558 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IIL
Two things are in general contained in the words, as they report the relation of Moses to the house of God,—1. His ministry, 2.'Che end of that ministry, as was observed.
1. “Moses verily was faithful as a servant in his whole house.” The office ascribed unto him is that of a servant, a servant of God and of the people; Sepérwy, a “servant,” “minister,” or “officer” “in sacris,’ in things belonging to religious worship. This was his place, office, dignity, and honour. And this is accom- panied with a threefold amplification :—(1.) In that he was “faithful” in his service; which wherein it consisted hath been declared. (2.) Tn that he was a servant in the house of God; not in the world only, and in compliance with the works of his providence (as all things serve the will of God, and wicked men, as Cyrus and Nebuchad- nezzar, are called his servants), but “in his house,’—in that service which is of nearest relation and of greatest concernment unto him. It is an honour to serve the will of God in any duty, but m those especially which concern his house and his worship therein. (3.) In that he was not thus employed and thus faithful in this or that part of the house of God, in this or that service of it, but “in all his house” and all the concernments of it. Herein was he differenced from all others whom God used in the service of his house under the old testament. One was employed in one part of it, another in another ;—one to teach or instruct it, another to reform or restore it; one to renew a neglected ordinance, another to give a new instruc- tion: none but he was used in the service of the whole house. All things, for the use of all ages, until the time of reformation should come, were ordered and appointed by him. And these things greatly speak his honour and glory; although, as we shall see, they leave him incomparably inferior to the Lord Christ.
2. “For a testimony of those things which should be spoken after.” The end of the service and ministry of Moses is expressed in these words. It was to be sis waprupiay, “ for a testi- mony.” The word and ordinances of God are often called his “testimony,” that whereby he testifieth and witnesseth his will and pleasure unto the sons of men: NVY, “that which God testifieth.” Some theretore think the meaning of the words to be, that Moses in his ministry revealed the testimony of God; and that these words, “ Of the things that should be spoken,” are as much as ‘In and by the things that he spake,’ that God would have spoken by him, wherein his testimony did consist. But this exposition of the words is perplexed, and makes a direct coincidence between the testimony and the things spoken, whereas they are distinct in the text, the one being subservient unto the other, the testimony unto the things spoken. Others take “testimony” to be put for a witness, he that was to bear testimony; which it was the duty of Moses to
Otpa ry.
Eis waprupiay.
VER. 3-6.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. SSD
be and to do. He was to be a witness unto the word of God which was given and revealed by him. And both these expositions suppose “the things spoken” to be the things spoken by Moses himself. . But neither doth this seem to answer the mind of the Holy Ghost; for,—
(1.) This being a testimony, refers to the whole faithfulness of Moses, which was not confined or restrained unto the things that were spoken, but extended itself unto the whole service of the house wherein he was employed, as well in the building of the tabernacle and institution of ordinances as revealing the will of God in his law.
(2.) Aadndnoowévay respects things future unto what he did in his whole ministry. This our translation rightly observes, rendering it, “The things which were to be spoken after.” And this as well the order of the words as the importance of them doth require. In his ministry he was a testimony, or by what he did in the service of the house he gave testimony. Whereunto? To the things that were afterwards to be spoken, namely, in the fulness of time, the appointed season, by the Messiah,—that is, the things of the gospel. And this, indeed, was the proper end of all that Moses did or ordered in the house of God.
This is the importance of the words, and this was the true and proper end of the whole ministry of Moses, wherein his faithfulness was tried and manifested. He ordered all things by God’s direction in the typical worship of the house, so as that it might be a pledge and testimony of what God would afterwards reveal and exhibit in the gospel: for “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” Rom. x. 4. And it was revealed unto him, as unto the other prophets, that. not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister in the revelations they made of the things testified unto them by the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. And whereas it is frequently said that Moses bare witness unto the Lord Christ and the gospel, he did it not so much by direct prophecies and promises of him, as by the whole constitution and ordering of the house of God and all its institutions, especially in the erection of the tabernacle and the appointment of the sacrifices annexed to it: for as the first witnessed and represented the assump- tion of our human nature by Christ, whereby éoxjywoev, “he taber- nacled amongst us,” John i. 14,—and therefore after the tabernacle was built, God spake only from thence, Lev. i. 1,—so did the latter that great sacrifice whereby the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world. Herein was Moses faithful.