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preceded it, and that this tasting of death did not have redemption in view, but glory.
There is no word for "man" in the original, and the word "all" has reference to the "many
sons" who were being led on to glory through suffering.
Christ is their Captain and Joshua is the type. That this is so, the words in 4: 8 will
shew. "For if Jesus had given them rest", where the margin says, "i.e. Joshua". Hebrews
is NOT dealing with Moses and the passover redemption from the land of Egypt, but with
Joshua and the survival through the rigours of the wilderness to the triumphal entry into
the land of promise. The wilderness is the setting of the book, not Egypt. A saved
people are addressed, and they are not urged to believe and be saved, but to go on unto
perfection.
Christ is called the Captain again in Heb. 12: 2, and that once more in connection
with perfecting and suffering; the "Author (captain) and Finisher (Perfecter) of faith"
(not of "our" faith). There He is seen leading the van of the great company who
overcame through faith and obtained promises. The "so great salvation" is for those who
have been perfected, just as is the Prize in Phil. 3: It is written again:
"And having been perfected (by the things which He suffered, verse 8), He became
the author of aionian salvation unto all them that obey Him" (5: 9).
In connection with sufferings, Christ as Captain sets us an example, for He:
"Hath also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps"
(I Pet. 2: 21).
"Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise
with the same mind" (I Pet. 4: 1).
It is well to consider Him, lest we grow weary and faint in our minds. It is in this
sense that we see Him as "the Forerunner for us", Who has entered beyond the veil. The
Hebrew believers had endured a great contest (athlesis) of sufferings (Heb. 10: 32, same
word for suffering pathematon as in 2: 10); which, said the apostle, had great
recompence of reward.
The perfecting of faith (I Thess. 3: 10; Heb. 12: 2), the perfecting of love
(I John 2: 5), and the perfecting of holiness (II Cor. 7: 1) cannot be accomplished apart
from suffering. Faith will be tried (Gen. 22:), love will be called upon to suffer long
and endure all things (I Cor. 13:), holiness will cause separation from much that is
attractive.
We are heirs of God, if sons; but we are joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with
Him (Rom. 8: 17). Present affliction is temporal in duration and light in comparison
with the aionian weight of glory which it works out for those who are exercised by it, and
whose eyes see beyond the temporal and the visible. "The fellowship of His sufferings"
is a necessary prelude to the fellowship of His glory.
"Weeping may endure for a night, But joy cometh in the morning" (Psa. 30: 5).