The First and The Second

The way of God is to go from good to better.

This excites growing wonder and gratitude.

This makes men desire, and pray, and believe, and expect.

This aids man in his capacity to receive the best things.

The first good thing is removed, that the second may the more fitly come.

Upon this last fact we will meditate, noticing—

I. THE GRAND INSTANCE. First came the Jewish sacrifices, and then came Jesus to do the will of God.

1. The removal of instructive and consoling ordinances.

   • While they lasted they were of great value, and they were removed because, when Jesus came—
   • They were needless as types.
   • They would have proved burdensome as services.
   • They might have been dangerous as temptations to formalism.
   • They would have taken off the mind from the substance which they had formerly shadowed forth.

2. The establishment of the real, perfect, everlasting atonement.

   • This is a blessed advance; for
   • No one who sees Jesus regrets Aaron.
   • No one who knows the simplicity of the gospel wishes to be brought under the perplexities of the ceremonial law.
   • No one who feels the liberty of Zion desires to return to the bondage of Sinai.
   • Beware of setting up any other ordinances; for this would be to build again what God has cast down; if not to do even worse.
   • Beware of imagining that the second can fail as the first did. The one was “taken away”; but the other is established by God himself.

II. INSTANCES IN HISTORY. These are many. Here are a few—

1. The earthly paradise has been taken away by sin; but the Lord has given us salvation in Christ, and Heaven.

2. The first man has failed; behold the Second Adam.

3. The first covenant is broken, and the second gloriously takes its place.

4. The first temple, with its transient glories, has melted away; but the second and spiritual house rises beneath the eye and hand of the Great Architect.

III. INSTANCES IN EXPERIENCE.

1. Our first righteousness is taken away by conviction of sin; but the righteousness of Christ is established.

2. Our first peace has been blown down as a tottering fence; but we shelter in the Rock of Ages.

3. Our first strength has proved worse than weakness; but the Lord is our strength and our song, he also has become our salvation.

4. Our first guidance led us into darkness; now we give up self, superstition, and philosophy, and trust in the Spirit of our God.

5. Our first joy died out like thorns which crackle tinder a pot; but now we joy in God.

IV. INSTANCES TO BE EXPECTED.

1. Our body decaying shall be renewed in the image of our risen Lord.

2. Our earth passing away, and its elements being dissolved, there shall be new heavens and a new earth.

3. Our family removed one by one, we shall be charmed by the grand reunion in the Father’s house above.

4. Our all being taken away, we find more than all in God

5. Our life ebbing out, the eternal life comes rolling up in a full tide of glory.

Let us not grieve at the taking away of the first.

Let us expect the establishment of the second.

Meliora

The Law is a Gospel pre-figured, and the Gospel a Law consummated.

—Bishop Hall.

The sin-destroyer being come, we are no longer under the sin-revealer.

—Martin Boos.

No need of prophets to inquire:

The Sun is risen—the stars retire:

The Comforter is come, and sheds

His holy unction on our heads.

—Josiah Conder.

When Alexander went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his gold; and when he was asked what he kept for himself, he answered, “Spem majorum et meliorum”—the hope of greater and better things.… A Christian’s motto always is, or always should be, Spero meliora—I hope for better things.—Thomas BrooKings, in “The Best Things reserved until Last.”

On a cold, windy March day, a gentleman stopped at an apple-stand, whose proprietor was a rough-looking Italian. He alluded to the severe weather, when, with a cheerful smile and tone, the Italian replied: “Yes, pritty cold; but by-and-by—tink of dat!” In other words, the time of warm skies, flowers, and songs, was near, and was to be thought of. The humble vendor little thought of the impression made by his few words. “By-and-by—think of that!”

The Jewish Rabbis report (how truly is uncertain) that when Joseph, in the times of plenty, had gathered much corn in Egypt, he threw the chaff into the river Nile, that so, flowing to the neighboring cities and nations more remote, they might know what abundance was laid up, not for themselves alone, but for others also. So God, in his abundant goodness, to make us know what glory there is in Heaven, has thrown some husks to us here in this world, that so, tasting the sweetness thereof, we might aspire to his bounty that is above, and draw out this happy conclusion to the great comfort of our precious souls—that if a little earthly glory do so much amaze us, what will the heavenly do? If there be such glory in God’s footstool, what is there in his throne? If he give us so much in the land of our pilgrimage, what will he not give us in our own country? If he bestows so much on his enemies, what will he not give to his friends?—John Spencer.

There are certain words which, occurring frequently, are like a bunch of keys, and enable us to unlock the treasures in this epistle. Such a key is “better”; and we find the Lord Jesus described as being better than angels (1:4; illustrated in John 5:4–6), better than Moses (3), Joshua (4), and Aaron (7); his blood speaking better things than that of Abel (12:24); himself the Surety of a better testament, established upon better promises (7:22; 8:6). The old covenant based upon man’s promise (Exodus 19:8; 24:7, 8) was broken in forty days; but the performance by the Son of God was the foundation of the better covenant. “The two tables of the testimony were in the hand of Moses” (Exodus 32:15; Galatians 3:19), but God’s law is within the heart of our Surety (Psalm 40:8; compare Deuteronomy 10:1, 2). That word was spoken by angels Hebrews 2:2; Acts 7:53); but this by him who is “so much better than angels.”—E. A. H. (Mrs. Gordon).