I N D E X
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First the `heavenly calling' must be considered, epouranios `heavenly'. This word is found but twice in the
LXX, once in Psalm 68:14, where it stands as a title for the `Almighty', and once in some MSS. of the LXX in
Daniel 4:23, where we read `The heavens do rule' (26 A.V.). In the Apocrypha the word occurs but once, in
2 Maccabees 3:39, where it speaks of `Him Who has His dwelling in the heavens'. When we turn to the New
Testament we find the word in the Gospels and the epistles some twenty times, of which number of occurrences
Hebrews uses six. There we find:
`Partakers of the heavenly calling'.
`Tasted of the heavenly gift'.
`The example and shadow of heavenly things'.
`The heavenly things themselves'.
`A better country, that is, an heavenly'.
`The heavenly Jerusalem'
(Heb. 3:1; 6:4; 8:5; 9:23; 11:16; 12:22).
This word epouranios provides an opportunity which we must not miss. Those who use a concordance use a
most helpful instrument, but at the same time we should be warned, that an indiscriminate or mechanical use of a
concordance can mislead. Here is a case which bears very closely upon our calling. We have from time to time
affirmed that the phrase en tois epouraniois occurs five times in Ephesians and that it occurs nowhere else. The
reader who consults his concordance, turns up the word epouranios, sees the five occurrences in Ephesians listed
side by side with those in 1 Corinthians and Hebrews and decides that we are untrustworthy teachers, and without
more ado sets aside the claim of Ephesians to be that of a unique calling, and yields to those who assure him that
such are the claims of ultradispensationalism (an intentionally frightening term calculated to deter the timid or
untaught), and so another believer is turned aside in his quest for truth. We have never said that the adjective
epouranios `heavenly occurs only in Ephesians; rather the phrase translated `in heavenly places' occurs only in that
epistle, a very different statement. In spite of what has been said elsewhere, en tois epouraniois does not occur in
the LXX. If we would understand the heavenly calling of Hebrews 3:1, the remaining occurrences of the word
`heavenly' must be examined. `The heavenly gift' is associated with `holy spirit' (the gifts) and `the powers of the
age about to be' (Heb. 6:4,5). The Levitical priests `serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as
Moses was admonished by God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, see, saith He, that thou make all
things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount' (Heb. 8:5). This argument continues throughout chapters
8 and 9 and reaches its conclusion in chapter 9:23,24:
`It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 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'
(Heb. 9:23,24).
These two references to the Tabernacle are followed by two to the Heavenly City or Country.
`Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly'.
`But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem' (Heb. 11:16; 12:22).
The heavenly calling of Hebrews 3:1 is therefore that which all of like faith with Abraham and the other
witnesses to faith in Hebrews 11 share, the New Jerusalem, the heavenly country and city being its sphere. The
church of the One Body finds its sphere of blessing `where Christ sits at the right hand of God', a sphere distinct
from the Heavenly City which will eventually come down from God out of heaven. In connection with the
participation in this heavenly calling, the Hebrews are called upon to `consider the Apostle and High Priest of their
profession, Christ Jesus'. Katanoeo `consider' occurs fourteen times in the New Testament. and about twenty times
in the LXX of the Old Testament. where it translates the Hebrew bin, nabat, sakal, shamem, tsaphah and raah.
These Hebrew words respectively mean understand, regard, understand as the result of wisdom, to be astonished,
watch and behold. In all these terms, patient, careful regard is implied. Our English word `consider' comes from
`watching the stars', sideris being the Latin for `star'.