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HEBREWS 4

HEBREWS 4

Survey of the chapter
Hebrews 4 continues the theme begun in chapter 2, namely, the movement of believers from earth to heaven, ably assisted by our captain who has led the way, 2:10, and who is our merciful and faithful high priest to support us when we are tempted, and the faithful Son over God’s house, ordering and administering for Him through His word to us. The exhortations of chapter 3 were based on a quotation from Psalm 95, which described the attitude of the nation of Israel as they passed through the wilderness. The emphasis in chapter 3 is on the failure of the majority, and the last verse quoted records God saying “They shall not enter into My rest”.

There is another way those words may legitimately be translated, however, as will be seen by reference to 4:3,5. In these latter verses, instead of the impossibility of unbelievers entering into His rest because God says “They shall not”, the word is “If they shall enter”, meaning that the opportunity was open to some. So when we come to chapter 4 we are thinking of true believers, who shall enter into rest. There is still, however, the constant encouragement to the Hebrews to make these things good to themselves, since amongst them there were those in danger of apostatising. They are reminded in verses 12 and 13 that the word of God that comes to them through the Son over God’s house is able to distinguish between mere profession and genuine faith. This brings to an end the warning passage that began in 3:6. In 4:14-16 the subject of the priesthood of Christ is resumed, as an encouragement to believers undergoing trial and temptation.

Structure of the chapter

(a)	Verses 1-11	Entry into the rest of God.
(b)	Verses 12,13	Exposure of false profession by word of God.
(c)	Verses 14-16	Encouragement to approach the throne of God.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE OF THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 4, VERSES 1 TO 11:

4:1 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.

4:2 For unto us was the 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.

4:3 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.

4:4 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.

4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

4:7 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.

4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

(a) Verses 1-11
Entry into the rest of God.

4:1
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.

Let us therefore fear- we are still in the warning passage that began in 3:6, so the Hebrews should realise the awful possibility of failure to enter in to what God had in store for them in Christ. The wilderness was a testing-place for Israel, just as the world is for those who claim the name of Christ today.
Lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest- the basis of the teaching of these chapters is the incident in the wilderness when Israel refused to enter into the land of promise. Chapter 3 has concentrated on those who did not enter in, whereas this chapter will deal with those who do. In Numbers 14:34 God spoke of His “breach of promise”, or His refusal to allow the people to enter in because they were unbelieving. The expression means His refusal of them, not His unfaithfulness to His promise.
Now those who are allowed in are described, for there is a promise still left, it has not been withdrawn. In chapter 3 the writer concentrated on the middle section of his quote from Psalm 95, which dealt with the failure of the people. Now he emphasises the beginning and end of the quotation, which deals with God’s faithfulness in continuing to speak to the people day by day, and offering them the opportunity of entering into His rest. The promise has been left, not only in Psalm 95, but also in the ministry of Christ to Israel.
Any of you should seem to come short of it- to come short of the rest is to not enter into it, just as many in Israel came short of entering into Canaan, for their carcases fell in the wilderness. By saying “seem”, the writer is showing he envisages some may seem genuine but are not so. Yet he says “seem to come short”, not “seem to be those who enter in.” This is a reminder that he is referring to God’s knowledge of their hearts, as verse 13 will say. They may appear to others to seem to be ready to enter in, but God sees that they come short. The word for “seem” has the idea of opinion, so it is God’s opinion of them that is in view.

4:2
For unto us was the 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.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them- Caleb and Joshua came back from spying out the land of Canaan and told good news about its fruitfulness, and that God was able to give them the land if they trusted Him, Numbers 13:25-30. The Lord and His apostles had also preached the good news of the kingdom of God, available to Israel on the basis of repentance and faith, as 2:3,4 has reminded them. A great salvation was offered to them, and proofs of Christ’s ability to bring in the kingdom were shown, not only by the Lord Himself, but by the apostles as well. Interestingly the proof of the goodness of the land of Canaan was the bunch of grapes that the spies brought back with them. Significantly, the Lord Jesus began His miracle ministry by turning water into wine, showing He could bring in kingdom conditions, John 2:1-11.
But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it- despite the encouragement to trust in God that Caleb and Joshua gave to the people, they refused to go in. They therefore did not profit from the good things in store in the land. It is clear that the kingdom can only be entered by believers. Nicodemus had to learn to come to an end of himself as a Rabbi and Pharisee, and find his all in Christ crucified. Only when born again through faith could he be fit for the kingdom, John 3:1-16. It was on the borders of the promised land that the brazen serpent was lifted up, so that those who were bitten by the serpent, and hence were in danger of perishing in the wilderness, could be given life, and enter the land. It was the generation that had been spared the judgement of God on their forefathers for refusing the land that were given this provision, for they too were in danger of dying outside of the land.

4:3
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 which have believed do enter into rest- clearly the rest that is spoken of in these verses is that which God calls His own, but which He invites others to enjoy. God can only rest in what His Son achieves for His glory, and so the rest here is Christ’s kingdom on earth, when He shall administer for God as His Firstborn Son. This has been in view ever since chapter 1:6-9. When Israel refused to enter into the land, God said, “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord”, Numbers 14:21. So He is determined to bring in the glory-conditions of the reign of Christ, despite the unbelief of many. He also described the people of Israel as those who had seen His glory, and His miracles which He had done in Egypt and the wilderness, verse 22. The generation the writer to the Hebrews addresses had also seen the miracles and glory of the Lord, but many had refused Him. Nonetheless He will still come to them and set up His glorious kingdom, and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”, Habakkuk 2:14.
In principle, because true believers are born again, and are able to see or discern the kingdom of God, John 3:3, they enter in that sense into rest in the present. It only awaits the manifestation of that kingdom for everything to be fully realised, and then they shall enter the kingdom of God when it is manifest, John 3:5.
The same idea is found in Hebrews 12:18, 22, where believers are said to have come, not to Mount Sinai, but Mount Zion. To come to Mount Sinai is to come into the bondage of the law in one’s heart; to come to Mount Zion is to come to the freedom of Christ’s glorious kingdom in one’s heart. It was not a question of coming physically to either mountain, but coming in soul. “Do enter” is in the tense which signifies something is happening in the present.
As he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest- because He has put Himself on oath, and because that oath is based on the fact that He lives, (see Numbers 14:21), then it cannot be withdrawn. What can be withdrawn, however, is the offer to those who, by not believing, show themselves unfit for the kingdom. The idea of wrath is not to the fore here, but it was appropriate in chapter 3 where the unbelief of the nation is emphasised.
Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world- it is interesting to notice that in chapter 1, immediately Christ is spoken of as being introduced into the earth to reign, then His work as creator of heavens and earth is mentioned, 1:10. Instead of mentioning this when speaking of Christ as the one through whom the worlds were made, in verse 2, it is mentioned in connection with the reign of Christ. The writer here connects God’s rest with the creation week, for Scripture makes clear that one of the primary purposes of the creation of the world was that Christ might rule over it for God, so that His glory might be displayed. Adam had been given this task, equipped with glory and honour in order to be effective, but he failed, as chapter 2 explains. Only Jesus can rule the habitable earth for God. When He comes to reign He will set up His throne of glory, and judge the nations. Those who believe in Him from among Israel, and also those from the Gentiles who are sympathetic to them, shall inherit the kingdom “prepared from the foundation of the world”, Matthew 25:34. As Moses had said long before, “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance”, Deuteronomy 32:8,9.
So when God rested from His six days of creation-work, He did so because the scene was now set for His kingdom to be established. Initially granting rule to Adam, He did so with a view to demonstrating that only His Son become flesh could function as ruler effectively. And only those who are in relationship with Him shall have any share in that glorious rule.
We are not to think that the works are not yet completed, and that is why the rest is not yet entered. The works were finished long ago at the beginning- it is man who is not ready. The Lord Jesus is recorded as having worked seven miracles on the sabbath day, so there is a coming together in His ministry of the idea of rest, and the “powers of the age to come”, 6:5 margin.

4:4
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.

For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise- the foundation of the world and the seventh day are spoken of together, for “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day”, Exodus 20:11. The creating of heaven and earth as to its material was on the first day, and then the “all that in them is” was made in the ensuing period, ending with the sixth day. There is no allowance here for millions of years between the making of heaven and earth in Genesis 1:1, and the subsequent days of 24 hours each. In fact, the Lord Jesus spoke of the making of male and female as being “from the beginning of the creation”, Mark 10:6.
And God did rest the seventh day from all his works- by resting on the seventh day God established a principle which shall be true to the end of time in relation to the earth. It is not in man’s best interests to work without a break. One of the reasons why the nation of Israel was taken into captivity was their failure to observe the sabbath, especially in regard to the cropping of the land. As they had not let the land rest once every seven years for four hundred and ninety years, then it was forcibly rested for seventy years whilst Israel was in Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:21.

4:5
And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest- the writer again quotes from Psalm 95, and links the rest spoken of there with the rest spoken of in Genesis 2:2. He does not distract us by precise details of the place where the passage is found. No doubt most of his readers knew where to find the words anyway. He makes no apology for quoting from the early chapters of Genesis, believing them to be equally the word of God with the rest of Scripture, see 2 Timothy 3:15-17.
Having rested Himself on the seventh day, God invites men to rest with Him, but this cannot be while they are in unbelief. Verse 4 speaks of God’s works, and this verse of God’s rest.

4:6
Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein- notice the “must”, for God is determined to have others resting with Him. This is why the invitation is still valid, six thousand years after the finishing of creation. He must bring it to pass for He has sworn by Himself to do it, for He can only swear by Himself, 6:13.
And they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief- Abraham was not invited to rest, because the conditions were not right at that time, for “the Canaanite was then in the land”, Genesis 12:6. He, Isaac and Jacob dwelt in tents in the land, they were not settled there, Hebrews 11:9. The first ones to have the gospel of a rest available were those who came out of Egypt under Moses. Sadly, as chapter 3 has described, they refused to enter in, not because the rest was not available, but because of unbelief. The word used in this passage for unbelief has the idea of disobedience.

4:7
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.

Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time- this entry into rest is not available indefinitely, for the opportunity is limited. The readers of the epistle might miss out if they were not alert. “In David” means in the book of psalms, written a long time after the book of Genesis, and even the book of Numbers, which records the refusal of the land. God has waited patiently for others to join Him in true kingdom-rest. Even David did not bring in rest.
As it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts- ominously the hardening of hearts is brought up here again, and explains why there is such a delay in bringing in the rest. It cannot be entered by those who have hearts hardened by unbelief, 3:12,13. There must be the fleshy heart of one who is responsive to the word of God. God promises “And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh”, Ezekiel 36:26. Note the connection between Ezekiel 36 and 37, and the new birth of water and the Spirit in John 3. (See notes on John 3 for more on this).

4:8
For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

For if Jesus had given them rest- the Greek word for Joshua and Jesus is the same. The reference here, of course, is to Joshua, but the translation as Jesus does serve to highlight the meaning, that is, “Salvation of Jehovah”. Joshua was originally named “Oshea”, but after he had been faithful in spying out the land, and in view of his leadership in taking the people in to the land, he was renamed by Moses. Oshea means simply “Salvation”, but no doubt to avoid any misunderstanding as they entered the land, his new name reminded them that the salvation the land represented was of Jehovah, not Joshua.
Of course the Lord Jesus fills out the meaning of the name perfectly, for He Himself is the salvation of Jehovah. See Matthew 1:21. He is the captain of our salvation, 2:10. Joshua was not able to rule for God and make the land a rest for God. He was not even of the kingly tribe of Judah, nor did the nation possess all the land under his leadership.
Then would he not afterward have spoken of another day- clear proof that the rest was not gained through Joshua is seen in the fact that God spoke of the rest as in the future, long after the time of Joshua, in David’s day.

4:9
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God- the conclusion of the matter is that there is still the opportunity of entering into God’s rest, as long as those concerned are genuinely the people of God, and not a mixed company, with some true and others false. The word for rest used here is a different one, meaning “a keeping of sabbath”, thus fusing the ideas of rest and seventh day together.

4:10
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, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his- not only does the word for rest used in verse 9 merge together the thought of rest and seventh day, but here the idea of rest and ceasing from work as on the sabbath day are combined. This verse speaks generally of the principle that the one who enters rest does so because he has stopped working. But the stopping of work is deliberate ceasing, not through force of circumstances; it is a deliberate and meaningful action. The verse does not say that the rest is entered yet, but simply that it is logical to say that someone who has entered into rest has stopped working. So the principle established when God ceased working in creation week, is now applied to believers.
But we should not miss the implication of these words, namely that while we wait for the rest to come we should be diligently working for God’s interests, just as God worked for His interests on the six days of creation. The next verse speaks of labouring to enter into rest, for only those who work deserve rest. It is not work in the Epistle to the Galatians sense, where the idea of working for salvation is dealt with. Here, work is commendable, just as God’s work was on days oone to six of the creation week.

4:11
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest- this shows that the rest is still future, and not some vague spiritualising of Scripture. The idea in the word labour is that of diligence. The whole epistle is designed to encourage diligent attention to Divine things. To be yoked to a rabbi was to learn from him and practice what he practiced. To be yoked to Christ is to do the same. The more we learn of Him, the more we shall enter into the rest He gives. The kingdom age will be the manifestation of the glory of the Lord, and the more we learn of His glory now, the better fitted we shall be not only to enjoy spiritual things now, but to be fit for the kingdom in a day to come.
It is interesting to notice that it was at that critical point in the ministry of Christ when the nation were increasingly rejecting His word, that He offered rest to those who would come to Him, Matthew 11:25-29. But He also spoke of those who took His yoke upon them, (and this implies work), finding rest. As they gave diligence to enjoy the rest He gives, they would find rest, the rest that God enjoys.
Significantly, Matthew next records the incident where the disciples are criticised by the Pharisees for plucking ears of corn on the sabbath day, Matthew 12:1-9. The Lord refers them to an incident when David, the anointed king of Israel, (but a king pursued by his enemies), had eaten of the showbread from the tabernacle. Said He, “That in this place is one greater than the temple”, for His presence in the cornfield had sanctified it, and the corn had become as good as showbread. Such shall be the conditions when Christ reigns, for common things will become holy. See, for example, Zechariah 14:21, where even the cooking pots will be as holy as the golden plate on the high priest’s mitre. By plucking ears of corn the disciples, unwittingly, were “finding rest”, and “entering into rest”, and eating of the “old corn of the land”, Joshua 5:11.
Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief- note the distinction between the people of God of verse 9, and any man, the latter word being used because profession is still being tested. Those who fall would be illustrated by those who fell in the wilderness under the judgement of God, 3:17. They illustrate the fall of those who have the kingdom presented to them, yet refuse it through disobedience.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 4, VERSES 12 TO 13

4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.

4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

(b) Verses 12,13
Exposure of false profession by word of God.

4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, 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.

The warning passage that is just finished exhorted the Hebrews to be responsive to the word of Christ as it came to them, and not harden their hearts when they heard it.

The word of God is the great test when the question of true or false profession is under consideration. The following scriptures will make this clear:
“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”, John 8:31,32.
“He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God”, John 8:47.
“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”, John 10:26,27.
“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us”, 1 John 4:6.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful- the word of God is living and energetic, such is the statement here, and reminds us of how the warning passage began, even with the idea of the word of the Son, and the appeal to hear His voice, 3:6,7. The word is “logos”, meaning the word of God as one whole body of truth, as opposed to particular parts of the scriptures. The living word is able to expose dead profession, and the energetic word is able to expose a lack of zeal and diligence.
And sharper than any two-edged sword- the swords of men only act upon the physical body. No matter how sharp they are they cannot reach the soul.
Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit- probing deep within, the word of God tests profession, whether it is just the emotion of the soul, or the genuine response of the spirit in obedience to the word of God. Some see in this the proof that soul and spirit are distinguishable but not separable. It cannot be the case that they are not separable, since scripture speaks of souls going to sheol, but spirits going back to God, Psalm 16:10; Ecclesiastes 12:7.
And of the joints and marrow- these are the innermost parts of our body, which translate our intentions into action. Just as the word can divide between the non-physical parts of us, so it can separate between the physical parts that are in fact united together closely.
Our joints are vital if our body is to be serviceable and active. But our marrow is just as important, if not more so, for we can survive without some limbs and joints, but if the marrow of our bones is not functioning as it should, the whole body is affected, and even life itself.
The point is that the word of God is able to divide between that which is purely to do with action, and that which has to do with the life that enables and prompts the action. The word of God is able to tell whether any particular activity is mere formal religion, or the exercise of one who has life from God.
The reference to that which is connected with the bone structure may be a reminder that the wilderness was strewn with the bones of those whose carcases had fallen in the desert. Every lifeless bone was the sign that a spiritually lifeless Israelite had died. This is why the cleansing of the red heifer was needed, Numbers 21, for it had to do with defilement through touching a bone or a grave.
And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart- this is the test for the genuine believer, as to his motive for labouring. The word discerned signifies that which criticises, assesses and analyses the activity in the heart, the innermost part of man, out of which are the issues of life, Proverbs 4:23. Just as our physical heart pumps out blood saturated with oxygen, so that life may be maintained, so the moral counterpart of our being causes the spiritual life to flourish. There is a connection between the marrow and the heart, inasmuch as the marrow ensures a good supply of fresh blood cells, and also removes unwanted dead cells.
The thoughts of a man, and the intentions based on them, are alike known fully by God. He looks not on the outward appearance, but on the heart, 1 Samuel 16:7. The majority of Israel allowed their thoughts to be influenced by the ten unfaithful spies. They then signalled their intention to enter the land by force when it was not God’s will. Both thoughts and intentions were wrong, Numbers 13:31-33; 14:40-45.

4:13
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight- this discernment of the soul, spirit and body of man, even to the extent of knowing his thoughts, applies to all men; none is exempt. Note the subject is now God, not the word of God, but the word is the means by which men are opened up to God’s view.
But all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do- not only is the external covering of man no barrier to God’s eye, but He can penetrate deep within, as the first part of the verse has said. Not only does God constantly look to assess us, but He keeps account, for the latter phrase here may be translated “with whom is our account”. Perhaps, if this “word of exhortation”, 13:22, was originally spoken in a synagogue, there would be white-robed Pharisees listening, who needed to be reminded that outward things count for little with God; what matters is the state of the heart.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 4, VERSES 14 TO 16:

4:14 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.

4:15 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.

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.

The passage 4:14-5:14 deals in general with two things, first, 4:14-16, how our high priest enables us to succeed where Israel failed, then, second, 5:1-14, how Christ succeeds as high priest where Aaron failed.

4:14
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.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest- in chapters 3 and 4 we have seen how Christ acts as God’s apostle, bringing the word of God to bear upon the hearts and consciences of the people. (It was especially as a prophet with direct access to God that Moses was described as faithful in all God’s house, Numbers 12:6-8). But Christ is high priest as well, and this is emphasised from now on. He is great because of the glories described in chapter 1. He is high because He is over His people as a man over men, as chapter 2 showed. He is great morally, He is high officially. In chapter 2:9 He is seen crowned with glory (official), and honour, (moral).
It was declared before His birth that He would be great, Luke 1:32, and so it has come to pass. He is great as prophet, Luke 7:16; as priest, in this passage; as king, Matthew 5:35. He is great because He is Firstborn Son of God, He is high because He is over God’s house.
That is passed into the heavens- the word for passed here means “to travel a road which leads through a place”. The whole passage from chapter two has had the passing of the believer through this wilderness world in view, and how he may navigate through it successfully. But Christ is our Captain, our file-leader, blazing a trail through this world, and so successful has He been that He has arrived in heaven. The road He travelled here only had one destination, and He has safely arrived. As He Himself said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father”, John 16:28. His coming forth involved His apostleship. His going to the Father involved His priesthood. Really speaking, the heavenly ministry of Christ begins with this verse, and extends until the end of chapter 10.
Jesus the Son of God- He is still known as Jesus in heaven, even as He Himself indicated to Saul of Tarsus when He said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”, Acts 9:5. But He is Son of God, the Firstborn charged with administering all things for God’s glory; in this instance, the ministry of priesthood. As Jesus we may be assured of His sympathy, as Son of God we may be assured of His competency.
Let us hold fast our profession- He is the apostle and high priest of our profession, and we are encouraged to hold fast by the fact that it is He who is central to our faith. This is a strong appeal to those who were wavering. What greater incentive could there be to continue with Christian things, than that He is in control, and gives character to everything? It was a feature of many in Israel that they did not hold fast or firm the profession they had made by coming out of Egypt under Moses. The result was tragic, as we have seen, for instead of holding fast they let go. The priestly ministry of Christ has as one of its objects the support of those who waver, lest they let slip by the things they had heard, 2:1.

4:15
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.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities- the sentence begins with “for”, and gives the reason why we should hold fast. Notice the two negatives here- “we have not…who cannot”. We should not immediately turn these into a positive, for if we do we shall lose the point of the argument. The thought is that our situation is not the same as Israel’s, for they had a high priest who was unable to sympathise with the people, being compassed with infirmity. The implications of that fact are described in 5:1-3. We are in a better position, therefore a greater responsibility rests upon us.
Notice He is not said to be touched by our infirmities, but by the feeling of our infirmities. In other words, without sharing in sinful infirmities, He draws upon His experience of temptation, in which He met with, and resisted, the temptation to sin. He knows the feeling that believers have when infirmities tempt them to sin. Again we must emphasise that He does not have the infirmity, but from outside of Himself came incitements to sin, which found in Him no response at all. Because He resisted these fully, He has felt the pressure of them beyond all others.
We could think of the illustration of a sea wall. One section is built far beyond specifications, with the best quality materials and workmanship. The adjoining section is built below specifications, with second-rate materials and poor workmanship. Which section of the wall will feel the pressure of the storm most? Clearly, the fault-free section, for the other will give way easily. So Christ, fault free in every sense, has withstood to the utmost, and therefore has felt the force of the storm of temptation beyond anything we shall know. So the writer does not say He is touched by the feelings we have because He had what caused those feelings Himself, but because He was tempted.
In His temptation every aspect of a man’s attitude to God was tested. He can be tempted in all points, because He has been made in all things like unto His brethren, (the word “points” is the same as “things” in Hebrews 2:17), and thus He suffers as a real man. Although His temptations are over, He has taken His sympathetic heart to heaven, and fully knowing what our trials are like, can minister just the help we need.
Are we tempted to doubt God’s goodness? He has been tempted by the Devil in that regard. His suggestion that Christ should turn a stone into bread carried with it the implication that His Father had not been caring for Him enough. The promise to the Messiah was “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son”, Hebrews 1:5, but the Devil suggested that the Father had not been true to His pledge, and had left His Son without resources. God had provided for multitudes of Israelites for forty years in the wilderness, yet His own Son had only been there for forty days, and there was no food! Later on in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, He would point out that fathers do not give their sons stones when they ask for bread, Luke 11:11, yet here was the Son Himself, surrounded by stones, yet He had no bread!
What a trial this was, far greater than the temptation that had come to Adam with regard to food, for he was surrounded by a plentiful supply. He did not need to eat of the forbidden fruit to save himself from starvation. There was no dissatisfaction in the heart of the Lord Jesus, however, for He had better food than material bread. Every word which proceeded out of the mouth of God was valued as His necessary food. There had come no indication from the scriptures on which His soul fed, that He should turn a stone into bread, and thus He was content. So absorbed with the word of God was He, that it is only after the temptation that He hungered physically. By basing His reply to the Devil on God’s word, and especially since the quotation begins, “Man shall not live”, He clearly indicates that this victory over temptation can be ours as well as His, for we can all insert our name where the word “man” occurs. He does not assert His Divine authority and say, “Verily, verily, I say unto you”, but simply quotes what is already written, as we may do. When we are tempted to doubt God’s goodness, we should cry for help, and He will show us in God’s word those things that demonstrate the reality of God’s goodness to us.
We also may be tempted to double-mindedness in relation to God, eager to worship and serve Him, but at the same time attracted to the glamour of this passing world To those thus tempted, and who come to Him for help, there is the example of Christ’s resolute determination to serve God with undivided heart, and an equally resolute determination to resist the Devil. Satan had tried to position himself between Christ and His Father, but the Lord would not tolerate this, and commanded the Devil to get behind him, clearly refusing to bow down to him.
The kingdoms of this world will one day be Christ’s, Revelation 11:15, but He will receive them from His Father, Psalm 2:8, and not from the Devil. Those who triumph in this aspect of temptation do so because they rest in the purpose of God. How great would the Devil’s victory have been if he could have given the world to Christ without Calvary!
Then again, we may be tempted to wonder whether God’s promises are really true, and begin to doubt Him. This temptation has come to our Saviour as well, but His firm rebuff to the Devil we may take up too, “Thou shall not tempt the Lord Thy God”. His word should be enough for us, just as it was for the Lord Jesus. So the Lord refuses to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple simply to see whether God’s word is true or not.
God’s provision, God’s purpose, God’s promises- is there anything not covered by these three? Christ has been tempted in all points like as we are, and we may overcome as He overcame, by the right use of the Word of God, as we are led by the Spirit of God in ways that glorify God.
What He is said to be touched with the feeling of is our infirmities, or manifestations of lack of strength. But here again, we should not assume that He sympathises with these because He had infirmities Himself. It is true that Paul gloried in his infirmities, so they are not necessarily sinful, but still it is not the case that Christ possessed them. Paul’s infirmities, by which is meant bodily weakness and ailments, were a direct result of the fall of man in Adam, and the consequent subjection to vanity that came with it. The Lord Jesus did not share in the results of the fall, even as to His body. He was not begotten of Joseph, thus He has no link with fallen humanity, either morally or physically.
Matthew tells us that when the Lord Jesus healed the men and women of His day, there was a partial fulfillment of the words of Isaiah 53:4. In that passage the prophet describes the Messiah as One who “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”. When Peter alludes to this in 1 Peter 2:24 he quotes it as “He bare our sins”. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the words, but Matthew is concerned with their partial fulfillment, and so prefaces his reference to Isaiah 53 with the words “That it might be fulfilled”, and then quotes Isaiah with the words, “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses”.
This might seem to indicate a final fulfillment, until we remember that there are three ways in which quotations from the Old Testament are introduced by writers in the New Testament.
Where the Greek word “ina” is used, then it is “in order that it might be fulfilled”, and the prophecy has been finally fulfilled.
Where the word “tole” is found, then it is “was fulfilled”, and indicates that the event was merely a case in point, and what happened was an illustration of what was said in the prophecy, and it might be “fulfilled” in that way on another occasion.
Where the word “opus” is used, as is the case in Matthew 8:17, it is “so that it might be”, and the fulfillment is not complete, but an event which was within the scope and intention of the prophecy.
So Matthew is not saying that sins were borne during the life of the Lord Jesus, but he is saying that there was an event that was included in the scope of the prophecy of Isaiah, but which did not exhaust its meaning. So when the Lord Jesus healed a person, He took upon Himself, in deep sympathy, the griefs and sorrows which that illness caused him, so that instead of the ill person bearing those sorrows, the Lord Jesus bore them for him. Coupled with this, virtue or power went out from Christ to heal the disease that caused the sorrow, see Luke 8:46. In this way He is touched, even now, by the feeling of our infirmities. Remember, He is the Creator of men, and therefore is able to understand perfectly the difference between what He made man at the beginning, and what sin has made him to be now.
The Lord Jesus healed all manner of diseases, Matthew 4:23, and the power of the Lord was present to heal all who were sick, even Pharisees, Luke 5:17. The miracles that are recorded in detail are those that present to us some spiritual lesson, and illustrate some particular sinful condition of man. For instance man is blind, unable to perceive the truth of God, deaf to the voice of God, dumb in the praise of God, lame as to the ways of God, defiled as to the holiness of God, and so on. Those that are recorded in detail, however, are but a sample from the full range of disease that was dealt with by Christ. There was nothing too hard for the Lord to deal with.
Remember also the pains of Calvary, for death by crucifixion was designed to inflict the most possible pain, for the longest possible time, in the most varied ways possible. If anyone knew pain, it was our Saviour, especially since none of His senses was dulled by sin, unlike ordinary men.
There are not only body-infirmities, however, but weakness of mind and spirit. Can He be touched by these, even though He had no weakness of mind or spirit? Indeed He can, for He has been tested in body, soul and spirit. His mental sufferings on the cross were of the extreme kind. Who else has been forsaken of His God? And He the Son of God in His bosom eternally! There could be no greater trauma than this, than to cry unto God and to receive no answer, as if He were like those who regard iniquity in their heart, Psalm 66:18. And to be separated from God, as if He were like those whose sins have hidden God’s face from them, Isaiah 59:2.
Even in His life He knew sadness because of the sin and unbelief of men; disappointment when His disciples made such slow progress in Divine things; grief as He wept over the city that would soon reject Him, and condemn itself, as a consequence, to be levelled to the ground.
Think of the grief of heart when His loyalty to God, His desires to be subject to Divine purpose, His confidence in Divine promises, were all called into question by the Devil in the wilderness. How true was Isaiah’s word, He is a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But in all this He sinned not.
But the question remains as to how exactly our High Priest sympathises with us if He does not have what we have? The answer is that it is precisely because He is apart from sin in any shape or form, that He is able to support, succour and save us from a position of strength. It is not drowning men that save drowning men, but those who throw them a life-line whilst firmly standing on the rock.

But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin- We must be very careful when considering the subject of the temptation of the Lord Jesus. In our earnest attempt to understand it, (insofar as it is possible to do so), we must remember the uniqueness of His person. He is the Son of God, and as such is not able to sin, or else God is able to sin. When He took manhood, He did not cease to be what He always was. Scripture teaches that He who is in the form of God took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Note that He took the likeness of men upon Himself as one who is in the form of God. He added manhood to His Deity. He did not modify His Deity to accommodate His manhood. He now possesses two natures, yet remains one person. Now it is persons that sin, not natures, so because He remains the same person He ever was, then for that reason He is not able to sin. Because He remains God, like God He cannot be tempted with evil, James 1:13, for it holds no attraction for Him at all. He does not have to weigh up the situation and make a decision whether to give in or not- for Him, sinning is not an option.
He is not able to sin for a related reason also. When He came into the world, the Son of God expressed the resolve to do God’s will, Hebrews 10:7. The fact that He did indeed perform the will of God perfectly, is not only known by His own testimony, “I do always those things which please him”, John 8:29; “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”, John 17:4, (and if it were not so He would have told us, John 14:2), but also from the fact that He has returned to the throne from which He was sent, and has sat down there with Divine approval, Hebrews 10:12.
It may be objected that the Lord Jesus did certain things which it is not possible for God the Father to do. He slept, (But “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep”, Psalm 121:4), He hungered and thirsted, (but God needeth not anything, Acts 17:25), and He died, (but God is from everlasting to everlasting, Psalm 90:2; the Living God, Acts 14:15). Christ did indeed experience these things, but He did so, not because His Deity was weakened or modified, but precisely because He was God, and as such could will to do these things. It was part of what He willingly accepted when He became man.
We are told by those who believe that Christ did not sin, but could have done so, that He needs to be like that to relate to His people, who are capable of sinning. The people of God, however, are born of God, and as such do not practice sin as a habit. 1 John 3:9. They do, alas, commit sins, but they do so when acting after the flesh, and God does not look on His people as if they are in the flesh, but in the Spirit, Romans 8:9. When believers commit sins they need, and have, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, who pleads the value of His work at Calvary.
It is true that the statement, “Jesus Christ could not sin”, is not found in Scripture. But the truth is certainly found there, and it is implied overwhelmingly by the whole doctrine about Christ and His Person. Is it realistic to suggest that a person who could sin would be able to pass through this world with all its temptations, be assailed by the wickedest, cleverest force for evil in the world, even the Devil himself, and not succumb? Also, if He could sin when on earth, how are we sure that He cannot sin now? His condition has changed, it is true, but His person has not; if He could sin then, He could sin now. This is unthinkable.
He was tempted in all points like as we are, “yet without sin”. This latter phrase may be misunderstood. “Without sin” means what it does in Hebrews 9:28, namely “apart from, cut off from, sin”. When Christ comes again, He will not re-open the question of sin, for He dealt with that effectively by His first coming. He will come totally separate from any notion of dealing with the sin of his people, but will have only their salvation before Him. It is the same in connection with temptation. It is not just that sin is absent from Christ, although that is true, but rather that He distanced Himself from sin in all its forms, cutting himself off from any notion that sin may be trifled with, and indulged in. Now it is precisely because He did this, that He is in the strongest possible position to help us in our temptations, for He strengthens us to distance ourselves from sin too.

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.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace- Because we have a High Priest like this, there should be a consequence, indicated by the “therefore”. His being far away in heaven does not mean He does not touch us, nor that we cannot touch Him, for we may freely approach the throne upon which He sits. We should come with boldness to God’s throne, for it is a throne of grace and not of judgement for us. Upon that throne is One who is for us, not against us, our sympathising high priest, and those resources which we need to enable us to overcome temptation are available for the asking. He will show us from the Scriptures the way in which He met temptations, and so we shall be saved from falling.
Note it is a throne we approach, a place of stability and authority, where one sits who is in complete control of every situation. It is the throne of grace, for there is no other throne that can be described thus.
That we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need- the priesthood of the Lord Jesus comes in when we are in danger of giving way to temptation. Like Melchizedec, who brought bread and wine to Abraham to strengthen him before his trial with the king of Sodom, Genesis 14:17-24, Christ ministers to us the truth as to His triumphant life, (the bread), during which He successfully resisted all temptations. He also imparts to us the truth as to His triumphant death, (the wine), when He not only resisted unto blood, striving against sin, Hebrews 12:2-4, but also died for our sins, 9:14. By these means our souls are strengthened for the conflict.
But He succours as we come to the throne where He is, knowing that there is abundant mercy for the asking. He is not like the priest in the parable, who passed by on the other side instead of showing mercy, Luke 10:31. We need mercy or pity, because we are weak and failing at best, and when we acknowledge that, and do not try to act in our own strength, we may obtain the mercy.
We may also obtain what we seek for the present need, for the time of temptation is the time of need. Every time when we have need of support in temptation we may find it in Christ. The word find implies that we specifically seek for specific help; as He Himself said, “Seek, and ye shall find”, Matthew 7:7.

HEBREWS 3

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HEBREWS 3

Survey of the chapter
Chapter 3 continues the theme begun in chapter 2. There the manhood of Christ is emphasised, and the seven-fold way in which He ministers to His people’s needs. He sanctifies His people, separating them from Adam’s world, and sets them on the path of faith, a path sure to end in glory. It is beset by difficulties, however, so He acts as a faithful and merciful high priest, and thus enables His people to reach their destination.
To further show His fitness for this task, the writer contrasts Him with Moses, who was responsible for leading the children of Israel through the desert until they reached Canaan. Under Moses, however, many of the people fell when they were tried and tested by the wilderness journey. We, however, have a greater than Moses to help us, and so are encouraged as we press on to heaven.
The verses from 3:7 to 4:13 are based on the words of Psalm 95:7-11, in which the psalmist details the failure of the nation of Israel to listen to God’s voice while they were crossing the wilderness towards Canaan. So it was that some forfeited their right to the land, and died in the wilderness. Hebrews 3:7-19 concentrates on those who refused to enter into the land, whereas Hebrews 4:1-11 speaks of those who do enter into God’s rest.

Structure of the chapter

(a)	Verses 1-5	Considering the apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Jesus
(b)	Verses 6-13	Obeying the voice of the Son over God’s house
(c)	Verses 14-19	Becoming partakers of Christ

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 3, VERSES 1 TO 6:

3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

3:2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

3:3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

3:4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

3:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

(a) Verses 1-5
Considering the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus

3:1
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Wherefore- this is the translation of a word which is not found in any epistle known to be from Paul. It means “for which reason”. Chapter 2:18 has described our high priest as able to succour those that are tempted, so for this reason we should do what we are exhorted in the words following.
Holy brethren- believers have been made the brethren of Christ, 2:12, and He has sanctified them, 2:11, separating them from their former links with Adam, so they can be described as holy brethren.
Partakers of the heavenly calling- as Hebrews they had been called to an earthly inheritance. They have now exchanged this for a heavenly one, for their High Priest is at the right hand of God, not on David’s throne on earth. The word “partakers” is the same as “fellows” in 1:9, and the word “partakers” of 3:14, 6:4, 12:8. It is used in Luke 5:7 of those who were partners in a fishing business. It denotes those who are sharers together in a common interest, in this case the heavenly things to which believers are called.
Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession- when Israel were about to begin their journey across the desert, they were led by Moses and Aaron, who had met and kissed on Mount Horeb, where later the law would be given, Exodus 4:27. There is bonded together in these two men the twin ideas of one who represents God’s interests to the people, and who comes out from God’s presence to declare God’s mind, and another who represents the people’s interests in the presence of God, and who comes out from the presence of the people to be before God. Moses was the apostle-like figure, coming out from and sent by God, whereas Aaron was the priest, going in to God from the people and for their interests. The Jews used the word apostle of those sent by the High Priest to collect the temple tribute from Jews in foreign lands. Compare Matthew 21:34.
What was divided between Moses and Aaron is combined to perfection in Christ, who is superior to Moses in 3:2-6, and superior to Aaron in 4:14-5:3. Moses and Aaron both failed, as is seen in the fact that neither of them entered the land of promise. Christ did not fail, and is entered in to heaven, 4:14.
The word profession has the idea of saying the same thing. In this context, it means to be in agreement with God when He tells of the glories and offices of His Son. He is apostle and high priest in order to make our profession a possibility, and to make the things spoken of in that profession a reality.
Christ Jesus- the title Christ, or Messiah, can justly be connected with the personal name of Jesus. This combined title is not found in the Gospels, so is a name reserved for Christ as one who, having been here, has become Christ or “anointed one” in a new way. As Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “God hath made that same Jesus…Lord and Christ”, Acts 2:36. He was Lord and Christ before, but is now to be thought of as having these titles in a new way. He has become Christ in a heavenly sense, for He is God’s approved man who fits His people for heaven.

3:2
Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

Who was faithful to him that appointed him- the faithfulness of Christ is emphasised here, as His mercy is to the fore in 4:14-16. To appoint means literally to make, but clearly has the idea of installing into an office, and therefore making Him something officially. He was appointed as apostle in eternity, as He Himself indicated, for he described Himself as “Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world”, John 10:36. And again, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world”, John 17:18. He was appointed as high priest in ascension, 5:4,10; 7:21,28. The word is used in Mark 3:14, where disciples were made, or appointed, apostles. It is appropriate that He should be appointed apostle as He begins His journey, and appointed high priest as He ends it.
The phrase is literally “being faithful”, so does not confine itself to the past, as “was” might suggest. He was faithful as apostle when here, He is faithful as high priest up in heaven.
As also Moses was faithful in all his house- the latter words are a quotation from Numbers 12:7. The context of that passage is relevant. Numbers 11 records the appointment of the 70 men designated by God to assist Moses in his task of leading the people. This might have seemed to Aaron and Miriam a sign that God saw weakness in Moses, and this raised a doubt in their minds as to his competence. They spoke against him in regard to the Ethiopian wife he had taken, perhaps suggesting that this showed lack of right judgement on his part. They might have thought, “If he cannot order the affairs of his own house aright, how can he administer the house of God?” “Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses, hath he not spoken also by us?”, they ask. He had indeed used Aaron as Moses’ spokesman in Pharoah’s palace, and Miriam had sung on the banks of the Red Sea to the praise of God, but still it was Moses who was to take the lead role in the affairs of the nation.
God moves to defend Moses’ reputation with the words quoted here, emphasising his faithfulness, for a faithful man is a reliable man; one to whom God can entrust His word, and such was Moses. Aaron had failed at Sinai and also on the day of the consecration of the priests.
God refers to “mine house”, in Numbers 12:7, so this fixes the meaning here as being God’s house, not Moses’ house.
We should remember that a person’s house is not necessarily the building he lives in. It can mean his family, as in the expression “House of Jacob”. The Hebrew word for son is “ben”, but this is connected with the word for build. In Bible times, sons were what a man’s house was built with. By speaking of Moses as a servant in His house God is indicating that the believers in Israel were His houshold, and Moses was a servant in that household.

3:3
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses- the word “for” takes us back to the idea of considering Christ. He is worthy of more glory even than Moses was as the respected leader of Israel. It would take a very convincing argument to make the Hebrews stop owning allegiance to Moses, but the writer has more than one arguments to advance. The word “more” is an adjective, so the idea is of greater, better, fuller glory. This is why the Hebrews needed to turn from considering Moses as their leader, and consider Christ Jesus.
Inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house- the writer now uses a physical illustration to bring out a truth in the spiritual realm. He will speak of a material house and its builder, and then apply the lesson to Moses in relation to God’s spiritual house. The general principle is that the builder of any material house displays access to resources, intelligence, and skill, something that obviously cannot be said of the house itself. The same is true in the spiritual realm, for Moses functioned in God’s house, and was therefore part of it, and therefore the builder of that house is superior to him.

3:4
For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God- this is the reason why Christ is worthy of more glory than Moses. Every physical house is built by man. The word for build emphasises the preparation and establishment of the house. But the man only uses the materials that have already been prepared by God when He built the world.
There might be a glance here at the building of the tabernacle, superinteded as it was by Moses. Later on in the history of Israel the tabernacle was called the house of God, see Matthew 12:4. The idea that Christ built the tabernacle might seem strange to us, but it is clear that the materials that Moses used to actually make the tabernacle were put in place by Christ, for He is the one who made the earth and its fulness. As John 1:3 puts it, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made”. He it was who placed the gold, silver, brass, and precious stones in the earth, and caused the shittim trees and the flax to grow, so that materials were available for Moses and his helpers to use. It is true that the tabernacle was built by Moses, and so, like every house on earth, has been built by man, but beyond that Christ supplied the materials, and is therefore worthy of more honour. So the reason He is worthy of a greater glory than Moses is found in His Deity.

3:5
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant- this word may be translated as “confidential servant”, which fits in with Numbers 12:8, where God speaks of the way in which He spoke face to face with Moses, in a way which He did not speak to other prophets. Having heard the voice of God, Moses was faithful in his acting upon that word from God.
It is interesting to notice that the word for servant, “therapon”, is one which gives us the English words “therapeutic”, and “therapy”. In Numbers 12:13 Moses appeals to God about Miriam with the words “Heal her now, I beseech thee”. As mediator, he was indirectly responsible for the healing of his sister. All Aaron could do was appeal to Moses, verses 11,12; Moses, on the other hand, appealed to God.
For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after- Miriam and Aaron made two criticisms of Moses. First, that he had married an Ethiopian woman, which they may have thought showed a failure in judgement. If he cannot order his own house aright, how can he order God house?
Their second criticism was about their ministry in Israel. They asked, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken by us? Numbers 12:2. The Lord does not respond to the first objection, but to the second He says, “Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them”, verses 8,9.
So the commendation of the faithfulness of Moses comes in the context of his office as a prophet. Aaron was a prophet too, Exodus 7:1, and Miriam was a prophetess, Exodus 15:20, but the Lord makes it clear that the standing of Moses was greater, for He spoke with him directly. We read of Moses meeting with God at the mercy seat, and God spoke to him from between the cherubim, Exodus 25:22. So “testimony of those things which were to be spoken after” refers to the ongoing communication of the mind of God to Moses. Despite the objections of his brother and sister, God would continue to speak in testimony to him after that point. We shall see the reason for the emphasis on speaking when we reach verse 7, and we are exhorted to hear the voice of the Son of God.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 3, VERSES 6 TO 11:

3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

(b) Verses 6-13
Obeying the voice of the Son over God’s house.

3:6
But Christ as a Son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

But Christ as a Son over his own house- we have a great priest over the house of God, according to 10:21. The idea of being faithful is to be understood from the context. Moses was faithful as a servant…but Christ (was faithful) as a Son.
Whose house are we- just as the House of Israel was built up by Jacob’s descendants, (each one being a “stone” in the building), so the house of God consists of those in the family of God. In Moses’ day this was made up of the believers in Israel, whereas now it is believers in the church, who are “of the household of God”, Ephesians 2:19. This household is the place where the Father’s will is done, and in which God’s firstborn Son is delegated the task of administering. Hence the importance of hearing and obeying the voice of the Son, verse 7.
If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end- the problem with Israel was that they did not persevere in the hearing and obeying of the voice of God. They were not firm to the end, so they murmured instead of rejoicing, and instead of maintaining confidence in God, that He would bring them into the land, were disbelieving. By holding fast the readers of this epistle would show themselves true believers, and therefore in the house.

3:7
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

Wherefore- on the basis of the foregoing truths, we are now exhorted to prove that we are genuinely part of the house. There follows a parenthesis from 3:7-11 in which part of Psalm 95 is quoted, and a summary of the behaviour of Israel in the wilderness is given to us by the Spirit of God. This the writer to the Hebrews uses, extracting different phrases from it to challenge his readers. The whole passage from 3:7-4:13 forms his second warning in the epistle. Having drawn lessons from the giving of the law at Sinai in 2:1-4, he now proceeds to warn them using the subsequent wilderness experience of Israel.
(as the Holy Ghost saith- so the Holy Spirit is speaking in the present, (saith), in words that were written centuries before by the psalmist. There now comes a quotation from Psalm 95. In Hebrews chapter 3 the emphasis is on the middle of the quotation, whereas in chapter 4 the main point is the beginning and ending of the quote. The word “today” is referred to seven times.
To day if ye will hear his voice- despite having been written by a man, they were the words of the Holy Spirit of God. As such they have great relevance. The expression used for Holy Spirit is literally “the Spirit, the Holy”, indicating and emphasising His separateness from anything wrong or corrupt. He may safely be listened to.
Note, too, that the Holy Spirit is exhorting that we listen to the voice of the Son. One Divine Person is supporting the ministry of another, as happens again in 10:15. Note the importance of hearing the voice today, and not delaying obedience. We are to hear the voice each day, and honestly assess our response to it.
Psalm 95:7 spoke of Israel as the flock of God’s pasture, and the Lord Jesus, the good shepherd, emphasised the importance of hearing His voice, John 10:27. To ignore the voice of the shepherd might mean we get into danger, or stray.
In Numbers 14:22, after Israel had refused to go into the land, the Lord accused them of not having hearkened to His voice. So the Hebrews to whom the epistle was written could not only fail to hear the voice of the psalm, but also ignore the voice of the Spirit and the voice of the Son.

3:8
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Harden not your hearts- it is entirely possible to hear the voice, but not have hearts responsive to what is said. Sadly this was the case with the majority in Israel, in incidents now to be referred to.
As in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness- the meaning of the place-name Meribah, (where, at the beginning of the wilderness journey, the people murmured against God and His goodness), is strife, or provocation, and the other name given to the place by Moses was Massah, which means temptation, Exodus 17:7. So the failure and sin of the people is recorded for all to know and learn by. Long after the event, the psalmist recalled it for our instruction.

3:9
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years- what happened at the beginning of the wilderness journey happened at the end, forty years later in Numbers 20. (See verse 1 of that chapter, where “the first month” means the first month of the fortieth year). Again it is a matter of water from the rock, and again the place is named Meribah by Moses. When placed under trial and testing, instead of being cast upon God, and availing themselves of the ministry of their high priest, they tempted God by suggesting that He was not able to deal with the situation. Nonetheless, God still allowed them to see His great works for forty years, in the provision of the manna and quails, and their preservation from harm.

3:10
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation- God is always grieved when His word is disobeyed, because that is the same as saying He is a liar. This is how the apostle John saw it, for he wrote, “he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar”, 1 John 5:10.
And said, They do alway err in their heart- it is no surprise to learn that those who fail to listen to God go astray. The word for err is “planos”, the lights in the sky that sailors plot their course by at their peril, for they are planets, and wander across the night sky. The psalmist said that Israel “wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way”. Instead of taken the straight way under God’s direction, they were condemned to wander aimlessly for thirty-eight years. The erring of their heart was mirrored in the wandering of their feet. Stephen tells us that “in their hearts they turned back into Egypt”, Acts 7:39; and he is referring to the incident at the foot of Sinai, just a month after crossing the Red Sea. See verse 17 below, where God was grieved, not just for thirty-eight years, but forty.
And they have not known my ways- preferring their own way, God’s way was unknown to them, for only those responsive to the word of God shall know the way.

3:11
So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

So I sware in my wrath- this is the psalmist’s comment on the passage in Numbers 14:27-39 where God says, “As truly as I live, saith the Lord…your carcases shall fall in this wilderness”. Because God cannot swear by anything higher than Himself, (for there is nothing higher), He swears by Himself, for He, as God, is His own point of reference, Hebrews 6:13. We shall see in chapter 4 that these words may be rendered slightly differently, so that God, even when He is in the midst of displaying wrath He still remembers mercy, Habakkuk 3;2.
They shall not enter into my rest- the Canaan-rest God had prepared for His people could not be entered in a state of unbelief and disobedience. This is the way the words apply to that portion of the nation which were disobedient to the word of God.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 3, VERSES 12 TO 19:

3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

3:15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

3:16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

3:18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

3:12
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Take heed, brethren- the quotation from Psalm 95 ends in verse 12, and the line of thought is now resumed from verse 6. We should not assume that by calling them brethren he is reckoning them to all be believers. The common mode of address in the synagogue was “Men brethren”, the common interest in God’s dealings with Israel being that which made them into a brotherhood, see Acts 7;2; 13:26,38; 22:1.
Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief- a heart of unbelief is always evil, which word means “causing grief or pain”. Hence God speaks of being grieved forty years by their manifest unbelief. Any one of the nation could be in danger of this; simply being of Israel did not make them immune. It was one of the twelve apostles that betrayed Christ, and thereby showed himself to be an apostate.
In departing from the living God- the word for departing here means to apostatise, to deliberately go away from the stand one has taken with regard to the truth. In the parable of the sower, those whose hearts were like the rocky ground, where the seed could not take deep root, “for a while believe, but in time of temptation fall away”, Luke 8:13. So there is such a thing as temporary faith, where a form of belief is exercised, but which does not take serious note of the consequences. The apostle Paul calls this believing in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:2.
Those who departed from the living God were those who did not share the life of God, which is eternal life. No wonder we read their carcases fell in the wilderness, for they were dead while they lived, (for men’s bodies are normally only called carcases after they have died).

3:13
But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day- daily exhortation is encouraged by the fact that every day is an opportunity to hear the word of God, for the Son constantly brings it to us. It was those who spoke often to one another in Malachi’s day who were precious to the Lord, Malachi 3:16,17.
Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin- sin committed because the word of God is not obeyed, will result in a hardening of the heart. Sin has the ability to deceive us into thinking that it knows the best policy. We see this in the fact that many in Israel preferred Egypt to Canaan.

3:14
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

For we are made partakers of Christ- literally “we have become companions of Christ”, so the deed is done. The word partaker is translated “fellows” in 1:9, and partakers in verses 1 and 14 of this chapter. The idea is of those who have a close association with another, so that they share in his affairs. This is a high position to be in, but high privileges bring great responsibilities.
If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end- the beginning of the confidence in Christ is the initial, fervent faith in Him they showed at conversion. A continuance in that attitude is a sure sign of genuineness, and is the opposite of the “departing” of verse 12. It is not a question of continuing so as to be saved, but continuing because we are saved.

3:15
While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
3:16
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice- having spoken of the whole of the pilgrim journey from initial faith to the end of the journey, the writer now reminds us that we must respond to Christ on a day to day basis. We cannot maintain our walk as companions with Christ if we neglect His word day after day.
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation- the psalmist had mentioned provocation because it was the name given to the place in the wilderness where the people murmured against God and Moses, and He provided them water, Exodus 17:7; Numbers 20:13. See notes on verse 9.
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses- so the nation is divided into those who provoke God by their unbelief and murmuring, and those who respond to His word. Those under twenty years old when they came out of Egypt, (for that was the minimum age to be included in the census, Numbers 1:3), were spared. See Numbers 26:63-65.

3:17
But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

But with whom was he grieved forty years? The attitude of heart at the beginning, at Massah, was found at the end, again at Massah; they were unchanged, despite having seen God’s providential and sustaining works for forty years.
Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? So God was justified for banning them from the land, for they showed themselves to be sinners for forty long years. As those who were spiritually dead, it was as if they were dead while they lived, hence their bodies are called carcases before they were put in the grave. This is why there needed to be the provision in Numbers 19, (Numbers is the wilderness book), if a bone or a grave were touched, for the wilderness became a graveyard.

3:18
And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
3:19
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Only two men over the age of fifty-eight entered the land of promise, Caleb and Joshua, the two faithful spies. Despite the evidence of the fruitfulness of the land, and despite the encouragements Caleb and Joshua gave to the people as they preached the gospel of good things ahead, 4:2, the people were marked by unbelief. This unbelief takes the form of disobedience, such is the word used, so we are back yet again to the question of obeying the word of God as it comes to us. Thus ends a sad section where the emphasis has been on those who did not enter in. Chapter 4 will concentrate more on those who did, and the reasons why they did.

HEBREWS 2:11-18

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THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 2, VERSES 11-15

2:11 For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

2:12 Saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.

2:13 And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

THE PATH OF SEPARATION FROM ADAM’S WORLD
2:11 For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified- To sanctify means to set apart. It is too early in the epistle to think in terms of being sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ, 10:10. In the context, the captain of our salvation has separated us from the world of Adam of which we formed part. In His prayer in John 17, the Lord Jesus spoke of sanctifying Himself, that His people might be sanctified by the truth. Sanctification, or holiness, has not to do in the first instance with separation from sin, (we must not confuse sanctification with purification), but rather involves separation from the ordinary, to be occupied with the sacred. Christ ever sanctified Himself during His life down here, and this qualifies Him to sanctify His people now. He had contrasted those who have eternal life with those who only have the life of flesh, John 17:2, and has described His own as given to Him by the Father out of the world, verse 6. This does not involve being physically removed, but morally distinct. Given that believers are in the world, He requested that they might be sanctified by the truth. The truth in question being that regarding the nature of the eternal life believers possess, the very life of God. It is as we have fellowship with God and His Son in the things of eternal life, (which things were expressed fully by the Son when He was here), that we shall be set apart from the world of Adam. The closer we get to God, the further we shall be from the world. Adam associated his race with things that caused them to perish, whereas Christ associates with salvation the race of which He is head. By passing through this world, and suffering in it, the Lord Jesus has equipped Himself with the experience to lead His people through the same world, with all its sufferings.
Are all of one- the sanctifier, (Christ), and those sanctified, (His people), all emerge out of one common experience of suffering on the way to glory. He has already come out of the tomb never to suffer again. But association with Christ in His burial and resurrection begins a life of suffering for the believer. From which suffering he will emerge just a certainly as Christ has emerged. If we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified together, Romans 8:17. Christ is out of the experience of suffering already, whereas we await that emergence, but because it is certain it can be spoken of as if already accomplished. It is noticeable that the apostles did not begin to suffer for Christ until He was risen from the dead.
For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren- “A brother is born for adversity”, Proverbs 17:17, and the common experience of suffering bonds us with our captain. If He passed through suffering, and the people did not, then there might be room for embarrassment if He called us brethren. Note the way Romans 8 moves from a consideration of sufferings because of a groaning creation, verses 16-27, to the thought that God’s people shall be brethren with His Son, in glory, verses 28-30. No amount of privation can destroy that, as Romans 8:38,39 declares: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

THE PATH OF (RESURRECTION) LIFE WITH CHRIST
2:12 Saying, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren- These are words found in Psalm 22:22 at the point where the scene changes from one of death and great suffering, to resurrection and great glory. They represent the point where Christ finishes His experience of suffering in this world, and begins to enter His glory, “God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory”, 1 Peter 1:21.
The Lord described His disciples as those that had continued with Him in His temptations, and despite the way they had forsaken Him in Gethsemane, He still said to the women, “Go tell My brethren that I go before you into Galilee”, Matthew 28:10. He also spoke of ascending to His Father and theirs, thus showing He was not ashamed to associate with them, even if they had been ashamed, temporarily, to associate with Him. In this way He began to carry out what He promised in His prayer to His Father in John 17:26, and continued the declaration of the Father’s name or character.
In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee”- If the first phrase involved teaching the Name, this one involves praising the Name. Praise is the expression of the works of God, and here the Lord Jesus can be thought of as praising God for His great work of delivering Him from death, in answer to His prayer, Hebrews 5:7. It is noticeable that after the Passover meal a psalm was sung before they left, in accordance with the custom of Israel, whereas we do not read of this in the upper room in the post-resurrection appearances to the disciples there. Perhaps a psalm, (1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:19), now has the more spiritual idea of a personal expression of praise, rather than the repetition of the exercises of others. By singing praise in the church is meant the recounting by the Lord Jesus of His appreciation of the intervention of His Father on His behalf; He does this as His people speak of Him to the Father. Psalm 22 does not actually use the word sing in the expression that is quoted here, perhaps confirming that singing is not necessarily in view.
There is a possibility that the declaring of the Name is done while His people are still on earth, whereas the singing of praise in the midst of the church will take place in heaven when all the redeemed are safe home. So one refers to the local assembly, the other to “the church of the firstborn (ones) which are written (enrolled) in heaven”, 12:23.

THE PATH OF FAITH IN GOD
2:13 And again, “I will put my trust in Him”- This is a quotation from Psalm 18, which is mainly an account of David’s deliverance from the hand of his enemies, including Saul. Now Saul had persecuted David some 40 or more years before, and he seems to have used this psalm as an expression of his dependence on God at every stage of his life. The first three verses, from which this quote comes, give to us the attitude of David to adversity, and one feature is his trust in God. Then he records the way in which God vindicated his trust in him by delivering him from his foes. So we learn that during the time when His enemies had the upper hand, the Lord Jesus was marked by trust in God. Indeed, this was ever His attitude, for Psalm 22:9,10 says “I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God from My mother’s belly; Thou didst make me hope when I was upon My mother’s breast”. As a result, He knew deliverance from Herod. Children, even unborn children, are remarkably sensitive to the circumstances in which their mother finds herself. See, for instance, Luke 1:41. By implication, His brethren will be marked by this trust too, as they follow the path the captain of their salvation has marked out for them.
And again, “Behold, I and the children which God hath given Me”- This is a quotation from Isaiah 8:18. Isaiah had the task of warning the wicked king Ahaz of impending captivity at the hands of the Assyrians. As a sign to Israel, Isaiah was instructed by God to name his two sons in a particular way. One was to be Shear-jashub, a name which means “A remnant shall return”, and the other, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means “In making haste to the spoil he hasteneth the prey”. So when Isaiah said to the nation, “Behold, I and the children which God hath given me”, they were a “sign and a wonder” to Israel. Maher-shalal-hash-baz was testimony that the Assyrian would indeed hasten to invade the land, and take them as a prey. The other son, however, was God’s promise that even though that happened, a remnant would return from captivity. So during the present age, believers from the nation of Israel are likewise a testimony to coming judgement on the nation in the form of the Great Tribulation, (and to a lesser extent the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70), and also to the fact that God will be favourable to His people and ensure that a remnant of them will know His salvation. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus called His brethren “children”, in John 21:5, using the same word which is found here and in the next verse. So physical descendants are not necessarily in view in the application of the quotation, but a spiritual relationship. Just as Isaiah’s trust was in God despite the impending judgements, so the trust of the Hebrew believers should be in God despite what would happen to them as a nation in AD 70.

THE PATH OF DELIVERANCE FROM OUR ENEMIES
2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood- The children in question being those addressed in the previous verse, the children of God, who are the same as Christ’s brethren, true believers. The present condition of the children is in view because they were not children before they became partakers. The verb “are partakers” is in the perfect tense, meaning continuation from the past to the present. Those who share flesh and blood are in a condition of relative weakness, which leaves them vulnerable to attack by evil as they make their way to glory, therefore their Captain steps in to help.
He also Himself- It is necessary for Him to have the same nature as those He leads, so that He may pass through the same experiences, sin apart, of course.
Likewise took part of the same- Not only does He share flesh and blood with the children, but shares it likewise, or in the same manner- “Similarly, in like manner, in the same way… is equivalent to ‘in all things’ of verse 17, and hence is used of a similarity which amounts to equality”, Grimme. The manhood of Christ is real, even though He is without sin, for a sinful nature is not an integral part of humanity. Adam was a real man before he sinned- he did not have to possess a sinful nature before he was rightly called a man. 1 Corinthians 15:50 distinguishes between flesh and blood, and corruption, showing that our corrupt nature can be considered apart from our flesh and blood condition. The Lord Jesus took part of flesh and blood in like manner to the children, by birth of a mother, and He subsequently took part in this condition as He lived amongst men. Perhaps there is an allusion to the other son mentioned by Isaiah, even Immanuel, the child born of the virgin, Isaiah 9:14, see Matthew 1:23.
The word used of believers is partakers, meaning they have a common, equal share in humanity, whereas Christ took part, which involves coming in from outside the condition, a testimony to His pre-existence before birth.
That through death He might destroy Him that had the power of death- Psalm 18, which is quoted in verse 13, and which is found in 2 Samuel 22 also, was written when the Lord had delivered David from his enemies, including Goliath and his sons. In fact 2 Samuel 21:22 links the defeat of Goliath when David was a youth, with the defeat of his four sons by David’s mighty men, when David was an old man. Goliath had put the fear of death into the hearts of the armies of Israel, but David had delivered them from that fear, and had beheaded Goliath with his own sword. So Christ has defeated the greatest enemy of all, the Devil, by using the very weapon that he used.
By coming into flesh and blood conditions, and by allowing Himself to be condemned to death, the Lord Jesus placed Himself in a position of weakness. Yet in this weakness He defeated the mightiest force for evil there ever could be. See 2 Corinthians 13:4. Since He is now raised from the dead by the power of God, there is no possibility of the Devil being effective against God’s sons. To destroy means to make of no effect, not annihilate. In the wisdom of God, the Devil is still allowed some measure of activity, but when his final doom is effected it will only take an “ordinary” angel to bind him and cast him into the lake of fire, Revelation 20:1-3.

2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage- those under the law were under the ministration of condemnation and death, 2 Corinthians 3:7,9. This brought bondage, for they were not free from fear of death. Imagine a believer in Israel who is returning from sacrificing a sin offering. As he returns to his tent he sins again; yet it is too late to return to the altar. He goes to sleep that night fearing that he may die, and die, moreover, with sin upon him. Through Christ’s death, however, this fear is removed, and death may be faced calmly. This relates especially to believers who formerly were Jews, and therefore under the law.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 2, VERSES 16-18

2:16 For verily He took not on him the nature of angels; but He took on him the seed of Abraham.

2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

2:18 For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.

THE PATH OF VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION
2:16 For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels- “the nature of” has been added by the translators, since they felt it necessary. But the word “took” is the key here. It means to “take up a person to help him, to rescue from peril, and also to succour”. There is nothing about taking a nature. The Textus Receptus says “For not indeed of angels takes He hold”. The point is that He did not come into flesh and blood conditions to help angels, but the seed of Abraham. Angels have no fear of death, nor does Christ succour them.
But He took on Him the seed of Abraham- that is, His coming is relevant to the first readers of the epistle, the Hebrews, descended from “Abram the Hebrew”, Genesis 14:13. They should not think that because the link with Adam has been emphasised in the earlier verses, that they have no special place with God. “Salvation is of the Jews”, John 4:22. “Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came”, Romans 9:5. The special emphasis, however, is on those descended from Abraham naturally who were believers, and therefore were his seed spiritually, see John 8:33-45; Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:29. The word “took” is the same as is used in 8:9 of God taking hold of Israel to lead them out of Egypt. Here our captain takes hold to lead out of the world. Clearly, the statement in 8:9 does not involve taking a nature. “For verily” is only found here in the New Testament. “It is used when something is affirmed in an ironical way”- Grimm. Vine says it means, “Of course,” or “It goes without saying.”

2:17 Wherefore- this means “for which reason”.
In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren- For the purpose of taking hold of the seed of Abraham, He needed to be made like them in all things- note He is made like His brethren, meaning believers. He is not made like unbelievers in all things, for they have a sinful nature, whereas believers are looked at ideally as being righteous, even whilst in a mortal body. This confirms that the seed of Abraham in verse 16 means believers. “Behoved” means “a necessity in view of the subject under discussion”. Having taken flesh and blood, and come to take hold of believers to help them, it is necessary that He become like them in all relevant things, so that He may minister unto them effectively. The previous verses have shown believers to be delivered by His various ministries; but they are passing through temptations that may cause them to fall- how can He help them in this?
That He might be- in order that He might take His place as, or be granted the position of.
A merciful and faithful high priest- the word for mercy here indicates the outward manifestation of pity, with need on the part of the one shown mercy, and resources on the part of the one showing it. It is not simply an attitude, but an act, as demonstrated by the Good Samaritan, who was not content to look from a distance, (as the priest was), but acted in compassion.
Faithfulness marks Him, not only in His relationship with God, 3:2, but also towards believers, the idea behind faithfulness being reliability and stability. The failures we manifest do not cause our helper to desert us. Cf. “only Luke is with me”, 2 Timothy 4:11, for the writer of the priestly gospel has learnt the constancy of the One he wrote of, and sought to imitate it.
In things pertaining to God- in matters that relate to the honour of God. Aaron was made priest to minister unto God, Exodus 28:1. The priesthood of Aaron had to do with constant sacrifices and yearly atonement. Christ dealt with these two aspects before He entered into his ministry, as hebrews 7:28 makes clear. His sacrifice renders altar sacrifices obsolete, chapter 10, and His work of propitiation is once for all, chapter 9. His priesthood has to do with helping us move through the world safely, and leading the way into the presence of God.
To make reconciliation for the sins of the people- reconciliation, the bringing into harmony of persons formerly at variance, is one result of the work of propitiation. “To” means “for to”, a similar expression to the “That He might be” of the beginning of the verse. The change of word indicates that, as the scholars say, “this is a separate telic clause”, (a clause which tells us what the goal is). So there are two goals in view in the verse, the one issuing from the other- He is made like His brethren with the general object of being a faithful high priest for them, and also to make propitiation. Whilst this is put second, the work was done before He became high priest, but the writer perhaps wishes to link His present work of succouring the tempted with the work that is the support for that ministry. Compare 1 John 2:1,2, with the advocacy of Christ on the basis of His propitiatory work. He is the propitiation for our sins in the sense that the one in heaven interceding is the one who once was on the cross propitiating. The alternative reason for propitiation being mentioned second will be given later.
The Lord Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene about His brethren, and indicated that He was about to “ascend to My Father, and your Father, to My God, and your God”, John 20:17. Thus He would still be the link between His people and God, maintaining them in His dual role of Advocate with the Father, and High Priest in things pertaining to God.
The basis of His advocacy is two-fold. His person, for He is Jesus Christ the righteous, and His work, for He is the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 2:1,2. The apostle John was concerned about believers sinning. The sins of believers are just as obnoxious to God, and just as deserving of wrath, as those of unbelievers. But we are “saved from wrath through Him”, Romans 5:9, as He pleads the merits of His work. He is, says John, the propitiatory offering for our sins. Not was, but is. In other words, the one who acts for us in heaven as our advocate, is the very same one who hung upon the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.
He is also our High priest. Hebrews 2:17,18 form a bridge between chapter two, with its emphasis on the reasons why the Lord Jesus took manhood, and the way in which Israel were tempted in the wilderness as noted in chapter three.
Note in particular the word “for” which begins verse 18. Too little attention has been paid to this word, and hence the connection between verses 17 and 18 is often lost. The reason why we have a high priest who is merciful and faithful is that He has been here in manhood and suffered being tempted. When His people pass through temptation, then He undertakes to deal with their cause. Because He has been here, and has been tempted in all points like as we are, He is able to help us when we cry to Him for help. The word for succour is used by the woman of Canaan in Matthew 15:25 when she cried out, “Lord, help me”. He is able to point us to the ways in which He overcame in the wilderness temptation, and thus we are strengthened to resist temptation.
But what if we fall, and sin? In that case He comes to our aid in another way. We see it typified negatively in Leviticus 10:16-20. The priests were commanded to eat the sin-offerings, if the blood thereof had not been brought into the sanctuary. This was in order to “bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord”, Leviticus 10:17, where the word for bear is the same as is used for the scapegoat bearing iniquity. But at the end of the consecration of the priesthood, Moses was angry on God’s behalf, for the priests had failed in this. One of the functions of priesthood, then, was to personally identify with the sin-offering by eating it, and by so doing bear the iniquity of the congregation, taking responsibility for their failure, but doing so safeguarded by the fact that a sin-offering had been accepted by God. As they did this the scripture explicitly says they made atonement for the people, Leviticus 10:17. We see then what the writer to the Hebrews means when he talks of Christ making reconciliation or propitiation for the sins of the people. He is indicating that Christ personally identifies Himself with His sin-offering work at Calvary, and thus takes responsibility for the failures of His people under temptation. This is acceptable to God, and His people are preserved, despite their failure.

2:18 For in that He hath suffered, being tempted- only those who resist temptation suffer. The fact that it is said without qualification that He suffered when He was tempted, shows that He always resisted resolutely. He therefore knows what His people pass through when they resist temptation.
He is able to succour them that are tempted- knowing the pressure they are under, He is able to suit the help they need to their situation. When His people do not resist temptation, then His work at Calvary safeguards their position, hence the mention of propitiation in the previous verse. To succour means to run to the aid of a person in danger when they cry for help. See Matthew 15:25, “Lord, help me”; and Hebrews 4:16 “Grace to help in time of need”, where the same word as succour is used. Because He has experienced the pressure of temptation, and has overcome, when we go to Him for help He is able to point us to the way in which He overcame, as detailed in the temptation accounts in the gospels.

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Tag Archives: high priest

HEBREWS 4

HEBREWS 3

HEBREWS 2:11-18