Hebrews 10:37 Commentary and Bible Study

Most expositors used to say that the coming referred to in this verse is the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Christ of course had come at the time of writing of this letter to the Hebrews. He had come and the church has been established for many years, but one of the features of his incarnation, his coming and his new kingdom, was of course the judgement of the Jews at the time of the fall of Jerusalem. So that too is loosely described as a coming of Christ, although of course it is not literally his coming. He says, ‘Yet a little while’, because A.D. 70 is approaching. From the writer’s perspective it can happen very soon: ‘he that shall come will come and will not tarry.’ God chose Israel and made a covenant with that nation. He kept them distinct from the other nations; he defended them and provided for them. Some followed in the footsteps of their father Abraham and trusted in the living God, but the majority believed that they had been chosen because they were superior to the surrounding nations and they never came to faith. For these, time was running out, for Christ when he came would no longer deal with the nation as a mixed multitude. His church would be a regenerate church, and those who did not believe would be shut out. In the timetable of God, A.D. 70 was to be the time when the old arrangement would cease, and the decisive indication of this was the final destruction of the city and temple, the end of ceremonial worship under the law. Jerusalem would be surrounded, but the Christians will be safe, because most of them will have been dispersed by persecution and those that remain, the thousands that remain in Jerusalem who were converted would have been warmed by the prophecy of Christ some 30 years before, that then there is a menace of the invasion, they are to flee to a certain place for safety.