"35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."
Hebrews 10:35-39
These words form a natural introduction to the next chapter which deals with the heroes of the faith, and what follows there is really an exposition of the phrase, 'Cast not away your confidence'. The Apostle shows how the saints of old held fast their confidence and stood firm and steadfast amid all kind of difficulties and pressures. This is the point here. And, having given such solemn warning in the previous verses of the disastrous consequences of falling away and going back, he now proceeds to encourage his readers with the assurance that the reward of standing firm and steadfast is very great. There is 'great recompense of reward'. The Lord rewards at compound interest, so we may gather from His own wonderful words in the parable of the Talents: 'Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things'. Paul argues in similar fashion in Romans 8:18: 'I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us', and in 2 Corinthians 4:17, 'Our light affliction... worketh a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory...'. It is all a question of keeping our eyes fixed upon the unseen realities of the situation. Given this, argues the Apostle, then all will be well. The just shall live by faith - not by sight, resting upon the promises of the God of truth that cannot lie, resting patiently and unwaveringly until hope changes 'to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise'.