Obs. IV. Believers ought to sustain themselves in their sufferings with the promise of future glory.
Thy emary- yeriny.
VER. 37-39.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 581
Obs. V. The future blessedness is given unto us by the promise, and is therefore free and undeserved.
Obs. VI. The consideration of eternal life as the free effect of the grace of God and Christ, and as proposed in a gracious promise, is a thousand times more full of spiritual refreshment unto a believer, than if he should conceive of it or look upon it merely as a reward proposed unto our ewn doings or merits.
VERSES 37-39.
“Eri yap (uinpoy Goov Goov, 6 Epydmevos HEEL, nal od poet ‘O O& d/xasog £n miorews Choerou nai Edy LrooreiAnras, odn ebdone? i Luxn wou ev aro. “Hye 0: odx gouty imoororys cig aawAciav, GAG mTiorsws sig mepsmo/nory
puxis.”
Ver. 37-39.—For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
The substance of the apostolical exhortation, as hath been often observed, is the constancy of the Hebrews in their profession, against persecutions and temptations. Unto this.end he commends unto them the necessary use of confidence and patience, as those graces which would carry them through their difficulties and support them under them. But these graces are not the root whereon constancy and perseverance do grow; they are all branches of it. They do not give strength unto the soul to do and suffer according to the mind of God; but they are the way whereby it doth exercise its strength, which it hath from another grace. It is faith from whence alone all these things do spring. This the apostle knowing, he reserves the declaration of its nature, efficacy, and power, unto the close of his argument. And such an enarration of the nature and efficacy of it he intends as will certainly effect the great work of carrying them through their difficulties, even all that they may be called unto, because it hath done the same in all true believers from the foundation of the world. Wherefore, as is usual with him, in these verses he makes a transition unto the consideration of faith itself, whereinto he resolves the whole exhortation unto constancy in pro- fession.
And there are three things in these three verses: 1.. A proposal
2 Various Reapive.—Lachmann and Tischendorf read d/xass. wov.—ED.
582 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
of the object of faith; which is the coming of Christ, with the cir- cumstances of if, verse 87. 2. The necessity and efficacy of faith on that proposal, with the certain ruin of them that are strangers unto it, confirmed by prophetical testimony, verse 38. 3. The judgment of the apostle concerning these Hebrews, as unto their faith, and the sincerity of it; from whence he proceeds to declare its nature, and confirm its efficacy, verse 39,
Ver. 37—“ For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
It might arise in the minds of these Hebrews, weakening and discouraging them from a compliance with this exhortation of the apostle, that it was a long time that they were to be exposed unto and exercised with these troubles, so as that they might justly fear . that they should be worn out by them. And indeed there is nothing doth more press upon and try the minds of men in their sufferings, than that they can see no issue out of them; for we are all naturally inclined to desire some rest and peace, if it may stand with the will of God, whilst we are in this world. To encourage them against the influence of this temptation, the apostle accommodates a testi- mony out of the prophet Habakkuk, which leads him directly unto the consideration of the power and efficacy of faith, which he had designed: chap. ii. 3, 4, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” He speaks of a “ vision ;” that is, a prophetical vision of good things which God would effect in due time. And there is the same reason in generai of all the promises of God: wherefore what is spoken of one, namely, of the deliverance of the people, may be accommodated unto another, namely, the coming of Christ, whereby that deliverance is to be wrought. There is in the prophet a supposition that it seems to be delayed, and the accomplishment of it to be retarded. “Though it tarry,” saith he; that is, ‘seem to you so to do. For believers are apt to think long under their sufferings of the seeming delays of the accomplishment of God’s promises, and long for the time of it; as wicked men and scoffers harden themselves in their sins and impieties on the same account with respect to God’s threatenings, 2 Pet. iii. 1-4. But saith he, “It — will not tarry ;” that is, ‘although it seem to you so to do, and you are dejected thereon about it, yet there is an appointed time for it, and that in itself no long time, beyond which it shall not be deferred one moment,’ Isa, Ix. 22; 2 Pet. iii, This whole sense the apostle compriseth in this verse, though he doth not peculiarly render the words of the prophet.