 |  |
hand of Laban saying "Your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times"
(Gen. 31: 7). Are we to take the number "ten" literally in such a statement as:
"And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in
one oven" (Lev. 26: 26)?
When Elkanah in his endeavour to comfort his wife said: "Am not I better to thee
than ten sons?" (I Sam. 1: 8), does anyone believe that his intention would be expressed
the more or the less had he said "eleven" sons, or "nine"? Why "ten loaves" or "ten
cheeses"? (I Sam. 17: 17, 18). Are we expected to count the occasions when the
"comforters" of Job had reproached him "ten times"? (Job 19: 3). To these examples
we may add the "ten days" and the "ten times better" of Dan. 1:, the "ten men" of
Amos 6: 9 and Zech. 8: 23.
The provoking of the Lord by Israel is introduced in Heb. 3: as an extension or
illustration of the exhortation given in verse 6,
"Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end",
the reference to the "provocation" being introduced by the word "wherefore" and
concluded by the warning:
"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God" (Heb. 3: 12),
and the conclusion in verse 14 balances the introduction of verse 6 thus:
A | 6. Whose house are we, IF we hold fast
the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
B | 7-11. Psalm 95: quoted "They shall not enter into My rest".
C | 12, 13. Take heed. Heart of unbelief.
A | 14. We are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold fast
the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end.
B | 15-18. Psalm 95: quoted "They should not enter into His rest".
C | 19. So we see. Unbelief.
Psalm 95: is made much of in this passage, and calls for examination. The fourth
book of the Psalms (see The Companion Bible), commences with the Psalm of Moses,
and corresponds with the fourth book of the law, Numbers, the book of Israel's
wandering in the wilderness. Psa. 90: refers to those of responsible years who had
rebelled against the Lord, declaring that their children had been led out of Egypt only to
die in the wilderness. Psa. 91: speaks of those very children who were preserved
throughout the wilderness dangers and entered into the land of promise under Joshua,
when all those of the latter generation were dead.
"Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men" (Psa. 90: 3).