Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
This verse implies shedding our own blood in the struggle against sin. “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,” HCSB; see also the ESV. The New Testament writers never suggest, much less command, harming another in our struggle against sin. In fact, we are ordered to do entirely the opposite.
Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Verse 2 portrayed Jesus as the sum of our faith and salvation. Our current verse lifts Him up as our ultimate example of pious fidelity to God in the face of persecution. When we reflect on the ministry of Jesus, and its attendant persecution, we may drift to the Garden of Gethsemane and His arrest. But our Lord endured persecution from the first, when He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan.
Hebrews 12:2b who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The motivation of our Lord was, “the joy set before Him.” This verse brings the readership back to Hebrews 2:9, 10, where we read, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Hebrews 12:2a looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
The famous hymnal, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” by Helen Lemmel captures the essence of this portion of verse 2. Tracking backward, the writer began verse 1 with a “therefore,” in regards to the Old Testament saints having to wait that we all, Jew and Gentile, may be inheritors of the promise. We are told about the cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and that being so; we should cast aside unneeded weight, as well as sin, or sinful practices that ensnare us.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
The writer begins by saying, “Therefore we also.” The contrast has been made since Hebrews 11:39, with the words, “and all these.” “These,” of course, refers to the Old Testament saints that died prior to the cross, and were saved looking toward it, rather than looking back at its accomplishment. Hebrews 11:40 compares us (the saints after the cross, during the dispensation of the church) with them, the OT saints.
While on vacation recently, I happened across a fridge magnet with this motto on it “Jesus loves everyone you hate.” To be fair, there were numerous magnets of various sizes usually with a rainbow backdrop to subtly convey who this slogan is aimed at, and geared toward.
Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, [40] God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
“All these,” incorporates the entirety of the men and women named (or alluded to) in chapter 11. Every one of them obtained a good testimony through faith. In Hebrews 12:1 they are the cloud of witnesses that surround us, not for judgment, but to inspire us to walk as they walked. Please note that the focus of this chapter is not the human element, but the source or object of the saints’ faith, which is God.
Hebrews 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—[38] of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
The history of the prophets is a tumultuous one. We also know, from the words of Jesus Christ, that the persecution of the prophets began immediately with Abel’s murder, Luke 11:50, 51. In this same verse (Luke 11:51) our Lord mentions a prophet named Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the temple. This is unlikely the prophet whose book is in the OT, but another prophet, one of many sent by God that the people spurned and killed.
Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. [36] Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Verse 32 mentions Samuel and the prophets. Samuel’s rise to power in Israel denoted the end of the era of the Judges, Acts 13:20. Samuel was the prophet that first anointed Saul, and then David, his successor. Furthermore, from Samuel onward, the united voice of the prophets foretold of the Coming One, Acts 3:24.
Into this milieu of spiritual intermingling came Samson. His birth was foretold by the Angel of the Lord, as was his purpose: to begin delivering Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, whom they had served forty years, Judges 13:1, 5. Before Jacob died, he said this about Dan’s heirs, “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward,” Genesis 49:16, 17. Samson would grow to become an exemplary Danite, using military tactics and violence to oppose and overthrow his enemies. While his birth’s purpose certainly make Samson a type of Christ, his lifestyle and death reveal a sinful man effectively used by God despite his nature.
Sixty-six years and several Judges after Gideon, Jephthah was chosen to deliver Israel. Jephthah was the child of a harlot, and though he apparently grew up under his father Gilead’s roof his half-brothers rejected and exiled him, Judges 11:2, 3.
Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: [33] who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
It is notable that of the five names mentioned in this passage, four properly belong to the era of the Judges. Judges is one of the hardest books in the Old Testament to read for me, largely because of the outrageous atrocities committed by the people that wear the name of God. The golden thread of Judges, that binds together this peculiar time in Israel’s history, can be summarized as, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” Judges 21:25, see also Judges 17:6, 18:1.
Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. [31] By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
The author leads the narrative to the conquest of Canaan, and the battle of Jericho in particular. Joshua chapter 6 records this portion of Israel’s history. God commanded Joshua and the people to march around the walled city of Jericho six days, blowing horns while the ark was conducted around its walls in a circuit, Joshua 6:13, 14. The seventh day, they were commanded to march around the city seven times, and when the trumpets blew the people were to shout; when this occurred the walls of Jericho would collapse, permitting invading Israel entry, Joshua 6:16, 20.
