PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 1:5-14

5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,

“^You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You”?

And again,

“I will be a Father to Him

And He shall be a Son to Me”?

6 And ^when He again ^brings the firstborn into ^the world, He says,

“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”

7 And of the angels He says,

“Who makes His angels winds,

And His ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son He says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

And the righteous scepter is the scepter of ^His kingdom.

9 “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

^ Therefore God, Your God, has ^anointed You

With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,

And the heavens are the works of Your hands;

11 They will perish, but You remain;

And they all will become old like a garment,

12 And like a mantle You will roll them up;

Like a garment they will also be changed.

But You are ^the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.”

13 But to which of the angels has He ever said,

“Sit at My right hand,

Until I make Your enemies

A footstool for Your feet”?

14 Are they not all ^ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit ^salvation?

The preacher continues his great pursuit of encouraging the brethren to draw near to Christ in times of struggle and persecution with “chain quotations”. Here the preacher takes seven Old Testament passages and strings them together with the hope of making the listener stand awe and in full agreement with everything he has said thus far, marveled by the Old Testaments beautiful portrayal of the Messiah. To do this he takes three pairs of text revealing the Son and ends with a climatic quotation about His current status.

Hebrews 1:5

He starts off right where he left off in verse four where He compares the Son to angels. “For to which of the angels did he ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten You’? And again, ‘I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me’”? The preacher wants to contrast the relationship of the Son and angels to God, seen here as Father. He shows the uniqueness of the relationship that they have so that when the Son is compared to the angels, a great difference will be seen.

Though it is obvious that the preacher sees these text as pointing to Christ and Psalm 2:7 is even used by Paul as a Messianic text, it is helpful for us to uncover the meaning of these text for the people of that time as they represent a foreshadow of what is to come. Psalm 2:7 is a psalm of David where he says that God said to him, “You are my son, today I have begotten you” and in 2 Samuel 7:14 the Lord tells David referring to Solomon, “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.” What we have here then is the Lord proclaiming over his anointed, “You are my son, my anointed, my chosen one, the king I place over the nations.” The reason to make such a point is otherwise we might be faced with those who say that Jesus was not always the Son, but became the Son.

This however if faulty because we have already noticed that the Son was present in the creation of the cosmos, He was Son in the incarnation, and now He reigns as Son after His exultation. Therefore, “today” refers to God’s open testament that Christ in the glorious king of the nations who now rules over heaven and earth when He was exulted at His enthronement. By this Christ shares a special relationship to the Father foreign to the angels.

Hebrews 1:6-7

The next pair of texts reveal the position of angels to the Son. The preacher refers to the Son as the firstborn. In the Hebrew context much is meant by one being first born, such as its consecration to God, the love of the father for the firstborn, sharing in the authority of the father, and inheriting a greater portion of the father’s property. Thus, the Son as firstborn speaks of His preeminence in the cosmos, and with regard to the church in association with the resurrection. Thus it says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him” because it is the Son “who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” The fact that the angels worship the Son implies His deity because only God is worthy of worship and even more worthy is God alone of angels worship. Therefore, the Son stands as equal in essence to the Father.

Hebrews 1:8-12

The preacher’s final pair of text brings our attention to the Son to notice His deity, eternality, and everlasting reign. The Lord decrees that the Son will reign forever because He is righteous, having loved righteousness and hating lawlessness. Therefore God has anointed the Son with gladness above His companions. The preacher then pushes forth the eternality of the Son by proclaiming, “You…laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain…they will all become old like a garment…You are the same and Your years will not come to an end.” Because Jesus is God He will never come to an end and thus His reign will last as long as He.

Hebrews 1:13

Thus the preacher ends his argument by asking, “to which of the angels has He said, ‘Sit at My right hand’?” The preachers chain of text come to its zenith with Psalm 110:1. Thus the end of comparing the Son to angels has ended with his readers having not doubts that Jesus is more exulted. Angels, though mighty and powerful, are not God, but are “ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation”.

Thus the preacher ends by making two things clear for his reader: (1) Christ is more exulted than the angels because He is the Son who is to be worshipped by angels because He is God and it was by His hands that they were created and (2) angels are to be respected and honored, but not worshipped because God alone is worthy of worship and they are sent as ministers for us who will inherit salvation. Thus the opinion of angels is not attacked, but rightly elevated to its place below the Son. Therefore we must follow the example of the preacher who (1) uses the Old Testament to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, who is God by giving the most explicit reference to Jesus as God in the Bible: “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever…Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You”; and (2) make sure that people understand the nature of angels and their relationship to the Trinity and us.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1-4

1 God, after He ^spoke long ago to the fathers in ^the prophets in many portions and ^in many ways,

2 ^in these last days ^has spoken to us ^in ^His Son, whom He appointed ^heir of all things, ^through whom also He made the ^world.

3 ^And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact ^representation of His nature, and ^upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He ^sat down at the right hand of the ^Majesty on high,

4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent ^name than they.

It is amazing to think that the preacher starts off his letter by no other word than “God”. Not only does he start off by announcing who this whole letter will be centered around, but that this God spoke. The God who is above all, who is omnipotent, without need or counsel, spoke. For by the very Word of God all things came into being. It is by the Word of God that His law was given. God spoke to the fathers in the prophets so that His will would be known. Therefore the first thing we must notice about this passage of Scripture and about the God whom it pertains to is that He is a God of communication. It is His desire to make Himself known. It is His desire to be personal with His people. He is the God who spoke.

Then the preacher seeks to contrast the way God has spoken to the “fathers” and to “us”. God spoke to the fathers, that is those of old, but not only the patriarchs, of those of the Old Covenant. With them He spoke in many portions and in many ways. What is it that the preacher wishes for us to see? I am drawn to the word “many”. In the Old Covenant He spoke in many times, with the Patriarchs, with Moses, with the Prophets, and many others. He spoke to them in many ways: by visions, by dreams, with Moses, the Lord spoke to him like a man. The way that God communicated was in many portions and in many ways, so that older revelation was expansive, but incomplete.

But “in these last days” He “has spoken to us in His Son”. Now before I entertain the speaking of the Son, what does the preacher mean by “last days”? If the preacher meant that he was in the last days then we would now have been in the last days for nearly 2,000 years. But that is exactly what the preacher means. As the preacher will show us by this letter, it is when the Son, whom was appointed heir of all things, sat down, that we entered into the last days. Just as when the decisive battle is won in a war, though there may be fighting and skirmishes afterward, by the blow of the great battle the victor has already been named and all fighting thereafter is seen as in the last days. So we therefore remain in the last days waiting until the great day when all things that have been subjected to Him are seen as subjected to Him.

The preacher proclaims, “He…has spoken to us in His Son”. Where the fathers had to deal with many portions and many ways, we have one speech at one time. Christ is therefore the climax of Scripture, both the fulfillment and end for which it was given. By the Scriptures we are shown the worth of the Son and by the Son the Scriptures are given their value. Jesus is therefore the Word of God. With the first phase of speech coming through the prophets, Christ is the second and last. Christ is the “radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” Christ, as God, shows the fullness of God. To see the Son is to see the Father. Therefore, there remains no speech to be given by God to make Himself known.

The Son is the “appointed heir of all things.” Even though was through the Son that the world was made, God appointed Him as heir. First, this gives rise to the deity of Christ. It was through Him that God made the world. The Son was present with God in the beginning to make the world, and it is by the “word of His power” that all things are upheld. Yet, the world, not referring to the earth only, but all created things, both in the heavens and earth, belong to God for Him to do with as He wishes. So by His appointment, God declares the Son to be the heir.

When the Son had fulfilled the purpose of God, “purification of sins” and what the preacher will show to be the fulfillment and end of the sacrificial system, He “sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high”. Thus the Son has inherited creation and has had all things put in “subjection under His feet.” Though we do not see it as so, Christ now reigns at the and by this He has become much better than the angels, though made lower for a time, speaking of His incarnation, because He has “inherited a more excellent name than they”—“Son”.

God has communicated and expansive and foundational revelation through the Old Testament, but God has spoken climatically in His Son as God’s prophet. Therefore it should be our greatest desire to know the God who communicates. Though the fulfillment of God’s revelation came in His Son, the Son will never be known fully in this life apart from what was given in the prophets in the days long ago. The preacher thrust this forward with quotation after quotation from the Old Testament to greaten our understanding and give rise to a passion for the Son who is much better than the angels and as we will see: Moses, the promise land, the priestly system, the Law and Old Covenant; having made purification of sins as our high priest. Therefore we ought to fix our eyes on Jesus and draw near to “the author and perfecter our faith, who for the joy set before Him endure the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” as our king.

Be Thou My Vision

It Is Well With My Soul

GOD is the Gospel

For those who might not be aware of John Piper I strongly suggest you check him out.

desiringGod.org

I heard and my inward parts trembled,
At the sound my lips quivered.
Decay enters my bones,
And in my place I tremble.
Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
For the people to arise who will invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds' feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.
--Habbakkuk 3:16-19