Check out my new book on depression and the fatherly attributes of God:https://www.amazon.com/dp/1650062478 Link to my children's book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FP9NZNK There is a story about a party where each person was to give a recitation. The partygoers were told before the party that each was going to give a brief recitation of something important. So they needed to memorize something to recite at the dinner party. A famous actor was at the party and he recited Psalm 23 with a great deal of elocution. "The Lord is my Shepherd," and so on said the actor with a great and grand voice. Well, the next person got up and was sitting right across the table from the actor. This person was a simple layman, and he began to quote Psalm 23 and there was a twitter of laughter. The other party-goers thought “how would a man dare to quote Psalm 23 after this great actor and all the applause that followed. How would he dare do that?” There was just a little laughter at first, but all became quiet as the man spoke and recited the Psalm. When he was through, there was no applause just silence. The simple man sat down across from the actor and the actor reached across the table and touched his hand and said, “Sir, I know Psalm 23, you know the Shepherd.” And that really hit home. The author of Hebrews is talking here about the great Shepherd of the sheep that we may know Him. It is not about knowing ideas or thoughts or concepts, but simply knowing the Great Shepherd. This is the only place where Jesus is called the Shepherd in the whole book. With that same sense of spiritual humility that led them to use “we” in most of the warning sections, the writer requested the prayers of their readers, and particularly that they might be restored to them soon. The writer’s interest in them was personal, and they were eager to see them. In a lovely benediction which captures a number of the major themes of the epistle (e.g., peace, blood, covenant, Resurrection, Shepherd, equip), the writer expressed confidence in our Lord Jesus as the Great Shepherd of New-Covenant people, through whom God was able to effect His will in the readers and in the author.