In Hebrews 12:12 Paul quotes from Isaiah 35:3 where it says: “Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” But, what is Paul’s point here? Is it to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps? I don’t think so. Isaiah 35 is a prophecy about vindication, about the Lord coming to save his people. The prophet begins by saying the wilderness and the desert places shall spring up with new life, blossoming like a rose (Isaiah 35:1-2). In other words, Paul is speaking about resurrection, which has already begun in the lives of his readers (cp. Ephesians 2:1-6). Therefore, don’t be afraid; strengthen yourselves or take heart (verse-3), because the Lord your God will come with vengeance to vindicate and save you out of your trouble (Isaiah 35:4).
Then the blind will see, and the deaf will hear; the lame will walk and the dumb will sing, because water will spring forth from the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 35:5-7). There will also be a highway there called: The Way of Holiness, and nothing unclean shall walk thereon, nor ravenous beast, and no one who walks thereon will err. Therefore, it is the way upon which the redeemed walk (Isaiah 35:8-9). It will be the time when the ransomed of the Lord will return to Zion, and they shall return with everlasting joy and gladness, and their sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isaiah 35:10)!
So, Paul is reminding his readers about what’s just ahead of them, pointing to the joy that will be theirs, when the Lord returns to vindicate and save them. However, Paul implies that the new creation had already begun in them. Already, they have been given eyes that see and ears that hear. Already, they have been healed of their palsy (lameness – see Luke 5:18, 24), although Paul does point to their ‘feeble knees’ (Hebrews 12:12). He calls upon them to “make the paths straight for your feet, lest that which is lame is turned out of the way” (Hebrews 12:13). In other words, let yourselves be healed by the Lord, so that you would be enabled to walk on The Way of Holiness (Isaiah 35:8), which is Christ (cp. John 14:6).
Most translations have Paul encouraging his readers to follow after “peace with all men” in Hebrews 12:14. The word men isn’t in the Greek and is supplied by the translator. I wonder, however, if this was Paul’s intent, because it doesn’t seem to fit the context. I believe Paul is referring back to what he said about discipline in Hebrews 12:11, saying that discipline or suffering “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby.” It is the fruit of the Lord’s discipline that I believe Paul wants his readers to pursue in Hebrews 12:4, together with the holiness (the separation from the world), without which no one is able to see God. So, Paul’s encouragement for his Jewish brethren is that they accept their discipline from the Lord (their persecution by their brethren), maintaining their separation (calling) to the Lord, looking to him for their preservation (Hebrews 12:2, 15).
Otherwise, if they fix their eyes upon their perilous state, they open themselves up to the fruit of bitterness (Hebrews 12:15) instead of the fruit of peace (Hebrews 12:11, 14). Instead of growing up into the image of Christ (Hebrews 12:9-10; cp. Leviticus 19:2; 1Peter 1:15-16; Ephesians 5:1; cp. Genesis 1:27; 2Corinthians 3:18), they will find they have grown up into the image of Esau (Hebrews 12:16), and once that decision is made, it cannot be undone. If one rejects Christ, and allows that root to grow within his heart, he cannot escape the harvest (Hebrews 12:17).
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