Hebrews 13:20-25--Benediction And Final Greetings

​Hebrews 13:20-25 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.13.20-Heb.13.25
Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings
22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. 24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.

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We've made it to the end of the book of Hebrews.  We both of these passages were so short that I decided to put them together as today's text.  Like many epistles this one ends with a benediction (a word of blessing) and some final greetings.

The author makes sure once again to bring us back to Jesus.  His Resurrection, His leading of all the people of the New Covenant (both the completed Jews and converted Gentiles who make up the True Israel), and the peach that He has brought and bought by His blood through the New Covenant.  He has also given us the Holy Spirit to equip us for every good work and to complete the process of sanctification in us, even though we are already positionally made perfect in the sight of God since God sees Jesus when He looks on us.  For this reason among any others, Jesus is the Name above ever name and He deserves all glory and honor and praise both now and forevermore.

It is here in the final greetings that we might get some indication of who the author may be.  We see Timothy mentioned here, and we know that Timothy helped Paul, though it is possible that the author is not Paul, but someone else on Paul's team, or someone   We also know that Paul had gone to Rome so it would make sense that Paul would send greetings form those in Italy.  There's no absolute certainty that Paul is the author here, but it does make sense, and you'll see some similarities as we move through other books He wrote (especially Romans) in that he makes any arguments from the Law and from lesser to greater in those epistles, but that he speaks differently to the Gentiles without the Law.

Ultimately, God the Holy Spirit is the author of all Scripture, so we can leave it at that for now and say that if God wanted us to know the name of the man that penned these words, He would have told us.  However, the message here is only about one Man, the God-Man Jesus and how He is more excellent than any angel, high priest, king, sacrifice, or even the temple itself, and that the way that God provided through Him is the only way to God.  This is a message for everyone...to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.  So, let us read the book of Hebrews with an appreciation that God revealed Himself as much as He did in the Old Testament while we praise Him for making what was dim clearly visible as He gave us His one and only Son, Jesus to teach us the way, make the way, and lead us in the way we should go.