"12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."
Hebrews 12:12-17
Exhortation and warning are finely blended in these verses, as the Apostle reminds his readers that trials are no cause for despondency. J.B. Phillips translates 'lift up the hands which hang down' (12) very graphically - 'Take a fresh grip on life', and hearts in the grip of black discouragement need no word so much as this. Certainly, to see the purpose and intention of God in the trials we endure will go a long way to bracing the spirit. 'Straight' in 13 has the force of 'going in the right direction', and we may think of the ploughman ploughing a straight furrow by keeping his eyes fixed on the post on the other side of the field. There may be a suggestion also here of the very winding path that Israel took on the way to the Promised Land. They had to turn back at Kadesh Barnea because of unbelief. They did not learn the lesson of their chastening and discipline, but murmured against God and rebelled. The reference to 'that which is lame' in 13 is illumined considerably by the more modern renderings. Phillips puts it, 'On the right path the limping foot recovers strength' and the NEB has, 'Then the dislocated limb will not be put out of joint, but regain its former powers'. These translations seem to suggest that there is a healing power at work on the right way, and this is one aspect of the 'living way' that we should not miss. Christ is the way and He is the fount of healing. Are we limping in our spiritual lives? Then we must get back on to the straight road that will make us strong again.