Mera rosotrov xpovov, “ after so long a time,” namely, spent and bygone. The date of this time is to be taken from the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, or from the second year after, when the spies were sent to search the land, and all that ensued thereon, which our apostle hath so considered and improved. From
304 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
thence to the time of David was about five hundred years: so that our apostle might well call it rosotroyv ypovoy, “so long a time,” or so great a space of time. The remaining words of this verse have been opened before.*
Ver. 7.—He limiteth a certain day again, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
The design of the apostle in these words, is to confirm what he had before asserted about a new rest, and new day of rest, now remain- ing for the people of God to enter into and to possess. And there are three things considerable in them:—1. The proposition of his argument, wherein its strength lies; 2. An enforcement of it from a considerable circumstance; 3. The confirmation of it, by an intro- duction of the divine testimony from whence it is taken :—
1. His argument lies in this, that after the constitution of the sabbatical rest from the beginning of the world, and the proposition of the rest of Canaan to the people in the wilderness, God, besides them, hath “limited,” determined, designed another “certain day,” which was neither of the former. This must needs, therefore, be “another day ;’ and that can be no other but the day of the gospel. And, as we observed before, he calls it not merely a “rest,” but a “day;” that it may fully and in all particulars answer the rests before insisted on, that were types and shadows of it.
2. His enforcement of this argument is taken from the circum- stance of time, when this day was limited and determined. Had the words here recorded been spoken at or near the time when the people’s entering into the other typical rest of Canaan was under consideration, they might have been thought to have pertained there- unto, and to have contained an exhortation unto them to make use of their season. But now, whereas God speaks these words, wherein a day of rest is limited, so long a space of time after, namely, five hun- dred years or thereabouts, it cannot be but that another day of rest must be intended in them; and therefore there is still a promise re- maining of entering into the rest of God, which we must take heed that we come not short of by unbelief and disobedience.
3. He confirms his proposition by repeating the divine testimony which it is built upon, “ As it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice.” Much use hath the apostle made of these words in these chapters. It is only one word of them that he now builds on,
'Vantous ReEapInG.—Lachmann and Tischendorf insert +pos/oyrs in the text, as undoubtedly the true reading; Griesbach marks it as a reading of great value.
Exposition.—The words ~aéas xpoe/pnres connect grammatically with Agvav, and indicate that the words had already been cited, chap. iii, 7,15. Others take the first om~epov as the object of Agyay, “inasmuch as in David he calls it (the day), ato-day.” Others, as Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Bleek, take o#mepov as apposition to ywépey tive, “he defines again a day, a to-day.” This entire treat- ment of oyuspov is modern.—ELbrard.—Ep.
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 305
namely, “to-day,” whence he educeth the great mysteries of a gospel rest, and the answering of it both to the rest under the old testa- ment and the day whereby it was expressed. Sundry doctrinal ob- servations may be hence taken, namely, from the manner of the expressions here used; the matter hath been spoken unto already.
Obs. I. In reading and hearing the Scripture, we ought to con- sider God speaking in it and by it unto us.
“He saith ;” that is, God saith, or more especially the Holy Ghost. He both spake “in David,” in the inspiration of that psalm; and “by David,” or in the psalm, he speaks unto us. This alone will give us that reverence and subjection of soul and conscience unto the word of God which are required of us, and which are necessary that we may have benefit and advantage thereby. In that kind of care- less and “way-side” deportment whereby men enjoy or hear the word and immediately lose it, this is not the least evil, that they do not sufficiently consider whose word it is, and who speaks imme- diately unto them. Our apostle commends the Thessalonians, that they “ received the word, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God,” 1 Thess. ii, 13. They considered whose word it was, and whilst the apostle spake to their outward ears, they attended unto God speaking to their hearts; which made them re- ceive it in a due manner, with faith and obedience. So God pro- miseth to look graciously unto him that “trembleth at his word,” Isa. xvi. 2; which frame of heart proceedeth alone from a due con- sideration of its being his. Customariness, negligence, and sloth, are apt to spoil us of this frame, of this grace, and so to deprive us of the benefit of the word. And to prevent this, God doth not only preface what he speaks with “Thus saith the Lorn,” but ofttimes adjoins such of his attributes and excellencies as are suited to beget an awe and reverence in our hearts, both of him that speaketh and of that which is spoken. See Isa. xxx. 15, vii. 15. Let a man but consider that it is God, the great and holy one, that speaketh unto him in his word, and it cannot but excite in him faith, attention, and readiness unto obedience; as also work in him that awe, rever- ence, and trembling, which God delighteth in, and which brings the mind into a profiting frame.