The first two verses of the Hebrew epistle in the New Testament state the whole policy of divine revelation: “God Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”  This One who was the agent of the creation of the universe and of man became the heir of all things in God’s revelation to man, the culmination and fulfillment of the scheme of divine revelation.  This chain of revelation, from the voice of God in the garden of Eden to the voice of the blood of Christ on the cross, follows a divine pattern from its first forms of communication to the completion of the divine purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Primitive revelation was oral, when God addressed the patriarchs in direct verbal communication. Then revelation took the form of theophany--the manifestation of God in symbols and types and visions, inclusive of the long series of representations of God in the early ages.  After this, revelation assumed an ethnic character in the formation of the Hebrew race, the existence of which was but an early form of divine revelation, from which developed the national feature of revelation in the establishment and organization of the nation of Israel, the whole history of which was a phase of divine revelation.  Finally, revelation reached its documentary culmination and was committed to the records of the Old and New Testaments.

This gradual course and progressive policy of revelation is the meaning of Hebrews 1:1-2.  God spake in time past (the old dispensations) unto the fathers (from Adam to Moses) by the prophets (the agents of ancient revelation) in sundry times (in various parts or portions) and in divers manners (employing many methods of communication) , but in the last days (the gospel dispensation) God has spoken unto us by His Son (Jesus the Christ), whom He appointed heir of all things (spoken by the prophets). The various parts and portions were gathered into one, the many methods merged into the completed revelation, and the Bible thus becomes the longest thread of thought ever woven in the loom of time.

The symbolic and typical system of the old dispensation, with its altars, visions and apocalypses, pointed to fulfillment in Christ and the church.  The blood stream of the Old Testament began its flow from Abel’s altar and it did not cease until it was mingled with the crimson flow of the blood of Jesus Christ from the cross of Calvary.

There are multiple passages in the New Testament gathered around the fact that the types and symbols and prophecies all pointed to Christ and were thus fulfilled.  That is why Heb. 1:1,2 declares that God appointed Him to be the heir of the all things spoken by the prophets; and it is why Paul in Eph. 1:10,11 stated that in this dispensation God has gathered together in one all things in Christ; and it is why in Rom. 8:27-29 the apostle shows that the all things of God’s plan work together for the good, or the redemption, of all men who are called according to His purpose in the redemptive plan; and it is why in II Pet. 1:19 that Christ was proclaimed the day star of all prophecy; and that is why Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, in chapter 4, when seeking a figure of speech to adequately portray the grandeur of the One to come, selected the flaming orb of the day, and declared that the coming Christ should be the Sun Of Righteousness "with healing in His wings.”

What the sun of the solar system is to the universe, Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, would be to the darkened world of humanity in sin.  In fulfillment of the prophecies He came; the Sun of Righteousness had arisen, and it cast the beams of splendor across the crest of Calvary, glimmering and glistening in the blood of the crucified Son of God, Who thus became “the heir of all things” spoken by the prophets. “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Lk. 24:44-45).  “And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took him down from the tree” (Acts 13:29).  Jesus Christ is the heir of all things spoken by the prophets.

Foy E. Wallace, Jr.  Adapted from the Book of Revelation