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"None of these things move me", but his Lord would momentarily have found it difficult
to utter these words in the garden? How then could He be both Captain and Perfecter?
How could He be said to have learned obedience? How could His followers be rebuked
for "drawing back"? (Heb. 10: 38, 39). Peter drew back, the other disciples forsook their
Lord, but the Prophet looking down the age says:
"The Lord GOD hath opened Mine ear, and I was NOT rebellious, NEITHER turned
away back . . . . . therefore have I set My face LIKE A FLINT, and I know that I shall not
be ashamed" (Isa. 50: 5-7).
"The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18: 11).
In Matt. 16:, when Peter out of misguided love for the Saviour said "Be it far from
Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee", he was rebuked as an instrument of Satan
(Matt. 16: 22, 23). In Matt. 26: Peter said "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I
not deny Thee" (Matt. 26: 35) although we know only too well that he would deny the
Lord thrice before that day was over. Are we to believe that Peter, who had thus
manifested the frailty of his faith, would be the spectator in the self same night of His
Lord"s temporary drawing back? We trust that no reader will ever attempt to apologize
for His Lord, but will maintain in face of all, that in the hour of His mortal weakness,
with sweat pouring from Him like drops of blood, He nevertheless prayed to be preserved
so that He might finish the work for which He had been born; that He was "saved from"
that death that threatened Him in the garden, and was "heard for His piety", being
strengthened by the ministering angel, ultimately offering Himself through the eternal
spirit to God; remaining all the time, and through all the bitter experience of His earthly
ministry--"Holy, harmless, undefiled" and ever well pleasing in the sight of Him Who
sent Him.
No.30.
Melchisedek, The Priest of the Perfected
(5: 8 - 10).
Babes versus Full-grown (5: 8 - 10)
pp. 30 - 34
The reference to the priesthood of Melchisedec which was introduced in Heb. 5: 6, is
resumed at verse 10:
"Of Whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of
hearing" (Heb. 5: 11).
The LXX uses the word translated "dull" in Prov. 22: 29 to translate "mean" in
the expression "mean men", and the verse speaks of one diligent in his business. In
Prov. 12: 8 it is used for "perverse". It would appear from the usage of the word that the
A.V. "dull" is hardly strong enough. The Hebrew word in Prov. 22: 29 is chashok
"obscure" or "darkened", and the cognate chosek is translated scores of times "darkness".