READING ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
[p. 293] READING ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
WB--s Will you express your thought about the “oil of gladness”? Hebrews 1: 9. You alluded to it this morning. The Lord was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
JT I had thought of it in connection with joy, or “gladness”. The reference to it in chapter 1 is to enhance the personal glory of Christ: He was anointed above His fellows. It refers to the Holy Ghost coming upon Christ in the right of His own Person; but what He received in this way the saints (His fellows) received afterwards on the ground of His death. But the “oil of gladness” is a remarkable and very blessed expression.
WB--s You said there was no mention of blood in connection with the Lord. To what had you reference in regard to that?
JT That He was anointed because of what He was personally, without the necessity of dying.
JP So the mention of it here is in keeping with the teaching in chapter 1; that is, the setting forth of the Lord’s greatness and pre-eminence.
RSS Does it refer to His baptism as in Matthew 3?
JT I think so.
RSS Why is it called the “oil of gladness”?
JT It is a wonderful expression, and alludes to that particular blessing that is found in the Spirit in connection with Christ.
JB Does God’s appreciation have anything to do with it?
JT The “oil of gladness” refers, I think, to His delight in the companions. It is the Spirit in that connection.
RSS Would it correspond with Proverbs 8?
JT I had thought of that, “His delights were with the sons of men”. Proverbs 8: 31. I think it alludes to the Spirit in connection with that wonderful sphere of blessedness which is peculiar to the church: the blessings we are brought into in association with Christ.
WHF The “oil of gladness” is in connection with His having His brethren.
JT He received the Spirit in the right of His own Person, but the work of redemption having been accomplished, He received of the Father the promise of the Spirit, and shed Him forth on the disciples, and I think the Spirit coming into the saints brought into actual existence that wonderful circle where the “oil of gladness” was known. I think every Christian ought to be able to give an account of the “oil of gladness”; it alludes to our greatest privilege — what we enjoy with Christ as His companions. The reference is, I think, to the peculiar gladness which was His in having His companions, and all having the Spirit: only that He received the Spirit in a distinctive way, in the right of His own Person; hence He had it above His companions. Just as in the case of Aaron, who was first anointed with oil without the blood, but was afterwards anointed just as his sons were anointed.
JB It would come out in the expression, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise”. Hebrews 2: 12.
JT The passage before us presents Christ as on our side.
JP The first part shows Him on God’s side.
JT Here it is Man. “What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man that thou visitest him?” Hebrews 2: 6. So you would expect now something in regard to Christ from that point of view. It is in this connection we come in.
“Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a [p. 295] merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people”. Hebrews 2: 17. That gives an idea of what is in this chapter: it is Christ in relation to His brethren, in relation to man.
Rem And the world to come being subject to the Son of man, we get the idea of man in relation to God.
JT Christ is in view as placed over “the habitable world which is to come”. Hebrews 2:5. He is over that in which men are.
JP Would you say the first two chapters are introductory?
JT Chapter 1 presents the Apostle; chapter 2 the High Priest.
JP My thought in saying they are introductory was that these two chapters furnish the foundation upon which everything rests in the entire epistle.
I think it is wonderful how the expression first comes in in Proverbs 8. “Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men”. In the first chapter it is what belongs to Himself: the greatness and glory of His Person, and of what He has spoken; then the danger of those who had heard slipping away from what they had heard. The moment you get the habitable world, or earth, it brings in the thought of inhabitants. Chapter 2 views Christ in connection with the earth and its inhabitants.
JT Apostleship refers to what is past: that is, the revelation of God, and the inauguration of the system; this is once for all, but priesthood has a continual application, for the system has to be sustained. I think it is in the understanding of the latter side that saints are defective.
JP Do you distinguish between the inauguration and the display?
JT The display has not come in yet, but [p. 296] the sphere, of which Christ is the Head and Centre, is already inaugurated, and what we want to discover is how it is being sustained. I think very few have any difficulty as to the establishment of it, but where the difficulty lies is in understanding how it is sustained.
JP Are you quite sure we are all clear that it is inaugurated? Do you not think we slip into the future tense in our minds when reading certain portions of Hebrews?
JT Oh, but it is the “true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”. Hebrews 8: 2. It is pitched, and pitched forever.
JP I think it is of great importance to be clear that the inauguration has already really taken place; then the next thing, as you say, is understanding the wonderful way in which it is at the present time sustained.
JT It is the difference between Exodus and Leviticus. What you get in the book of Exodus is the setting up of the tabernacle. All was performed according to the instructions communicated to the apostle — Moses.
JP It was set up on the ground of redemption accomplished.
JT The tabernacle was the figure of God’s order. Leviticus is the maintenance of that, and our approach to God in relation to it; and for that we must have the Priest. Leviticus is not the apostle: it is the priest in the main, and what was becoming to the sanctuary of God in the people, and I think that is what we want to understand. So you get things that were forbidden: the kind of food they were to eat, and certain things pointed out that caused defilement. All these things are there for our instruction. Leviticus instructs as to how we are to approach God.
Then the book of Numbers is different altogether:
[p. 297] it is neither the construction of the tabernacle, nor the maintenance of it, but rather the journeying of the people in relation to it. Before you could have the book of Numbers you must have Exodus and Leviticus. After you get instruction as to the inauguration and maintenance of the tabernacle, then the people are seen walking in relation to it.
Ques So Leviticus would correspond with Hebrews 2?
JT Yes, and its teaching is indeed more the point all through the epistle, as far as the divine system is concerned.
JB Right on to chapter 10.
JP The great body of Hebrews is on this very point — the maintenance of what is already established.
JT In chapter 8 we read: “We have such a one high priest who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched and not man”. Hebrews 8: 1,2.
Ques Will you make it clear as to the inauguration. It is the inauguration of what?
JT The inauguration of God’s order of things.
Ques For man, or for God?
JT The tabernacle conveyed in the first place the manner in which God would come out to man; then the manner in which man would go in to God.
Ques Will the display be when Christ comes?
JT Yes. The display will be when the statue, so to speak, is unveiled. There is nothing at all to be added to it. It is all there in such wise that it can be said to the saints in this epistle that they have come to Mount Zion; the city of the living God, etc.
Rem In this country the president is inaugurated on a certain day, then he takes up government later on. Would that illustrate it?
JT It is more than that here. It is not [p. 298] the inauguration of a person merely, but the inauguration of a system of things.
Ques Would Romans answer to Numbers?
JT No, 1 Corinthians does, because it is a question of maintaining God’s testimony publicly — a question of carrying the tent of testimony through the wilderness. The book of Numbers would be better named “Leviticus”, because the book of Numbers is a question of the levite’s service rather than the priest’s, although the levites were dependent on the priests for their service; while Leviticus is a question of approach to God, which was not the function of the levite at all.
JP You evidently do not think the naming of the books of the Bible is inspired.
JT No, the titles do not always convey what the respective books contain.
JP I think the great thing to see is what is characteristic of these books. What you said just now is very interesting and helpful too, because I believe the divine order is very marked: first Exodus — what you have there; then Leviticus, and then Numbers. When you come to Numbers it is really the regulation of the walk of the people, in view really of what is established in Exodus, and maintained in Leviticus. Many of us, perhaps, have hardly taken up the question of walk from this point of view.
JT I think not. There are a very few who know what it is to take a board and carry it. There was a certain priest over a certain company of levites, and he was to allot them their work. They were not to touch the things in the holy places; the priests were to fold these up carefully, and then they were to be carried by the levites.
Ques So you think levitical service is little understood?
JT I do not think priesthood is understood, and [p. 299] if you do not have priesthood, the levite does not know what to do. The levite depends on the priest, hence it is we have all kinds of incongruities in Christendom, for the reason that there is no priest to direct things. You cannot have things right without the priest.
JP It is the priest’s lips that “keep knowledge”. Malachi 2: 7.
JT By the priest the order is maintained. The priest is the one who intercedes to God for man in relation to the things of God. God will not have anybody except a priest adjacent to His abode. Common people are not equal to the ordering of the things in the tabernacle. God will not have anything less than priests.
JP Could you give us in a very simple way your idea of a priest?
JT Evidently a priest must be related to the high priest, and that is what comes out here. It is a question of your relation to Christ. You must be of the order of Aaron to be a priest, and you are not equal to the surroundings, or fit for the divine presence, unless you are a priest.
JP Our qualification for priesthood is seen in this chapter: “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”. Hebrews 2: 11. If not really up to our privilege inside (I refer to priesthood), we are not up to the path outside.
JT You must have the three things — the tabernacle, the priests, and the levites, or you could not have the book of Numbers. In Exodus and Leviticus you get the services of the priests Godward: in Numbers public testimony is in view.
Rem Hence, as priesthood is not understood, there is but little service for God.
JT It is because priesthood is not realised that the tabernacle is but little in the minds of Christians. A true priest looks for the tabernacle. Priestly service [p. 300] is properly connected with it.
WHT The divine system is not apprehended.
JT But you will find with those who are in the enjoyment of priestly privilege, that the tabernacle has a very great place. They understand that you cannot have the display of what God is, nor approach to Him, without having that which He has ordained. You cannot have to say to divine things, you cannot touch them, unless you are a priest; but I am afraid the great mass of believers are content to be in the camp — that was the outer circle, beyond even the levitical sphere.
Ques Would you say that was where the Corinthians were?
JT There was a lack of what is priestly (love was not in evidence), and that was where the difficulty lay. There was a lack of priests, but I suppose a good deal of activity.
Ques How would you say the carrying of the ark comes in today?
JT The divine order was that the levites should carry it. That is what David had to learn. But before the levite can carry the ark, the ark must be taken down and carefully covered by the priests. The ark typified Christ personally. His Person is carefully guarded by the priests, but there is nevertheless public testimony respecting Him.
Ques What class of man would you call a priest today?
JT The initiatory thought of a priest is that he is of the order of Aaron. He is of the sons of Aaron: that is, he must be related to Christ — of His order.
WHF Our place is within.
JT Christians are all priests from the divine side. It is our privilege to be priests. I think what we all require to understand is that we are of His stock.
Rem We are priests because we are sons.
JT We are priests in the sense, as it says, that He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all [p. 301] of one.
JP That brings the priestly company into view.
JT Many think it is too much to assume to be of His order: that is, that you have no past sinful history. From this point of view you are derived entirely from Christ.
WHF You are not content to remain outside.
JT You want to know the blessedness of having to say to God in relation to His sphere of things.
JP I think what you say is important; that from God’s side every Christian is seen as a priest. That is, they are all sons, and all really of this sanctified company, and I think it is a great moment in the history of our souls when there is the distinct and yet simple recognition of it. Many beloved saints perhaps have never come to that — the distinct realisation in their souls that they really are of His order.
WJN What would you say is generally the hindrance in reaching that?
JP There may be more than one thing that operates to hinder. I think there are some real souls, with a measure of exercise, and who have learned themselves, who are hindered by the very fact that they have. In view of what they have learned of themselves they think it too much to take the position of being of the sanctified company. Really the great point is that He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Then, of course, there may be many a beloved saint affected by things here, and in that way hindered.
JT If you were to have taken the tabernacle away from that company in the wilderness, see what a vast difference it would have made!
JP If you had taken that away it would have spoiled everything. Any company of people might go through a wilderness, but my idea of the journey across the wilderness is that it derived character and importance from the tabernacle, as that in which [p. 302] God dwelt. The people went though the wilderness in connection with the tent of testimony.
JT What exercises me is that Christians are not more occupied with that which is so essential to us in the wilderness — the tabernacle.
JP The expression “the wilderness” is very common with us, and frequently upon our lips, but it has been a very serious question in my soul as to how far we have taken in the right thought as to it. I fear with many of us the idea of the wilderness is that it refers to the details of our personal, everyday life down here in flesh, and we have hardly had any thought of the tabernacle, which is really that which gives proper character to the wilderness journey.
JT The wilderness journey is simply the situation we have down here in relation to the tabernacle of witness. The common people might have had plenty of occupation, but if the tabernacle were taken away, the priests and levites would have nothing to do. This illustrates the condition of things in Christendom.
JP If the priests and levites are not to be found, the common people fare badly.
JT They may be active, but they are not deriving the benefits God intended they should derive from the priests and levites.
JB The children of Israel only knew the way by the progress of the tent of testimony.
WJN I suppose in speaking of the wilderness, we use the word “wandering” very often; I think if we get everything in relation to the tabernacle we shall not find wandering, but we shall find order. If everything had been adjusted in connection with the tabernacle, it would have been divinely-ordered journeying.
JT I think God would recover to us, if it is not already recovered, the thought of the tabernacle.
[p. 303] You cannot have the divine thought of order unless you have that. Directly redemption was accomplished you have the establishment of the tabernacle, and afterwards everything was regulated by it.
The tabernacle is the prominent feature in Hebrews, because the object of the Spirit is to bring Christ in relation to the divine system before the minds of the saints so that they should not give up; that they should continue. What is in view as to those addressed may be found in the end of chapter 10: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense. For ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while He that comes will come, and will not delay. But the just shalt live by faith; and, if he draw back, my soul does not take pleasure in him. But we are not drawers back to perdition, but of faith to saving the soul”. Hebrews 10: 35 - 39. It is a question of faith and continuance. These are seen in one who is in the light of God’s system, God’s testimony. “The just shall live by faith”. Then chapter 11 gives us the great examples of faith.
WHF The great thing is to get back to that which was set up at the beginning.
JT Take Mr. Darby: the Lord took him up, and he began at once to set forth the testimony of God. That was what gave character to his whole life: the point with him was the testimony of God. If you find a priest, that is what marks him. He will stand alone rather than go on with anything not in accordance with the testimony of God.
WJN In regard to the unseen things you were speaking of a moment ago, I have thought we are apt to look at them as being in the future, whereas the apostle speaks of them as being present.
JP The very form of the expression “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen”, (2 Corinthians 4: 18) shows that they are to be looked at now. We may connect it with the opening of Colossians 3: the things are there, and you seek them — the things which are above.
JT What chapter 2 presents is Man over the habitable world to come, although this is not yet manifested: “We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”. Hebrews 2: 8,9. Then I think the next point is that He is made perfect. It became God, “in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. Hebrews 2: 10.
JP I suppose those who heard Him would naturally speak of that of which He had spoken, and He has spoken. “The habitable world which is to come of which we speak”. Hebrews 2: 5. They could speak of what they had heard, and they had heard Him.
JT There is no question of territory or sphere in connection with the Apostle; it is revelation, but when Christ is seen as Man in relation to men, you must have territory; hence it is He is placed over the habitable world to come. Directly you get Him in connection with man, you get the sphere in which men are to be. All men are not to be there; there are also those who are to be in heaven. You get the habitable world, and then the many sons being brought to glory.
JP When you come to the opening of chapter 3 you consider the Apostle and High Priest: you do not consider two persons; you consider the Apostle and High Priest in one Person. That is really one of the features that proves the perfection of the new system. In the old order the apostle was one person, and the priest was another, and in that way is demonstrated the imperfection of it, because the priest was not equal to the apostle.
JT For the exercise of the function of priesthood, the Lord of necessity stands in relation to men. As [p. 305] Apostle He establishes what is for God, but as Priest He stands in relation to what He has established.
Ques “Bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2: 10): is “glory” the display of what is established?
JT I suppose so. I always connect the glory of God with His nature. It is the shining-out of what God is morally. It is to that we are being brought.
Rem Having everything suitable, the whole earth will be filled with it.
Ques You would say, then, it is the privilege of the priests to enter into the holiest? What do they learn there?
JT They learn there in Christ what the mind of God is. They get an apprehension of Christ as the One by whom God effects everything. The holiest is the presence of God in Christ, but it is God as known in the manner in which He effects the counsels of His love. We can only understand it by the Spirit.
JP There is nothing there according to man.
JB We are brought to glory as sons. As sons we are of Christ’s order.
JT The Leader has already reached that position; He is installed as having gone through all that was necessary to fit Him for it. A wonderful thing for the sons, that they have such a Leader!
JR Salvation has a wonderful character here, because it really involves your being brought to glory; that is, you are brought into all that is connected with this wonderful sphere. It is a great salvation.
Rem I suppose you would say we need more enlightenment as to Christ in order to be in the good of it.
JT We have to be built up in the Spirit so as to be able to take the place involved in “He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. Hebrews 2: 11. A person recently converted could hardly take that [p. 306] round in the state of his soul. It is wonderful to see what is in this Scripture, but we should be exercised about entering into it in the power of the Spirit.
JP I am sure that the measure of our apprehension is the measure of our being built up. You do not get it from a reading, or a lecture. There you may have your attention called to things, but you have to be built up in order to apprehend them, otherwise you get things in your head; but if you get them as the result of being built up, then you are established and settled.
JT Yes, and you are not going to be moved away. You are going to stand by that which is going to stand. Here we have what God has established, and you are not going to be moved away from it one iota, because it is that which will abide.
JB The priests and what is established go together.
JT They do indeed, and you will find wherever the Spirit is working, the divine system of things will be made prominent.
WJN I think the danger on our part is very often slothfulness in regard to what is divinely set up here.
JT One would like to see the interest of the saints aroused as to what God has ordained. It is brought in for us; we have to say to every part of it, but more particularly to that in it which is most exalted and blessed — the holiest of all.
Rem The Spirit of God will not be diverted from that.
JT If you do not go in for it, somebody else will. The Lord is not going to be dependent upon any of us, and you will find the effort of the enemy is to divert the saints from this.
WHF If you go in for it you will have divine [p. 307] support.
JT And all the blessing of God is there. One reason why saints are so important is that you cannot have things in working order without them. Now that is not at all derogatory to Christ, because He has established the things, and the saints are made by Him essential to what He has established, hence the Spirit of God is bent upon getting the saints into priestly trim.
JP In John 17 the Lord says, “I am glorified in them” (that is, in the saints here) John 17: 10. Now the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ, but if you leave out the saints, the Spirit has no vessel in which to glorify Christ. Instead of obscuring His glory, it is the divine way of having Christ glorified at the present time.
JB And by and by too.
JP Yes. There will be nothing different in principle by and by from what is now.
JT He is coming to be “glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe”. 2 Thessalonians 1: 10.
Rem Everybody would agree with you that it is God’s thought that He should be displayed in the saints down here, but the church has failed and is inadequate to set forth Christ.
JP We must see what God’s thought was in setting up the church; then let us act accordingly, otherwise we shall be discouraged.
JT You are not going to start anything else. You may say all depends upon Christ. Now it is absolutely true that you cannot have anything without Christ, but you cannot have the Lord Jesus Christ leading the praises in the assembly without the assembly.
JB I think the assembly is that in which He has His peculiar pleasure and joy.
WJN So it requires one to be in the light of what God has established in order to rise above the present confusion and ruin. I have been struck in reading [p. 308] the account of Elijah how he ordered twelve stones to be brought together.
JP And that sixty-nine years after the kingdom had been divided.
JB King Hezekiah “sent to all Israel”. In his mind they were God’s people as He set them up. I think there has been very little teaching amongst the saints to connect them in their souls with what God has set up. Instead, the effort has been to make them very sure as to their salvation from eternal judgment, therefore they have missed what really should have been a blessed joy and delight to them in going through this world. All is put off until another day.
JP There is something else besides ourselves and our individual blessings.
JT There is that which is in the mind of God, His order of things, and that is what He has before Him; and everyone with whom the Spirit of God has His way is engaged with that.
JP It should be a very serious consideration with us. You see it states, God has spoken “in Son”. Hebrews 1: 2. There might be some excuse if He had not spoken; but He has spoken, and there is nothing more to be added. And we have what is inaugurated. The presence of the Holy Ghost in and with the saints is positive demonstration of that which is established.
JT What an immense thing it would be if the saints were to be exercised about these things, so that when we come together we might prove the practical working out of them. The Lord would then have His own way amongst us.
JP The Lord would recover us to what is in His own mind. This, I believe, is the great point at the present time.
JT For the past thirty years He has been seeking to do it through His servants, and what for? To the end that the saints might go in for it,
[p. 309] and contend earnestly for what has been recovered to us; that the Lord might have us with Him as His companions: that we might enter into the things of God.
JB I do not think we can go on at all apart from going on with what God has set up.
JT You cannot preach Christ fully without bringing that in.
Ques Will you explain your meaning?
JT You must bring forward the things that indicate His greatness, and which He has brought to pass for the glory of God and the blessing of men.
Rem You would say that it is the whole sphere of faith. Jude says, “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith”. Jude 20.
JB How could the children of Israel have gone through the wilderness if they had not been led as they were?
JT There were no roads, and so they were dependent entirely for guidance on the tent of the testimony. As guided by it they were led aright, and they marched in perfect order. Balaam said, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!” Numbers 24: 5. Every tribe was in its position in relation to the tabernacle of witness. Christendom is a disorganised mass — every man doing what is right in his own mind.
Rem All that Balaam saw was blessing.
JT Yes. The different prophecies he uttered give an account of what he saw.
Rem In the days of Josiah order was brought out of confusion because the things of God had their place.
JT So it is in our own day. It is the great desire of every thoroughly exercised person to see things according to God. That is the point. Some think new principles must be introduced because the church has failed, etc., but any divinely effective [p. 310] preaching must be according to the original order ordained of God.
RSS Could we have a little as to chapter 3?
JT The exhortation refers to chapters 1 and 2. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. Hebrews 3: 1.
JP That is a great point. It is all set forth in Him.
JT Then you get the thought of building, leading up to the thought that the saints are the house of God for the moment, and the Holy Ghost speaking in the house.
Ques What is the force of “confession” here?
JT Our confession would indicate what the saints anticipated by faith.
JB There is no reason why we should be slow in confessing these things, because a priest glories in the things of God. He is outside the course of this world — another man — when he becomes a priest. If you were a Roman Catholic priest you would be a different man from what you are. The very fact of your being one would make you different. You would be connected with a system, and the system and the man are bound up together.
JT That comes out clearly in the Roman Catholic church. Every priest knows he is irrevocably attached to the system.
RSS They have the imitation; we want to have the reality.
WJN Confession would refer to that which, while it exists, has not yet been manifested.
JT It refers to what Christians confess in their testimony.
Ques Would you say a word as to the calling in that connection?
JT Our calling is distinctively heavenly, and this is made very prominent in this epistle. The Hebrew Christians were “holy brethren” as set apart by God in the power of the Spirit.
Ques Would you say every Christian has holiness? In Hebrews 12 we read, “without which (holiness) no man shall see the Lord”. Hebrews 12: 14.
JT Every one that has the Spirit is holy, but we must pursue holiness. Holiness lies in the nature in which we are formed by the Spirit.
Rem Peter speaks of saints as a “holy priesthood”. 1 Peter 2: 5.
JT We are to consider Christ in these two lights — Apostle and High Priest. He is greater than Moses, because He that builds the house is greater than the house.
RSS Why is the thought of the house introduced here?
JT It seems to be brought in in connection with the Builder. The Builder is of necessity greater than the house He builds. “He who has built all things” (Hebrews 3: 4) is an allusion to the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a figure of all things. God has built all things, but it was really the Son who built them, so it speaks of His greatness. But in the future the house of God will be the whole universe. He is not in all now; His house is at present limited to Christians, for the reason that He can only dwell in that which is holy. Christians are His house because they are holy. All things will be anointed with oil.
JB So it includes the heavens and the earth.
WJN Will Christ then occupy the position of Priest?
JT I think priesthood is in a sense eternal.
JP Like David, He will be Priest and King.
JT The thought of Christ as Priest in things relating to God is wonderful.
RSS And to remember He is this as on our side.
JT And as such sustaining that marvellous system of things which God has established.
[p. 312] Ques Do you think it will be necessary through all eternity for Him to be Priest on our side?
JT “For ever” in Scripture means to the end of time, rather than what we call “eternal state”. The Scriptures do not deal much with anything beyond that.
JB There is very little spoken of the new heavens and new earth.
JT Very little. The point, I think, is that there is no other priest or king to come after Him. He does not continue King throughout eternity, but at the same time He is said to sit on the throne of David forever, and to rule over the house of Jacob forever.
Rem He is a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.
JT It means, I think, that there is no other priest to come in afterwards.
JB Like the “Last Adam”: He is never to be succeeded.
JT So the word finality applies to Christ in every aspect in which you may view Him. There is nothing after Christ.
RSS He is “the Amen”.
JT The Priest sustains all that was established by the Apostle. Moses was the prominent figure in Exodus, but in Leviticus it is more Aaron and his sons, and Jehovah speaks out of the tabernacle. It supposes the tabernacle actually set up.
JP In Leviticus redemption is already accomplished, otherwise the tabernacle could not have been set up.
RSS All on the basis of the passover.
The Holy Ghost is spoken of as speaking here: could you give us a thought as to that?
JT The Holy Ghost speaks in the house. Christians are the house: “Whose house are we, if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of hope firm to the end”. Hebrews 3: 6. When you get the saints brought in, the Spirit is supposed to be there. Then you have the oracles, “Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit”. Hebrews 3: 7.
JB “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. John 14: 17.
JT The speaking here is not exactly revelation, but more exhortation that they should not harden their hearts. It is still the wilderness position clearly, because he goes on to speak of some who had not entered into the rest.
JP It cannot be revelation, because revelation is completed in the Apostle.
JT But you can have exhortation in the house. You get this to the end.
JP And what a mercy you get it in the house!
JT Yes, and the object of it is that you should go on to what is in the mind of God for His people — His rest.
RSS How would you say the Holy Ghost is speaking at the present time?
JT I believe the Holy Ghost is addressing the people of God out of the house continuously. We ought to look for the expression of God’s mind at the moment. In this case the saints were in danger of drawing back in unbelief. The question is, “What is the present danger?” I think you will find that whatever the danger is, the Holy Ghost will endeavour to make it clear. God has been connected by people with positive and most apparent disorder. I think God feels that, and would call the attention of His people to the order He established.
RSS And I suppose there is never a time when something of that sort is not prominent: something to which He is especially calling our attention.
JT Anyone at all acquainted with the history of the church knows that the Spirit of God from time [p. 314] to time called the attention of the saints to certain dangers.
JB He has never left Himself without a witness.
WJN And I suppose what the Spirit of God is giving at the present moment is that which is most calculated to exercise each individual. It is so easy to turn to what is past, and there is no special exercise called for in regard to it.
JP You are right. We do not always like to have our attention called to what is in us. “Lest there be in any of you a wicked heart of unbelief”. Hebrews 3: 12.
JT But we are to encourage ourselves each day, as long as it is called To-day, that none of us be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. “For we are become companions of the Christ if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end”. Hebrews 3: 14.