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("kings and priests unto God", Rev. 1: 6) is the goal of the "perfecting" of Hebrews and
the "overcoming" of the Apocalypse.
We have much more to learn concerning this wonderful King-Priest, but the main
associations which we find in Scripture have now been indicated. We will return to
chapter 5: in order to gather up some further instruction, and this we must do in our next
article.
#30.
Dull of Hearing (5: 7-11).
pp. 61 - 63
At the close of chapter 4: we have brought before us the (1) Greatness, and
(2) Sympathy, of Christ, the High Priest. This is expanded in chapters 5:-8: First the
greatness is touched upon in 5: 4-6, and then His sympathy. We are taken both to
Gethsemane and to Calvary to witness the strong crying and the tears. He was saved
out of death (ek) by resurrection.
The parallel is enforced in Heb. xii, where it is said that for the joy set before Him
the Lord:--
"Endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God . . . . . Ye have not yet resisted unto blood."
Suffering before glory, cross before crown, is the testimony of these passages.
Of Christ it is written, "He was heard in that He feared".
The Greek word eulabeia does not occur anywhere else except Heb. 12: 28:--
"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
Here the word is used of those who seek perfection and are thus "all of one" with Him
Who sanctifies them (see chapter 2:). The R.V. renders 5: 8 "Though He was a Son",
which is better than the A.V. "Though He were a Son", for the use of "were" indicates
an hypothetical case, whereas Christ WAS a Son and YET went through all the suffering
of Gethsemane and Calvary. "Though He was a Son yet learned He obedience by the
things which He suffered". Turning yet again to chapter 12:, we find that Sonship
includes the thought of chastening, and that with the object that we might be partakers of
His holiness. He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
There is a paranomasia in Heb. 5: 8, which seems intentional, emathen and epathe,
"learned" and "suffered", as though by the very similarity of sound their intimacy should
be established. This is no book learning, not the secondhand knowledge of other people's