wilderness.

Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin,

As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me."

And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not?

because we have had the good news told to us as well as to them. But the message they heard did not help them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened to it.

he again fixes a definite day "Today" - saying long afterward through David, as already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

because the one who enters God's rest has himself rested from his own actions, just as God did from his.

In the same way, the Messiah did not take upon himself the glory of being a high priest. No, it was God who said to him, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father."

Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about the Messiah, let us continue to be carried along to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead actions, faith toward God,

instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

He has no father, mother, or genealogy, no birth date recorded for him, nor a date of death. Like the Son of God, he continues to be a priest forever.

He has no need to offer sacrifices every day like high priests do, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he sacrificed himself.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant, I ignored them, declares the Lord.

This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper,

how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!

For the Messiah did not go into a sanctuary made by human hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God's presence on our behalf.

Nor did he go into heaven to sacrifice himself again and again, the way the high priest goes into the Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.

For this reason, the Scriptures say, when the Messiah was about to come into the world: "You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me.

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did, and by faith he was declared to be righteous, since God himself accepted his offerings. And by faith he continues to speak, even though he is dead.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who also inherited the same promise,

Abraham was as good as dead, yet from this one man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth.

Abraham was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac back in this way.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not die with those who were disobedient, because she had welcomed the spies with a greeting of peace.

Women received their dead raised back to life. Other people were brutally tortured, but refused to be ransomed, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

All these people won approval for their faith but they did not receive what was promised,

See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn away from the one who is from heaven!

Jesus, the Messiah, is the same yesterday and today and forever!

Now may the God of peace, who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep,