“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;”
The….high priest of our profession. That is, of the faith we confess, or profess. Christ is also here called our apostle, i.e. sent by his Father. (Witham) — Jesus Christ is not only our apostle, he is the doctor, the legislator of the religion we profess. He is our high priest, who offered himself in sacrifice for the sanctification of his Church, and who is now exercising at the right hand of his Father the office of the priesthood in our behalf, both in heaven and on earth. We here see our dignity: we have a God for the apostle and high priest of our religion.
“Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. appointed: Gr. made”
Faithful to him, &c. To be made, may apply to Christ as man; but here the sense is, who made him head over all his Church. (Witham)
“For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.”
Of greater glory, &c. The apostle shews Christ to be greater than Moses several ways. 1. Christ is as much above Moses, as an architect above the house which he has made; for Christ (who, as God, made all things) is the builder of that very house, that is, of the house of Israel, of which Moses was only a part of a member. 2. Moses was only employed in the house, as a servant, to give testimony to others, as he was ordered. (Witham)
“But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Christ, as a Son in his own house: which house, or Church of the faithful are we: and Christ is our only Lord and Master, equally with the Father, and the Holy Ghost; but we are all members, and profitable members, if we retain firm the confidence in him, and the glory of hope, or a glorious hope unto the end. (Witham) — Hitherto St. Paul endeavours to detach the Hebrews from Moses and the law, to attach them to Christ and his gospel. What follows, is an exhortation to persevere in the faith, lest we come to be cast off like the Jews.
“Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:”
This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where the history of provocations and contradictions of the Israelites is related at large.
“So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) They: Gr. If they shall enter”
As I have sworn in my wrath:[1] if they shall enter into my rest. But if here implies the same as they shall not. See Mark viii. 12. And that this is the sense here, appears by the 18th verse, where it is expressly said, they should not enter into his rest; i.e. to rest in the land of Chanaan[Canaan], promised to them. (Witham)
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
Take heed, &c. Not to imitate their incredulous obstinacy, lest you never enter into the place of eternal rest, by departing from God by sin. (Witham) — To abandon Christ is to abandon God, since Christ is God. He who denies the Son, believes not the Father, who has wrought so many miracles to sanction his mission. (1 John ii. 23.) It is of little consequence to eternity whether it be the doctrine of faith or the life of faith we reject, if persons are equally lost by either practical or speculative infidelity.
“But exhort one another daily , while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
To day. The duration of the present life may be accounted but a day, which God destines for the trial of our faith and obedience; we ought, therefore, to labour hard during the short time of the present day, that we may live and reign with God for all eternity. We cannot too often entertain this truth in our hearts, if we wish to square our lives after the gospel. The heart of man becomes insensibly hardened to Christian truths, when its natural corruption is not courageously attacked.
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”
You have already been made partakers of the benefits of Christ, at your conversion and baptism, to the beginning of his substance,[2] by which seems to be understood the faith of Christ. (Witham) — If to subsist in Jesus Christ, to be washed in his blood, to be animated with his spirit, to be nourished with his flesh, is but a sketch, a seed of that union with him which on a future day is to be effected, how comes it that we are so attached to this earth, how can we hazard for such a mere trifle such immense felicity?
“While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
From the 6th and 14th verses we learn the great happiness conferred on us at baptism; but all this, happily, we are taught is dependent on faith, on the foundation of our spiritual and divine being.
“For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.”
Let us not flatter ourselves with having quitted Egypt by our baptism, unless we also quit that opposition, and that disobedience of our heart to the laws and maxims of the gospel. The Israelites, under the guidance of Moses, left Egypt for the promised land, and after travelling in the desert for the space of two years, found themselves on the confines of the so much desired country; but the possession of it was denied them, and they were left to perish in the desert, because they distrusted God’s promises, and were incredulous to his word. All that happened to this chosen people, says St. Paul, was a figure of what was to happen to us. Here then we may read our destiny, if, like them, we prove ungrateful to God.
“But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?”
Whose carcasses were laid, or buried in the desert? None of those who were reckoned up (Numbers xiv.) entered the land of Chanaan[Canaan], except Josue[Joshua] and Caleb; but then we may take notice, that none were there numbered under twenty years of age, nor the Levites, nor the women. (Witham)