the wilderness; a failure to "go on unto perfection", with which the words "tempt" and

"temptation" are closely interwoven.

A | 2: 17 - 3: 1. TEMPTED, Succour, Profession.

B | 3: 2 - 4: 11. "IF" -- The TEMPTATION.

"IF" -- They TEMPTED ME.

A | 4: 12-16. TEMPTED, Help, Profession.

It will be seen that Heb. 4: 15 is an integral part of this larger context, and no

interpretation is therefore valid that ignores or contravenes the general direction of the

teaching of the larger context. A "profession" is in view, something to "hold fast",

something involving trial and self-denial, something that may be lost. Further, with the

structure before us, it is impossible to isolate Heb. 4: 15; we must keep in mind the

temptation mentioned in chapter 2:

"Your fathers tempted ME" (Heb. 3: 9), said God. Now whatever questionable views

we may entertain concerning the temptation to which our Lord was subjected in the days

of His flesh, no such thoughts are possible when we consider the words "Your fathers

tempted ME".  It is not only repugnant to common sense, but contrary to positive

Scripture, that God can, by any possibility, be "tempted" to, or by, evil. "God cannot be

tempted with evil" is the categorical statement of Holy Writ (James 1: 13); consequently

we are immediately faced with a fact concerning "temptation" that must influence our

views of Heb. 2: 18 and 4: 15.

If we had continued the quotation of Heb. 3: 9 we should have read, "When your

fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years". "Proved" is dokimazo,

"to test, try as a metal". This meaning is borne out by the passages in Heb. 11:, "By faith

Abraham, when he was TRIED (peirazo `tempted'), offered up Isaac" (verse 17). Shall

we say that God tempted Abraham to sin when He made the great demand concerning

Isaac? God forbid: Scripture positively declares that God never tempts man to sin

(James 1: 13), and a reading of Gen. 22: reveals that this "temptation" was a "testing"

of Abraham's faith, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy

son, thine only son from Me" (Gen. 22: 12).

The context of the references to temptation in Heb. 2: and 4: introduce such words

as "succour", "sympathy" ("cannot be touched with") "infirmities", but we can scarcely

speak of "sympathy" and "infirmities" when we speak of "sin" as it appears in Scripture.

The word translated "succour" (Heb. 2: 18) and "help" (Heb. 4: 16) occurs once more

in Heb. 13: 6, "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper". This is associated,

not with "sin" or "forgiveness", but with the promise that the believer would never be

forsaken and in connection with "what man shall do" unto us, not what we might

inadvertently do ourselves.