THIS chapter has a character peculiarly its own, and very different to that of any of those which precede and follow it. Its keynote, so to speak, is the statement made at the close of the previous chapter, "The just shall live by faith;" on which, as it were, it is a practical commentary.
In a general way, we may say that the Epistle to the Hebrews is the introduction of the believer into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and we would remark, in passing, that there is nothing so difficult to hold fast to, as that, as believers, we may go into the Holiest boldly at all times, and in all circumstances. Often believers stand at the door, so to speak, thinking they are not fit to go in, but this only gives time and opportunity for Satan and the world to act. You have failed? Well, flee to the Holiest. You feel you are not fit? Well, faith goes right in with the blood of Jesus. Are you in trouble-your own evil heart, and the world too much for you? Flee right into the Holiest, there alone is safety and rest. When we are at home there, we are not at home in the world. The world cannot do much with us If we have Christ. Faith in the Son of God gives entire victory over the world, as John tells us, and we find in the previous chapter, that early believers took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had " in heaven, a better and an enduring substance." Just think, let the world take everything you have-your goods, your life, everything-could you say, " Thank you!" In the reckoning of faith, it is the best thing the world can do for the believer, or if you will, the worst.
Another important feature of this epistle is the way the Spirit of God, while unfolding in detail the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, gives special prominence to His Person as the Son of God. It is " Jesus the Son of God" that is " the great High Priest, passed into the heavens.,' This is specially the apostle Paul's way of presenting Christ. Immediately after his conversion " he preaches Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God " (Acts 9:20); and in his Epistle to the Galatians, says, " The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Would not " the Lord Jesus" have done just as well? No, it would not. That would have told'us only of Jesus as man exalted to the right hand of God, the same blessed Person surely, but there is immense power in the fact that it is " the Son of God" who is our life and object.
But to return to our chapter. The first verse is a statement of faith in its practical power and effect. It is that by which we lay hold of " things hoped " for as substantial realities, and that which gives present demonstrations to our souls of " things not seen."
The second verse teaches us that faith was the inward energy by which saints in past ages lived before God and obtained " a good report," of which the rest of this chapter gives us a series of characteristic instances, arranged in a special order.
In the third verse faith gives us what the ancients, with all their wisdom, had not; and what the philosophers of the present day, with all their boasted and scientific acquirements, do not understand. We know how the worlds were made. God's word tells us all we want to know about a world out of which we are waiting to go. The world was made by the simple fiat of God; it was deluged by God; and now it is sustained by the word of God to be burnt up. Oh dear friends, surely if we believe it is all going to be burnt up, we shall not care for anything in it; our one aim will be to get out of it. Philosophers will speculate clay and night, as to how the world was made and as to its end, but bring in the name of God, and tell them you know how it was made-God spake, and it was clone, and that now it only waits God's word to be burnt up; there is silence at once, they do not like it.
In the fourth verse we have faith as what constitutes a true worshipper, in contrast with one who was not one.
Cain, brought an offering of the fruits of the earth, thinking that because it pleased himself it must please God; but God rejected him. And what, let us ask, are all the elaborate forms and ceremonies in the so-called places of worship now but just the same thing? These things please the senses of men, and, therefore, it is argued that God must be pleased with them too. It spews God's wisdom in a marked way, I think, that when He is speaking of worship, He tells us in one short verse what it is. Abel, a poor good-for-nothing sinner, brought a dead lamb, its blood poured out; as a sinner under death and judgment, he put the death blood of a victim between himself and God. He brought (typically of course) the death of Christ. Thus coming, Abel had the testimony from God that " he was righteous." God only gives this testimony to those who come into His presence with the blood of His Son. Whatever else you may do, or bring, you will not have the testimony that you are righteous. (Compare Rom. 3:24,26.)
In verse 5 faith,, as in Enoch, gives us the most perfect example of godly walk in the Bible (the Lord Jesus of course excepted). A great deal is said about David, Solomon, Josiah, and many other saints, but all we hear about Enoch is, that " he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him;" and before his translation he had this testimony, "that he pleased God." Doubtless he had his failures, as we all have, but the characteristic feature of his life was, " he walked with God." And it is this that the Holy Ghost records. Beloved friends, is this what we are doing? What appears to me so very beautiful in this narrative is, that Enoch is not a man soaring far above our heads in circumstances we know nothing about, but one who walked with.God in all the realities of every-day life-in his business and his family. Very likely he led about his flocks as a simple shepherd; certainly, for God's word tells us so, " he begat sons and daughters," and it was in these relationships " he walked with God."
There is a vast difference between my being in the world with the knowledge that God is for me, and my being down here simply for God! To show what I mean: just look at Abraham and Enoch together, for a moment. Abraham knew God was for him in all his interests down here; and the consequence was, instead of being occupied with the " God of glory," he was almost always in some trouble or other. God tells him to leave his country and his kindred; but he does not fully get away until Terah his father is dead. Then when he is in the land there is a famine, and Abraham fears for his life because of the beautiful wife whom God hath given him, so he makes up a lie in the land, and goes and tells it down in Egypt. Then God gives him great promises, but he cannot wait, and goes and gets into a mess about Ishmael. Enoch, on the other hand, appears to have been down in this world simply for God. Doubtless God had told him, He was going to translate him. And with this before him, we can believe that the burden of his prayer was not, " Lord God, give me this or that, or the other," but, " Lord God, help me to please Thee! As Thou art going to translate me, help me while I am here to please Thee." And, beloved, this is very simple; if God pleases us, if He fills our hearts, do you not think it is natural enough that we shall want to please Him? Surely this ought to be our only object! And mark, Enoch follows close upon Abel. He starts, as it were, from Abel's lamb, to enter the glory above that connected itself with it-the cross of Christ here, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne there-in the interim walking with God and pleasing Him.
Oh! beloved, had we more before our souls, the cross of Christ as our starting-point, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to fetch us to Himself, we should really care for nothing but to please Him. This is more than conversion and being happy in the Lord. There are some here who have but recently found joy in Christ, and I would warn them, as I would myself and all, of resting in their joy. What I would say to such is, cling to Christ, cleave to Jesus, but do not get occupied with your joy. Suppose you lose this experience of joy, what will you do then? Hold fast to Christ, you cannot lose Him; He cannot break down. Hold fast to Him; walk with Him; and if this is not joy, nothing is. If you look at Jesus, your heart will be so filled with joy, that words shall fail to express it. This is beautifully put before us in 1 Peter 1:8, " Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
What a thing it is to be in the world without an anxiety, a care, or a wish, and with only one thing to do, and that to walk in faith, and thus to " please God," and " without [or apart from] faith it is impossible to please him"! It is not to be faith and something else; no, it is faith, and faith alone, that pleases God. What are all the decorations in the churches and chapels for? " Oh!" you say, " God's house must be beautiful, and surely God would have it so, for look at the temple. It must please Him to see His house beautiful now, as then." You had better by far say at once, " We like it, and therefore God does too." But you say again, " Look at the temple t" Well, where is that temple now? Not one stone left upon another. What is God going to do with this whole world presently? Scripture tells us, He will burn it up. And not only the wood, hay, and stubble, but all the fine structures and edifices men are building, and all the pleasant pictures men are making. Does that look as if these things pleased God, and do you think if people believed all was going to be burnt up, they would do all they are doing? If we had anything that particularly pleased us, do you think we should burn it? We should be thought mad, if we did. It would really be the last thing we should do with what pleased us.
And what about the pealing organs, and grand music, that are so much used to render the worship of God more acceptable? Does God like music, and science, and art? " Surely He does," you say. Well, who instituted them? Did God? On the contrary, we read that Jubal " was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ," and Tubal-cain was " the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." Both descendants of Cain, who was a fugitive and a vagabond driven from the presence of God, and he made himself as comfortable and happy as he could away from God. Just what the world is doing now! You ask again, " Does not God like flowers? He made them, and surely He must like to have them offered to Him." Well, but you have forgotten He has cursed the earth on account of man's sin. You may look at them, and admire them, and God's wisdom in making them, but we must ever remember that they are under a curse, and we cannot bring them to present to the Lord. God will accept nothing but the slain lamb of Abel, as the ground of our acceptance before Him.
But we must not only have faith in God Himself to please Him, but we must know He is the rewarder of them that " diligently seek him," and this does not mean taking only huge troubles and trials, or great joys to Him, and leaving small things out as if they were no matter. No! God will be sought to about the smallest everyday occurrences of our lives. It is "In everything," as we read in Phil. 4:6. We must take everything to Him, and then we shall indeed find that " God is a rewarder " of them that do this. If God has given us eternal life, do not you think He will not give us a pin, or a cup of cold water, if we ask Him? To be sure He will, and that, too, as dignifiedly as if He were giving us a throne. Beloved, do we believe it? Do we diligently seek Him? Do we take everything to Him?
Why do people get into debt? Why do people steal? Just because they do not believe God. If we believed He would give us whatever we wanted, do you believe we should take it from our neighbors? Of course we should not. Take for example a man or a woman acting from an impulse of love, not in willful sin. A father has seven little children, and nothing in the house, there is no work to be had, and the poor little children are starving. Well, he goes out, sees a loaf of bread, the baker's back is turned, he snatches it up, and takes it to his children. If he believed God, and that he had only
to ask Him for bread, do you think he would do that? Why, if he asked God for one loaf, God would give him a dozen if needed, for He can as easily send a hundred as one. See how God speaks to Israel in Malach 4: 10. " Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to conceive it."
Some years ago, up in the north of Scotland, there was a dear old woman, who when asked, " Was God good to her," said, " Guid, aye so guid, I could a' most think He had na another child i’ the world, He taks such care o' me." That was simple faith, and she pleased God. She had nothing but a poor cottage, and an empty cupboard, but her faith knew it had the living God and all His resources at its command. She did not want great riches here; thieves might break through and steal, or rust might spoil. Was not it far better God should keep them, and give her out, day by day, what she needed? Why do men put their money into banks? So that it shall not be stolen. Well, God is our bank, and if we have faith in Him, He will give us everything we need, and when one has faith for one's self one can count on Him for others; and so Paul says, " My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus!"
Oh! to know more of what it is diligently to seek Him in believing prayer. c. w.
( To be continued, the Lord willing.)
A FRAGMENT.
THE presence of Christ is distinct from the presence of the Spirit. All believers have the Holy Spirit, but all have not the presence of Christ. If you have not the presence of Christ, you are an orphan Christian. The Holy Spirit is in our midst, and the Lord Jesus also-in spirit, of course, not His bodily presence, but personally-apart from, and distinct from, the presence of the Holy Spirit. W. B.