Consider therefore, Him that endured such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  Hebrews 12: 3 & 4

   The portion of the Word of God that we call the letter to the Hebrews is all about our Lord Jesus.  This letter was written to Hebrew believers for the purpose of stirring them up to consider Jesus as Messiah.  In the providence of God, we have this letter for our sake, that we may consider Jesus.  The gospels record the human life of our Lord, and ALL scripture speak of Jesus as Messiah.

   Our purpose here is to consider what He experienced while here upon this earth.  Satan tempted Him.  His own people planned to kill him (Matt. 12: 1-14, 21: 33-49; John 5: 1-18; Luke 4: 16-30, 11: 45-57, 19: 45-48).  The Hebrews also sought to stone Jesus (John 8: 48-59, 10: 19-39).  Jesus’s own brothers ridiculed Him (John 7:1-8).  All this because He spoke the truth.

   Our Lord Jesus appeared in flesh to take away sin, being sinless Himself.  For, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22).  There is an incident that I often consider about our Lord when I grow faint and weary in my mind.  Let’s look at John chapter 19: 1-7.  These verses tell us that Pilate had Jesus scourged.  The Roman flagrum, used to scourge, was a short whip made of two or three ox-hide thongs connected to a handle.  Knotted on these thongs were pieces of metal at various intervals.  At times bone or heavy bronze pieces were tied to these thongs.  Hooks may have also been used on the ends of these thongs.

   Flagrum were designed to remove flesh from criminals’ bodies.  Romans did not have a limit to the number of times a person could be hit with a flagrum.  Often the criminal was scourged to the point of death, being stopped just prior so the criminal could be hung on a cross.  I do not wish to be gross here, you can research this yourself.  In verse 4 of John 19 Pilate tells the Jews, “…I find no fault in Him.”  In verse 6 Pilate again tells the Jews that he found no fault in our Lord, as the Jews cried, “Crucify, crucify Him…”

   I imagine our Lord tied to a post, continuously being slapped with a flagrum.  Blood flowing, flesh hanging, and we read of the affect of this beating in our Lord’s walking to Golgotha.  Our Lord Jesus, the Christ endured this without a sound, without complaint.  He endured this because of my sin, for the sin of His people.  I, have not shed my own blood striving against sin.

   “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.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted like we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.