PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

jealousy, and the mercy of the Lord that gathers them back again with rejoicing. Dr. Ginsburg reads Deuteronomy

32:34,35 as follows:

`Is not this laid up in store with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries? For the day of vengeance and recompense, For

the time when their foot shall slip',

and this is evidently `the day approaching' of Hebrews 10:25. The apostasy foretold by Moses is manifestly at hand

in Hebrews 10, and explains Hebrews 6 as well.

While Israel as a nation were fast slipping away, the apostle turns with renewed earnestness to the tried and

tested remnant with words of encouragement and exhortation. He bids them to call to remembrance the former

days, in which, after they were illuminated, they endured a great fight of afflictions. Among the elements of

endurance that he enumerates are:

Being made a gazing stock.

Being a fellow-partaker of those so used.

There is something very gracious in this recognition. To be a `gazing stock', a `spectacle', may not seem half so

heroic as some other forms of martyrdom, yet the Lord knows the intensity of mental suffering that some natures

may endure. Then, further, the Lord takes note of those who simply stand by and share the sufferings of others. The

suffering of `reproaches' associated them with Christ Himself (Heb. 13:13), and the `enduring possession' with the

`enduring city' (13:14). Early Christians were called by their enemies, atheists, their places of assembly were

misrepresented as being convened for most immoral purposes, all of which misrepresentations would constitute a

very real suffering of reproach for Christ.

The words `goods' and `substance' should be rendered by the same word, and perhaps `possession' is the most

suitable. The words in the original being huparchonta and huparxin.

`And submitted to the seizure of your possessions with joy knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven, a better and

an enduring possession' (Heb. 10:34 not AV JP).

The case of Moses in Hebrews 11:24-26 supplies a very full example of the meaning of the apostle here. He

esteemed this `reproach' as greater than all the treasures of Egypt. He too looked unto the recompense of the

reward. So he urges these Hebrew saints:

`Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that,

after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise' (Heb. 10:35,36).

A chapter could well be devoted to the words, `Ye have need of patience' It is the `patience of hope', the

patience that James speaks of when he says:

`My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh

patience. But let patience have her PERFECT work' (James 1:2-4).

It is evident that the words, `ye might receive the promise', indicate a long wait and a patient endurance, by the

conclusion of the matter in Hebrews 11:39;

`And these all, having obtained (received ? JP) a good report through faith, received NOT the promise'.

What does the apostle bring forward to encourage these tried and tested believers?

The Coming of the Lord which dominates the Acts period is here brought forward as the crowning argument in

the writer's testimony: