Becoming a member of a local church should be a priority for any serious Christian. But with membership comes commitment and responsibilities on the part of the believer and the office-bearers of the congregation.
To encourage the Hebrew Christians to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul reminds them that the Jewish Patriarchs lived and died in faith, not seeing the full fulfilment of the promises that God had made to them.
The Prophet Jeremiah was instructed to put aside normal family and social norms in order for the people of his day to appreciate what would happen to society when God's judgement would fall upon them.