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so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard Him?" (2: 2, 3).
The Apostle does not say "the law", but "the word", a term which is wider and
embraces the whole of the old Covenant. It will be found that the two Covenants came
with new laws. There can be no difficulty in connection with the law being given by the
mediation of angels, even though the Scripture definitely declares that "God spake all
these words". The problem would meet us in Heb. 1: 1 where God speaks, yet uses the
mouth of a prophet. Stephen, speaking of Israel, said, "ye received the law by the
disposition of angels" (Acts 7: 53). The apostle teaches that the law was "ordained by
angels in the hand of a Mediator" (Gal. 3: 19). The awful accompaniments of the
giving of the law at Sinai are presently to be compared with the wonderful miracles that
were wrought to confirm the testimony of the Lord and the apostles. The word spoken
by angels was "stedfast" (bebaios). It is the word used for establishing a promise
(Rom. 4: 16); for the hope of the believer which rests upon "an oath for confirmation"
(Heb. 6: 16-19); for the establishing of a covenant over the dead body of the appointed
victim (Heb. 9: 17); and for the confirmation of the prophetic promise (II Pet. 1: 19).
In the verbal form bebaioo, the word occurs again in Heb. 2: 3, "was confirmed".
This fact helps us to see the force of the word "stedfast" better. Both the old and the new
Covenants have been miraculously confirmed, and this confirmation added to the guilt of
those who broke the former covenant's terms. This is brought out in Heb. 6:, and
again, from another standpoint, in Heb. 10: 28-29.
"Every transgression and
disobedience": the words are nearly synonymous, they indicate a transgression
accompanied by stubbornness and rebellion. Let us remember the many examples of
those under the old Covenant who transgressed or rebelled against the terms of the
Covenant confirmed by God. Let Moses himself bear witness that his act of
transgression caused him to forfeit the land of promise; let all Israel who wandered
forty years in the wilderness enforce the same principle, and let Caleb and Joshua also
declare that the recompence of reward" took into account good as well as evil. It is the
transgression, however, that is in view for the time being.
"The recompence of reward" (misthapodosia), and "the rewarder" (misthapodotes) are
both peculiar to Hebrews. They indicate the central idea of the epistle upon which we
have again and again insisted, namely, that Hebrews is parallel with Philippians, which
speaks of the prize, and of working out our own salvation. "The recompence of the
reward" comes as follows: 2: 2; 10: 35; 11: 26, where the two sides, the good and the
evil, are illustrated. The parenthetical way in which verse 6 comes in chapter 11:
indicates that all those witnesses whose overcoming faith is instanced in that remarkable
chapter believed that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Without suggesting that the following is verbally accurate, it will nevertheless set out
the argument of the Apostle sufficiently for the general reader: