More excellent than the prophets; more excellent than the angels.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 1

God’s Full and Final Revelation in the Son

1 Although* God spoke long ago in many parts and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets, 2 in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world, 3 who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power. When he* had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become by so much better than the angels, by as much as he has inherited a more excellent name than theirs.

Picture the scene, if you will. Jesus has taken his disciples, Peter, James and John up a mountainside to pray. While he was praying, his appearance changed, his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning and he was joined by Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest prophets of the Jews, each in glorious splendour. As the disciples witnessed this a cloud enveloped them and they heard a voice, saying, “this is my son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone.

As we continue to look at the letter to the Hebrews, it is this Jesus that we are directed to and in his light and his glory, the figures of the past, however great and however glorious in their own right all fade from view. The prophets, the angels, Moses, Joshua, the priesthood, the men of faith are all brought into view and as they are compared with Christ their glory is eclipsed and Jesus is found alone. The very things which Judaism esteemed highly are shown to be far inferior to Jesus.

The first three verses of the letter take us right to the heart of the message and remind us that Judaism was of Divine authority. It was God who spoke to their Fathers; It was they who had received the revelation from God. It was they to whom God had entrusted his message to the world and it was through his people, the Jews that redemption would come.

Rom 1:2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

Rom 1:3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David,

Rom 1:4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is so much in the first three verses that we can only scratch the surface of God’s revelation of himself to the world. At many times and in various ways. Throughout the old testament God’s revelation of himself was fragmentary, sometimes directly; sometimes indirectly. Sometimes through angels as in Genesis 18 and 19. Sometimes through dreams and visions. Often it was through the prophets, men who, to put it simply, were the mouthpiece of God.

There were many

They lived at different times, different places, had different positions in life and lived through different experiences.

They understood their own sinfulness;

Isaiah 1:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

and their own weakness:

Dan 10:8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless.

They did not possess the spirit of God constantly

They did not understand the heights and depth of their own message:

1Peter 1: 10-12

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Peter says this of the prophets:

2 Pet 1:20,21 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Now comes the contrast: In these last days He has spoken by his son.

Gal 4:4 tells us :

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

What we now see is that in Jesus God has brought to fulfilment all that he foreshadowed and pointed forward to through the lives and words of the prophets.”God has spoken” indicates the completion of the Gospel message. God has spoken in his son or by his son. God spoke through his prophets, but now we see that Christ is not only the conveyor of the Gospel message. He is the gospel message.

Now that the writer has got our attention on the Son, he invites us to consider with wonder just who Jesus is and he makes a seemingly impossible statement that the son was appointed heir of all things and that the universe was made through him.

see Jesus as God, the creator, as you know from those familiar verses in John’s gospel

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind

Col 1:16 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

And we see Jesus as God incarnate

John 1:14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

One thing we need to remember at all times is that when he took upon himself sinless human nature he did not cease to be God, nor did he empty himself of his divine attributes.

1 Tim 3: 16 16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

He appeared in the flesh,

was vindicated by the Spirit,

was seen by angels,

was preached among the nations,

was believed on in the world,

was taken up in glory.

It is as the Son of God incarnate, as God the Saviour, as God the mediator, that we see Jesus as “appointed as heir of all things.”

We see Jesus as God himself in the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.

Col 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

We see Jesus at work sustaining all things by his powerful word

Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

We see Jesus as Saviour through whom was made purification for sins, a reference to the day of atonement as described in Leviticus 16:30.

Lev 16:30 because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.

1John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

And we see Jesus as the Son of man, now in glory, who sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down when his work of purging our sins was completed.

The Hebrew readers of this letter would have remembered the vision of Daniel in chapter 7 v 9:

The New International Version (Chapter 7)

9 “As I looked,“thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

And later the Apostle John in Revelation 4:2

Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one was seated on the throne.

God, in his love for us, has entered our world as man, and as man has redeemed us, and having done so, now sits on the throne in heaven.

Now the writer leads us to consider God’s Angels and that now the Son has become as much superior to them as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

We might ask why the writer chose to compare the son, first with Angels. Perhaps we have not given much of our thought to angels, except as secondary themes in bigger stories. I don’t recall any sermon delivered specifically of the topic of angels. However, we meet angels throughout the Bible and there are more than a hundred passages, where God has used his angels to minister to his people. We all know of the angels in the Christmas stories and we know that Jesus confirmed the reality of Angels, when at the time of his arrest he said:

Matt 26:53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels

The Jews regarded angels as the most exalted of God’s creatures and the writer of Hebrews intends to show from their own scriptures that the Son has indeed become superior to these heavenly beings. Who were, or I should say are these heavenly beings. There are many

Acts 7:53 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

Deut 33:2

GOD came down from Sinai,

he dawned from Seir upon them;

He radiated light from Mount Paran,

coming with ten thousand holy angels

Psalm 68:17

17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands

and thousands of thousands;

the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.

We find angels in the life of Abraham. They met in the appearance of men to announce that Sarai would have a child. Genesis 18

They led Lot and his family out of the city of Sodom. Genesis 19

When Hagar fled from Sarai it was an angel who encouraged her to return

Gen 16:7 7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert;

And later, after Isaac was born and Hagar and Ishmael were thrown out of Abraham’s home, that God heard the boy crying and an angel called to Hagar from heaven. Genesis 21:17

The angel called out to Abraham to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac. Gen 22:11

It was an angel who went before the servant of Abraham in the quest for a wife for his son. Genesis 24

Joseph acknowledged the “Angel who has delivered me from all harm” Genesis 48

It was the angel of the Lord who appeared to Moses from the burning bush. Exodus 3

An angel went ahead of the Children of Israel as they set out to the Promised land:

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Exodus 23:20

but when we cried out to the LORD, he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Numbers 20:16

The angel of the Lord met with Gideon. Judges 6

With Manoah and his wife. Judges 13

And we could go on and on.

Psalm 103 tells us that the angels excel in strength.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

who obey his word.

Psalm 104: 4 tells us that they are God’s messengers and his instruments of his judgment.

 He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

Daniel’s vision in chapter 7:10 shows thousands upon thousands attending the Ancient of days. Dan 7: 10

As he begins his comparison the writer knows the esteem in which angels are held, how excellent they are, and he invites by way of two questions all his readers to remember the angels and to consider Jesus. The first question addresses the incarnation, the birth of Jesus. He takes us first to Psalm 2:7

He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.

and to 2 Samuel 7: 12-14

I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.

These verses speak of the time when God stepped down into the world and became man. There are some who would claim the eternal sonship of Christ, but that is not borne out by scripture. Remember the verse from Galatians 4 4

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

In Luke’s Gospel the angel says to the shepherds. Luke 2:11

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

It is the incarnate son of God, and here we go back to verse three of the chapter, who, having provided purification for sins has now sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

It is this incarnate Son of God who has become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. The angels’ name denotes created beings, whose position is higher than man’s.

Psalm 8:4,5

what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

Paul describes the incarnate Son of God in this way: Phil 2:6-11

6 Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Here the writer to the Hebrew’s posed a second question: This addresses the Lordship of Christ, another reference from the psalms - 110:1

To which of the angels did God ever say,

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet”?

Jesus Christ has now taken his place on the throne in heaven and the writer takes us to Psalm 45:

6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

This will be a new Kingdom, with the Son on the throne. Of the earth and heavens, Psalm 102:26

They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end.”

Isaiah writes of this when in chapter 34 he warns the nations to pay attention to God’s anger.

Isaiah 34:4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved

and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;

There is to be a new kingdom for the redeemed. Read the last part of Isaiah 34 and also chapter 35 and I am sure you will be encouraged.

The very next Psalm, 103: 19-22 speaks of this and It is this incarnate Son of God, who, having completed his work, that the angels are now commanded to worship.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,

and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the LORD, you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

who obey his word.

Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,

you his servants who do his will.

Praise the LORD, all his works

everywhere in his dominion.

The last verse of this chapter contains a remarkable statement, that would probably have astonished the readers of the letter. The angels are described as ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. Those mighty sinless creatures of God sent by the Lord to serve us human beings! We know from Matthew 4:11 that the angels attended to the needs of Jesus.

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

We should also be encouraged to know that God sends angels to assist us: Psalm 34: 7

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

In view of all this we come to a warning by the writer of the letter. This is at the start of chapter 2. We have to bear in mind that the original letters of the New Testament were not divided neatly into chapters and verses. They are helpful for us, but the early readers would have seen one continuous flow of thought from the author.

One of the purposes of the letter was to encourage those Jewish Christians to remain in the faith and not to abandon it. In Chapter 3 :7 he says

And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

The letter to the Hebrews contains a number of warnings or exhortations and the call is not to forsake our faith. The first comes in this section

pay most careful attention so that we do not drift away

and then comes a difficult question

How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?

Some translations use the word neglect at this point

Remember that some of the Jews who had embraced Christianity, were now drifting back to their old ways, or drifting back to Judaism, sometimes through deliberate choice, some through a lack of understanding of the true message of the gospel. That’s why the writer urges us to pay careful attention. There is always the danger of backsliding and there will be consequences.

The writer doesn’t specify at this point, but we might get some clues from elsewhere in the New Testament. Here’s what we read in Revelation chapter 2 to the church in Ephesus:

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

To the church in Laodicea the message was

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

A question that we might have to address is this “Can believers fall from Grace?”

We will go into this a lot more when we get to Hebrews 6 and 7, but for now let us resolve to pay careful attention to this great salvation, the message spoken by angels.

The Message translation of these four verses at the start of chapter two will perhaps help us to more easily understand.

It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off. If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all, it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him. All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit.

Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (Heb 2:1–4). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.