John Chrysostom

"For," he says, "in that He hath suffered Himself being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." This is altogether low and mean, and unworthy of God. "For in that He hath suffered Himself," he says. It is of Him who was made flesh that he here speaks, and it was said for the full assurance of the hearers, and on account of their weakness. That is (he would say) He went through the very experience of the things which we have suffered; now He is not ignorant of our sufferings; not only does He know them as God, but as man also He has known them, by the trial wherewith He was tried; He suffered much, He knows how to sympathize. And yet God is incapable of suffering: but he describes here what belongs to the Incarnation, as if he had said, Even the very flesh of Christ suffered many terrible things. He knows what tribulation is; He knows what temptation is, not less than we who have suffered, for He Himself also has suffered.

What then is this, "He is able to succor them that are tempted"? It is as if one should say, He will stretch forth His hand with great eagerness, He will be sympathizing.

But when Paul has once taken in hand the flesh, he proceeds to utter all the lowly things, without any fear: for see what he says next:

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house."

Being about to place Him before Moses in comparison, he led his discourse to the law of the high-priesthood; for they all had a high esteem for Moses: moreover, he is already beforehand casting down the seeds of the superiority. Therefore he begins from the flesh, and goes up to the Godhead, where there was no longer any comparison. He began from the flesh, from His Human nature, by assuming for a time the equality, and says, "as also Moses in all His house": nor does he at first show His superiority lest the hearer should start away, and straightway stop his ears. For although they were believers, yet nevertheless they still had strong feeling of conscience as to Moses. "Who was faithful," he says, "to Him that made Him" - made Him what? "Apostle and High Priest." He is not speaking at all in this place of His Essence, nor of His Godhead; but so far concerning human dignities.

"As also Moses in all His house," that is, either among the people, or in the temple. But here he uses the expression "in His house," just as one might say, concerning those in the household; even as some guardian and steward of a household, so was Moses to the people. For that by "house" he means the people, he added, "whose house we are"; that is, we are in His creation.

But it is necessary also to unfold the history, to make the argument more clear. For when they had come forth out of Egypt, and had accomplished a long journey, and had received innumerable proofs of the power of God, both in Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, they determined to send spies to search out the nature of the land; and these went and returned, admiring indeed the country, and saying that it abounded in noble fruits, nevertheless it was a country of strong and invincible men: and the ungrateful and senseless Jews, when they ought to have called to mind the former blessings of God, and how when they were hemmed in the midst of the armies of so many Egyptians, He rescued them from their perils, and made them masters of their enemies' spoils; and again, in the wilderness He clave the rock, and bestowed on them abundance of waters, and gave them the manna, and the other wonderful things which He wrought; when they ought, I say, to have remembered this, and to have trusted in God, they considered none of these things, but being struck with terror, just as if nothing had been done, they said, we wish to go back again into Egypt, "for God hath brought us out thither" to "slay us, with our children and wives." God therefore being angry that they had so quickly cast off the memory of what had been done, sware that generation, which had said these things, should not enter into the Rest; and they all perished in the wilderness. When David then, he says, speaking at a later period, and after these events, after that generation of men, said, "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts," that ye may not suffer the same things which your forefathers did, and be deprived of the Rest; he evidently said this as of some future rest. For if they had received their Rest (he says) why does He again say to them, "To-day if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts," as your fathers did? What other rest then is there, except the kingdom of Heaven, of which the Sabbath was an image and type?

Paul, having treated of hope, and having said that "We are His house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end"; next shows that we ought to look forward with firmness, and he proves this from the Scriptures.

His discourse was concerning Hope, and that it behooves us to hope for the things to come, and that for those who have toiled here there will assuredly be some reward and fruit and refreshment. This then he shows from the prophet.

He says that there are "three" rests: one, that of the Sabbath, in which God rested from His works; the second, that of Palestine, into which when the Jews had entered they would be at rest from their hardships and labors; the third, that which is Rest indeed, the kingdom of Heaven; which those who obtain, do indeed rest from their labors and troubles. Of these three then he makes mention here.

And why did he mention the three, when he is treating of the one only? That he might show that the prophet is speaking concerning this one. For he did not speak (he says) concerning the first. For how could he, when that had taken place long before? Nor yet again concerning the second, that in Palestine. For how could he? For he says, "They shall not enter into My rest." It remains therefore that it is this third.