This week we continue looking at the Introduction to Hebrews as outlined in the New Jerusalem Bible: the author is trying to encourage people to hold firm in faith. The passage continues: “To these exiles the author presents Christian life in the perspective of the Exodus, marching to the place of rest, the Promised Land of Heaven, an exodus not guided by Moses but by Christ, an incomparably superior leader, and led by the same light of faith and hope that had guided their ancestors in the Exodus and had illumined all the saints of old. Christ himself replaces the old priesthood and being a priest like Melchizedek, he is higher than Aaron. The many ineffectual sacrifices of Levitical worship are replaced by the one uniquely efficacious sacrifice of Christ himself, 8: 1-10. To prove this, the author shows how Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is, as Leader and Priest, higher than all the angels and is ruler of all things (Chapters 1 and 2). “ (we will finish this next week)