10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming --not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, `Here I am --it is written about me in the scroll-- I have come to do your will, O God.'" 8 First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." 17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another --and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
It would be foolish indeed to prefer reading a cookbook to
eating a good meal when one is hungry. Not that there is anything
wrong with reading a cookbook---it can be very enlightening---but
it is not very nourishing! Yet some of the original readers of
Hebrews were doing something very much like that. They preferred
to content themselves with the externals of faith---such as the
law, the Aaronic priesthood and animal offerings---and to ignore
the fulfillment of these things in the death, resurrection and
ascension of Jesus. They wanted the cookbook rather than the meal!
As we have seen, the tabernacle in the wilderness, with its regulations
and sacrifices, was an accurate and divinely drawn picture of
the sacrifice of Jesus and the new arrangement for living which
would be available to believers in Christ. But it could only describe
these realities up to a point. It was both a comparison and a
contrast.
I carry a picture of my wife in my wallet and, when I am away
from home, I find it comforting to look at it. But it is quite
inadequate, for it is not my wife, only a picture of her. I can
look at it, but I cannot have a conversation with it. I cannot
laugh together with it, and I cannot persuade it to cook any meals!
It is an accurate representation of the real thing, but also a
far cry from it. So the law and the tabernacle could never do
for believers of any age what the living Christ can do. This is
the continuing argument of the writer in chapter 10.
A new aspect, however, is seen in chapter 10. The sacrifice
of Jesus was one he came into the world prepared to make! It was
no impulsive commitment on his part; he made it only after he
had observed human misery. In verses 1-4, the author builds on
a point he has made earlier---that the annual repetition of sacrifices
in the old order indicated their inability to actually remove
sins. Once again he uses a logical-deduction argument. Had they
truly cleansed the conscience, there would have been no need to
repeat them for the offerers; they would have seen themselves
as cleansed from sin's defilement forever. But these sacrifices
could not remove sin because they were based only on the death
of animals.
The annual repetition did remind offerers that they were still
very much sinners and still very much in need of an adequate substitute
if their sin was ever to be removed. The sacrifices were but a
shadow of the good things that are coming---not the realities
themselves. A shadow indicates a reality, but has no substance
in itself. I waited on a downtown street comer one day for a friend
who always wore a Western hat. Suddenly I saw his distinctive
shadow on the sidewalk and knew that he was standing just around
the comer. I could not actually see him, but I knew he was there.
So the offerings witnessed to the person of Christ and his sacrifice,
though they were not that reality themselves. They were but his
shadow that indicated he was soon to appear.
The good things that are coming are the equivalent of make
perfect which the repeated sacrifice of the Day of Atonement
could never achieve. To make perfect a sinner before God
would be to have sin and its effects totally removed. These include
not only the effects on the spirit and soul but the body also---regeneration,
full sanctification and resurrection. Though resurrection awaits
the final coming of Christ, nevertheless, full and continuing
access to God, "without the constant necessity of removing
the barrier of freshly accumulated sin" (Bruce 1964:227),
was available by faith to every believer in Jesus throughout the
believer's lifetime (Rom 5:1-2).
These animal deaths were unwilling, even unconscious, sacrifices
of a lower and quite different nature and therefore inadequate
substitutes for humans made in the image of God. It is impossible,
says the author, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sin. Isaiah had quoted God long before saying, "I have
no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats" (Is
1:11). Nevertheless, despite this limitation, through the deaths
of many animals, one unchanging message was being pounded out.
Every sacrifice declared it and every offering told the same story.
It was burned in blood and smoke into every listening heart. The
essential point for a God-approved dealing with sin in one's life
was that a life be laid down. Every dying animal meant a life
brought to an end. Sin was serious; it forfeited life. Unless
the sin could actually be removed, the sinner must die. To save
the sinner from such a fate, an equal and willing substitute must
be found. Such a substitute the author now finds described in
the words of Psalm 40.
Verses 5-7 quote Psalm 40:6-8 from the Septuagint. They describe,
in words directly ascribed to Christ, his complete willingness
to sacrifice himself to remove our sins. His was a self-giving
life, not self-loving, as animal sacrifices were. Though there
are different wordings here than the Hebrew text presents, nevertheless
the central point is clear. Jesus saw himself described in the
Suffering Servant passages of the Old Testament (it is written
about me in the scroll), and willingly set himself to fulfilling
that role in his incarnation (Here I am....I have come to do your
will O God). Wholehearted obedience is the quality which God
desires in sacrifices. He makes the point many times in the Old
Testament, notably, in 1 Samuel 15:22; Isaiah 1:11-14; and Amos
5:21-22. As Morris rightly says, "God takes no delight in
the routine performance of the ritual of sacrifice" (1983:91).
Undoubtedly, he feels the same way about routine worship services
today! (32)
That none of his readers should miss this important point the
writer takes pains to indicate clearly, in verses 8-10, the meaning
of the quote from Psalm 40. He acknowledges that though God authorized
the animal sacrifices of the past, he did not delight in them.
Then he stresses the fact that Christ deliberately set himself
to do the will of the Father, though he knew it would lead to
pain and separation. Intimations of Gethsemane are certainly present
in these words, though it was on the cross that they were fully
carried out. Here the writer also declares that the death of Jesus,
by fulfilling the will of the Father, completely replace the provision
of animal deaths which had provided some degree of forgiveness
before. Finally, he announces the only possible conclusion: it
is by the fulfillment of the will of God in the once-for-all sacrifice
of Jesus Christ (note the double name, only here in Hebrews) that
we (all believers) have been made holy. The Greek expression for
made holy, indicates action with a lasting effect. We have
been made holy by the death of Jesus, and we remain holy even
though we struggle with daily weakness and sin. This should be
borne in mind when we come to the statement in 12:14, "without
holiness no one will see the Lord." It is holiness obtained
by faith, not by self-righteous effort, and it is not lost by
momentary failure. "There is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus!" (Rom 8:1).
One peculiarity of the tabernacle was that it contained no
chairs. The priests were not permitted to sit, but performed their
ministries while standing. Our author maintains in verses 11-12
that this symbolically shows that their work was unfinished so
their repeated sacrifices could not finally remove sins. But when
Christ had offered himself as a sacrifice for all time,
he sat down at God's right hand (1:3; 8:1; 12:2) for two excellent
reasons (v. 13-14).
First, there was nothing left for him to do except to await the
outworking of the salvation he had accomplished on the cross.
This would, of course, involve his mediation of the new covenant
and his intercession for believers. No further sacrifice of any
kind was required or needed. Enough had already been done to deal
with every form of sin or rebellion. He could remain figuratively
seated until his enemies had been totally rendered impotent (made
his footstool---an allusion again to Ps 110:1).
Second, his sacrifice was so efficacious that it guaranteed the
fine perfection of all those who were being made holy.
This involved not only the regeneration of the spirit and the
salvation of the soul, but also, the resurrection of the body
of each true believer. The little-understood term sanctified
of the KJV has been properly replaced in the NIV by the words
being made holy. It is both an accomplished fact (10:10)
and a continuing process (10:14), a phenomenon found frequently
in Scripture. We may not understand such a mystery, but we can
revel in its reality, as the writer intends us to do. All progress
in the spiritual life comes from personally apprehending a fact
that is already true. To put it simply, we must see what we already
are by God's grace, in order to manifest that fact by godly
behavior.
To show that such a condition completely fulfills the promises
of the new covenant, the writer quotes again Jeremiah 31:33-34,
introducing it with the words The Holy Spirit also testifies
. . . This reveals once more his conviction that the prophets
wrote by the inspiration and authority of God. Verse 16 highlights
the new understanding of morality which regeneration gives (1
Jn 5:20); and verse 17 reminds us again of the wonder of total
forgiveness of sins. This leads to the simple but conclusive statement
of verse 18: where sins have been forgiven, no further sacrifice
would do!
The Aaronic priesthood; the tabernacle with its typology, its
cleansing rituals and animal sacrifices; and the dietary limitations
of Israel---all found completion in the once-for-all sacrifice
of Jesus and his Melchizedek priesthood. The new covenant is in
force for all who truly believe. "The old has gone, the new
has come!" (2 Cor 5:17).
The result of the operation of the new covenant in believers'
lives is a highly visible transformation of their behavior. It
flows from an inward change of attitude which is not dependent
on outward circumstances. Believers become highly motivated to
live at a new level of behavior and need only a bit of guidance
about the form that new behavior should take. This powerful
new motivation and its legitimate expressions now concern our
author.
Twice in verses 19-31 the writer uses the phrase we have.
Following these, there is thrice repeated the words let us.
The we haves mark provision; let us indicates privilege.
First, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place.
That "Most Holy Place" is the new life in the Spirit
which the New Covenant provides ("I live in a high and holy
place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit"---Is
57:15). As we have seen, it is that part of our humanity (the
regenerated human spirit which puts us in touch with heaven) where
God and humans meet. Through the death of Jesus a way has been
opened for us so we may function as spiritual men and women. When
Jesus' blood was shed on the cross, the veil before the Holy of
Holies was supernaturally torn from top to bottom. That indicated
that the way into the presence of God was now open to all who
believe in Jesus. We can, therefore, enter with boldness and with
no uncertainty as to our acceptance, since everything rests on
the blood of Jesus. There is no doubt about our effectiveness,
since we are now, to use Paul's helpful term, "co-laborers
with God." When we work, he will work too, and when we bear
witness, he will speak through us. (33)
It would be difficult to overestimate the value of confidence
in human motivation. It is the proffered goal of any number of
special courses, weekend retreats, training classes and personal
development programs today. Confidence training is the cry of
the hour. In the first century, too, men clearly understood that
a confident spirit was essential to success in any enterprise.
But as the psalmist made abundantly clear,
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Ps 127:1)
By itself, human effort is doomed to ultimate failure. Only
that jointly shared effort, when God works through expectant humanity,
can be permanently successful. Confidence born of that conviction
will always prevail.
But believers have more than a confident spirit. They are also
reminded that (2) we have a great priest over the house of
God.All that the writer has said about the Melchizedek priesthood
of Jesus is recalled here. Believers have not only a confident
spirit, but also a competent advocate. He is continually available,
completely aware of our present situation, and vitally involved
with us in working all things together for good. His great concern
is the welfare of each member of the household of God, and "we
are his house," as the writer has told us unmistakably in
3:6.
Encouraged by these two powerful resources, a confident spirit
and a competent advocate, believers are now exhorted to three
specific activities. (1) Let us draw near to God with a sincere
heart. This "drawing near" must be the motive for
all subsequent action. It includes more than formal prayer, since
the present tense infers a continual drawing near. As the wick
of a lamp continually draws oil for the light, so let us continually
draw from God the strength and grace we need to function. This
must be done (a) sincerely, without religious pretense;
(b) believingly, in simple faith that God means what he
says; (c) without guilt, having cleansed the conscience
by reliance on the sprinkled blood of Jesus; and (d) with integrity,
in line with our public profession of commitment to Christ expressed
in our baptism. This continual drawing near to God is the great
privilege of every believer in Jesus, in contrast to the remoteness
of the old covenant which excluded everyone from the holy places
except the priests. Even they could not enter except under the
most stringent conditions. This "drawing near" is that
"access by faith into this grace in which we now stand"
which Paul describes in Romans 5:2.
Again the writer exhorts, (2) Let us hold unswervingly to the
hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Here profess
is seen as equivalent to "confess," for if we have drawn
near to God, then surely the next logical step is to share the
certainty of our hope with others. We can share our great expectation
with confidence because he who promised is faithful. If
those who hear us will act in faith as we have acted; they will
experience the same blessing, for God is no respecter of persons.
He will do as much for the man or woman next door as he has done
for you; he will do as much for the janitor as he will do for
the boss, and vice versa. We need not fear that God will let us
down as his witnesses by showing favoritism to certain ones. He
is faithful to keep his promise to anyone.
Another privilege believers may exercise is summarized in verse
24, (3) Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward
love and good deeds. The supportive love of Christians for
one another is a powerful factor in maintaining spiritual vigor.
It needs to be awakened in both ourselves and others. That does
not envision finger-shaking and lecturing, but encouraging words
and good example.
Two suggestions are made to bring this about. First, let us
not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.
Corporate worship is not an option for a Christian; it is a necessity.
It certainly includes regular attendance at church meetings, but
means more than that. It means a willingness to help struggling
faith whenever Christians meet. The author had already noted the
bad effects of neglecting this on the part of some (3:13). Perhaps
those who were hardened felt themselves to be sufficient in themselves,
needing no one's help. One commentator suggests that if the real
reasons for such separation were recorded, they might be easily
recognizable in the modem church (Wiley 1959:342). If church services
grow dull or boring they need renewal, not abandonment. The gathering
of Christians should be an uplifting and exciting occasion. History
has repeatedly shown that where this is neglected or permitted
to dim, dullness and blandness soon follow.
A second suggestion for spurring one another on is also given:
Let us encourage one another---and all the more as you see
the Day approaching. The destruction of the temple and of
the city of Jerusalem was just around the comer. The empire seethed
with unrest and premonitions of disaster. These frightening omens
were not viewed as signs of God's inability to control his world,
as many interpret similar events today. Rather, they were indications
that God was working out his predicted purposes just as Jesus,
the prophets and the apostles had foretold. No one could know
the hour when "the Day" would begin, but its coming
was certain and apparently imminent to them. (34)
The Lord himself had instructed his disciples: "When these
things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because
your redemption is drawing near" (Lk 21:28).
It is now apparent as we look back over the centuries that it
has been the will of God to have each generation feel that it
is living in the very last days of civilization. Each century
has found the church fearing the cataclysms of its own time as
the last to come. Yet. inexorably, each passing century has moved
the world nearer the final end. This sense of imminence is God's
device to keep believers expectant and full of hope in the midst
of the world's darkness. Evil becomes more subtle in our own day,
and the difference between truth and error more difficult to detect.
The raucous voices of the age pour forth deceitful lies and society
becomes permeated with false concepts widely viewed as truth.
We too need to gather together to encourage each other and renew
our hope by sturdy reaffirmations of the eternal truths of God's
Word.
We are a privileged people; privileged to draw near to the living
God; privileged to speak out concerning our flaming hope; and
privileged to stir one another up to love and good works. Carl
F. H. Henry has well said, "Many Christians now live among
neighbors who, swept by tides of immorality, fear herpes more
than they fear Hades, and some even think God is a lofty synonym
for gobbledygook" (Henry 1989:152). Every age of Christians
has had to live in such a world, and today's Christians are no
exception. They must take care, therefore, that their Christian
witness is real, practically expressed and based on a thorough
knowledge of who they are in Christ. Let no one take this lightly,
for in the next section our author flashes a brilliant red light
of warning.
The writer includes himself ("we") as needing this
warning also for it encompasses those who have received a full
knowledge (epignosis) of the truth. It is directed to those
who deliberately keep on sinning after they fully understand
the way of escape in Jesus. It adds seriousness to the exhortation
of verse 25 not to abandon meeting together with other Christians
(as the initial Greek gar, "for," indicates).
This recalls John's warning in 1 John 2:19 concerning those who
"went out from us." "Their going," he says,
"showed that none of them belonged to us." They had
known the way of life, but had not chosen to avail themselves
of it, and one early sign of heart apostasy is an unwillingness
to continue association with true believers.
Yet despite the advantage of full enlightenment, if there is no
change in behavior and sin continues to dominate the life of professed
believers, they will find no other hiding place from God's wrath,
for there is no other sacrifice than Christ's which will avail
for sin. Since by unchanged behavior such individuals give evidence
that Christ's sacrifice is rejected, the one way of escape is
rejected also. Only judgment and "blazing fire" after
death awaits, as one of the enemies of God (2 Thess 1:7). This
behavior parallels those "having fallen away" of 6:6,
where apostasy also led to irremediable judgment.
The NIV has properly translated the opening phrase of verse 26
as, if we deliberately keep on sinning. It is not a sin
one can stumble into suddenly. It is not the normal falterings
of a Christian still learning how to walk in the Spirit. It has
been well termed "the leukemia of noncommitment." It
is choosing to live for self behind a Christian veneer and refusing
to be delivered from sin's reign by the past sacrifice and present
high priestly ministry of Jesus. It is not continual sinning from
ignorance as many church members manifest, but occurs after full
enlightenment. Such people know of the power of Christ to deliver,
but have not chosen to avail themselves of it. Their life may
appear to be fairly respectable when judged by the world's standards,
but what it is like in God's eyes is described in verses 28-30.
(35)
The argument proceeds from the less to the greater, very much
as the writer had done in 2:2-3. If immediate death was the penalty
for violating the law of Moses (which was but a shadow or picture),
how much more should one expect severe judgment for continually
repeating, knowingly and deliberately, the reality which is Jesus
and his sacrifice! What they have done is threefold:
1. They have trampled the Son of God underfoot! The writer
chooses a title for Jesus which emphasizes his right to be Lord
over all. To trample him under foot is to spurn his right to govern
life. Lip service is paid to Christian truth but life is lived
as one pleases, even adopting the world's values and standards.
As one poet has described it:
He lived for himself, and himself alone;
For himself, and none beside.
Just as if Jesus had never lived,
And as if he had never died!
2. They have treated as something common or trivial the blood
of the covenant which has power to make one holy. They have regarded
the blood of Jesus as having no more value than the blood of any
other man, and therefore, in practice, insisted that religious
activities ought to be enough to satisfy God. And they are saying
this even though they have previously acknowledged that the death
of Christ has ruled out such means. Once they regarded themselves
as holy (sanctified) by the blood of Jesus, but now they deny
this and reject the cross as unnecessary for acceptance before
God.
3. They insult the Spirit of grace. The full understanding of
redemptive truth, the awareness that the blood of Jesus can make
one holy, the pleasures of meeting together with other Christians;
all have been a gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit to the individuals
considered here. Now these are being rejected and treated with
contempt. It is an egregious insult to the One who was sent to
draw men and women to salvation. It usually means to become guilty
of the sin which Jesus called "an eternal sin," unpardonable
in any age (Mk 3:29).
Verse 30 supports this view of coming judgment with two references
to the Song of Moses, found in Deuteronomy 32. The first refers
to the destruction of apostates and is quoted also by Paul in
Romans 12:20 in a possibly similar connection. The second quote,
however, looks more to the severity of God on those of his own
who presumptuously play with sin even when knowing better. Such
a case is that of David in 2 Samuel 24, who is given a choice
of three painful penalties because of his sin in numbering the
people of Israel against the express prohibition of the Lord.
If even a greatly beloved believer like David could be dealt with
severely by God, how much more would the apostate feel the full
extent of divine wrath!
In either case, says our author in verse 31, It is a dreadful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. To encounter
the living God in the full majesty of his holiness is a terrifying
and awesome experience. In the first case cited, it is to experience
after death the eternal judgment of raging fire "that will
consume the enemies of God." The second case is to know in
this life the heavy hand of God's displeasure because of deliberate
and sinful choices which one is reluctant to give up. Only God
can tell the difference between these two cases, for in human
eyes they may appear indistinguishable. But that is the purpose
for such warnings as we find in Hebrews. As the writer has said:
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving
heart" (3:12), "Let us, therefore, be careful that none
of you be found to have fallen short" (4:1), and "Let
us make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall"
(4:11). God is not a power to trifle with, for he can do what
we cannot do, namely, read hearts. He can be ruthless if it is
necessary to waken those sinners to the evil results they are
embracing. That ruthlessness is a hidden blessing when the heart
is unaware that it is ignoring the death of Jesus as the only
adequate sacrifice for sin. Behind his severity is mercy toward
those destroying themselves in unbelief God lovingly seeks to
waken them to what they are doing before they reach that stage
of heart-hardening which deliberately reject Christ. Beyond that
point lies the unpardonable sin.
Once again, as in chapter 6, we see the writer's confidence
that most of those he addresses are not apostate, as he describes
in verses 32-34. He seeks to recall them to the love and steadfastness
they had exhibited when their faith in Jesus was new. They had
received the light as had also those now threatening apostasy,
as verse 26 makes clear. But most had: (1) accepted insult
and persecution to their own person, or supported others so
treated; (2) visited and sustained those put In prison for their
faith; and (3) actually felt joy over watching their property
confiscated, since they took comfort in the fact that their true
treasures were in heaven, not on earth.
Such actions were the product of true faith, and he urges them
to keep this confident faith in verses 35-36, since perseverance
is the proof of reality. The persecutions and injustices they
endured presented strong temptations to give up, to accept the
values of society around, and to forget what they had learned
about the realities of life, death and eternity. Many are tempted
today to throw away [their] confidence. Confidence is what
motivates appropriate action in view of the times in which one
lives.
Carl Henry captures the possibilities of the hour in which we
now live: "All the modern gods are sick and dying. The nations
that long lusted after power are now terrified by it. Sex has
played itself out for many who thought an infinity of it would
be heaven on earth. The almighty dollar is falling like a burned-out
star. It is a day made-to-order for sons of the prophets, for
sons of the apostles, for Protestant Reformers, and for evangelical
giants" (Henry 1986:107).
Times of danger especially call for renewed confidence, for confidence
in Christ anchors the soul in times of pressure. To throw it away
through doubt or neglect is to miss the incredibly rich reward
that is waiting just around the comer. The coming of Christ is
what God has promised (Acts 3:19-20) and for which faith waits
(1 Thess 1:10). You need to persevere, says the writer.
Patience is a moment-by-moment quality, one which grows with practice.
As the writer has already said, it is "through faith and
patience" that we inherit what has been promised (6:12).
The quotation from Habakkuk 2:3-4 which appears in verses 37-38
is taken from the Septuagint version. (36)
The author has made certain changes which adapt it to his specific
purposes, without changing its basic thrust. Habakkuk speaks of
a revelation which is coming; Hebrews changes it to a person.
Since Jesus is bah a person and God's last word to man (1:1),
the change is appropriate. The main thrust of the quotation is
for those who are made righteous by God. Faith will be the center
around which all of life revolves. To shrink back from that is
to reveal oneself as yet unrighteous and therefore not pleasing
to God.
The writer introduces this quotation with the words For in
just a very little while. These words serve to underscore
the emphasis in Scripture on prophetic fulfillment. It has been
characteristic of days of decline in the church to lose sight
of the hope of Christ's coming. Such weakening of hope invariably
gives rise to programs for world betterment which lead Christians
to forsake the biblical methods of God's working in society and
to become involved in efforts to improve the world without the
message of the cross of Christ. These causes become especially
appealing when the passage of centuries dims the hope of the Second
Coming. Scoffers arise, as Peter predicted, who would say, 'Where
is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything
goes on as it has since the beginning of creation" (2 Pet
3:3-4).
How can we align in just a very little while with 2,000
years of waiting? Peter helps, of course, with his reminder that
"with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand
years are like a day." By that reckoning it has only been
two days since Jesus left us with a promise to return. Further,
as we have seen, it is a great mistake to project the limitations
of time into eternity. These are two quite different things. Heaven,
with all its implications of "absent from the body, present
with the Lord" is fully experienced at the death of a believer,
and thus the coming of the Lord is never any further away than
one's personal death. We need to bear in mind our Lord's words
to the persecuted church of Smyrna: "Be faithful, even to
the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life"
(Rev 2:10).
In verse 39, the writer places himself in the picture again, but
this time identified clearly with those who believe and are
saved. The two groups he addresses throughout the letter are
here placed in direct contrast. Some are "shrinking back"
and are headed for destruction. Others, the majority he feels,
continue to believe and thus experience the saving of their souls.
This is exactly what Jesus had promised to persecuted saints in
Luke 21:19: "By standing firm, you will gain life."
This reference in Habakkuk to the faith by which the righteous
shall live serves to introduce the last section of Hebrews with
its brilliant focus on this operative word of the Christian life.
Faith is the way we begin the life in Christ; faith is also the
way it is maintained; and faith is what will bring us at last
in triumph through the gates of glory into the very presence of
the Lord himself Chapters 11-13 provide a fitting climax to the
letter, pursuing its themes with vivid pictures of faith in human
lives.
11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age --and Sarah herself was barren --was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country --a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. 23 By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Who are the heroes and heroines of the twentieth century? Human
nature continually seeks a model to follow. Remember Elvis Presley
in the pop musical world, followed by the Beatles and so many
others? In the realm of science, there was Albert Einstein; in
statesmanship, Winston Churchill; in social work, Mother Teresa.
One thoughtful contemporary, George F. Will, has chosen five men
who were models for the last millennium (since 1000 A.D.): Machiavelli,
Luther, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. In the religious honor
roll of this century, surely the name of Billy Graham would appear,
along with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
of course, Mother Teresa. None of these names was known to the
first-century world, yet the names of heroes and heroines of that
time, recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, are still known
around the world as models of faith and courage. We are invited
now to consider the contribution each has made to our lives today.
(37)
Hebrews 11 has been called the great faith chapter. What, exactly,
is faith? If it is so important to the redemptive process, we
must have a clear understanding of its nature. That need is supplied
in verses 1-2. Faith, according to the NIV text, is always two
things: (1) a sense of assurance within us (being sure of what
we hope for) and (2) a certainty that there are realities
which we cannot see with our physical eyes (certain of what
we do not see). A slightly different sense is conveyed by
the KJV text, which I prefer at this point. Paul, in Colossians
1:5, sees faith and love as flowing out of the hope awakened by
the gospel. Hope, which "springs eternal in the human breast,"
comes first. Then, faith sees freedom from sin on the basis of
Christ's sacrifice, a consequent loving relationship to God, peace
with one's neighbors and joy in the midst of life (all what
we hope for). These realities, though invisible, are personally
appropriated; as a result, love for both God and others flows
from the sense of gratitude which faith has awakened. Thus, the
famous triumvirate of "faith, hope, and love" are central
to all Christian living.
This quality of faith is what the ancients were commended for.
This is the theme of the rest of the chapter, consisting of a
list of those who triumphed in God's eyes because of their faith.
Verse 3 provides an example of faith's ability to see invisible
realities. No one can see the words by which God brought the universe
into being, but since that is the statement of Scripture (Genesis
1 records 9 times "God said"), faith understands that
behind everything visible is the invisible command of God. The
statement what is seen was not made out of what was visible
constitutes a scientific truth which modern physicists recognize:
behind everything visible is invisible energy. Faith in God's
revelation is a way of grasping reality, without necessarily comprehending
all the steps that may be involved.
Verses 4-38 list examples of this kind of faith in men and women
of the biblical past. The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau
is famous for the remark "If a man does not keep pace with
his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
That is a good description of the men and women listed here. They
hear another drumbeat which others do not, and this accounts for
the way they often act contrary to normal expectations. The first
three examples, Abel, Enoch and Noah, show us the nature of faith.
The rest show how faith behaves in real life.
Though the writer has, throughout the epistle, held up Abraham
as our model of faith and perseverance, verses 4-7 indicate that
true faith was practiced from the very beginning, even before
the Flood. As in a modem docudrama, Abel appears first to testify
to the value of faith. He and his older brother Cain lived when
the world was young. They enjoyed what we would call today "the
simple life," which clearly included a recognition of God
and a need for a personal relationship. Each brought an offering
which reflected his occupation: Cain, the farmer, brought fruits
and grains; Abel, the shepherd, brought fat from the firstborn
of his flock.
It is a mistake to read into this Genesis account any hidden reasons
for God's acceptance of Abel's offering and rejected of Cain's.
(38) Various explanations have been offered,
but the writer is silent about everything except that God "spoke
well" of Abel's offering because it was "better"
than Cain's. The word "better" is pleiona, which
means "greater" or "more important" as suggested
by its use in Luke 12:23: "Life is more than food,
and the body more than clothes." If Abel's sacrifice
was more important than Cain's, what made it so? The reason suggested
is that it came from a heart made righteous by faith! If Abraham's
faith was "credited to him as righteousness" (Rom 4:9),
so also was Abel's. Bruce comments on this, "Sacrifice is
acceptable to God not for its material content, but in so far
as it is the outward expression of a devoted and obedient heart"
(1964:283).
We are not told just how God made known to the two brothers his
acceptance of one and rejection of the other. Genesis 4:7 indicates
that when Cain learned that his offering was unacceptable, he
grew angry and rebellious. This revealed the attitude of his heart
toward the sovereign choices of God. Cain's subsequent murder
of his brother showed his stubborn rejection of the opportunity
God gave him to repent and to offer again, presumably with a contrite
spirit. Cain's offering was rejected because a heart of pride
and self-sufficiency lay behind it. This explanation fits well
with the context of Hebrews where the writer repeatedly warns
against possessing "an evil heart of unbelief."
The focus in 11:4, however, is not on Cain but on Abel. By
faith he still speaks, says the author, even though he is
dead. This is a direct allusion to Genesis 4:10, "Your brother's
blood cries out to me from the ground." It must be linked
also with Hebrews 12:24, where our author states that the blood
of Jesus "speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."
It is often suggested that the blood of Abel cries out for the
final vindication promised to all the saints (2 Thess 1:6-7),
but the blood of Jesus speaks of proffered forgiveness. This seems
a likely explanation of the continuing testimony of Abel. His
faith in God was one of trust and loving acceptance of whatever
God sent. He was willing to wait for ultimate vindication of injustice
and mistreatment. His faith teaches us that we must often wait
for God's redress of justice. We do so because we know God cannot
ultimately fail to act.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, appears next on the stage of testimony
In verses 5-6. Two important things mark the character of Enoch's
faith: (1) he pleased God by turning away from the godlessness
of the world in which he lived and (2) he maintained a daily walk
with God which grew so intimate that he was taken to heaven without
experiencing death. The Genesis account (5:21-24) indicates that
for the first 65 years of his life, Enoch did not walk with God.
Presumably he went along with the deteriorating morality of his
times, which Genesis 6:5 describes as, "The LORD saw how
great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the
time." As Genesis 5:25 suggests, the event which changed
Enoch's outlook was the birth of a son, whom he named Methuselah.
Some scholars derive the meaning of Methuselah from the Hebrew
root muth, which means "death," and translate
the name "His death shall bring (it)." This would imply
a revelation to Enoch of the coming judgment of the world by means
of the Flood. The chronology of Genesis 5 places the Flood as
occurring the year Methuselah died. In the New Testament, Jude
14-15 mentions such a prophecy given to Enoch, and much of the
Wisdom literature of the intertestamental period views Enoch as
a farsighted prophet. At any rate, the Genesis account states
that from the birth of Methuselah throughout the following 300
years, Enoch "walked with God." This turn in his life
was a result of faith, and since faith always requires a word
from God to rest upon, it confirms the idea that Enoch was given
a revelation of a coming judgment which changed his life. (39)
The walk with God which Enoch experienced was one of deepening
intimacy. A walk implies a journey in a certain direction and
at a measured and regular pace. Enoch's faith flourished as he
walked and God bore witness to him that his daily life was pleasing
in his eyes. Enoch is an example to the readers of Hebrews of
what the writer longed to see happen to them: a steady, daily
growth in grace achieved by the inner resources which God supplies
to those who take him at his word and act in faith on what he
has said. Enoch enjoyed the continuous presence of an unseen Person,
and related his life daily to that Person. The result was a fellowship
which death could not interrupt. He was translated to glory and
was "not found," implying that someone searched for
him for some time, but in vain. He and, later, Elijah are the
only two individuals in the Scriptures who never died a physical
death. They serve as precursors for a whole generation of Christians
who will be so translated at the parousia of Jesus (1 Thess
4:17). We learn from Enoch that faith can draw inner strength
from God to such a degree that it triumphs over the ravages of
death.
Our author views Enoch's faith as so outstanding that it constitutes
a general example for all time of how to come to God and to live
pleasing to him. Without faith it is impossible to please God,
he proclaims in verse 6. This brings to mind Paul's similar assertion,
"the world through its wisdom did not know him" (1 Cor
1:21). It is impossible through human reasoning or scientific
searching to find God: faith in God's self-revelation is essential!
But that revelation is not confined to Scripture; it begins with
nature as Paul forcefully states in Romans 1:19-20 and the psalmist
declares in Psalms 8 and 19.
Hebrews 11:6 is a helpful answer to the persistent question: "What
about the primitive peoples of the world who never hear the gospel?"
This verse says: anyone who comes to him God must believe that
he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Nature presents overwhelming evidence of the existence of God.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning has put its witness well:
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush aflame with God.
But only those who see take off their shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries!
Only a deliberately resistant mind can set aside nature's testimony
to the wisdom and power of an Intelligent Being beyond us. If
the witness of nature leads an individual to an honest search
for the Creator, God promises to help and reward those who
earnestly seek him. More and more knowledge will be granted
which, if followed, will lead to Jesus. As Peter declared in Acts
4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
what the writer is implying, by linking verse 6 with the life
of Enoch, is that Enoch, seeking God and believing the word he
was given, found Christ by faith! So we learn from him that faith
means turning from human wisdom to God's revelation and walking
in daily obedience to it until it leads to a fellowship which
death cannot interrupt!
The spotlight of witness then shifts to Noah, who illustrates
for us a still different quality of true faith. His faith, too,
saw what was invisible, namely the coming of the Flood! (vs. 7).
He "saw" it because he believed the warning he received
from God 120 years before the Flood came (Gen 6:3, 7). Moved by
fear of that catastrophe, Noah obeyed God and built an ark of
wood, by means of which his whole family was saved. Such obedient
faith, the writer states, condemned the world, by showing
how wrong it was. This made Noah an heir of the righteousness
that comes by faith. In the phrase condemned the world,
we may rightly visualize the mockery and jeering which Noah must
have daily faced as he built a huge ship. He was a hundred miles
from the nearest ocean, with a ship many times too big for his
own needs, and when had had finished, he filled it with animals!
Had he lived in our day he would have been dubbed, "Nutty
Noah"! Yet Jesus used "the days of Noah" as representative
of the condition of the world before his own return, and indicated
that his followers must be prepared to face the same kind of scornful
hostility that Noah met day after day.
Noah's faith persisted despite massive resistance, and that can
only occur when there is an inward change of spirit that is caused
by the presence of God. That is what is meant by Noah becoming
heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. His faith,
like Abraham's, was "credited to him for righteousness."
He is, in fact, the first individual to be called righteous in
the Scriptures (Gen 6:9). His sturdy, obedient faith stands forever
as an example of persistence against hostility that marks those
who are born of God and who cannot ever be lost. In these three
men, Abel, Enoch and Noah, we are shown that faith waits, faith
grows in intimacy, and faith persists. Without these qualities
it is impossible to please God.
"Faith without deeds is useless," says James (2:20).
If there is true faith, there will be consequent actions. The
writer now launches on a lengthy section in which he shows the
variety of actions that can accompany faith, depending on the
circumstances which an individual faces. The one mark that is
shared by all these activities is that each is unusual---it is
not the normal reason ordinarily expressed of those who face such
situations. Faith makes some people act differently than others.
They will not fit the common mold or drift along with the multitude.
Already in Hebrews, Abraham has shared with Moses a prominent
part as an example of faith in the redemptive process. Again,
he appears as the pre-eminent role model for all believers in
Christ. Verses 8-19 are devoted almost exclusively to Abraham's
faith and the author's comments on it. He singles out the highlights
of Abraham's life, beginning with his call to leave Mesopotamia
and culminating with his willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God's
command. At every point, Abraham responded to a promise of God
with unwavering obedience. That is the writer's chief point. God
promised Abraham a land, a posterity, a great name and universal
influence (Gen 12:1-3). Abraham believed God and left his kinfolk
his present comforts and prosperity, and, at the age of seventy-five,
set out for Canaan, a land he had never visited and knew nothing
about (v. 8). When he got there he lived as a resident alien,
residing in tents and owning nothing except the cave of Machpelah
in Hebron, where he buried his wife, Sarah. The motive for this
remarkable behavior was his anticipation that God would fulfill
his promise and produce on earth, a city with foundations
whose architect and builder is God (vv. 9-10). It is amazing how
far Abraham saw by faith. He lived two thousand years before Christ,
and we live two thousand years after him. Yet Abraham, believing
that what God had said would take place, looked across forty centuries
of time and beyond to the day when God would bring to earth a
city with eternal foundations, Abraham saw what John saw in Revelation:
a city coming down from heaven onto earth (Rev 21). (40)
That is what Abraham longed for; an earth run after God's order,
where people would dwell together in peace, harmony, blessing,
beauty and liberty. Because of that hope he was content to dwell
his whole life in tents, looking for God's fulfillment. Abraham
shows us that faith seizes upon a revealed event and lives in
anticipation of it. Faith gives purpose and destination to life.
The hope of achieving a utopian city of peace and universal blessing
is what we hold out for even today; "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
The second highlight of Abraham's faith centered on God's promise
of a posterity (vv. 11-12). This involved Sarah as well, for though
Abraham was now a hundred years old, and Sarah ninety, God had
expressly told Abraham that he would have a son who would produce
a long line of descendants. Paul, in Romans 4:19, observes without
weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as
good as dead . . . and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he
did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God."
We must not exclude Sarah from this reckoning of those who triumphed
by faith, as the NIV rendering of verse 11 does. For though she
laughed incredulously when she overheard God's promise to Abraham
that she would bear a son (Gen 18:11-12), nevertheless, God countered
her incredulity with the question, "Is anything too hard
for the LORD?" Those challenging words would surely have
been the source of her meditation in the days that followed. Genesis
21:1 states, "Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had
said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised." God's
invariable method for fulfilling a promise is to awaken faith
first in the recipient. Sarah's growth in grace and spiritual
maturity is recognized in 1 Peter 3:6, and all this would powerfully
support the design of our author by including Sarah's name deliberately.
She shared with Abraham that faith which produced descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand
on the seashore. (41)
It is highly unlikely, given our author's precise use of language,
that these two phrases should both describe the same descendants
of Abraham, whether they are physical or spiritual. Abraham was
first promised seed "like the dust of the earth" (Gen
13:16). Then some thirteen years later, when God announced the
birth of Isaac within a year, Abraham was shown the stars and
the promise was given, "Look up at the heavens and count
the stars---if indeed you can count them.... So shall your offspring
be" (Gen 15:5). This widely separated revelation suggests
the phrases should be understood as a reference to two lines of
posterity: a heavenly seed (as numerous as the stars in the
sky) which would embrace all who fit Paul's description: "If
you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according
to the promise" (Gal 3:29); and an earthly line (as countless
as the sand on the seashore), which includes all the physical
descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. This would agree with
Paul's statements in Romans 11:11-12 that despite the formation
of the church (the heavenly seed), God has not yet finished with
his people Israel (the earthly seed). As the writer of Hebrews
has intimated, the time will come when God will fulfill the new
covenant of grace to "the house of Israel and the house of
Jacob." The blending of these two lines will be found in
the city for which Abraham looked, on whose gates is written the
names of the twelve tribes of Israel and on its foundations the
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:12-14).
The writer comments, in verses 13-16, on these Old Testament names.
They all died, he admits, without receiving the things promised,
though they still expected God to fulfill his word to them. The
fact that they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance
indicates their understanding that the promises were in the future
and would have spiritual as well as physical fulfillment. For
this reason, their own imminent deaths did not diminish their
confidence that the promises would be fulfilled. This lively faith
was shown by their willingness to abide as aliens and strangers
in the land they had been promised. Toward the end of his life,
Abraham described himself as such in Genesis 23:4. Though he and
his son and grandsons could have returned to Mesopotamia had they
so chosen, as Jacob did for a while, yet their faith in the promise
of their own land not only kept them in Canaan, but also led them
to understand that eventually they would live in that city of
God which would come down from heaven. Because their faith grew
to encompass eternal realities as well as earthly prospects, the
writer declares that God is not ashamed to be called their
God. Once again we see the deliberate link between the visible
and the invisible. The land of Canaan was a picture of the heavenly
country which would be theirs by faith, as 4:89 asserts. Since,
as we have seen, "faith is being sure of what we hope for,"
this meant that they were already enjoying, in their inner lives,
the intimate blessings that the resurrected body promised when
the city of God came down from heaven (Rev 21:10). Such inner
fulfillment is the gift of faith to those who today are willing
to look beyond death to God's day of perfect fulfillment. We cannot
demand instant answers from God for all our earthly problems,
but we can welcome them from a distance. We must not lose
faith that God will satisfy every promise.
Having expanded our understanding of the faith of the patriarchs,
our author returns to the severest test of Abraham's faith, and
its most glorious triumph, the sacrifice of Isaac (vv. 17-19).
Emphasis is laid on the fact that Abraham was asked to slay his
son Isaac, even though he had received promises that Isaac would
establish the guaranteed posterity. Ishmael was also a son of
Abraham, but only Isaac was the son of promise. That is the meaning
of one and only son. Some have criticized God for subjecting
Abraham to such unbearable anguish, but it must be remembered
that Abraham's faith in the loving character of God enabled him
to solve this crisis. He reasoned that God was in full control
of both death and life; he could restore as well as take. On that
basis Abraham was able to carry through what was seen as a grisly
task. Little of this is seen in the Genesis account (22:1-10),
though Abraham did assure his servants that both he and the lad
would return from the mountain. The substitution of a ram for
the son was intended to portray that later scene at Golgotha when
the Son of God would willingly lay down his life. It is, perhaps,
this very scene that Paul has in mind when he writes, "He
who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all---how
will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
The restoration of Isaac to his father's arms is called a parable
(Gk: parabole) of resurrection by the writer. So Abraham's
faith reached the highest pinnacle of faith: belief in a resurrection
that would fulfill all the promises of God.
The thought of a faith still trusting in the very face of death
leads the writer to focus on Abraham's descendants---Isaac, Jacob
and Joseph. They see their own deaths and yet look beyond in unwavering
faith (vv. 20-22). The point about all three is that they clearly
saw aspects of the future because they exercised faith in what
was invisible at the present. Isaac, though not given to dramatic
demonstrations of faith, could still foretell the subsequent character
of his twin sons' lives, Jacob and Esau, because he understood,
by faith, how each would relate to the program of God (Gen 27:27-29,
30-40). Jacob, in his earlier years, often found it difficult
to trust God explicitly. But with Joseph in Egypt, he too saw
the true relationship of Joseph's sons Manasseh and Ephraim in
God's purposes. He dared, by faith, to transfer the birthright
from Manasseh, the firstborn, to Ephraim, the younger (Gen 48).
He did this, worshipping all the while the God who had foreordained
this in wisdom. And Joseph, whose life was filled with dramatic
examples of the power of faith, did not let his impending death
alter his certainty that God would fulfill his promises concerning
Israel. He gave instructions that when Israel would leave Egypt
(over two centuries later), they should carry his bones with them
and bury them in the land of promise. This Moses did (Ex 13:19),
and Joseph's tomb is still visible at Shechem, as Joshua 24:32
records. These men were not dreamers or merely wishful thinkers;
they "saw" invisible realities, and adapted their own
lives and that of their descendants accordingly.
The spotlight of witness shifts again, this time to the towering
figure of Moses, who stands next only to Abraham as the quintessential
believer in the Old Testament. Verses 23-29 touch on five highlights
from his life, beginning with the faith of his parents and ending
with the Israelites' passage over the Red Sea. Two reasons are
given for the faith of Moses' parents, shown in the hiding of
their infant son among the reeds of the Nile. They saw he was
no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
The adjective asteion translated here as "no ordinary"
child, is defined by Thayer as the opposite of agroikos which
means "rustic" (Kistemaker 1984:344). It implies not
merely a handsome or beautiful child, but a gifted and unusually
promising one. Josephus, in his Antiquities, suggests that Moses'
parents received a revelation from God concerning their son's
destiny. This would explain why their action was by faith and
strong enough that they were unafraid of the king's cruel command
to kill all male Israelite babies. Since Jochebed, Moses' mother,
was employed by Pharaoh's daughter to become Moses' nurse and
help raise him to adulthood, the writer includes Moses' parents
(Amram and Jochebed) as the molders of the faith of Moses himself.
So powerful was their influence on Moses that when he was forty
years of age (Acts 7:23), having been trained in the culture of
Egypt and even regarded as an heir to the throne itself, he renounced
his earthly privileges. He went on to identify himself with the
people of Israel and resolutely refused the royal title son
of Pharaoh's daughter (vv. 24-25). Stephen, in Acts 7:20-38,
tells us that Moses "thought that his own people would realize
that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not."
This suggests that Moses had a clear understanding of his calling
from God, and his faith motivated his renunciation of Egypt. It
was costly because he gave up the treasures of Egypt to suffer
disgrace for the sake of Christ. Such disgrace (or "reproach")
carried with it the promise of infinite reward (eternal life)
which made the things he renounced appear paltry indeed. Such
a renunciation is like the choices many Christians make today
who choose to be faithful to moral principles, rather than to
abandon them for the prospect of advancement or wealth.
The third mark of Moses' faith was that he left Egypt, not
fearing the king's anger and he persevered because he saw him
who is invisible (v. 27). Admittedly, he fled to save his
life, but as the writer of Hebrews points out, it was not because
he feared the anger of the king. Rather, since he fled by faith,
it was because he knew God would fulfill his promise to deliver
Israel. Moses would await God's timing for that deliverance. So
he persevered in Midian for forty years, with his faith
continually being renewed because he saw him who is invisible.
That long, discouraging wait was possible only because Moses saw
the unseen; he reckoned upon invisible realities, and God surprised
him one day with a remarkable experience with a bush that burned
but was not consumed! (42)
Another biblical example of this kind of patient faith is David,
who, knowing he had been anointed as king of Israel, nevertheless
patiently waited for God to remove Saul from the throne. Such
patience, for those who wait for recognition today, is rewarded
by him who is invisible. God times such events, lifting
up one and putting down another, according to his sovereign purposes.
Peter exhorts us, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's
mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time" (1 Pet
5:6).
Our author leaps over the story of Moses' return to Egypt, his
confrontations with the new Pharaoh and the shattering series
of plagues which Pharaoh's intransigence brought upon Egypt. This
brings us to the final, fateful night, when Moses and Israel kept
the first Passover (v. 28). It was a crucial experience both for
Israel and the church, as both look back to it as the paradigm
of redemption. Central was the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb
over the doorpost of each Israelite household. The angel of death
would not enter where he saw the sprinkled blood. Paul refers
to this incident in 1 Corinthians 6:7-8. Moses believed implicitly
that this protection would work, and so it proved. Even Pharaoh's
firstborn son lay dead the next morning with thousands of others
throughout Egypt. In Israel, not one firstborn son perished, exactly
as Moses had predicted. This act of faith broke the back of Pharaoh's
resistance, and the Egyptians begged the Israelites to leave,
even heaping upon them jewels and treasures to speed the process.
But in verse 29, the writer recounts the faith Moses and Israel
had to exercise when the Egyptians changed their minds and pursued
Israel with an army of chariots and soldiers. The waters of the
Sea of Reeds (Hebrew text) flowed before Israel, and the army
of Egypt was closing in behind. What could Israel do? God said
to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff
and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water."
By faith Moses obeyed, and by faith the waters were driven back
all night by a powerful east wind (Ex 14). Israel's faith was
shown when they passed between the walls of water and arrived
safely on the far shore. When the Egyptians tried the same thing,
Moses stretched out his staff, the waters returned, and all the
Egyptian soldiers were drowned. Faith dares to obey despite apparent
obstacles and difficulties. It pays no attention to impossibilities
when God has spoken.
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees
And looks to God alone.
Laughs at impossibilities,
And cries, "It shall be done."
Many Christians today face similar circumstances where it looks
as if there is no way out. But God does not send believers out
into a sea of trouble to drown; his promise is to see them through
to the other side. As 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises, "He will
also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
No further examples of Israel's faith are described until forty
years later, when Joshua leads them against the city of Jericho,
the first major obstacle to the conquest of the land of promise.
This silence is the writer's way of recalling what he has already
mentioned in chapters 3 and 4: the unbelief which the Israelites
showed throughout their wilderness journeys. Not one Israelite
who was twenty years or older when they left Egypt would enter
Canaan, except Joshua and Caleb. But just as the faith of Moses
had inspired some degree of faith in Israel while they were in
Egypt, the faith of Joshua stirred the Israelites to act in faith
before the walls of Jericho. The ancient city was actually a large
fortress, 600 meters in circumference (Kistemaker 1984:347). It
contained an armed garrison, filled with experienced warriors.
These must be defeated before the valleys of Canaan could be occupied.
Following the unique orders given him by the angelic Commander
of the Army of the Lord, Joshua set the people marching around
the fortress, once a day for six days, and seven times the seventh
day. When they gave a great shout on the seventh day, the walls
"came atumblin' dawn." By an earthquake, you may ask?
Yes, perhaps so, but an earthquake that came in God's precise
time and at God's precise place. The incident highlights God's
ways of deliverance as being varied and often bizarre in the eyes
of many. He is infinitely diverse in his solutions, and we make
a great mistake in trying to predict his actions.
Along with the story of Jericho's overthrow, we read the remarkable
account of Rahab the harlot (v. 31). She had heard of Israel's
conquests at the Red Sea and in the wildemess and expected them
to assault Jericho many years before. She knew that their victories
came from their faith in God, and she "received the spies
with peace" (literally) when Joshua sent them to spy out
the city. Her motive was not merely to save her life and that
of her family; she was convinced, as she said, that "the
LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below."
That faith was honored when the walls of the city collapsed and
all within were killed except Rahab and her family. That her faith
was genuine is confirmed by Matthew when he lists her as one of
the ancestors of Jesus. She went on to marry Salmon and became
the mother of Boaz, and thus the great-grandmother of David. Faith
overcame a sinful life, delivered her from a pagan religion. She
was granted a place of honor among the heroes and heroines of
faith. The incident also illustrates the fact that "in Christ
there is neither male nor female." Rahab was a woman in a
man's world, but faith accepts no such distinctions.
This survey of the faith of men and women in the past could
have gone on to greater lengths, but the author feels that his
epistle must not become burdensome to read. He refers to others
in more general terms, mentioning only six more names. Their varied
actions of faith are successful, whether in triumph or in suffering
(vv. 32-38). The six names span the history of Israel from the
days of the judges to the early monarchy. Included are Gideon,
noted for his victory over Midian with a reduced army of only
300 men; Barak, who was encouraged by the prophetess Deborah and
defeated the Canaanite army of Sisera; Samson, famous as the muscleman
of Israel, fatally susceptible to the charms of young women, but
nevertheless the instrument of God to deliver Israel from Philistine
oppression; Jephthah, haunted by his rash vow concerning his daughter,
but also conqueror of the Ammonites and punisher of the tribe
of Ephraim; David, Israel's greatest king and the author of many
psalms, "a man after God's own heart"; and, finally,
Samuel, first of the prophets and last of the judges, who lived
by faith from his boyhood to his final days. Others are simply
listed as the prophets, which would surely include the
great names of Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Daniel, Ezekiel and others.
The faith these men possessed led them to three kinds of action
(vv. 33-34). Faith helped some to govern---conquered kingdoms
(David over the Philistines), administered justice (Solomon---1
Kings 21:9) and gained what was promised (Josh 21:43).
Faith helped others to triumph over fearful odds---shut the
mouths of lions (Dan 6), quenched the fury of the flames
(Dan 3:17), and escaped the edge of the sword (2 Kings
6:11-18). Still others were enabled by faith to be mighty in battle---whose
weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle
and routed foreign armies (1 Sam 14:14). These were all actual
historic incidents, familiar to the readers of this letter from
the Old Testament accounts.
But faith was not confined to men only. Women of faith were also
greatly benefited, receiving dead loved ones back to life. Notable
in the Old Testament were the widow of Zarephath, whose son Elijah
restored, even though she was not of Israel (1 Kings 17:24); and
the woman of Shunem who called Elisha to raise her dead son because
she knew him to be a man of God (2 Kings 4:8-37). The readers
of Hebrews could also think of the widow of Nain, whose son Jesus
raised, and of Lazarus whom Jesus restored to his sisters, Mary
and Martha, and perhaps also of the widows in Joppa who rejoiced
when Dorcas was restored to them by Peter. These resuscitations
were not mentioned to establish a norm, but to show what powers
faith could release when God chose to act.
Nor was faith always a means to triumph and victory. Verses 35-38
record the other side of the picture. The incidents described
here seem to be drawn mainly from the days of the Maccabean revolt
and the cruelties of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes in the
early second century B.C. The word for tortured reveals
the type of torment used: a wheel or rack upon which the victim
was stretched and then beaten to death. The better resurrection
they looked for was not a return to this life, but the resurrection
to eternal life, which was promised to all who were faithful unto
death. The jeers, flogging, chains and prisons of verse 36 were
experienced in many places and times, even by some recipients
of this letter, as 10:32-34 declares. Jeremiah may have been the
reference to some who were stoned, for tradition says he so died
at the hands of the Jews in Egypt. Isaiah was thought to be sawed
in half during the reign of Manasseh, the wicked son of King Hezekiah.
Many were reduced to poverty and had to dress themselves in animal
skins (Elijah, Elisha and John the Baptist, for example), and
wandered about in deserts and mountains, living in caves because
they were unacceptable to society. But the writer notes that the
world was not worthy of them. God's heroes and heroines are often
unrecognized while they are alive. Like Jesus himself, they are
"despised and rejected of men." But what does that matter
when the final triumph sees them honored and acclaimed before
the whole universe? As another ardent Christian, Jim Elliot, put
it: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain
what he cannot lose."
One cannot think on these verses today and not notice the contrast
with the so-called health-and-wealth gospel. For the person of
faith, material comforts mean less and spiritual values mean more.
The question of Jesus comes to mind: "What good is it for
a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" The
people of God may often be poor and despised, but their faith
opens to them riches of spirit which the world has never known.
The closing verses (39-40) bring us back to the opening statement
of the chapter, that faith is what the ancients were commended
for. Though all those referred to by name or described by
action in this chapter received commendation from God even in
this life, yet they did not receive the promised city "with
foundations" which Abraham sought (vv. 10 and 16). The reference
to foundations indicates something material and earthly,
rather than purely spiritual. They looked for more than their
own personal satisfaction, but still longed to see God's purposes
fulfilled on earth. The something better for us denotes
the reality we have found already in Christ, which the men and
women of faith in the Old Testament would attain only after their
earthly life ended. We are already recipients of the blessings
of the new covenant. They would not fully know them till the resurrection.
The New Jerusalem, come down from heaven to earth, in which God
will dwell among us and by which all the supernal vision of the
prophets will be fulfilled, blends the two peoples of God together.
The hope of being made perfect includes the hope of physical resurrection,
as many Scriptures declare. In that "first resurrection"
(Rev 20:6-7) believers of both old and new covenants will join.
This is the way that together with us would they be made perfect.
This is the mystery of God's will which Paul describes in Ephesians
1:9-10 "to be put into effect when the times will have reached
their fulfillment---to bring all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head, even Christ."
What transcendent glory is described in those words, no one now
really knows. John gives us the best description in Revelation
4-5. There the redeemed are gathered from all ages, amid millions
of angels, to sing the praises of the One who redeemed them from
the miseries and death which sin causes, and gave them an eternal
ministry of glory and power beyond human description. The Redeemer
will be forever the center of universal worship. It will be as
Anne Cousin writes:
The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of grace:
Not at the crown He giveth,
But on his pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory Of Emmanuel's land.
("The Sands of Time Are Sinking")
Calvin caught the thrust of this chapter and said, "If those on whom the great light of grace had not yet shone showed such surpassing constancy in bearing their ills, what effect ought the full glory of the gospel to have on us? A tiny spark of light led them to heaven, but now that the Sun of righteousness shines on us what excuse shall we offer if we still cling to the earth?" Our motivation and inspiration is fuller than theirs, for we have Jesus himself to sustain us. It is to that powerful support that the author now turns his reader's attention.
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears. 18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken --that is, created things --so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
Suddenly the scene shifts to a sports stadium where a distance
marathon is being run. The runners are the readers of this epistle
(including us), who need to run a grueling race. Encircling the
track is a stadium filled with a great cloud of witnesses,
among them many of the worthies of the past named in chapter 11.
They are witnesses in the sense of bearing testimony that the
race can be run successfully and that the rewards are great.
Their encouragement has two purposes: to throw off everything
that hinders and to put away the sin that so easily entangles.
As Moses laid aside the prerogatives of royalty for the sake of
his God-given mission, so we must throw off whatever may hinder
faith even though it may be right for others. Joseph properly
ruled in Egypt, but for Moses it was a hindering weight. Other
weights might well be ambition, anxieties, hobbies, wealth or
fame. Each runner must honestly judge what hinders faith for him
or her and resolutely lay it aside, even though others seem to
be unhindered by the same thing. One cannot run well in an overcoat!
But the primary block to gaining the prize is the sin that
so easily entangles. (43) Since the
writer does not specify what this is, it may be taken for granted
that it is the sin continually warned about in Hebrews---persistent
unbelief Do not take God's Word lightly. Do not excuse any sin
as all right for you, but forbidden to others. Do not feel you
can evade God's discipline or judgment. Remember: "God cannot
be mocked. A man reaps what he sows". (Gal 6:7). Unbelief
often looks trivial to us, but Moses was kept out of the Promised
Land because he treated God's word lightly on one occasion (Deut
32:51-52; Ps 106:33). David apparently felt that his twin sins
of adultery and murder could be overlooked because he was king,
but God felt otherwise and sent Nathan the prophet to expose his
wickedness and to announce his punishment.
The race, of course, is life itself. Since it is God who gives
us life, it is also God who starts us in this race. We are all
here for a purpose, and that purpose is to live our lives in fulfillment
of God's intent for us. This requires not only faith in God's
revelation, as we have seen, but also perseverance and endurance.
Life is not a 100-yard dash, but a long and sometimes agonizing
marathon. No one knows just how long it will be. It can suddenly
be cut short, as we have often seen, but its very uncertainty
requires that we run it as if it will last a long time, being
prepared to keep going no matter what happens. The goal toward
which we run is the end of life, whether it be death or the sudden
transformation of living saints at the parousia of Jesus (1 Cor
15:51-52). Jesus says to the suffering saints of Smyrna, "Be
faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the
crown of life" (Rev 2:10). (43)
Only one factor can make consistent endurance possible, and this
the author states clearly in verse 2: Let us fix our eyes on
Jesus. This is the central theme of Hebrews. He has stated
it before ("But we see Jesus . . ."---2:9; "fix
your thoughts on Jesus . . ."---3:1; "since we have
a great high priest . . . Let us then approach the throne of grace
with confidence"---4:14, 16). He is saying, in effect, "Listen
to the testimony of those who have gone before for they can help
you know what to lay aside; but, above all else, fix your attention
on Jesus, for he can do what no one else can---he can impart faith
to you, and he can bring it to perfection at the end. He awaits
you when you reach the goal, but he is also with you to strengthen
your endeavor and guard your steps along the way. Look at other
men and women of faith for inspiration and encouragement, but
then look higher up to Jesus." This has been well expressed
by a Christian poet:
The glory of the light is brightest,
When the glory of self is dim,
And they have most compelled me,
Who most have pointed to Him;
They have held me, stirred me, swayed me---
I have hung on their every word,
'Til I fain would rise and follow,
Not them, not them, but their Lord.
Why look away from human leaders to Jesus? Because he is the
author and perfecter of our faith. He gives it and completes
it. The word translated here "author" is archegos,
which we saw in 2:10 has the thought of pioneer or leader. Jesus
has gone before us in this race to keep faith. He knows the need
for it. He himself ran the race. He laid aside every weight, every
tie of family and friends. He set his face against the popular
sin of unbelief and daily lived in patient perseverance, trusting
his Father to work everything out for him. He set the perfect
example. As Bruce says, "It was sheer faith in God, unsupported
by any visible evidence, that carried Him through the taunting,
the scourging, the crucifying, and the more bitter agony of rejection,
desertion and dereliction" (1964:352).
But there is more than example in him---there is also empowerment!
Moment by moment, day by day, week by week year by year, as we
look to him, we shall find strength imparted to us. He is not
"out there" somewhere. As this epistle has made clear,
he is within us, by faith. He has entered into the sanctuary,
into the inner person, into the very place where we need strength
and grace, and is available every moment to help us in time of
need. Having himself lived by faith, he is able to impart that
faith to others. He does this by means of the Spirit, as Paul
reflects in his prayer of Ephesians 3:16: "I pray that out
of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being." This power to awaken faith
is what Jesus describes as the enabling of the Father ("no
one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him"---Jn
6:65). As the epistle to the Hebrews has repeatedly insisted,
faith is essential to spiritual vitality. Jesus is our example
of the kind of faith required, but his very life in us imparts
the faith we need to run the race of life successfully. So we
cry with Paul, "I can do everything through him who gives
me strength" (Phil 4:13).
This ministry of help for us is undoubtedly the joy set before
him for which he endured the cross and scorned its shame!
(44) It meant more to Jesus than his own well being, even more
than the joy of returning to his Father and the glory of heaven.
For the consummate joy of "bringing many sons to glory,"
he gave himself up to agony and death and counted it a small price
to pay. It brought him, as verse 2 states, to sit down at the
right hand of the throne of God. Redemption requires power,
and now from the place of ultimate power he can "save completely
those who come to God through him."
In Jesus, we have a model to follow which cannot be surpassed,
for he, too, patiently endured the opposition of sinful men, even
that of his own disciples. But he is also able to impart his own
spirit of steadiness to those who trust him so they will not
grow weary and lose heart! The author has exhorted us to keep
our eyes on Jesus, to consider him. He represents faith,
which has been tried to the utmost! He could take it because of
the strength of his inner life. We, too, can take whatever life
throws at us because we have him as our resource to draw upon.
No truth in Hebrews is more strongly emphasized than this.
Psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb has described the mentality of many
today who look for human help but ignore that offered by our great
high priest, Jesus. He says:
Too often people take a word like authenticity and they secularize it to mean, "I'm going to let you know exactly what I feel," thinking that that is going to result in intimacy and a release of guilt.
What may in fact be happening is that you are demanding that the other person now deal with your feelings the way you want him or her to. If the other person doesn't do that, then you go into hiding convinced that nobody will ever deal with how you really feel; so why bother caring? The point is that you are not facing the real issue. Authenticity demands that you expose yourself not for the purpose of getting a person to respond to you in the way that you want, but exposing yourself so you can respond to what God wants. Only God can truly deal with your sin. Only God can truly forgive you. (Crabb 1989)
The passage from verses 4-11 develops the true point of view
Christians must have toward hardship and opposition. Verses 4-6
put it succinctly, saying, in effect: Remember, it isn't as bad
as it could be! (You have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding your blood.) Don't forget, behind the difficulties
you must go through is a father's loving heart! (You have forgotten
that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.) The
quotation from Proverbs 3:11-12 is Solomon's words to his own
son, helping him to handle the troubles and hardships which will
come to him. The Septuagint version quoted here speaks of both
rebuke and punishment coming from the Lord. Rebuke is verbal correction;
punishment (scourging) is designed to make the rebuke unforgettable.
Scourging is severe punishment, symbolized by the Roman scourge,
a leather whip with metal pieces embedded on the end.
An incident from the Old Testament illustrates this. David was
rebuked by the Lord for numbering Israel and was given the choice
of three punishments. He wisely let the Lord decide, and undoubtedly
experienced the least hurtful of the three, but in the plague
God sent, 70,000 Israelites died! (2 Sam 24). That was a lesson
David never forgot! But it is important to note that our author
insists that such discipline comes from God's love for those sons
he is bringing to glory. Severe discipline only comes to those
who have violated great responsibility or who are being trained
for tough assignments. Many Christians today have testified that
God got their attention only after some severe trial or circumstance
came upon them!
The fact that the severe persecution these Hebrews had already
undergone (10:32-33) had not yet involved the shedding of their
blood is indication that their location was not Jerusalem or probably
even Palestine. Acts records several instances of martyrdom among
the early Christians there. But if we are called to follow Christ
it may lead to actual bloodshed, as other centuries can bear ample
witness, and not least our century! Persecution that stops short
of death is something to be thankful for. But discomfort, hardship
and deprivations, borne for the sake of Christ, are viewed as
privileges and blessings, sent by a loving Father to prepare us
to be worthy heirs of the incomparable glories yet to come. They
are not a sign of his displeasure, but a sign that he regards
us as genuine children.
So, in verses 7-8, the author reminds his readers that they are
not illegitimate children for whom no future is being prepared,
but legitimate children who require discipline to develop properly.
Coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys is reputed to have said,
"The job of a coach is to make men do what they don't want
to do, in order to be what they've always wanted to be!"
Our author would have welcomed that as an accurate statement of
what God does with those he calls to be his children. They should
"hang tough" because their trials are proof that they
are beloved children and not bastards.
Verses 9-11 adduce a second reason for patient endurance: our
earthly fathers disciplined us when we were children, even though
they doubtless made mistakes. Yet we respected them for their
efforts which we recognized were meant for our good. How much
more should we accept the discipline of our God, who makes no
mistakes and who aims at enabling us to share his own perfect
character! The reference to God as the Father of our spirits
is meant as a contrast to "human fathers" (Gk "fathers
of our flesh") and reminds us that the fruit borne by suffering
is spiritual in nature.
The trials, .disappointments, hardships and even physical attacks
which sometimes constitute God's discipline may be painful to
bear. No one enjoys such experiences. As C. S. Lewis notes,
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience,
but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf
world" (1978:81). But the pain is not the whole story. There
is always a later on which follows. There is a harvest
of righteousness and peace which invariably will come for
those who have been trained by it (the discipline).
Christian suffering is not simply sheer circumstantial misery
or the result of blind chance. Paul declares, "We know that
suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and
character, hope" (Rom 5:34). James adds, "You know that
the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance
must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not
lacking anything" (Jas 1:3-4). Peter concurs, "These
[trials] have come so that your faith---of greater worth than
gold, which perishes even though refined by fire---may be proved
genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ
is revealed" (1 Pet 1:7). How foolish then it is to complain
and grouse about the difficulties we face. "If we are always
rebelling against it and refusing to learn the lessons the Father
is teaching us, we are shutting ourselves up to discontent and
misunderstanding" (Morris 1983:123).
Our author well understands the tendency we all have to reject
well-intentioned advice and concentrate on our misery. We derive
a kind of perverse pleasure from so doing. So he urges, in verses
12-13, two specific actions:
1. Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. That is,
deal first with yourselves. Get your own hearts right toward your
troubles. He has already pointed out the way to do so: by each
coming boldly to the throne of grace "so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (4:16).
He has said the same in 12:2: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith." It is only as we
know his help ourselves that we are able to aid anyone else in
finding it. The plural imperative (strengthen, Gk: "lift
up") implies a joint effort by many. We can help each other
draw upon the resources of Christ by offering encouraging words
and mutual prayers, sharing our experiences and sometimes simply
being with someone who is undergoing trial.
2. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not
be disabled, but rather healed. That is, watch your influence
on others! Take care that you are not a stumbling block to those
who travel with you, whose faith may be much weaker than yours.
Disabled carries the thought of having something thrown
out of joint, as in a sprain or twist.
The two exhortations look back to Isaiah 35:4 where the prophet
exhorts: "Say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong, do
not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with
divine retribution he will come to save you.'" This is not
only an exhortation to wait patiently for the coming of Christ
(10:37) but also to expect God to "come" in some sovereign
action of deliverance in response to his people's prayers. Acts
12 records such a deliverance in the case of Peter whom Herod
had put in prison. Any degree of persecution should be met by
the Christian body gathering in mutual support so that no one
is spiritually disabled. It is necessary to be strong for the
sake of others as well as ourselves. The way we bear suffering
has enormous impact on the whole Christian community, and the
author stresses this point with this in view.
This concern for others leads to a more general exhortation
to the whole community of faith in verses 14-24. Each member pursues
two objectives: peace with all men and holiness before God. As
Paul suggests in Romans 12:18, to live at peace with all is not
always possible, but it must be pursued "as far as it depends
on you!" The causing of strife should never begin with a
believer! Here Paul's practical suggestions found in 1 Corinthian
6:1-8 are apropos. Disputes ought to be settled by arbitration
rather than lawsuits. Seeking counsel is preferable to hurling
charges, and forbearance is most fitting for those whom God has
forgiven. How many disgraceful public displays of church disagreements
could be prevented if this admonition of 12:14 were heeded.
But of even more importance is the pursuit of holiness, for without
it no one will see the Lord. Whether this seeing of the
Lord refers to the beatific vision of God (Bruce 1964:364), or
to seeing Jesus at his Second Coming (Westcott 1889:406), it clearly
precludes any who are not pursuing holiness from having a close
and vital relationship with God. The need to make every effort
suggests continuance and is perhaps better translated "pursue."
As we have noted before, it is a mistake to take holiness as referring
only to righteous behavior apart from seeing it also as a gift
of God who imparts righteousness to the one who believes in Jesus.
If we pursue righteous behavior only as a means to "seeing"
the Lord, we will eventually find ourselves with the Pharisees.
They were blindly ignorant of terrible failure but claimed a relationship
that did not really exist. But if we truly practice a continual
reckoning of ourselves as already righteous within by a gracious
act of God on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus,
we will find ourselves strongly motivated to live righteously
and inwardly distressed at any failure to do so. This inward distress
will bring us again and again to the throne of grace for forgiveness
and recovery. We will progressively be "transformed into
his (Christ's) likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes
from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18). That is what
is meant by the exhortation to "pursue holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord."
A failure to do this is called, in verse 15, missing the grace
of God. The writer has already warned of this in 3:12: "See
to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart
that turns away from the living God." Such unbelief is a
bitter root which will create strife and defile many. The root
is unbelief which refuses to reckon on God's provision of righteousness
because it feels confident it can produce an acceptable righteousness
on its own. Strife and defilement are the bitter fruit which this
root inevitably produces. It will reveal itself in two forms:
sexual immorality or godlessness, like that of Esau. The first
is defilement of the body; the second is defilement of the soul.
Our author only touches on the first at this point but will bring
it up again at 13:4. Yet this brief reference must not be missed
for it equates sexual immorality in its effects with a godless
spirit.
The author uses Esau to illustrate the second form. The word for
godlessness is bebelos, which is best translated "profane"
or, as we would say, "secular." It is a mindset which
takes little notice of anything beyond the material. This was
Esau's outlook (Gen 27:30-40). He thought so little of the promises
of God to Abraham and Isaac, to which he was the primary heir
as the firstborn, that he sold those rights to his brother Jacob
for a bowl of stew! So unimportant was this transaction in his
eyes that later he assumed he could still receive the blessing
which accompanied the right of firstborn. Though his brother Jacob
had tricked their blind father into conferring the blessing upon
himself, Esau still tried to change his father's words and gain
the blessing he had sold. His father could not and would not change
his mind, so Esau lost both the birthright and the blessing.
That is the secular mentality. It has little time for worship
or service, but it is intent upon material gain and earthly advantage.
Professing Christians who claim to be born again but who live
no differently than non-Christians are repeating the godlessness
of Esau. Like him they too will find a surprising rejection in
the last day. Jesus has them in mind when he says, "Then
I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you
evildoers!'" (Mt 7:23).
The author has, throughout the letter, been drawing a contrast
between the old covenant of the law, which was given at Mount
Sinai, and the new covenant of grace, which actually preceded
the law. It was made fully manifest in the ministry and sacrifice
of Jesus. Now, in verses 18-24, he repeats the contrast using
striking symbols, drawing from Exodus and Deuteronomy the fearful
scene at Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were given, and
from the prophets various elements of the heavenly Jerusalem which
are associated with the new covenant.
The point of his description of Mount Sinai and the giving of
the law is that the old covenant aroused unbearable fear. The
sight of the burning mountain and the ever-increasing blare of
a trumpet, the darkness, storm and fearful threats directed even
toward dumb beasts, created such fear in the people that they
begged Moses to plead with God for relief Even Moses said, "I
am trembling with fear." That is the invariable end of efforts
made to obey a law which requires perfection. Fear of God's just
condemnation is overwhelming. Most people do not feel this fear
because they do not take the law seriously, at least not until
they reach the end of their lives and its fearful judgments lie
immediately before them. All who seek earnestly to obey the law
find themselves confronted with such personal failure that they
soon despair of escaping God's fearful condemnation. Mount Sinai
stands as the symbol of this despair and fear.
"For what the law was powerless to do . . . God did by sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering"
(Rom 8:3). That is the triumphant cry of the new covenant! Our
author's description of it (vv. 22-24) is one of joyful celebration.
It consists of six elements.
1. You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem,
the city of the living God. That is the same city which Abraham
and the patriarchs sought (11:10,16). It is what Paul called "Jerusalem
that is above" (Gal 4:26), mother to all believers. Our author
views it as already attained by those who have believed the new
covenant and come to Jesus. In spirit they were residents of the
city already, though in body they were yet pilgrims and strangers
on earth. That there is yet to be an earthly manifestation of
the city is clear from the later reference in 13:13 to "the
city which is yet to come."
2. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful
assembly. The myriads of angels are referred to several times
in Scripture (Deut 33:2; Dan 7:10; Lk 2:13; Rev 5:11). All of
these six elements here are governed by the verb translated, "you
have come" (proselelythate). The perfect tense indicates
a condition already existent with continuing effect. The thought
of the author here is probably that of 1:14: "Are not all
angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit
salvation?" Angels minister, with joy, to believers in many
hidden ways, helping them run the race of life with patient endurance.
An example of this is found in Acts 27:23-24.
3. You have come to the church of the firstborn, whose names
are written in heaven. Bruce properly sees this as a reference
to the whole communion of saints who have come, not merely into
the presence of the church, but into its membership by faith in
Christ (1964:376-377). The writing of their names in heaven recalls
Jesus' words to his disciples, "Rejoice that your names are
written in heaven" (Lk 10:20). They share with Jesus the
title of firstborn (Col 1:18) because they are "heirs of
God and coheirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17).
4. You have come to God, the judge of all men. The Greek
text properly reads, "to a judge, who is God of all men."
Without exception, all humans must stand before God to be judged.
But the glory of the gospel is that believers may stand before
him without fear, since Jesus himself assures each one that he
"has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed
over from death to life" (Jn 5:24). This relief from the
fear of judgment is an enormous blessing to those who know themselves
to be sinners in word, thought and deed.
5. You have come to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.
Commentators have differed over whether this describes "believers
of preChristian days" (Bruce) or "New Testament believers"
(Bengel). It likely looks back to 11:40 and the Old Testament
saints who would be made perfect "together with us."
Since it is their spirits which have been made perfect and not
their bodies, it suggests that these saints, who lived before
the Cross, are waiting with us for the resurrection to come. Jesus
spoke to the Jews of "other sheep [Gentiles] that are not
of this sheep pen." "They too," he added, "will
listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd"
(Jn 10:16). As we have already noted, when the heavenly Jerusalem
comes to earth, as John sees it in Revelation 21:2, these words
will be fulfilled. Its gates are named for the twelve tribes of
Israel, and its foundation stones bear the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb.
6. You have come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and
to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood
of Abel. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant and under
it, the Aaronic priests sprinkled blood upon the mercy seat to
cover over the sins of Israel. This made the continued presence
of God among them possible. As our author has ably shown, all
this was but a shadow of the new covenant where Jesus would be
an eternal mediator, sprinkling his own blood which does not merely
cover over sins but take them entirely away. The better word
of which his blood speaks is forgiveness, whole and complete.
This is in contrast to the blood of Abel, which, as we saw earlier,
could only call for vindication but could not offer forgiveness.
Let us never forget that we are redeemed, not with perishable
things such as silver or gold "but with the precious blood
of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Pet 1:19).
To summarize, the advantages of being in Christ consist of (1)
living already, in spirit, in the new Jerusalem which Abraham
and Old Testament believers longed to see; (2) joining already
in praise around the throne of God with myriads of the heavenly
host; (3) belonging to a body of believers who are members with
each other and who share a heavenly citizenship; (4) having no
fear of God's judgment even though standing spiritually before
his august throne; (5) sharing with Old Testament believers the
certain hope of the resurrection of the body; and (6) possessing
Jesus in a new and intimate relationship ("you in me and
I in you"), which involves a complete and final solution
of the problem of human sin.
Since believers in Christ now possess such enormous resources
for living as those just described, it is of the utmost importance
to act in accordance with them. Truth simply understood is never
acceptable in and of itself; it is truth done that counts! So,
for the fifth time in this epistle, the author warns against turning
back from the truth they have learned as professing Christians
to a more comfortable and less demanding life in Judaism or to
an accommodation to the unbelieving lifestyles around them.
Verses 25-27 take us back to the first warning of 2:1-3. There
the Hebrews were in danger of drifting away from that which they
had heard; here they also stand in peril of refusing him who
speaks. There they were reminded that violations of the law
received immediate punishment; here they are also told that those
who refused the One who gave commandments from the mountain did
not escape. There the question confronted them: "How
shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" Here
the question is How much less will we [escape], if we turn
away from him who warns us from heaven? There the message
was one "spoken by angels," in contrast to the salvation
"first announced by the Lord." Here the contrast is
also between the message spoken on earth from the mountain,
and the word which has come to them from him who speaks from
heaven (which almost certainly refers to 1:1-2: "God
. . . has spoken to us by his Son").
It is clear that the warning passages envision the same peril---that
apathy toward spiritual matters and complacency with a religious
lifestyle falls far short of what God requires and has made full
provision for. But such complacency cannot go unjudged forever.
It actually constitutes a refusal of God's grace, a turning of
one's back on truth and deliverance. This is where some, if not
many, of the recipients of this letter now stand. The last three
warnings particularly (6:4-6;10:26-31 and here) envision a deliberate
and final rejection of the new covenant as the greatest danger.
The shaking of Mount Sinai was designed to arouse serious consideration
of the demands of the law on the Israelites. Since such "earthly"
shaking was not sufficient to gain their full attention a greater
shaking is yet to come; a shaking not merely of earth but of earth
and heaven together.
We have already noted that heaven is the realm of invisible realities,
of forces and principles which actually govern human life. The
word translated "created things" (pepoiemenon)
means "things made," but 11:2 reminds us that behind
the visible things are invisible forces. This shaking of heaven
and earth is both of the visible and of the invisible. Isaiah
also declares: "Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD
Almighty, in the day of his burning anger" (Is 13:13). It
is this greater shaking from which there is no escape. That shaking
began with the preaching of Jesus (Hag 2:6) has been continuing
through the Christian centuries, and will culminate in the great
judgments described in Daniel and Revelation. The earth and heaven
will flee away and be replaced by the new heavens and the new
earth.
There is something chilling about the thought of a shaking of
heaven and earth. The twentieth century has watched the crumbling
of much which we once thought to be stable. Faith in human government
has been widely shaken; confidence in science as the savior of
the race has waned as the problems of pollution, urban decay,
biological warfare and existential despair increase. Long-accepted
moral standards have disappeared under the onslaught of divorce,
unmarriages, sexual explicitness, homosexuality and abortion.
But there are some things which cannot be shaken and which will
remain forever. That which is shaken and removed is so done in
order that what cannot be shaken may stand revealed. Such an unshakable
thing is the kingdom of God into which those who trust in Jesus
have entered. It is present wherever the King is honored, loved
and obeyed. The present active participle ("are receiving")
indicates a continuing process. We enter the kingdom at conversion,
but we abide in it daily as we reckon upon the resources which
come to us from our invisible but present King. Such unbroken
supply should arouse a continuing sense of gratitude within us
and lead to acceptable worship of God. What renders such worship
acceptable is the sense of God as incredibly powerful and majestic
in person, and yet loving and compassionate of heart. An old hymn
puts it well:
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.
How blessed, how glorious, the Ancient of Days
Almighty, Victorious, thy great name we praise!
The proper attitude of Christians must be one of awe that a Being of such majesty and glory could find a way to dwell eternally with such sin-controlled and sin-injured creatures as us. Since our God is a consuming fire, " we must cry with Isaiah, "Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Is 33:14). God's love is just such a fire, it destroys what it cannot purify, but purifies what it cannot destroy. In Jesus we have a relationship that cannot be destroyed (Rom 8:38-39). Our great king is leading us through trials and difficulties in order that we may at last cry with Job, "He knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10 KJV).
13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise --the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon. 20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 22 Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter. 23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. 24 Greet all your leaders and all God's people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. 25 Grace be with you all.
If you like to get letters from close, loving friends you will
enjoy this last chapter of Hebrews for it affects us as much as
it did its original readers. The great pastoral heart of the writer
comes to the fore in his closing words. Far from being an unrelated
addendum, written perhaps by another hand or at another time as
some commentators have claimed, the chapter is a natural close
for one who has finished his teaching and warnings and now gives
some final words of loving application. One by one, he touches
on the kinds of behavior by Christians which will impress a secularized
society with the value and power of Christian truth. The general
acceptance of religious pluralism in America has made standard
methods of Christian witness less and less effective. Christians
are now being judged, not on their teachings, but on their lives.
What qualities of life will favorably influence the Buddhist family
down the street, or the Vietnamese who moved into the neighborhood,
or the young unmarried couple who live together in the apartment
downstairs, who are turned off by church and know next to nothing
about the Bible? This first-century author confronts the same
kind of pluralistic world with urgings that work in any age.
First, and above all else, is brotherly love (v. 1).Jesus himself
said this would be the mark by which his true disciples would
be known (Jn 13:35). It is not a love based on personal liking,
but one based on a shared relationship. All Christians are "members
one of another" because they share the life of Christ. They
value and care for each other because they are brothers and sisters,
whether they naturally like each other or not. In 12:12-17, the
author has already shown his concern that his readers guard their
influence on other believers and strive to live at peace, avoiding
immorality and a materialistic spirit. Here he indicates the more
positive side of actively showing love. There is a practical quality
to this love, as 1 John 3:17 indicates: "If anyone has material
possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,
how can the love of God be in him?" Church members then checked
up on those in need and saw to it that their basic needs for food,
shelter and clothing were met.
Second, they were to be hospitable and generous, even with total
strangers or any who showed need of their ministrations. Job could
say, "No stranger had to spend the night in the street, for
my door was always open to the traveler" (Job 31:32). Certain
Old Testament saints, because of their hospitable ways, had enjoyed
extraordinary experiences with angelic visitors. Noteworthy among
them would be Abraham (Gen 18), Gideon (Judg 6) and Manoah (Judg
13). Hospitality to strangers is a peculiarly significant mark
of Christian ministry since it reflects the undeserving mercy
which the Christian has received from God already. Jesus said,
"Freely you have received, freely give" (Mt 10:8), and
warm hospitality reflects such an attitude. Such hospitality is
not manifest in the modem practice of repaying entertainment by
one's friends, though that is not wrong in itself It is simply
not reaching out to strangers as Jesus commanded (Lk 14:13-14).
Fear, lest one be taken advantage of, keeps many from this practice,
but first-century believers found a way to minimize that. An early
Christian commentary, the Didache, limited visits to only
one day, or two if necessary. If a Christian stayed three days,
he was regarded as a false prophet (Bruce 1964:390). (45)
A third display of true Christian concern is to become aware of
the needs of prisoners and others suffering difficult circumstances.
Empathy is called for, not merely help. We must feel with the
prisoner or the mistreated, the shame, hurt and hopelessness they
often experience, and minister to them out of an awareness that
we too could have been where they are, had our circumstances been
the same as theirs. Even those imprisoned justly merit Christian
help, since Jesus ministered to the guilty and the condemned simply
because they were human beings, who were victims of self-deceit
or ignorance. Churches in the twentieth century have too easily
shifted concern for the poor and homeless to the shoulders of
government. That help should be welcomed, but it must be remembered
that it will often be rather impersonal and short-lived. Christians
can add dimensions of love and continuance that non-Christians
are not capable of showing. Each Christian should frequently review
his or her efforts in this direction, for these exhortations are
still valid today.
As a fourth indication of Christian reality, marriage must be
preserved as God-given and honorable, with no sexual infidelity
tolerated. This second reference to the danger of sexual immorality
indicates the concern on this point in early Christian teaching.
They saw clearly that marriage cannot exist where sexual infidelity
is tolerated. But even failure in this area would not call for
cold condemnation. Counsel, understanding, and a willingness to
forgive and restore upon repentance are needed.
The family is the basic unit of society, and any breakdown soon
begins to affect all. We are witnessing the truth of this widely
today. Laxity among Christians is probably responsible for the
attitude of many young people who regard marriage as "just
a scrap of paper" and feel free to live together without
benefit of marriage vows. The point to remember is that God views
infidelity as serious and will allow the natural consequences
of pain, hurt and guilt to take their terrible toll, and no way
can be found to escape it. It is in this way that he judges the
adulterer and all the sexual immoral.The knowledge of such
inevitable consequences should induce couples to work hard at
solving marriage rifts and to seek spiritual help in fleeing from
temptations to sexual sin. Christian leaders must see that such
help is available and that it is not superficial or inaccurate.
The moral climate of society may regard biblical sexual standards
as quaint and old-fashioned, but the church especially ought to
hold to such standards in a time of declension.
The fifth sign of genuine Christian life is a contented, greed-free
attitude (vv. 5-6). The basis for such contentment is God's promise
and ability to supply the necessities of life (Mt 6:25-34). Loving
money must particularly be avoided as it becomes a substitute
for faith in God's loving care and induces a false trust in an
unreliable supply. God has said he will never leave us nor forsake
us. This should evoke, "The Lord is my helper; I will not
be afraid. What can man do to me?" (46)
The two quotations, one from Deuteronomy 31:6 and the other from
Psalm 118:6-7, reveal that the answer to any kind of fear, including
the fear of poverty, is found in the commitment of God to ever
be with us. There are many warnings in Scripture against loving
money. Jesus said it was impossible to serve both God and money,
and Paul had written young Timothy: "People who want to get
rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and
harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction"
(1 Tim 6:9).
Though credit cards were unknown in the first century, they often
constitute a trap today that results in financial ruin and destruction.
The point of danger is the love of money which cancels out the
sense of God's love and promised supply, and launches the believer
into worldly schemes for financial security that belie all trust
in God. This is not to set aside the recognition that God can
and often does supply methods of financial support using banks,
insurance, securities and other means. But all these must be seen
as coming from his hand. It is always spiritually dangerous to
grow financially discontent. Remember Paul's words: "Some
people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs" (1 Tim 6:10).
The five manifestations listed above are normal expressions
of the new life in Christ. They are open to all true believers
and, when consistently exhibited, are designed to impress nonChristians
with the advantages of faith. In the next section, from verses
7-19, the author focuses more on the marks of faith at work within
the life of the church. Prominent among these is respect for and
compliance with godly leaders (mentioned three times in this chapter---vv.
7,17, 24). Here, the aorist elalesan ("spoke")
indicates leaders who were no longer with them, who probably had
died, and yet the impress of their lives is still on those who
remain.
It is particularly their faith that must be emulated, since it
was fixed on Jesus who is unchangeable and always available. Almost
every Christian has some mentor who has shaped his or her faith
by godly example, and their memory is a continual encouragement
to draw strength from the unchanging Lord. The memorial marker
to John Wesley in Westminster Abbey bears the inscription: "God
buries his workmen, but he carries on his work." Memories
of godly lives help best when they turn us to the One who never
needs to be replaced and who is permanently available to his people.
This great statement that Jesus is unchanged and unchangeable
builds upon 1:10-12 where all creation may pass away but Jesus
the Creator remains forever the same. Here, at the end of Hebrews,
Jesus' role as mediator of the new covenant and pioneer of faith
who is always available to his people is even more the focal point
of the author's declaration.
The section of verses 9-12 is directed against the tendency of
many Christians then and now to seek approval or status from God
by eating, or refraining from eating, certain special foods. The
once-held Catholic practice of eating fish on Friday would be
a case in point. Many appeals are made today for vegetarianism,
special diets, and even the use of marijuana, peyote or other
hallucinogenic drugs, which are designed to enhance spiritual
vitality. The author calls such practices all kinds of strange
teachings and warns against becoming involved with such beliefs.
They turn attention from the strengthening by grace which trust
in the living Christ can bring to the troubled heart. For, in
any case, the ascetic practices of some have done them no good,
for the author asserts they are of no value to those who eat
them. It brings to mind Paul's word to the Colossians: "Such
regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed
worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the
body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence"
(Col 2:23). Churches should frequently alert their people against
involvement in such useless practices.
In the words we have an altar from which those who minister
at the tabernacle have no right to eat the author is still
seeking to direct faith to the person of Jesus, instead of some
empty ritual. This is made clear in verse 11, where he refers
to the sin offering of the Day of Atonement. He thinks of Christ's
sacrifice as the antitype of that sin offering, and it is that
antitype which constitutes the altar we Christians have. It is,
of course, the Cross. The priests of Israel could not eat the
flesh of any animal whose blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat,
though they partook freely of the flesh of other sacrificed animals.
The bodies of the sin offerings were burnt outside the camp
where Jesus was also taken when he was crucified (Jn 19:20 "near
the city"). Though the priests had no right to eat of the
bodies of the sin offerings, we do have the right to nourish ourselves
on the life of our great Sin Offering, Jesus. We are "eating
Christ" when we trust him and obey him. This may be an oblique
reference to the words of Jesus in John 6:53-54 ("Unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day"),
though this cannot be certain. But to draw grace and strength
from Jesus is to be made holy daily. This is on the basis of the
once-for-all shedding of Jesus' blood. It was for this very purpose
that Jesus suffered outside the city gate. (47)
So the appeal comes again: Let us, then, go to him outside
the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore (v. 13). The word for
disgrace is the same word used of Moses in 11:26, who chose
to bear reproach for the sake of Christ. The camp is the religious
establishment, whether of Judaism or of a distorted Christianity.
Going outside that camp does not necessarily mean a physical withdrawal.
It refers more to the inner attitude which sees no value in religious
ritual and dietary restrictions. It looks directly to the promises
of the new covenant for personal strength to live by. There is
a recognition here that visible religious practices are often
highly regarded by society at large, and those who live by faith,
without the need for impressive buildings, rituals, altars, vestments
and the like, are often scorned as having nothing beautiful about
their faith to commend it. The scorners have forgotten, of course,
the admonition of Scripture: "Worship the LORD in the splendor
of holiness" (Ps 29:2). God has never made anything more
beautiful than a genuinely holy person whose inner commitment
and fellowship with Christ is visibly evidenced by a loving spirit,
a humble attitude, a forgiving heart and a moral walk.
This lack of need for materially expressed religion is underscored
by the author in verse 14: For here we do not have an enduring
city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Like
Abraham of old, believers are pilgrims and strangers in the world,
looking forward, as he did, to "the city with foundations,
whose architect and builder is God" (11:10). This is not
intended to sentence believers of every age to penury---for Abraham
was rich---or to prohibit involvement with politics or business---for
Abraham was involved in both. But it frees us from lusting after
material benefits, and especially from seeking to gain influence
by religious display. We have already attained to that "city
that is to come" in our spirits (12:22); we shall enter it
in body at the resurrection when Jesus returns (Rev 21:2-4). We
are in no need now of ornate buildings, special ceremonies and
elaborate ritual.
How is true faith then to be manifested? Verses 15-16 answer with
the sacrifices of genuine praise, and compassionate sharing and
help. Worship and service: these are the fruits produced by genuine
life from God. They are to be done through Jesus, and continually
(Gk: dia pantos, through everything), because it is with
such sacrifices (not by empty rituals) that God is pleased (Is
58:6-9 and Hos 6:6). James agrees with this, "Religion that
God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look
after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world" (Jas 1:27). The worship
of Christians together and their practical deeds of compassion
and help are the "sacrifices" with which God is pleased.
A Christian poet expresses this perfectly:
'Tis in the daily toil and stress
we best can preach his loveliness,
It's Mrs. Johnston's shining face proclaims
that she is saved by grace,
While Mrs. Smith by kindly deeds
shows how from sin her soul is freed
And in the busy common round
reveals the Saviour she has found.
And Ann by polishing the floors
tells forth the Master she adores.
"Oh, Lord," I pray on bended knee,
"make me like these, thy children, please."
In 13:7, the author recalled to his reader's minds the influence
for good left by mentors who were now gone. In verse 17, he urges
respect for and compliance with the godly leaders they now have.
This verse, along with 1 Thessalonians 5:12, has been widely misunderstood
because of the faulty translation of the KJV, NIV and other versions.
The words obey (twice here) and submit and the phrase
from 1 Thessalonians 5:12 "are over you in the Lord"
have often fueled a harmful authoritarianism that has turned pastors
into autocrats and congregations into personal domains. Such a
twisted view of authority ignores entirely Jesus' words to the
disciples: "You know that those who are supposed to rule
over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise
authority over them. But it shall not be so among you:
but whoever would be great among you must be your servant"
(Mk 10:42-43 RSV).
Perhaps those words, "it shall not be so among you,"
have been among the most ignored sayings of Jesus within the churches.
Wherever leadership views itself as having God-given authority
to impose rules or limitations on individual Christians or a congregation
without their willing consent, these words of Jesus are being
violated. Warnings against "lording it over the brethren"
are given in 2 Corinthians 1:24 by Paul, in 1 Peter 5:3 by Peter,
and in 3 John 9-10 by John. (48)
The author's basis for urging his readers to give willing response
to their leaders is that the leaders are godly men who feel deeply
their responsibility to lead wisely and lovingly as men who
must give an account. This account must be given, not to the
congregation, but to the Lord (1 Pet 5:2-4). Henri J. M. Nouwen
has said, "The task of future Christian leaders is not to
make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations
of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which
Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the desert
to a new land of freedom. Christian leaders have the arduous task
of responding to personal struggles, family conflicts, national
calamities, and international tensions with an articulate faith
in God's real presence." If individuals yield voluntary submission
to such responsible leadership, it will make the leader's work
a joy and of great advantage to all. Note that the responsibility
for making the operations of a church a joy, and not a burden,
is placed on the congregation, not on their leaders. Even the
Declaration of Independence recognizes that legitimate government
derives its just powers from the consent of the governed!
The closing section of the epistle takes a more personal turn.
Still thinking of leaders and their need of support from those
they lead, the writer asks his readers to pray for him (vv. 18-19)
and bestows on them a benediction of unusual power and beauty
(vv. 20-21). His prayer request concerns his own desire to live
in good conscience and to be able soon to come for a personal
visit. There may be a veiled awareness here of some possible resentment
in his readers for the blunt things he had to say to them or for
his long absence from them. But he does not feel that he did anything
wrong in speaking bluntly (we are sure that we have a clear
conscience), and he enlists their prayerful concern that he
may visit them again soon. Any resentment on their part would
surely be dispelled by the warmth of his closing benediction.
Verses 20-21 must rank among the most powerfully worded blessings
found in the Scripture. They gather up the passionate concern
of the writer for his readers' spiritual growth and stress the
major factors that make such growth possible: the God of peace,
the blood of the eternal covenant, the resurrection of Jesus,
his Shepherd care for his sheep, the indwelling life of God himself,
the equipping of the Spirit, the aim to please God, and the eternal
glory and lordship of Jesus. It is all there in one glorious outpouring
of good wishes and confident certainty.
Bruce sees it as a kind of collect (a gathered-together prayer)
which later became popular in the Latin churches. These are the
themes of Hebrews, brilliantly restated and forming an appropriate
conclusion to the letter. The God of peace is surely a
reference to the peace given to all who are justified by faith
(Rom 5:1); the blood of the eternal covenant recalls all
the writer has said in chapters 8-10 about the opening of a new
and living way to God; brought back from the dead our Lord
Jesus, though the only direct reference to the resurrection
in the epistle, implies the new beginning and the new power which
is now shared with all who believe; that great Shepherd of
the sheep pictures the high priestly ministry of Jesus under
a different figure; equip you with everything good speaks
of the spiritual gifts imparted by the Spirit, mentioned in 2:4;
working in us what is pleasing to him looks back to 13:15-16,
the worship and service of God's people; and through Jesus
Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever concludes with
the pre-eminent theme of the entire letter: the superiority of
Jesus to anything and everything else that men worship or honor.
With such marvelous resources as these, who can excuse any failure
to become the man or woman God intends you to be? We may well
adopt for our own the words of J. I. Packer: "My task is
not to dizzy myself by introspecting or speculating to find (if
I can) what lies at the outer reaches of consciousness, nor to
pursue endless, exquisite stimulation in the hope of new exotic
ecstasies. It is, rather, to know and keep my place in God's cosmic
hierarchy, and in that place to spend my strength in serving God
and men" (1986:67-68).
The final verses (vv. 22-25) continue the note of affection
in the address brothers and in the plea to take his word of exhortation
in a well-meant sense. It is relatively short compared with what
he could have said had he fully developed his themes (compare
5:11 and 9:5). Certainly all commentaries on Hebrews are
much longer than the letter itself! The writer's own view of his
message is that he is simply fulfilling the same ministry he urges
upon his readers in 3:13, "But encourage [same Gk word as
exhort] one another daily, as long as it is called Today,
so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."
This passionate concern for their spiritual welfare has been expressed
throughout the letter.
He announces to his friends that Timothy has now been released,
presumably from prison, and may be able to join him on his proposed
visit to their locality. Nothing further is known of Timothy's
imprisonment, though it suggests that Paul's warning to him in
2 Timothy 4:15 to be on his guard against Alexander the metalworker
was not without substance. It may well be that Alexander obtained
Timothy's incarceration, and if so, it would probably have been
at Ephesus. Timothy would have had many friends throughout the
province of Asia, and it is likely that the recipients of this
letter live somewhere in that area, or in a neighboring province
such as Phrygia or Galatia. The greetings extended from those
from Italy do not mean that Hebrews was written from Italy, for
then the writer would have said "those in (or of) Italy."
The phrase designates a group of Italians now living wherever
the writer is when he writes.
He asks his readers to greet their leaders for him, indicating
that the letter was not addressed to the leaders themselves but
to the church at large, including possibly some home churches
(all God's people). This is the third mention of leaders
within this chapter, showing the author's respect for their position
and value. The closing Grace be with you all is another indication
of his close association with Paul, for this is identical with
the ending of the letter to Titus (3:15), and the conferring of
grace is Paul's habitual way of closing his letters (2 Thess 3:17).
This letter was written at a time when the winds of change were
blowing strongly throughout the Roman Empire, and most strongly
within Judaism. At such times humans tend to cling to familiar
patterns and resist change simply because it is unfamiliar and
therefore threatening. But their real need is for recognition
of the things which cannot change and receptivity toward the things
which must be changed. Bruce well states the case: "Every
fresh movement of the Spirit of God tends to become stereotyped
in the next generation, and what we have heard with our ears,
what our fathers have told us, becomes a tenacious tradition encroaching
on the allegiance which ought to be accorded only to the living
and active word of God" (1964:416).
The epistle to the Hebrews magnificently links the things which
cannot be shaken with the fresh sweep of the Spirit in carrying
forward the purposes of God as history moves toward its predicted
consummation. It is a document greatly needed as the world lurches
toward judgment and a new creation, based on the new covenant,
gradually emerges from the crashing chaos of human events. Let
us be grateful for its wise and careful teaching and obedient
to its passionate concern for a constantly maturing faith.
(32). 10:5-7. The major difference between
the Septuagint and Hebrew versions lies in the term "a body
you prepared for me," found in the Septuagint, and the words
"but my ears you have pierced" in the Hebrew text. The
Hebrew may be read as "my ears you have digged," that
is "hollowed out," which would describe the creation
of that part of the body. Thus the body prepared by God is symbolized
by the creating of the ears, and is given back to him in obedient
service (Bruce 1964:232). If we relate this latter phrase to the
words of the Suffering Messiah found in Isaiah 50:5, "The
Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious;
I have not drawn back," we see that the same concept presented:
the willingness of the Messiah to undergo the pain and suffering
of the Cross. The ideas may be harmonized thus: "A body you
have prepared for me which involves ears opened to your voice
to do your will."
(33). The thought of Jesus' body as a curtain
or veil brings to mind the words of Charles Wesley, "Veiled
in flesh, the Godhead see, Hail th' incarnate Deity," and
the statement of John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling [tabernacled] among us." It was the human body
of Jesus which made it difficult for his disciples to believe
that he was also God. It was like the curtain before the Holy
of Holies that hid God from the presence of the priests in the
Holy Place. But now that curtain/body no longer hides God from
our eyes. The reference in Hebrews 10:20 undoubtedly recalls the
statement in 6:19 that the Christian's hope of full acceptance
before God is like an anchor for the soul, "it enters the
inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before
us, has entered on our behalf."
(34). Of The Day Hughes properly says:
"When spoken of in this absolute manner, 'the Day' can mean
only the last day, that ultimate eschatological day, which is
the day of reckoning and judgment, known as the Day of the Lord"
(1977:416). This, however, does not envision a 24 hour period,
but a longer, indefinite time, when all the events foretold by
the prophets will be fulfilled. It would begin with the Second
Coming of Jesus (9:28) and would extend through the judgments
at the beginning and end of the millennium (Rev 20), to the creation
of the new heavens and earth.
(35). 10 26. Bruce remarks, 'We shall not
properly understand the anxiety [in the early church] which this
problem caused unless ,we realize that the kind of sin which in
practice aroused greatest concern was sexual irregularity. It
was precisely here that the ordinary canons of everyday behavior
differed most as between Christians and pagans. We may think today
that equal attention ought to be paid to the other six deadly
sins; the fact remains that this was the one which involved the
greatest heart-searching in the Christian community" (1964:260).
A refusal to follow Christian standards of morality may well mark
the beginnings of the kind of apostasy brought before us in 10:26-31.
(36). 10:37-31. The Hebrew of the Habakkuk
quotation reads:
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will not delay.
See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright---
but the righteous will live by his faith. (Hab 2:3-4)
The Septuagint text reads:
Because the vision is yet for an appointed time,
and it will appear at length and not in vain;
if he is late, wait for him;
because he will surely come, he will not delay.
If he draws back my soul has no pleasure in him,
but my righteous one will live by faith [faithfulness].
It is clear that the writer of Hebrews feels free to rearrange
the order of the sentences here and to put a somewhat different
emphasis on the words. The revelation (or vision) which is to
come, seen in the Hebrew text, is viewed by the writer as a reference
to Christ. He denotes him as "the Coming One," which
is the title given to the Messiah by John the Baptist (Mt 11:3).
When the Hebrew text says, "Behold his soul is puffed up
. . . but the righteous shall live by faith," it is a test
to distinguish the coming prophet from one who is false. The LXX
says instead, "If he draws back . . ." which seems to
be the result that follows one whose "desires are not right."
The writer of Hebrews adopts that wording but refers it to the
apostate who turns away from truth. By placing the phrase "my
righteous one" before this, he makes it the subject of both
pans of the verse. His thought is, if the righteous one endures
by faith, he will gain the promised reward; if he draws back,
he will show himself apostate. This freedom to rearrange an Old
Testament text without destroying its basic meaning is characteristic
of the New Testament writers who knew themselves to be the spokespersons
of the Holy Spirit.
(37). 11:1. Scholars debate the exact meaning
of the words hypostasis ("assurance" or "substance")
and elenkos ("certainty" or "evidence").
The NIV and RSV follow the first set of meanings ("assurance"
and "certainty") the KJV, the latter. Westcott points
out that the KJV text reflects the unanimous usage of the Greek
and Latin fathers, and, I believe, is more in line with the argument
of Hebrews to this point. To say, "Faith is the substance
of things hoped for" is to see faith as being able to enjoy
in the present something largely intended for the future.
This is surely the sense intended in 6:5, "tasted. . . the
powers of the coming age." Thus the invisible entities such
as love, peace, joy, courage, are made evident in the lives of
those who walk by faith. Hence my title for this chapter---"Faith
Made Visible."
(38). 11:4. The LXX says Cain's offering
was not "divided rightly" though it offers no explanation
as to what that meant. Philo described Abel's offering as "living"
in contrast to Cain's which was "lifeless." Josephus
suggested that God is more pleased with things which grow spontaneously
than with that which is "forcibly produced by the ingenuity
of covetous man," by which he apparently meant that Cain
had to work harder than Abel! The Puritan scholar John Owen, followed
by many today, linked the offerings with Hebrews 9:22, "without
the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" and insisted
that Cain's bloodless offering was the reason for his rejection.
But neither offering is ever said to be a sin offering. The offering
of firstfruits was included later under the law as acceptable
worship of God. Scripture attaches no blame to Cain for the offering
he brought; it was the condition of his heart in bringing it that
caused its rejection.
(39). 11:25. Bruce (1964:286-289) gives excerpts
from intertestamental wisdom literature which show how widely
Enoch was accepted as the earliest of the prophets.
(40). 11:10. A city which has foundations
. . . Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any mention of
such a city. However, the concept of a city is prominent in the
Old Testament from the beginning. Cain built a city in the land
of Nod, naming it after his son Enoch (Gen 4:17), and after the
flood men built the city of Babel, which they saw as an instrument
to achieve fame and security (Gen 11:4). Abraham is called to
leave the city of Ur of the Chaldees, a highly developed commercial
center with schools and a library, and it should not be surprising
that he would expect a city to be built ultimately in the land
of Canaan to which he was called. This would be what Paul calls
"the present city of Jerusalem" which pictures the "Jerusalem
that is above" which he says is "our mother" (Gal
4:26). Just as the land of Canaan itself was a picture of a heavenly
rest, so other earthly cities could only faintly shadow the city
with foundations which God would plan and build. It would be this
heavenly city which Abraham's faith envisaged that would enable
him to wait patiently through a lifetime of nomadic existence.
(41). 11:11. Many commentators are troubled
by the phrase which the NIV translates was enabled to become
a father, especially since in the Greek "Sarah herself"
is in the nominative case which would make her the subject of
the sentence. The Greek is dynamin eis katabolen spermatos
elahen, literally, "received power unto the laying-down
of seed." It is generally agreed that this refers to the
depositing of semen by the male, rather than the presenting of
an ovum by the female. Thus Abraham must be the subject here.
Two alternatives have been proposed for understanding the phrase
aute Sarra steira ("Sarah herself barren"). One
is that taken by, the NIV here; namely, that the phrase is a Hebraic
circumstantial clause---"and Sarah herself was barren."
The other possibility is that the phrase is a dative of accompaniment
(with the iota subscripts absent in the uncial script). Thus we
should translate: "By faith he [Abraham] also, together with
Sarah, received power to beget a child . . ." (Bruce 1964:302---see
the discussion 299-302.) In either case, the explicit mention
of Sarah should be seen as a commendation of her faith as well.
(42). 11:26. It is difficult to know what
aspects of Christ Moses saw that so powerfully turned him from
the transient treasures and pleasures of Egypt. The Hebrew word
for Christ ("Anointed One") did not have the associations
with the life of Jesus that the word Christ has for us today.
Yet there was an unmistakable Presence which Moses and other Old
Testament characters sensed, which they associated with God, and
which they valued in a personal and intimate way (Ex 33:14-15).
Paul could say of the Israelites in the wilderness, "they
drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that
rock was Christ" (I Cor 10:3).
(43). 12:1. Another possible translation
for the sin that so easily entangles is "the sin which is
in good standing" that is, popular or admired by many. Westcott
says of this, "The from of the word is favourable to this
sense" (1889:393). This meaning would apply equally well
to the sin of unbelief, since this is widely approved by a world
which easily ignores the word of God, and even by many Christians
who take the exhortations of Scripture lightly.
(43). 12:2. Bruce sees the joy set before
him as his exaltation at the right hand of the throne of God.
However, he adds, "His exaltation there, with all that it
means for His people's well being and for the triumph of God's
purpose, . . . is 'the joy that was set before him' " (1964:353).
Thus he too sees the ministry of Jesus to his people as part of
the joy he desired so greatly that he scorned the agony and shame
of the Cross.
(45). 13:2. Perhaps a caution should be added
in this violent age against a mechanical or legalistic practice
of this exhortation. Due care should be exercised with strangers
to guard against admitting those with criminal intent to a home
or those who habitually prey upon ingenuous people. There should
be clear evidence of the need of hospitality, and wisdom exercised
in perhaps including other trusted persons.
(46). 13:5-6 The Greek phrases for "Never
will I leave you never will I forsake you" constitute the
strongest expression of assurance possible. They may be interpreted:
"Never, under any circumstances ever. will I leave you!"
God promises to supply, as Paul stoutly avers (Phil 4:19), but
believers must allow him to do so in his own way and time, without
specifying either.
(47). 13:10. Is the altar mentioned here
a reference to the Lord's Supper, commonly called the Eucharist?
Many have thought so through the centuries. Though it is natural
to tie this to the Lord's words in John 6:53-54 ("Unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal life"), it cannot be demonstrated that the writer
of Hebrews has this in mind To take it as a direct reference to
the Eucharist has given strength to the concept of the Mass, which
views the bread and wine as transformed into the body and blood
of Christ. But the early church Fathers did not view this as the
Eucharist, for it is not till Cyprian, in the third century, "that
it [the altar] begins to be used as a synonym for the Lord's table"
(Hughes 1977:578). Even Thomas Aquinas states: "This altar
is either the cross of Christ, on which Christ was sacrificed
for us, or Christ himself, in whom and through whom we offer our
prayers" (Hughes 1977:578). Though the Lord's Supper presents
a magnificent occasion to inwardly feed upon the value of Christ's
sacrifice for us, it is probably not what was in the mind of the
author of Hebrews.
(48). 13:17. Several things should he noted
about Hebrews 13:17 and I Thessalonians 5:12. The word "obey"
comes from the Greek peitho, "to persuade." The
present imperative middle form, used here, means "permit
oneself to be persuaded, "yield to persuasion." It definitely
does not mean to blindly follow orders. The phrase those who are
over you in the Lord should simply be "your leaders in the
Lord." There is no thought of being "over" anyone,
or others being "under" a leader. The authority of a
Christian leader is not command authority, but servant leadership.
A servant has authority, as Jesus said he had, because he awakens
by his loving service a desire to comply. Or he is persuasive
because of his logic or knowledge.