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of overcomers, sons led on to glory perfected through sufferings but not yet perfected in
resurrection, we read of Enoch, who by faith "was translated that he might not see death".
When we turn to chapter 3: 17, 18, we read of the tragedy of the wilderness:--
"And with whom was He displeased forty years? Was it not with those who sinned,
whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter
into His rest, but to them that believed not?"
Those in Heb. 2: were all their lifetime held by the "fear" of death. In chapter 4: 1
we read, immediately after hearing of those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness:--
"Let us therefore FEAR, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any one
of you should seem to have come short of it."
In writing of the wilderness to the Corinthians, the apostle says:--
"Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were DESTROYED OF
THE DESTROYER" (I Cor. 10: 10).
When a believer was handed over to Satan by the apostle, it was for the destruction of
the flesh that the spirit might be saved. Parallel with this is I Cor. 3: 15, "He shall
suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire". This too is the one great
theme of Hebrews.
"But we are not of them who draw back unto destruction (the destruction of the flesh,
the two words used come together in I Cor. 10: 10), but of them who believe to the saving
of the soul" (Heb. 10: 39).
The death of Christ was effective in rendering ineffective him who had the strength of
death. By His one offering the "sanctified" (Heb. 2: 11, 10: 14) are "perfected" for ever.
The deliverance is like that from a legal opponent (Luke 12: 58), or from the grip of
disease (Acts 19: 12). It is not the word that indicates deliverance from sins in the
gospel sense of the word. It is from the power of someone into whose hands, or under
whose authority, we have come. The connection between the believer's "perfecting",
expressed in Colossians and Philippians as circumcision, and antagonistic principalities
and powers is indicated in Col. 2: 10-15, and its connection with the "reward" is seen in
5: 18. The death and the deliverance of Heb. 2: must be seen as related to the
overcoming, the crown, the prize, and it is against this "strength of death" the believer is
ranged as he presses along the path, and to which he is delivered should he so sadly fail
as did those who tempted God in the wilderness.
The Captain of our salvation is the TRUE JOSHUA under whom we enter into the
rest that remaineth.