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The sequence of events is broken at the end of verse 24 and again in verse 27. After
telling us that all authority and power shall be put down, the apostle breaks in to give an
expansion of the subject, saying:
"For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet."
The Companion Bible at Psa. 110: 1 has this note:
"Make Thine enemies Thy footstool--set Thine enemies (as) a footstool for Thy feet.
In New Testament Gr.--tithemi (2 aor. subj.)--`shall have placed'. I Cor. 15: 25 is the
exception, where it is not `set as a footstool', but put `under', because Christ's session on
His own throne (Matt. 25: 31; Rev. 3: 21) is there referred to, instead of His session
on His Father's throne, as in all the other quotations."
These considerations are by no means exhaustive, they are rather but indications of
what lines of study are necessary to begin to appreciate the apostle's line of argument in
Heb. 1: We can only leave it with the reader, and pray that each may be so desirous of
attaining to the "knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 4: 13), that no weariness of the
flesh shall be permitted to prevent the exercise of the Berean spirit that it is the purpose
of this study to encourage.
We pass now to the conclusion of this section of Heb. 1:, namely verse 9:
"Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God,
hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows."
Knowing the nature of our hearts when bereft of grace, we are somewhat timid in the
use of "hate", leaning rather and exclusively to the emphasis on "love". We should
remember that unholy love may be as harmful as unholy hate, and that true hate and true
love go together:
"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal" (John 12: 25).
"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9: 13).
Some things are stated to be the objects of true hatred without the alternative
that is loved being stated, "Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 23);
"Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate"; "which thing I hate"
(Rev. 2: 6, 15). In the Old Testament we read of "men of truth, hating covetousness",
and the Psalmist says "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil", so others "hate every false way";
"hate and abhor lying", the climax being reached in Psa. 139:, "Do not I hate them, O
Lord, that hate Thee? . . . . . I hate them with perfect hatred" (Psa. . 139: 21, 22).
Perfect hate can only be achieved where there is also perfect love. In the Son of God
there is perfect harmony, and because He had loved righteousness and hated iniquity, the
good pleasure of the Lord was manifestly expressed. The anointing here is not the
anointing of the Saviour at the commencement of His ministry (Luke 4: 18), for that
anointing but led along the path of sorrows to the shame of the Cross. This is an
anointing with the "oil of gladness", it is the "exceeding joy," of the presentation of the