While there can be no doubt that the writer to the Hebrews is addressing people who have a detailed knowledge of the Old Testament (especially in its ancient Greek from, known as the LXX, or Septuagint), his use of the Old Testament is remarkable. Jesus himself indicated that all the (Old Testament) Scriptures spoke of him (e.g. Luke 24:25-27, 44-47). In other words, the method of using in the Old Testament in the New is Christological. In Hebrews this is so not just in specific details (e.g. how Christ fulfils the Old Testament atonement sacrifices), but in the grand themes (e.g. of the Divine Rest, and Covenant). All that was spoken about in the Old Testament accounts of God's people could only finally be understood in and through Jesus Christ. This is neither to say that those Old Testament narratives were not historical, nor that the presence of God was powerful and dynamic in saving action towards his people, but that these actions were in themselves prophetic. Indeed, the Old Testament prophets understood this (as is made plain in 1 Peter 1:10-12, for example), and Paul thus is able to say that these (former) things were written by way of a teaching tool/example for us who have come to know the Lord in the last days (1 Cor. 10:11).

In Hebrews one of the grand narrative themes of the Old Testament, namely the exodus, emerges in a new form. The exodus-in which God brought his people out from Egypt to bring them to himself (Ex. 19:4)-was the defining feature of Israel's identity as a nation. If the Jews looked back to Abraham as their father, they regarded Moses as their greatest national leader. When Abraham's descendants entered Egypt, they were in total only 70 souls (Gen. 46:26; Ex. 1:5). When they left Egypt over four hundred years later they had gown to become a great nation (so Deut. 10:22). The exodus defined them, not only as Abraham's covenant descendants (the Lord defines himself to Moses by relation to Abraham in Ex. 3:15), but as his treasured possession in the earth (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). Indeed they were a nation taken out of the midst of Egypt and its worship (Deut. 4:34 cf. Ex. 12:12; Numb. 33:4), with Moses appointed as a shepherd of God to lead His flock out (Ps. 77:20; Is. 63:11).

The word ‘exodus' comes from the Greek ex (out, out of) o`dos (a way, path). It later came to be applied in a figurative sense to death, passing from this life to the next (as in 2 Peter 1:15), but the Old Testament content attached to the word was never lost, even in this use. In Luke 9:31 we see the word used in relation to Jesus' death, but its weight attaches to more than Jesus' physical death. In and through his death (as the Passover Lamb), Jesus was effecting the exodus of his people from their slavery.

The exodus pattern underlies the whole of Hebrews. Just as Israel was rescued by God's own direct action from Egypt and from slavery to Pharaoh; so the Church has been redeemed from bondage to death and slavery to Satan. God's Old Testament people were being led through the wilderness to the ‘resting place' (the land of Canaan itself, so Deut. 12:9); God's New Testament people are being led through the trials and tests of this world to the ultimate Sabbath Rest of God. Moses, faithful over the Old Testament household of God, led them like a shepherd; now we have the great and true Shepherd of the sheep leading us. Whereas the Old Testament people were redeemed by the means of a Passover sacrifice, we have a once for all sacrifice in Christ, who has provided a once for all redemption. The Old Testament people were led to Mt. Sinai, and ultimately on to Jerusalem; we are led to the heavenly Mt. Zion and to the city whose maker and builder is God. The Old Testament exodus established Israel's worship in the Tabernacle (and later Temple), but the New establishes a new worship in a new, heavenly sanctuary, under the leadership of a new High Priest, Jesus. In every detail the law, leadership, life and worship of Israel were ordered according to the covenant with Moses. Now, fittingly, a New Covenant has come, in which the Law is written on our hearts, the leadership of Christ is over his people, the life and worship of the people of God is governed by the Priest-King Jesus.

This exodus theme underlies the passage at hand (Heb. 2:14-18). Here Satan is shown to have the power of death. This is not in the sense of ‘authority', since only God can give and take away life. However, by virtue of human guilt and sin he has the power to terrify men and women with the prospect of death. Death represents judgement, and ushers us into the presence of God, the Judge of all the earth. Where guilt remains, Satan retains power to tempt, accuse, frighten and intimidate.