FOR ASSUREDLY HE DOES NOT GIVE HELP TO ANGELS: ou gar depou aggelon epilambanetai (3SPMI) :

Spurgeon comments that...

Christ’s great mission was not to save angels, but to save men. Therefore He came not in the nature of angels, but in the nature of men.

He so took upon His flesh and blood as to die in our nature, that thus He might slay death, and might set us free from all fear of death. Do you not see that, if the representative Man, Christ Jesus, died, He also rose again, and that so also will all who are in Him rise, too? If you are in Him, you shall rise again. Therefore, fear not to lie down in your last sleep, for the trumpet shall awaken you, and your bodies shall be molded afresh like unto His glorious body, and your soul and body together shall dwell in infinite bliss for ever. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Assuredly (1222) (depou) conveys the ideas of doubtless, "as is well known" or "Now in some way."

Give help  (1949) (epilambanomai from epí = upon + lambáno = to take) means take hold of or grasp, with focus upon the goal of motion. To seize for help, injury, attainment or any other purpose. The idea is literally, to help by taking one by the hand or to draw one to one's self to help. The present tense implies continuous activity of Jesus our Mediatorial High Priest.

The old word "succour" would be a good rendering of epilambanomai for succour means specifically to give help or assistance especially in time of hardship, distress or difficulty. A archaic but still picturesque meaning of succour is reinforcements of troops (ponder this thought as it applies to this passage in Hebrews!) See notes on the related idea of "come to the aid of" in Hebrews 2:18 (and also Hebrews 4:16) on for more on this picture of our Great High Priest coming to our rescue in our time of testing and need.

While epilambanomai in this verse does not have the idea of violent grasping which it carries elsewhere, the ideas of help and deliverance are clearly conveyed. One gets the picture of a person drowning in quicksand, ready to go under, but able to hold their hand above the surface. The Deliverer grasps the  hand of the one in need and lifts it up.

Wuest has a helpful note on the meaning writing that epilambanomai...

By a metaphor drawn from laying hold of another to rescue him from peril, the word came to mean “to lay hold of for the purpose of helping or succoring.” It is used in this latter sense here. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

It is not angels that He is helping but it is the seed of Abraham that He is helping. As Spurgeon says "Angels were passed by and men redeemed. Wondrous sovereignty this!"

Jesus, who pass'd the angels by,
Assumed our flesh to bleed and die;
And still He makes it His abode;
As man, He fills the throne of God.

Our next of Kin, our Brother now,
Is He to Whom the angels bow;
They join with us to praise His name,
But we the nearest interest claim.

Spurgeon writes that...

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when He came from heaven to die, did not take upon Himself the nature of angels. It would have been a stoop, more immense than if a seraph should have changed himself into an emmet, for the Almighty Son of God to have been clothed in the garb of even the archangel Gabriel, but His condescension dictated to Him, that if He did stoop, He would descend to the very lowest degree; that if He did become a creature, He would become, not the noblest creature, but one of the most ignoble of rational beings, that is to say, man; therefore, He did not stoop to the intermediate step of angelship, but He stooped right down and became a man.

If Christ had taken upon himself the nature of angels, He could never have made an atonement for man. Setting aside the thought that if He came to save man it would have seemed improper if He had come in the garb of angels, you must allow, that if He had done so, he could not have seen death. How could angels die? We can suppose that their spirit may become extinct, if God should will it; we can suppose the entire annihilation of that to which God Alone supplies immortality; but since angels have no bodies, we cannot suppose them capable of death, for death is the separation of the body and the soul; therefore, it behooved Christ that He should take upon Himself the form of a man, that He might become obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Had angels been standing by, they would have said, “Oh! mighty Master, take our radiant robes. Oh! take not the poor every-day garb of humanity, take our glittering garments all bedight with pearls.” And Gabriel would have said, “Come, take my wings, thou mighty Maker, and I shall count myself too honored to have lost them for thy sake. There, take this crown and this mantle of azure, wherewith to clothe thyself, thou Son of God, put my silver sandals on thy feet; become not man, but an angel, if thou wilt stoop.” “But, no,” he would have said, “Gabriel, if I were in thy dress I could not fight with death, I could not sleep in the tomb, I could not feel the pangs and agony of dissolution, therefore, I must, I will, become a man.” “He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.”

Had our Savior become an angel, we must note, in the next place, that he would never have been a fitting example for us. I cannot imitate an angelic example in all points, it may be very good, so far as I can imitate, but it cannot, in all points, be my pattern. If you would give me something to imitate, give me a man like myself; then I may attempt to follow him. An angel could not have set us the same holy and pious example that our Savior did. Had He descended from on high in the garb of one of those bright spirits, He might have been a fine example for those brilliant cherubs who surround his throne, but we, poor mortal men, condemned to drag the chain of mortality along this earthly existence, would have turned aside and said, “Ah! such a thing is too high for us, we cannot attain unto it;” and we, therefore, should have stopped short. If I am to carve marble, give me a marble statue which I am to copy, and if this mortal clay is to be cut out into the very model of perfection, as it is to be by God’s Spirit, then give me Man for my example, for a man I am, and as a man, I am to be made perfect. Not only could not Christ have been a Redeemer, but He could not have been our Exemplar, if He had taken upon Himself the nature of angels.

Sweetly, also, let us remember that if Christ had been an angel, he could not have sympathised with us. In order to sympathise with our fellow-creatures we must be something like them. Suppose a man made of iron, or of brass; could he sympathise with our wearied lungs, or with our aching bones? Let such a man be told of sickness or of illness: could he understand it? I would not have him for a nurse; I would not care to have such a being for my physician; he could not feel for me; he could not sympathise with me. No, even our own fellow-creatures cannot sympathise with us unless they have suffered as we have done. I have heard of a lady who never knew poverty in all her life, and consequently she could not sympathise with the poor. She heard the complaint that bread was extremely dear, when it was running up to fourteen-pence a loaf. “Oh!” she said, “I have no patience with the poor people, grumbling about the dearness of bread. If bread is so dear, let them live on penny buns; they are always cheap enough.” She had not been in the position of the poor, and, therefore, she could not sympathise with them, and no man can sympathise with another, to any great extent, unless he has been in some measure in the same position, and endured the same trouble. “It behooved Him, therefore, that He should be made in all points like unto his brethren that he might be a faithful high priest;” “for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, for He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” But if He had been an angel, what sympathy could He have had for me? Suppose I should tell an angel that I could scarcely resist my corruptions: the angel would look at me, and wonder what I meant. If I should tell him that I find this world a vast howling wilderness: how could he believe me, for he has never heard howlings, his ears have only been saluted by golden harps and sweet choral symphonies of praise. If I should tell him that I found it hard work to hold on my way, and keep close to my Savior, the angel could only say, “I cannot sympathise with you, for I am not tempted as you are; I have no clogging nature to abate my ardent zeal, but day without night, with unflagging wing, I circle His throne rejoicing, nor have I a wish nor will to depart from my great Maker.” There you see the Savior’s wisdom. He would become a Man and not an angel. (Read the full message which includes a well reasoned rational on divine election -- Men Chosen--Fallen Angels Rejected)

BUT HE GIVES HELP TO THE DESCENDANT OF ABRAHAM: alla spermatos Abraam epilambanetai (3SPMI) :

But - introduces a striking contrast. Christ did not come to save fallen angels but to give help to men.

Descendant of Abraham - Some commentators interpret this referring to Jews but it could include Gentiles, specifically Gentile believers (See passages below). In any event the point is that Jesus helps men not angels!

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE BLESSED IN YOU." (Galatians 3:8)

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your Seed," that is, Christ. (Galatians 3:16)

And if you (speaking to Jewish and Gentile believers) belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:29)

Descendant (4690) (sperma) refers to seed sown as containing the germ of new fruit, but here is figurative referring to the posterity.

The Believer's Study Bible writes that...

Seed of Abraham usually refers to the physical descendants of Abraham, but the absence of the article in Greek before "seed" may emphasize the character of the people, thus the spiritual seed of Abraham: Gentiles and Jews (Gal. 3:29). The same expression in John 8:33, however, obviously means "Jews." (Ed note: Thus as always correct interpretation is critically dependent on the context of the word, phrase or verse being interpreted!) (Criswell, W A. Believer's Study Bible: New King James Version. 1991. Thomas Nelson)

In support of this phrase descendant of Abraham as referring to believers, Jew or Gentile, we read in Galatians Paul that...

For you are all sons of God (Full adults and heirs because of adoption into God's family - see note Ephesians 1:5) through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized (not water baptism but spiritual baptism into Christ, so that He is now our identity - this is which accomplished at conversion) into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female (in the divine economy, our position in Christ is completely independent of any such matters); for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring (Greek = sperma = seed), heirs (sharers by lot) according to promise. (Galatians 3:26-29) (Comment: Christ is the Seed of Abraham as Paul explains in Galatians 3:16 and it follows that being in Christ, baptized into Him, identified with Him, one with Him in the New Covenant,  makes the believer a descendant of Abraham and an heir of the promise of justification by faith. Note however that the national promises made to Abraham and through him to Isaac and Jacob [Israel] are not in view in this verse and await the time yet future when all Israel will be saved [see notes Romans 11:26]).

Those who are of the seed of Abraham are those who have Abraham's faith, In Genesis 15:6 note that the Hebrew word faith is "aman" which has the basic meaning of certainty or firmness (Think of the derivative word "Amen" - so be it!) Aman conveys the idea of "leaning entirely" on God and this is manifest by trust in His immutable, inerrant word of promise. His promise to Abraham was that of the "seed", which as discussed ultimately reflected Abraham's belief in "the Seed", the Messiah (although we cannot now know how much of Messiah's work on the Cross Abraham understood). The point is that Abraham was looking forward to the Cross with eyes of faith, while believers today (his offspring) look back to the almighty, eternal cross. In regard to the Hebrew word "aman" not only does it convey the idea of certainty but as Genesis 22 shows Abraham's faith (aman) included the idea of obedience as he prepared to sacrifice Isaac, fully trusting in the fact that God would resurrect the promised son Isaac if necessary (see notes Hebrews 11:17; 18; 19)

In short, the spiritual (in contrast to those who are only physical) descendants of Abraham have believed God's promise, placed their whole weight upon His Word, just as Abraham did and as a result they have entered into the New Covenant, which is the NT amplification of the Abrahamic Covenant. Note also that the writer is not saying here that the church has replaced Israel or that Israel has forfeited the OT promises regarding the land of Israel - such aberrant teaching has led to many tragic errors in interpretation and application (eg, such an errant interpretation has been used for justification of the bloody massacre of many Jewish men, women and children in historical dramas such as "the Medieval Crusades", "the holocaust of Hitler", etc.) (See related study The Israel of God)

THEREFORE HE HAD TO BE MADE LIKE HIS BRETHREN: hothen opheilen (3SIAI) kata panta tois adelphois homoiothenai (APN):

Therefore (3606) (hothen) - In order to be able to give help to the seed of Abraham (believers who like Abraham have faith).

He had (3784) (opheilo from ophelos = profit, an increase) means to owe, and conveys the basic meaning of owing a debt and then of having a strong obligation which can be a moral obligation and personal duty. In this verse opheilo indicates a necessity, owing to the nature of the matter under consideration. In other words, Jesus was obligated (as it were) to do this in order that He might become our High Priest!

Richards writes that words in the opheilo word group...

To be made like (3666) (homoioo from homoios = similar) means complete identification in conduct, character; condition, circumstances. Christ had to be a true man in all points, from conception to death, apart from innate sin. This required a miraculous, virginal conception, but in every other respect, he partook of true human flesh.

Paul explains that Jesus...

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (See notes Philippians 2:6; Philippians 2:7;Philippians 2:8)

Christ, our Elder Brother, resembles us in reality as we shall resemble him in the end

In all things - Except yielding to sin the writer explaining later that...

we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Without sin yes, but not without temptation. Jesus knew as no other man knew what temptation was, having fought through to victory when tempted by Satan (cf Mt 4:1ff, Luke 4:1ff).

Hudson Taylor wrote that...

Had our Lord appeared on earth as an angel of light, He would doubtless have inspired far more awe and reverence, and would have collected together even larger multitudes to attend His ministry. But to save man He became Man, not merely like man, but very man. In language, in costume, in everything unsinful, He made Himself one with those He sought to benefit. Had He been born a noble Roman, rather than a Jew, He would, perhaps, if less loved, have commanded more of a certain kind of respect; and He would assuredly thereby have been spared much indignity to which He was subjected. This, however, was not His aim; He emptied Himself. Surely no follower of the meek and lowly Jesus will be likely to conclude that it is "beneath the dignity of a Christian missionary" to seek identification with this poor people, in the hope that he may see them washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God! Let us rather be followers of Him who "knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded."

SO THAT HE MIGHT BECOME A MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST IN THINGS PERTAINING TO GOD: hina eleêmôn genetai (3SAMS) kai pistos archiereus ta pros ton theon:

So that (2443) (hina) introduces a purpose clause. Always asks "What for?" Why did He have to be made like His brethren? Note how Thus the smoothly the writer transitions into the great theme he has been approaching with such care, that is the theme which of Christ's priesthood, which dominates this letter.

Might become (1096) (ginomai) come into being.

A "MERCY FULL"
HIGH PRIEST

Merciful (1655) (eleemon from eleos = mercy) refers to one who is actively compassionate or one who is benevolently merciful involving thought and action. It reflects  being concerned about people in their need.

The basic idea of eleemon is "to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable." The essential thought is that mercy gives attention to those in misery which distinguishes mercy from grace. Whereas grace is shown to the undeserving, we find that mercy is compassion poured out on the miserable.

Mercy is not simply a static truth such as feeling compassion but true mercy is dynamic and shows its true character when something is done to alleviate another's distress. This is nicely illustrated in the Old Testament by the mercy seat in the holy of holies. This was the place where the Lord God accepted the propitiatory (satisfactory) sacrifice to atone for the nation’s sins, once each year on the "Day of Atonement" (see Lev 16:2,13, 14, 15). Here at the mercy seat God was moved with pity and compassion for the sinful people, and took action to reconcile them to Himself through accepting the blood of a goat in their stead. (See also notes on God's Attribute of Mercy).

One might say then that Christ our High Priest is "mercy full"!  The idea is that He possess a compassionate heart leading Him to carry out acts of mercy, the purpose of which is to relieve the suffering and misery of the spiritual offspring of Abraham, the objects of the Beloved's infinite compassion. 

Our High Priest is the perfect picture of mercy, and His loyal subjects are to imitate His attitude and action in the power of the Spirit and transforming grace. And so Jesus gives us the wonderful promise in Mt 5:7 (see note), "Blessed are the merciful (eleemon)". To the unsaved in His audience this charge was impossible to accomplish, for He was speaking not merely of the expression of mercy filled (merciful) acts, but of an inner attitude in the new hearts of those who by grace through faith had the indwelling Spirit of Christ.

A TRUSTWORTHY
HIGH PRIEST

Faithful (4103) (pistos [word study] from peítho = to persuade) means trustworthy, dependable, reliable. Pistos is something or someone who is worthy of faith or keeps promises and is applied to God, humans, His Word, etc

Vincent gives a nice summary of the meaning of pistos, faithful, writing that it is used

(1), of one who shows Himself faithful in the discharge of a duty or the administration of a trust (Mt 24:45). Hence, trustworthy (2Ti 2:2-note). Of things that can be relied upon (2Ti 2:11-note). (2), Confiding; trusting; a believer (Gal 3:9; Acts 16:1; 2Cor 6:15; 1Ti 5:16) (Word Studies in the New Testament)

In this passive sense of trustworthy or faithful, pistos is applied to God as fulfilling His own promises (He 10:23-note; He 11:11-note), as fulfilling the purpose for which He called men (1Th 5:24-note; 1Co 1:9), as responding with guardianship to the trust reposed in Him by men (1Cor 10:13-note; 1Pe 4:19-note). Christ is faithful (2Thes 3:3; He 3:2-note; He 2:17-note   Re 19:11-note) Christ as the faithful witness (Re 1:5-note; Re 3:14-note). God’s and Christ's faithfulness in these verses speak not only of His essential being (faithful is Who He is), but also of His faithfulness toward us, as shown for example in the famous verse...

High priest - This is the first specific reference to Christ as our High Priest, a theme which is prominent throughout the rest of Hebrews. Christ's role as the High Priest was only possible by virtue of Him becoming like His brethren in actual human nature.

High priest (749) (archiereus from arche = first in a series, the leader or ruler + hiereus = priest) (Dictionary articles - Easton's; ISBE) refers to the priest that was chief over all the other priests in Israel. This office was established by God through Moses instructions in the Pentateuch. The high priest functioned as the mediator between Jehovah and Israel performing sacrifices and rituals like other priests, but in addition acting to expiate the sins of the nation on the annual Day of Atonement.

The irony is that the high priest Caiaphas was residing over the Sanhedrin during trial of Jesus, the trial which would lead to His death and pave the way for His eternal High Priesthood!

Eerdman's Bible Dictionary explains that...

The high priest descended from Eleazar, the son of Aaron. The office was normally hereditary and was conferred upon an individual for life (Nu 25:10, 11, 12, 13). The candidate was consecrated in a seven-day ceremony which included investiture with the special clothing of his office as well as anointments and sacrifices (Ex 29:1-37; Lev 8:5-35).

The high priest was bound to a higher degree of ritual purity than ordinary Levitical priests. He could have no contact with dead bodies, including those of his parents. Nor could he rend his clothing or allow his hair to grow out as signs of mourning. He could not marry a widow, divorced woman, or harlot, but only an Israelite virgin (Lev 21:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Any sin committed by the high priest brought guilt upon the entire nation and had to be countered by special sacrifice (Lev 4:1-12). Upon a high priest’s death manslayers were released from the cities of refuge (Nu 35:25, 28, 32).  (Eerdman's Bible Dictionary)

Archiereus occurs only in the Gospels (122x in 119v - Matt 2:4; 16:21; 20:18; 21:15, 23, 45; 26:3, 14, 47, 51, 57ff, 62f, 65; 27:1, 3, 6, 12, 20, 41, 62; 28:11; Mark 2:26; 8:31; 10:33; 11:18, 27; 14:1, 10, 43, 47, 53ff, 60f, 63, 66; 15:1, 3, 10f, 31; Luke 3:2; 9:22; 19:47; 20:1, 19; 22:2, 4, 50, 52, 54, 66; 23:4, 10, 13; 24:20; John 7:32, 45; 11:47, 49, 51, 57; 12:10; 18:3, 10, 13, 15f, 19, 22, 24, 26, 35; 19:6, 15, 21; Acts 4:6, 23; 5:17, 21, 24, 27; 7:1; 9:1, 14, 21; 19:14; 22:5, 30; 23:2, 4f, 14; 24:1; 25:2, 15; 26:10, 12; Heb 2:17; 3:1; 4:14f; 5:1, 5, 10; 6:20; 7:26ff; 8:1, 3; 9:7, 11, 25; 13:11). The references to the high priests in the Gospels and Acts refers primarily to their bitter opposition to Jesus Who the writer of Hebrews identifies as our everlasting High Priest.

Clearly archiereus is a key word in the book of Hebrews, and a review of  these 17 verses reveals various characteristics (see underlined sections) of Jesus role as the great High Priest (some of the uses of high priest obviously do not refer to Jesus but to the Jewish high priests).

Hebrews 2:17 (note) Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 3:1 (note) Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.

Hebrews 4:14 (note) Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Hebrews 4:15 (note) For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 5:1 (note) For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

Hebrews 5:5 (note) So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee";

Hebrews 5:10 (note) being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:20 (note) where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 7:26 (note) For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

Hebrews 7:27 (note) who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

Hebrews 7:28 (note) For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

Hebrews 8:1 (note) Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

Hebrews 8:3 (note) For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

Hebrews 9:7 (note) but into the second only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

Hebrews 9:11 (note) But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;

Hebrews 9:25 (note) nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own.

Hebrews 13:11 (note) For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.

See the shadow in 1Sa 2:35 fulfilled in Christ our High Priest.

Jesus can be completely trusted by men to be their means of atonement. All can approach Christ with absolute confidence (for He is faithful) and with assurance that they will find mercy (for He is merciful). Note how these twin concepts are further developed by the writer in Hebrews 3:1-6 and Hebrews 4:14-16.

TO MAKE PROPITIATION FOR THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE: eis to hilaskesthai (PMN) tas hamartias tou laou:  (Ro 3:25, 1Jn 2:2, 4:10)

Propitiation - Note the NIV renders it "make atonement" which is a curious rendering (but it renders Ro 3:25 [note] similarly)! Atonement is not in the NT in the NASB.

Propitiation (2433) (hilaskomai from hileos = speaks of being favorably disposed with implication of overcoming obstacles that are unfavorable to a relationship) means to cause to be favorably inclined toward or favorably disposed toward another (as in Lk 18:13). BDAG says it means "to eliminate impediments that alienate the deity, expiate, wipe out, of Christ as high priest" (He 2:17) Hilaskomai means to be merciful, make reconciliation for, be propitious, gracious, to be favorably inclined.

See related word study on hilasterion

Wuest on Heb 2:17...
 

In its Biblical usage, the verb (hilaskomai) refers to the act of our Lord offering Himself on the Cross to satisfy the righteous demands of God’s justice so that His government might be maintained, and that mercy might be shown on the basis of justice satisfied. The words “reconciliation” and “propitiation” are to be understood in this light. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans or Logos)

A T Robertson on Heb 2:17...
 

Purpose clause with eis to and the infinitive (common Greek idiom), here present indirect middle of hilaskomai, to render propitious to oneself (from hilaos, Attic hileōs, gracious). This idea occurs in the LXX (Ps 65:3), but only here in NT, though in Lk 18:13 the passive form (hilasthēti) occurs as in 2Ki 5:18. In 1Jn 2:2 we have hilasmos used of Christ (cf. He 7:25).

Louw and Nida...
 

to forgive, with the focus upon the instrumentality or the means by which forgiveness is accomplished (He 2:17) (and) to show compassion and concern for someone in difficulty, despite that person’s having committed a moral offense (Lk 18:13) (Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. United Bible societies)

NIDNTT notes that...
 

(a) The adj. hileos, -on, is the Attic form of hilaos or hileos, kindly, gracious, and a parallel word to hilaros, cheerful (cf. Lat. hilaris). It meant originally cheerful, joyous (Plato, Laws 1, 649a); later, kindly, gracious, benevolent (e.g. Xen., Cyr. 1, 6, 2). hileos is chiefly used of rulers or gods; in connexion with gods the phrase hileo poiein, to make gracious, is found (Plato, Laws 10, 910a).
 

(b) The mid. deponent hilaskomai (Homer onwards), is etymologically connected with hilaos and hileos, friendly, gracious, and hilemi, to be gracious. Like the intensive form exhilaskomai (Hdt. onwards), it has a causative meaning: to make gracious, appease (e.g. Homer, Od. 3, 419; Hdt. 7, 141)...

 The verb hilaskomai which is used in the NT occurs only 11 times in the OT, always in the middle or passive and always with Yahweh as subject. In general, it means to forgive. But in 6 of these passages there is explicit mention of divine wrath.  (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan  or Computer version)

Wayne Detzler...
 

The word for propitiation in Greek is hilasterion, and the verb, "to make propitiation" is hilaskomai. They both share the common root of hileos, which means "gracious or merciful." Therefore in its Greek form, the word for propitiation means to "conciliate," "expiate," "bring a sin-offering," or "obtain mercy."

In the time of Homer, the word hilaskomai meant to make the pagan gods happy or merciful. Later it took on the idea of a prayer to pagan deities to avoid their wrath. During the Hellenistic period of Greek history this word came to mean bringing an offering to placate angry gods.

When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, this word was used to describe the levitical offering system. For instance, it referred to the sin-offering as seen in Leviticus (Lev. 4; 17:11). It was also the offering brought on the Day of Atonement to provide expiation (or pay the penalty) for the sins of Israel (chap. 16)...

Our Greek words can be viewed from two standpoints. First, they can be seen as man's heart-cry for conciliation with God: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Second, they also refer to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf, whereby we can be made right with God.

The Old Testament root of this word plunged deep into the Day of Atonement, in accordance with the Law of God (Lev 16:1-34). On Yom Kippur two goats were brought to the priest. One was slain and its blood was sprinkled on the "mercy seat" as a "propitiation" for the sins of the people. The second goat became a sin-bearer. The priest would place his hands on the head of the second goat, indicating the transferal of sin to the "scapegoat." Afterward the goat would be banished into the desert, never to return. It was the sin-bearer.

A Christian must not content himself with a "scapegoat." Jesus Christ has become our propitiation and sin offering. A. A. Hodge (1823-86), in his popular lectures on theology, said:

"The sacrifices of bulls and goats were like token-money, as our paper promises to pay, accepted at their face value until the day of settlement. But the sacrifice of Christ was the gold which absolutely extinguished all debt by its intrinsic value. Hence, when Christ died, the veil that separated man from God was rent from the top to the bottom by supernatural hands."

This unique sacrifice of Christ should never be confused with the ineffective sacrifices of either Judaism or paganism. John F. D. Maurice (1805-72), a Church of England theologian, said:

"The heathen significance of words [such as sacrifice], when applied to Christian use, must not merely be modified, but inverted."

Along those same lines the famous preacher John Henry Jowett (1864-1923) concluded:

"The heathen and Jewish sacrifices rather show us what the sacrifice of Christ was not, than what it was."

Animal sacrifices were annual events, but Christ died once for all. Animal sacrifices only covered sin, but Christ's blood blotted sin out. Animal sacrifices depended upon the faithfulness of human priests, but Christ was both the High Priest and the Sacrifice.

The great Australian scholar Leon Morris wrote

"The consistent Bible view is that the sin of man has incurred the wrath of God. That wrath is averted only by Christ's atoning offering. From this standpoint His saving work is properly called a propitiation" (Walter A. Elwell, editor, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984], p. 888).

Lucy Bennett (1850-1927) summarized the significance of this truth in a beautiful hymn:

O teach me what it meaneth,
That cross uplifted high,
With One, the Man of Sorrows,
Condemned to bleed and die.

O teach me what it cost Thee,
To make a sinner whole;
And teach me, Saviour, teach me
The value of a soul.

(Detzler, Wayne E: New Testament Words in Today's Language. Victor. 1986)

The Greek word hilaskomai means to make a propitiation and in context means to satisfy and thus turn aside the wrath of God. Therefore, propitiation refers to God's wrath being satisfied by the death of Christ, our "Mercy Seat" so to speak. (Ro 3:24-note, Ro 3:25- note; 1Jn 2:2, 4:10, cp Lev 16:14 = a shadow of the substance fulfilled in the Messiah). He was faithful in this obligation which He as High Priest had to God. If Jesus was to accomplish the purpose for which He was sent, He had to offer up His own life. And, faithful in His commitment to God’s will, He did exactly that.

Expiation (which emphasizes removal of sin by the sacrifice) is included in the definition of hilaskomai but does not as clearly picture the satisfaction of God's Wrath by the sacrifice and this latter concept is the main emphasis of this Greek word.

In Greek culture, the word group denoting "propitiation" carried with it the idea of acting in some way to avert the terrible, destructive powers of the gods and, if possible, to win the gods over to act favorably. The LXX Translation chose this word group when translating kippur (to cover, make atonement).

Jesus' sacrifice as the God–Man satisfied God’s justice so that, instead of God justifiably demonstrating His wrath toward sinful man (Ro 1:18-note; Ro 5:8, 9-note; Ro 5:10-note), He demonstrated His mercy. Christ is the High Priest Who offered Himself once for all time, becoming at once both the sacrificial offering or victim and the priest, thus satisfying the justice of God and at the same time procuring forgiveness of sins whereby a regenerate and reconciled sinner is offered bold access to and full communion with the holy God. Therefore, the Lord Jesus as the High Priest is said not to appease God in any way, but to make possible the taking away of the sins of the people without violating God’s holiness.

Hilaskomai is used only twice in the NT and 12 times in the Septuagint...
 

Luke 18:13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful (hilaskomai - aorist imperative) to me, the sinner!'

Comment: Not "a" sinner but "the" sinner. He openly and willingly acknowledges his personal responsibility for missing God's mark.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hilaskomai - 12x in the Septuagint - Ex 32:14; Deut 21:8; 2 Kgs 5:18; 24:4; 2 Chr 6:30; Esth 4:17; Ps 25:11; 65:3; 78:38; 79:9; Lam 3:42; Dan 9:19 and here are some of the uses.
 

Exodus 32:14 So the LORD changed His mind (English of the Lxx = nd the Lord was prevailed upon [propitiated] to preserve his people.) about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

Deuteronomy 21:8 'Forgive (Lxx = hileos - attribute of God = merciful, gracious, favorable) Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven (Heb = salach = forgive; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiated) them.

2 Kings 5:18YLT "In this matter may the LORD pardon (Lxx = hilaskomai) your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter."

2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the LORD would not forgive (Heb = salach = forgive; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate).

2 Chronicles 6:30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive (Heb = salach = forgive; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate), and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

Psalm 25:11-note For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon  (Heb = salach = forgive; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate) my iniquity, for it is great. (Note the basis for the psalmist's appeal for his sin to be forgiven! = for the sake of His great name!)

Psalm 65:3-note Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You forgive them (NET Note = "make atonement for") (Heb = kaphar = cover over; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate).

Psalm 78:38-note But He, being compassionate, forgave (Heb = kaphar = cover over; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiated) their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath.

Psalm 79:9-note Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive (Heb = kaphar = cover over; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate). our sins for Your name's sake.

Lamentations 3:42 We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned (Heb = salach = forgive; Lxx = hilaskomai - propitiate).

Marvin Vincent in his comments on hilasterion in Romans 3:25 has a long note on this word group...

Propitiation (hilasterion [word study]). This word is most important, since it is the key to the conception of Christ’s atoning work. In the New Testament it occurs only here and Heb 9:5; and must be studied in connection with the following kindred words: Hilaskomai which occurs in the New Testament only Luke 18:13, God be merciful, and Heb. 2:17, to make reconciliation. Hilasmos, twice, 1Jn 2:2; 4:10; in both cases rendered propitiation. The compound exilaskomai, which is not found in the New Testament, but is frequent in the Septuagint and is rendered purge, cleanse, reconcile, make atonement.

Septuagint usage. These words mostly represent the Hebrew verb kaphar to cover or conceal, and its derivatives. With only seven exceptions, out of about sixty or seventy passages in the Old Testament, where the Hebrew is translated by atone or atonement, the Septuagint employs some part or derivative of  Hilaskomai or exilaskomai. Hilasmos or exilasmos is the usual Septuagint translation for kippurim covering for sin, AV, atonement. Thus sin-offerings of atonement; day of atonement; ram of the atonement. See Ex 29:36; 30:10; Lv. 23:27; Nu 5:8, etc. They are also used for chattath sin-offering, Ezek 44:27; 45:19; and for selichah forgiveness. Ps 129:4; Da 9:9.

These words are always used absolutely, without anything to mark the offence or the person propitiated.

Hilaskomai which is comparatively rare, occurs as a translation of kipher to cover sin, Ps. 64:3; 77:38; 78:9; AV, purge away, forgive, pardon. Of salach, to bear away as a burden, 2Ki 5:18; Ps 24:11: AV, forgive, pardon. It is used with the accusative (direct objective) case, marking the sin, or with the dative (indirect objective), as be conciliated to our sins.

Exilaskomai mostly represents kipher to cover, and is more common than the simple verb. Thus, purge the altar, Ezek 43:26; cleanse the sanctuary, Ezek 45:20; reconcile the house, Da 9:24. It is found with the accusative case of that which is cleansed; with the preposition peri = concerning, as “for your sin,” Ex  32:30; with the preposition huper = on behalf of, AV, for, Ezek 45:17; absolutely, to make an atonement, Lv 16:17; with the preposition apo = from, as “cleansed from the blood,” Nu 35:33. There are but two instances of the accusative of the person propitiated: appease him, Ge 32:20; pray before (propitiate) the Lord, Zech 7:2.

Hilasterion AV, propitiation, is almost always used in the Old Testament of the mercy-seat or golden cover of the ark, and this is its meaning in Heb. 9:5, the only other passage of the New Testament in which it is found. In Ezek 43:14, 17, 20, it means a ledge round a large altar, and is rendered settle in AV; Rev., ledge, in margin.

This term has been unduly pressed into the sense of expiatory sacrifice. In the case of the kindred verbs, the dominant Old-Testament sense is not propitiation in the sense of some. thing offered to placate or appease anger; but atonement or reconciliation, through the covering, and so getting rid of the sin which stands between God and man. The thrust of the idea is upon the sin or uncleanness, not upon the offended party. Hence the frequent interchange with hagiazo to sanctify, and katharizo = to cleanse. See Ezek 43:26, where exilasontai = shall purge, and kathariousin = shall purify, are used coordinately. See also Ex 30:10, of the altar of incense: “Aaron shall make an atonement (exilasetai) upon the horns of it — with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement” (katharismou = purification). Compare Lv 16:20. The Hebrew terms are also used coordinately.

Our translators frequently render the verb kaphar by reconcile, Lv 6:30; 16:20; Ezek 45:20. In Lv 8:15, Moses put blood upon the horns of the altar and cleansed (ekatharise) the altar, and sanctified (hagiasen) it, to make reconciliation (ton exilasasthai) upon it. Compare Ezek 45:15, 17; Da 9:24.

The verb and its derivatives occur where the ordinary idea of expiation is excluded. As applied to an altar or to the walls of a house (Lv 14:48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53), this idea could have no force, because these inanimate things, though ceremonially unclean, could have no sin to be expiated. Moses, when he went up to make atonement for the idolatry at Sinai, offered no sacrifice, but only intercession. See also the case of Korah, Num. 16:46; the cleansing of leprosy and of mothers after childbirth, Lev. 14:1-20; 12:7; 15:30; the reformation of Josiah, 2Chr 34; the fasting and confession of Ezra, Ezra 10:1-15; the offering of the Israelite army after the defeat of Midian. They brought bracelets, rings, etc., to make an atonement (exilasasthai) before the Lord; not expiatory, but a memorial, Nu 31:50, 51, 52, 53, 54. The Passover was in no sense expiatory; but Paul says,

“Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us; therefore purge out (ekkatharate) the old leaven. Let us keep the feast with sincerity and truth;” 1Co 5:7, 8.

In the Old Testament the idea of sacrifice as in itself a propitiation continually recedes before that of the personal character lying back of sacrifice, and which alone gives virtue to it. See 1Sa 15:22; Ps 40:6, 7, 8, 9, 10; 50:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23; 51:16, 17; Is 1:11-18-note; Jer 7:21, 22, 23; Amos 5:21, 22, 23, 24; Mic 6:6, 7, 8. This idea does not recede in the Old Testament to be re-emphasized in the New. On the contrary, the New Testament emphasizes the recession, and lays the stress upon the cleansing and life giving effect of the sacrifice of Christ. See John 1:29; Col. 1:20, 21, 22-note; Heb. 9:14-note; Heb 10:19, 20, 21-note; 1Pe 2:24-note; 1Jn 1:7; 4:10, 11, 12, 13.

The true meaning of the offering of Christ concentrates, therefore, not upon divine justice, but upon human character; not upon the remission of penalty for a consideration, but upon the deliverance from penalty through moral transformation; not upon satisfying divine justice, but upon bringing estranged man into harmony with God. As Canon Westcott remarks:

“The scripture conception of hilaskesthai is not that of appeasing one who is angry with a personal feeling against the offender, but of altering the character of that which, from without, occasions a necessary alienation, and interposes an inevitable obstacle to fellowship” (Commentary on St. John’s Epistles, p. 85).

In the light of this conception we are brought back to that rendering of hilasterion which prevails in the Septuagint, and which it has in the only other New-Testament passage where it occurs (He 9:5) — mercy-seat; a rendering maintained by a large number of the earlier expositors, and by some of the ablest of the moderns. That it is the sole instance of its occurrence in this sense is a fact which has its parallel in the terms Passover, Door, Rock, Amen, Day-spring, and others, applied to Christ. To say that the metaphor is awkward counts for nothing in the light of other metaphors of Paul. To say that the concealment of the ark is inconsistent with set forth is to adduce the strongest argument in favor of this rendering. The contrast with set forth falls in perfectly with the general conception. That mercy-seat which was veiled, and which the Jew could approach only once a year, and then through the medium of the High-Priest, is now brought out where all can draw nigh and experience its reconciling power (He 10:19, 22; compare Heb. 9:8). “The word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory. We saw and handled’ (Jn 1:14; 1Jn 1:1, 2, 3). The mercy-seat was the meeting-place of God and man (Ex 25:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; Lv 16:2; Nu 7:89); the place of mediation and manifestation. Through Christ, the antitype of the mercy-seat, the Mediator, man has access to the Father (Ep 2:18). As the golden surface covered the tables of the law, so Christ stands over the law, vindicating it as holy and just and good, and therewith vindicating the divine claim to obedience and holiness. As the blood was annually sprinkled on the golden cover by the High-Priest, so Christ is set forth “in His blood,” not shed to appease God’s wrath, to satisfy God’s justice, nor to compensate for man’s disobedience, but as the highest expression of divine love for man, taking common part with humanity even unto death, that it might reconcile it through faith and self-surrender to God. (Romans 3 Greek Word Studies)

Sins (266) (hamartia) originally had the idea of missing mark as when hunting with a bow and arrow then missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose.

Sins interrupt normal relations with God. In the OT, blood covered over (atoned for) the the sins and God passed over them at that time (Ro 3:25-note), but they were unable to give the worshiper a clean conscience (an important theme in Hebrews) and thus the blood offerings always needed to be repeated, this very repetition being the vehicle God had ordained to lead people to His perfect Sacrifice, the Messiah. See Lev 16:20, 22; which foreshadows the substitutionary aspect of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary.

Lev 16:20 "When he finishes atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. 21 "Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. 22 "And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

Under the Old Covenant, the Law, the Mosaic System, sins were confessed and symbolically transferred to the sacrificial animal, on which hands were laid

Ex 29:10 "Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull.

Lev 1:4 'And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf...Lev 3:8 and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and slay it before the tent of meeting; and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar...Lev 4:4 'And he shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull, and slay the bull before the LORD. (Lev 1:4 3:8; 4:4)

Observe that the sins of the people are the direct object of the verb hilaskomai. Therefore, it is not the nature of God that is changed from one of hatred to one of love toward man, but it is the nature of man that is changed. Paul writes...

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Ro 5:9-note)

In Romans 5:9, man is presented as having been justified by means of the blood (i.e., the sacrificial death) of Christ, and through Him escaping God’s wrath. Man is then proclaimed as not guilty and is portrayed as reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

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What's The Incarnation? - The incarnation. It's one of those big doctrinal terms that may puzzle us. What does it mean? Let's take a few moments to think about it.

Look at yourself in a mirror. What do you think it would feel like to be a different person? You will never know. You may modify your body by exercise and diet. You may change your mind and your behavior. You may even resort to surgery. But you and I will forever be the unique individuals God created us to be. Regardless of how much we may try, we can't actually experience what it is to be another person.

What was it like, then, for God to take on our human nature and live as a man who was despised and misunderstood on this fallen planet? (Isa. 53). He already knew exactly what sinful people go through. After all, He is all-knowing. Yet He voluntarily came to Bethlehem, entered into our suffering and sorrow, and personally experienced our trials and temptations (He 4:15-note). He lovingly became one of us to pay the penalty for our sins and to conquer death (see note Hebrews 2:14). Because He suffered, He is able to assist us now (see note Hebrews 4:16).

That's what the incarnation is all about. And if we thank Jesus for all eternity, it still won't be enough. —Vernon C Grounds (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Touched with sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For He hath felt the same. --Watts

The Son of God became the Son of Man
to change sons of men into sons of God.

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Tale Of Two Goats - Two goats without blemish stood before the high priest in the bright Middle Eastern sun. Lots were cast, and the priest slowly led one to the altar to be killed as a sin offering for the people. Its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. That goat was a sacrifice.

The other goat, known as the scapegoat, portrays another truth. The priest placed both his hands on its forehead and confessed the sins of Israel. Then the goat was led out into the desert and turned loose. As it wandered away, never to be seen again, it symbolically took Israel's sins along with it. They were gone. The people were reconciled to God. That goat was a substitute.

Both of these goats were pictures of what Christ would do for us. The cross became an upright altar, where the Lamb of God gave His life as a sacrifice for sin. And what the scapegoat symbolically portrayed for Israel—the removal of their sins—Jesus fulfilled in reality. He became our substitute. Because of our identification with Him as believers, our sins have been taken away completely.

Two goats representing two truths: sacrifice and substitution. Both were fulfilled in Christ when He died on the cross and made full atonement for our sins. Praise God! —David C. Egner (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! Can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior! —Bliss

Jesus took our place to give us His peace.

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Human Like Us - Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else? Nearly 40 years ago, John Howard Griffin darkened his skin color and experienced life in a predominantly white society. In his fascinating book Black Like Me, Griffin describes his travels in the United States, and he tells about the sad discrimination and prejudice he faced.

The Son of God did far more than change His appearance. He laid aside His glory and took on our humanity. He lived on this earth as a man who was despised and rejected (Isaiah 53; see notes Philippians 2:5; 2:6; 2:7; 2:8). Because of His love for us, He entered into our sorrow, and He came to know by personal experience the feelings we humans have.

The writer to the Hebrews said that because Jesus lived as a man and died for our sins, He is our merciful and faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:14; 2:17). Because He became one of us and knows what it is like to be tempted, He is able to help us when we are tempted (see note Hebrews 2:18). We can pray in His name with boldness (see notes Hebrews 4:15; 16), telling Him in complete honesty our struggles, fears, defeats, needs--even our questionings and doubts. That's why, as we remember all He endured for us as the Son of God from glory, we love Him and strive to please Him. —Vernon C Grounds (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Once from the realms of infinite glory,
Down to the depths of our ruin and loss,
Jesus came, seeking--oh, love's sweet story--
Came to the manger, the shame, and the cross. --Strickland

The Son of God became one of us
that we might become one with Him.

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Feeling Our Sorrow - When Christ became a man, He showed His willingness to be tempted, tested, hated, and hurt. During His life on earth, He faced the same struggles we encounter. He had been sympathetic to man's weaknesses before He came, but by taking a human body He identified with us in a dramatic way. His incarnation revealed the extent to which He would go to pay for our sin and to be touched by the trials and infirmities that make life so difficult for us.

On a smaller scale, people try to empathize with the sufferings of others. John Griffin, a white man, darkened his skin in an effort to understand what it meant to be black in a predominantly white society. He told about his experiences in a book titled Black Like Me. More recently, a thirty-year-old woman, an industrial designer, masqueraded as an elderly woman once a week for three years to find out how it feels to be old in America. What she learned is heartbreaking. She was robbed, insulted, and frightened by a world that isn't easy on its elderly.

As touching as these examples are, they are nothing compared with Christ's coming into our world. No one else left so high a position to feel what mortal man feels. Jesus gave up heaven's glory and was tempted in all points as we are, yet He did not sin. He bore our sins on the cross so that He could be merciful to us.

We have One who cares. When we face temptations and trials, we can go to Jesus. He knows the feeling. —M. R. De Haan II (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot feel.

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F B Meyer on A merciful and faithful high priest. - Hebrews 2:17

The priesthood of Jesus stretches like the sky from the horizon of the past to that of the eternal future. It covers all we know of Him.

In the days that preceded His incarnation. - We are told that the priesthood of Melchizedek was made like that of the Son of God (see note Hebrews 7:3), from which it is clear that all the apparatus of priesthood within and without the Jewish system was some faint imagining forth of the priestly mediation and intercession of the Saviour. The eternal temple was reared, the incense of intercession ascended, the sacrifice of the Lamb was slain, before the first thin spiral of smoke rose from Moriah's summit.

In the days of His earthly ministry. - At the Passover, when the High Priest had finished the sacred rites, he came forth to the people, and said, "Now ye are clean." In John 15:3 Jesus addressed His disciples in the same words. His authority to forgive sins; His quick sympathy, and likeness to His brethren; His frequent prayers; His intercessions for sinners, as when He pleaded for His crucifiers 3 His intercessions for the tempted, as when He prayed for Peter; His intercessions for His own, as in the matchless John 17; His reference to the shedding of blood; the whole circumstances of His death-show His priestly attitude, which culminated in His passing within the veil.

In the days of the present dispensation. - The divine apostle tells us that he saw Christ clothed in a vesture to the foot, and employs this specific word for high-priestly dress. He saw Him engaged in priestly ministry; and in a subsequent vision tells us that he saw Him mingle much incense with the prayer of saints, and present them before God. (Our Daily Homily)

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J C Philpot has the following devotional thought on Hebrews 2:17...

What heart can conceive or tongue express, the infinite depths of the Redeemer's condescension in thus being made like unto his brethren--that the Son of God should assume a finite nature, subject to the sinless infirmities necessarily connected with a time-state and a dwelling on earth; that he should leave the bosom of his Father in which he had lain before all worlds, and should consent to become a inhabitant of this world of tears; to breathe earthly air; to be an eye-witness of, and himself share in human sorrows; to have before his eyes the daily spectacle of human sins; to be banished so long from his native home; to endure hunger, weariness, and thirst; to be subject to the persecutions of men, the flight of all his disciples, and the treachery of one among them whose hand had been with him on the table; not to hide his face from shame and spitting, but to be mocked, struck, buffeted, and scourged, and at last to die an agonizing death between two malefactors, amid scorn and infamy, and covered, as men thought, with everlasting confusion and disgrace! O what infinite condescension and mercy are displayed in these sufferings and sorrows of an incarnate God! The Lord give us faith to look to him as suffering them for our sake! (from Daily Portions)

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God gave the persons of the elect into the hands of his dear Son, as Jacob committed Benjamin into the hands of Judah; and as Judah accepted Benjamin, so Christ accepted the Church and undertook to bring it unto God, or he himself would bear the blame forever. But how this faithfulness was tried! Men tried it; devils tried it; God tried it; but it came gloriously through all. Yet what loads were laid upon it! How the very knees of Jesus, so to speak, staggered beneath it! How, as Deer says, he had– "Strength enough, and none to spare!"

How he had to sustain the curse of the law and the load of imputed sin! How he had to drink up a very hell of inward torment! How he had to be agonized in body, and more than agonized in soul! What bloody sweat in the garden, what tears, what sore amazement, what heaviness of spirit, what sorrowfulness even unto death; what pangs of body upon the cross, what grief of mind, what distress of soul, did the Holy Lamb endure in being faithful unto God! How he might have prayed, and his Father would have sent him twelve legions of angels! He had but to speak, and he might have soared to heaven and left the cross and all its shame and suffering behind.

But he was faithful to God and to the work which he had undertaken. Six weary hours he hung upon the cross. Six weary hours he endured the wrath of God, and that most cutting stroke of all, reserved to the last as the bitterest drop in the whole cup, the hiding of his Father's countenance, which wrung from his bosom that cry, such as neither earth nor heaven had heard before--"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And yet not until he had finished the work did he give up his spirit. So he was faithful "in all things pertaining to God."

And he is faithful, also, in all things pertaining to man. He could say to the Father, "Of all whom you have given me"– except the son of perdition, Judas; he had no charge to save him from death and hell; but of all the others whom he had received as his Father's gift, he could say, "I have lost none." Thus he was faithful while he was on earth. And how faithful he is now! The high priest under the law had two offices to execute; he had to OFFER SACRIFICE for the people, and to offer prayer and INTERCESSION for them. Upon earth Jesus fulfilled the first; in heaven he fulfils the second, as there making by virtue of his presence continual intercession for us. (J. C. Philpot. Daily Words for Zion's Wayfarers)

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CHRIST'S MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HELP

"Merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God." Hebrews 2:17.


DOST thou wonder that thy Lord was tempted and sorrowful? It is indeed the marvel of eternity; and yet not so marvelous, when we consider the beings whom he elected to succor, help, and save, and of whom each of us is one. Had he chosen to lay hold of fallen angels, with a view of raising them from their lost estate, he would without doubt have taken upon himself their nature, and descended into the pit; identifying himself with their miseries, and paving, by his sufferings, a pathway across the great fixed gulf which intervenes between their lost estate and Paradise. But verily he took not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham; and had no alternative therefore but to assimilate himself in all points to the nature of those whom, in infinite mercy and grace, he brothered. There are two things thou needest, reader; and not thou only, but all men, reconciliation, and succor in the hour of temptation. These instinctive cravings of the soul are as mighty and as irrepressible as the craving of the body for sleep or food; and they are as evident amid our luxury and refinement as in primeval forests, or beside the historic rivers of antiquity-the Nile, the Indus, the Euphrates. To meet these two needs, men have constituted one of their number a priest. That word has an ominous sound to our ears, because it has been associated with immoralities and cruelty. The world has never seen more unscrupulous or rapacious tyrants than its priests, whether of Baal or Moloch, of Judaism or the Papacy. All through the ages it has seemed impossible for men to receive power in the spiritual realm without abusing it to the injury of those who sought their help. Study the history of the priesthood, which murdered Christ because he threw too strong a light upon its hypocrisies and villainies, and you have the history of every priestcraft which has darkened the world with crime, and saturated its soil with the blood of the noblest and saintliest of men. And yet the idea of the priest is a natural and a beautiful one. It is natural for men who are conscious of sin barring their access into the presence of a holy God, and demanding sacrifice in order to peace, to say to one of their fellows, "Our hands are stained with blood, and grimed with toil; our garments spotted with pollution and dust; our lives too busy for us to spare time for those rites which alone can fit the sinner to stand before the eye of God: do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; prepare thyself by holy rite and vigil and fasting from sin, so as to be able to stand in the presence-chamber of the All-Holy; and when thou hast acquired the right of audience with him, speak for us, atone for us, make reconciliation for our sins; and then come forth to us, succoring and blessing those who cannot attain to thy position, but must ever struggle as best they may with the strong, rough, bad world in which they are doomed to live." This seems the underlying thought of the vast system which has built temples in every land, reared altars on every soil, and constituted a priesthood amid the most degraded as well as the most civilized races of mankind. And there is great beauty in the work and ministry of a true priest. Not always engaged in the darker work of sacrificing flocks of fleecy sheep, by which alone, in those rude days, the cost of sin could be computed; the true priest would have other, and, perhaps, more congenial work. He would be the shepherd of the timid souls around him; listening to confessions whispered over the heads of the dumb victims; feeling compassion for erring and wayward ones; comforting those who were passing through scenes of sorrow, till faces shadowed with tears began to gleam with holy light; arresting the proud hand of the oppressor, as Ambrose did in lawless days, to rescue the poor from the mailed blow. Never studying self-interest; never at ease or pleasure or gain; never resting while one poor wanderer was away in the snowdrift or on the wild. Yes, and more: he would be the spokesman of souls, praying for those who did not pray for themselves; praying for those who knew not what or how to ask; interceding for the whole race of man. Ah! how often must such a one have been compelled by the pressure of the burden to go apart from the busy crowds to some lone spot, that he might pour out before God the long litany of need and sorrow and temptation which had been poured into his heart. Lovely ideal; ah, how seldom realized! All this is Jesus Christ, and more. Words fail indeed to say all that he is in himself, or all that he can be to those that trust him. And it is because of this that he is able to give such blessed help to all who need it. Let us consider that help.

I. IT IS SOVEREIGN AND UNEXPECTED HELP

Angels fell. Once they were the peers of heaven. They sang its songs, plucked its flowers of amaranth, and drank its tranquil bliss. They loved its King, and served him, like the sunbeam, with unpolluted brightness and unswerving direction. But, alas! they fell from heaven to hell. And for them there is no help, so far as we can learn. "God taketh not hold of angels." But he has set his heart upon us, the poor children of dust, the creatures of the transient moments of time, who had fallen by the same sin of self-will. Here is a theme for meditation! We cannot pierce the mystery, or understand its full import. But we may, with wondering faith and joy, accept the chalice, brimming with unmerited, unexpected, undeserved grace, and drain its draughts of bliss.

II. IT IS HUMAN HELP

" Made like unto his brethren."

The peculiarity of this phrase testifies to Christ's pre-existence and glory, and indicates how great a stoop on his part it involved ere he could be like man. He had to be made like man, i.e., he was not like man in the original constitution of his being. We cannot solve the mystery of the holy incarnation. And yet the thought of it has never been quite foreign to the heart of man. Many a Greek and Hindu myth rested on an instinctive craving for the presence of God in human flesh, which became parent to the belief that such a thing had been, and might be again. Even in the highlands of Galatia, the most ready explanation of the miracles of Paul was that the gods had come down in the likeness of men. But though there be such a profound mystery resting on this subject, yet the union of the Almighty with a human life is at least not more incomprehensible than the union of a spiritual, unmaterial principle, as the soul, with a material organism, as the human body. When the secrets of our own nature have been unraveled, it will be time enough for us to demand of the Almighty that, when he assumes our nature, lie should disrobe himself of all mystery. How exquisite is the arrangement that God's help should come to us through the Son of Man; that our Helper should shed true human tears, and feel true human pity Jew though he was, child of the most exclusive and intolerant of peoples, yet the humanity which is greater than Judaism makes us oblivious to all else than that lie is our Brother.

III. IT IS HIGH-PRIESTLY HELP

The full meaning of this phrase will appear as we proceed. It is sufficient to say here, that all that men have sought to realize in human priesthoods, but in vain, is realized with transcendent beauty in him. Nor is there any way of weaning men from the human priesthoods which deceive, but to present to them the all-glorious, immaculate priesthood of Christ. It is of little use only to denounce the priests that are coming back to Protestant England through a thousand covert channels, or the people who go to them. There is a craving in their heart which impels them. It is of no use to fight against nature. But satisfy it; give it its true nutriment; supply its wants with reality; and it will be content to drop the false for the true, the paste diamond for the Golconda pebbles, the human for the divine. Men must have a priest; and they are going back to the mummeries of Rome, because there has been too scanty a presentation in our pulpits of the priesthood of Jesus.

IV. IT IS MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HELP

When we are in need, we want help wedded with mercy. The patient in the infirmary does not like to be treated as a broken watch. Oh that he were at home again, to be nursed by the soft hands of his mother, which ever feel so skillful and gentle and soft! We need merciful help, which does not upbraid, is not in too great a hurry to listen, and gladly takes all extenuating circumstances into account. Such mercy is in the heart of Jesus. And his help is ever faithful, too. This word has a fine tint of meaning, almost lost in our translation, giving the idea of one who runs up at the first cry of distress. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He watches us with a gaze which is not for a moment diverted from us. He sees us through the storm. He sits beside the molten metal. He will help us right early -i.e., when the day breaks. You may be bereft of all power of consecutive thought, unable to utter a single intelligible sentence, frantic with agony and remorse; but if you can only moan, he will instantly respond. "He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry."

V. IT IS HELP BASED ON RECONCILIATION FOR SIN

Sin is one of the greatest facts in our history. It is impossible to ignore it. You cannot explain man unless you take it into account. For this the world has been covered with the apparatus of sacrifice; and the cry has rung in a monotone of despair, "How shall man be just with God?" But Jesus met the demands of conscience, echoing those of a broken law, when on Calvary, as High-Priest, he offered himself as victim, and made an all-sufficient, satisfactory, and complete sacrifice for the sin of the world. Burdened one, groaning under the load of sin, remember that he bare thy sins in his own body on the tree. Approach the holy God, reminding him of that fact, and daring on account of it to stand unabashed and accepted in his sight.

VI. IT IS SYMPATHETIC HELP FOR THE TEMPTED

"Them that are tempted."