Hope

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation144 Daniel’s Visions ‹ Instead of stories of life in the imperial court, chapters 7 to 12 are accounts of visions that Daniel received. The visions include cryptic images that Daniel cannot understand, but angelic beings help him by disclosing the meaning. ‹ Chapter 7 is a good example of this pattern. Daniel has a vision of four beasts rising out of the sea that signify four successive empires: those of the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks. ‹ The point of the vision is this: History shows that empires rise, one after another, yet each one of them falls in due time. Readers are to resist persecution because it will not last forever. No human ruler is absolute. God’s purposes are just and will win out. ‹ Daniel 7 pictures God coming for judgment, seated on his throne, surrounded by heavenly beings. It is a vision of accountability, giving assurance that the perpetrators of injustice cannot continue indefinitely. They, like all humans, are ultimately accountable to the higher authority of God. Suggested Reading Gowan, Daniel. Levenson, Esther: A Commentary. Questions to Consider 1. The Hebrew version of the book of Esther does not explicitly mention God, though it alludes to a higher purpose behind the coincidences that take place in the story. Why might the writer have been so circumspect about the role of God? What kind of readers might find this circumspect approach helpful? 2. In contrast to Esther, Daniel explicitly refers to God working through events in history, including the rise and fall of empires. What kind of readers might find Daniel’s emphasis on God’s role to be helpful?

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Lecture 25—The Dynamics of Forgiveness in Matthew 171 Redemption ‹ In Matthew, the account of Jesus’s death and resurrection begins in chapter 21 with the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem, being welcomed by the crowds, and driving the merchants out of the temple. It continues with Jesus eating a final meal with his disciples and being betrayed, arrested, interrogated, and crucified. ‹ All of that is recounted in Mark, as well, but there is an intensity in Matthew’s narrative that readers have found disturbing. ● For instance, like Mark, Matthew tells of Jesus being questioned by the Jewish leaders and by Pilate. But Matthew intensifies the sense of conflict, as the Jewish leaders relentlessly pressure Pilate to crucify Jesus. ● At a pivotal moment, Pilate asks for some water, and he washes his hands of the whole affair. He declares that he will not be responsible for Jesus’s death. At that, the Jewish leaders say, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” ‹ But Matthew’s story of redemption is finally directed toward life, not death. After recounting the crucifixion and burial, the gospel concludes with an expanded account of Jesus’s resurrection. Here, the ground shakes and an angel descends from heaven to open the tomb. The angel tells the women who visit In Western history, the scene in which the Jewish leaders take responsibility for Jesus’s death has sometimes been lifted out of Matthew’s gospel to feed anti-Semitism and violence against Jews. Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation172 the tomb that Jesus is alive and will meet them in Galilee. As they go to tell the other disciples, the women are met by the risen Jesus himself, who repeats the angel’s message. ‹ The final scene takes readers to a mountaintop in Galilee, where the crucified and now living Jesus appears to the disciples. It’s a dazzling climax, as the disciples bow before him and worship. The tensions in the story now seem to be resolved, with death is turned into life. Yet Matthew notes that even here, some of the disciples doubted. This is an intriguing detail, because even at the climactic moment, faith and doubt continue to exist side by side. And it’s this mixed group of believers and skeptics that Jesus sends out with his teaching. Suggested Reading Powell, “Sermon on the Mount.” Senior, Matthew. Questions to Consider 1. One of the questions that Matthew’s gospel addresses concerns the way people should live. What aspects of the gospel do most to shape a way of life? 2. Jesus’s teachings sometimes include creative exaggeration or hyperbole. What were some examples noted in the lecture? How do such creative exaggerations contribute to the message?

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation174 ‹ The reversal continues when an angel appears to shepherds in the fields nearby. Interestingly, the angel transfers the title savior—which was often used for the emperor—to the child in the barn and says that the child’s coming signals peace on earth. It’s a move that shifts the claims of the emperor to the periphery while bringing people on the margin to the center, where they receive the message of God’s favor. Jesus’s Sermon at Nazareth ‹ Chapter 4 of Luke marks the beginning of Jesus’s public activity and sets a direction for what is to come. Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth and is handed a scroll, from which he reads: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ‹ Then, Jesus adds, “T oday this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The listeners are initially pleased because they assume they are the primary recipients of God’s favor. Yet Jesus is speaking about the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed—those who, by definition, are not at the center of things. Thus, as he extends God’s favor to those on the margins, those who see themselves as privileged feel displaced. And out of that sense of displacement, hostility will emerge. ‹ From this point on, readers can expect that Jesus will be seen as a threat by traditional insiders but will be welcomed by those outside. The angry response he receives in Nazareth foreshadows the resistance that will lead to his death. Parable of the Good Samaritan ‹ At the end of Luke 9, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, planning to cross the region of Samaria. The Samaritans were people brought by the Assyrians from other nations to colonize the area. These newcomers intermarried with local people and blended their religious traditions with those of Israel, but they did not identify with Jerusalem and its temple. Indeed, the Jews and the Samaritans viewed each other with suspicion.

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Lecture 36—Revelation’s Vision of New Creation 245 vision of hope for the future can shape life in the present. It identifies God as the Creator, who remains committed to the renewal of creation. And by portraying that as God’s goal, it challenges readers to ask how they, too, might contribute to the well-being of the world. Suggested Reading Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Koester, Revelation and the End of All Things. Questions to Consider 1. Many of the common assumptions about Revelation come from popular media. What were your assumptions about Revelation before listening to this lecture? How is the approach taken in the lecture similar to or different from your previous impressions of the book? 2. As you reflect back over the course as a whole, what one or two parts of the Bible were most important for you? What made them especially significant? 246 Bibliography Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode, eds. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1987. A collection of essays by an international group of scholars, who introduce readers to the literary dimensions of the Bible. Studies of each biblical book offer helpful ways to read the texts holistically. Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. This overview of theological themes gives special attention to the role of God as Creator, to Jesus as Lamb, and to the expansive understanding of hope in Revelation. Birch, Bruce C. “The First and Second Books of Samuel.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 2. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1998. Offers helpful comments on each section of 2 Samuel, along with reflections on the larger themes in these episodes. Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Abraham: The Story of a Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015. A useful reading of the Abraham stories, with attention to their literary quality and the ways they have been understood by later interpretive traditions. ———. Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11. London and New York: T. &. T. Clark, 2011. Considers the literary flow of the first 11 chapters of Genesis while exploring the theological aspects and relationship to the creation theme elsewhere in the Old Testament. ———. Ezra–Nehemiah: A Commentary. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988. A balanced interpretation of Ezra and Nehemiah, with attention to its literary and theological dimensions and a discussion of different views concerning its historical setting. ———. “Prophecy in the Northern Kingdom: Elijah and Elisha.” In A History of Prophecy in Israel, rev. ed., pp. 55–65. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1996. A helpful study of the place of the narratives about Elijah and Elisha in relationship to the wider collection of prophetic writings in the Old Testament.

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation 8 by shepherds. Instead of starting with scenes of conflict with evil, Luke tells of Jesus being present among ordinary people. ‹Matthew takes another approach. His opening lines trace Jesus’s royal genealogy back through the generations of Israel. When Matthew tells of Jesus’s birth, he says nothing about shepherds. Instead, he refers to wise men, who are foreigners. In Matthew’s account, the wise men foreshadow the significance of Jesus for foreigners—those outside of Israel’s tradition. ‹Finally, John’s gospel sets the story of Jesus in the context of creation. The opening lines recall how at the beginning of time, God spoke and brought the world into being. For John, that same creative word of God now becomes flesh in Jesus. ‹The second main part of the New Testament consists of letters written by leaders in the early church. Many of the letters are by the Apostle Paul, and they give us a sense of the debates within the church: what the Christian faith meant and how it was to be lived out. In each case, Paul takes the questions seriously and works through them in light of his understanding of God and the significance of Jesus. ‹The last book in the New Testament is called Revelation or the Apocalypse, and few books in the Bible have generated more controversy than this one. Revelation is written as a series of visions that include a great red dragon and a seven-headed beast doing battle with the allies of God. ●Many readers assume that these visions make mysterious predictions about the end of the world. But the book’s remarkable imagery seems different when you realize that it originally addressed readers living in the Roman Empire. The book offers them a way of seeing the world that is both startling and encouraging. ●The dramatic plotline leads readers through the struggles of the present toward a more hopeful future. It culminates in a vision of New Jerusalem, where the river of life is flowing and the gates stand open to receive the nations of the world.

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  138 LECTURE 21 Esther, Daniel, and Life under Empire T he books of Esther and Daniel tell stories of life under the Persian Empire and the Hellenistic or Greek empires that followed. They show the schemes of the high and mighty being subverted and the vulnerable winning out in the end. At this time, the Jewish people were a small minority of these vast empires’ populations. Some of them had returned to Jerusalem, while others had stayed in Babylon and other regions ruled by the Persians. Wherever they were, they needed to make lives for themselves, with hope and encouragement, at a time when they were subject to the whims of those in power. The books of Esther and Daniel suggest how they did so. Esther as Queen ‹ The Persian rulers saw themselves as dignified and authoritative, but the Persian king in the story of Esther is not too bright. He repeatedly has other people tell him what to do, and his decisions are often ludicrous. The king’s primary adviser is the wicked Haman. ● By way of contrast, a truly noble figure in the story is a Jewish man named Mordecai, who lives among the exiles under Persian rule. Mordecai has adopted his cousin Esther, who is an orphan, and raised her as his own daughter. He will foil the evil schemes of Haman and seek the welfare of his own people. ● Esther herself is beautiful, and she rises from the status of commoner to become queen of the empire. She shows wisdom and courage and uses her powerful position to save those who are threatened. Esther’s story shows that even under domination by a foreign power, ordinary people may do great things. ‹ In the first scene, the king of Persia holds a great banquet and commands his wife, Vashti, to make an appearance to allow everyone to see her great beauty. But his wife refuses to come. The king’s advisers warn that Vashti’s refusal to

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation130 displaced because of human conflict and care for those who are impoverished. This vision reshapes perspectives on God’s role. ● Finally, the vision assumes that these commitments to protect, feed, and heal the people will take political form. In verse 23, God says that he will appoint for them a single shepherd, his servant David, and this figure will provide for them and guide them. ● Ezekiel assumes that God’s commitment to the well-being of the people must come to expression in leadership. Otherwise, it remains mere wishful thinking. This creates a tension. The prophet is keenly aware that leaders are fallible, yet he knows that leadership is needed. Instead of abandoning the notion of leadership, he envisions its renewal through a Davidic king, who will put the ideals of good shepherding into practice. Vision of the Dry Bones ‹ There was no dawning of a new golden age in Ezekiel’s time. Any movement toward renewal fell short of the ideal. Yet Ezekiel pressed the question of what it would mean for a shattered and displaced people to be restored. In doing so, he provided what is probably the best-known part of his book: the vision of the dry bones. ‹ This scene appears in chapter 37, and it has captured people’s imaginations for centuries. The prophet has a vision in which he sees a valley filled with bones. Then God asks a question that initially seems ridiculous: “Can these bones live?” Obviously, the bones are lifeless. Yet God answers his own question by telling Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. Ezekiel is to tell the dry bones that God will cause breath or spirit (Hebrew: ruach) to enter them and give them life. ‹ Ezekiel hears a rattling sound as all the bones that are scattered over the ground come together to form skeletons. Then, the skeletons are then covered with flesh and skin. Finally, a surge of wind comes and fills them all with breath or spirit, so they can live. ‹ As strange as it is, in Ezekiel’s context, the vision addressed a serious problem: the profound sense of abandonment that was felt by people in exile. In verse 11, Ezekiel is told that the dry bones symbolize the whole people of Israel, for whom the movement into exile felt like going to an early grave.

• From Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation (2016)

  Lecture 31—Paul and the Roman Empire 209 who was crucified yet rose from the dead. That means that those who follow Jesus have the hope that they, too, will rise. The subversive element comes in Paul’s picture of the event in royal terms. ‹ Also in chapter 5, Paul challenges the idea that the world’s “peace and security” are permanent. His language seems to allude to Roman claims to have established peace and security on earth that would continue indefinitely. But Paul warns that the current order will end. He even depicts the followers of Jesus as warriors preparing for battle. Yet the battle is not an armed revolt. Instead, Paul says that Jesus’s followers wear faith and love as their body armor. They have a helmet of hope. And they refuse to repay evil with evil but seek to do good to everyone. Paul’s Message and Other Religious Traditions ‹ In the last half of Acts 17, Paul is in Athens, which was a center of Greek culture and philosophy. Among the philosophers who taught there were Stoics and Epicureans. ● Stoic philosophers used the term god for the energy that, in their view, pervaded the universe. The Stoics also referred to this divine energy as logos. According to the Stoics, people would follow the divine will by using reason or logos (logic) in all situations. ● In contrast, the Epicureans argued that the gods lived in a blissful state, far removed from the world. The gods did not interfere with human life, and it was up to humanity, through philosophy, to achieve the goal of living well. ‹ Acts 17 depicts a scene in which the philosophers engage in debate with Paul, but bystanders are confused by Paul’s message. Thus, Paul makes a speech at a place called the Areopagus. ‹ The first step is to establish common ground with the listeners. Paul says that he can see that the people of Athens are very religious. Paul takes this impulse to worship as his point of departure, but he directs it toward the God that he understands to be true.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The voices of the prophets were also heard beyond the walls of the convent,—Joachim of Flore and Hildegard. Of an independent ecclesiastical movement they had no thought. But they cried out for clerical reform, and the people, after long waiting, seeing no signs of a reform, found hope of relief only in separatistic societies and groups of believers. The prophetess on the Rhine, having in mind the Cathari, called upon all kings and Christians to put down the Sadducees and heretics who indulged in lust, and, in the face of the early command to the race to go forth and multiply, rejected marriage. But to her credit, it is to be said, that at a time when heretics were being burnt at Bonn and Cologne, she remonstrated against the death penalty for the heretic on the ground that in spite of his heresy he bore the image of God.945 She would have limited the punishment to the sequestration of goods. It is also most probable that the elements of heresy were introduced into Central and Western Europe from the East. In the Byzantine empire the germs of early heresies continued to sprout, and from there they seem to have been carried to the West, where they were adopted by the Manichaean Cathari and Albigenses. Travelling merchants and mercenaries from Germany, Denmark, France, and Flanders, who had travelled in the East or served in the Byzantine armies, may have brought them with them on their return to their homes. The matters in which the heretical sects differed from the Catholic Church concerned doctrine, ritual, and the organization of the Church. Among the dogmas repudiated were transubstantiation and the sacerdotal theory of the priesthood. The validity of infant baptism was also quite widely denied, and the Cathari abandoned water baptism altogether. The worship of the cross and other images was regarded as idolatry. Oaths and even military service were renounced. Bernard Guy, inquisitor-general of Toulouse and our chief authority for the heretical beliefs current in Southern France in the fourteenth century, says946 that the doctrine of transubstantiation was denied on the ground that, if Christ’s body had been as large as the largest mountain, it would have been consumed long before that time. As for adoring the cross, thorns and spears might with equal propriety be worshipped, for Christ’s body was wounded by a crown of thorns and a lance. The depositions of the victims of the Inquisition are the simple statements of unlettered men. In the thousands of reports of judicial cases, which are preserved, charges of immoral conduct are rare.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  The point which the writer to the Hebrews wishes to make is that all three men died without having entered into the promise that God had made, the promise of the promised land and of greatness to the nation of Israel. Isaac was still a nomad, Jacob was an exile in Egypt, Joseph had attained to greatness but it was the greatness of a stranger in a strange land; and yet they never doubted that the promise would come true. They died not in despair but in hope. Their faith defeated death. There is something of permanent greatness here. The thought in the minds of all these men was the same: ‘God’s promise is true, for he never breaks a promise. I may not live to see it, death may come to me before that promise becomes a fact; but I am a link in its fulfilment. Whether or not that promise comes depends on me.’ Here is the great function of life. Our hopes may never become reality, but we must live in such a way that we shall hasten their coming. It may not be given to everyone to enter into the fullness of the promises of God, but it is given to every one of us to live with such faithfulness as to bring nearer the day when others will enter into it. To all of us is given the tremendous task of helping God make his promises come true. FAITH AND ITS SECRET Hebrews 11:23–9 It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was kept hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful – and they did not fear the edict of the king. It was by faith that Moses, when he grew to manhood, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose rather to suffer evil with the people of God than to enjoy the transient pleasures of sin, for he considered that a life of reproach for the sake of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes fixed upon his reward. It was by faith that he left Egypt, unmoved by the blazing anger of the king, for he could face all things as one who sees him who is invisible. It was by faith that he carried out the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroying angel might not touch the children of his people. It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea as if they were going through dry land and that the Egyptians, when they ventured to try to do so, were engulfed. TO the Jews, Moses was the supreme figure in their history. He was the leader who had rescued them from slavery and who had received the law of their lives from God. To the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, Moses was pre-eminently the man of faith.

• From An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (1995)

  After an inward snort about “normal comparison group,” I read on and found that, as usual in new fields of clinical medicine, there were far more questions than answers, and it was unclear what any of these findings really meant: they could be due to problems in measurement, they could be explained by dietary or treatment history, they could be due to something totally unrelated to manic-depressive illness; there could be any number of other explanations. The odds were very strong, however, that the UBOs meant something. In a strange way, though, after reading through a long series of studies, I ended up more reassured and less frightened. The very fact that the science was moving so quickly had a way of generating hope, and, if the changes in the brain structure did turn out to be meaningful, I was glad that first-class researchers were studying them. Without science, there would be no such hope. No hope at all. And, whatever else, it certainly gave new meaning to the concept of losing one’s mind. Clinical Privileges [image file=image_rsrcW1.jpg] There is no easy way to tell other people that you have manic-depressive illness; if there is, I haven’t found it. So despite the fact that most people that I have told have been very understanding—some remarkably so—I remain haunted by those occasions when the response was unkind, condescending, or lacking in even a semblance of empathy. The thought of discussing my illness in a more public forum has been, until quite recently, almost inconceivable. Much of this reluctance has been for professional reasons, but some has resulted from the cruelty, intentional or otherwise, that I have now and again experienced from colleagues or friends that I have chosen to confide in. It is what I have come to think of, not without bitterness, as the Mouseheart factor. Mouseheart, a former colleague of mine in Los Angeles, was also, I thought, a friend. A soft-spoken psychoanalyst, he was someone I was in the habit of getting together with for a morning coffee. Less frequently, but enjoyably, we would go out for a long lunch and talk about our work and our lives. After some time, I began to feel the usual discomfort I tend to experience whenever a certain level of friendship or intimacy has been reached in a relationship and I have not mentioned my illness. It is, after all, not just an illness, but something that affects every aspect of my life: my moods, my temperament, my work, and my reactions to almost everything that comes my way. Not talking about manic-depressive illness, if only to discuss it once, generally consigns a friendship to a certain inevitable level of superficiality. With an inward sigh, I decided to go ahead and tell him.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  If we follow the world’s standards, we may well have ease and comfort and prosperity; if we follow God’s standards, we may well have pain and loss and unpopularity. It is the Christian conviction that it is better to suffer with God than to prosper with the world. In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are confronted with the choice of obeying Nebuchadnezzar and worshipping the king’s image or obeying God and entering the fiery furnace. Without hesitation, they choose God (Daniel 3). When John Bunyan was to be put on trial, he said: ‘With God’s comfort in my poor soul, before I went down to the justices I begged of God that if I might do more good by being at liberty than in prison, then I might be set at liberty. But if not, his will be done.’ The Christian attitude is that, in terms of eternity, it is better to stake everything on God than to trust to the rewards of the world. (2) The Christian hope is belief in the spirit against the senses. The senses say to us: ‘Take what you can touch and taste and handle and enjoy.’ As the poet Robert Herrick wrote in ‘Hesperides’: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. The senses tell us to grasp the thing of the moment; the spirit tells us that there is something far beyond that. Christians believe in the spirit rather than the senses. (3) The Christian hope is belief in the future against the present. Long ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus said the chief purpose of life was pleasure. But he did not mean what so many people think he meant. He insisted that we must take the long view. The thing which is pleasant at the moment may sooner or later bring pain; the thing which at present hurts like fury may eventually bring joy. Christians are certain that in the long run no one can put aside the truth, for ‘great is truth, and in the end she will prevail’. It looked as if his judges had eliminated Socrates and as if Pilate had crushed Christ; but the verdict of the future reversed the verdict of the moment. The American Baptist preacher and author, Harry Emerson Fosdick, pointed out that Nero once condemned Paul, but the years have passed on and the time has come when people call their sons Paul and their dogs Nero.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  God still appeals to people not to harden their hearts but to enter into his rest. God’s ‘today’ still exists and the promise is still open; but ‘today’ does not last forever; life comes to an end; the promise can be missed; therefore, says the writer to the Hebrews, ‘Here and now through faith enter into the very rest of God.’ There is a very interesting question of meaning in verse 1. We have taken the translation: ‘Beware lest any of you be adjudged to have missed the rest of God.’ That is to say: ‘Beware that your disobedience and your lack of faith do not mean that you have shut yourselves out from the rest and the peace that God offers you.’ That may very well be the correct translation. But there is another and most interesting possibility. The phrase may mean: ‘Beware of thinking that you have arrived too late in history ever to enjoy the rest of God.’ In that second translation, there is a warning. It is very easy to think that the great days of religion are past. It is told that a child, on being told some of the great Old Testament stories, said wistfully: ‘God was much more exciting then.’ There is a continual tendency in the Church to look back, to believe that God’s power has grown less and that the golden days have passed. The writer to the Hebrews sounds a trumpet-call. ‘Never think’, he says, ‘that you have arrived too late in history; never think that the days of great promise and great achievement lie in the past. This is still God’s “today”. There is a blessedness for you as great as the blessedness of the saints; there is an adventure for you as great as the adventure of the martyrs. God is as great today as he ever was.’ There are two great permanent truths in this passage. (1) A word, however great, has no impact unless it becomes integrated into the person who hears it. There are many different kinds of hearing in this world. There is indifferent hearing, uninterested hearing, critical hearing, sceptical hearing, cynical hearing. The hearing that matters is the hearing that listens eagerly, believes and acts. The promises of God are not merely beautiful pieces of literature; they are promises on which we are meant to stake our lives and which should dominate our actions. (2) In the first verse, the writer to the Hebrews bids his people beware in case they miss the promise. The word we have translated as beware literally means to fear ( phobeisthai ).

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  (3) He stresses the final triumph of Jesus. He awaits the final overcoming of his enemies; in the end, there must come a universe in which he is supreme. How that will come is not ours to know; but it may be that this final overcoming will consist not in the extinction of his enemies but in their submission to his love. It is not so much the power but the love of God which must conquer in the end. Finally, as is his habit, the writer to the Hebrews clinches his argument with a quotation from Scripture. Jeremiah, speaking of the new covenant which will not be imposed from outside but which will be written on the heart, ends: ‘I will … remember their sin no more’ (Jeremiah 31:34). Because of Jesus, the barrier of sin is taken away forever. THE MEANING OF CHRIST FOR USHebrews 10:19–25 Since then, brothers, in virtue of what the blood of Jesus has done for us, we can confidently enter into the Holy Place by the new and living way which Jesus inaugurated for us through the veil – that is, through his flesh – and, since we have a great high priest who is over the house of God, let us approach the presence of God with a heart wherein the truth dwells and with the full conviction of faith, with our hearts so sprinkled that they are cleansed from all consciousness of evil and with our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the undeviating hope of our creed, for we can rely absolutely on him who made the promises; and let us put our minds to the task of spurring each other on in love and fine deeds. Let us not abandon our meeting together – as some habitually do – but let us encourage one another, and all the more so as we see the day approaching. THE writer to the Hebrews now comes to the practical implication of all that he has been saying. From theology, he turns to practical exhortation. He is one of the most profound theologians in the New Testament, but all his theology is governed by the pastoral instinct. He does not think merely for the thrill of intellectual satisfaction, but only that he may more forcibly appeal to men and women to enter into the presence of God. He begins by saying three things about Jesus.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  That was something quite new. In the ordinary life of the Jews, there was a complete division. On the one hand, there were the Pharisees and the orthodox who kept the law; on the other hand, there were what were contemptuously called the people of the land, the ordinary people who did not fully observe the details of the ceremonial law. They were completely despised. It was forbidden for anyone in the first group to have any fellowship with them; to marry one’s daughter to one of them was something not to be contemplated; it was forbidden to go on a journey with them; it was even forbidden, as far as it was possible, to have any trade or business dealings with them. To the rigid observers of the law, the ordinary people were beyond the pale. But, in the new covenant, these divisions would no longer exist. All men and women, wise and simple, great and small, would know the Lord. The doors which had been shut were thrown wide open. (5) There is one even more fundamental difference. The old covenant depended on obedience to an externally imposed law. The new covenant is to be written upon human hearts and minds . People would obey God not because of the terror of punishment, but because they loved him. They would obey him not because the law compelled them unwillingly to do so, but because the desire to obey him was written on their hearts. (6) It will be a covenant which will really bring about forgiveness . See how that forgiveness is to come. God said that he would be gracious to their iniquities and would forget their sins . Now it is all from God. The new relationship is based entirely on his love. Under the old covenant, people could keep this relationship to God only by obeying the law; that is, by their own efforts. Now everything is dependent not on human efforts but solely on the grace of God. The new covenant puts men and women into relationship with a God who is still a God of justice but whose justice has been swallowed up in his love. The most tremendous thing about the new covenant is that it makes our relationship to God no longer dependent on our obedience but entirely dependent on God’s love. There is one thing left to say.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  In Ecclesiasticus (29:22–8), there is a wistful passage: Better is the life of the poor under their own crude roof than sumptuous food in the house of others. Be content with little or much, and you will hear no reproach for being a guest. It is a miserable life to go from house to house; as a guest you should not open your mouth; you will play the host and provide drink without being thanked and besides this you will hear rude words like these: ‘Come here, stranger, prepare the table; let me eat what you have there.’ ‘Be off, stranger, for an honoured guest is here; my brother has come for a visit, and I need the guestroom. ’ It is hard for a sensible person to bear scolding about lodging and the insults of the moneylender. At any time, it is an unhappy thing to be a stranger in a foreign land; but, in the ancient world, to this natural unhappiness there was added the bitterness of humiliation. All their days, the patriarchs were strangers in a strange land. That image became a picture of the Christian life and is found in the works of the early Church fathers. Tertullian said of the Christian: ‘He knows that on earth he has a pilgrimage but that his dignity is in heaven.’ Clement of Alexandria said: ‘We have no fatherland on earth.’ Augustine said: ‘We are sojourners exiled from our fatherland.’ It was not that the Christians were foolishly other-worldly, detaching themselves from the life and work of this world; but they always remembered that they were people on the way. There is an unwritten saying of Jesus: ‘The world is a bridge. The wise will pass over it but will not build a house upon it.’ Christians regard themselves as the pilgrims of eternity. (2) In spite of everything, these men never lost their vision and their hope. However long that hope might be in coming true, its light always shone in their eyes. However long the way might be, they never stopped tramping along it. Robert Louis Stevenson said: ‘It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.’ They never wearily gave up the journey; they lived in hope and died in expectation. (3) In spite of everything, they never wanted to go back. Their descendants, when they were in the desert, often expressed a wish to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. But not the patriarchs. They had begun, and it never struck them to turn back. In flying, there is what is called the point of no return . When the aircraft has reached that point, it cannot go back .

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  So, then, lift up the slack hands. Strengthen the weak knees. And make straight the paths of your feet so that the bones of the lame may not be completely dislocated but rather may be cured. Make peace your aim – and do it all together – and aim at that holiness without which no one can see the Lord. Watch that no one misses the grace of God. Watch that no pernicious influence grows up to involve you in troubles. And watch that the main body of your people are not soiled by any such thing. Watch that no one falls into sexual impurity or turns to an unhallowed life, as Esau did, Esau who, for a single meal, gave away his birthright. For you are well aware of how when he afterwards wanted to claim the blessing he ought to have inherited, he was rejected – for he had no opportunity to change his mind – although he sought that blessing with tears. WITH this passage, the writer to the Hebrews comes to the problems of everyday Christian life and living. He knew that sometimes it is given to us to rise up with inspiration as if we had the wings of eagles; he knew that sometimes we are able to run and not grow weary in the pursuit of some great moment of endeavour; but he also knew that, of all things, it is hardest to continue to walk day after day and not to faint. Here, he is thinking of the daily struggle of the Christian way. (1) He begins by reminding them of their duties. In every congregation and in every Christian society, there are those who are weaker and more likely to go astray and to abandon the struggle. It is the duty of those who are stronger to put fresh vigour into listless hands and fresh strength into failing feet. The phrase used for slack hands is the same as is used to describe the children of Israel in the days when they wanted to abandon the harsh demands of the journey across the wilderness and to return to the ease and the fleshpots of Egypt. The Odes of Solomon (6:14ff.) have a description of the work of those who are true servants and ministers: They have refreshed the dry lips, And have raised up the will that was paralysed … And limbs that were fallen They have straightened and raised up.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  There is a great practical truth here. Sometimes, in the Christian life, we come to times which are arid; the church services have nothing to say to us, the teaching that we do in Sunday School or the singing that we do in the choir or the service we give on a committee becomes a labour without joy. At such a time, there are two alternatives. We can give up our worship and our service; but, if we do, we are lost. Or we can go determinedly on with them, and the strange thing is that the light and the attractiveness and the joy will in time come back again. In the arid times, the best thing to do is to go on with the habits of the Christian life and of the Church. If we do, we can be sure that the sun will shine again. (2) He tells his people to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promise. What he is saying to them is: ‘You are not the first to launch out on the glories and the perils of the Christian faith. Others braved the dangers and endured the tribulations before you and won through.’ He is telling them to go on in the realization that others have gone through their struggle and won the victory. Christians are not treading an untrodden pathway; they are treading where the saints have trod. THE SURE HOPE Hebrews 6:13–20 When God made his promise to Abraham, since he was not able to swear by anyone greater, he swore by himself. ‘Certainly,’ he said, ‘I will bless you and I will multiply you.’ When Abraham had thus exercised patience, he received the promise. Men swear by someone who is greater than themselves; and an oath serves for a guarantee beyond all possibility of contradiction. But on this occasion God, in his quite exceptional desire to make clear to the heirs of the promise the unalterable character of his intention, interposed with an oath, so that by two unalterable things, in which it is impossible that God should lie, we, who have fled to him for refuge, might be strongly encouraged to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. This hope is to us like an anchor, safe and sure, and it enters with us into the inner court beyond the veil, where Jesus has already entered as a forerunner for us, when he became a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. G OD made more than one promise to Abraham. Genesis 12:7 tells us of the one made when he called him out of Ur and sent him into the unknown and to the promised land. Genesis 17:5–6 is the promise of many descendants who would be blessed in him.

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  And such people frequented Valérie Seymour’s, men and women who must carry God’s mark on their foreheads. For Valérie, placid and self-assured, created an atmosphere of courage; every one felt very normal and brave when they gathered together at Valérie Seymour’s. There she was, this charming and cultured woman, a kind of lighthouse in a storm-swept ocean. The waves had lashed round her feet in vain; winds had howled; clouds had spued forth their hail and their lightning; torrents had deluged but had not destroyed her. The storms, gathering force, broke and drifted away, leaving behind them the shipwrecked, the drowning. But when they looked up, the poor spluttering victims, why what should they see but Valérie Seymour! Then a few would strike boldly out for the shore, at the sight of this indestructible creature. She did nothing, and at all times said very little, feeling no urge towards philanthropy. But this much she gave to her brethren, the freedom of her salon, the protection of her friendship; if it eased them to come to her monthly gatherings they were always welcome provided they were sober. Drink and drugs she abhorred because they were ugly—one drank tea, iced coffee, sirops and orangeade in that celebrated flat on the Quai Voltaire. Oh, yes, a very strange company indeed if one analysed it for this or that stigma. Why, the grades were so numerous and so fine that they often defied the most careful observation. The timbre of a voice, the build of an ankle, the texture of a hand, a movement, a gesture—since few were as pronounced as Stephen Gordon, unless it were Wanda, the Polish painter. She, poor soul, never knew how to dress for the best. If she dressed like a woman she looked like a man, if she dressed like a man she looked like a woman! 2And their love affairs, how strange, how bewildering—how difficult to classify degrees of attraction. For not always would they attract their own kind, very often they attracted quite ordinary people. Thus Pat’s Arabella had suddenly married, having wearied of Grigg as of her predecessor. Rumour had it that she was now blatantly happy at the prospect of shortly becoming a mother. And then there was Jamie’s friend Barbara, a wisp of a girl very faithful and loving, but all woman as far as one could detect, with a woman’s clinging dependence on Jamie.

• From The Letter to the Hebrews (The New Daily Study Bible) (2002)

  We see Moses taking the book of the law and reading it to the people; and we see the people responding with the words: ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient’ (Exodus 24:7). The old agreement was based on obedience to the law; and the agreement could be kept open only while the priests continued to make sacrifice every time the law was broken. Jesus is the surety of a new and a better covenant, a new kind of relationship between men and women and God. The difference is this: the old covenant was based on law and justice and obedience; the new covenant is based on love and on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The old covenant was based on human achievement; the new covenant is based on God’s love. What does the writer to the Hebrews mean by saying that Jesus is the surety ( egguos ) of this new covenant? An egguos is one who gives security. It is used, for instance, of a person who guarantees someone else’s overdraft at a bank; that person is surety that the money will be paid. It is used for someone who puts up bail for someone charged with an offence; that person guarantees that the one accused will appear at the trial. The egguos is one who guarantees that some undertaking will be honoured. So, what the writer to the Hebrews means is this. Someone might say: ‘How do you know that the old covenant is no longer operative? How do you know that access to God now depends not on our achievement of obedience but simply on the welcoming love of God?’ The answer is: ‘Jesus Christ guarantees that it is so. He is the surety who promises that God’s love will be forthcoming, if only we take him at his word.’ To put it in the simplest possible way, we must believe that, when we look at Jesus in all his love, we are seeing what God is like. The writer to the Hebrews introduces a second proof of the superiority of the priesthood of Jesus. There was no permanency about the old priesthood. Those who were priests died and had to be replaced; but the priesthood of Jesus is forever. What really matters in this passage are the overtones and implications of the almost untranslatable words the writer uses. He says that the priesthood of Jesus is one that will never pass away ( aparabatos ). Aparabatos is a legal word. It means inviolable . A judge lays down that his decision must remain aparabatos , unalterable .