HEBREWS CHAPTER 7 - 13

HEBREWS 7

1 For this Melchisedec, the king
Of Salem, priest of most high wing
Of God, who met Abraham when
He came back from slaughter of men
And kings, he blessed him there again;
2 To whom also Abraham gave
A tithe of all, the first name brave
Interpreted is righteous king,
And after that the name to ring
Is king of Salem, king of peace;
3 Without a father to increase,
Without a mother, no descent,
Having neither days to prevent
Nor end of life, but he is made
Like son of God, who always stayed
A priest. 4 Now think how great he was,
To whom even patriarch's claws
Of Abraham gave tithe of spoils.
5 And truly Levi's sons in toils,
Who have the office of the priest,
Have a commandment unreleased
To take the tithes from folk by law,
That is, from their brothers to draw,
Though they come from Abraham's loins:
6 But he whose descent, having coins,
Is not counted from them, received
Tithes from Abraham who believed,
And blessed him with promises cleaved.
7 There's no contradiction when one
Who's lesser is blessed when he's done
By the greater. 8 And mortal men
Receive the tithes, but there again
He did, of whom witness is brought
That he's alive, so we've been taught.

The king of peace or Islam rose to take
The tithes of Abraham after the wake
Of war. In fact a fifth of booty should
Be given to the prophet and not hood.
But Abraham let others take his share.
After the centuries let men beware
Decisions made upon the text that went
Abroad from Sodom's defeat to prevent
The profligate in ancient times and sweet.
Beloved, I hold the tithe, the fifth, and all
The offerings set by alms upon the wall.
The rates and taxes are a needed way
Supporting priests and kings going astray,
But I remain in destitution's treat.

9 And as I may so say, Levi
Too who receives the tithes thereby,
Paid tithes in what Abraham wrought.
10 For he was still in his dad's loins,
When Melchisedec took his coins.
11 So if perfection could come by
Levitical priesthood on sly,
For under it the people got
The law, what further need when sought
Was there for still another priest
Should rise after order increased
Of Melchisedec, and not be
Called after Aaron in degree?
12 For the priesthood when it was changed,
There must also in the law ranged
Come change. 13 For he of whom these things
Are spoken came from other rings
And from another tribe that sings,
From which no man came out to serve
Before the altar and with verve.

The argument that priesthood was applied
With a new law in Aaron's time and side
And so was temporary gift and weight
Is something I might more simply restate.
Original's not great Melchisedec,
But the first-born from every woman's beck,
With love and loyalty upon the neck.
The Levite must redeem the firstborn child,
And so the law goes on to this day wild.
If I must be adroitly reconciled,
Let it be on the natural implement,
Let it be on the basis of first-sent.
But if the first-born of both man and God
Suffice, then I shall submit to Your rod.

14 For it is evident our Lord
Sprang out of Judah (though adored),
Of which tribe Moses spoke no word
Concerning of the priesthood stirred.
15 And yet it's far more evident,
For the way that the likeness went
Of Melchisedec, there should rise
Another priest under the skies,
16 Who's made, not after the law come
Of a carnal commandment's sum,
But after power of endless life.
17 For He bears witness over strife,
“You are a priest forever by
The order of Melchisedec.”
18 For there is truly setting by
Of the command that came to trek
Before for its weakness on deck.

The word for carnal here should be described
For meaning and for worth among the bribed.
Contrasted with eternal, it must mean
The temporary sort of place and scene.
Commandment of the Levite law was made
To stay a time, but the real owners paid
To be let off their duties when waylaid,
And the firstborn were given freedom from
The priestly duty of family in sum.
Beloved, today the tribe and church turn back,
Are lost in war and prosperity's slack.
And so the firstborn must return to take
Responsibility before the rake.
Original returns, carnal must hum.

19 For the law made nothing perfect,
But bringing in a hope select,
By which we come near unto God;
20 And not without an oath in prod.
21 For those priests were made without oath,
But this one with an oath He quoth
To him, ”The Lord swore not to back
Down, that you are a priest in track
Forever in the order's beck
Named and called by Melchisedec.

The law makes nothing perfect. So I guess.
But was perfection of myself in dress
The goal? It seems perfection in the mind
Of men is expectation of a kind
For others rather than the self as blind.
I seek no frail perfection here, instead
I seek to know my own Beloved, be fed
At fountains of Your love, and for that law
Is lovelier than any form of awe.
I find the honeyed words of Your commands
Better than legislations of all lands,
And touch the goal without perfection's rate
To find eternities not over-rate.
I'm clay soft and imperfect in Your hands.

22 By so much Jesus guaranteed
A better testament decreed.
23 And truly they were many priests,
Because they were not given feasts
To live, but had to die and plead.
24 But this one, since he always stays,
Has unchanged priesthood in his ways.
25 That's why he can save them too to
The uttermost who come in crew
To God by him, because he stands
Alive forever to lift hands
Of intercession for their bands.
26 For such a high priest fits us well,
Who's holy, harmless, and to tell
One undefiled, and set apart
From sinners, and made from the start
Higher than the heavens to dwell,
27 Who does not need each day to make
As those high priests, offerings at stake,
First for his own sins, then the sake
Of the folk too: because he did
This once when he gave his own bid.
28 For the law makes men high priests who
Have weakness, but the word that's true
Oath, which was since the law began,
Makes the son ever set in scan.

The argument that Jesus is a better
Priest because he rose from the grave no debtor
To death again, but always living now
Is not a bad one to sit on my brow.
I'd rather have a live priest than a dead one,
And that's a fact I still refuse to tread on.
If any find Melchisedec alive,
I think I might find in heart to contrive
A welcome to him also. Still the doubt
Remains whether Christ did without a shout
Rise from the dead. The soldiers' witness must
Be taken to account, though one of dust.
The end of all is that a man must trust,
And even then the years may turn to rust.

HEBREWS 8

1 Now of the things we've spoken, this
Is the sum: we have not to miss
Such an high priest, who's set beside
The right hand of the throne to ride
The majesty of heaven's tide:
2 A servant in the sanctuary,
And in the true tent of the merry,
Which the Lord pitched instead of man.
3 For every high priest in the plan
Must offer gifts and sacrifice.
That's why this man must have a slice
To offer also in a trice.
4 For if he were on earth, he would
Not be a priest, since there are good
Priests that offer gifts by the law:
5 Who serve as example to draw
The shadow of celestial things,
As Moses was warned of the stings
By God when he started to make
The tabernacle, no mistake,
He said, but be sure that you make
All things according to the plan
Showed to you in the mountain's span.
6 But now he has obtained a more
Excellent service than before,
By how much too he's mediator
Of a better treaty in store,
Set on better promises' floor.
7 For if that first one had been good,
And without flaw, then no place should
Have been sought for a second door.

The true priest is not one upon the earth
To drown the soil with goats' blood without dearth,
But one that's spoken of beyond the skies,
The arbiter of the good and the wise.
Atonement’s not made with the blood of lamb
Or even with the blood of human slam,
But by the intercession bold and true
Before the throne set beyond starry view.
Beloved, save me from every pagan thought
That hopes to gain the world through nature wrought,
The serving of the moon, the sun, and stars,
The welcoming of earthly bands and bars,
And I shall enter inner chamber's way
And find there harbinger of heavenly day.

8 For finding fault with them, he said,
See the days come, says YHWH, and spread,
When I will make new covenant
With the house of Israel extant,
And with the house of Judah led:
9 Not by the covenant I made
With their dads in the day I stayed
To take them by the hand and lead
Them out of Egypt's land with speed,
Because they did not keep My pact,
I showed them no regard to act,
Says the Lord in things He decreed.
10 For this is the pact I will make
With Israel's house in those days' wake,
Says the Lord, I will put My laws
Into their mind, and write with paws
In their heart, and I'll be to them
A God, and they'll turn to My hem
To be My people and My gem.
11 And they shall not teach every man
His neighbour, as each brother can,
Saying, “Know the Lord.” For each one
Shall know Me, from the least when done
To the greatest of all that's won.
12 For I'll be merciful to their
Unrighteousness, and their sins' share
And their iniquities I'll not
Remember more upon their plot.
13 By saying a new covenant
He makes the first one old and scant.
Now what rots and gets old is just
Ready to vanish into dust.

The covenant that's new is that one met
In Jeremiah's words quoted and set
To harmonies divine, Beloved, and true.
I love that covenant written by You
Upon the human heart and not on stone,
The fleshly tables where Your word alone
Is hallowed in the actions of elect.
I turn from fair cathedrals to inspect
The writing on the wall, the blazing sweet,
And find there victory none can defeat.
Beloved, I see the clouds of grief appear
And dissipate before arising fear,
I see the morning camp upon the field,
And know to Your will all things here must yield.

HEBREWS 9

1 Then truly the first covenant
Had also ordinances' rant
Of divine service, and a tent
Of worldly stature without rent.
2 For there a tabernacle's made;
The first, wherein candlestick stayed,
And table and show bread waylaid,
Called sanctuary on parade.
3 After the second veil the place
Called Holiest of all to trace;
4 Which had the golden censer there,
And ark of covenant not bare,
But overlaid around about
With gold, in which stood up the stout
Gold pot of manna, and the rod
Of Aaron that budded for prod,
And the tables of covenant.
5 And over it the cherubim
Of glory kept mercy seat trim;
Of which we cannot now speak dim.
6 Now when these things were so ordained,
The priests went always and arraigned
Into the first tent, there to make
The service of the people's sake.
7 But into the second the high
Priest only once a year came by,
Not without blood, when he offered
For himself and the people stirred.
8 The Holy Spirit by this meant
That the way to Most Holy went
Of all not yet manifest bent,
As long as the first tent was lent,
9 Which was a figure for the time
That then was, in which in their prime
Were offered gifts and sacrifice,
That could not make him, nor suffice,
That did the service perfect in
His conscience and be without sin;
10 Which stood only in meat and drink,
And such ablutions not to stink,
And carnal ordinance imposed
On them until reform time closed.

When Daniel speaks of cleansing of the room,
He sets the earthly tabernacle's doom,
And makes the day of its atonement come
In anti-type upon celestial hum.
Most holy place below was a reflection
Of that above in its holy confection.
Atonement for sin's made at last before
The ark behind the veil and painted door.
Beloved, I follow in behind the man
Christ where he comes by the eternal plan,
And find atonement in his prayers above
And in redeeming and undying love.
I set aside the death of lamb and goat,
And set out on high seas in crystal boat.

11 But Christ come as high priest of good
Things to come, by a greater hood,
More perfect tabernacle, not
Made with hands, that is one not wrought
Of this sort of building and plot;
12 Nor by the blood of goats and calves,
But by his own blood without halves
He entered once the holy place,
Obtaining everlasting grace.
13 For if the blood of bulls and goats,
And heifer's ashes spread for floats
Upon the unclean, sanctifies
The flesh cleansed beneath earthly eyes,
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ,
Who through eternal ghost sufficed
To offer himself without spot
To God, purge your conscience in plot
From dead works to serve living God?
15 That's why he is the mediator
Of the new covenant instater,
That by means of death for redemption
Of the transgressions for exemption
That sat beneath first testament,
Those which are called might represent
The promise of eternal weight
Of their inheritance at gate.
16 For where there is a testament,
There must also be the death sent
Of the testator when he went.
17 For a will is in force at last
After men have died and are passed:
Otherwise it's of no power while
The testator remains to smile.

Everyone thinking that the Christ has come
And died after the orders of the scum
Who thought that human institutions make
All good and fine after the royal stake,
Must find a reason for that death, if such
Is an atonement or redemption's touch.
The human sacrifice to me smells more
Like heathen worship filled with sex and gore.
But who am I upon my northern shore?
St. Paul or who wrote this must also find
A reason for the death of Christ unpined.
His reason is the heirs must wait until
The death of their ancestor on the hill
Before they get the treasure on their sill.

18 And even the fer's testament
Was set with blood in what it spent.
19 For when Moses had uttered all
The precepts at all the folk's call,
According to the law he took
The blood of calves and goats and shook
With water and with scarlet wool
And hyssop and sprinkled in full
Both book and people at a look.
20 He said “This is blood of the pact
Which God's enjoined on you to act.”
21 And still he sprinkled with blood both
The tent and all the pots unloath.
22 And almost all things by the law
Are cleansed by blood, and without claw
Of shedding blood, there's no release.
23 It was therefore needful in crease
That patterns of things in the sky
Should be cleansed with these passing by;
But the celestial things themselves
With better sacrifice than elves.

The argument that it is necessary
For heavenly cleansing of the sweet unwary
Because such happened on the earth one time,
Is so beyond reason to be a crime.
And yet it shows a modern twist in that
It's structuralist as well as being fat.
The pattern of the sky must face the earth
And so the two must be of equal worth.
Beloved, I seek no patterns to be true,
But only wish to recognize in You
Reality before both earth and sky.
But if all things must follow patterns, why,
I shall be patterned by Your hand and eye
Until time and eternity review.

24 For Christ has not gone in to stand
In holy places made by hand,
The figures of the true, but in
To heaven itself, and now to win
Before God's eye to beat our sin.
25 Nor yet that he should give himself
Up often, as high priest on shelf
Went in the most holy place each
Year with the blood of others’ reach;
26 For then he must have often lay
In suffering from world's founding stay:
But now once at world's end he came
To put away both sin and blame
By sacrificing his own name.

The sacrifice of self opened the way
Into the holy places and their ray
Where Christ achieves atonement by the prayer
Of innocence upon the golden stair
Of one who conquered sin and death to bear
His witness before You that those may share
In life eternal whom You do elect
And set apart and paint as the select.
Beloved, in fact I doubt not that the pain
Tormented that sweet brow in sun and rain
From the foundation of the wayward earth
Both in the plenty and in time of dearth.
But let it be put all away when You
Put sin away from every righteous pew.

27 And it's appointed unto men
Once to die, but after again
To come to judgement: 28 and so Christ
Was offered once and that sufficed
To bear the sins of many men,
And unto them who look again
For him, he shall appear once more
Without sin for salvation’s store.

This final argument for Christ's own death
Is that since all men must give up their breath,
His coming as a man implied the same
Of him with or without the blame and shame.
The reader fails to find this truth, instead
Takes the appointment of the human dead
To mean that since all must die, then the few
Who escape death must all return in crew
Upon the earth again to stand before
The angel of their death come to the door.
The nonsense of angelic thought is passed
Only by nonsense of the human caste,
But I thank You, Beloved, that all things stand
Clear and sure within Your most sovereign hand.

HEBREWS 10

1 For the law having just the shade
Of coming good things in parade,
And not the very substance made,
Can never with such sacrifice
Which they offered yearly in trice
Make those who come to it as nice.
2 If so, would they not stop their making
Of sacrifices for the taking?
For worshippers once cleansed should not
Thereafter know sin in their lot.

The fact is sacrifice went on below
As habit and tradition in the glow
Of round of life and death, of birth and flow.
Whether men sin or not, whether they've found
Perfection or frustration on the ground,
The social institutions and the way
Of sacrifice and prayer always bear sway
Until a social change brings into view
A way that seems more profitable too.
The cease of sacrifice depended more
Upon destruction of the temple door
In fair Jerusalem, than on the great
And loving intercession in the state
Of heaven before the tree of life and plate.

3 But those offerings come to remind
Again each year sins come in kind.
4 For it's not possible the blood
Of bulls and goats should take the flood
Of sins away. 5 So when he comes
Into the world, he says in sums,
“Sacrifice and offering You do
Not want, but a body made true,
6 “In offerings burnt and sacrifice
For sin You find there's nothing nice.
7 “Then I said, 'See, I come at last,
In the volume of the book cast
Is written about me to do
Your will, O God, and so be true.'”
8 Above when he said “Sacrifice
And offering and burnt offering nice
For sin You do not want, nor find
Pleasure in them, though offered signed
By the law. 9 Then he said, 'Behold,
I come to do Your will as told,
O God.'” He takes away the first,
So He can establish not worst,
10 By which we are sanctified through
The offering of the body too
Of Jesus Christ once brought to view.
11 And every priest stands daily by
To minister the offerings nigh,
And often times the same in cry
Which never can take away sin.
12 But this man, after he had made
One offering sacrifice and stayed
Trespass for ever, he sat down
On the right hand of God to frown;
13 From then on waiting till his foes
Be made the footstool for his toes.
14 For by one offering he has made
Perfect forever those who stayed
To be sanctified on parade.

The offering made was not in Bethlehem,
Nor on the cruel cross, not in the hem
Of seamless garment cast up like a charm.
The offering of the Christ was not in harm,
But in the sitting down upon the throne,
At the right hand of God there to atone.
Beloved, my ways and scenes are manifold,
Just as the explanations of the cold
Are riotous and varying and bold
To say that death is needed to pay off
The divine justice or the devil's scroff.
But whether I find doctrine fair or ill,
The world and heaven above within Your will
Still turn and ply eternities with skill.

15 The Holy Spirit also comes
To witness to us of his sums
That he had said before, 16 This is
16 The pact that I will make for biz
With them after those days, says YHWH,
I'll put My laws in their hearts too,
And in their minds I'll write them true;
17 And their sins and iniquities
I'll bring to mind no more to please.
18 Now where remission of these lies,
There's no more made sin sacrifice.
19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness
To enter Most Holy's address
By the blood of Jesus, 20 and by
A new and living way to try,
Which he has established for us,
Through the veil, that is, bounteous
His flesh; 21 and having a high priest
Over the house of God released,
22 Let us draw near and with true heart
In full assurance of the part
Of faithfulness, having our heart
Sprinkled from evil conscience' start,
And bodies washed in water clean.
23 Let us hold fast to what we've seen
By faith without a wavering,
For he is faithful who has been
Promising us his redeeming.

The covenant writ on the heart is one
That needs no missionising to be done.
It needs no sacrifice of blood and money
To ride upon a pony and be funny.
Instead You Yourself teach each clever man
The way to life eternal by Your plan,
And lead into the sanctuary where
The intercession of our lord and fair
Remains to cleanse the troubled heart in share.
I lay aside all sacrifice for good
As well as malice in my life of hood,
And boldly taste the nectar in the wood
Of Paradise, and sip the silver fruit
On every tree of knowledge to the root.

24 Let us take thought of each one to
Provoke to love and good works too,
25 And not forsaking gathering
Of ourselves together to sing,
As the manner of some is now,
But exhorting each other how:
And so much more as you see near
The day of his appearing here.

Beloved, I do not wish in any way
To forsake gathering in group to pay
Your majesty the honour that is due
From every fellow sitting in his pew.
But if there is no gathering below
Except the heathen one of hale and show,
Then let my absence on a day remain
A gift of love to You through my fast pain.
And by contrast when I appear to bow
Within the idol temple and somehow
Seek out Your face behind the bull and cow,
Then let that too be in Your heart of love
A gift in recompense for earthly shove.
All things come from Your hand barren of glove.

26 For if we sin on purpose then
After we've known the truth again,
There then remains no sacrifice
More for sins that we think are nice,
27 But just a fearing expectation
Of judgement's fiery of indignation,
Which shall devour its enemies' elation.

Is it a thing that can take place, I ask,
To fall away from the hand where I bask,
Since Christ once prayed that all be given him
And none be lost upon the wicked brim?
Is there a man on earth that ever sinned
On purpose? I refuse the shallow binned.
No man in his full senses takes the rind
And leaves the precious golden chain behind.
All men work for their weal, and if they sin,
They do so with a mind that they should win.
No sacrifice on earth is needed now,
Beloved, since You provide the written bough
On every fleshly table so men might
Live in Your law and in Your love and light.

28 The one who ignored Moses' law
Died without mercy at the claw
Of two or three witnesses' craw.
29 Of how much graver punishment,
Do you suppose, shall then be sent
On such as have trod under foot
The Son of God, and so have put
The blood of covenant to soot,
By the which he was sanctified,
Counted unholy, so decried
The Spirit of his grace beside?
30 For we know Him, the One who said
”Vengeance is mine, I shall instead
Repay,” so says the Lord. Again,
”The Lord shall come to judge His men.
31 A fearful thing it is to fall
In hands of the living God's call.

Beloved, I take both pagan and the true,
The light and dark, the death and life in view,
If only I may have presence of You
Within the temple of my stony heart.
I take the airplane and the donkey cart,
The massive highway or the birchen path,
But in my taking flee from divine wrath.
What You do in Your universe and way
Is far beyond my comprehension's sway,
Nor does my faith rise to a starlit ray,
But whatever You do, Beloved, I find
Your doing is both justice and is kind.
Save me upon Your breast eternally,
Or cast me in Your hell fires faithfully.

32 But mind the former days, in which,
After you were enlightened switch,
You endured a great fight in pitch;
33 In part you were made gazing stock
Both by reproach and sorrows' dock,
And in part in that you became
Companions of such used in blame.
34 For you had pity on me too
In my chains, and took joyful view
Of your goods' spoiling, knowing in
Yourselves that you have after din
In heaven a better place to keep
Inheritance both broad and deep.

Inheritance divine is set for those
Who pity underdogs in chains and rows.
The implication of the opposite
Is that hell is reserved for those who sit
In judgement of unlucky men and fit.
If I have taken pity on the small
And on the ones who cannot walk but crawl,
Then give me the inheritance and ball.
But if I've fawned upon the hand of wealth
And kissed the rings of power set out in stealth,
Then give me halls of hell and fiery speed
To quench my thirst and assuage evil greed.
Beloved, the earth is ever set in twain
Between the fellow pleasures and the pain.

35 So don't give up your confidence,
With great reward in recompense,
36 For you need patience so that you
After you've done God's will and true,
You might receive the promise too.
37 For yet a little while and he
Who shall come will come and not be
Late. 38 Now the just shall live by faith,
But if any one trust in wraith,
My soul shall have no pleasure in
That one, because of all his sin.
39 But we are not among the kind
Who turn back to perdition blind,
But among those who still believe
To soul's salvation and reprieve.

The faith I live by is the faith that You
Create upon the evil ground the true,
And after failure of my hand You make
A shining mansion for my love and sake.
The faith I live by is that this day may
In course of worldly fancy and sashay
Be the last to grace me and mine in fey.
Your sent one may come on the fragrant sod
This very morning to see pea in pod,
To smell the violet and wonder why
Only the smell of wind is in the sky.
Beloved, I turn and turn again to find
Salvation, and see that I have been blind
To think that You were somewhere there behind.

HEBREWS 11

1 Now faith is the substance of things
Hoped for by paupers or by kings,
The evidence of things not seen
By any king or any queen.
2 For by it the elders obtained
A good report for what they gained.
3 By faith we see the universe
Was formed by God's word without curse,
So that the things which are seen now
Were not made of things anyhow
Which do appear, though none the worse.

The pagan faith is that the things You made
Were made ex nihilo in their parade.
But St Paul or his courtiers waylaid
Report them made of things invisible,
Invisible indeed, but things in full.
I trade Trinity immaterial
For grubby hands and feet that push and pull
And give the sweet and take away the sal.
Beloved, make by Your Word again today
The beauties of universe on display,
The fir trees and the birches on the morn,
The pines forever and anon newborn,
And I'll step out to find the icy way
Filled with newly created and today.

4 By faith Abel offered to God
A better sacrifice on sod
Than Cain did, by which he obtained
Witness he was righteous unfeigned,
God testifying of his gifts:
And by it he though dead still lifts
His voice. 5 By faith Enoch at last
Was translated without the blast
Of death; and was not found at all,
Because God took him to His hall,
For before his translation he
Enjoyed of this testimony,
That he pleased God come at His call.
6 But without faith it cannot be
That we shall please Him in our tree;
For one coming to God must know
Belief that He is and will show
Reward to those who seek His glow.

Faith is the sight that You alone are seen
Both in my own self and the silver sheen
Of every other face that there has been.
Yet Abel and good Enoch share this fate:
That faith in purity is but a bait
For this world's men of fratricide come late.
Can anyone see good in fellowmen
And in himself and live to see again?
The one is killed outright, and so You learned
To take the sweet Enoch away when spurned.
The wicked heart cannot abide the true,
And must kill in each man he sees both You
And brother and his sister for the crime
Of clear sight of divine writ out in rhyme.

7 By faith Noah, when he was warned
Of God of things not seen but scorned,
Moved with fear, and prepared an ark
To save his house, by which remark
He had condemned the world and so
Became heir of the righteous row
Which is by faith and on the go.

It took a bit more than just faith to make
A ship, when he had never seen the wake
Upon the sea. For Noah had to think
A whole new science and art link by link.
It's so each time I hear the word arise.
Faith always means more work than otherwise.
It's only in the Lutheran disguise
That faith is separated from the toil
Of making and achieving on the soil.
Beloved, if Noah had such faith to build,
You must admit his preaching was unskilled,
Since he got no one to come to his church
But family, beasts and birds on their perch.
The man was not a speaker, though faith-filled.

8 By faith Abraham, he when called
To go out to a place unwalled,
Which he should afterwards receive
For an inheritance in sleeve,
Obeyed; and he went out not knowing
The place to which he had been going.
9 By faith he stayed in promised land,
As in a strange country to stand,
Living in tents with Isaac and
With Jacob, heir with him in band
Of the same promise not at hand.
10 For he looked for a city grand
That has foundations, of which God
Is builder and maker on sod.

This letter's all about the fact that You
Accept atonement for the sins in view
Not by an earthly priesthood's sacrifice,
But by the intercession of the nice,
The lovely Christ that stands upon the street
Of the celestial city for a treat.
So Abraham in ancient days and gone
Showed faith in hopeful waiting for the dawn,
The city where atonement of the best
Is made among the angels' singing quest.
Beloved, I join the Abrahamic lore
And spend my faith upon the heavenly door,
And see beyond the darkness of my room
The splendour of a further range of doom

11 Through faith also Sara herself
Received strength to conceive like elf,
And had a baby when she'd passed
The age, because she did not cast
Out her faith, but considered Him
Faithful who promised to the brim.
12 That's why there came from one as good
As dead as many as the hood
Of stars above in multitude,
And as the sand beside the sea
Upon a shore's unmeasured lee.

The faith of Sarah was merely to laugh
At promises You made before her gaff.
I hate to point out that the promised son
Was not result of anything she'd done.
Her rocking in the darkened tent one night
With Abraham, though no doubt a delight,
Was hardly contribution to Your act,
Although it is a funny sort of fact
That copulation should be called at last
Faith on the part of woman not outcast.
A lot of people copulate, I know,
But none today imagine it a show
Of faith. Today faith is defined the more
By singing hymns, not looking at the gore.

13 These all died in faith, did not see
The promises, except far off,
And were persuaded not to scoff,
And so embraced them, and confessed
That they were strangers on a quest
And pilgrims on the earth addressed.
14 For those who say such things declare
Plainly they seek a country fair.
15 And truly, if they'd had a mind
Of that place from which they resigned,
They could have gone back to the blind.
16 But now they want a better land,
That is a heavenly place to stand.
That's why God's not ashamed to be
Called their God, for them a city
He has prepared eternally.

The Hebrew letter makes distinction twixt
The two groups on the earth with boundaries fixed.
The one prefers the earthly love and life
That comes from human sacrifice and strife,
The worship of an idol and a cross,
The dream atonement’s made where such emboss.
The other loves the heavenly crown and scene
Where intercession is atonement's bean,
And You forgive because a living Christ
Stand victor martyr over cross sufficed.
Beloved, I turn from heathen church and crowd
And sing the songs celestial and aloud,
Forgetting crucifixes and the mass,
But rushing out to glory on the grass.

17 Abraham by faith, he when tried,
Offered up Isaac by his side,
The one who had received the hope
Of promise offered up in scope,
His only son strung up by rope,
18 Of whom it was said in Isaac
Shall your seed be called without flack;
19 He reckoned God could raise the dead,
The which in type he got instead.

The binding of the son was the expression
Of rite of passage, where each mum's confession
Brought out the first-born to the sacrifice.
It was a sop to expectations nice,
And may have saved lives from the neighbours twice,
But hardly showed the faith of Abraham
That You could resurrect a slaughtered lamb.
Beloved, the misconceptions of Your brood
Frustrate the love of life that You intrude
Upon the darkened heart. Open my path
To the embracing of Your love and wrath,
And I shall show the faith of Abram's day,
The hope of resurrection caught in ray,
The inclination to subvert the way.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and
Esau for things to come at hand.

The greatest joy encouraging my soul
Is that You call the act of Isaac's toll
To bless Jacob and Esau, act of faith.
It seems more like manipulation's wraith.
First Jacob lies and Isaac is well fooled
And blesses the son he had never schooled.
Isaac loved Esau, not Your choice at all.
Is that faith founded in the last recall?
Then Isaac tries to fix the thing again
By blessing Esau too among his men.
Isaac is blind, acts foolishly and wrong,
And yet You call it faith instead of song.
I too do all things wrong, and yet I pray
You call them right upon the judgement day.

21 By faith Jacob, he when abed
And dying, blessed both sons that led
Joseph to him, and bowed and leaned
Upon his staff for those who keened.

It may be just his own life's path that taught
Jacob to bless the younger in the plot,
Remembering mistakes his father made,
And so he crossed his hands and then he prayed
The birthright blessing on the younger son,
While Joseph fumed at the injustice done.
To run against the grain society
Sets up may be the faith of all the free.
But then I note that precedence invents
New crimes of habit in the human tents.
Beloved, no matter what men do on earth,
Bless or refrain from blessing sons of worth,
They cannot be right in the things they do,
And yet You call their sight a faithful view.

22 By faith Joseph, when he too died,
Made mention of the coming tide
The children of Israel to go,
And gave commands for his bones so.

The faith of Joseph was both true and tried.
He looked for a grave on the other side
Of the Nile and the Red Sea's flowing tide.
Without faith he might have seen centuries
More in the desert without hope or breeze,
But he too looked for promised land above,
And rested in his hope and in his love.
Beloved, despite the faith of Joseph's death,
I in my human sort of thought and breath
Would have chosen the great acts of his life
To save his family from hunger rife,
The brother, child and even brother's wife.
I would have chosen his diplomacy,
His rulership, his faithful slavery.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born,
Was hidden three months by his torn
Parents, because they saw him be
A proper child, and they could see
Nothing to fear in king's command.
24 By faith Moses, grown up to stand,
Refused to be called as the son
Of Pharaoh's daughter for a tonne,
25 But chose instead to suffer lot
With God's folk than enjoy the plot
Of sin for a time when he'd done;
26 Considering reproach of Christ
A greater treasure than sufficed
Treasures in Egypt, since he had
Respect to gain reward not bad.
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not
Fearing the wrath of the king's plot,
For he endured as seeing Him
Who is invisible and dim.
28 By faith he kept Passover, and
The sprinkling of blood on the stand,
So the one to destroy first born
Should not touch them with deathly scorn.
29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea
As on the dry, when temptingly
Egyptians tried, they drowned in spree.

The measure of true faith is that the man
Stands in Your presence and beneath Your scan
As seeing Your form visibly in love,
As seeing visions broken from above.
I know good Freud would have a thing to say
About the super-ego come to play,
But still I look toward the vast and grey,
The azure emptiness upon my day
And know that if I could in any way
Act as though seeing You before my eye,
I should act with a perfect faith or try.
But that's a vain hope and a vain reply.
Reality is that I am one blind,
And see no gods but emptiness behind.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho
Fell down, after they went round so
For seven days. 31 By faith innkeeper
Rahab did not die with the sleeper
In unbelief, when she'd received
The spies with peace and so relieved.

Rahab did not act as though seeing god
Arise upon the stricken, brick-paved sod.
She acted on the rumour that Your folk
Were all successful down to the last bloke,
And in the fear that Jericho would be
Run over by their hard technology.
Disloyal to her king and her country,
She fed a stranger folk to save family.
If that was faith, I doubt not many more
In every town could muster such a store.
Beloved, I merely wake to dress and eat
With wife and daughter and her son for treat.
And if that is to act as seeing You,
Then count it as a faithful way to do.

32 What more shall I say? For the time
Would not suffice to tell the rhyme
Of Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah; David too on the run,
And Samuel of the prophets spun,
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms won,
Wrought righteousness, obtained promise,
Stopped lions' mouths, and not to kiss,
34 Quenched violence of fire, escaped
The mouth of sword, from weakness aped
Were made strong, became valiant men
In battle, turned to flight again
The armies of the nations straped.
35 Women received their dead to life
Again, and others by the strife
Of torture, would not take freedom,
That they might have a better sum
Of resurrection. 36 Others had
The trial of mocking that was sad
And whippings, even chains and gaol.
37 They were stoned, and sawn up though hale,
Were tempted, slain with sword, they went
About in sheep and goatskins rent,
The destitute, afflicted, and
Tormented, 28 Of whom the world's stand
Was not worthy, they wandered out
In deserts, and in mountains stout,
And in the dens and caves of earth.
39 All these, having got good report
Through faith, received no promised sport,
40 God having in store better things
For us, that without us in rings
They should not be made perfect kings.

Faith is defined as being one who is
Above the worth of earthly power and biz.
The truth is cruelty and greed resolve
In every town with lust more to revolve,
So that the innocent remain aloof,
In poverty and often without roof.
Too good for this world is the only way
To walk in faith and never go astray.
I know some such, and they are close to me,
Too good for this world and its gross folly.
Beloved, I share the fate of innocent
Despite my greed and lust and further bent
To cruelty, and if I share the fate,
Give me the same grace on my balding pate.

HEBREWS 12

1 Wherefore s
eeing that we also
Are surrounded with such great glow
Of witnesses, let's lay aside
Every weight, and the sin in tide
That so easily runs us down,
And run with patience for the crown,
2 Looking to Jesus, author and
Finisher of the faith to stand,
Who for the joy set before him
Endured the cross, despised the dim,
And has sat down at the right hand
Of God's own throne above the land.
3 So consider him who endured
Such contradiction and uncured
Of sinners against himself, lest
You get too tired and faint to jest.
4 You have not yet resisted to
The blood, striving against sin's cue.

Beloved, does this mean that before temptation
A man must try not to follow elation
Until the blood pours out of eyes and nose
And runs down from his ears onto his toes?
But let's say one should do this very thing.
Would there be any benefit to sing?
If You have not writ on the fleshly heart
Your law in life extended into art,
You give no credit to the human flight
Of effort and of doing of the right.
But mark my words: those under Islam's fright
Sometimes may do the good, like Jewish might,
And still expect reward before the light.
Do You Yourself not assign each his part?

5 And you've forgotten warning sent
To you as to children to vent,
”My son, despise not chastening
Of the Lord, nor faint on the wing
When you're rebuked by Him to sing.
6 For whom the Lord loves He will warn,
And whip each son He keeps from scorn.
7 If you endure your whipping, then
God deals with you as sons and men,
For what son is there that his dad
Does not whip when he's feeling sad?
8 But if you are not whipped at all,
As everyone that's in the hall,
Then you are bastards, not sons' call.
9 Besides that we've had dads of flesh
Who punished us with mace and mesh,
And we respected them for all.
So shall we not much rather fall
Under subjection of the call
Of Father of spirits, and live?

In nations civilized and good today
Fathers do not beat sons sent out to play.
That would diminish the self and achievement,
No matter what others feel in bereavement.
The lesson's lost, if lesson there may be
In these words of an ancient infamy.
I guess we're all just bastards in this place
Of educated self-esteem for grace.
Beloved, despite the ungore in the land,
I find that I am beaten where I stand
By every wind that buffets small and grand.
It may be a quaint blindness that I make
Your sovereignty a comfort at the stake,
A minding of the sweetness in Your wake.

10 For they truly a brief time spent
In chastening us as they went,
But He for our profit, so we
Might partake of His holy fee.
11 Now chastening now for the time
Seems to be joyous, but a crime,
But afterwards it yields the fruit
Of righteousness in peace to boot
To those on whose back lay the suit.
12 So lift up the hands which hand down,
And feeble knees; 13 around the town
Make straight paths for your feet, lest those
Who are lame be turned from their pose;
But let it rather heal the rows.
14 Pursue peace with all, and withal
A holy way, without which call
No man shall see the Lord at all.
15 Be careful that no one should fail
Of God's grace, lest the root to flail
In bitterness spring woe to you,
And so defile many in pew.
16 Let there not remain among you
A fornicator or the crew
Of the profane, as Esau, who
For one morsel of meat then sold
His birthright and was in the cold.
For you know how that after that,
When he wanted the fiefdom fat,
He was rejected, for he found
No place to repent on the ground,
Although he sought with tears around.

Pursuit of peace is a word that's well said.
Maintaining peace is impossible dread,
If one must put out those who make the path
A crooked way before eternal wrath,
And all defilement of the fornicator,
And every profane man and alligator.
Once such are put outside the congregation,
One might think peace would reign in holy nation,
But the reality is that the saints
Are also always ready with complaints.
Beloved, I am the proof of every guile:
You can see trouble making at a mile.
No one repents but by Your grace once given,
Though sought with tears and night-time angels striven.

18 For you have not come to the mount
That may be touched, and for account
Burned with the fire, nor to the black,
And dark and tempest without slack,
19 And sound of trumpet, and the voice
Of words, which those who heard the choice
Begged that the word should not be spoken
To them again for any token.
20 For they could not endure command,
And if so much as beast at hand
Did touch the mountain, it should die
By stoning, are with dart on sly.
21 And so terrible was the sight,
And Moses said ”I'm in a fright
And quake and tremble in my right.”
22 But you have come to Sion's mount,
And to the city and the fount
Of living God, the heavenly town,
Jerusalem without a frown,
And to a multitude in sight
Of angels, 23 to the great condite
Assembly of the called out ones
Of the first-born among the sons,
Which are inscribed in heaven, and to
God Judge of all and to the crew
Of spirits of just men in view
Made perfect, 24 and to Jesus yet
The mediator of the set
New covenant, and to the blood
Of sprinkling that speaks in a flood
Of better things than Abel's mud.

The contrast between Sinai's peek and that
Celestial mount of Sion where has sat
Down David and Your fair anointed still
Is more than just the shaping of the hill.
The one is fear to meet Your shining face,
The other is its seeking for a trace.
The one is hope of fine reward for mace,
The other is assurance of Your grace.
Beloved, write on my heart that covenant
That Jeremiah promised with such cant,
And I shall find the way without a guide
Beyond Your unseen leading at my side.
And if at last I reach the open gate,
The perfect garden shall not find me late.

25 Be careful that you don't refuse
The one who speaks not to accuse.
For if they did not get away
Refusing him who spoke to stay
On earth, much more shall we not find
Escape, if we turn to the blind
Away from Him that speaks from heaven.
26 His voice the shook the earth as in leaven.
But now He's promised saying “Yet
Once more I'll shake not just earth met,
But also heaven in the set.”
27 And this word: “Yet once more to sign
The taking away of the line
Of those things shaken, as of things
That are not made, so that the springs
That cannot be shaken remain.”
28 That's why we get a kingdom lain
Which cannot be moved, let us find
Grace by which we may serve in kind
God with the reverence due and more
With godly fear kept up in store.
29 For our God's raging fire to mind.

The kingdom that You rule cannot be shaken
Because Your sovereignty's never mistaken.
All men are made of moving, shapen dust
And sink back to primordial sea and rust.
But what is of Your grace in a man's need
Remains untouched, unmoved beyond the greed
Of rushing to existence. All remains
That is of value on the heavenly plains.
Beloved, I see You still unmoved upon
A throne set on the earth as well as dawn,
And trust the providence eternity
Has seen unfold upon Your sovereignty,
Defining justice in the round of years,
Instilling love upon all human fears.

HEBREWS 13

1 Let brotherly love aye remain.
2 Do not forget to entertain
Strangers, for that way some in shares
Entertain angels unawares.
Remember those who are in chains,
As bound with them, and those in blains
As being yourselves in their cares.
4 Marriage is honoured among all,
And its bed undefiled withal,
But whore mongers and adulterers
Will God judges along with their fers.
5 Let your behaviour come to be
Without a covetous degree,
And be content with what you've got,
For He has said in every lot
“I shall not leave you nor forsake.”
6 So we may say bold as a rake,
“The Lord's my helper, and I'll not
Fear what man shall do to my plot.”
7 Remember those who have the rule
Over you, who have spoken school
To you of God's word: follow on
In their faith and consider drawn
How they behave when they have gone.

The ten commandments of St Paul appear
In the last Hebrews chapter without fear.
Like every human expression in mode,
They cannot stand alone nor fill the load
Of truth and what is needed on this star.
And yet they are a practice going far.
First seven commands: one love, strangers keep,
Remember prisoners and do not heap
Up whoredoms on the sacred marriage bed,
Do not be covetous, content instead,
Remember those who spoke the divine word,
And follow them faithful to what you've heard.
Such are commandments of the Gospel sent
Enhancing what the Decalogue had meant.

8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
Today, and forever in sway.
9 Do not be carried about by
Divers and strange doctrines to try.
For it's a good thing that the heart
Be set with grace, and not with cart
Of meats, which have not profited
Those who are occupied in bid.
10 We have an altar from which they
Have no right to eat of or slay
Who serve in tabernacle's way.
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose
Blood's brought to tabernacle pews
By the high priest for sin, are burned
Outside the camp and so are spurned.
12 That's why Jesus too, so he might
Sanctify the people aright
With his own blood, suffered outside
The gate. 13 Let us go out therefore
To him outside the camp and store,
Bearing with him reproach and more.
14 For here we have no place to stay
In permanent city and gay,
But we seek one to come some day.
15 By him therefore let's offer well
The sacrifice of God's praise tell
And all the time, that is the fruit
Of our lips giving thanks to boot
To His name constantly to root.

The eighth commandment is to flee all strange
Doctrines that compete on the earthly range
Of sacrificial hopes, that by some blood
The world may set right all lost in the flood.
The path to life eternal's out the gate,
Away from temple and the priestly rate,
Away from institutions and the church,
Away from wickedness and evil smirch.
Beloved, I seek the desert on the earth,
Reproach if it must be to find in worth
The great celestial choir, where Your word rings
In all the praises that an angel sings.
Beloved, I take Your thanks instead of stings
Upon the lips of those who know but dearth.

16 But to do good and give alms do
Not forget, for with such a view
Of sacrifices God's well pleased.
17 Obey those who have power greased
Over you, and submit yourselves,
For they watch for your souls on shelves,
As those who must give an account,
That they may do it with joy's fount,
And not with grief, for that is set
Without a profit you may get.

The ninth commandment is to do good and
To give alms to the poor upon the sand.
That's one that You forgot when come to stand
On Sinai for a spot upon the land.
That may be why so many long ago
Succumbed to hunger in the desert show.
But now that St Paul's spoken in the row,
I guess that problem's gone, since we're not slow
To feed the hungry everywhere they are:
We have so many people who're a star.
Beloved, I look about for some to feed,
I search for a good word and a good deed,
But I am small and have no stock or seed,
But only pass along little and far.

18 Pray for us, for we trust we've got
A good conscience in all we've wrought,
Willing to live in honest draught.
19 But I beg of you rather do
This, so I may restored to you
Come all the sooner to your view.
20 Now God of peace who brought again
Our Lord Jesus from the dead men,
That great shepherd of sheep through blood
Of eternal covenant's flood,
21 Make you perfect in all good works
To do His will, and not for shirks,
Working in you what pleases Him,
Through Jesus Christ, to whom undim
Be glory always and amen.

The tenth commandment is to pray for those
Who bring Your word of peace and those Your chose
To work the shepherd's work until the close.
The one who prays will hardly stop to talk
About the evil of acquaintance' stock.
And yet the command is to pray for men
Who have only good consciences again.
That may be more than in the righteous den,
Since men are prone to forget what they've done,
And conscience wakens on the lesser son.
Beloved, though I've got neither conscience clean
Nor patience to pray on from scene to scene,
Give me the grace to pray instead of act
In vengeance on complacent and compact.

22 I beg you, brothers, let come in
The word of warning against sin,
For I've written a letter to
You in few words to stir your view.
23 You know that brother Timothy
Is set again at liberty;
With whom, if he comes soon I'll be
Happy again for you to see.
24 Greet all of those who have the rule
Over you, and all saints in pool.
Those who reside in Italy
Greet you. 25 Grace be with you again,
With all of you, and so amen.

There are those in the tent who realize
That all comes from You sitting in the skies
And none can earn the right behind disguise,
Who might suppose that sin has not a share
In what the elect come to do and bear.
Not so: even the lost are duty bound
To their obedience upon the ground.
Much more the saved and chosen on the round
Are meant to obey You in sovereign sound.
If sovereignty is infinite and great,
Then sin is not alternative in state.
And so I hear the condemnation found
Against sin, and I flee its power and hate,
Elect and chosen, but commensurate.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

To purchase the books, please go to:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-genesis-to-maccabees/paperback/product-20136835.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-job-to-revelation/paperback/product-20050862.html