Exhortation and instruction in the light of the previous chapter
12
📚✭Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses✭, let us lay aside every weight✭, and the sin that so easily adheres to us, and let us run with patient endurance✭ the race✭ that is set before us,Keep the eyes looking at Jesus and consider Him
2 📚looking to Jesus✭ the author✭ and finisher✭ of our faith. For the joy✭ that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame✭, and has sat down✭ at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 📚✭For consider him who endured such opposition✭ from sinners against himself, or else you may grow weary and faint in your minds. 4 📚✭You have not yet resisted to the shedding of your blood, fighting against sin.
Patiently endure God’s discipline
5 📚✭And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children,
My son, do not scorn the discipline of the Lord,
or become faint-hearted when
you are rebuked by him.
6 📚For whom the Lord loves he disciplines,
and whips every son whom he receives.
7 📚✭If you are patiently enduring discipline, God is dealing with you as with sons. For is there a son whom the father does not discipline? 8 📚But if you are not undergoing discipline, in which all sons have a share, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 📚Moreover, we have had human fathers✭ who disciplined us, and we showed them respect✭. Much more then should we not be in subjection to the Father of spirits✭, and live? 10 📚For they indeed disciplined us for a few days, as they thought best, but he disciplines us for our good✭, so that we might share in his holiness✭. 11 📚✭Now no discipline seems joyful at the time, but painful. However, afterwards it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it✭.
12 📚Therefore✭ lift up✭ the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 📚and make straight paths✭ for your feet, so that the lame may not be turned aside, but healed✭ instead.
Follow peace and holiness
14 📚Follow✭ peace✭ with everyone, and holiness✭, without which no one will see the Lord✭.
Do not miss the grace of God as Esau did
15 📚Watch carefully✭ so that no one misses out on the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to trouble you, and defiles many, 16 📚✭and that there may not be any sexually immoral or ungodly✭ person like Esau✭, who sold his birthright for one meal. 17 📚For you know that afterward✭, when he wanted to receive the blessing, he was rejected. Though he earnestly sought it with tears, he found no place for a change of mind✭.
Illustrating the difference between the Old Covenant and the New
18 📚For✭ you have not come✭ to the mountain✭ that was touchable and that burned with fire, or to blackness and darkness and storm, 19 📚✭or to the sound of a trumpet and the sound of words (the sound was such that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them; 20 📚for they could not bear what was commanded: “And if even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned, or pierced with a spear”. 21 📚✭And the sight was so terrible that Moses said, “I am very afraid, and trembling”).
22 📚But you have come to Mount Zion✭, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem✭, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 📚to the general assembly✭ and church of the firstborn✭, whose names are written in heaven✭, and to God the Judge✭ of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect✭, 24 📚and to Jesus the mediator✭ of the new covenant✭, and to the blood of sprinkling✭ that speaks of better things than that of Abel✭.
FIFTH WARNING: Do not refuse to listen to God who has given the New Covenant
25 📚✭✭See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if✭ those who refused him who spoke on earth✭ did not escape, it is much more certain that we will not escape, if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven✭. 26 📚His voice then shook the earth✭, but now he has spoken this promise: Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but heaven✭ also.
27 📚✭And this word, “Yet once more”, indicates the removal of those things that are shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.