Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
A people being maneuvered by fear into bondage. And particularly, even ultimately as all root of fear, that being “of death”, is the fear that maneuvers.
There is a hand in glove relationship here, between this by the writer of Hebrews and what Paul has said in 1 Corinthians:
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
“But wait!” An astute reader might think having apprehended that it is by sin that death made entrance. “Shouldn’t it be obverse? …’the sting of sin is death’…therefore?” For was it not sin that brought death to be visited upon Adam’s race? Isn’t death the consequence of sin and not at all the other way ’round?
We are even familiar that the wages of sin is death…and so sin is always that primary with death always and only being in consequence. Sin “brings” death, yet Paul is saying the sting is not death…but sin.
Is something amiss here? It surely could appear, or seem so, but do we have any question of Paul’s wisdom received…or the spirit’s precision/accuracy?
Some (perhaps much) has been written elsewhere by necessity, that what we call matters of consequence and consequences must be set in order of our thinking.
Naturally we tend to think of consequences as things following…things coming after or later, not apprehending that all consequence is already very present to any matter. In truth so present to all matters that there is no separation, only our once misguided experience of them (abetted by our confidence in time) that has led to all misinterpretation of mind to consider them in some ways separate.
And since such writer in that “elsewhere” knows well he has not exceeded Paul in either experience nor revelation, he can only conclude he is but barely coming to what Paul already well understood, and makes no “mistake” about.
In truth, such “coming to” only helps with such clarity in regards to some of the other and many things said by Paul. How he could and would write and see things a certain way that on their face either appear to some question, or (God forbid!) even contradiction.
And, in this regard, I will leave off by saying to those who may casually say in this matter that all Paul has written is easy as pie to them, quickly understood (by them), and too plain to justify anything said above. I will leave them with the testimony of another apostle of same calling and of stature.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (Peter’s referencing of Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3)
Believing Paul and seeking to understand what he writes, even how he sees to such, is (though I am sure some would consider it so) not wrestling against him or his writings. For one either believes him a faithful herald or does not. And upon that basis alone…seeks to understand. But now I flirt with defending what calls for no defense “with all you get, get understanding”.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
And Peter testifies of a wisdom:
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;…(as also in all his epistles)…
Perhaps first we must apprehend this very thing before going too much farther, that is, to account the patience/longsuffering of our Lord is salvation… not “like it”, not sometime necessary to us, not a thing apart from salvation itself…but of its very nature to us.
Yes, perhaps starting there is best.
“What does your patience look like, Lord?”
“When did it start(?) if it has been “long” as in your suffering, was it at Golgotha and matters surrounding?” Gethsemane? When did you begin in patience “for” a something…we call salvation? Is patience “for” a thing? Like you do something and then wait for the consequence(s) of it…as we do?
Or is it something else? That you are the very all of what patience is…and it is not a thing only in exercise “until”?
Yes, these questions might well be better asked before proceeding.
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