THE Lord is our object, as surely as He is our refuge. He awakens hope when He establishes the soul by faith. It could not be otherwise. If Adam had the presence of God, he had also the garden of Eden; and so the saved sinner has a portion, or inheritance. Indeed, salvation, in the larger sense of it, embraces both; it bespeaks a purged conscience, and also the hope of a kingdom.
These are necessarily linked together, and by their union and combination we get, in the course of scripture, some beautiful witnesses.
Melchisedec was such a witness in patriarchal days. He was a priest dispensing righteousness and peace, providing like a priest for the need of the conscience. But he had also bread and wine―the refreshment of the kingdom for the hears of promise, after their toil of battle.
Aaron under the law, in the day of his consecration, was another like witness, as we see in Lev. 8:99And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses. (Leviticus 8:9). For he and Moses came down as from above to bless the people, as he had done before, and all alone, blessed them on the ground of the sacrifice. The glory appears, as well as the fire on that great occasion, the pledge of the kingdom as well as the acceptance of the sacrifice. And in the same Mosaic age, I may say, the constant link of Joshua with Moses is an expression of the same combination. With this thought, let me ask you to read the Epistle to the Hebrews, you will there find this combination strikingly maintained throughout; all the presentations of Christ or of our calling which you get there, and all the exhortations which you listen to there embrace the two, our object as well as our refuge―all find hope as well as faith. At the very outset Christ is thus presented. He is declared “heir of all things,” as well as the One who has “purged our sins,” and all the Old Testament scriptures quoted in chapter 2 will be found to have respect to the coming kingdom. So in chapter 2 it is the Lord of Psa. 8 that is presented to us; and the Lord of that Psalm is as much the one who is to be the Head of the world to come, as He has already been humbled for our sins. Again in chapters 5-7. He is presented to us as Priest, but He is Melchisedec, and, as we know, the priesthood of Melchisedec reaches out to the day of glory, when the warfare and toil are over; and not only so, He is declared to have gone within the veil as a Forerunner as well as a High Priest, and such a title intimates that the glory is within the veil as well as a sanctuary. So when He is presented as a victim, the sufficiency of His sacrifice is declared, but together with that, His appearing the second time bringing salvation or the kingdom with Hira: the accomplishment of the purpose of Iris first appearing is the sure pledge of His second. (chap. 9:28.)
And then again, presented in the heavens as having sat down in the perfection of His work for sinners, He is declared to be sitting there i9n expectation of His coming day of power. (chap. 10:13.) Our calling is displayed to us as Christ is thus presented; we see this in chap. 12:22-24. But that gives as a view of glory as well as of blood; we see the top of the mystic hill as well as the foot of it. The blood of sprinkling at the bottom sustains the whole, but there is no stopping short of the cap and the church of the Firstborn, and the angels, &c., or the whole system of coming glory. So in chap. 13:9-15, the city is shown to us as what we are called to as well as the altar and as I said, if we are exhorted as well as taught in this epistle, we still get encouragement for hope as well as for faith. Thus in chapter 3 we are told to hold fast the beginning of our confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end. So in chapter 10 we are exhorted to have “fall assurance of faith,” but also to “hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering.”
And thus the voice that is heard in the epistle is a witness to hope as well as to faith: it tells of glory as well as of blood. It is the voice of the Son from heaven―of Him who is hear of all things and expectant of a kingdom, as He the is purger of our sins. And when the apostle defines faith, he links with it hope (11:1), in every way sustaining the combination.