This is an interesting set of scriptures. Often used independently of one another in quotations and sermons and sometimes together, they not only convey our responsibility but also a promise of God’s responsibility as well.

“Compassed about” is a term meaning to be surrounded. The “cloud of witnesses” is a multitude of witnesses, or rather those who bear witness to the race we are running and have already run the same race. This is like the crowd cheering for you. In every crowd there will always be those who want you to lose, but the writer here is not focused on the detractors  but rather the positive encouraging witnesses.

It has been said that these witnesses are “giants of the faith” that have gone on before us to be with the Lord. I would rather think that the witnesses are your church, family, friends and those within your inner circle that are cheering for you to succeed. If you don’t have anyone that you can think of cheering for you, don’t be discouraged. Somewhere, someone is praying for you, even if they don’t know you.

In bible times and in modern times, those who are strength training for a race will often attach weights to their body to give their muscles something to work against. As they struggle to run with these weights and strengthen themselves to run effectively with them, they are building endurance and power that will enable them to win against the competition once the weights are gone.

The verse continues with “and the sin”, which means that “laying aside every weight” isn’t merely sin.

The weight can be anything that prevents you from running at full strength or hinders your endurance.

“Laying aside” certainly sounds casual to me, but this was a term meaning “rid yourself of”.

If we understand the context of dropping the weights that hold us back from running the race, we also understand that no runner in a race is going to go back and pick of the weights he left behind, or he would surely lose the race.

The things we lay aside are not to be picked up again.

As we run the race, we run with patience, also meaning endurance. This is actively working, not passively standing by. Truly if a person is to run the race to win, they cannot be passive and stand by doing nothing.

In this kind of endurance, we are faced with adversity and so we must renew our faith.

Sometimes those who quote hebrews 12:1 will stop there, but the end of the verse is a comma not a period. The original writers of the Bible did not included book, chapter and scripture references. Those were added later, so it is important as we read the Bible that we understand the context of what we are reading with the surrounding scriptures, especially if a thought starts earlier than the scripture we are reading or continues on into other scriptures afterward.

Hebrews 12:2 is critically important to understanding verse 1.

How are we to run the race?

Where do we get our strength?

How do we have the faith to endure?

How do we lay aside the weights?

These are all important questions and all of them are summed up in verse 2.

So if we hear verse 1 by itself it certainly sounds good but verse 1 alone doesn’t give us the information to accomplish what it is talking about.

All too often we are given short feel-good verses or catchy “one-liners” but they are absent of the instructions needed to apply them in our lives.

It is similar to showing someone all of the useful features of a new computer but not giving them the instructions on how to use it.

Verse 2 continues saying, “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”.

The word “looking” in the Greek here is not about just fixing our eyes on Jesus, but specifically looking away from one thing to another. It indicates that we can only look at one thing or the other, but not both.

If you are running a race and you drop your weights, you cannot look back. If you look behind you, even for a moment, you may stumble and fall. It is natural to want to look behind to see what is going on or to see how far you have come. Yet God wants us to measure our success by the strength He gives us to endure in the race, and not look at where we came from.

Looking behind only serves to discourage you as you see the enemy getting closer, and it slows you down. You cannot run with full strength when your attention is taken away from what is in front of you.

Jesus is the author of our faith and the finisher. That means that He not only births the faith in us, but He strengthens our faith as we believe in Him and His Word.

The word “author” also can mean “leader”, such a “captain” or “prince”, and since it can have a dual meaning, it is left up to the reader to determine the proper interpretation. I like to think of Jesus as both the “author” and “finisher” as well as the “leader” or “captain” of our faith.

That means He not only gave us the faith to begin with to kick off a faith-belief journey, but that He is also leading a directing our faith towards what, when and how we need to believe. This puts us in the driver’s seat, but we are not left wanting for a direction to go.

Race car drivers have a crew chief that is always on their radio giving them direction.

Jesus leaves it up to us to run the race, but He is always giving us direction and encouragement. Just like a race car driver, we are never alone.

The scripture doesn’t leave us incapable of identifying with Jesus. It goes on to remind us that He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him.

This is a joy that only comes from the Holy Spirit.

A joy that we can have in the midst of terrible suffering.

“The joy was set before him” meaning that it was placed in front of him or set before someone in public display or exhibit.

The Septuagint usage has one questionable version of “set before” where it is called “bread of Presence”. I am reminded that Jesus said in Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Psalm‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬ says,  “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

There is joy in the presence of the Lord, and this joy that was set before Christ and before us is the “bread of Life”, the very “bread of His Presence” being both in us and set before us.

Leviticus‬ ‭24‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ says, “And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD.”

The shewbread in the tabernacle, also known as the “bread of Presence” is a type and shadow representing Christ’s sinless life and His offering for our sins. The shewbread was made with frankincense to represent a memorial and Jesus was even presented with frankincense at His birth.

It was with joy that Jesus gave His life for us, becoming the first fruits of the resurrection.

The joy set before Him was that He was to be the offering for our sins that we might be reconciled to God.

The priests would eat the shewbread, and because we share in his priesthood, it is as if we are also partaking of the shewbread and are resurrected with Him.

How similar this is to the communion we take, where we eat of bread and wine or juice representing His body and blood to remember Him.

His promises carry us through the race.

His witnesses encourage us because they’ve run the same race.

His leadership and authorship guides us as we strategically navigate the race and the joy of His presence and His Word is set before us and given to us that we might endure to the end when He completes and finishes our faith.

The scripture goes on to say that He despised the shame. The term “despised” here is that as used in Matthew 6:24 where Jesus said we cannot serve two masters. So He turned away from the shame of the cross completely placing His focus on the joy set before Him and on us.

“He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”, thus proclaiming His victory over sin and death.

If God has birthed and created something in you to believe for, I would encourage you to believe that He can bring it to completion.

I pray that your joy may be full no matter what you are going through, and I pray that you will not waiver, stumble or fall and let the enemy get a foothold in the race you are running.