Surrounded by witnesses

Hebrews 12:1-2 — Some thoughts and questions:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  [Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV]

I keep going back to these two verses, no matter what other scripture verses or books I’ve been trying to read the last couple of days. Here are some of my thoughts and questions:

1. “We also.”  Who else is surrounded by those witnesses? I went back and read Chapters 11 and 10, but witnesses is not mentioned. I then reconsidered; perhaps it means that in addition to something else we are surrounded by, we are ALSO surrounded by witnesses. So, what else might WE be surrounded by? Hmmm. I kept reading.
2. “Surrounded.”  They are all around us, not just in front or in back, or occasionally watching. We are, present tense, surrounded by people and/or angels and/or Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don’t see them, but apparently they are there, nevertheless.
3. “So great a cloud (i.e. large crowd.)”  Not just a dozen or so, how ever many it would take to surround a person. A great crowd, not a mediocre group, but lots, and lots.
4. “Witnesses.”  These are people who actually saw something. They could legally testify to it in court, they didn’t just happen to see it in the corner of their eye in passing. They witnessed, observed, truly saw it. But saw what? A crowd has gathered to watch something take place. A football game or a Nascar race draws a crowd. Is this more than just watching and seeing? Witnessing indicates a more serious behavior than that. And why were they there? Were they invited? Or commanded to be there, like a jury or witnesses in a court case? (Further on we are told, it’s a race!) These witnesses are those described in the previous chapter, those who have already run their race and successfully completed it. They are the crowd who is cheering us on!
5. “Let us lay aside every weight.”  Well, if we are in a race, we wear appropriate clothes. Wear no heavy jackets or coats, wear running shoes, not heavy boots (or sandals or flip-flops). Carry no briefcases or handbags, books to read or files to work on, no laptops, no cell phones, nothing that could distract or hinder movement.
6. “Sin which so easily ensnares us.”  I looked up the word ensnares in the Greek. It refers to something “standing all around on every side,” something like tall weeds you could trip over, briars that could entangle in your clothes, even overgrown or weedy shrubs you might have to slog to get through. Easily! Oh, so so true. Opportunities are indeed standing all around us, on every side. We have to deal with it, lay it aside, get rid of it. We have to do this — not the next runner, or the coach, or one of the witnesses. We ourselves.
7. “Let us run.”  Let us — us plural, not just one person, but all of us, the believers, the body of Christ. We are in this race together! It’s not just for one individual, no matter how many times you feel like you’re alone or deserted. And, run, not walk or saunter, not skip or meander. Run. Take no detours, no pausing to look at someone else, or at the sky, grass, trees, or animals. No turning the head to see what’s going on in the crowd up in the stands, not glancing backward or up ahead. Don’t take a break for a nap or a meal. Don’t mark your place, leave the track and come back later to take up where you left off. Running takes focus. It also takes training and practice.
8. “With endurance.”  If you don’t have practice and/or training, you won’t develop endurance. Endurance indicates this isn’t a sprint. It’s not just a fast, short dash to the finish line. Not just circling around, and around, and around on a track, either. This is like a cross country event, where you might encounter weeds, briars and shrubs. Long distance.
9. “The race that is set before us.”  A race. A race set before us. Set. Planned and conducted at a specific place and time. Set races have rules and officials. This one is set before us, not some other person or group.
10. “Looking unto Jesus.”  Observing, focusing on him, not on someone else, while running. Ignoring the distractions, deliberately looking at Jesus. To do this, we must be close to him. Nothing and nobody can be in the way, between us and him. He has run this race before, he is doing it now with us. Beside us, ahead of us, behind us, and inside of us.
11. “The author and finisher of our faith.”  Jesus authored faith and gave it to us in the first place, making his faith also our faith, complete, mature and perfect from inside us. The life we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the son of God. It’s not a natural, human belief that may come with education and experience, it is completely supernatural and comes to us from the one who created the universe. Receiving it is voluntary on our part. (Gal. 2:20)
12. “Who for the joy that was set before Him.”  It wasn’t some gigantic pile of riches or power like superman, although Jesus had access to any and every thing that ever existed. He created it all in the first place. No, it was joy, fullness of joy in pleasing the Father, having successfully finished this assignment regardless of all the many obstacles along the way.
13. “Endured the cross.”  His greatest obstacle was knowing that he could have avoided the cross, it was his own choice. Temptation to avoid the pain and the agonizing separation from the Father, facing and overcoming that temptation took an endurance we will never face!
14. “Despising the shame.”  It wasn’t just the pain and the separation from the Father, it was so horribly shameful to be put to death as a criminal, by the very people he had come to rescue. The Jews and the Gentiles conspired to kill him — and he had to actually help them accomplish it. If it had only been the Jews, the Gentiles would not have been included in that spiritual rescue from the power of the enemy and sin. But although he hated the crushing disappointment and shame it caused in those closest to him, his family, the apostles and other disciples, he did it. He finished it. He knew that cross wasn’t the end.
15. “And has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  That race had a glorious ending, a victor’s ending! A seat on the throne with Father God. So will ours.

By the way, notice something missing in that passage? There is no mention of the resurrection. I am curious about that omission here, but other scripture passages certainly cover it.

These have been fascinating verses, read and meditated on with the author’s own comments, the voice of the Holy Spirit in my spirit. I will read them again and again, I expect.

Patience, perseverance and endurance

The following notes are excerpted from “How to Pray Less, Succeed More: Praying the Word of God,” a unit of Principles of Intercessory Prayer taught at Trinity EPC, 2016-18.

Do trials and temptations affect prayer? Short answer – Yes.

What is the purpose of temptations / trials? Think of it like strength training. Spiritual resistance training. Exercising our faith muscles, our trust muscles. Our prayer muscles.

The enemy uses trials and temptations to prevent us from living by faith, or from praying in faith. But God can and does use them to make us stronger, more effective.

Three particular areas of temptation can and do hinder a believer’s effectiveness to pray in faith: Patience, Perseverance, and Endurance.

Although the original Greek words have different meanings, they are sometimes used interchangeably in various translations. Lack or failure of patience, perseverance, and/or endurance can and do hinder effectiveness to pray in faith.

PATIENCE means remaining the same (keeping the same attitude), no matter what. Two main Greek words are translated patience: one means patience with people, the other means patience with circumstances.

• Patience with people: G3114 makrothyméō, to be long-spirited, meaning to keep your temper; be longsuffering, have long patience, patiently endure mistreatment by other people (without losing your temper or striking back). There’s an interesting origin of this word — it literally means to have “long feathers” like eagles and other birds that fly or soar long distances. It is translated longsuffering in some verses, patient in others.

I Corinthians 13:4, “Charity suffereth long (has patience), and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” (KJV)

I Thessalonians 5:14, “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

• Patience with circumstances: G5281 hypomonḗ, cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: patient continuance during unpleasant circumstances (an attribute of God himself, available to us from the indwelling Holy Spirit):

Luke 21:19, Jesus told the disciples, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (KJV) He was referring to persecutions they would face.

Romans 15:5, Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

James 1:4, “But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Perfect here means mature, completed, finished, nothing left undone or lacking.

Hebrews 10:36, “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

Side notes…

What will of God is he talking about? Whatever God has given YOU to do, which includes his written word and his personal assignment for you. Not everyone is called to be a pastor, or a missionary, or a school teacher, or an electrician, or a computer technician – each believer has his own assignment, God’s will for you.

What is the promise referred to, in this verse? (10:23 and 35 also refer to a promise, as do other verses in Hebrews and other NT books.) Our eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9:15, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (NIV)

In Hebrews, this promised eternal inheritance is referred to in several previous verses. The kingdom of heaven / God and all that entails. Eternity. Eternal life. Ruling and reigning with Jesus.

Hebrews 10:16-17 gives us the bedrock answer to this question: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

There are necessary steps to actually receiving the new covenant, our eternal inheritance, the promise: receiving Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit, thus being inhabited by God’s spirit. The “promise of the father” that Jesus spoke of in Luke and Acts refers to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Several other scriptures to meditate on: 2 Cor. 1:20 and 7:1 (promises, plural); Hebrews 8:6 (better promises); and Hebrews 12:28 (we are receiving the kingdom, present tense.)

PERSEVERANCE means continuing an action, no matter what: G4342, proskartérēsis, persistency:—perseverance. From verb proskartereō, meaning to continue steadfastly. In the New Testament, it always refers to prayer:

Romans 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant (persevering) in prayer;”

 Colossians 4:2, “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”

Ephesians 6:18, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

ENDURANCE means remaining in place, no matter what: G5278 hypoménō, remain, undergo, have fortitude, not recede or flee; absolutely and emphatically, under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ. This word is sometimes translated longsuffering or patient.

1 Corinthians 13:7, (Love) “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

James 1:12, “Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

Note: 2 Timothy 2:3, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”  In this verse, “endure hardship” is one Greek word, G2553 kakopathéō, to undergo hardship, endure afflictions, suffer trouble. It is a combination of two words, kakos meaning evil, and patheo, meaning passions.

REMINDER:  “But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:4)

Perfect — mature, completed, finished, nothing left undone or lacking, necessary to Praying Less, Succeeding More.