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The blessing of the crossed hands.
This would be but one more blow at the passing system of law and Jewish privilege.
Already the Aaronic and Levitical priesthood had given place to that after the order of
Melchisedec. Already the sacrifices of bulls and goats had passed away in view of the
one great Sacrifice for sin. Already the old Covenant had been set aside for the new. We
have read of a better Covenant, better sacrifices, a better hope, and now we are to realize
that there are "better promises" than those of the law. When the twelfth chapter is
concluded we shall find a better "Firstborn" connected with Mount Sion, than was
connected with Mount Sinai (Heb. 12: 18-23), and we shall perhaps believe that it is not
accident but design that places Heb. 12: 16, 17 immediately before these verses, and
introduces Esau, as a profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
With all Jacob's manifold faults, and we are not called upon to gloss them over, Jacob
schemed and plotted for the blessing. He did not, like his profane brother, hold it cheap
and barter it away. Jacob, though the younger, was the recipient of blessing; who, when
he was most blessed, halted upon his thigh. His blessing at the end was deliberately
contrary to law and expectation, and this, together with Jacob's crosshand blessing and
Isaac's previous blessing, bring forward one more important feature in the constitution of
faith, namely, that it sets aside the flesh. This is but another way of saying that faith is
ever associated with resurrection, as we have already seen. May we rejoice that "all
spiritual blessings" are not given as deserts, but in pure grace, and that the highest of all
inheritances has been bestowed upon those who by nature and practice seemed the least
likely. A blessing of crossed hands indeed!
"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be
sure to all the seed" (Rom. 4: 16).
Among the characters of the Old Testament that are outstanding types of Christ,
Joseph takes a prominent place. His separate position in the family of Jacob, his betrayal,
his imprisonment, his exaltation to the throne, all provide food for holy wonder as we see
the Messiah, Who was to come after many years, so clearly anticipated by God and
recorded in His Word. Heb. 11: 22, however, is not so much concerned with Joseph as a
type, as with Joseph as the man of faith. Moreover we must never lose sight of the fact
that the apostle, when writing this chapter, had the Hebrews in mind, and was guided in
the selection of his examples so as to afford to these saints all the help possible in their
difficult path.
"By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of
Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones" (Heb. 11: 22).
The expression "when he died" is the rendering of the Greek verb teleutao, which
suggests the end or close of life. Earlier on we have found that one of the key words of
Hebrews is the word "perfect" and its variants. We have:
teleios in 9: 11, the "more perfect tabernacle";
teleiotes (6: 1), "let us go on unto perfection";
teleioo (10: 14), "perfected for ever";
teleiosis (7: 11), "if . . . . . perfection were by the Levitical priesthood";