long-suffering and faith (6:12). Or, to put the truth in another light, the teaching of the O. T. as a whole is a perpetual looking forward. Under the symbols of earth spiritual thoughts are indicated. Canaan becomes as it were, a sacrament of the Divine Presence and Indwelling (Heb. 4:8 f.; Lev. 26:4-12): the Kingdom, a Sacrament of a Divine Sovereignty. Compare Heb. 11:13, 26, 39 f.; Matt. 5:5; 25:34; James 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:9.
( b ) The final revelation ejn uiJw'/ in Him who is not prophet only but Sonis recognised at once in its essential completeness and in its progressive unfolding to men according to their power of apprehension. God spake ( ejlavlhsen ) with one absolute message on the verge of the New Order (Heb. 1:2), and He speaks still from heaven (12:25), not to give any new gospel but to guide men to the fuller understanding of that which they have received. In this sense the old words to-day if ye will hear His voice have a direct application to Christians in every age (3:15), especially if it be a period of outward change. There is danger still lest a natural reverence for the Old should deprive believers of sympathetic sensibility for fresh visions of the one Truth.
In this comprehensive view of the whole course of revelation the writer necessarily dwells almost exclusively upon the past. He does not attempt to trace the future action of the powers of the world to come which he has realised: it is enough to point out how the divine end, the coming of the new age, was reached. This history offers a figure of that which, as we may expect, still awaits us. Looking back we can see, written for our instruction, how God was pleased to use for the fulfilment of His will both the society and the individual, and how He endowed both in due measure with the gifts of the Spirit. We recognise in the revelation which is recorded in the Old Testament the work of the Messianic nation, the people of God, the Church (Ex. 19:5 f.), and the work of the personal Messiah, typified on the one side by the Davidic king and on the other side by the afflicted and faithful servant of the Lord (comp. Jer. 32:16; 23:6). Both factors in the accomplishment of the counsel of God must be taken into account. Both are marked in their main outlines in the Epistle.
(
a
) In dealing with the work of the Messianic nation the writer of the Epistle emphasises the three great stages in the determination of their privileges and their office: i. The original promise; ii. The discipline of the Law;
iii. The new promise. These three crises mark three special forms of the
Divine Covenant (Dispensation), by which God has been pleased to enter into a living fellowship with His people, the Covenant of grace, the Covenant of works, and the final Covenant of divine fellowship based on perfect knowledge and sympathy (for
diaqhvkh
see Heb. 7:22 note).
i. The promise to Abraham is given in its final form, when it was repeated with an oath after the surrender of Isaac (Heb. 6:13). Only the first clause is quoted, but the whole is necessarily carried with it. In 11:8 ff. the salient points in Abraham's life of faith are noticed, and the great end for which he looked:
the city that hath the foundations.
It was for this the nation was to be disciplined.
ii. But it is natural that the writer should speak chiefly of the Law, as
moulding day by day the religious life of the Israelite; and specially, in view of the failures of men, he seeks to interpret the Levitical ritual as a provisional system for atonement. The Tabernacle with its characteristic institutions,