Better Things
The epistle to the Hebrews follows an easily discerned line of reasoning. It neither addresses an assembly, nor takes up matters of the assembly. Instead, it has the form of a treatise, its special purpose outlined above.
In the first chapter we have the Son of God: His glory as Son and Messiah, and His superiority to angels. The second brings before us the Son of Man: the Captain of salvation and Sanctifier of those He calls His brethren. Between the two we have a parenthesis: “If the word spoken by angels was stedfast, … How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord” (Heb. 2:2-3).
The third chapter contrasts Christ as Son over His own house with Moses; this brings us to the wilderness journey. Many that left Egypt failed to enter the land of Canaan. They were to take heed, lest they too should find within themselves the same heart of unbelief. In the fourth chapter we have the subject of rest. Canaan was their destination, their rest, but there is a rest beyond the promised land—“My rest” (Psa. 95:11). There remains, then, a rest for the people of God. As with those in the wilderness, we have a High Priest—One who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who sympathizes with our infirmities, having been tempted in all things in like manner, “sin apart” (Heb. 4:14-15 JND).
The fifth chapter further develops the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, comparing and contrasting it with the Aaronic priesthood. Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, but God has appointed Him a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec (Psa. 110:4). The writer would develop this subject further, but must first address their spiritual state; they had become dull of hearing. The things written aforetime are types and shadows, but they didn’t comprehend.
The sixth chapter is an exhortation to “go on [to what belongs] to full growth” (Heb. 6:1 JND). They were not ignorant of the principles of the doctrine of Christ—the Messiah, the Lord’s anointed (Heb. 6:1). Not only that, they had witnessed the power of the Holy Ghost, which in itself spoke of the glorification of the Lord. There was no going back; the former things would be of no help now.
The seventh chapter resumes the subject matter of the fifth. The priesthood of Melchisedec is in every aspect superior to that of Aaron. Abraham, from whom Aaron descended, paid tithes to Melchisedec (Heb. 7:9-10).
In the eighth chapter we have the new covenant—a better one—established upon better promises, of which Christ is the mediator. This is a covenant that will be made with the house of Israel (not the church): “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord” (Heb. 8:10). A new covenant necessarily makes the former old, ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:13).
The ninth chapter contrasts the sacrifices of the old covenant with the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ, a sacrifice that does not give entrance into an earthly tabernacle—which was a figure of the true—but rather into heaven itself (Heb. 9:24).
The tenth chapter continues with the subject of the sacrifice, now in its application to the believer. “For the law … can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. … For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:1, 14).