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"Once in the end of the world" (Heb. 9: 26).
"The worlds were framed" (Heb. 11: 3).
World--oikoumene
"When He bringeth in the First begotten into the world" (Heb. 1: 6).
(habitable word,
"For unto the angels hath He not put into subjection the world to come,
prophetic earth).
whereof we speak" (Heb. 2: 5).
In Heb. 9: 26 it will be observed that both kosmos and aion are translated "world",
which is misleading, coming as they do in the same verse. Heb. 1: 10 has made it
abundantly clear WHO it was that created heaven and earth, there is no need to bring that
subject into the argument of Heb. 3: 1-6. The contrast is between Moses, as a servant,
and Christ as a Son, for the Son has already been addressed as Lord and God. Again
there seems to be an intended selection of the word used for servant here. It is therapon.
This word is taken from Numb. 12: 7, 8 where the Lord's dealing with Moses is
contrasted with His dealings with lesser prophets.
"My servant (LXX therapon) Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With
him will I speak mouth to mouth."
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" (II 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),