“The Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’”
If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one . . . choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.—“But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.—“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.—“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you.”
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Deut. 17:16; Heb. 11:15, 16, 25, 26; Heb. 10:38, 39; Luke 9:62; Gal. 6:14; 2 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:6
