Hebrews 5:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Although this verse follows on closely from verse 6, it is speaking of Christ, not of Melchisedec, as is clear from verse 8, where it is the Son (Hebrews 5:5) who is in mind, and the subject of both verse 7 and 8 is the Son’s suffering. This is Christ praying, praying with strong crying and tears, praying with great intensity. ‘Who in the days of his flesh’ – ‘days’ reminds us that Christ was not in the flesh on earth for long. He was executed early in life and his public ministry was even shorter than his life. At first sight, the verse suggests that Christ was praying for deliverance from death. Well, he did pray earnestly for deliverance from death in Gethsemane just in advance of Calvary's cross, but he immediately said, ‘Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.’ So we know that on that occasion he was praying those words for our benefit, so that it should be evident to us that there was no other way of salvation but for him to suffer and die. His flesh recoiled; as God he could see what he was about to go through and the magnitude of the horror and pain on account of having our sins placed upon him and being separated from his Father. But not for a moment did he actually mean to ask that the divine plan should be changed, because he immediately indicates this was the purpose for which he had come and the will of God the Father must be done. We do not forget that he is man as well as God, and he was taking our place and voluntarily subjecting himself to his Father’s will. These were prayers to the Father on high, who could save him from death, and they were heard for he was raised from the dead. So when did this prayer take place? The Scripture does not tell us, but we know that Christ was constantly in prayer to his Father. We can well imagine that he would pray for deliverance from death before Calvary. There were times when they went to kill him and he was even surrounded by those who would thrust him over the edge of a cliff. The authorities intended to kill him even before the time appointed and tried to arrest him. We can well imagine that at such times he would have cried out to God the Father. He could have exerted his power to deliver himself from death, but because he was taking our place and acting for us as our representative he reserved his own powers, and called upon the Father to act and deliver him because he must not die before Calvary. Another suggestion is that he prayed before and during Calvary that he would not be crushed in his human nature before he had borne the complete burden of the punishment of the sin of his people. The wrath of God, that was poured out upon him and the agony that he endured was so great. What human frame could possibly endure it? Another ancient suggestion is that he prayed that he would succeed and survive, so that he would duly be resurrected from the dead to purchase eternal life and give assurance to all his people in every age.