The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 135

Divine fellowship _will be the true sabbath-kceping. 3.. It will be rest fo holy service, Sabba_th d!,YS to !us _People are days of sacred work. Som heaven" they serve him day and night. One kmd of work over, but another taken up, and only in this work will our_ spirit r~st. D~ing nothing rests the body, but the heart and mind only rest when their faculties are m full employ. There, lessons to learn, mysteries to comprehend service to render, attainments to pursue, gifts to receive, talents to expend, and ali absorbed in the spirit of worship. God first, last, midst, and without end. What rest that will be-work which never becomes toil, nor seeks repose I That will be sabbath- kccping. lll. 'fHE FEAR OF LOSING THIS DIVINE BEST WHICH SIIOULD ANIMATE THE CHURCH. That the burden of the passage. Its first word, "Let us fear, lest," etc. and its last, "Let us labour," etc. This fear not inconsistent with the certainty of re~t to Christ's people, because it is a question whether we have a right to the assurance of his people. Therefore "fear." L The. fact of Israel failing to enter Canaan is held up to the Church as a _warning. E".en thos~ who had received all the mercies given to ancient Israel could die as outcasts m the wilderness. 2. '1.'he means by which alone that rest can be obtained are clearly defined. Faith; but faith manifests itself by obedience (ver. 6). See Revised Version. "Faith" and "Obedience" are here used almost interchangeably, as though they were the same. The existence of faith is proved by consecrated life. If the way to rest were manifolrl, we need not so much fear, but it is one, only one-" faith which worketh." 3. The blessedness of the promised rest makes failure to reach it the more terrible. If it were sad to lose the rest of Canaan, what to lose the rest of heaven I What to be for evermore a companion of "sabbathless tiatan " 1--0. N. Vere. 12-16.-.The Word of God discovering, the great High Priest delivering from, the apostate's sin. This completes the argument in this section (eh. iii. and iv.) on the sin of apostasy. Having brought his readers face to face with the awful peril of departure from the Son of God, we might suppose the writer had reached the limit of the subject. But not so; he goes on to say that this sin and doom may be true of some whose defection is hidden in the heart. But he cannot relinquish the subject there. This searching admonition closes with the revelation of the great High Priest, who will deliver those who come to him from the guilt of apostasy. Subject-The Word of God discovering, the great High Priest delivering from, the apostate's sin. L THE WoBD OF Gon DETECTS AND JUDGES THE SIN OF APOSTASY. "The Word of God" here probably alludes to that particular word in the ninety-fifth psalm, on which, in both these ch:ipters, the writer has built his, argument. 1, This Word is permanent. "Quick," i.e. not dead. The Word of threatening to Israel lives still. It has not to do only with a former generation. Time ma.kes no difference to what God has said. His Word never dies; it is as true now as when it was uttered. 'l'he principles which underlie the Divine sayings are everlasting. 2. Tliis Word is efficient. "Powerful," or active. Its utterances are always followed by corresponding results. Laws in an earthly statut~-book may not be executed; he who made them may not have intended to enforce them, or has changed his mind about them, or has lost the power to carry them into elfect. It can never be so with the Divine laws. God "is not man, that he should lie, nor the son," etc.. , . " bath he spoken, and shall ho not do it?" He is always in one mind, and nothing can change him. Men forget that because of his long-suffering; but it is true. 3. This Word is destructive. "Sharper than," etc. To divide the soul from the spirit is equal to the parting of the body from the spirit; it is another expression for "to produce death." And this is said to be in the most painful way. Nothing could produce intenser pain or more certain death than the "dividing asunder of the joints and marrow." 'l'he figure declares that the threatenin[Ys of God will be executed with an awful intensity of suffering and com- pleteness of destruction. 4. This Word is penetrating. "Quick to discern," etc. (the sudden transition from the penetrating power of the Wonl to that of God is natural. The habitual thought of Scripture in this Epistle is that of a direct Divine utterance; God and hie '1Vord are one). "Naked, and laid open," paraphrased by "turned inside out;" Its demands have as much to do with heart as life, with principles u CB, IV, 1-16.] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 127