Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Hebrews 12:12-17 ESV
Our first introduction to Abraham is when God calls him to leave the country of his father to walk by faith to a land that God will give to him and his descendants. That was a walk of faith in every way because Abraham wasn’t told which land was going to be his and he did not yet have even single son to be his first descendent. Of course, God proved Himself faithful and gave Abraham a son, Isaac. When Isaac was grown, God gave the same promised blessing to him that He had given to Abraham, and though Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, was barren, Isaac prayed and God gave them twins. The older twin was Esau, and the younger was Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 25:29-34
The story of Esau continues on in Genesis 27, where Jacob disguises himself as his brother Esau in order to trick Isaac into blessing him. Jacob’s blatant deception and Esau’s pitiful tears can easily leave us confused as to who we are meant to be supporting. Indeed, the remainder of their stories can be just as confusing. Although Esau is not mentioned much more, he evidently went on to be great and prosperous, enough at least to have four hundred men at his command and for chiefs and kings to descend from him. Meanwhile, Jacob’s life was a perpetual struggle and striving with both God and men, and though his son Joseph was the right-hand of Pharaoh, his descendants quickly became a nation of slaves for four hundred years. While Jacob wrestled, Esau prospered. While Jacob’s descendants were enslaved, Esau’s descendants reigned as kings in their own land. Was God vindicating Esau? Was He punishing Jacob? In Malachi 1:2-3 God gives us an answer: “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.” Indeed, God’s disciplining hand upon Jacob and his descendants was a sign of God’s fatherly love for them, while Esau’s being left to his own devices was proof of God’s hatred for him.
In our present passage, the author of Hebrews pulls the racing imagery from 12:1 and the goodness of God’s discipline together to give us this exhortation: our race of faith can only be run with endurance by striving against our sin and for peace and holiness. In verses 12-13, the author recalibrates us to the marathon metaphor, encouraging us to wrestle together against our sin and against growing weary and fainthearted. Verse 14 is the heart of our passage, commanding us to strive for peace and for holiness. Verses 15-16 provide three dangers that will hinder our peace with others and holiness before God, jeopardizing our entire race of faith. Finally, verse 17 concludes with the warning example of Esau, who did not strive for peace and holiness but despised his inheritance of Abraham’s blessing.
MAKE STRAIGHT PATHS FOR YOUR FEET // VERSES 12-13
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
The word therefore is our signal that the author is building directly upon his previous thought. Indeed, he is now reaching back to verse 1 and making an exhortation for us. In verses 1-3, the author painted the Christian life of faith as marathon, a race that necessitates much endurance. In verses 4-11, he then presented the bitter yet beautiful truth of God’s loving hand of discipline upon His children. Here the author brings those two ideas together by returning to the imagery of a marathon and exhorting us to run in a manner that displays that we have been disciplined.
Drooping hands and weak knees ought to make us think of a weary runner who looks as though he will collapse at any minute, failing to reach the finish line. This imagery comes from Isaiah 35:3, which reads: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.” The following verse notes that these are “those who have an anxious heart” and gives them this encouragement: “Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you” (Isa. 35:4).
Is that not the message that the author of Hebrews has also been making to his readers? He has been exhorting them to endure in faith and not to shrink back in fear. He has called them to behold Christ, to fix their eyes upon the salvation that He has accomplished for them in His first coming and that He will consummate upon His second coming. Thus, by drawing from this verse in Isaiah 35, the author is telling them again to consider Jesus and to hold fast to the confession of hope that they have in Him.
For those who are already growing weary and fainthearted, keeping to straight paths makes a collapse far less likely. This imagery is drawn from Proverbs 4:26-27, though the whole section (beginning with verse 20) ought to resonate with what Hebrews has been teaching:
My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Such paths will keep what is lame from being twisted—in two ways. First, on such paths the lame will not be “put out of joint,” twisted to the point of dislocation, but rather will be “healed.” The verb rendered “put out of joint” (ektrepo) often describes straying “off course” from the way that leads to life (1 Tim. 1:6; 5:15; 2 Tim. 4:4). Hebrews adjusts the wording of Proverbs 4:26 LXX, changing the number of the verb “make straight” and the of the possessive pronoun “your” from singular to plural, transforming a father’s advice to an individual son into an exhortation to an entire congregation. When Christians are spiritually weak (drooping hands, feeble knees) or disabled (lame), fellow believers must gather around them, clearing away obstacles and pointing them straight ahead to the finish line.[1]
STRIVE FOR PEACE & HOLINESS // VERSE 14
In verse 14, the author gives us a twofold command that forms the essential means of accomplishing verses 12-13: Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
First, we should consider the principal command: strive. This is a fitting word to use, since no marathon can be completed without much striving. Likewise, it should also remind us of 12:4, which said that our race is also a “struggle against sin.” Like Jacob, who strove with God and with men (Genesis 32:28), so is the life of all God’s children one of striving. It is all too common to find parents who spoil their children, claiming that they love them too much to discipline them. Proverbs 13:24 calls that hatred rather than love: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Our Father is too loving to tolerate spoiled children; therefore, painful though it may be, He is diligent to discipline us. And we ought to be active in learning from His discipline, striving forward in the faith.
Yet while Jacob’s life was a striving with God and with men, the author of Hebrews is calling us to strive against our own sin so that we may have peace with men and the holiness before God. It is right that the author would connect these two, for our vertical relationship with God is always bound intimately with our horizontal relationship with our neighbors, both Christian and non-Christian. We see this in the two greatest commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. The two are bound together, for we cannot properly love our neighbor without first loving God and we do not truly love God if we do not also love our neighbor. Likewise, Jesus places these two ideas side-by-side in the Sermon on the Mount, saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:8-9).[2] Even so, let us view them briefly one at a time.
First, we are to strive for peace with everyone. Recall that verse 11 said that God’s discipline “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Indeed, in Galatians, Paul writes explicitly that peace is a fruit of the Spirit. We who have received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will bear peace as a fruit. And we should struggle to have peace with everyone, which includes persecutors of the faith. Our Lord is the Prince of Peace; we should likewise be known as peacemakers and peacekeepers. And if we should strive for peace with everyone, how much more with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Indeed, to be quarrelsome and divisive (the opposite of peaceful) is a grave matter, as Paul notes in Titus 3:10-11: “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”
Second, we must also strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. I think Robert Paul Martin is correct in saying:
The holiness of which the writer speaks is our sanctification from sin. Fundamentally, to be holy is to be separated from our sin and consecrated to God, and the duty to be increasingly holy is everywhere in Scripture commanded of God’s children. In view of his promises of God, for example, we are to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).[3]
Or we might to refer to Titus 2:11-14:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
As Martin said, the command to pursue holiness is everywhere in Scripture, and it is not legalistic to pursue, promote, and encourage holy conduct. Legalism is either when we attempt to justify ourselves before God through our good works or make our own commands in addition to God’s own commands. Such legalism is forcefully condemned throughout the Bible. The gospel, however, declares to us that we have not been saved by our own good works. Indeed, all of our righteous deeds are nothing more than filthy rags before the Lord. We are saved solely through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. He has taken the penalty of our sins upon Himself and placed His spotless righteousness upon us. We contribute nothing to our salvation but the sin that made it necessary. Amen! But while we are not saved by our good works, we are saved to do good works.
That is how the author of Hebrews can say that without this holiness no one can see the Lord. There is no such thing as a Christian that never grows in holiness. Remember that the Father’s purpose in disciplining us is “that we may share his holiness” (12:10). Again, God loves His people far too much to leave any of them without growth in His likeness. Indeed, as we will see with the example of Esau, our pursuit of peace with everyone should never compromise our pursuit of holiness. “Indeed, Christians are the most good to the world when we are the least like the world: when we are godly, when we have light to bring into the dark realm of sin.”[4]
THREE DANGERS // VERSES 15-16
With the main exhortation made in verse 14, the author now gives us three dangers that we must strive against in our pursuit of peace and holiness:
Verses 15-16: See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
These dangers are introduced with the command see to it. This verb (episkopeo) derives from the same root as the word overseer (episkopos). Although leaders will specifically be commanded to keep watch over the souls of others, such oversight is not limited to leadership. Indeed, the only way that a church can truly thrive, especially in the difficult days of persecution that were coming upon the original recipients of this letter, is by each person keeping vigilant. Yet notice that we are particularly to be diligent in looking out for the three following dangers.
The first danger is of failing to obtain the grace of God. This is simply another way of expressing what has been the author’s heart throughout this sermon-letter. In 2:1, he called it drifting away. In 2:3, he called it neglecting such a great salvation. In 3:12-13, he called it falling away from the living God and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. In 6:4-6, he called it falling away, adding the impossibility of being restored to repentance. In 10:26-31, he called it sinning deliberately and trampling the Son of God underfoot. In 10:39, he called it those who shrink back and are destroyed. In many ways, this is the very reason that the author took up his pen and wrote this sermon in the first place, to encourage his congregation to see the goodness of Jesus and not neglect Him.
Of course, many of these warnings in Hebrews have been used to argue that Christians can lose their salvation, that a genuine believer can fall away from God’s grace. Yet that is not what the author is saying here nor has said elsewhere. Notice that verse 15 does not read: “See to it that no one falls away from the grace of God…” No, it says, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God… The reality is that those who appear to fall away from the faith into apostasy never truly obtained God’s grace in the first place. We saw this in the careful wording of Hebrews 6. There are many who experience a taste of God’s heavenly gifts yet never taste and see the goodness of God Himself. They bask in the outward displays of God’s grace for a while, but they never actually obtain it for their own souls. We should each see to it that this does not describe us by obeying what 3:12-14 said:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
The second danger is an interesting one: see to it… that no “root of bitterness” springs up ad causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. It would be quite natural here to begin preaching against the great damage that bitterness can cause to both individuals and congregations if it is allowed to take root, yet as evergreen as that application is, that is not what the author is speaking of here. The ESV places the phrase root of bitterness within quotation marks to give us a clue that the author is again making a reference to an Old Testament passage. This particular one is from Deuteronomy 29:18-19. The context of Deuteronomy is important to consider, especially with how it parallels the remainder of Hebrews 12. Deuteronomy is largely the final sermons of Moses given to the people of Israel after the exodus generation died off in the wilderness and the new generation made themselves ready to finally enter the Promise Land. Within Deuteronomy, chapter 29 is a renewal of the covenant, and in that renewal God gives this warning:
Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words o this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, “I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.” This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
R. Kent Hughes explains how the author of Hebrews is using this idea in our text:
The phrase in our text that depicts the root’s apostatizing growth is freighted with even further insight because it describes a hidden seed that take root and grows slowly, so that only time reveals what it is. Virtually every church has such bitter roots, and it is the height of arrogance to imagine otherwise.
The call here is for vigilance. Certainly this does not enjoin a witch hunt. The Lord specifically warned against such a response because such actions would tear out real wheat with the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). Nevertheless, we must be alert. Every fellowship of any size has a few “bitter roots” who follow false gods and subtly poison those around them. If we are to run well, the price is vigilance—especially in the good times.[5]
For the third danger, the author brings in a negative example from the Old Testament: See to it… that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Like the exodus generation in chapters 3-4, we should see Esau’s example here as an antithesis to all the examples of faith that were given to us in chapter 11. Esau is an ideal example of how a Christian should not live. Calling Esau sexually immoral is an interesting choice. Sure, he had two (and later three wives), and sure, they were pagans. But there doesn’t appear to be any indication that Esau was a sex addict or anything like that. Yet the second description of Esau is the most telling: unholy. Johnson says, “His mind-set was “unholy” (bebelos): “common” in contrast to holy, irreverent in contrast to God-fearing, secular in contrast to glimpsing eternal things.”[6] Esau was a thoroughly secular man, who had his eyes firmly fixed upon the life that lay immediately in front of him. His sexual ethics were fully culturally appropriate, and that was the problem. Esau had his mind firmly fixed upon the things of the world rather than the things of God, and that is the road to apostasy for both individuals and congregations.
THOUGH HE SOUGHT IT WITH TEARS // VERSE 17
In a way, Esau embodies all three of the dangers listed in verses 15-16. He failed to obtain God’s grace because of his apathy to the blessings of God. He was also a bitter root among God’s covenant family. His unholy life broke the peace within his family. Genesis 26:35 says that his two Hittite wives “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah,” and his murderous hatred of Jacob forced Jacob to flee for his life. Of course, there are certainly far greater sinners found within the Scriptures, but the reality is that most people will not fail to enter the kingdom of God because of how heinous and outrageous their sins were. Like Esau, they will fail to obtain God’s grace simply because they are secular and worldly, striving for neither peace nor holiness.
The selling of his birthright for the bowl of soup is a prime example of how little he actually cared for the blessing of Abraham. For all of his cunning and deceptions, Jacob repeatedly shows how deeply he valued that same blessing. Esau hungered for his next meal, but Jacob hungered for the favor of the true and living God. And, as Jesus said, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.
Of course, as verse 17 notes, Esau did attempt a form of repentance after Jacob stole the blessing of Isaac away from him. However, as sorrowful as that text is to read, Esau’s tears were not true repentance. He was not sorrowful of his sin but simply of the consequences of his sin. But even if he were truly repentant, the time of the blessing had passed. It made no difference how many tears he shed. The time of repentance was gone.
Like all of the warnings in Hebrews, this is intended to disturb us, but it is not intended to cause despair. So long as breath is within the body, we should maintain hope that even the vilest of sinners might come to repentance before their death. Yet death is indeed the end of repentance. I have no doubt that many will eternally lament their earthly rebellion against God, but as with Esau, the time for repentance will have passed. The opportunity to receive the blessing of God will have gone.
Of course, even if God had granted him repentance, Esau didn’t really want the blessing, the spiritual inheritance of Abraham. That would have meant a life of striving and struggling, not the life of comfort and prosperity that he seems to have lived. He wanted God’s gifts but not God Himself. He wanted the blessings of sonship without the discipline that a son must receive before being ready to receive his inheritance.
That is the warning that Esau’s life leaves for us. Remember that Hebrews 1:14 called us “those who are to inherit salvation.” By faith, we are the children of Abraham, who have inherited the blessing through the gospel of Jesus, who has made us into sons and daughters of God. The fullness of that inheritance will be whenever we see God face-to-face and dwell with Him forever as His people. That is why we must strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, and we should rejoice that God’s discipline is always for our good, “that we may share his holiness” (12:10). As God disciplines us for our sin, He is growing us in His holiness and preparing us to receive our inheritance as His sons, which is the blessing of Himself.
As we come to the spiritual meal set before us at the Lord’s Table, let us heed the warning of Esau. As we eat this bread, let us look by faith upon Christ, remembering that we do not live by bread alone, but we are sustained through our Lord who is the resurrection and the life. As we drink of this cup, let us see that Jesus Himself is the living water who satisfies the deepest thirsts of our souls. Indeed, though Esau traded his birthright for a single meal, may this spiritual meal serve as a visual sermon to fix our faith upon our eternal inheritance as the sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ.
[1] ESV Expository Commentary Vol 12, 190-191.
[2] Under the inspiration of the Spirit, it is no accident that the following verses echo so much of Hebrews: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)
[3] Robert Paul Martin, Hebrews, 648-649.
[4] Richard Phillips, Hebrews, 557.
[5] R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, 411.
[6] ESV Expository Commentary Vol 12, 192.
B. C. Newton 