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MESSAGES FROM THE EPISTLE
TO THE HEBREWS
MESSAGES FROM
THE EPISTLE TO
THE HEBREWS
_By_ HANDLEY C.G. MOULE, D.D.
BISHOP OF DURHAM
LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK
62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1909
THE BIBLE IS THE SKY IN WHICH
GOD HAS SET CHRIST THE SUN.
JOHN KER, D.D.
_First Edition May 1909_
_Second Impression July 1909_
PREFACE
The following chapters are the work of intervals of leisure scattered
over a long time. The exposition had advanced some way when an
unexpected call to new and exacting duties compelled me to put it aside
for several years. Accordingly a certain difference of treatment in the
later chapters as compared with the earlier will probably be seen by the
reader, particularly a rather fuller detail in the exposition. But
purpose and plan are essentially the same throughout.
No attempt whatever is made, here or in the course of the work, to deal
with those literary and historical problems which so conspicuously
attach themselves to this Epistle. Who the "Hebrews" were is nowhere
discussed. Nor is any positive answer offered to a question to which
assuredly no such answer can be given, the question, namely, of the
authorship. In my opinion, in face of all that I have read to the
contrary, it still seems at least possible that the _ultimate_ human
author was St. Paul. All, or very nearly all, the objections to his name
which the phenomena of the Epistle _prima facie_ present, and some of
which lie unquestionably deep, seem to be capable of a provisional
answer if we assume, what is so conceivable, that the Apostle committed
his message and its argument, on purpose, to a colleague so gifted,
mentally and by the Spirit, that he might be trusted to cast the work
into his own style. The well-known remark of Origen that only God knows
who "wrote" the Epistle appears to me to point (if we look at its
context) this way. Origen surely means by the "writer" what is meant in
Rom. xvi. 22. Only, on the hypothesis, the amanuensis of our Epistle
was, for a special purpose presumably, a Christian prophet in his own
right.
In any case the author, if not an apostle, was a prophet. And he carries
to us a prophet's "burthen" of unspeakable import, and in words to which
all through the Christian ages the soul has responded as to the words of
the Holy Spirit.
HANDLEY DUNELM.
_Easter, 1909._
CONTENTS
I
PAGE
CONSIDER HIM 1
Heb. i.-ii.
II
A HEART OF FAITH 8
Heb. iii.
III
UNTO PERFECTION 14
Heb. iv.-vi.
IV
OUR GREAT MELCHIZEDEK 23
Heb. vii.
V
THE BETTER COVENANT 32
Heb. viii.
VI
SANCTUARY AND SACRIFICE 42
Heb. ix.
VII
FULL, PERFECT, AND SUFFICIENT 51
Heb. x.
VIII
FAITH AND ITS POWER 61
Heb. xi. (I.).
IX
FAITH AND ITS ANNALS 71
Heb. xi. (II.).
X
FOLLOWERS OF THEM 80
Heb. xii. 1-14.
XI
SINAI AND SION 90
Heb. xii. 14-28.
XII
APPEALS AND INSTRUCTIONS 100
Heb. xiii. 1-14.
XIII
LAST WORDS 110
Heb. xiii. 15-25.
MESSAGES
FROM THE
EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
CHAPTER I
CONSIDER HIM
HEB. i.-ii.
Let us open the Epistle to the Hebrews, with an aim simple and
altogether practical for heart and for life. Let us take it just as it
stands, and somewhat as a whole. We will not discuss its authorship,
interesting and extensive as that problem is. We will not attempt,
within the compass of a few short chapters, to expound continuously its
wonderful text. Rather, we will gather up from it some of its large and
conspicuous spiritual messages, taken as messages of the Word of God
"which liveth and abideth for ever."
No part of Holy Scripture is ever really out of date. But it is true
meanwhile that, as for persons so for periods, there are Scripture books
and Scripture truths which are more than ordinarily timely. It is not
that others are therefore untimely, nor that only one class of book or
one aspect of truth can be eminently timely at one time. But it seems
evident that the foreseeing Architect of the Bible has so adjusted the
parts of His wonderful vehicle of revelation and blessing that special
fitnesses continually emerge between our varying times and seasons on
the one hand and the multifold Word on the other.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is in some remarkable respects a book timely
for our day. It invites to itself, if I read it aright, the renewed
attention of the thoughtful Christian, and not least of the thoughtful
Christian of the English Church, as it brings him messages singularly in
point to some of the main present needs of his spiritual life and its
surroundings. It was written manifestly in the first instance to meet
special and pressing current trials; it bears the impress of a time of
severe sifting, a time when foundations were challenged, and individual
faith put to even agonizing proofs, and the community threatened with an
almost dissolution. Such a writing must have a voice articulate and
sympathetic for a period like ours.
We will take into our hands then, portion by portion, this wonderful
"open letter," and listen through it to some of the things which "the
Spirit saith" to the saints and to the Church.
We now contemplate in this sense the first two chapters. We put quite
aside a host of points of profound interest in detail, and ask ourselves
only what is the broad surface, the drift and total, of the message
here. As to its climax, it is JESUS CHRIST, our "merciful and faithful
High Priest" (ii. 17). As to the steps that lead up to the climax, they
are a presentation of the personal glory of Jesus Christ, as God the Son
of God, as Man the Son of Man, who for us men and our salvation came,
suffered, and prevailed.
Who that reads the Bible with the least care has not often noted this in
the first passages of the Hebrews, and could not at once so state the
matter? What is the great truth of Hebrews i.? Jesus Christ is GOD (ver.
8); the Son (ver. 2); absolutely _like_ the Father (ver. 3); Lord of the
bright Company of Heaven, who in all their ranks and orders worship Him
(ver. 6); creative Originator of the Universe (ver. 10), such that the
starry depths of space are but the folds of His vesture, which hereafter
He shall change for another (ver. 12); Himself eternal, "the same,"
transcendent above all time, yet all the while the Son begotten, the
Son, infinitely adequate and infinitely willing to be the final Vehicle
of the Father's voice to us (verses 1, 5, 6). What is the great truth of
Hebrews ii.? Jesus Christ is MAN. He is other than angelic, for He is
God. But also He is other than angelic, for He is Man (verses 5, 6, 7).
He is the Brother of Man as truly as He is the Son of God (ver. 11). He
has taken share with us in flesh and blood (ver. 14), that is to say, He
has assumed manhood in that state or stage in which it is capable of
death, and He has done this on purpose (it is a wonderful thought) that
He may be capable of dying. This blessed Jesus Christ, this God and Man,
our Saviour, was bent upon dying, and that for a reason altogether
connected with us and with His will to save us (ver. 15). We were
immeasurably dear and important to Him. And our deliverance demanded His
identification with us in nature, and His temptations (ver. 18), and
finally His mysterious suffering. So He came, He suffered, He was
"perfected"--in respect of capacity to be our Redeemer--"through
sufferings" (ver. 10). And now, incarnate, slain, and risen again, He,
still our Brother, is "crowned with glory and honour" (ver. 9). He is
our Leader (ver. 10). He is our High Priest, merciful and faithful (ver.
17).
Thus the Epistle, on its way to recall its readers, at a crisis of
confusion and temptation, to certainty, patience, and peace, leads
them--not last but first--to Jesus Christ. It unfolds at once to them
His glories of Person, His Wonder of Work and Love. It does not
elaborately travel up to Him through general considerations. It sets out
from Him. It makes Him the base and reason for all it has to say--and it
has to say many things. Its first theme is not the community, but the
Lord; not Church principles, not that great duty of cohesion about which
it will speak, and speak urgently, further on, but the Lord, in His
adorable personal greatness, in His unique and all-wonderful personal
achievement. To that attitude of thought it recurs again and again in
its later stages. In one way or another it is always bidding us look up
from even the greatest related subjects and "consider HIM."
Am I not right in saying that here is a message straight to the restless
heart of our time, and not least to the special conditions of Christian
life just now in our well-beloved Church? We must, of course we must,
think about a hundred problems presented by the circumference of the
life of the Christian and the life of the Church. At all times such
problems, asking for attention and solution, emerge to every thoughtful
disciple's sight. In our own time they seem to multiply upon one
another with an importunate demand--problems doctrinal, ritual,
governmental, social; the strife of principles and tendencies within the
Church; all that is involved in the relations between the Church and the
State, and again between the Church and the world, that is to say, human
life indifferent or opposed to the living Christian creed and the
spiritual Christian rule.
Well, for these very reasons let us make here first this brief appeal,
prompted by the opening paragraphs of the great Epistle. If you would
deal aright with the circumference, earnest Christian of the English
Church, live at the Centre. "Dwell deep." From the Church come back
evermore to Jesus Christ, that from Jesus Christ you may the better go
back to the Church, bearing the peace and the power of the Lord Himself
upon you.
There is nothing that can serve as a substitute for this. The
"consideration" of our blessed Redeemer and King is not merely good for
us; it is vital. To "behold His glory," deliberately, with worship, with
worshipping love, _and seen by direct attention to the mirror of His
Word_, can and must secure for us blessings which we shall otherwise
infallibly lose. This, and this alone, amidst the strife of tongues and
all the perplexities of life, can develope in us at once the humblest
reverence and the noblest liberty, convictions firm to resist a whole
world in opposition, yet the meekness and the fear which utterly exclude
injustice, untruth, hardness, or the bitter word. For us if for any, for
us now if ever, this first great message of the Epistle meets a vital
need; "CONSIDER HIM."