CHAPTER 12

(A.D. 64)

JESUS

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (refers to the Old Testament Saints who looked forward to the coming Promise, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He would do at the Cross to Redeem mankind), let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us(we can do this only as we understand that all things come to us through the Cross, and that the Cross must ever be the Object of our Faith, which then gives the Holy Spirit latitude to work within our lives), and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (the only weight God will allow in the running of this race is our taking up and bearing the Cross, and doing so constantly [Lk. 9:23-24]),

²Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith (Jesus will carry us through till the end, for this is what the word Finisher means, providing we keep our eyes on Him and what He did at the Cross; He is the Source, while the Cross is the means); Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame (but the Cross was necessary, that is if man was to be redeemed), and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God. (Him being set down refers to His Work at the Cross being a Finished Work, and the fact that He is set down at the Throne of God means God has fully accepted His Sacrifice.)

³For consider Him Who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself (means to consider by way of comparison; it speaks primarily of Israels religious leaders who bitterly opposed Him), lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. (Consider Him instead of yourself, and there will be victory!)

⁴Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. (The Lord doesnt call upon Believers to go to the Cross and shed their blood, regarding the resistance of sin. Jesus has already done that for us.)

CHASTISEMENT

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children (the Apostles objective in introducing this here is to show that afflictions are designed, on the part of God, to produce positive effects in the lives of His People), My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him (everything that happens to a Believer is either caused or allowed by the Lord; consequently, we should learn the lesson desired to be taught):

⁶For whom the Lord loves He chastens (God disciplines those He loves, not those to whom He is indifferent), and scourges every son whom He receives. (This refers to all who truly belong to Him.)

⁷If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons (chastening from the Lord guarantees the fact that one is a Child of God); for what son is he whom the father chastens not? (If an earthly father truly cares for his son, he will use whatever measures necessary to bring the boy into line. If an earthly father will do this, how much more will our Heavenly Father do the same?)

⁸But if you be without chastisement, whereof all (all true Believers) are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. (Many claim to be Believers while continuing in sin, but the Lord never chastises them. Such shows they are illegitimate sons, meaning they are claiming faith on a basis other than the Cross. The true son, without doubt, will be chastised at times.)

⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence (earthly parents): shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live? (Father of Spirits is contrasted to fathers of the flesh. The latter concerns our earthly parents. Their relation to us is limited. His is universal and eternal.)

¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure (the use of the word pleasure indicates that the chastening may or may not have been proper, as it regards our earthly parents); but He for our profit (presents the difference between human liability of error and the perfect knowledge of our Heavenly Father; He seeks our profit, and cannot err in the means He employs), that we might be partakers of His Holiness. (This presents the objective of the chastening and correction of God.)

¹¹Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous (presents the fact that the trials we are at times exposed to do not give joy at that moment, and are often hard indeed to bear): nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (All of this is carried out by the Holy Spirit for a specific purpose [Jn. 15:1-9].)

DISOBEDIENCE

¹²Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down (stop being discouraged), and the feeble knees (the knees, which speak of our walk and direction, are feeble because of discouragement);

¹³And make straight paths for your feet (refers to the right path, which the chastisement designed by the Lord desires to bring about), lest that which is lame be turned out of the way (to be spiritually lame, which refers to our Faith being in something other than the Cross); but let it rather be healed (which will be done when the Believers Faith is once again anchored in the Cross).

¹⁴Follow peace with all men, and Holiness (every effort must be made to live peacefully with all men, but not at the expense of Holiness, i.e., the compromising of the Word), without which no man shall see the Lord (Holiness cannot be brought about by Law; it can only be brought about by Grace, which is made possible by the Cross):

¹⁵Looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God (we frustrate the Grace of God, and can even fall from Grace, if we function outside the Cross [Gal. 2:21; 5:4]); lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you(to try to live for God outside of His prescribed order, which is the Cross, will bring nothing but failure, thereby, providing fertile ground for roots of bitterness), and thereby many be defiled (speaks of works of the flesh [Gal. 5:19-21]);

¹⁶Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau (he was profane because he rejected Gods Way, i.e., the Cross, and which results are inevitable), who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. (He was in the Family of God, but was not of the Family of God, which characterizes untold millions presently.)

¹⁷For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the Blessing, he was rejected (proclaims Esau, as millions, desiring the Blessing without the Blesser): for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it (the Blessing) carefully with tears. (He wanted the Blessing, but did not want to repent of placing his Faith in things other than Christ.)

¹⁸For you are not come unto the Mount that might be touched (in effect, is saying to these Christian Jews, you had better carefully consider the Law you are proposing once again to embrace), and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest (the idea is that we can face God respecting His Law according to the symbols given here, or we can face Him through the Blood of His Son and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ),

¹⁹And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words (that which accompanied the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai [Ex. 20:19]); which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more (relates the fact that the Voice of God sounded with such power it could not be stood by the people [Ex. 20:19; Deut. 5:22-27]):

²⁰(For they could not endure that which was commanded (they feared they would die), And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart (all of this portrays the Holiness of God):

²¹And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) (This proclaims in the strongest language possible that no lasting blessing can come to fallen man through the Law.)

²²But you are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem (no one has ever reached this city by Law, but only by Grace), and to an in numerable company of Angels (it refers to countless numbers),

²³To the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in Heaven (pertains to every Born-Again Believer from the time of Abel up to the Second Coming; the price was the Cross!), and to God the Judge of all (God has judged all who are in the Church of the First Born as perfectly justified in His sight), and to the spirits of just men made perfect (Justification by Faith),

²⁴And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant (which was made possible by the Cross), and to the blood of sprinkling (Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant, through the shedding of His Blood; it was typified by the Blood of the Old Covenant with which Moses sprinkled all the people [Ex. 24:4-8; Heb. 9:19]), that speaks better things than that of Abel. (This refers to Abels animal Sacrifice as recorded in Gen., Chpt. 4.)

²⁵See that you refuse not Him Who speaks. (This refers implicitly to Christ and what He did at the Cross.) For if they escaped not who refused Him Who spoke on earth (refers to God giving the Law on Mt. Sinai), much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him Who speaks from Heaven (if we reject Christ and the Cross, Judgment is sure!):

²⁶Whose Voice then shook the earth (the Voice of God at Mt. Sinai was meant to impress upon Israel the solemnity of the moment): but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also Heaven. (This phrase refers to the First Advent of Christ, Whose Death on the Cross shook both Heaven and Earth. His Death, because it atoned for all sin, broke the legal claim of Satan on humanity.)

²⁷And this Word(refers to the Word of the Cross [I Cor. 1:18]), Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made (refers to the Act of God transferring this present universe which is under the curse of Adams sin to a new basis; that new basis being a new and perfect universe, which will ultimately come), that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. (This refers to all Jesus paid for at the Cross. Only Faith in Christ and the Cross cannot be shaken. It will remain!)

²⁸Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved (refers to our entrance into this Kingdom, all made possible by the Cross), let us have Grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear (one can serve God only by the means of Grace, which Source is Christ and which means is the Cross):

²⁹For our God is a consuming fire. (The fire of God will consume everything that is not Faith in Christ and the Cross [I Cor. 3:10-17].)