PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

While therapeuo is generally rendered serve or minister in the LXX, one passage reveals its inclination to

medical and healing service.

`Mephibosheth (who was lame on his feet, 9:3) ... had neither dressed (therapeuo) his feet' (2 Sam. 19:24).

In the New Testament therapeia is rendered `household' twice (Matt. 24:45; Luke 12:42) and `healing' (Luke 9:11;

Rev. 22:2). Therapeuo occurs forty-four times in the New Testament and is translated `cure' five times, `heal'

thirty-eight times and `worship' once. The word is never translated `serve', the one occurrence `worship' being the

nearest approach to this meaning (Acts 17:25). It does not seem possible, with this insistence upon a healing

ministry, to eliminate entirely that thought when speaking of Moses as a therapon. Moses did not `serve' as a slave,

his work was neither that of a manual labourer, nor of an artisan. He was engaged in holy things, and with the

spiritual health of Israel. Israel's ultimate restoration is likened to `healing' (Isa. 6:10), and `the Salvation' (soteria)

of Acts 4:12, looks to verse 9 where the words `made whole' are the translation of sozo. Physicians would form a

part of the entourage of a great house, and Herodotus says when speaking of Egypt, `Every great family as well as

every city must needs swarm with the faculty'. It will be remembered that the priest had to deal with leprosy and

pronounce a man clean or unclean. This service of Moses, gracious as it was, is placed over against the position of

Christ, Who as the Son was over His own house. This ministry of Moses was:

`For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after' (Heb. 3:5).

Thus, also, after describing the Tabernacle, its service and its furniture, the apostle says:

`The Holy Ghost this signifying ... a figure for the time then present ... until the time of reformation' (Heb. 9:8-10),

which is immediately followed by a reference to the greater and more perfect Tabernacle over which Christ presided

as the High Priest of good things to come (Heb. 9:11). At verse 6 of Hebrews 3, the apostle turns from the house

built by Moses to the house ruled over by the Son and says `Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and

the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end'. This new facet of truth we must now consider.

Chapters 3 and 4 are bounded by the word `confession':

`Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession' (3:1 R.V.).

`Let us hold fast our confession' (4:14 R.V.).

It is evident that the Hebrew believers were exhorted to consider Christ as an Example in the matter of this

`confession'. A somewhat parallel double occurrence is 1 Timothy 6:12-14, where Timothy's `good confession' is

associated with that of Christ before Pontius Pilate. The word contains an element of danger and opposition, and the

exhortation is to hold it unto the end. The one great feature which is singled out by the apostle in the case of Christ

Himself is that He `was FAITHFUL' (Heb. 2:17; 3:2). Within the bounds set by 3:1 and 4:14 therefore, will come

some further teaching, example, exhortation, encouragement and warning, such as will, by the grace of God, help

the tried believer to hold on his way.

The one feature of Christ which the Hebrew believers were called upon to consider was His faithfulness; the one

great warning which follows is that against unbelief:

`Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of UNBELIEF, in departing from the living God' (3:12).

`So we see that they could not enter in because of UNBELIEF' (3:19).

`The word preached did not profit them, because they were not united by FAITH to them that heard' (4:2 marg.).

The great example is `the provocation'. This word comes from pikraino - `to be bitter', and illuminates Hebrews

12:15,16 where another type for the believers' warning (Esau) is closely linked with a `root of bitterness'. The great

text of the apostle in chapters 2 and 3 is taken from Psalm 95 which he introduces with the solemn words, `As the

Holy Ghost saith'.