Hebrews 12:15-29

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:22-24

‘But you are come to mount Zion, And to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, And to innumerable hosts (or ‘large numbers, myriads, thousands upon thousands’) of angels in a festal gathering, And to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, And to the God of all as Judge, And to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, And to the blood of sprinkling which speaks better than that of Abel.’ But what his readers have come to is... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:25

‘See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they escaped not when they refused him who warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven:’ But let them not be misled. It is true that this glory is now theirs if they truly belong to Christ. Yet they must beware. For if they refuse Him Who speaks, Him Who calls them to this glory, they will find Him far more fearsome than the God of Sinai. He spoke to men from Sinai and they did not escape... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:26

‘Whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more will I make to tremble, not the earth only, but also the heaven.” ’ God has spoken and will yet speak again even more terribly. For at Sinai His voice shook the earth (Exodus 19:18), and it trembled before Him. That was terrible for those who experienced it. But now His promise is that He will once again shake the earth, and not only the earth but the heaven also will tremble before Him (see Haggai 2:6). One day... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:27

‘And this word, “Yet once more”, signifies the removing of those things which are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.’ For this ‘yet once more’ (speaking from the time of the prophet) signifies that God was again to finally shake creation once and for all. It was shaken by the coming of Christ and of the Holy Spirit bringing His Kingly Rule among men, for it was through His coming that the house of David would triumph and be made God’s... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:28-29

‘Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, may we have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.’ At Sinai Israel received a kingdom that could be shaken (Exodus 19:6). It was a kingdom of priests, and it was earthly. But Israel failed in its destiny to be priests to the nations, and as we have seen their priesthood has been superseded. It has passed away as far as God is concerned. And it would soon be gone.... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:14-17

Hebrews 12:14-Esther : . As the community is to bear up bravely under persecution, so it is to watch carefully over the purity of its own life. There must be no strife or dissension; above all, there must be moral consecration, for without this it is impossible to hold fellowship with Christ ( Hebrews 12:14) . The church must therefore keep anxious guard over its members, and make sure that each one of them lives up to his Christian profession. Even a single unworthy member may be like a... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:18-29

Hebrews 12:18-Joel : . The theme of the epistle has been the contrast of the old and the new covenants, and this contrast is now summed up in a splendid closing passage. The first covenant was established on a “ mount that might be touched”— an earthly, material mountain [E. C. Selwyn, in JThS, xii. 134 , suggests pephepsalmenô , “ calcined.”— A. J. G.]— which was encircled with terrible manifestations of fire and darkness and storm. The voice in which the Law was proclaimed struck terror... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Hebrews 12:15

To further their pursuit of peace and holiness, he metaphorically proposeth a caution against what might stop them in it, which he properly specifieth and exemplifieth in Esau, Hebrews 12:15-17. Looking diligently: επισκοπουντες notes a very strict and severe inspecting themselves; its primitive, σκοπειν, signifieth such a looking to a thing, as those who, in shooting, aim at the mark; and the preposition adds intention to the action, signifying a most earnest care in Christians over... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Hebrews 12:16

This properly interprets the root of bitterness before, by two special fruits of it. Lest there be any fornicator: uncleanness, πορνος, is not to be taken so strictly, as only to note fornication, uncleanness committed by unmarried persons, but all sorts of pollution and filthiness, as it is used in the general decree, Acts 15:29; such defilements as had crept in among them already, to which many were propense and inclined, whence warned of and charged against it by James, Peter, and Jude, in... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Hebrews 12:17

For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: as Esau’s sin was, such was his penalty; for they knew, and were well acquainted with this in Moses’s history of him, that after he had despised his birthright, and sold it, being at man’s estate, Genesis 27:1-46, and was desirous to inherit that blessing, he was rejected by his father, as well as by God, and could not obtain it, being unalterably settled on Jacob by both. He found no place of... read more

Grupo de Marcas