COVENANTS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES
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This is important. The temptations referred to in the epistle to the Hebrews in which Christ so fully shared, like
the temptations of Abraham (Gen. 22) and the children of Israel in the wilderness, were trials of faith, not
temptations to sin; thus the `all points' are by no means universal.
The word homoioo `to be made like', gives us homoiotes. This comes in the parallel verse (4:15), where we read
that Christ as the high Priest was `in all points tempted like as we are'. The actual wording is pepeirasmenon de
KATA panta KATH' homoioteta, `having been tempted according to all things according to a likeness'. Hebrews 7:15
contains the only other occurrence of the word in the New Testament. The fact that the Saviour stooped not only to
our humanity, but to endure its trials and its sorrows, is emphasized as one of the chief of His high qualifications as
the true, merciful and faithful high Priest. His work here is twofold. In the things pertaining to God, expiation for
sins of the people; in the things pertaining to His people, succour for those who are tempted. The hilaskomai
(`reconciliation' in A.V.) gives us the hilasterion of Hebrews 9:5, `the mercy seat' of which Paul said he could not
then speak particularly. If we remember that he makes a similar statement regarding the Melchisedec priesthood of
Christ (5:11), we shall perceive that the subject before us is fuller and deeper than we at first might suppose.
In the doctrine of Romans, the mercy seat figures in 3:25, `Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation', but the
subject is not exhausted by justification. The mercy seat bore the cherubim of GLORY, and was the very visible
throne of God in the Tabernacle.
There, the Lord said, He would meet with Moses and commune with him. The epistle to the Romans, with its
emphasis upon justification, sees the blood-sprinkled mercy seat resting upon the ark which contained the unbroken
tables of the law. The epistle to the Hebrews sees the same blood-sprinkled mercy seat, but while it recognizes the
teaching of the preservation of the tables of the law, it finds the necessity of `finding fault' with the old Covenant in
a way which is parallel with, though different from the setting aside of the law in Romans. Moreover, Hebrews
takes account of the other articles which were covered by that mercy seat, and indeed speaks of them before
mentioning the tables of the Covenant, viz., `the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded' (9:4).
The manna speaks of wilderness provision. In Christ as high Priest the believer finds all that the golden pot of
manna means. The epistle to the Hebrews is essentially the book of the wilderness and the pilgrim, and in pressing
on to perfection, the wilderness experience is repeated. The believer learns that man does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Faith, not sight, is his characteristic. The rod that
budded speaks of a living Priesthood. This too is emphasized in Hebrews:
`And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of DEATH: but this Man,
because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable (intransmissible) priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever LIVETH to make intercession for them'
(7:23-25).
Manna from heaven for all our needs, an ever-living high Priest to save to the uttermost, this is vitally connected
with the thought of the propitiatory and the propitiation of Hebrews 2:17. The LXX commonly renders the Hebrew
word kopher propitiation. This word gives us `atonement' in the A.V. The great Day of atonement is the type
which is in view in Hebrews 9.
lt will be noticed that the idea of cleansing or purifying is prominent in that chapter. First we have the cleansing
of the conscience by the blood of Christ as the antitype of the ashes of the heifer. Then we have the cleansing by the
blood, the patterns of heavenly things and the heavenly things themselves being thus cleansed. The opening section
of chapter 9 speaks of the high priest who went into the holiest alone once every year, not without blood. This is an
evident reference to Leviticus chapter 16, and the Day of Atonement. The closing section speaks of the Lord Jesus
as the true high Priest:
`For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us ... Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them
that look for Him shall He appear the (a) second time WITHOUT SIN unto salvation' (Heb. 9:24-28).
While the `second time' indicates the Second Coming of the Lord, the meaning which is to be attached to the
expression here is the fulfilment of the type in Leviticus 16. Not until the high priest had gone in beyond the veil