<p>2:17- see on Lk. 24:6; Jn. 19:13.</p><p><i>Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brothers</i>- The same Greek word is used in 1 Jn. 3:2 of how finally, we shall be &quot;made like&quot; Him. His experiences of life, of our humanity, brought Him into identity with us- so that we might reach final identity with Him. The language of 2:14-18 may well be intended to be talking specifically about the Lord's death. This ongoing process of being 'made like' us came to particular intensity at that time. The hymn of Phil. 2 makes the same point- that the Lord was made like us mentally particularly through His experience of crucifixion and death. His death became ours, so that His resurrection and life shall likewise become ours. But &quot;made like&quot; implies a process, as if through His life experience He progressively came to identify with all men, and this process of identification and total understanding of all men came to a peak culmination in His time of dying. &quot;Made like&quot; means fundamentally 'to assimilate'. He assimilated all that there is in man, so that nobody can ever now complain that there is nobody who understands them. On earth there indeed is not, but there is the Heavenly man who does.</p><p>Moses' persecution by Pharaoh enabled him to enter into the feelings of Israel in the slave camps; and as they fled from Pharaoh towards the Red Sea, Moses would have recalled his own flight from Pharaoh to Midian. The whole epistle to the Hebrews is shot through with allusions to Moses. &quot;In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren&quot; (Heb. 2:17) is alluding to Dt. 18:18:&nbsp;&ldquo;I will raise them up a Prophet <i>from among their brethren</i> like unto <i>thee </i>(Moses)&quot;. The brethren of Christ are here paralleled with Moses; as if Moses really is representative of not only natural Israel, but spiritual too- as well as Moses being a type of Christ. For this reason he is such a clear pattern for us, and we are invited so often to identify ourselves with him by copying his example. Moses was <i>made like</i> his brethren through his similar experiences, as Christ was progressively <i>made like</i> us by his life of temptation.&nbsp;</p><p><i>So that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people</i>- The Jewish High Priest was doing a job, and had no personal dispensation which allowed him to be merciful / compassionate (Gk.) to the offerers who came to him or to the people for whom he interceded. The Lord Jesus is a High Priest who has the capacity to show compassion, who is faithful or trustworthy to do the required work of obtaining our forgiveness. &quot;Things pertaining to God&quot; is an attempt to translate <i>pros theos</i>, the very phrase used in Jn. 1:1, &quot;with God&quot; and Jn. 13:3 &quot;to God&quot; (also Jn. 20:17 &quot;I ascend... <i>pros</i> my Father&quot;). The Lord is not simply &quot;with God&quot; in a literal sense but He is before God and with Him in the sense that He and the Father are 'together'; and the Lord Jesus is very much with us, on our side. He therefore is able uniquely to get our forgiveness. For He wants to save us... quite simply so. He is God &quot;with us&quot;, Emmanuel, bringing God to be on our side in the crucial area of dealing with our sins. When we read of prayer being made by believers <i>pros theos</i>, with or before God (e.g. Acts 12:5; Rom. 10:1; 15:30; 2 Cor. 13:7; Phil. 4:6), this is possible on account of the Lord's mediation for us there. It also explains how Paul could have a clean conscience <i>pros theos</i> (Acts 24:16), when there had been a time when he had walked against the goads of conscience. But his heavenly mediator <i>pros theos</i> brought him too <i>pros theos</i>, because he was &quot;in Christ&quot;. There in heaven itself, before God, we have peace and every confidence <i>pros theos</i> on account of our Lord Jesus (Rom. 5:1; 2 Cor. 3:4; 1 Jn. 3:21). For we are &quot;in Christ&quot;, and are therefore and thereby acceptably <i>pros theos</i> in Heaven itself (1 Thess. 1:8,9).</p>