[289] =hekaston= (xi. 21).
[290] Gen. xlvii. 31.
[291] Chap. xi. 30.
[292] Chap. xi. 31.
[293] Ruth i. 16.
[294] Matt. i. 5.
[295] Judges iv. and v.
[296] Judges vii. 18.
[297] Judges xi. 35.
[298] Judges xiii. 7; xvi. 28.
[299] Robertson, _History of the Christian Church_, book ii., chap. vii.
[300] Chap. xi. 33.
[301] Judges vii.
[302] Judges xi. 33.
[303] 2 Sam. v. 25.
[304] 2 Sam. viii. 2, 6.
[305] 1 Sam. xii. 23.
[306] 2 Sam. vii. 28, 29.
[307] Dan. vi. 22.
[308] Dan. iii. 27, 28.
[309] 1 Kings xix. 1-3.
[310] 2 Kings vi. 17.
[311] 2 Kings xx. 5.
[312] 1 Macc. v.
[313] 1 Kings xvii. 22.
[314] 2 Kings iv. 35.
[315] =ex= (chap. xi. 35).
[316] Luke xx. 35.
[317] 2 Macc. vi. 19.
[318] 2 Chron. xxiv. 21.
[319] Reading =eprêsthêsan=.
[320] _Ad Martyras_, 2.
[321] Chap. ix. 8.
[322] Chap. ii. 15.
[323] Chap. xi. 40.
[324] =peri=.
[325] Eph. iii. 10.
[326] mart/yrôn (xii. 1).
[327] perike/imenon.
[328] Acts i. 8; xxii. 14.
"Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of _our_ faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against themselves, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: and ye have forgotten the exhortation, which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him; For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom _his_ father chasteneth not? But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened _us_ as seemed good to them; but He for _our_ profit, that _we_ may be partakers of His holiness. All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but grievous: yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, _even the fruit_ of righteousness. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees; and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed. Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord: looking carefully lest _there be_ any man that falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble _you_, and thereby the many be defiled; lest _there be_ any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright. For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected (for he found no place of repentance), though he sought it diligently with tears."--HEB. xii. 1-17 (R.V.).
The author has told his readers that they have need of endurance;[329] but when he connects this endurance with faith, he describes faith, not as an enduring of present evils, but as an assurance of things hoped for in the future. His meaning undoubtedly is that assurance of the future gives strength to endure the present. These are two distinct aspects of faith. In the eleventh chapter both sides of faith are illustrated in the long catalogue of believers under the Old Testament. Examples of men waiting for the promise and having an assurance of things hoped for come first. They are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In some measure these witnesses of God suffered; but the more prominent feature of their faith was expectation of a future blessing. Moses is next mentioned. He marks a transition. In him the two qualities of faith appear to strive for the pre-eminence. He chooses to be evil entreated with the people of God, because he knows that the enjoyment of sin is short-lived; he suffers the reproach of Christ, and looks away from it to the recompense of reward. After him conflict and endurance are more prominent in the history of believers than assurance of the future. Many of these later heroes of faith had a more or less dim vision of the unseen; and in the case of those of whose faith nothing is said in the Old Testament except that they endured, the other phase of this spiritual power is not wanting. For the Church is one through the ages, and the clear eye of an earlier period cannot be disconnected from the strong arm of a later time.