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For our immediate purpose we need all the light we can get on Heb. 1: 4, and the
parallel of Heb. 8: 6 therefore is welcome. For the time being we make no further
comment on this set of comparisons except perhaps to note how the pilgrim attitude of
faith (Heb. 11: 10-16) is apparently the echo of "such an high priest" (Heb. 8: 1), as it
ever should be. In both passages there is a "more excellent" name, or ministry. In the
second reference, this ministry is the mediation of the New Covenant. In what way does
this fact illuminate the insistence of the apostle in Heb. 1: and 2: upon the superiority of
Christ to angels? The answer is that angels were themselves mediators of the Old
Covenant. This is a matter of importance and must now be set forth.
While it is a Scriptural truth that "The law was given by Moses" (John 1: 17), it is also
a Scriptural truth that Israel "received the law by the disposition of angels" (Acts 7: 53).
To this testimony of Stephen, Paul adds his in Galatians:
"The law . . . . . was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator" (Gal. 3: 19).
To this twofold testimony may be added that of the Psalmist:
"The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is
among them, as in SINAI, in the holy place" (Psa. 68: 17),
which is an echo of the words of Moses when he said:
"He came with ten thousands of saints (His holy ones): from His right hand went a
fiery law for them" (Deut. 33: 2).
Yet further, Stephen had earlier spoken of Moses at Sinai saying:
"This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him
in the mount Sina" (Acts 7: 38).
In Hebrews, chapter 2:, the ministry of angels and their relation with the law is
further developed.
"For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape?" (2: 2, 3).
With this passage, Heb. 12: 25 should be read:
"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him
that spake on earth . . . . ."
Chapter 2: deals with "the Lord" speaking, in contrast with angels, and chapter 12:
follows by contrasting Sinai with heaven. Let us finish the record of these verses then.
Here is both question and answer:
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord?" (Heb. 2: 3).
"Much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from
heaven" (Heb. 12: 25).