By a bold but rhetorical figure, the apostle, in the beginning of this chapter, represents the patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and righteous men, whose faith he had celebrated in the preceding chapter, after having finished their own labours, combats, and sufferings with honour, as standing rou... [ Continue Reading ]
_Looking_ Αφορωντες, literally, _looking off_, from all other things; _unto Jesus_ As the wounded Israelites looked to the brazen serpent. Our crucified Lord was prefigured by the lifting up of this; our guilt by the stings of the fiery serpents; and our faith by their looking up to the miraculous r... [ Continue Reading ]
_For consider him_ Draw the comparison and think; the Lord bore all this, and shall his servants bear nothing? If he suffered, if he endured such things, why should not we do so also? If he, though so great, so excellent, so infinitely exalted above us; yet _endured such contradiction of sinners_ Su... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye have forgotten_, &c. As if he had said, If you faint it will appear you have forgotten, _the exhortation_ Wherein God speaks to you with the utmost tenderness; _as unto_ his own dear _children_, saying, _My son, despise not thou_ Do not slight or make light of; _the chastening of the Lord_ D... [ Continue Reading ]
_Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh_ Natural parents, from whom we derived our bodies and mortal lives; _which corrected us_ For our faults; _and we gave them reverence_ Submitted patiently and quietly to their discipline, neither despising nor fainting under their correction; and _shall... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ Since afflictions are so beneficial; _lift up the hands_ Whether your own or your brethren's; _which hang down_ Unable to continue the combat; shake off discouragement, sloth, and indolence, and exert yourselves in your spiritual warfare, and in the performance of your duty; _and_ streng... [ Continue Reading ]
_Looking diligently_ With the greatest attention, watchfulness, and care, for yourselves and each other; for Christ hath ordained that the members of the same church or society should mutually watch over one another, and the whole body over all the members, to their mutual edification; _lest any man... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_ As if he had said, Beware of profaneness, because Esau was punished for it, and so will you be if you fall into it; _ye know how that afterward_ After the blessing had been bestowed on Jacob, Genesis 27:30. This _afterward_ was probably not less than forty or fifty years after; for he sold his... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_, &c. As if he had said, Take heed of apostatizing from Christianity to Judaism again, because of the great privileges you enjoy by the gospel above what your fathers enjoyed by the law: which privileges contain a strong reason why you should attend to these exhortations and cautions; _ye_ Who... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they could not endure that which was commanded_ That is, either, 1st, The law itself, so strict and holy, and promulged amidst such terrors seen and heard: or, 2d, The sense is, they could not bear to hear the following charge, or endure the terror which seized them when they heard those words... [ Continue Reading ]
_But ye_ Who believe in Christ, by your embracing Christianity; _are come unto mount Sion_ Are admitted to the communion of the church of Christ, with its privileges and blessings. Or, ye are come to a dispensation the reverse of all these terrors, even to the mild and gentle discoveries which God m... [ Continue Reading ]
_To the general assembly_ To the Christian Church, consisting of the whole number of true believers spread over all the world. The word πανηγυρις, here used, properly signifies a stated convention, upon some joyful and festival occasion: particularly it is applied to the concourse at the Olympic gam... [ Continue Reading ]
_See that ye refuse not him that speaketh_ (He alludes to his having just said that his blood speaketh;) namely, Christ, who speaks to you in the gospel, and by his Spirit and messengers, and whose speaking, even now, is a prelude to the final scene. In this command the apostle has respect to the do... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whose voice_ Namely, Christ's, who appeared to Moses at the bush, gave the law, and conducted Israel through the wilderness; see on Exodus 3:2; Isaiah 63:9; 1 Corinthians 10:9; _then shook the earth_ When, at the giving of the law, he spoke from Sinai, and the whole mount _quaked greatly, Exodus 19... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore we_ Who believe in Christ; _receiving_ Or _having received_, through the gospel; _a kingdom which cannot be moved_ A dispensation (frequently called the kingdom of God) which shall never be changed, but shall remain to the end of time, (2 Corinthians 3:11,) and which opens before us an as... [ Continue Reading ]