Hebrews 1:12
Thou are the same.
Thou art the same, when contrasted
with nature. — The solid bases of the hills were laid in their sockets
by thy hands. The blue tapestry of the sky was woven by thy fingers; and
it is as easy for Thee to lay it aside and substitute new heavens as for
us to lay aside a worn-out dress and take another. And as the change of
dress does not affect the nature of the wearer, neither will all the
changes of creation or nature affect the power of thine hand or the
tenderness of thy heart. Thou art the same!
Thou art the same, when contrasted
with men. — They come and go. The great ones of the past — Abraham,
Moses, David, Elijah — stood with Thee for a moment on the earth, and then
passed into the great silence. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, wrought
for Thee and with Thee, and passed away. Our own teachers and friends have
not been suffered to continue by reason of death. One by one they have
passed from us; but Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail!
Thou art the same, when contrasted with our own moods and impulses.
— They are too fitful; like the morning dew; like the evening wind.
Sometimes we feel we could die for Thee; at other times we sleep amid thy
sorrows. Emotions, resolutions, methods of thought and action, are
permanent only in their changefulness. But Thou art the same — changeless
and timeless, our Rock of Ages, our impregnable Fortress and Home!
This was the import of the Burning Bush which flamed out on the hillside
in the dark night, but did not burn to the ground. Steadily, constantly,
fiercely, the fire shone, but needed no fuel from the tree — symbol of the
I AM.
Hebrews 2:17
A merciful and faithful High Priest.
The priesthood of Jesus stretches like the sky from the horizon of the
past to that of the eternal future. It covers all we know of Him.
In the days that preceded his incarnation. — We are told that the
priesthood of Melchizedek was made like that of the Son of God (Hebrews
7:3), from which it is clear that all the apparatus of priesthood within
and without the Jewish system was some faint imagining forth of the
priestly mediation and intercession of the Savior. The eternal temple was
reared, the incense of intercession ascended, the sacrifice of the Lamb
was slain, before the first thin spiral of smoke rose from Moriah’s
summit.
In the days of his earthly ministry. — At the Passover, when the
High Priest had finished the sacred rites, he came forth to the people,
and said “Now ye are clean.” In John 15:3 Jesus addressed his disciples in
the same words. His authority to forgive sins; his quick sympathy, and
likeness to his brethren; his frequent prayers; his intercessions for
sinners, as when He pleaded for his crucifiers; his intercessions for the
tempted, as when He prayed for Peter; his intercessions for his own, as in
the matchless John 17; his reference to the shedding of blood; the whole
circumstances of his death — show his priestly attitude, which culminated
in his passing within the veil.
In the days of the present dispensation. — The divine apostle tells
us that he saw Christ clothed in a vesture to the foot, and employs this
specific word for high-priestly dress. He saw Him engaged in priestly
ministry; and in a subsequent vision tells us that he saw Him mingle much
incense with the prayer of saints, and present them before God.
Hebrews 3:1
Consider … Jesus.
Who are to consider Him? — “Holy brethren.” Because we are the
brethren of Jesus, we must consider our Brother. Because we are brethren
with all, whom He brothers, we should emulate the saints of all ages in
their eager gaze at Christ. We must possess the holiness without which
none can see the Lord, and we must live in holy love with all who bear the
name of Christ. Do you lack either of these? This is the reason why your
eyes are blinded. Step out of the mist into the clear prospect:—
“A step, A single step, shall free you from the skirts Of the blind vapour,
and open to your view Glory beyond all glory ever seen By waking sense or
by the dreaming soul.”
What right have they to consider Him? — Because they are “partakers
of a heavenly calling.” They have turned from the world, from the
fascinations of the sin and the flesh; they are seeking the heavenly city,
the New Jerusalem. Surely such have a right, given them of grace, to live
in daily personal vision of their King!
In what aspects should they consider Him? — As Apostle, whom God
has sent out of his bosom to man, and whom man sends back to God. As
Priest, who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, who
bears our needs and sins and sorrows on his heart. As the Son, compared
with whom Moses was but a servant. As Creator, by whom all things were
made, and without whom was not anything made. As the Head of the household
of those who believe. As the All-faithfull One, who will never resign his
charge. Consider Jesus in each of these aspects, and rejoice in Him.
Hebrews 4:9
There remaineth therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (r.v.)
There is a rest for weary souls. — God speaks of it as his Rest. He
entered it, we are told, when He had finished his work; and beheld it to
be very good; and ever since the door has been standing open for the
travel-stained, weary children of men to enter it. To every other
creation-day there were evening and morning, but not to this; it partakes
of the nature of eternity in its timeless bliss.
Let us rejoice that this rest remaineth. — Of course, the Sabbath,
which was and is a type of it, could not exhaust it. And Canaan, with its
sweet plains and cessation of the wilderness wanderings, could not
completely fulfill it; because centuries after it had been given through
Joshua, in the Psalms God spoke of yet another day, as though his rest
were still future.
The rest may be a present experience. — The word “remaineth” has
diverted the thoughts of commentators who have supposed it referred to
heaven. There is rest, sweet rest, there. But “remaineth” means
“unexhausted, unrealized, by aught which has taken place.” The rest is for
us here and now. “We which have believed do enter into rest.” Where is it?
In the bosom of Christ: “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” It is in
ploughing the furrow of daily duty — “Take my yoke; ... and find rest.”
This rest is compatible with great activity. — He that enters into
the Divine rest is not reduced to quietism. On the seventh day the Creator
rested from creation; but He works in providence. Jesus, on the seventh
day, rested from Calvary; but He pleads in heaven. Cease from your own
works, after a similar fashion; abandon your restless planning and
striving; by the grace of the Holy Spirit better service will be produced.
Hebrews 5:14
Senses exercised to discern good and evil.
It is difficult to exaggerate the value of the physical senses.
Take, for instance, that of scent. It is the means of exquisite enjoyment,
conveying to us the perfume of garden or field; and it secures us against
serious perils that lie in wait for our unwary footsteps. By the order of
God’s providence, hurtful substances exhale noxious and forbidding odours,
by reason of which we are warned from going into their close proximity.
The soul also is endowed with senses. How important a part our
spiritual senses may play in the regimen of the inner life! If we are
quick to discern good and evil, we may welcome the one and avoid the other
with ever-increasing readiness. We may receive the blessing of the one
when still afar off, and avoid the curse of the other when only
threatening us.
The army which is ill served by its scouts stands a much worse chance than
if it were forewarned when an attack was advancing. The foremost ranks of
the foe may be over the ramparts, and engaged in the heart of the
fortress, before there has been time for preparation. Oh, to detect
temptation, when still it is only a thought, a suggestion, a faint shadow
on the sky!
We may sharpen our senses by use. When I was in the tea-trade, my
sense of touch and taste and smell became acute to discern quite minute
differences. We need a similar acuteness in discerning good and evil. May
our hearts become most sensitive to all that might lead to temptation, so
that we may deal with the tempter in the very earliest suggestions of
evil. Lord, make us quick of scent in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3,
r.v.).
Hebrews 6:8
It is impossible to renew again to repentance, the while.… (r.v., marg.)
The writer of this Epistle is eager to lead his readers from first
principles to. that strong meat which was befitting for those of mature
growth; and, as he proceeds to do so, it was as though he were arrested by
a sudden thought of some who had recently fallen away from the faith.
In the awful stress of trial which accompanied the fall of Jerusalem, the
Hebrew Christians, who were still dwelling in Palestine, were strongly
tempted to apostatize. Some, indeed, had done so. But can we really
consider that they ever were true Christians? They went out, because they
had never been truly of. They had been enlightened as to the doctrines of
Christianity; but the enlightenment had been of their head rather than of
their heart. They had tasted of the heavenly hopes, anticipations, and
joys of the Gospel message, without really belonging to the Household of
Faith. But, notwithstanding all, they had gone back.
It is impossible to renew such to repentance, whilst they go on living as
they do, crucifying the Son of God by their vicious and cowardly course of
action, and putting Him to an open shame. Notice that whilst, suggested by
Bishop Westcott, of the margin of the R.V. It is the solution of the great
difficulty which has perplexed many timid souls. The impossibility of
renewal is only for those who persist in their evil ways. Abandon your
sins, and God will restore you to your old place.
It cannot be too clearly emphasized that this text does not say that
backsliders cannot be restored to the favor and forgiveness of God; but
that they cannot be restored so long as they cling to the things which had
been the sources of their declension.
Hebrews 7:16
After the power of an indissoluble life. (r.v., marg.)
This chapter is a veritable Psalm of Life. It overflows with the message
of the Easter morning. Throughout its verses it is witnessed that He
liveth; that He ever liveth; that He liveth after the power of an
indissoluble life.
Remember all that was done to dissolve and loose it. Satan spoke to his
chief captains, Sepulcher and Corruption, and bade them hold his Prisoner
fast. The Sanhedrim affixed their seal, set the watch, and made the grave
as secure as possible. But it was all in vain. His body could not see
corruption. His life defied death. All through the Greek mythology there
is the wail of infinite sorrow. Laocoon and his sons strangled by the
folds of the mighty serpent: day always mastered by night: the year with
its wealth of life descending to the abyss. Strive as man might, he would
be mastered at last, and primeval night reign once more. But all this is
altered in Jesus. He is Priest after the power of an indissoluble life.
And, what is more, that life may be communicated to us by the Holy Spirit.
It is not only true that He ever liveth; but also that because He lives,
and as He lives, we shall live also. In the first creation God breathed
into Adam the breath of his life, and he became a living soul; but in the
second creation Christ breathes into us the spirit of his life, and our
spirit is filled with a property which it had not previously, and in which
the sons of men have no share. “The first man Adam became a living soul,
The last Adam became a life giving spirit.” “He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit.” See to it that you deny your own life, so that his life
may become evermore regnant within you.
Hebrews 8:13
In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old.
There had been a manifest decay and vanishing away of the first Tabernacle
or Temple with its rites and services. At the time when these words were
written there were evident symptoms of the approaching collapse of the
whole system of which pious Jews had been wont to boast. But the Holy
Spirit reassures their failing hearts.
It is well, He seems to say, that these should vanish from the earth; that
men may be certified that the old covenant, of which they were the sign
and seal, has also gone — gone never to be recalled. Thereupon, the very
natural inquiry was suggested If the old covenant has decayed and vanished
away, what is the agreement or arrangement under which we are living now?
To this inquiry the present chapter is an answer.
Those who believe in Christ are still in covenant relationship with God. A
new covenant has been set up, which indeed is as old as the everlasting
hills. It is the covenant of love; the covenant which says very little of
what man does, and much of the I wills of Jehovah; a covenant which was
entered into between God and his Son, standing as Mediator; a covenant
which has been sealed with priceless blood.
The provisions of that covenant are enumerated in the foregoing verses:
that God will engrave his law on mind and heart, and take us to be his
people and be our God, and remember our sins no more. As the decay of the
symbols of the Old Testament indicated that it was vanishing, so the
ever-fresh beauty of the supper of our Lord, as it was practiced in the
first Church, witnessed to the permanence of the New Testament.
Hebrews 9:28
Unto them that look for Him shall He appear.
There is an evident parallel intended between the first and second Advent,
and especially in the manner of looking for it. At the first Advent there
were many who were definitely looking for and hastening to that day.
Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel; and Anna spoke of the
infant Lord to those who were expecting redemption in Israel. To look for
the consolation and to look for the redemption were the two articles in
that early creed. And presently this quiet, patient waiting broke out into
the rapturous song of the Nunc Dimittis.
But all Jews were not looking for that blessed Hope, the appearance of the
Grace of God. When our Lord came, the leading teacher of Judaism was
Philo, and he not only had no Messianic hopes of his own, but discouraged
them in other people. He conceded that there might be a return of Jewish
national life; but he had no expectation of it being under the leadership
of the Christ.
It has been truly remarked that this eager looking for the Advent has
always been the mark of the living Church. “Ye turned,” said the apostle,
“unto God from idols ... to wait for his Son from heaven.” And again he
said, “A crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
give unto me in that day; and not to me only, but to all them that love
his appearing.”
As it was with the first Advent it shall be with the second. The Son of
God will come at a time and in a manner for which men are not prepared;
and only the elect, who may have been contemned and despised by the world
at large, will discern Him, and go forth to meet Him in the air.
Hebrews 10:9
He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second.
The meaning of this is clear. In the old covenant the stress was laid on
the outward rite; but in the new covenant, for burnt-offerings and
sacrifices for sin are substituted first the entire devotion and
consecration of the blessed Lord to his Father’s will; and next, ours in
Him.
It is very noticeable that by the offering of the cross, in which the
Savior’s yielded will culminated, we are said to have been sanctified,
consecrated, or set apart once for all (Hebrews 10:10). The thought there
is, evidently, that our Savior’s death has implicated us for evermore; and
that his Church, whom He represented in that supreme act, is for ever
pledged to be dead unto the world and sin.
But still later we learn that He hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). The change of tense surely indicates that what
was accomplished for us in the purpose of God when Jesus died, must be
accomplished in us by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Every time,
therefore, our will is brought into more perfect union with that of God, a
further step is taken towards that glorious elevation which Jesus made
ours in the death of the cross.
And if you would have an incentive to this, remember how Jesus promised
that all who would do the will of God should be reckoned members of the
holy family (Matthew 12:46–50). Are you a member of that family? You may
be, and sit only on the outer circle, for the constituent members are
always altering their position towards the central Christ; now advancing
towards the inner heart, now receding. Oh, see to it that you are not only
within the holy circle of the will of God, but that you are near the
golden centre where Jesus is seated.
Hebrews 11:40
They without us should not be made perfect.
This chapter proves that the saints of all ages are essentially one. There
is a link which unites them; a thrill which passes from hand to hand
around the circle. One theme for many voices; one attitude for many faces;
one inspiration for many hearts. The saints that lived before the Advent
and those that have lived since are one in their faith in the living God
making the unseen visible, the distant near, and seeing the eternal
through the transient and ephemeral.
And now heaven waits. Its joys are not complete , its rapture not full.
The blessed are blessed; but there is yet a margin between what they are
and what they will be — between what they enjoy, and what they may enjoy.
The choir is not full, and the anthem cannot be fully rendered till our
voices blend in it. There is a pause, a halt, an expectancy, an
incompleteness, till we come. Your dear ones want you to be there. They
have not gone far into the heart of God’s bliss, but are lingering near
the gate till you have joined them.
From Switzerland your friends write you to say it is perfectly beautiful,
but “it will be better when you join us; we are reserving the best
excursions till you arrive; we are incomplete without you; make haste.” It
is thus that the blessed await us. The spirit of Heaven is well
represented by the courtesy of the old prophet, who would not sit down to
meat with Jesse and his sons, till David, the youngest, had come thither
also. And when the whole family is gathered, there will be a perfecting
indeed, from which no element shall be wanting.
Oh rapture of eternal joy! We stretch out our hands in yearning desire,
and doing so touch other hands reached towards ours!
Hebrews 12:22
Ye are come unto Mount Zion.
These poor Hebrew Christians, outcast from their Temple, and soon to see
their beloved city vanish from the earth, were sore at heart. What a
contrast was presented by the bare room in which they celebrated the
simple supper and the splendid Temple with its magnificent rites! What a
tiny rill their hymns were, compared with the mighty torrent of Temple
psalmody! What a handful of worshippers, compared with the multitudes that
congregated from all the world! Sometimes it seemed as though the contrast
were unbearable.
Then said the Holy Ghost, lift up your eyes and see. Ye are not the
lonely, isolated handful ye suppose. Every time you offer your prayer and
sing your hymns ye are joining with the spirits of the perfected just,
with numberless holy angels, and with vast multitudes in heaven and on
earth who are ever adoring Christ. You climb the temple of Worship, of
which the steps are prayers and the gates praise, and as you do so, on
either hand go myriads of happy and holy spirits; and those surely are
specially near whom you “have loved long since and lost awhile.”
What special blessing these thoughts will bring to the bedridden, who for
many years have not entered the courts of God’s house; to the aged, and
lonely, and exiled! We never worship God alone. As soon as we begin to
pray, we say, Our Father which art in heaven, forgive our sins; give us
our daily bread. We need not die to pass within thy gates,
O Jerusalem, city of God! Already we
tread thy golden pavement, and hear the music of the waters of life, and
press to our wounds the leaves of thy tree.
Hebrews 13:21
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will.
To perfect is to adjust, to put in joint, to articulate us with the living
Savior. It may be described as a surgical operation. Too many of those who
are in the Body of Christ are not in living articulate union with Him.
Hence the writer asks that we may be properly jointed with Christ.
The Agent of this process. — The God of Peace. Let us not be afraid
of Him, as though He must use some terrible anguish, some heartrending
grief. He will not shrink from this, if all other methods fail; but He
prefers to achieve his purpose by gentle, tender, peaceful means. He is
the God of the summer evening; of the bursting spring; of the slumber of
the little babe.
The Guarantee that He will perform this process. — He brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep; and surely
the power which achieved that bringing again is capable of any demand that
may be made on it. Will He do so much for the Shepherd, and neglect the
flock? Will He give Him the victory, and forsake those for whom He won it?
In bringing the Shepherd did He not pledge Himself by the most solemn
sanctions to do all that needed doing for the weakest of his sheep?
The Object of this process. — He
adjusts us, that all which is well pleasing in his sight may be readily
fulfilled in and through our yielded natures. When the helmsman is right
with the captain, the boat will naturally take the course that the captain
selects. When the machinery is adjusted with the motive power, the pulse
of the piston will be felt away at the furthest loom, with the smallest
amount of leakage and the largest of result.
