Hebrews, chapters 11 - 13
Note that the Greek is referred to occasionally.
Throughout the O.T. & Gospels all words highlighted:
- in medium blue were said by GOD the FATHER;
- in apricot were from GOD the Son (Jesus Christ);
- in light purple were from GOD the Holy Spirit.
Also you will see words scripted in blue; this also is a carry-over from the O.T.-- throughout this work all words scripted in blue are words either in prayer or addressing the Godhead.
And all enlarged words are prophecies from the O.T.
- The symbol {
XV #.} after a word/phrase means that word/phrase is given in Greek on page XV (Hebr)-- on that page, scroll down (if necessary) to C.#; - the symbol
means the Greek is the same as for the same word recently covered; - the symbol
means the word does not exist in Greek.
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Before we continue with the remaining chapters of Hebrews, let's pick up where we left off with the idea that those who SB (shrink back) do not lose their salvation-- because they never had it in the 1st place. They have not fully finished ABCing (admitting, believing, confessing), but rather opt to SB. They are not babes-in-Christ who just haven't matured to the point of committing, as some think.
Being saved does not mean 1 is progressing in salvation-- salvation was completed when ABCing was completed-- after which 1 no longer can SB. It means that were that person to die the very next day, he/she would go to Heaven. However, there is a progression after salvation-- 1 becomes spiritually stronger. He/she matures in the faith (which is what the next chapter is all about).
But still about salvation: there are several Greek words that are sometimes rendered save(d)-- but often otherwise. Which is part of the confusion! I have lived over 60 years, always being alive; from the moment I was born, till the moment I die, I'll be fully alive. Similarly, from the moment I finished ABCing & was born-again, till the moment I'm finally in Heaven, I'm being saved; throughout earthly life I was, am & will be fully saved-- but I transitioned from being a babe-in-Christ to various degrees of maturity as I grew stronger in faith.
There is only 1 Gr. word that specifically speaks to being saved-- the Gr. word is peh-rih-poh-YA-sihs. Even that Gr. word has various renderings (as it relates to the various issues of maturing-in-faith): be(ing) saved/possessed/received/shared/belonged. That 1 Gr. word is used only 5x in Scripture-- in stark contrast to the several other Gr. words that are sometimes rendered save(d), but have many other renderings. The 5 verses where peh-rih-poh-YA-sihs is used:
- Ephe 1:14 has, who (the Holy Spirit) is a deposit guaranteeing Our inheritance until the redemption of those who are GOD's Possessions (being possessed by GOD);
- 1stThe 5:9 has, For GOD did not appoint Us to suffer wrath but to receive (be receiving) salvation through Our LORD Jesus Christ;
- 2ndThe 2:14 has, HE called You to this Salvation through Our Gospel that You might share (be sharing) in the Glory of Our LORD Jesus Christ;
- Hebr 10:39 has, But We are not of those who shrink back & are destroyed, but of Those who are being saved;
- 1stPet 2:9 has, But You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to GOD, that You might declare...
Chapter 11 unknown writer(s)
This chapter is known as "The Faith Chapter." 24x the word faith{XV 41.} is in the chapter; all 24x the Gr. word is PIHS-tihs. Therefore the Gr. in the 24 are not referred to (but the word faith is highlighted). Only 11:11 has faithful-- the Gr. word there is pihs-TOHS.
Now faith is being sure of what We hope{XV 18.} for & certain of what We do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith We understand that the universe{XV 8.} was formed at GOD's Command, so that what is seen was not later made out of what was visible.
- By faith Abel offered GOD a better sacrifice{XV 26.} than Cain did. By faith He was commended as a righteous man, when GOD spoke well of His offerings{XV 17.}. And by faith He still speaks{XV 35.}, even though He is dead.
- By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that He did not experience death: He could not be found, because GOD had taken Him away. For before He was taken, He was commended as 1 who pleased GOD. And without faith it is impossible to please GOD, because anyone who ABCs & comes to HIM must believe that HE exists & that HE rewards Those who earnestly seek HIM-- i.e. completely ABC (do not SB).
- By faith Noah, when warned{XV 50.} about things not seen, in holy fear built an ark to save His family. By His faith He condemned the world & became heir{XV 34.} of the righteousness that comes by faith.
- By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place He would later receive as His inheritance, obeyed & went, even though He did not know where He was going. By faith He made His home in the promised{XV 20.} land like a stranger in a foreign{XV 10.} country; He lived in tents{XV 46.}as did Isaac & Jacob, who were heirs with Him (joint heirs) of the same promise{XV 20.}. For He was looking forward to the city already with foundations, whose architect & builder is GOD.
- By faith Abraham, even though He was past age-- & Sarah herself was barren --was enabled to become{XV 30.} a father because He considered HIM faithful{XV 42.} who had made the promise{XV 21.}. And so from this 1 man, & He as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky & countless as the sand on the seashore.
- All these people were still living by faith when They died. They did not receive the things promised{XV 20.}; They only saw them & welcomed them from a distance. And They admitted that They were aliens{XV 37.} & strangers{XV 38.} on earth. People who say such things are looking for a country of their own. If They had been thinking of the country They had left, They would have had opportunity to return. Think God forbids remaining immature? Instead, They were longing for a better country-- a heavenly 1. Therefore GOD is not ashamed to be called Their GOD, for HE has prepared a city for Them.
- By faith Abraham, when GOD tested Him offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises{XV 20.} was about to sacrifice His 1 & only son (begotten), even though GOD had said{XV 35.} to Him, It is through Isaac that Your offspring will be reckoned (Gen 21:12c). Abraham reasoned that GOD could raise the dead, & figuratively speaking, He did receive Isaac back from death-- since in his mind he was going to (& since God intervened & changed his mind).
- By faith Isaac blessed Jacob & Esau in regard to Their future.
- By faith Jacob, when He was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons{XV 47.}& worshiped as He leaned upon the top of His staff.
- By faith Joseph, when His end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites{XV 47.} from Egypt & gave instructions about His bones.
- By faith Moses' parents hid Him for 3 months after He was born, because They saw He was no ordinary child, & They were not afraid of the king's edict to throw every Hebrew boy that is born into the Nile [Exo 1:22; 2:1-2 (but note that there it is said that she hid Him)].
- By faith Moses, when He had grown up, refused to be known as the son{XV 47.} of Pharoah's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the People of GOD rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because He was looking ahead to His reward. By faith He left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; He persevered because He saw HIM who is invisible. By faith He kept the Passover & the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
- By faith the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
- Fast-forwarding: By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for 7 days{XV 23.}.
- By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David, Samuel & the prophets:
- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, & gained what was promised{XV 20.};
- who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, & escaped the edge of the sword;
- whose weakness was turned to strength; &
- who became powerful in battle & routed foreign{XV 10.} armies.
- Women received back Their dead, raised to life again.
- Others were tortured & refused to be released, so that They might gain a better resurrection.
- Some faced jeers & flogging, while still
- others were chained & put in prison.
- They were stoned;
- They were sawed in 2; they were put to death by the sword.
- They went about in sheepskins & goatskins, destitute, persecuted & mistreated-- the world was not worthy of Them.
- They wandered in deserts & mountains, in caves & holes in the ground.
These were all commended for Their faith, yet none of Them received what had been promised{XV 20.}. GOD had planned something better for Us so that only together with Us would They be made perfect.
Chapter 12 unknown writer(s)
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Therefore, since We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let Us throw off everything that hinders & the sin that so easily entangles, & let Us run with perseverance the race marked out for Us. Let Us fix Our eyes on Jesus, the author & perfecter of Our faith{XV 41.}, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, & sat down at the right hand of the Throne of GOD. Consider HIM (now seated) who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that You will not grow weary & lose heart. In Your personal struggle against sin-- not just the general schemes of Satan in this wayward world, You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding Your blood-- else you wouldn't be hearing this. And (But you have) forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses{XV 16.} You as sons{XV 47.}MY son{XV 47.}, do not make light of the LORD's Discipline, & do not lose heart when HE rebukes You, because the LORD disciplines those HE loves from His Law (Psa 94:12b), & HE punishes everyone HE accepts as a son{XV 47.} (Pro 3:11-12). Endure hardship as discipline; GOD is treating You as sons{XV 47.}. For what son{XV 47.} is not disciplined by His father{XV 40.}? If You are not disciplined (& everyone undergoes discipline), then You are illegitimate children & not true sons{XV 47.}-- evidence that you never fully ABC'd (perhaps SB'd; perhaps never even began ABCing). BTW, since we're on the subject, now is a good time to point out that those who have fully ABC'd (admitted, believed, confessed) do not (as said before) SB (shrink back). However true Christians do sometimes opt to remain immature (drinking milk-- the elementary truths of GOD's Word, as opposed to moving on to the solid food) that we saw about in Hebr 5:12-14)-- & recall that v. 14 describes the mature as those who indeed have moved on, who by constant use of solid food have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (though the shoe-does-fit that sometimes it describes those who have resisted/ignored a calling for ministry-- or, as we shall shortly see, rejected God's discipline). Moreover, We have all had human fathers{XV 40.} who have disciplined Us & We respected Them for it. How much more should We submit to the FATHER{XV 40.} of Our spirits & live! Our fathers disciplined Us for a little while{XV 23.} as They thought best; but GOD disciplines Us always for Our good, that We may share in HIS Holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness & peace for Those who have been trained{XV 14.} by it. I.e. training is something We acquire by action (the constant use of solid food, to distinguish good from evil); but it's also something we acquire by rote as we accept discipline-- it produces a harvest of righteousness & peace. Therefore, strengthen Your feeble arms & weak knees. Make level paths for Your feet (Pro 4:26a), so that the others that are lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
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Make every effort to live in peace with all men & to be holy; without holiness no 1 will see the LORD. See to it that no 1 misses the Grace of GOD & that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble & to defile many. See that no 1 is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold His inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as You know, when He wanted to inherit this blessing, He was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though He sought the blessing with tears. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched & that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom & storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that Those who heard it begged no word be further spoken{XV 44.} to Them, because They could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned (Exo 19:13ac). Some 40 yrs. later, when describing the events to the remaining Israelite descendants prior to their entering Canaan-- After coming down from 1st receiving the tablets & seeing the carnage (the Israelites worshiping the golden calf); after throwing the tablets & breaking them: The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear (Deu 9:19a). But you haven't come to that mountain; You have come:
- to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the Living GOD.
- to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in Heaven.
- to GOD, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant{XV 15.}, & to the sprinkling blood of Jesus, that speaks{XV 35.} a better word than the blood of Abel.
See to it that You do not refuse HIM who speaks{XV 35.}. If They did not escape when They refused HIM who warned{XV 50.} Them on earth, how much less will We, if We turn away from HIM who warns Us from Heaven? At that time HIS Voice shook the earth, but now HE has promised{XV 21.}, Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens (Hag 2:6b). The words "once more" indicate the complete removing of what can be shaken-- that is, all created things --so that what all those born again which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore since We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken when we are in actually together in Heaven (it is no longer so that just Our citizenship is in Heaven), let Us be thankful, & so worship God acceptably with reverence & awe, for Our GOD is a consuming fire (Deu 4:24). Now you tell me why I recall that David & the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all Their might, & David danced before the LORD with all His might (1stSa 6:5,14)!
Chapter 13 unknown writer(s)
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Keep on loving each other as brothers (with brotherly love). Do not forget to entertain strangers{XV 48.}, for by so doing some people have entertained angels (see the following commentary) without knowing it. Roma 12:13 says to practice doing hospitality; via a slightly different Greek word, 1stTim 3:2 & Titu 1:8 say to be hospitable. Whereas another entirely different Gr. word (zeh-NIH-zo) is used about the entertaining of angels; this Gr. word appears 10x in scripture, & has a variety of renderings, ranging from welcome to stay with to esteem strange. But repeating, Keep on loving each other as brothers. I.e., be hospitable, but remain holy-- as in "practice what you preach," as in be a living testimony. Remember Those in prison as if You were their fellow prisoners, & those who are mistreated as if You yourselves were suffering. Marriage should be honored by all, & the marriage bed kept pure, for GOD will judge the adulterer & all the sexually immoral. Keep Your lives free from the love of money & be content with what You have, because GOD has said, Never will I leave You; never will I forsake You (Deu 31:6d). So We say with confidence, The LORD is My helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to Me? (Psa 118:6-7a). Remember Your leaders, who spoke{XV 35.} the Word of GOD to You. Consider the outcome of Their way of life & imitate Their faith{XV 41.}. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday{XV 49.} & today{XV 45.} & forever{XV 8.}. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange{XV 37.} teachings. It is good for Our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to Those who eat them. We have an altar{XV 27.} from which Those who minister at the tabernacle{XV 46.} have no right to eat.
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The High Priest{XV 46.} carries the blood of animals into the [Most Holy Holy Place]{XV 1.} (Holy of Holies) as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make holy{XV 2.} the people through His own blood-- that would be at Golgatha, per Matt 27:33; Mark 15:22 & John 19:17. Let Us, then, go to HIM while we are yet outside the camp, bearing the disgrace HE bore. For here We do not have an enduring city, but We are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore. let Us continually offer to GOD a sacrifice{XV 26.} of praise-- the fruit off Our lips that confess HIS Name. And do not forget to do good & to share with others, for with such sacrifices{XV 26.} GOD is pleased. Obey Your leaders & submit to Their authority. There's 146 churches listed in Faulkner Co., Ark.-- how many of them will still exist when the Lord returns? What is the fate of present & potential members? I've heard of churches that are limping because they became so divided-- dividers left & started their own church (said divisions & separations began with simple frictions). And that's just 1 example of the causes of churches no longer existing. Surely added to that (or the sole cause) in many parts of the world are heavy persecutions from without. The key solution in any event is obeying the leaders-- trusting that God himself has appointed & is/will guide them. They keep watch over You as men who must give an account. Obey Them so that Their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to You.
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See the section (in italics) added to the Hebr 4 - 7 Chapter 7 (middle) about priesthood.
Pray for Us. We are sure that We have a clear conscience & desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge You to pray that I may be restored to You soon-- the author(s) are said to be unknown, but it sounds like Paul here. May the GOD of Peace, who through the blood of the eternal{XV 9.} covenant{XV 15.} brought back Our LORD Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip You with everything good for doing HIS Will{XV 24.}; & may HE work in Us what is pleasing to HIM, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever & ever{XV 8.}. Amen. Brothers{XV 7.}, I urge You to bear with My word of exhortation, for I have written You only a short letter. I want You to know that Our brother{XV 7.} Timothy has been released. If He arrives soon, I will come with Him to see You. Greet all Your Your leaders & all GOD's People{XV 5.}Those from Italy send You Their greetings. Grace be with You all.
