¹¹ Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

Maturity is not an attribute the writer would ascribe to his readers. This rebuke fits in line with one of the purposes of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). Sometimes as Christians we need to buck up and accept godly criticism. The readers should be able to handle in-depth teaching about the Melchizedekian Priesthood and how it relates to the Son of God, but they need to first be reminded of some elementary principles all Christians should know well early in their Christian growth.

Even today, many Christians stumble over the significance of this connection. True, the teaching is somewhat oblique to a generation of believers characterized by easy believism requiring very little of their lives. The clamor today is for entertaining Christianity, the pep-rally sort that gives a good feeling of spirituality on Sunday morning, but little else. True New Testament faith is vital and robust, able to see a Christian through the darkest moments, the most enticing temptations and the harshest difficulties. But so many want only the miraculous rescue that requires no exercise of faith, spiritual strength or inner growth. They expect only the chorus of fulfillment without the verses of tension and stress.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to strengthen people with solid truth, but the writer is finding it difficult to teach them what they need because their hearing has become dull. Where once they were enlivened to and excited about spiritual teaching, now they seem to have a “ho-hum” response. “Heard that, done that, what else is new?”

Nothing is worse than the new song of salvation becoming a monotonous ditty of a tune, the promises of faith becoming warn out clichés and the enthusiasm of new life bogged down into the traditions of old age. One can almost hear the sign of discouragement and disappointment in the writer’s words. He has so much to tell them, the enjoyment of the finer points, the nuances and the deeper truths that should excite the soul. But, they weren’t ready for it.

Does it concern you, reader, the level of your maturity? Have you been growing in your faith, understanding new levels of truth in the Word of God? Is your spiritual vitality waning? Do you look back to the “better days” of your early Christian experience, when you walked in faith, read the Word voraciously and witnessed fearlessly? If so, the rest of the book of Hebrews is for you!