But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Hebrews 10:32-39 ESV
Although we spend our entire lives unwaveringly progressing through time, our relationship to it is always quite strained. You see, we call this moment present, but slips into the past as quickly as we become conscious of it, replaced by presently future moments that will soon also join the past. Thus, while we live in the present, our eyes are often fixed upon what will be or upon what has been, and that is an unavoidable aspect of our lives being lived in time. Indeed, as beneficial as it may be to be ‘fully present’ or ‘in the moment,’ it is impossible to ignore the future before us and the past behind us.
We find this reality in the final three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer for daily bread is a prayer for present provision. The prayer for forgiveness is a prayer for pardon from past sins. The prayer for deliverance from temptation and evil is a prayer for future protection. Although the past can easily become a place of regret and the future of dread and anxiety, we cannot ignore our what lies before and behind us, and like the Lord’s Prayer, the text before us calls to proper leverage both the past and the future that we may find strength to endure in the present.
RECALL THE FORMER DAYS // VERSES 32-34
After the rightly terrifying warning that the author gave in verses 26-31, his tone shifts once again to encouragement and comfort. This again is proof that the author was indeed a pastor to his readers, for he has the boldness to sternly warn and rebuke them but also the personal compassion to give targeted words of encouragement. And this passage is certainly one of encouragement and comfort, especially whenever we remember the proper meaning of those two words. Encouragement is something that inspires courage, and to comfort means to impart strength (fort comes from the Latin word for strength). This ancient pastor sees the dark days that were ahead of his congregation and longed to impart as much courage and strength as he may. Notice that he does this by setting their eyes backward:
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
These verses make it clear to us that the original readers of this sermon-letter were not newly converted. They had been believers for some time already. Again, since Hebrews seems to be clearly written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the fact that they had been Christians for some time makes the early 60s the most likely date of this sermon-letter. Such a date would mean that it was the great persecution under Emperor Nero that was swiftly coming upon the church. This also means the author may now be referring to the persecutions that took place in AD 49 under Emperor Claudius.
Regardless of the exact timing, the author describes that past persecution as having happened after their enlightening, that is, after they had become Christians. Sadly, that is still the reality for many of our brothers and sisters around the world today. To be enlightened to the wonders of Christ means also being a prime target of hatred and scorn. And that is precisely what befell these Christians. They were ‘publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.’ Hughes writes:
The idea here is that they were made public theatre, because the word of “publicly exposed” (theatrizo) comes from theatron, “theater.” They were ridiculed and taunted as a theatre of the absurd. Along with that, the “affliction” they endured was of the nature of being squeezed and pressured. Persecution was one thing, but sardonic, smiling, rung-dropping insults made it even more devastating. (281)
Of course, as we journeyed through the account of the crucifixion in Mark’s Gospel, we noted repeatedly the heavy emphasis upon the scorn and taunting that we hurled upon our Lord. Such derision and scoffing are indeed a form of persecution, and it would have outward consequences. After all, a society that harbors disgust against Christians is not going to be of great support to Christian business owners.
Even when they were not directly treated with contempt, they were partners with those who were. They refused to allow their brothers and sisters in Christ to be a public theater of contempt alone. Thus, when one was so reproached, they all locked arms in the reproach.
Yet verse 34 reveals that the persecution did go beyond verbal scorn. Some were thrown in prison, and some had their property plundered. Yet they had compassion on those in prison, knowing the danger that associating themselves with the imprisoned might mean, and joyfully accepted the plundering of their property because they knew that they had a far greater possession that could not be plundered and could not be stolen.
In verse 32, the author calls all these things a hard struggle with sufferings. Again, Hughes notes:
The word translated “struggle” in our text is the Greek word athlesis, from which we derive our word athletic. The persecution was like a hard-fought athletic contest viewed by a partisan crowd. There was nothing passive in their display. In fact, they showed superb spiritual athleticism as they stood their ground! (280)
It is fitting that the author notes their endurance through such a struggle because that is precisely what athleticism so often requires. Both in the athletic event itself and throughout training for it, endurance is necessary to push through pain and discomfort in order to achieve the goal. And that is precisely what the original readers had previously done.
As we will see in the next verses, the author asks them to recall those former days of hardship in order to encourage them for endurance once again in the coming times of hardship. Let us draw two points of practical application from these verses.
First, while we have a tendency for only wanting to remember the best days of the past, the author gives a great pattern for intentionally remembering our previous seasons of suffering and sorrow. Of course, we understand the appeal of nostalgia and of reminiscing about the good ol’ days, and from the sheer volume of remakes, Hollywood understands the appeal as well. However, we would do well always to keep Ecclesiastes 7:10 as we get nostalgic for the past: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” It is not wise to ask such a question because the reality is that the former days were not better than these days.
Now that may be a tough pill to swallow as we presently face a world that struggles to define what a woman is, but it is nevertheless true. Today’s great theological battle is over the nature of being human. During the Reformation, it was over the nature of justification. During the early church, it was over the divinity of Christ. The struggles change with the times, but every time has a struggle. And we rob ourselves of much encouragement by not recalling those times of affliction.
Indeed, as the author does here, we should not only apply this to history broadly but also to our lives personally. Rather than thinking frequently of how smooth life was while you were on vacation, spend more time remembering the Lord’s faithfulness to you through times of adversity. Tiff and I have had experience with this recently. Since the birth of Evangelyn, the past four months have felt like the Lord has sent one wave after another crashing over our heads, while we are treading water at sea. Interestingly, our time in 2018 walking through the dying of Tiff’s father has frequently been an encouragement to us. It reminds us that suffering is not something strange but to be expected in this life, and it reminds of us of God’s faithfulness to us during such afflictions. Therefore, do not buy the lie of nostalgia. Instead, frequently remind yourself of God’s faithfulness to you through past trials.
Second, the author of Hebrews will launch into a grand relay of examples of endurance in the lives of Old Testament saints in the next chapter, which he will call in 12:1 “a great cloud of witnesses” or testimonies. Likewise, we should consider what testimony our present conduct in affliction will leave for ourselves and for others. To go again to the example of my father-in-law, I am thankful for his example of maintaining joy through the process of dying. I also ought to think constantly over what kind of testimony I am setting for my children. Through me, will they only see frustration and anger in the midst of affliction, or will they see the joy of the Lord?
DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE // VERSES 35-39
Having now reminded his readers of their own faithfulness under trial while they were less mature in the faith, he now issues them a command for the present, incentivized by a hope for the future:
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
With a new persecution on the horizon and with their faithful endurance through previous ones brought back to mind, the author now exhorts them not to throw away their confidence. To what confidence is here referring? 10:19-20 gives the answer: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.” That is our confidence. We have open access to the Holy One as our Father through the once for all sacrifice of Jesus and His continual intercession for us as our great high priest. To throw that confidence away would be to do what we discussed last week, trampling the Son of God underfoot, profaning the blood of the covenant, and outraging the Spirit of grace.
We keep from throwing our confidence away by enduring, by doing God’s will. Indeed, Christ is our great example of this endurance, for as 12:2 says, He endured the cross, explicitly choosing in Gethsemane to follow His Father’s will, though it was for Christ to be crushed. We are to walk in our Lord’s footsteps, taking up our own crosses in order to follow Him. We must be ready to do God’s will in the face of suffering, just as Daniel and his friends so famously did and just as the apostles and countless of our brothers and sisters in the faith have done. Indeed, we are not to be like the faithless Israelites who grumbled at their Shepherd through every test and trial. For bitterness of heart and unbelief, they threw away their confidence and perished in the wilderness. Consider what Paul commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Are you enduring through affliction and doing the will of God, or are you throwing away your confidence through an evil, unbelieving heart? Do you rejoice or complain? Do you give thanks or grumble? When things are placed in that light, which of us would deny our need of endurance, supernatural Spirit-powered endurance? The sad reality is that often only think of enduring through life’s “big” afflictions (a lost job, a close death, terminal illness, etc.), but we prepare to face those trials through joyfully facing life’s everyday trials.
Yet our present endurance ought to spring from a future hope, which the author has already mentioned three times. First, he called it in verse 34 a better possession and an abiding one. Second, he called it in verse 35 a great reward, which is almost certainly a reference to Genesis 15:1, where God said to Abraham: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” That promise bleeds into the third, where he called it in verse 36 what is promised. What is this better and abiding possession, this great reward, and what is promised? Dennis Johnson notes:
OT believers, “who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:12), have set the example, with Abraham in the lead (6:13-17; 7:6; 11:9-19). Although they received God’s promises in words and preliminary fulfillments (6:15; 11:33), in another sense they “did not receive what was promised” but awaited God’s better provision in the new covenant instituted by Christ (11:39; cf. 11:13). We too eagerly await Christ’s return and the full salvation he will bring (9:28).
Christ’s return, our blessed hope, is what ought to fuel our present-day endurance through trials by obedience to God’s will. Verses 37-38 confirm this by quoting from the Greek translation of Habakkuk 2:3-4:
For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
In only a little while, Christ will come; He does not delay. But how can that be true if it has been almost two thousand years since Christ’s ascent to the right hand of the Father? How can look at two thousand years of waiting and say that He will not delay? In 2 Peter 3:8-9, after noting that there were already scoffers who asked where the promise of Christ’s coming was, we read these words:
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Peter’s point is not to give us a formula for understanding how God relates to time; rather, he is reminding us that God stands outside of time. Each second moves from future to past regardless of how carefully or frivolously we spend it. Not so with God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. If Christ does not return for another two thousand years, He will not have delayed so much as an hour. But He may very well come back this day, or He may take us to Himself through death this day. Either way, within a hundred years, each one of us will be standing before Christ face-to-face, either to receive commendation for our faith or condemnation for rejecting Him.
In light of Christ’s coming and our judgment, verse 38 shifts from speaking of Christ’s return and gives warning to us. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul will have no pleasure with him. Here we find the two possible paths that the author of Hebrews has been laying out before us continually. In light of Christ’s coming, we can either live by faith as God’s righteous ones, or we can shrink back.
Notice again that shrinks back has the same effective warning as falling away (6:6) or drifting away (2:1), for all three phrases refer to those who abandon the faith, yet each does so from its own angle. Drifting away implies spiritual neglect and a lack of diligence to keep hold of Christ, the sure and steadfast anchor of our souls. Falling away suggests an abrupt turn-around and renouncement of the gospel. Shrinks back, however, refers to giving way to fear, much like a little child shrinks back behind his or her parent when asked to if they want to do something that scares them.
The very opposite of shrinking back in fear is to draw near to God, hold fast to the confession of our hope, and to stir up one another to love and good works, that is, to live by faith. Thus, the author concludes, saying, But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. By faith, we draw near to God in prayer rather than drift away from Him. By faith, we hold fast to what we confess rather than falling away from it. By faith, we become partners with those who suffer reproach for Christ’s sake rather than shrinking away in fear. Indeed, did Jesus not say, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40)? Thus, when the author commands in 13:13 for us to “go to [Christ] outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured,” we do so through being partners with those who are publicly exposed to reproach and affliction for being followers of Christ. Sadly, finding Christians who are ashamed of other Christians is not difficult these days, but that ought not to be us. Indeed, we ought to especially link arms with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are bearing the reproach of Christ. The alternative is to shrink back in fear, which ultimately leads to destruction. We find this plainly in Revelation 21:8, though let us begin with verse 5 for context:
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
That is the great coming Day that must constantly be before our eyes. Long ago, many of our brothers and sisters in the faith held fast to their confession that Jesus is Lord rather than Caesar and were fed to lions as public entertainment. They were not of those who shrink back. Or should we think of William Tyndale’s prayer for the eyes of the king to be opened as he was being burned alive for the crime of translating the Bible into English? He did not shrink back. What of Hugh Latimer who said to fellow martyr, Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burned at the stake, “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out”? Neither should we shrink back from whatever our Lord’s providence has for us to endure. Indeed, the author will go in the following chapter array example after example of Old Testament saints who endure suffering by faith in the promise of God that was still to come. Past testimonies and future hope give strength for present courage.
“Do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward,” writes our author (Heb. 10:35). He draws that confidence from the past, as water is drawn up from a well. He also grasps it from the future, the way wonder is drawn from the stars above. In both past and future the confidence comes from the Lord who “is and who was and who is to come” (Rev. 1:8). In the past we find the gracious Lord who sustained us then and surely will sustain us now. We gain confidence from the future, because that same Savior is there in eternity, waiting ahead and coming in due time.
This is why Christians believe in the value of history, because history is his story. The past is defined by the victory of Christ at the cross and empty tomb; the future holds before us the victory of Christ in his glorious return and eternal reign. But the present, with all its trials, is where we are now sustained by the power of that victorious Christ. Victory is not the absence of trial, nor the removal of all our worldly foes. Victorious Christianity is not merely something that takes place at pollical rallies, nor is it defined by rising sales of Christian products at the store. It is what happens when a grieving believer smiles through tears at a graveside, thinking of the resurrection morning. Victory comes when a follower of Christ shows love to an unpleasant neighbor because of the love of Christ for the world. Victory is gained today when persecuted believers, like this Hebrew Christian community in the Bible, stand firm before the mocking culture, refusing to abandon their creed. Victory is standing beside fellow believers in their persecution. It is singing hymns of joy while jobs or house or friends are lost.[1]
Or as we rightly sing, we are “victors in the midst of strife.”
As we come to our King’s Table, let see by faith that it is a banquet prepared for us in the presence of our enemies. The prince of this world and his spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places are continuously set against us, seeking to drag us alongside them into the eternal torment unto which they are damned. Yet here we find a visual reminder of Christ’s never-ending provision of our daily bread, as well as of His once for all sacrifice for our sins and of His glorious return to make all things new.
B. C. Newton 