Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

332 Hebrews II. 6, 7.
thou established a power for thee, because of thine adversaries, to
Bubdue the enemy, the avenger." It is not easy to say what the
poet had in his mind here. At first sight we might be tempted to
imagine a reference to some special case, in which a hostile warrior
bad, by the weepiDg and lisping of a child, been moved to pity towards
its parents. But a definite case of this kind which the readers
of the psalm might have been able to call to mind without farther
description, does not occur in all the Old Testament ; nor is it the
enemies of a man but the enemies of God that are spoken of ; and,
besides, the subsequent part of the psalm treats solely of the high
position which God hath assigned to man as such. We must, therefore
find in ver. 2 a reference of a more universal kind. God has
on account of his enemies, for their subjugation, provided a power,
and that out of the mouth of weak sucklings ! By the enemies of
God we must understand the whole power opposed to God on the
earth, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of the serjjent ; by
the power which God hath pro\aded we are to understand the whole
of those preparations which God hath made or promised to make
for overcoming the darkness. What are the preparations of this
kind with which we are made acquainted in the Old Testament ?
Has God, perhaps, promised that he will at one time send hosts of
angels who shall trample on the serpent's head ? No ;
when his
object is to chastise sinful men, he places a cherub with a flaming
sword before the closed gate of paradise ; but when the future redemption
from the bondage of the serpent, from death is spoken of,
then no mention is made of an angel, but the seed of the woman is
to bring the salvation, hence, though erroneously and hastily, she
fixes her hope on the boy that first comes from her womb ; she has
now a man child, and thinks that with the seed of the woman she
has at the same time recovered the possession of the God whom she
had lost (left behind in paradise). And from this time forth, all
hope of salvation was turned towards the birth of the heirs of the
theocratic blessing, and on the preservation and protection of these
first-born.
The original promise of the seed of the woman separates
itself into many branches ; when a son is born to Lamcch he calls
him Noah, for he hopes that he will bring comfort to men in their
trouble and labour ui)OU the earth which God has cursed (Gen. v.
20); all the hope of Abraham is turned towards the birth of Isaac
and the preservation of his life, Isaac's ho^jc rests upon Jacob ; the
whole prospect of tlie future salvation always rests on such weak
beings ;
upon the child which slumbers in a basket among the
sedges of the Nile, rested the salvation of Israel ; and, moreover,
David's entire faith rested on the seed, which was to be the Son of
God, and was to reign forever with God. (Comj). Hofmann, Weissag.
u. ErfuUung. j»art I. p. 195). This psalm then certainly suits