HEBREWS 12 (FIRST READING)
[p. 124] HEBREWS 12 (FIRST READING)
CAC The saints are regarded as being surrounded by all these witnesses of chapter 11. It is a good circle in which to be found.
Ques In what way do they surround us?
CAC In the way it is put here: “Having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us” (verse 1). We are surrounded by these people; their witness is before us in the Scriptures. The Lord has been pleased to bring persons before us, and it is very encouraging. Hebrews is largely a book of persons and not of abstract truths. It is the kind of circle that we should be careful not to get out of — a circle in which God has set us, where we are surrounded by persons of faith of all ages.
All this circle in which we are set is the circle of encouragement. These persons were men and women like ourselves. Scripture occupies us with persons; we are more apt to get occupied with truth. These persons were occupied with unseen things; God was their Object. Not one of these men and women is the author or completer of faith, but they encircle us with great encouragement. The Hebrew saints were a suffering people; their place as confessors of Jesus was one of suffering. The writer of the epistle puts them into this circle to encourage them. He says to these Hebrew saints, ‘These people have been in the path of faith and have suffered as you have and died’. How encouraging to be surrounded by a circle like that! It is from persons that we get most of our encouragement now. If we want to be an encouragement to the saints, we [p. 125] must remember it is not by what we hold but what we are! There was such a character about these men and women that the world was not worthy of them.
Rem It says that God foresaw some better thing for us and He was not ashamed to be called their God.
CAC Yes; the whole character of faith had not come to light then, there was some better thing reserved for us. What they had was not equal to what we have. They embraced the promises, they beheld them afar off, but we are brought to them; we do not see them afar off. “Ye have come to mount Zion” and so on. The circle into which we are put is very wonderful. We are surrounded by men and women of faith of all ages; it is a great thing to be in that circle. People who are there are outside the world.
Ques Such a “cloud” would obscure the world; is not the expression “cloud” rather remarkable?
CAC Yes, it is a striking thought.
Ques Would verse 5 indicate that they had forgotten what you are speaking of?
CAC Yes, there was a tendency with them to slip back, as there is with us all. We have a tendency to slip away from the truth we have received. This epistle is the antidote to the tendency in our hearts to slip away and to forget.
Ques Is not the force of the exhortation that it is the end of the path that is the test, not the beginning?
CAC Yes. We are at the end of the faith period, in the last lap of the race. It is very important not to drop out now. Many drop out within sight of the goal; that is a sad thing. We are nearer the end of the race than when this epistle was written.
Ques Is every believer in the race?
CAC It is set before them; I do not know that you could say that every believer is in it.
Ques Do we not get some idea of the goal at [p. 126] the beginning of our history, that there is something beyond this world?
CAC God gives an impression at the beginning of what His end is. We get the impression that we are saved for another world. This epistle is to correct the tendency to slip away, and to restore us if we have become dull of hearing.
Ques Is the “cloud” the thought of heavenly witnesses?
CAC Yes. All these worthies had died without a place here; they were a heavenly company. The Spirit of God accredits them with seeking the heavenly. It says in verse 1, “Let us... run with endurance the race”. There is more the thought of the future than the past.
Rem There is an immense thought in running a race.
CAC Yes, and also in winning a prize. “Thus run in order that ye may obtain” is the same thought. Winning the prize is not something on earth but in heaven.
Ques Has everyone a weight?
CAC Yes; there is something for us all to lay aside, and “sin which so easily entangles us”. Sin would be anything connected with the will of man; it entangles us and keeps us from having the heavenly in view. Being still in flesh and blood there is a great danger of sin entangling us, and a weight is anything that hinders movement in the race.
Ques Are there not many things that are weights without being sin? It says, “and sin”.
CAC Yes; personal habits and associations may not be sin, but they may be weights to be laid aside in order to run freely in the race. We must find out what a weight is. When people begin to move spiritually they find many things that are a hindrance and they let them go. There are many things that hinder the pursuit of what is heavenly that are not exactly sin; they are connected with earth. There is much in the character of religion that is a weight;
[p. 127] it hinders what is heavenly. I think in the mind of the Spirit religious things connected with earth would be a serious weight.
Ques Is it not important to get into the company of those marked by faith?
CAC Yes. Much depends on the company we keep. We should look out for people more spiritual than ourselves; we should look out for the best sort of company.
Ques Does this correspond with the sin of inadvertence in Leviticus 4?
CAC Yes, it is not sinning wilfully here, but sin that hinders. It is a principle of lawlessness in whatever specious form it may clothe itself. We must not think we are out of reach of it; it easily besets us. If we ask ourselves, ‘Does this help the heavenly?’ it is a good test. People say, ‘I see no harm in this or that’. But does it help the heavenly? If it hinders the heavenly there is a lot of harm in it. If there is a book you would like to read, ask yourself, ‘Does it help the heavenly?’ Then you would not waste a few hours reading it.
Ques What is the joy spoken of in verse 2?
CAC It was the blessedness of the prospect of being with God in heaven in the blessedness of His purpose for man.
Ques Is it like Psalm 16?
CAC Yes. I thought the Lord Jesus had in view, as no other man ever had, the thought of God for men. While He was here on earth it was future, something of which He had no experience. At that point the Lord put Himself alongside of those in the path of faith. There was a joy set before Him of which He had no previous experience. The Lord had fully in view the purpose of God for man. He said to His disciples, “Rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”. He said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. It was a new place for the Lord in [p. 128] a condition He had not been in before. It was a path that had to be made known to Him! He confided in God to make it known. He did not see corruption, “the path of life” was made known to Him in that region of “fulness of joy” and “pleasures for evermore” at the right hand of God. (Psalm 16). It was a new place for the Lord; He had never been there before. He was prepared to suffer and die in view of taking up that place in joy before God. There was a great joy before Him; is it before us? That joy that was before the Lord is to be before us. The Old Testament led the Hebrew believers to look for blessing on earth; it was new light to them to learn that the Messiah had been cut off from the earth and had nothing, and that His place of joy was in heaven at the right hand of God. That is the delineation of faith. It is remarkable that it is not connected with the Lord’s pathway, but with His enduring the cross and despising the shame; it is connected with the hour of darkness, the closing scene. To be in heaven as a glorified Man was a new experience for Christ; He never knew it before.
Ques Is, “that they may have my joy fulfilled in them” the same as here?
CAC John 17 is on a more elevated basis; it is one divine Person speaking to Another; so one would not connect faith with that. The whole of what faith is has been delineated in Jesus. He accepted suffering and death here in view of a place in heaven with God that He never had before. It is not His official place, but Jesus as Man.
It is very important to note what is said here. The cross, shame, contradiction of sinners and resisting unto blood have not to do with the Lord’s pathway, but with the hour of darkness. The Lord was not exposed to man until the hour came. In His pathway He was the sent One of the Father; He carried out the Father’s behests and no one could touch Him. There came a moment when He was [p. 129] delivered to men; all this is connected with that hour. He was made to know in that hour all the hostility, contradiction and enmity that faith could possibly encounter. He faced the brunt of it. If we look at that One in that hour we shall see that He met the opposition of men and devils; He went through it in order to enter God’s purpose for man. The loss, shame, contradiction of sinners and resisting unto blood are all things that the saints may know; it is not atonement, but what is met in the path of faith; He is the delineation of it. In His ministry He was immune from every hostile power, but there came a time when all was changed and He met the shame, contradiction of sinners, and resisting unto blood. He was received into heaven and He is there as a Man of joy now. The whole brunt of things that we may have to face has been faced by Jesus; He has gone through it and reached the goal. Now let us fix our eyes on Him!
Ques Would you say a word as to that verse John 15: 11, “That my joy may be in you, and your joy be full”?
CAC I think the Lord was speaking there of all that was before the mind of the Father and entering into it anticipatively. Stephen had Jesus and heaven before him and so he accepted the stones and prayed for his murderers.