The Divine Son (Part 3)

Introduction

This text has been worth our dwelling on because there is nothing more important in this life than knowing who Jesus is so that we may know him. Ultimately, it is not scholarship we are pursuing, but Christ. The author of Hebrews knows it is important for us to know who it is we are believing, and so let us dive once again into the nature of the Divine Son.

A Look Into Psalm 110

YHWH spoke to my Lord - The psalm begins as David is speaking, but in a way that is quite different from how most Davidic psalms sound. Usually, David is the central figure in the Psalm. Usually, even in Psalms that refer strongly to the coming Messiah, David is usually the personal figure that represents his anointed offspring through whom God would bring about his eternal Kingdom on earth. What is unique here is that David is looking on God’s relationship with one he calls my Lord.

This is the question Jesus famously asked the Pharisees at the end of Matthew 22. After they and the Sadducees had tried to stump Jesus with various questions, Jesus asks them who the Christ is. They reply that he is the Son of David. Jesus than quotes the first verse of Psalm 110 with the questions being

Matthew 22:45 ESV

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

In other words, how can David refer to his descendant, his offspring who would inherit the crown from him, how can he refer to him as ‘Lord’? Furthermore, how can he be the one overhearing this language between God and his descendant as if he were the child listening in on the grown ups talking? This theological challenge shuts his opponants up because it seems to point out that the Messiah is of a much higher rank, even a divine rank, that David never had.

This direct communication between God and the anointed King is common in other texts about God’s covenant with King David. Here, it is clear that this lofty position to which the Messiah is lifted transcends David’s own relationship with God.

Co-rulership with God - Now we have the content of God’s speech to David’s Lord, which is an invitation for the Messiah to “sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool”.

The concept of co-rulership of divine and human persons is well attested in the ANE world. The relationship between human kings and thier gods was an important part of how ancient people viewed their relationship with the divine. The King’s presence was how divine power ruled in the world, not just over the members of a society but over the chaotic forces that they believed were constantly trying to destroy the ordered creation. Pictures can be found of Pharoah’s sitting on the lap of some deity with a footstool literally made out of their enemies, so this image was very commonly recognized in the ancient world.

The idea is that the Davidic dynasty would serve as the very throne of God on earth. You see this in 1 Chronicles 29:23 where king Solomon “sat on the throne of YHWH as king in place of David his father.” The idea is that David’s descendant is the perfect representation of God on earth. David was a shadow of this, but what this Psalm makes clear is that this is more true of his offspring than it is of him, to whom the covenant was made.

So what David is witnessing is God’s appointment of a king to sit with him on the divine throne. This person must be David’s son, and yet he is exalted to being David’s Lord. This implies a greater nature as well as a greater exaltation of this son of David, since he is called David’s Lord before he is invited to sit with God on his Throne.

While I make your enemies your footstool - Again, a common picture in 14th century BCE in Egyptian art was a Pharoah sitting on a throne with his enemies, usually nine, piled up to make a footstool. The idea was that the god would give their human counterpart, the Pharoah, complete dominion over their enemies as an extention of their own dominion over chaos. In this text, YHWH invites David’s offspring, whom David calls Lord, to come up to this place where God will deliver victory over to him without limit. Again, this doesn’t happen to David himself, which shifts our understanding of God’s covenant with David. The true object of God’s covenant with humanity wasn’t ultimately David personally, it was the one who through David would come, the divine Son.

A few more things to note from the rest of the Psalm:

Again, we are reminded that no angelic or heavenly being was ever given this position of authority and priviledge.

The Son rules from Zion, spiritual Jerusalem, and he rules in the midst of his enemies. This again suggests that God’s subjection of the Son’s enemies is a process, not an immediate effect.

The people of God will offer themselves in holiness to the service of the Son.

The Son is declared a greater high priest than the Levites, which the author will get into more later.

Vs 5-7 seem to speak to God, with the Lord here being the Son who is at YHWH’s right hand. These again emphasize his total victory, which concludes with the picture of a war lord drinking from his enemy’s water source after a hard-won battle.

The Divine Son

With this final quotation, the picture that the author of Hebrews has left us with gives us a full, three dimentional image of who the Son is as the final authority of God to us, above both prophet and angel.

He is one in nature with the Father, and so is fully God as the Father is. Yet, he is distinct from the Father.

Radiance of the glory of God.

Exact imprint of his nature.

Worshiped by angels.

Uncreated.

He is co-creator of the universe.

This not only affirms his nature as uncreated, but establishes that he was the Son before he became human.

He is the heir of all things, and therefore he has a right over all the universe, not just the nations as David was promised.

Though he was the Son eternally, he earned his glory also through his work by which he made purification for sins to buy a people for God’s own possession.

He carries God’s perfect speech for us in order to know God.

He is a greater King than the legendary David as well as greater than Angels.

Conclusion

He speaks to us for God perfectly and personally.

He has all authority.

He is served by angels.

Those who are united with him become as he is.

The hope of our salvation is to be raised up to his status by his marits for his glory. We are to inherit salvation because the heir of all things shares his inheritance with us.

So the point of knowing all that the author of Hebrews has been laying down here is:

That we may know that the Gospel is from God.

That Jesus Christ may be the object of our worship.

That we may lay aside every other way to reach God but by Jesus and the salvation he established, which angels themselves exist in order to serve our inheritence of.

To enjoy the inheritance of salvation by union with Christ, a oneness with him and the hope of a glorious reserrection in him.