"…A more excellent name…a more excellent ministry…a more excellent sacrifice…the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Heb 1:4; 8:6; 11:4; 12:24).

It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews especially that His excellencies are displayed—to the Hebrews, to whom He was unattractive and unwelcome. They gazed on the root sprouting from the dry ground, thought of their bygone bramble-king, and longed for the cedars of Lebanon (Jud 9:14)…This is the burden of the Holy Spirit…He alternates from throne to cross. He travels from the mighty present into the misty past, and onward to the eternal future. But there is a constancy in His task—the unveiling of the excellencies of Emmanuel.

—A. C. Rose, Soul Food, pp. 77-80