Hebrews 4
A REST STILL OFFERED TO CHRISTIANS.
1 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into
His rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it.” This verse is a renewed
warning against remissness, based (as is shown by the
connecting οὖν - oun – then;
therefore) on the preceding argument, but introducing also, by means of the clause,
καταλειπομένης
– kataleutomenaes – of
being left - etc., a new thought, the
elucidation of which is the subject of what follows. The new thought
is that
the
true “rest of God,” typified only by
the rest of
the attainment of Christians. That this is the case has not
yet been shown;
and hence the clause, “a
promise being still left.” etc., does not point to a
conclusion already arrived at, but to what is coming. The
new thought is
taken up in v. 2, and what has been thus intimated in v. 1
is asserted as
a conclusion after proof in v. 9. ἄρα ἀπολείπεται
– ara apoleipetai – there
remaineth; consequently is being left, etc. A different view
of the drift of the warning in this verse, maintained very
decidedly by
Ebrard, demands attention. It rests on the interpretation of δοκῇ … ὑστερηκέναι·
-
dokae ……husteraekenai – seem….to come short; may be seeming…….to be deficient,
which is taken to mean “should
think that he has come too late,” i.e. for the promise
of the rest, under
the idea that its meaning had been exhausted in the rest of Canaan.
It may be said in support of this view that such is the
most obvious meaning of the
phrase; that δοκειν – dokein in the New Testament most commonly means “think”
or “suppose;” that the primary sense
of ὑστερειν – husterein – behind;
late, come too
late - is that of being behindhand, either in place or in time; and that the perfect
ὑστερηκέναι· is thus accounted
for, whereas, according to the usual
interpretation,
the whole phrase is unsuitable:
why was not ὑστερήση - husteraesae - written,
if
a mere warning against remissness
was intended? Further, it may be said that
what
immediately follows is in favor
of this view of the purport of the caution in v. 1,
being an evident carrying out of its idea. Thus the verse is supposed to be
not at
all a continuation of the previous hortatory section, but rather serving as the
thesis of the coming argumentative section, though put in
the form of a
caution because imperfect appreciation of the view to be
now established
was at the root of the danger of the Hebrew Christians.
Some of them at
least did not fully grasp the true character of the gospel
as being the fulfillment
of the old dispensation, the realization of its types and
promises.
They were inclined to rest in the Law as a revelation to
which the gospel
was only supplementary, and hence to regard the promised
land, the offer
of which was before their time, as the only rest intended;
and therefore the
writer, after adducing the example of the Israelites under
Moses as a
warning against remissness, prefaces his exposition. of the
true rest of God
by a warning against
misapprehending it. But against this
view of the
.meaning of δοκῇ … ὑστερηκέναι·
there are the following reasons:
(1) The word s φοβηθῶμεν
– phobaethomen – let
us fear; we may be being
afraid -suggests
rather (like βλέπετε – blepete – take heed) a warning
against conduct that might lead to forfeiture than a
correction of an
inadequate conception; and οὖν connects the warning with what has gone
before, in which the view of what the true rest is has not
entered.
(2) Though δοκεῖν is most
frequently used in the New Testament in its
sense of “thinking,” “seeming to one’s self,” yet it
has there, as in Greek
generally, the sense also of “appearing,” “seeming to others;” and certainly,
as far as the word itself is concerned, may have this sense
here. Also the
verb ὑστερεῖν, though its primary idea (as of ὑστερος – husteros – latter;
coming after; later, afterwards) is that of “coming
after,” is nevertheless
invariably used in the New Testament to express “deficiency,” or “falling short” ῖ
(especially in this Epistle, ch.12:15): it is never
elsewhere (though capable of
the meaning) used to express
lateness in time.
(3) The phrase, δοκῇ … ὑστερηκέναι·
- in the sense of “seem to have fallen
short” (rather than ὑστερήση is capable of being
accounted for. One
explanation of it, adopted by Alford, is indeed hardly
tenable. He accounts
for the past tense by supposing reference to the final
judgment; taking it to
mean, “lest any one of you should then appear [i.e.
be found] to have fallen
short.” But the word δοκεῖν, which, however used,
refers, not to what is
made evident, but to what is thought or seems, refuses to
be thus
misinterpreted. It is better to take it as a softening
expression. We may
suppose that the writer (with a delicacy that reminds us of
Paul) was
unwilling to imply his own expectation of any failure; and
so he only bids
his readers beware of so
living as even to present the appearance of it or
suggest the thought of it to others. According to this view, the tense of
ὑστερηκέναι· is intelligible, the
supposed deficiency spoken of being
previous to its being perceived or suspected. It is not necessary
to supply
an understood genitive, such as “the promise,” or “the
rest,” after
ὑστερηκέναι·. It may be used (as elsewhere) absolutely, to express
deficiency or failure; i.e. in the conditions
required for attainment. One
view of its meaning is that it has reference to the idea of
being behind
in a race: but there is nothing in the context to suggest
this figure.
(4) It is not
necessary that this verse should express only the idea of the
following argument; it does sufficiently express it in the
clause,
καταλειπομένης
– kataleutomenaes – of
being left, etc.; and it is in the style
of this Epistle to connect new trains of argument by a
continuous chain of
thought with what has gone before (compare the beginning of
chapters 2
and 3). Though there is uncertainty as to the sequence of
thought in the
several clauses of the following argument (vs. 2-11), its
general drift is clear.
Its leading ideas are these: The
invitation to enter God’s rest contained in
the psalm shows that the rest of
had long been actually attained under Joshua, was not the
final rest intended.
What, then, is meant by this remarkable term, “my
rest,” i.e. God’s own rest?
Our thoughts go back to the beginning of the Bible, where a
rest of God Himself
is spoken of; where He is said to have rested on the
seventh day from all His
works. Participation, then,
in that heavenly rest — a true sabbath
rest with
God — is what the
term implies. Though this rest began “from the
foundation of the world,” man’s destined share in if, however long delayed,
was intimated by the typical history of the Israelites
under Moses, and by
the warning and renewed invitation of the psalm. This
renewed invitation
makes it plain that it is still
attainable by God’s people. It has at
last been
made attainable by Christ, who, as our great High
Priest, has Himself
entered it, and leads us into it if we are
but faithful.
2 “For
unto us was the gospel (or, a gospel)
preached, as well as unto them:
but the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it.” The meaning and purpose
of the first part of this verse is
plain, as is also the general intention of the second; viz. to account
parenthetically
for the gospel to the Israelites under Moses having failed of
its purpose, and at
the same time to
renew the warning of their example with respect
to the gospel
now preached to Christians. But the passage is still one of
singular difficulty, on
account both of the various readings of it, and of the
peculiarity of the
language used whatever reading be adopted. With respect to
the various
readings, the main and indeed only important question is between:
(1) συγκεκερασμένος
– sugkekerasmenos – being mixed with; having been
Blended together - agreeing with λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς – logos taes akoaes - word of
the tidings; word preached, and:
(2) συγκεκερασμένους, agreeing with ἐκείνους, - ekeinous
– those; them.
The variation between συγκεκεραμ and συγκεκερασμ (being mixed with)
being only different forms of the participle, does not
affect the meaning.
Then the readings τῶν ἀκουσἀντων and τοῖς ἀκούσθείσιν for τοῖς ἀκούσασι
rest on such slight authority, and are so likely to have
been substitutions
(the latter to make the reading συγκεκερασμένους, intelligible), that
they
need not be considered.
(1) The reading of
the Textus Receptus,
following the Vulgate, is
μὴ συγκεκραμένος
τῇ πίστει
τοῖς ἀκούσασιν – mae
sugkekramenos tae
pistei tois akousasin
– no having been blended together with the faith
to
the ones hearing. But:
(2) the great
preponderance of ancient authority (including that of all the
uncial manuscripts except a) supports συγκεκεραμένους,or
συγκεκερασμένους,. The latter, then, must be accepted as the true
reading, if authority alone is to be our guide. But then
comes the difficulty
of making any sense of it. The only way of doing so is to
understand τοῖς
ἀκούσασιν (those who heard
in the sense of “those who hearkened;” the sense
of the passage being “The
word of hearing did not profit them,
because they were not united by faith with those who not
only heard, but
hearkened and obeyed.” Most
of the Fathers, reading συγκεκερασμένους,,
take τοῖς ἀκούσασιν to refer in this sense to Caleb and Joshua. But, if
what has been said above be true as to these exceptions to
the general
unbelief not having been in the writer’s mind, such an
allusion is highly
improbable. Some take τοῖς ἀκούσασιν with no historical reference,
but as denoting hearkeners generally. Alford, however,
though
adopting this as the best solution of an acknowledged
difficulty, confesses
himself not satisfied with it, as well he may. A very
serious objection to
either view, even apart from the strangeness of the whole
expression if
such be its meaning, is that, though the verb ἀκούειν (hear) is certainly used
elsewhere in the sense thus assigned to it, the whole
context here suggests
different one. Compare supra (ch.3:16),
τίνες γὰρ ἀκούσαντες
παρεπίκραναν
–
tines gar akousantes parepikranan – for some when they had heard; and
especially ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς – ho logos taes akoaes – the word
preached;
hearing; tidings – immediately preceding. ἀκοῆς,- (denoting hearing only),
seems to have suggested the use of the
participle ἀκούσασιν (ones hearing),
to which it would therefore be
most unnatural
to assign a different meaning.
If, then, all devices for making sense of the
best supported text prove
unsatisfactory, and if the Textus Receptus gives an intelligible meaning, we
might surely be justified in adopting the
latter, however ill supported. Internal
evidence (though great caution
should be used in our estimate of it) need not
yield entirely to external, nor
common sense to authority, in the determination
of true readings. But in this case the argument
from internal probability has now
been strengthened by the discovery of the reading συγκεκερασμένους in
the Sinaitic Codex (a). This,
then, being adopted, though the expression be
peculiar, the meaning is no longer obscure, whether we take
τῇ πίστει
(with
faith) or τοῖς ἀκούσασιν (the ones hearing) as governed by συγκεκερασμένος.
It may be either that “the word of hearing did not profit them
because it was
not mingled with
their faith to those that heard;” or “because it was
not mingled
by faith with
those that heard it.” In the latter case
the idea is that of the necessity
of the spoken word entering
the heart, and being (so to speak) assimilated by the
hearers through the instrumentality of faith, in order to profit
them.
Believers in
PROSPECT OF ANCIENT
The Hebrew people had a promise
which was given to Abraham as trustee
for his descendants, which was that after many years of
suffering in
they should be released from slavery and oppression, and be led
to the rest
and enjoyment of
declaration of the kindness and mercy of Jehovah, and flowed from his
love
toward
with the blessings of goodness, and meets us with the offers of
grace and
loving-kindness. This thought pervades the gospel, which is the free and
unsolicited gift of God to the world; for there was no cry of
spiritual
distress and no agony of remorse which prompted men to desire
salvation.
The whole of the Christian
system is suffused with the light and beauty of
the “promises
of Him who cannot lie” (ch. 6:18;
Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2).
This required on the part of
to set forth from
the Divine guidance, that God might bring upon them all that
He had spoken.
Similarly believers in our Lord
are to “work out their salvation with fear and
trembling” (Philippians
2:12), and are to leave the things that are behind and
reach forth to those that are before (Ibid. ch.
3:13).
and those who believe in Christ are to seek the end of their
faith in their
admittance into the Father’s house, where, instead of perishable tent
and
frequent change, there are many mansions of stability and eternal
peace.
(John 14:1-4) It is a promise of rest. The Hebrews felt
that in
they did not belong to the nation in whose country they dwelt.
They had no
thought of permanence, no civil freedom, no security of person,
and no
fruit from their exacted labors. It may be believed that the
promise and
prospect of
for emancipation. The prospect of rest began to be very
precious as
suffering abounded; and at the appointed time they rose to commence
the
journey to the Promised Land. Those who believe in the Captain of
salvation have a Diviner hope, and are taught to look for a Divine and
eternal rest, which shall
embrace more blessedness than we can at present
imagine. It stands in happy contrast to the toil of daily life and
the sight of
imperfection in ourselves and others. It signifies rest from the stern
duties
of the mortification and crucifixion of the flesh. It is
freedom from the
changeableness of our present life, in which there is nothing stable in
our
emotions, our relationships, and the society of which we form a
part. It is a
blessed contrast to the mixed condition of the present state in
which there
are evil men and frequent doubts. Believers
often look towards this
divinely promised rest to encourage patience amidst the pressure
of
sickness and the force and frequency of temptation. It is, therefore, no
wonder that Richard Baxter, who was burdened with frequent
sickness,
and tried by the controversies and troubles of his day, should
find relief in
writing his ‘Saint’s Rest,’ which was at once the fruit of his
painful
experience and his spiritual desire for the rest of heaven.
RESEMBLE ANCIENT
THEIR REST.
The prospect of
the Hebrews, since it assured them of a happy change in their
condition. It
brought before them the hope of freedom and the possession of a
land,
which had a fertile soil and a genial climate. It promised them
the blessing
of the Divine protection, ordinances of worship, and life
closed in peace
and hope of the future. This was good tidings to them. Good tidings of
great joy are made known to us. They were announced by our
Lord, who
came to seek and save that which was lost, and to offer the
blessings of
salvation from sin now, and the perfection of our nature in the
life and
immortality which he has brought to light. He offers us pardon,
justification, and the indwelling of the Spirit, who becomes the earnest
of
the purchased possession. Many of the people who started from
never reached
were buried in the wilderness, and exclaimed, “We
are consumed by thine
anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.” (Psalm 90:7) They failed in faith,
and doubted the promises of the God of their fathers. Had they
believed
their faith would have been turned into sight, and their hope
into happy
fruition. The Word did not profit
them (v. 2), for they came short of
the rest
and blessedness of
and is conveyed through them to others of succeeding ages,
reminds us of the
vast and FATAL EFFECTS OF UNBELIEF! The truth which they heard
was not felt and held as a Divine utterance. It teaches us
that the gospel should
be so admitted to influence and govern us, that it should be
a part of our
nature, as food received and digested becomes a part of our
living structure. It
is faith which gives it a presence and power in the vital
forces of our souls. It
unites the truth to our spiritual nature with a close and blessed
association;
and verifies the word of James, who describes it as “the engrafted Word,
which is able to save our souls.” (James 1:21) The importance of faith is to
be seen in our
Lord’s constant requirement of its presence for the attainment
of salvation. The apostles follow in His hallowed footsteps,
and urge
believers to cherish this Divine grace lest
their career should end in
disappointment and failure. To come short of
because there was a loss of good, and life was closed under the
gloomy
sense of transgression; but to
lose the glorious inheritance of eternal life is
more affecting as the
awful future outweighs the small and fading
interests
of the life that now is. The possibility of
such a loss is sufficient to awaken
fear
The Gospel Profitless to an Unbelieving
Heart (v. 2)
With the Israelites their sin was not so much actual and
active unbelief, a
bold denial of Jehovah’s truth, as the lack of an actual and active faith.
There was no active spiritual energy in them to meet the
abundant energy
of
their liberating and guiding God. The parable of the seed in the four
kinds of ground may well be applied to them. The great bulk of them gave
not the
slightest real attention to any Divine word of promise or duty.
Some doubtless did mean to be docile, obedient, and
patient; and a few at
least must have been in real accord with Jehovah’s aim. But what
availed a
few,
if the bulk of the people sat before Jehovah in
carnal indifference? If
we
would profit by the greater gospel to us:
do, and yet on inquiry we
find we do it not. There is no mistake when a
man feels he is dealing with realities. And the way in which
we not seldom
talk of the gospel or behave when it is set before us shows
that to us it is
no reality. And yet, just because it is a reality, we shall have to deal with it
some day. True strength,
peace, and blessedness lie in RECONCILIATION
WITH GOD! To believe the gospel as true is to come to know this in
time.
But sooner or later we shall
have to know that strength, peace, and
blessedness LIE NOWHERE ELSE!
includes purification, trial, discipline, service. The gospel does
not always
look like a gospel. For instance, Jesus says, “It is expedient for you that I
go away.” (John 16:7)
The gospel has allowed its heralds and its recipients
to be put in prison and to go to death. Trust is needed in
the reality of love
behind the appearance of indifference; the heart of the
believer feeling God
to be near when to the worldly spectators it may seem that
nothing is near
but trouble, pain,
loss, confusion. We have to trust God as to His way,
His time,
or the gospel will be profitless to us.
BELIEVING THE FALSE. As our eyes look out upon the world with its
opportunities and its varied scenes, its paths for ambition and
adventure,
we make gospels for ourselves out of the things we see.
Nature seems full
of evangelists, and we believe everything they have to say;
and then at last
discover the gospel to be one of our own making. For the time the
false is
more attractive than the true, and we mix strong faith with our
hearing of
it. But as a true gospel is profitless without faith, so a
false gospel is
profitless, however strong the faith may be. God’s truth cannot do without
our faith, nor our faith
without God’s truth.
3 “For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into
my rest: although the
works were finished from the foundation of
the world.”
For we do enter into the rest, we who have believed (οἱ πιστεύσαντες, -
oi pisteusantes – which
have believed; the ones believing - the
historical aorist,
pointing to the time when
Christians became
believers; with a reference also
to τῇ πίστει
[with faith] in the preceding verse: but the emphasis is on the first
word in the sentence, εἰσερχόμεθα – eiserchometha – we are
entering -
“For we Christian believers have an entrance into
the rest intended”) even
as he hath said,
As I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my
rest; although the
works were finished from the foundation of the
world. This seems to be a concise enunciation of the proof,
unfolded in the
verses that follow, of the true rest being one into which
Christians have still
an entrance. The idea is that, though God’s own rest had
been from the
beginning, and man had not yet entered it, yet the possibility of his doing so
had not ceased to be intimated: IT HAD CONTINUED
OPEN
POTENTIALLY TO MAN!
Rest a Present Possession of the Christian
Believer (v. 3)
“For we which have believed do
enter into rest.” The use of the
present
tense here (“do enter”) has
caused some difficulty to some expositors.
In “the idiom of the Bible, the present tense is
often used as a universal tense,
embracing time past, present, and future.” It is indisputable that
the words of
the
text, taken alone, suggest the subject which is stated above. And if further
justification of our application of the text be needed, we may adduce
two facts:
1. That our Lord promises rest — and, as we understand Him, present rest
— to those who believe in Him
(Matthew 11:28-30).
2. That faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ admits the soul into rest here and now
is
a fact of Christian consciousness. So we proceed to consider the rest
which is the present
privilege and possession of those who intelligently and
heartily believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. He:
Ø
reveals the infinite
mercy of God towards the sinner,
Ø
delivers those who
trust Him from the condemnation of the holy Law
which they have broken (John
3:14-18; Romans 8:1).
Ø
freely and fully
forgave the sinners who penitently approached unto
Him (Matthew 9:2; Luke 7:48-50).
Ø
imparts freedom from
the bondage of sin (John 8:31-36; Romans
6:12-22).
And from this forgiveness and
freedom from sin there follows rest from the
dread of the punishment of sin. Thus, as regards the guilt and
bondage and
punishment of sin, they who
believe in the Savior “do enter into rest.”
ATTAINED BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. There is
much of mental disquietude and distress amongst men as to the
possibilities
of their physical life and their temporal circumstances. What
if their health
should fail! if heavy losses should
befall them! if gaunt poverty or dreary
destitution should overtake them! Now, our Lord’s teaching as to the
paternal providence of God, when it is truly believed, delivers the
soul
from these distressing apprehensions and corroding cares (see
Matthew
6:25-34; 10:29-31; Luke 12:6-7,
22-31).
WILL IS ATTAINED BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Much of life’s unrest and
sorrow springs from the absence of acquiescence
in the will of God;
much of positive distress arises from the
opposition of
our will to his holy will. Faith in our Lord delivers from this. His revelation
of the Divine fatherhood, when it is heartily accepted, leads
to
acquiescence in the Father’s will, and that is rest, as He Himself
teaches
(Matthew 11:25-30). We are led
into the truth that:
“Our wills
are ours, we know not how;
Our wills
are ours, to make them thine.”
(Tennyson.)
And then into the higher
experience of:
“The heart
at rest
When all
without tumultuous seems —
That
trusts a higher will, and deems
That higher will, not mine, the best.
“O blessed
life — heart, mind, and soul,
From self-born aims and wishes free,
In all at one with Deity,
And loyal to the Lord’s control.”
(Matson.)
FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. One of the deepest needs
of the human heart is to love and to be loved in return.
Unreciprocated and
misdirected affections cause some of the bitterest griefs
of human life. Our
Lord summons us to set our
supreme affections upon God (Mark
12:29-30). As the Object of our highest and holiest love, God
Ø
satisfies,
Ø
inspires, and
Ø
delights the soul;
for He:
Ø
is supremely good and
beautiful;
Ø
reciprocates our
affections;
Ø
He is unchangeable,
and
Ø
He ever liveth.
“Oh for
that choicest blessing
Of living in thy love,
And thus
on earth possessing
The peace of heaven above!
Oh for the
bliss that by it
The soul securely knows,
The holy
calm and quiet
Of faith’s serene
repose!”
(Monsell.)
FROM THE DREAD OF
DEATH IS ATTAINED BY FAITH IN THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Concerning our beloved departed, “Jesus saith,
Thy brother shall
rise again.... I am the Resurrection and the Life,” (John
11:23-26) He has taken the sting from death and the victory from the
grave (I Corinthians
15:54-57). Our Savior Jesus Christ abolished death,
and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel. (II Timothy
1:10). And now to the genuine
Christian:
“There is
no death! What seems so is transition.
This life of mortal breath
Is but a
suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call death.”
(Longfellow)
To enter into and enjoy this spiritual rest is a
privilege available to us here
and now. “For
we which have believed do enter into that rest.”
4 “For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
And
God did rest the seventh day from all His
works. 5 And
in this place again,
If they shall enter into my rest.” For He hath said somewhere (που – pou –
certain place; somewhere - compare ch. 2:6) of the seventh day on this wise,
And God rested the
seventh day from all His works (Exodus 20:11); and in
this place
again, If they shall enter into my rest. Here the argument is
carried out. The first passage quoted shows
what must be understood by the
“rest of God;” the
second shows that it still remains
open, that “it remaineth
that some should
enter thereinto.” This being the
case:
6 “Seeing
therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they
to whom it was first preached entered not
in because of unbelief:
7 Again,
he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day,
after so
long a time; as it is said, To day if ye
will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.” Since therefore it remains that
some should enter into it,
and they to whom
the good tidings were before preached entered not
in because of
disobedience, he again defineth a certain day, saying
in
David, after so
long a time, To-day; as it hath been before said, Today,
if ye will hear
his voice, etc. The continued openness
of the rest, and
the failure of the Israelites of old to enter it, are the
reasons why a further
day for entering was defined in the psalm. But here the
thought is
suggested that the Israelites had not finally
failed, for that, though those
under Moses did so, the next generation under Joshua did
attain the
promised laud. No, it is replied; the rest of the promised
land was but a
type after all; it was not the true rest of God: otherwise
the psalmist could
not have still assigned a day for entering it so long after
the arrival at
8 “For if
Jesus (Joshua) had given them rest,
then would he not afterward
have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth
therefore a rest to the
people of God.” For if Joshua had given them rest,
he would not have
spoken afterward
of another day. The conclusion is
now drawn: There
remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God; the true
nature of the rest intended being beautifully denoted by
the word
σαββατισμὸς – sabbatismos
– sabbathism; rest - which refers to the
Divine rest “from the
foundation of the world,” while the
offer of it
to true believers always, and not to the Israelites only,
is intimated by
the
phrase, “the people of God.”
Rest a Future Portion of the Christian
Believer (v. 9)
“There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God.” We have already
spoken of the rest which is the present privilege of the
Christian: “We which
have believed do enter into that rest.” (v. 3) But that does not satisfy all
our
desire and aspiration. We crave a deeper, fuller, more perfect rest than
we
enjoy here. The higher life at present is one of intense and, at times,
almost painful longing. Without
the prospect of something better than our
present best, our life would not
be satisfactory. (“If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” - I
Corinthians
15:19) “There remaineth
therefore a rest [a keeping of sabbath]
for
the
people of God.” This rest which is reserved is richer, fuller, more glorious
than that which is at present realized. The words used to express them
suggest this. The chief meaning of κατάπαυσιν (v. 3) is cessation, as from
work, pain, etc. The rest which it indicates is mainly
negative. But
σαββατισμὸς (v. 9) indicates a sabbath festal celebration, a holy keeping
of
sabbath; it comprises the rest of v. 3 and considerably
more. Let us consider
what this sabbath rest which remains
for the people of God consists in.
WHICH CHARACTERIZE OUR
negative aspect of the rest, or what we shall rest from.
Ø
Rest from the struggle against sin. The people of God in
heaven are
more than conquerors over sin and Satan “through Him that loved”
them (Romans 8:37). The great tempter, and solicitation to sin, will
be entirely and eternally excluded from that bright
and blessed world.
(“And the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:10)
“There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,”
(Ibid. ch.
21:27)
Ø
Rest from suffering, both physical and mental. “They shall hunger
no
more, neither thirst any more” (Ibid. ch. 7:16-17). “The
inhabitant
shall not say, I am sick.” (Isaiah 33:24) “And God shall wipe away
every tear from their eyes,” etc. (Revelation 21:4).
Ø
Rest from the mystery and burden of life. In our present state
there are
seasons of darkness and perplexity when trust and hope in God
involve
painful effort to some souls. Such efforts will not be demanded in
the
blessed hereafter. Much that to us is now obscure will then be
perfectly
clear. The pure light of
eternity will chase away the grim shadows
of
time; and what is to
us unknown in heaven will awaken neither dread
nor doubt.
Ø
Rest from toilsome, anxious, discouraging labor. No more men and
women and children compelled to labor on long after their
physical
powers are tired out. No more forcing of the brain to continued
effort when it already aches wearily by reason of its toils. No
further
summons to works of social or moral amelioration, which must be
prosecuted despite difficulty, discouragement, opposition, and
seeming failure. The Sabbath rest
which remaineth for the people
of God precludes
all these things.
BLESSED CONDITIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH OUR
NATURE CRAVES. This is
the positive aspect of our rest, or what we
shall rest in.
Ø
In the conformity of our character to that of God. Purity is peace.
Holiness is rest. The perfectly holy is THE INFINITELY AND
EVER-BLESSED
GOD! The saints in heaven “have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 7:14) Nor is their holiness the mere negation of
moral evil,
but a positive and active condition of their being. Their
thoughts,
sympathies, aspirations, services, are all true and pure and
benevolent.
They are spiritually
transformed into the image of the Lord.
And in
this there is rest and blessedness.
“I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness.” (Psalm 17:15)
Ø
In the progress of our being towards God. Stagnation is not
rest.
Stationariness is not rest; it is stillness, inaction, but not rest. But
harmonious growth is both restful and joyous. One of the
constituents of the future rest of the good is growth — growth
in mind and heart and spirit, in thought, and affection,
and
reverence, and holy action.
In endless approximation to the
infinitely Holy One will man find the rest and perfection of
his being.
Ø
In the continuous service of God. As this rest is a
“keeping of
sabbath,” it
cannot mean a complete cessation of activity.
Inactivity is not rest.
“Sloth yieldeth not happiness; the bliss
of a spirit is action;’
“An
angel’s wing would droop if long at rest,
And God
Himself, inactive, were no longer blest”
So we read of the bright future
that “His
servants shall serve Him,
and they shall see
His face.” (Revelation 22:3) “They are before
the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His
temple.”
(Ibid. ch.
7:15) T. Aquinas speaks of this service
as videre, amare,
et laudare (continue to love and praise) .
But it must not be limited to
these exercises. Enough for us to know that there will be services for
us to render — continuous services, blessed
services, and ALL OF
THEM IN THE
SERVICE OF OUR GOD! The rest and joy of
this service will appear if we consider:
o
Its inspiration. Love to God is the
impulse of every action,
and transforms every duty into a delight.
o
Its nature. Every service will be
sacred. The spirit in which
it is done will make all the work religious, worshipful.
o
Its conditions. Freedom from all obstruction, from all
restraint, and from all fatigue.
Ø
In conscious and continuous communion with God. “He will
dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them, their God, And they shall see His face.”
(Revelation 21:3; 22:4) “We shall see Him
even as He is.”
(I John 3:2) All the
redeemed in heaven are through Christ
perfectly one with God in
sympathies, purposes, principles, and
joys. GOD ALONE CAN SATISFY THEM! In Him they rest
with deepest, holiest blessedness. They are “forever with the
Lord.” (I Thessalonians
4:17) “In thy
presence is fullness of joy;
at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
This rest is “reserved for the people of God.” (I Peter 1:4)
Only the sincere and
hearty BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST
will ever enter upon
it. The character of the rest is conclusive as
to this question. To experience the
perfect rest of the glorious
future we must first experience THE SPIRITUAL
REST
WHICH IS AVAILABLE
TO US AT THE PRESENT!
The True Sabbatic
Rest (v. 9)
Note here the word employed — σαββατισμὸς (the keeping of the Sabbath).
This
the
only occurrence of the word. It is preceded and followed by another word for
rest — κατάπαυσις (a pausing; a cessation).
There must be something in the abrupt
utterance for just once of this word in (see v. 9). The different
word must emphasize
difference of meaning. The difference seems to lie here, that there
are two kinds of
rest to be thought of — one the rest from toil and exertion, the rest to the
weary; the other rest of cessation from work, because something
is
complete. Thus we have two views of the Christian’s future.
The σαββατισμὸς must include the κατάπαυσις: but, then, there may
also be the κατάπαυσις every day and all day
long. To rest the body after
toil is very important, but more
important is it to be able to rest the heart.
There are only too many who get
no proper rest of body on Sunday
because their hearts are full of unrest. It is more than can be
expected from
imperfect humanity that we should attain this constant restfulness
of spirit;
but let it be understood that the cause lies in our
imperfections, and not in
any absolute necessity of the case. Rest is begun in a trustful heart, and the
more trust the more rest. Much of the weariness of
life comes from our
own needless, useless struggling.
We make toilsome work by our ambitions
and our fears. People prefer the toiling and the care of the life of sight to
the rest of the life of trust. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” (Psalm 116:7)
true σαββατισμὸς. Why is the other
kind of rest, the rest from toil,
necessary? Because man is fallen. He works
not according to the pure,
original power of his creation, but under constraint; duty and
inclination
too often opposed; or, if not in opposition, there is immense
friction
between them. But if there had been no fall, the work of each
individual
man would have gone on calmly, equably, till it was done. Then
the
σαββατισμὸς would come. Look at man on parallel lines from God. God
works out the great scheme and order of creation, and then
ceases
creating; but He is not weary when the work is done. God makes men
in His
own image; and the universal human race has its work to do,
with each
individual working in his proper place. Then, when the work is done,
comes the sabbatism. Let
this nobler view of rest be ours. In the heat of
noonday it is permitted that we look to the sunset and think of
rest from
toil. But let us also take
pride in the work we have to do, thinking that
some day, by the Spirit of God working in us, the workmanship
will be
complete. (“For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.” –
Ephesians 2:10) God
will have His particular
sabbatism in
us; and. we, complete in Christ, (“The
Lord shall
perfect that which concerneth me” – Psalm 138:8), shall get our
sabbatism with
God
10 “For he
that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, as God did from His.” For he that is entered into His
rest
(God’s, as before) hath himself also
rested from his works, as from his
own God. There are two ways of
understanding this verse. Its general
intention is, indeed, clear. It accounts for the use of the word σαββατισμὸς
which precedes,
expressing that the true meaning of “God’s rest” is not
satisfied by any
earthly rest, but only by one like His. The
question is
whether the verse is to be taken as a general proposition or as
referring
specifically to Christ. In favor of the latter view is the aorist κατάπαυσιν –
katapausin – ceased;
stopping. The literal
translation would be “He that
entered… Himself also rested.” Ebrard, on this ground, strenuously
defends the reference to Christ; and also on the ground of parallelism
with
ch.2:9 in the first division of the general argument. In
the first division (ch. 2)
the course of thought was — Dominion over creation has been
assigned to man:
man has not attained it: Jesus has; and in Jesus man fulfils his destiny.
In this second division the corresponding course of thought is — God’s rest
has been offered to man: man has not attained it: Jesus
has; and in
Jesus
man may enter it. And thus (as
has been explained above) the conclusion
that Jesus is the High
Priest of humanity is led up to by two
parallel lines
of argument. But the third of the
propositions of the second line of argument
(corresponding to ch.2:9 in the first) is not distinctly
expressed unless it be in
the verse before us; and
therefore this verse, on this ground as well as that of
the use of the aorist, is taken to refer to Christ. On the
other hand, it is
argued that, if a specific reference to Christ had been
intended, He would
have been mentioned, so as to make the meaning clear; and
secondly, that
the aorist κατάπαυσε (rest) is legitimate, though the proposition be a general
one. Delitzsch explains it thus:
“The author might have written κατάπαυσει
or (more classically) κατάπἐπαυται: but he has taken up into the main proposition
the κατἐπαυσιν (rested), which properly
belongs (according to Genesis 2:2) to
the clause of comparison: whosoever has entered God’s rest,
of him the
κατέπαυσεν
……ἀπὸ ….τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ - katepausen…..apo….ton ergon
autou – rested….from….his
work - holds
good in the same manner as
of God. And, further,
it is to be observed that the Greek aorist may
sometimes be put for the present, “to express an action
completely
determined, every doubt as to its truth and unalterableness being removed”
(Matthiae, ‘Greek Grammar,’ § 506). In this instance the idea
might be — he
that has entered into God’s rest rested, when he so
entered, from all his
works, etc. On the whole,
it appears that specific reference to Christ is not
apparent from the immediate context, or required by the
mere language
used. Still, in consideration of the general argument, we
may take the
writer to have meant his readers to understand that it was Christ who had
so entered the rest of God, so as to lead God’s people
into it. That this is
so appears from v. 14, Ἔχοντες οὖν ἀρχιερέα μέγαν διεληλυθότα
τοὺς
οὐρανούς – Echontes oun
archierea megan dielaeluthota tous ouranous –
Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens –
which seems to require that preceding link of thought. Among man’s
deepest
feelings is A LONGING FOR
REST! Haply
in the freshness
and ardor of early life not
deeply felt, it recurs from time to time, and
grows stronger with advancing years. Nothing in life
fully satisfies this
longing. (God made it this way! “…..He hath set the world in their
heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to the end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 – CY – 2014) Labors,
distresses,
disappointments, anxieties, never allow the desired repose. Few there are
whose hearts have not sometimes echoed the psalmist’s
words, “Oh that I had
wings like a dove! For then would I flee away, and be at rest!” (Psalm 55:6)
Many since Job have felt something of his longing to be where “the
wicked
cease from troubling, and
the weary are at rest.” (Job
3:17) Is there to
be no satisfaction ever of this deep human craving? Holy
Scripture
meets it as it meets all others. It spoke of a rest of God above creation
from the beginning of time; it intimated man’s part and
interest in it by the
weekly sabbath which he was to
keep with God. But this was, after
all, but
a symbol and earnest of something unattained. At length a
fuller realization
of the longed-for rest was held out to the chosen people,
and the Promised
Land was pictured beforehand in the colors of an earthly
Forfeited, when first offered, through the people’s
unworthiness
(representing by an historical parable the bar to man’s
entrance into the
eternal rest), it was attained at
last. BUT THE
TRUE REST STILL
CAME NOT!
unattained. Yet the
old longing for rest went on, and inspired men went on
proclaiming it as attainable and still to come. Fulfilled in Christ are:
He, when He had passed with us through this earthly scene
of labor, entered,
with our nature, into that
eternal rest of God, to prepare a place for us, having by
HIS ATONEMENT removed the
bar to human entrance. Through our
faith in
Him we are assured that our deep-seated craving for
satisfaction unattained
as yet, which we express by the term “rest,” is a true inward prophecy, and
that, though we find
it not here, we may through
Him, if we
are faithful,
confidently EXPECT IT
THERE, where “beyond these voices there is peace.”
There now follows (vs. 11-14) a renewal of the warning of
ch.3:7-4:1, urged
now with increased force in view
of the danger of slighting such
A REVELATION AS THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE,
after which (v. 14, etc.) come words of encouragement,
based on the view,
now a second time arrived at, of
Christ being our great High Priest. And
thus the exposition of His priesthood, which follows in ch. 5, is led up to.
11 “Let us
labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief.” Let us therefore do our diligence (σπουδάσωμεν –
spoudasomen - so translated
in Authorized Version. (II Timothy 4:9, 21) to enter
nto that rest, lest
any one fall after the same
example of disobedience (ἀπειθεὶας –
apeitheias – disobedience; stubbornness - not ἀπιστίαν – apistian – which means
unbelief – as in ch. 3:19). It is a
question, though not at all affecting the general
sense of the passage, whether ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ
τις ὑποδείγματι
πέσῃ – en to tis
hupodeigmati pesae – fall under the same example - should not be translated
“fall into the same example.” Πἰπτεῖν ἐν – piptein en - has undoubtedly the
sense of “to fall
into,” and is frequently so used in
the Septuagint, and the
subordinate position of πέσῃ in the sentence — between
ὑποδείγματι and
τῆς ἀπειθείας is against its being used absolutely
as the emphatic word.
If so, the meaning will be “fall into the same exemplar of
disobedience,”
i.e. the kind of disobedience of which that of the Israelites was
a sample.
This interpretation of the phrase, is also that of the
Vulgate. Most modern
commentators take πέσῃ absolutely, as in Romans 11:11, and ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ
τις
ὑποδείγματι as meaning, “so as to present the same (i.e. a
like) example of
disobedience,” the ἐν, according to Delitzsch, being the ἐν of
state or condition.
The warning is next enforced by a vivid representation
of the penetrating and
resistless power
of the “Word of God.” The question arises whether “the Word
of God” is here to be
understood in John’s sense of the Hypostatic Word,
i.e. the Second Person of the holy Trinity, who became
incarnate in Christ.
It is so understood by the Fathers generally; and the fact
of this Epistle
being tinged generally with the thought and terminology of
Philo (whoso
use of the word λόγος, derived from the
Platonic philosophy in
combination with Jewish theology, seems to anticipate in
some degree,
however vaguely, the doctrine of John) gives some countenance
to the
view. But against it are the following considerations:
(1) Christ is not
elsewhere in this Epistle designated as “the
Word” but as
“the SON.” His eternal relation to the Father, though otherwise
plainly
intimated, is not expressed by this term, as it was by
John.
(2) The description
of the Word, as “sharper than any two-edged sword”
(v. 12), is not suitable to the Hypostatic Word Himself,
but rather to the
utterance of His power. Thus in Revelation 1:16, “the Son
of man,” and in
Revelation 19:15, “He whose name is called the Word of God,” has a
“sharp two-edged
sword proceeding out of his mouth.”
The sword is not
Himself, but that which “came
forth out of His mouth.” Compare saiah 11:4,
“He shall smite the
earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of
His lips shall He slay the wicked;” compare also Ephesians 6:17, “The
sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Hence, notwithstanding the
prevailing view of the Fathers, it seems best to understand
the term here as
meaning generally the Divine utterance, without definite
reference to the
Hypostatic Word. It was the Word of God, in this sense,
that debarred the
ancient Israelites from their rest, and doomed them in the
wilderness; it is
the same Word which still more, as being uttered in the
Son, is so
searching and resistless now. True, it is through the Hypostatic Word that
the Godhead has ever operated, of old as well as now, being
GOD’S
ETERNAL UTTERANCE O HIMSELF: the only question is whether
this truth is here intended to be expressed, or, in other words, whether
λόγος has here the personal sense in which John uses the term. It is possible
that the writer passes in thought to a personal sense in the ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ -
enopion autou – in His sight - of v. 13, where αὐτοῦ may refer to ὁ λόγος.
preceding, rather than to τοῦ θεοῦ (of God – v. 14). But certainly at the
beginning of the passage this specific sense does not seem to be suggested
either by the context or the language used.
The Gospel Rest (vs. 1-11)
In this passage the writer explains what is to be
understood by the “rest” to
which God had invited His ancient people, and urges the
Hebrews of his
own day to strive to attain it as the most Divine of all
blessings.
belongs essentially to God, for
He is all-perfect and self-harmonious. Being
infinite in purity and love, in
knowledge and power, He is the God of peace,
and dwells in undisturbed repose.
The rest of God is mirrored in the
institution of the sabbath (v. 4), which commemorates His satisfaction at
the close of His world-making,
when He saw thatH works “answered His
great idea,” and were “very good.” God’s own sabbath rest is the
substratum and basis of all
peace and rest — the pledge of an ultimate and
satisfactory purpose in
creation.
is the result of God’s fatherly
love. For man, although he has fallen from
his rest, is still the child of
God, beloved in spite of his sad apostasy, and
pitied on account of his weary
moiling in the pursuits of sin. The sabbath
instituted at the creation was
not this rest (vs. 3-5), but only a sign and
seal of it. Neither did the
possession of the promised land involve the
realization of the promised rest
(vs. 6-9); for Israel had never for any
time a restful life in Canaan,
and King David, nearly five hundred years
after the Hebrew occupation,
speaks of entrance into God’s rest as a
blessing which was still future
(Vs. 7-8). However, the settlement of
Israel in the land flowing with
milk and honey was an adumbration of the
gospel rest. And thus God
Himself said of Zion, “This is my rest for ever.”
(Psalm
132:14)
Joshua of our confession. He was
indeed the Hope of the Jewish Church
also in the time of the first
Joshua, whether the people realized Him to be
such or not. If we follow Him as
our “Leader and Commander,” our hearts,
even in this weary, changeful
world, will enter into true spiritual rest (v.3).
Christ brings us rest from
guilt, rest from self-righteous striving, rest
from wants, rest from fears,
rest amidst life’s burdens. In His “obedience
unto death” He labored and was heavy laden that He might give us rest.
If
we stay our minds on Him, we
shall be “kept in perfect peace” (Isaiah 26:3),
if we trust in Him, we shall
learn to rejoice that “the lines are
fallen unto us
in pleasant places, and that
we have a goodly heritage. (Psalm
16:6)
God has provided for us even in
this world perfect rest in Christ, the
limitation of our nature
prevents us meanwhile from fully
enjoying it; and
our besetting sins may continue
until the end to disturb our
tranquility. But
in the heavenly world the saints
shall be set free forever from sin and
temptation, from anxiety and
sorrow. They shall enter there into the perfect
sabbath-rest of God, and shall dwell in it throughout eternity (v.
9). His
love shall abide upon His
people, and their perfected love to Him shall
spring up within them unto
everlasting life.
Ø
Cherish godly
“fear” (v. 1).
Ø
Cultivate faith
in Christ (v. 3).
Ø
Be “united by
faith with them that hear” (v. 2) —
the Calebs and
the Joshuas.
Ø
“Give diligence to
enter into” the eternal rest (v. 11) by
“following the
Lord fully.”
12 “For
the word of God is quick, and powerful (or, effectual;
compare
Philemon 1:6; I
Corinthians 16:9), and sharper
than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Observe how the predicates
form a climax. The Word of God is, first, living,
instinct with the life
of the living God who utters it, itself a living power
(compare λόγια ζῶντα – logia zonta – lively; living oracles - Acts 7:38); then,
not only so, but also operative, effective of its purpose; then, in this its operation,
more keenly cutting than any sword; cutting so as to perpetrate through and
through — through the whole inner being of man to its
inmost depths; then,
in doing so, discerning and opening to
judgment all the secrets of his
consciousness. This description of the power of the Word of God is given as
a reason for the warning, σπουδάσωμεν – etc., Let us give
diligence, etc.; for,
if we slight the Word of God, we can have no escape from its
irresistible
operation; we shall be thoroughly exposed and inevitably
judged. The true
reading of the part of the
sentence, “of soul and spirit,” etc., ψυχῆς καὶ
πνεύματος, ἁρμῶν
τε καὶ
μυελῶν – psuchaes kai pneumatos,
harmon te
kai muelon – of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow - , the τε (both)
of the Textus
Receptus after ψυχῆς (soul) being ill supported. The second τε,
after ἁρμῶν (joints), is therefore
most naturally taken,
and so as to give the
best sense, in the sense of
“both,” not “and;” i.e. the second clause
is not to be
taken as denoting a further
dividing — of the
bodily parts as well as of the
soul and spirit, but as
expressing, by recurrence
to the figure of a sword, the
thoroughness of the division of soul and spirit. Further,
the division spoken
of is surely not of the soul from the spirit, as some have taken it. Delitzsch,
e.g.,
explains to this effect — that in fallen man his πνεῦμα (spirit), which proceeded
from God and carries in itself the Divine image,
has become, “as it were,
extinguished;” that “through the operation of grace man recalls to mind
his own
true nature, though shattered by
sin;” “that
heavenly nature of man reappears
when Christ is
formed in him;” and thus the Word of
God “marks out and
separates” the πνεῦμα in him from the ψυχῆ (soul) in which it had
been, “as it
were, extinguished.” Then, taking the clause, ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν (joints and
marrow), to express a further
process of dissection, he explains by saying that
the Word of God “exhibits to man the fact that ungodly powers are working
also in his bodily frame, which has now in every
joint and chord and marrow
become the seat of sin and death, and so “goes on to scrutinize” his bodily
as well as his spiritual part,” and “lays bare before the eyes of God and
before his own the whole man thus described.” But the idea of the
separation, in the above sense, of the πνεῦμα from the ψυχῆ, even if
tenable, is certainly far-fetched, and that of the
corporeal dissection
supposed is hardly intelligible. Further, the “dividing”
of the bodily parts
spoken of in the text (whether an illustration or a further
process) does not
suggest the separation of one part from another, since a
sword does not
divide the joints or the limbs (whichever be meant by apathy)
from the
marrow, though it may penetrate both. We may explain thus:
It is well
known that Paul divides man’s complex nature into body,
soul, and
spirit — σῶµα, ψυχῆ, πνεῦμα - soma, psuchae, pneuma (I Thessalonians 5:23).
His bodily organization (σῶµα)
is not apparently here under consideration,
except in regard to the figure of the sword; the ψυχῆ is his animal life or soul,
the seat (so to speak) of his sensations, and of his
natural affections and
desires; his πνεῦμα is the more Divine
part of his nature, in virtue of
which he has a conscience, aspires after holiness,
apprehends spiritual
mysteries, holds communion with God, and is influenced by
the Divine
Spirit. The
idea, then, is that, as a very keen sword not only cuts through
the joints dividing bone from bone, but also through the
bones themselves
into the marrow within them, so the
Word of God penetrates and discloses
not,, . only. the ψυχῆ but the πνεῦμα too, “piercing through
soul and
spirit, yea [with reference to the illustration used] through both joints
[or,
‘limbs’] and marrow.” Ebrard, taking ἁρμῶν in the sense of “limbs” (a
sense in which the word is used, though that of “joints”
is its proper and
more usual one), regards these and the “marrow” as corresponding
respectively to the ψυχῆ and the πνεῦμα: the ψυχῆ being understood as
“something lying deep in man, the πνεῦμα lying still deeper.” Thus as a
very trenchant sword cuts through, not only the limbs, but
also the marrow
within them, so the Word of God penetrates, not only that
part of human
consciousness which is expressed by ψυχῆ, but also that deeper
and more
inward part which is expressed by πνεῦμα. But the general sense of the
passage is plain enough without our supposing this strict
analogy to have
been intended. Expositors, in
their analysis of the meaning of passages,
may often detect more than the author thought of. On κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων
-
kritikos enthumaeseon - a discerner of; judge of in-feelings, of sentiments),
compare I Corinthians 14:24-25, where the effects of the
Word of God,
brought to bear through the gift of prophecy on one without
the gift entering
into a congregation of prophesying Christians, are thus
described: “he is
convinced of all,
he is judged;
[ἀνακρίνεται – anakrinetai - examined, scrutinized,’]
of all; the secrets of his
heart are made manifest; and so falling down on his face
he will worship
God, and report that God is in you [or,
‘among you’] of a truth.”
So searching and judicial is the power of the Word of God:
·
that it reaches and
discloses the inmost depths of a man’s consciousness —
·
discloses them to
himself, and, though he should resist, leaves
him:
Ø
without escape,
Ø
exposed and
Ø
judged.
Characteristics of the Sacred Scriptures (v.
12)
“For the Word of God is quick and powerful,” etc. We take “the Word
of
God” here as meaning the
sacred Scriptures, and the text as presenting to
our
notice several characteristics of them.
“living.” Sometimes the written Word is spoken of as a “dead letter;” but
with at least equal propriety it may be spoken of as a “living Word.” “The
Word of God, which liveth and abideth. For all flesh is as grass,” etc.
(I Peter 1:23-25). We mention
three evidences of the vitality of the Word
of God.
Ø Its continued
and unimpaired existence notwithstanding innumerable,
persistent, and powerful assaults. If these writings had
not been instinct
with a Divine life they would have been destroyed long ago..
Ø
Its adaptation to all ages and all peoples. This book is as true
and living
for us today as it was for the men of the second century of
our era; it is
as applicable to the European as to the Asiatic.
Ø
Its inexhaustible interest. Like God’s book of nature,
it is endless in its
significance and undiminishing in its
attractiveness. For nearly twenty
centuries men have thought and written upon that one Book, and if
for
twenty more centuries men so write, yet will there still remain
much
that calls for fresh examination and fuller inquiry; new
knowledge to be
won, old truths to be better and more fully understood. The books of
men have their day, and then grow obsolete. God’s Word is
like Himself,
‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever.’ (ch. 13:8) Time passes
over it, but it ages not. Its power is as fresh
as if God spake it
but yesterday.
or energizing. This power is seen:
Ø
In the conviction of men of sin. “Is not my Word like
a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29) Its exhibition
of infinite
mercy has melted many
a stubborn soul into genuine penitence.
Ø
In the conversion of sinners. “The Law of the
Lord is perfect,
converting the soul.” (Psalm 19:7)
It is the instrument of spiritual
regeneration. “Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth for
ever.” (I Peter 1:23)
Ø
In the correction of faults and errors. “Every Scripture
inspired of
God is
also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,” etc.
(II Timothy 3:16)
Ø
In the consolation of the mourner. “Whatsoever things
were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and
through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.”(Romans 15:4)
“He that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification, and
comfort,
and consolation.” (I
Corinthians 14:3) “Comfort one
another with
these words.” (I
Thessalonians 4:18)
Ø
In the sanctification of the believer. “Sanctify them in the truth: thy
Word is truth.” (John 17:17) “Ye are clean through the Word which
I have spoken unto
you.” (Ibid. ch.
15:3) “Sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the Word.” (Ephesians
5:26) “Ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth.” (I
Peter 1:22)
two-edged sword,” etc. The
Word of God is frequently compared to a
sword. “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God.” (Ephesians
6:17) And to a two-edged sword. “Out
of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword.” (Revelation
1:16) “As it is from the mouth that
man’s word proceeds; so this sword, not wielded in the hand, but
proceeding from the mouth of the Son of God, is His Word
(compare
Isaiah 49:2).” Here are two suggestions concerning the
penetration of God’s Word.
Ø
It searches the whole of man’s nature. The “soul,”
i.e. man’s animal
soul; “spirit,” i.e. man’s
religious spirit. By the former he is related to the
brute creation; by the latter he is related to angels and to God Himself,
who is the “Father of
spirits.” The Word enters the heart
and makes an
impression there; it pierces through even to the spirit, and works
mightily
there. It divides “both joints and marrow;” it
investigates the most
interior and hidden parts of man’s being.
Ø
It searches the whole of man’s nature most rigorously. “Even to the
dividing of soul and spirit;” not dividing the soul from the spirit, but
dividing the soul itself and the spirit itself. This Word is not as
an
ordinary sword, but is “sharper than any two-edged sword;”
and it
does not as an ordinary sword cut to the bone, but through the
bones
and through the innermost marrow. So
thoroughly and rigorously
does the Word of God search man’s moral nature.
the thoughts and intents of the heart.” It exercises a critical
and separating
power upon the:
Ø
thoughts and ideas,
Ø
opinions and principles, of the heart.
And it discovers to men the
true moral character of their thoughts and
intents, their opinions and principles. The Word of God frequently reveals
man to himself. The Bible:
Ø
exposes the very
innermost recesses of human nature;
Ø
sets a light where no
other hand ever placed a candle;
Ø
lights up the
pathways of our most secret life and thought;
and we begin to feel that the book we must shut up when we are
going
to do evil is God’s Book. This is the great hold, the
sovereign mastery,
which the Book of God has over the ages — that it knows us; that
it
gives articulation to our dumb reproaches; that it puts into the
best words
the things we reap against ourselves and cannot fully explain.
Esaias
knows us; Jeremiah has analyzed and dissected and anatomized us.
If any man would know the human
heart, he must read the human
heart in God’s Book.”
“The
sacred page
With calm
attention scan! If on thy soul,
As thou
dost read, a ray of purer light
Break in —
oh, cheek it not; give it full scope!
Admitted,
it will break the clouds which long
Have
dimmed thy sight, and lead thee, till at last,
Convictions,
like the sun’s meridian
beams,
Illuminate
thy mind.”
(Samuel Hayes.)
(I highly
recommend Amos 8 – The Blank Bible by Henry Rogers
– this
website – CY – 2014)
Characteristics of the Word of God (v. 12)
What is the connection with the context? Is it not this
that the Word of
God, living and abiding forever (I Peter 1:23), stands in its constant
living relation to every generation of men? So far as we are essentially in
the
position of that generation which came out of Egypt, so far as we have
Divine promises before us the conditions of which we may
neglect, so far
are
we the objects of the same Word of God. Essentially the same Divine
visitation, judicial visitation, comes on all who fail to show that
trust which
is
their duty. The same things must happen to all who will not believe what
is
true and trust what is trustworthy. And yet
what is here said of the Word
of
God only takes a threatening aspect if we choose to have it so. The
Word of God has a DOUBLE FUNCTION.
1.
It may penetrate,
physician-like, to heal, to purify, to illuminate
the depths and darknesses of our
being, or,
2.
it may penetrate
to furnish the irresistible evidence for our
condemnation.
It is sufficient, then, that we look at the characteristics
of God’s Word in
themselves. What they may become in action it is for us to decide.
duty, every word of promise, comfort, revelation of the unseen,
is like a
living being sent out into the world, going to and fro in the
earth, so that
none of us knows when, with all its fullness of life, it may
take hold of us.
“Moses,” says Stephen in his great discourse, “received the lively oracles
(λόγια ζῶντα – logia zonta – oracles living)
to
give to us.” (Acts 7:38)
It is well that we should bear
in mind how the written Scriptures, though
an invaluable help, are not an absolute necessity. Apart from
the living
Spirit of God which fills them
with life, they would be, perhaps, the least
comprehensible, the most perplexing, of antique writings. Nor must we
be forgetful of that Divine Logos spoken of at the beginning
of John’s
Gospel. In that Logos was life — life which was the
light of men.
The Word of God finding its
highest expression, the expression of
what would otherwise be ineffable in a manifested human life;
human, yet Divine; Divine, yet human.
peculiar way. Energetic, shall we say? Leaven — leavening the whole
lump, undermining cherished principles of worldly wisdom,
falsehoods,
prejudices, superstitions, and putting in their place the Christian —
the true
and the rational. Note the expression of Paul in II
Corinthians 4:12,
where he speaks of life energizing in us.
the characteristic most to be borne in mind, considering how
language is
multiplied and varied to declare it. The sword of the Spirit is the
Word of
God. Some plain word of God with the Spirit’s force behind it
is a sword,
sharper than any two-edged sword; and yet, unlike the carnal
weapon, it is
not for killing, nor for mischief. Here
is the penetrating power which
reveals all secrets, opens out all mysteries. It hacks its way in and in till it is
face to face with the real man. Every man has, as it were, a
holy of holies
with respect to others. They cannot get behind the veil. But
God is never
anywhere else in relation to us. His
ways are past finding out by us. But all
our ways in every winding are known to Him. And all this deep, infallible
searching is for our good.
The Power of the Divine Word (vs. 12-13)
The writer urges here that if the Word of God condemned the
unbelieving
Jews in the Sinaitic desert, it
will judge and condemn us also, should we
prove unfaithful. The original reference is, of course, not to
the written
Word; but, in applying the passage to ourselves, we can
think only of the
promises and warnings of Holy Scripture.
representation is very vivid and impressive. The Word is, as it were, a
magistrate; it judges actions, sifts motives, pronounces sentences.
As
such it is:
Ø
Living. It is “the breath of His lips” — God-breathed; and so it
is
never “a dead letter,” but always quick with spiritual life, and
ready
to quicken. What
Luther said of Paul’s writings is true of all Scripture:
its words “are not dead words; they are living
creatures, and have
hands and feet.”
Ø
Energetic. The actual power of the Word is as great as the authority
which it claims. It is, indeed, the supreme power among men. In the
moral sphere it dominates the thought of the world. To the individual
soul it is like “a fire “and “a hammer.” It is “sharper than any
two-edged sword” —
two-edged, because it both punishes as a
sword and heals as a surgeon’s knife.
Ø
Heart-dissecting.
The Word pierces into the deepest recesses
of man’s
being. It pricks men in their hearts. It parts “soul
and spirit,” “joints
and marrow;” i.e. it separates the animal soul from the angel-spirit in
human nature. It gives
sensibility and power to the heavenward side
of our being; and enables
us to distinguish what in us is carnal and
must be subdued. It marks off to the believer’s
consciousness “the
works of the flesh” from “the fruit of the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:19-23)
Ø
All-discerning.
The sacred writers evince a profounder
knowledge of
human nature than even Shakespeare or Goethe. God’s Word is the
touchstone of character. Rather it is an eye which detects the true
spiritual condition of every one upon whom it gazes. That awful
eye never closes. It reads the most secret thoughts and
desires of the
soul, and pronounces judgment upon the impenitent for doom.
Even the manner in which a man treats
the promises and threatenings
of the Bible shows what that man is.
“Eye of God’s Word! whene’er
we turn,
Ever upon us! Thy keen gaze
Can all
the depths of sin discern,
Unravel every bosom’s maze.
Who that
has felt thy glance of dread
Thrill through his heart’s remotest cells,
About his
path, about his bed,
Can doubt what spirit in thee dwells?”
(Keble)
energetic and efficacious because it is
the Word of the Omniscient. It
derives from Him “who knows what is in man” (John 2:25) its subtle
insight into character, and its deep hold upon the world’s life. The
all-seeing Judge, “with whom we have
to do,” has invested His Word
with its marvelous magisterial power. As the teachings of Scripture are
an exact transcript of the nature and will of God, even the bare Word
itself exercises as a Book transcendent moral influence over men.
But,
when accompanied with the supernatural energy of the
Holy Spirit,
upon which it depends
for its efficacy as a means of grace, Holy Scripture
becomes the very omnipotence of THE OMNIPOTENT, to:
Ø
arouse,
Ø
convict, and
Ø
condemn,
as well as to:
Ø
comfort,
Ø
sanctify, and
Ø
save.
Ø
Let ministers “preach
the Word.” The faithful exhibition of the truth
will lay bare the hearts of those who hear, and sometimes so
thoroughly
that individuals will conclude that their experiences must have
been
reported beforehand to the preacher. And without SOLID
SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION no Church will receive blessing or
power.
Ø
Let ALL HEARERS of the
gospel “tremble at the
Word.” Every human
heart should submit with holy awe to its inspection, and allow
its teachings
to:
o
determine
belief,
o
mold character,
and
o
control conduct.
13 “Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things
are naked and opened (laid open) unto the eyes of Him with whom we
have
to do.” The main difficulty
in this verse is as to the meaning of the word
τετραχηλισμένα – tetrachaelismena (translated “laid open”). The verb
τραχηλιζω – trachaelizo (which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament or
Septuagint, but is, with its compound ἐκτραχηλιζω - ektrachaelizo, not
uncommon in Philo and Josephus) has in classical Greek the
sense of “seizing
by the throat,”
or “bending back the neck,” as in wrestling. And this, with the
further idea of “overthrowing” or “laying
prostrate,” is the prevailing sense
in Philo, from whom Wetstein
quotes many passages in illustration. Taking, then,
with most modern commentators, the sense of bending
back the neck as the
primary one, we have only to consider what secondary
meaning is here to
be attached to it. Some take the idea to be that of being
thrown on the
ground supine, so as to be thoroughly exposed to view. See an
allusion to the Roman custom of exposing criminals “reducto capite,”
“retortis cervieibus,” so that all might see their faces (see Suetonius,
‘Vitel.,’ 17; Pliny, ‘Panegyr.,’ 34. 3).
There is, however, no other known
instance of the Greek verb being used with this reference,
which there
seems to be no necessity for assuming. The idea may be
simply the general
one expressed “that whatever
shamefaced creature bows its head, and
would fain withdraw
and cloak itself from the eyes of God, has indeed
the throat, as it were, bent back before those eyes,
with no possibility
of escape, exposed and naked to their view.” Many of the
ancients (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ecumenius, Theophylact) saw in
τετραχηλισμένα a reference to the
treatment of sacrificial victims, as
being smitten on the neck or hung by the neck for the
purpose of being
flayed kern the neck downwards, or cut open thence, so as
to expose rite
entrails to view. But no instance is known of such use of
the word
τραχηλιζω, the idea of which
may have been suggested to commentators
by the figure of the sword in the verse preceding; which
figure, however,
there is no reason to suppose continued here, the idea of
which is
simply COMPLETE
EXPOSURE introduced by οὐκ …ἀφανὴς – ouk
……aphanaes – neither…..not
manifest, not apparent. The ancients take
the concluding expression, πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν
ὁ λόγος – pros hon haemin
ho logos
as meaning “to whom
our account must be given,” i.e. “to whom we are
responsible as our judge” — in the sense of λόγον δίδόναι – logon didonai –
give account.
The Authorized Version seems better to give
the general idea of relation by the apt phrase, “with whom we have to do.”
Of course, λόγος (account) here has no reference to the Word of God, the
recurrence of the word, in a subordinate sense, being merely
accidental.
The Omniscience of God (v. 13)
“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His
sight”
creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are
naked and open
opened unto the eyes of Him with who we have to do.” All created
things, high and low, great and small, visible and invisible, are
comprehended in this word “creature.” “His
understanding is infinite.”
(Psalm 147:5)
Nothing is too great for His comprehension; nothing too
small for His notice (Ibid. 1:11); nothing too hidden for His
penetration
(Ibid. ch. 139:11-12).
KNOWLEDGE. “All things are naked and opened unto the
eyes
of Him,”
Ø
He sees all things as they really are. “All things are
naked unto” His
eyes. He beholds them without any covering or disguise. Things
and
persons are cloaked, concealed, and made to appear other
than they are
amongst men; but none of these things can impose upon Him.
Ø
He sees all things thoroughly, completely. “All things are naked and
opened unto,” - Revised Version, “laid open before the eyes,” etc. The
word rendered “opened” is a difficult one. Alford
adopts the meaning “to
lay prostrate.” He says, “This is the simplest and most
frequent sense in
the classical writers. I regard the word as signifying entire prostration and
subjugation under the eye of God; not only naked, stripped of all
covering
and concealment, but also laid prostrate in their exposure
before His eye.”
He translates, “lying open
unto.” Ebrard adopts the interpretation, “to bend
any one’s neck backwards, and thereby to lay bare the throat;
hence in
general, to lay bare.” Others interpret it to lay open, as a body,
by an
anatomist, or as an animal by a sacrificing priest. But whatever may
be the
exact figure, the meaning
conveyed by the figure is quite clear, viz. that
God knows all things
thoroughly (compare Job 31:4; 34:21;
Psalm 56:8;
139:1-5; Proverbs 5:21; 15:11;
Jeremiah 17:10).
KNOWLEDGE TO MAN.
He is
the God “with whom we have to do.”
Not “unto whom we must render our
account.” The clause expresses a
more comprehensive relation than that. It expresses “our whole
concern
and relation with God.” The Divine
omniscience has very important
practical bearings upon us.
Ø As an
effectual rebuke to the pride which springs from knowledge or
from intellectual attainments. Compared with the
knowledge of
“Him with whom we have to do,” what does the most intelligent man
know? “We are but of yesterday, and know nothing.” (Job 8:9)
Ø As a check
upon sin, whether in thought and feeling, or in word and
action. (See Job 34:21-22; Psalm 90:8; Ecclesiastes 12:14.)
Ø
As an encouragement to trust in Him. (See II Chronicles
16:9;
Matthew
6:32; 10:29-31.)
Ø
As a great consolation when misinterpreted or slandered.
(See Job 16:19; 23:10;
Psalm 37:5-6.)
Ø
As a great comfort and support in affliction and trial. (See Psalm
78:39; 103:13-14.)
Ø
As a guarantee of the triumph of his cause. His plans were formed
with
a full knowledge of every possible obstacle or opposition;
and they
anticipate and provide for the utilization of such opposition for
their own
furtherance and realization.
14 “Seeing
then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold
fast our profession.”
To the interposed minatory warning of the three preceding
verses now succeeds encouragement, based on the view, which
has been
now a second time led up to, of
Christ being our great High Priest, who
can both sympathize and succor. The passage answers closely in thought to
the conclusion of ch. 2, and
might naturally have followed there; but
that, before taking up the subject of Christ’s priesthood,
the writer had
another line of thought to pursue, leading up (as has been
explained) to the
same conclusion. The οὖν – oun – then - at the
beginning of v. 14 either connects
κρατῶμεν – kratomen - let us hold fast - with the verses immediately preceding
in the sense, “The Word of God
being so searching and resistless, let us therefore
hold fast,” etc.,
— in which case the participial clause Ἔχοντες – echontes –
seeing; having, etc., is a
confirmation of this exhortation; or is connected logically
with the participial clause as a resumption of the whole
preceding
argument. Certainly the idea of the participial clause is
the prominent one
in the writer’s mind, what follows being an expansion of
it. And the
position of οὖν
suggests this connection. It is to be observed that, after the
manner of the Epistle, this concluding exhortation serves
also as a
transition to the subject of the following chapters, and
anticipates in some
degree what is to be set forth, though all the expressions
used have some
ground in what has gone before. Having then a great High Priest who
hath passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold
fast our
confession. The rendering of διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς –
dielaeluthota tous ouranous – One having
passed through the heavens –
in the Authorized Version (“is passed into the
heavens”) is evidently wrong.
The idea is that Christ has passed through the
intermediate heavens to the
Immediate presence of God — to the sphere of the eternal σαββατισμὸς –
sabbatismos (rest). In his use
of the plural, τοὺς οὐρανούς
(the heavens),
the writer may have had in his mind the Jewish view of an
ascending series
of created heavens. Clemens Alexandrinus,
e.g. speaks of seven heavens.
Compare “the heaven and the heaven of heavens” (Deuteronomy
10:14;
II Chronicles 6:18; Nehemiah 9:6), and “who
hast set thy glory above the heavens”
(Psalm 8:1), also “the third heaven,” into which Paul
was rapt (II Corinthians 12:2).
Compare also
Ephesians 4:10, ὁ ἀναβὰς
ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν
οὐρανῶν,
ἵνα πληρώσῃ
τὰ πάντα
– ho
anabas huperano panton ton ouranon hina plaerosae
ta panta – the One that ascended up far above all
heavens that He might fill all
things.
The conception of the phrase is that, whatever spheres of
created heavens
intervene between our earth and the eternal uncreated,
beyond them to it Christ
has gone, — into “heaven itself (αὐτὸν τὸν οὐρανόν – auton ton ouranon –
heaven itself; the same heaven);” “before the face of God” – in
the presence
of God for us (ch. 9:24). From this expression, together with Ephesians
4:10
(above quoted), is rightly deduced the doctrine of Christ’s
ubiquity even in
His human nature.
For, carrying that nature with Him and still retaining it,
He is spoken of as having passed to the region which admits
no idea of
limitation, and so as to “fill all things.” The
obvious bearing of this doctrine
on that of the presence in the Eucharist may be noted in
passing. (It is to be
observed that “the heavens” in the plural is used (ch. 8:1)
of the seat of the
Divine majesty itself to which Christ has gone. It is the
word διεληλυθότα
(one having passed through) that determines the meaning
here.) The designation,
“Jesus the Son of God,” draws attention first to the man Jesus who was known
by that name in the flesh, and secondly to the “more excellent name,” above
expatiated on (ch. 1:4), in virtue
of which He “hath passed through the heavens.”
The conclusion follows that it is the human Jesus,
with His humanity, who,
being
also the Son of God, has so “passed through.” There may possibly (as some
think)
be an intention of contrasting Him with Joshua (Ἰησοῦς – Jesus; Joshua - v. 8),
who won the entrance into the typical rest. But it is not
necessary to suppose this;
vs. 8 and 14 are at too great a distance from each other to
suggest a
connection of thought between them; and besides Ἰησοῦν (Jesus) occurred
similarly at the end of ch. 3:1,
before any mention of Joshua. The
epithet μέγαν – megan – great - after ἀρχιερέα – archierea – chief
priest;
high priest - distinguishes
Christ from all other high priests
(compare
ch.13:20, τὸν ποιμένα
τῶν προβάτων
τὸν μέγαν
– ton poimena ton
probaton ton megan – that
great shepherd of the sheep). The high priest of
the Law passed through the veil to
the earthly symbol
of the eternal glory;
the “great
High Priest” has passed through the heavens to the
eternal glory
itself.
As to ὁμολογίας· - homologies – avowal;
profession. Compare
ch.3:1. In consideration of having such a High Priest, who,
as is expressed in
what follows, can both sympathize and succor, the readers
are exhorted to
“hold fast,” not
only their inward faith, but their “confession” of it before
men. A besetting danger of the Hebrew Christians was that
of shrinking
from a full and open confession under the influence of gainsaying
or
persecution.
A Summons to Steadfastness (v. 14)
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest,
……Jesus the Son of God,
let us
hold fast our profession.”
our confession,” i.e.
of the Christian faith.
Ø
Danger of renouncing this confession is implied. We have already
pointed out that these Hebrew Christians were in considerable
peril in
this respect. This danger
arises:
o
from opposition from
without; or
o
from subtle solicitation,
which is more to be dreaded than
opposition; or
o
from negligence on our part.
Ø
Effort to retain this confession is enjoined. “Let us hold fast our
confession.”
This includes:
o
perseverance in the
Christian faith; a resolute
cleaving to
Jesus Christ as
our Savior and Lord.
o
perseverance in the
Christian fellowship; association with
Christian
people; frequenting Christian assemblies.
o
perseverance in the Christian practice; the continued
embodiment
of Christ’s precepts
in the life and conduct. This demands effort;
e.g.:
Hebrew Christians were
encouraged to hold fast their confession because
they had in Jesus Christ a perfect High Priest. The preeminence of His
priesthood is adduced as a motive to their perseverance, and to ours.
Ø
He is pre-eminent in His office. A great High Priest” - the
“one
archetypal High Priest — ONE ABOVE ALL!
Ø
He is pre-eminent in his access. “Who hath passed
through the
heavens.” The Jewish high
priest passed behind the veil into the
most holy place; but the great High Priest has passed through
“the
planetary heavens, the heavens of the fixed stars and the angels,
unto the very presence
and throne of God. He is gone
into the
dwelling-place in space of the absolute, finished, absolutely undisturbed
revelation of the Father.” And He is
there as our Representative, and
as our Forerunner.
This implies the perfection of His work upon earth
(compare
ch. 1:3; 9:12, 24-26).
Ø
He is pre-eminent in His Person. “Jesus the Son of God.”
Jesus, the
gracious and sympathetic Savior of men. “The Son of God,”
supreme in
dignity, authority, and power. Here, then, is a motive to
strengthen us to
“hold fast our confession.” Our great High
Priest is perfect; He knows
our difficulties and temptations; He sympathizes with us; He
succors us;
He is now in the presence of
God on our behalf; “he ever
liveth to make
intercession for us,” Let His sympathy and help inspire
us to fidelity and
perseverance.
A Summons to Steadfastness (v. 14)
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest,
……Jesus the Son of God,
let us
hold fast our profession.”
our confession,” i.e.
of the Christian faith.
Ø
Danger of renouncing this confession is implied. We have already
pointed out that these Hebrew Christians were in considerable
peril in
this respect. This danger
arises:
o
from opposition from
without; or
o
from subtle
solicitation, which is more to be dreaded than
opposition; or
o
from negligence on our part.
Ø
Effort to retain this confession is enjoined. “Let us hold fast our
confession.”
This includes:
o
perseverance in the
Christian faith; a resolute
cleaving to
Jesus Christ as
our Savior and Lord.
o
perseverance in the
Christian fellowship; association with
Christian
people; frequenting Christian assemblies.
o
perseverance in the Christian practice; the continued
embodiment
of Christ’s precepts
in the life and conduct. This demands effort;
e.g.:
Hebrew Christians were
encouraged to hold fast their confession because
they had in Jesus Christ a perfect High Priest. The preeminence of His
priesthood is adduced as a motive to their perseverance, and to ours.
Ø
He is pre-eminent in His office. A great High Priest” - the
“one
archetypal High Priest — ONE ABOVE ALL!
Ø
He is pre-eminent in his access. “Who hath passed
through the
heavens.” The Jewish high
priest passed behind the veil into the
most holy place; but the great High Priest has passed through
“the
planetary heavens, the heavens of the fixed stars and the angels,
unto the very presence
and throne of God. He is gone
into the
dwelling-place in space of the absolute, finished, absolutely undisturbed
revelation of the Father.” And He is
there as our Representative, and
as our Forerunner. This
implies the perfection of His work upon earth
(compare
ch. 1:3; 9:12, 24-26).
Ø
He is pre-eminent in His Person. “Jesus the Son of God.”
Jesus, the
gracious and sympathetic Savior of men. “The Son of God,”
supreme in
dignity, authority, and power. Here, then, is a motive to
strengthen us to
“hold fast our confession.” Our great High
Priest is perfect; He knows
our difficulties and temptations; He sympathizes with us; He
succors us;
He is now in the presence of
God on our behalf; “he ever
liveth to make
intercession for us,” Let His sympathy and help inspire
us to fidelity and
perseverance.
Our Great High Priest Passed into the
Heavens (v. 14)
speaks of two tabernacles — the first outside the veil, the
second within.
Into the second the high priest
went alone once a year. There, away from
the sight of the people, before the ark of the covenant
containing the tables
of our Law, he transacted solemn business with God on behalf
of his
fellow-Israelites. And not only so, this high priest was acknowledged by
the whole people. They believed, or professed to believe, that
he was a
necessary medium of communication between God and them. And so he
was for the time, and long continued so. The bulk of the
Hebrew people at
the time this Epistle was written had a profound regard,
though also a
superstitious and servile one, for the person of the high priest. There
might
be in the regard very little of intelligence, and very
doubtful advantage; but
still, there it was, a real acknowledgment, quite enough out of
which to
make a striking illustration of Him
who is the real great High Priest —
Jesus, the Son of
God. He also has passed through and
gone behind a veil,
the veil that separates the seen from the unseen. What a
thought of the
unseen, that it is God’s true Holy
of Holies! Doubtless there is a
special
reference here to the day of ascension, when Jesus rose from the
midst of
His disciples,
and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
comparison — the parallel — was easy enough to these Hebrew
Christians.
It referred them to traditions
and a ritual with which they were familiar
from childhood. They saw high priests continually. But we know
nothing
of a priest, an altar, a sacrifice. We do not hear the lowing
of oxen and the
bleating of sheep whose lives are to be taken away in the
acceptable
worship of God. We could not bring ourselves to think that such
things
could be of any use. Not at all doubting that they once served a
purpose,
we know that the purpose exists no longer. Believing that
they were once
somehow necessary, that is all we can say. Our experience gives us
nothing
whereby we may understand the necessity. Thus the question comes —
How are we, who have never had
anything to do with such a priest as
Aaron, or any of his posterity, to get good out of this
exhortation? What
sort of notion are we to represent to our minds when we are
told to hold
fast our profession in a great High Priest passed into the
heavens, when, as
a matter of experience, we have never had anything to do
with priests at
all? It would be a great mistake to say that we are to trouble
ourselves no
more about the priestly idea. Though we cannot make the forms
of the old
Jewish priesthood a living thing
to us, still we can surely do something to
get at the idea which lies behind all priesthood. We are often
misled by
confounding priesthood with priestcraft. The indignation of every honest
heart cannot be too strong
against the abomination of priestcraft. But why an
abomination? Just because it is the degradation of a
good thing. Priesthood
is simply the office and function of the man who is set apart
to act on
behalf of his fellow-men in their relations to God. And looking
at what is to
be found in the Old Testament with respect to the priestly
office, we find
there was no chance for priestcraft.
The true priest had to be an honest,
patient man, faithful in little things, exact in minute
observances, full of
self-denial, and constantly attentive to the requests of all the
people. The
very Scriptures which exalt priesthood denounce priestcraft. Priesthood is
the means whereby men are governed and blessed spiritually; priestcraft the
means whereby they are spiritually crushed, and their consciences
made
slaves to another man’s will. Priestcraft is only
to be got rid of by giving
the true priesthood its full force. Allowing ourselves to
drift into the idea
that priesthood is obsolete, we shall never get rid of priestcraft; since error
only dies out as truth is planted by its side, drawing away
from the roots of
error all that nourished them. The priesthood in ancient Israel,
with all its
mere outward rites, with all its defects and lapses, did a
great service. It
prepared the way for the great High Priest of our acknowledgment.
And,
after all, priesthood is only the name; it is the thing
we have to look at.
Jesus is He who
answers the questions no one on earth can answer; renders
the services no one on earth can render; we therefore call Him
great THE
GREAT HIGH PRIEST. Pretenders may come in, and by their doings
make the name of priest hateful; but the work of the true Priest is none the
less real. And the exhortation is that we should avail ourselves of that work
to the very fullest extent. Then all the good things coming to us by
nature
will be crowned by this best thing coming through grace. Men have
helped us
according to their opportunity — loving, self-denying parents, skillful
instructors, watchful and wise-hearted friends, great men who have
revealed themselves in books, making us feel what a noble thing it
is to be
partakers of human nature; and then
Jesus of Nazareth comes in at last,
Priest of the most high God, abiding for ever, and undertaking to satisfy
our deepest wants out of the immeasurable fullness of God.
15 “For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all
points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin.” The power of
sympathy (συμπαθῆσαι – sumpathaesai –
together emotion; to sympathize) of our great High Priest is not adduced to
distinguish Him
from other high priests, but to express, in this
respect, His
resemblance to
them; community of
nature and feeling with those for whom
He mediates being
essential to the conception of a high priest (see v. 2). The
Sequence of thought is, “Let us hold fast
our confession, not moved from it by
the thought of the superhuman greatness of this High Priest
of ours, who hath
passed through the heavens; for He can still sympathize with our infirmities
(ἀσθενείαις – astheneiais - infirmities), having undergone
our trials.” ‘Aσθενεία –
astheneia – infirmity
- in the New Testament denotes both bodily infirmity, such
as disease (compare Matthew 8:17; Luke 5:15; John 5:5;
11:4; Acts 28:9;
I Timothy 5:23), and also the general weakness of human
nature as opposed
to Divine δὺναµις - dunamis - power, (compare Romans
8:26;
II Corinthians 12:5, 9; 13:4). Paul seems to have had
regard to ἀσθένεια
in a comprehensive sense —
including chronic malady (his “thorn in the
flesh”), liability to
calamities, “fear and trembling,”
temptation to sin —
when he spoke (II Corinthians 12:5, 9) of glorying in his
infirmities that
the power of Christ might rest upon him. With all human ἀσθενείαι, of
whatever kind, Christ can
sympathize in virtue of His own human
experience: “Himself
took our infirmities (ἀσθενείαις) and bare our
sicknesses” (Matthew
8:17); “Himself ἐσταυρώθη ἐξ ἀσθενείας –
estaurothae ex astheneias – He was crucified out of weakness - though
He now lives ἐκ δυνάµεως θεοῦ - ek dunameos Theou – by the
power
of God. (II Corinthians 13:4). The latter part of the verse
corresponds in
meaning with ch.2:18, but with
further delineation of the temptation undergone
by Christ. The concluding χωρὶς ἁµαρτίας.
choris hamartias -
without sin;
apart from sin (best taken in connection with καθ. ὁµοιότητα – kath omoidtaeta
-
like as; according to likeness - which it immediately follows, rather than with
κατὰ πάντ – kata panta – in all;
according to all) is not a categorical assertion
of Christ’s sinlessness, though
it implies it, but an exclusion of the idea of sin
from-the likeness spoken of. His
temptation was after the likeness of ours,
“apart from sin,” or “sin except.”
For similar expressions, though not with
definite reference to
temptation, compare ch. 9:28; 7:26. But how is the
exception
of sin to be understood? Is it that, though, like us, tempted, He, unlike us,
resisted
temptation? Or is it that His
sinless nature was incapable of being even solicited
by sin? Now, the verb πειραζω – peirazo – tempt;
examine; try - means sometimes
“to tempt to sin,” as Satan or
our own lusts tempt us (compare I Corinthians 7:5;
I Thessalonians 3:5; James 1:13, etc.);
and also “to prove.... to try,” “to test
aithfulness,” as in
ch. 11:37, etc.; I Corinthians 10:13; in which sense, with
reference especially to
afflictive trials, the noun πειρασµός – peirasmos –
adversity;
temptation - is commonly used (compare Luke 8:13;
22:18; Acts 20:19;
Galatians 4:14; I Peter 4:12; James 1:12).
That Christ was not only subjected to
πειρασµός in this latter sense, but was also directly assailed by the tempter
to sin
(ὁ πειραζων), appears from the Gospel record. But here comes in a
difficulty. There can, we conceive, be no real temptation
where there is no
liability to the sin suggested by temptation, still less
where there is no
possibility of sinning. But can we imagine any such
liability, or even
possibility, in the case of the Divine and Sinless One? If
not, wherein did
the temptation consist? How could it be at all like ours,
or one through His
own experience of which He can sympathize with us? It was
for
maintaining, on the strength of such considerations, the
theoretic
peccability of Christ, that Irving was expelled as heretical from the
Presbyterian communion. The question has undoubtedly its
serious
difficulties in common with the whole subjeer
of the Divine and human in
Christ. The following thoughts may, however, aid solution.
That Christ, in
His human nature, partook of all the original affections of
humanity —
hope, fear, desire, joy, grief, indignation, shrinking from
suffering, and the
like — is apparent, not only from his life, but also from
the fact that His
assumption of our humanity would have otherwise been
incomplete. Such
affections are not in themselves sinful; they only are so
when, under
temptation, any of them become inordinate, and serve as
motives to
transgression of duty. He, in virtue of His Divine
personality, could not
through them be seduced into sin; but it does not follow
that He could not,
in His human nature, feel their power to seduce, or rather
the power of the
tempter to seduce through them, and thus have personal
experience of
man’s temptation. John says of one “ born of God” that he “doth not
commit sin; for
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is
born of God” (I John 3:9). He does not mean that the regenerate
Christian is not exposed to and does not feel, the power of
temptation;
only that, so far forth as he lives in the new life from
God, he is proof
against it; he gives no internal assent to the seduction of
the tempter; and
so “that wicked one toucheth him not” (v. 18). What is thus said of one
“born of God” may be said much more, and without any
qualification, of
the Son of God, without denying that He too experienced the
power of
temptation, though altogether proof against it
4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need.
Christ’s Sympathy and Help (vs. 14-16)
This passage is one of the great signposts of the Epistle.
In chapters 1 and 2,
the
writer has discussed the superiority of Christ as a King to angels; and in
chapters 3 and 4, His superiority as a Prophet to Moses. He now
proceeds to
discourse more at length of His superiority as a Priest to Aaron.
concerns the cardinal truth of the
Savior’s priesthood.
Ø
Its outer aspect.
(v. 14.) Fallen, sinful man needs a priest
to act for him
before God, and the world has sought for one long and earnestly.
The
Jewish religion embodied an
elaborate priesthood; and its types have at
length been stereotyped under the Christian dispensation. Every believer
is now a priest unto God (Revelation 1:6); and Jesus Christ is
the Arch-
Priest of the
Church. The
author here encourages the Hebrew converts
to steadfastness, by reminding them of the reality and majesty of Christ’s
priesthood. He is “a great High Priest” — the Archetype and Antitype
of the Jewish pontiff. His
majesty appears when we consider:
o
Where He is. He “hath passed through the heavens.”
Aaron
went once a year through the blue veil into the sanctum
sanctorum of the tabernacle;
but our High Priest, after
offering up Himself as an expiatory sacrifice in the
outer court of this world, has passed through
the blue curtain
of the sky into the heaven of heaven. He sits officially at the
right hand of God, wearing both:
§
the priestly miter and
§
the kingly diadem.
o
Who He is. “JESUS, THE SON OF GOD!” His greatness is
personal, as well as official. He is a real man, bearing the human
name, Jesus; but He is at the same
time the true God, the
possessor of A DIVINE AND ETERNAL SONSHIP!
Ø
Its inner aspect.
(v. 15.) This verse opens up before us the
secret
workings of the Redeemer’s heart. It speaks of His priestly
sympathy.
Sympathy is a great power in
human life. It bulks so largely that an
eminent Scottish thinker, Adam Smith, makes it the basis of his
whole
system of morals. Now, says the apostle, the Savior’s
unparalleled
greatness does not by any means render Him incapable of sympathy.
Although He has passed through
the heavens, “heaven lies about us,”
and thus He is very near us.
Although He left the world two thousand
years ago, He is yet “with us always.” (Matthew 28:20) Although He
is the Son of God, He has a human soul — a soul intensely
human —
which underwent a complete curriculum of trial, and graduated
to its
glory through suffering. Although He was “without sin,” His
earthly
life was a life of constant temptation, as well as of constant
and
culminating sorrow because of sin. So He is “touched with the feeling
of our infirmities” — our infirmities of health, of temper, of devotion,
of resolution, of
service. He knows experimentally the precise force of
every evil suggestion
which may try us. As the Head of the Church,
He is its great Nerve-center;
and he that toucheth any one of His people
“toucheth the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)
corresponds to the two aspects of the doctrine respectively. The
apostle
exhorts to:
Ø
Steadfast confessions. (v. 14.) The early
Hebrew Christians found it
very difficult openly to confess Christ; for their unbelieving
countrymen
treated all who did so as renegades from
necessary now. Every believer
is bound PUBLICLY PROFESS
CHRIST! He must do so for Christ’s sake, for his own sake,
and for
the sake of his fellow men.
Ø
Constant supplication. (v. 16.) To the
universe at large God’s throne
is a throne of majesty; to sinners, it is a throne of
judgment; to believers,
the presence of Christ at God’s right hand makes it a “throne of grace.”
And the thought of our High
Priest’s tender sympathy should fill us with
holy confidence to go daily and
hourly into the Divine presence for the
supplies which we need.
What a joy to know that we have a Friend at
court, and that He is our Sovereign’s Son! As often as we look
up to His
open, loving face, we may
use all “liberty of speech” in asking pardoning
mercy for the past and
helping
grace for the future.
The Christian’s Approach to the Throne of
Grace (v. 16)
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Our text suggests
the
following observations:
I. MAN’S GREAT NEED IS MERCY. “That
we may receive mercy” is
our
great requirement. This will be obvious if we reflect for a moment on
our
position in relation to the government of God. Intelligent beings who
have maintained their integrity and their loyalty to God, and are fulfilling
His design concerning them, do not need mercy. Mercy
implies demerit or
ill
desert on the part of those to whom it is granted. It is the mode of the
Divine
goodness to the unworthy and the evil. Because we are sinners we
require MERCY! We have no claim to God’s favor; we do not
merit the
blessings of His goodness; by sin we have forfeited our title to His
favor,
and
have deserved His wrath. Every sinner stands
in need of forbearing
mercy. The sentence of
death is upon all; all are under condemnation. Each
sinner stands in need of preventing mercy. Inclined to evil from
nature and
habit, unless held back by preventing grace, he is continually
falling into
sin.
The sinner stands in need of forgiving mercy. If he obtain not this,
HE
MUST
PERISH! All
our salvation may be said to FLOW FROM THE
MERCY OF GOD! How great, then, is our need of mercy! Without it,
we
are lost. Having it, we have salvation.
in time of need.”
o
Grace to help while
yet there is time.
o
Grace for timely
help.
The meaning is, to find grace for
seasonable or opportune help; and thus
suggesting the truth that there are seasons when man specially
requires
the help of Divine grace. We
are ever dependent upon the mercy of God;
but not infrequently we are pressed by temptations, or beset by
danger,
or assailed by dark doubts, or standing in slippery places, and
at
such
times we specially need THE MERCY AND GRACE OF GOD!
Ø
There are times of temptation to sin, when our moral
weakness is
extreme, and our spiritual foes are persistent, and the tendency
to sin
which is within us is roused into activity. In such seasons how
pressing
is our need of succoring
grace!
Ø
There are trials arising from worldly prosperity. Prosperity in
temporal
affairs has occasioned spiritual injury to many. It brings with it
temptations to luxury, and to guilty conformity
to the world, and to
spiritual sloth, and false
security, and
presumptuous self-reliance.
It is a season
of special need.
Ø
There are trials arising from temporal adversity. In the hour of
failure
and defeat many a good man has felt with Asaph,
“Verily
I have
cleansed my heart in vain”
(Psalm 73:13), With poverty there come,
sometimes, temptations to reproach God, or to despair of his
goodness,
or to resort to unlawful or unworthy means to obtain
temporal supplies.
Hence our need
of grace.
Ø
There are trials arising from bodily afflictions. Sanctified
sufferings are
a blessing; unsanctified, they are only an evil, and A
VERY GREAT
EVIL. If we rebel against the hand that afflicts
us, we shall grow:
o
hard in heart,
o
bitter in temper,
o
impatient and
distrustful,
and probably some one, like Job’s wife, will suggest to us
that we
“curse God, and die.” (Job 2:9)
Here is a season of peculiar need.
Ø
Trials arising from the bereavements of friendship. When death comes
very near to us, it is accompanied with temptations to doubt
the reality
of the life beyond, to question the wisdom and love of God,
etc.
Ø
Trials of our own dying hour. Great is the mystery
which surrounds
death. The moment of dissolution must be very solemn. Who can
overcome then without “grace for
timely help”?
WE NEED MAY BE OBTAINED. “The throne of grace” is the throne
Of God; but of God, not as an
august and awful Ruler, but as a gracious
Father. It is the throne
whence He bestows the blessings of mercy and
grace to those who seek Him. The
treasures of His mercy and grace are
inexhaustible, and He delights in
communicating them to others. We
have not to overcome any disinclination to bless us on His
part. He gives
freely; He gives bountifully; He delights in giving.
THRONE OF GRACE. “Let us therefore draw near with
boldness unto
the throne of grace.” We have freedom of access to the throne, and we may
have freedom of speech with Him who sits thereon. We may draw near to
God with
confidence. This we have, or may have, through our great High
Priest. He has revealed the infinite
love of the Father toward us, and His
delight in blessing us; He is
the perfect “Mediator between God and man”
(I Timothy 2:5); He was “in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin,”
and He is able “to sympathize
with our infirmities;” and He now wears our
nature in heaven by His Father’s throne. “Let us therefore draw near with
boldness,”
The Helpful Nearness to Man of the True High
Priest (vs. 15-16)
priests are lacking in proper sympathy with human weakness. They
are
lacking in a sense of the almost omnipotence of tempting
influence. They
themselves, in all important respects, are no better than those for
whom
they act. Not that they are to blame for this; other things
were not expected
from them. They were only
to be part of an instructive and impressive
ceremonial by which might be set forth, by the best means
attainable at the
time, something as to what a priest, an offering and an
approach to God,
ought to be. The very
defects of the priest taken from among men
emphasize the need of something immeasurably better. Sinful men
should
be able to sympathize with sinful men; but, as a matter of
fact, they very
frequently are unable to do this even in the most qualified way. They
can
sympathize in a measure with sickness, with temporal calamity; but too
often for sin, for crime, for vice, they have nothing but
denunciation with
respect to men. There is a hint to us how we should recollect that
the
greater sinner a man is, the
greater is his need for human sympathy.
CHRIST. In Him there
is all the true priest needs. He is attracted, not by
the strong side of human nature, but by the weak. Easy is it
to be drawn to
men in the hours of their full life, in their prime, when they
are strong for
action either of body or of mind; and it is pleasant to look at
the results of
all their effort. But it is much better, difficult though it be, to look at man
in his hours of weakness and need; for it is out, of the midst of his
weakness that his highest strength is to be attained. And so Jesus was
drawn to men in their weakness. He
came, not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to minister to those who really needed ministry. We do not
serve rightly when we serve those who are quite able to do
things for
themselves. This is only to increase the indolence of the world.
Christ
comes to give the help that but for His, in poverty, in
sickness, in feebleness
of body and harassing circumstances. But his sympathy is specially with us
in temptation. He was tempted in all points like as we are,
i.e. His
temptation was a real thing; and the temptation He had to suffer was
one
suited to the peculiarities of His position and His work. We are
to think
here, not so much of His experiences in the wilderness, as of
Gethsemane
(ch. 5:7). The temptations of the wilderness He saw
through at once;
they must have been very clumsy artifices in His eye. But
Gethsemane
tried Him. The pure gold went into the furnace there that its
purity might be
made manifest. And thus it was
shown that He was without a sin. The
more
we are made to feel our own sin, the more our hearts are
revealed, the
closer we are drawn to Him who has no sin, and who shows us that
sin is
no essential part of human nature.
are to make full use of the Priest thus provided — a Priest
not of our
finding or our making. He has not come by some process of
selection and
training employed by men, but is
of Divine
appointment; an Apostle from
the throne of grace,
beseeching us to accept Him as the sufficient
Interpreter
of human needs and human penitence. Our
attitude is to be one
of approach to the throne of grace, thinking of it as such;
thinking of the
severities of God and the penal aspects of law as only grace in
disguise.
Chastisement,
punishment, pain, are but grace not understood. We must
have boldness, freeness, a strong sense of the right given us
to approach
the throne of grace. We must have a sense of how God will
treat us. He
will not only put us into a better state, but do it in a most compassionate
and tender way. It
is conceivable that a physician might perfectly cure a
sick person, yet do it all like a machine, without any
manifestation of heart,
without a single kind or cheering word.
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