f Isa.
lxiii. 11, with its memories of Moses and the ascent of Israel from the
parted waters), "in the blood" (as it were attended, authenticated,
entitled, by the blood) "of covenant eternal," that supreme Compact of
Divine love of which twice over (chapters viii., x.) the Epistle has
spoken; under which, for the slain Mediator's sake, God both forgives
iniquity and transfigures the will of the forgiven. Then the prayer
follows upon these mighty premisses. The Teacher asks, with the
authority of an inspired benediction, that this God of peace, of
covenant, of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, would carry out the
covenant-promise in His new Israel to the full. May He "perfect" them,
that is to say, equip them on every side with every requisite of grace,
for the supreme purpose of their existence, the doing of His will in
everything. May He so inhabit and inform them, through His Son, by His
Spirit, that He shall be the will within their will, the force beneath
their weakness, "working in them to will and to do for His good
pleasure's sake" (Phil. ii. 13). To Him, the Father, be glory for ever.
To Him, the Son, be glory for ever. Who shall decide, and who need
decide, to which Divine Person the relative pronoun [Greek: ho]
precisely attaches? The glory is to the Father in the Son, to the Son in
the Father.

One closing word remains. Observe this designation just here applied to
the Lord Jesus Christ; "the Shepherd, the great Shepherd, of the sheep."
It is noteworthy, because in our Epistle it stands here quite alone. We
have had the Christ of God presented to us throughout under the totally
different character of the High Priest, the great Self-Immolator of the
Cross, now exalted in the glory of His High Priesthood to be the Giver
of blessing from the Throne. To Him in that sublime aspect the thought
of the Hebrew believer, so sorely tempted to look away from Him, to look
backward to the old and ended order, has been steadily directed, for
spiritual rest of conscience and for loyalty of will. But here, true to
that _habit_ of the Bible, if the word may be used, with which it
accumulates on Him the most diverse titles in the effort to set forth
His fulness, the Writer exchanges all this range of thought for the one
endearing designation of the SHEPHERD of the sheep. It was as such that
He went down to death, giving for the flock His life. It was as such
that He is "brought again," to rescue, to watch, to feed, to guide