Hebrews 1:1 God Spoke

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

What if God didn’t speak?

A few weeks ago my father in law was visiting us and we got to accomplish a few tasks. For one of them we had to shut off the water for a few hours. During this time I noticed that all of us during that time were unconsciously opening a faucet and expecting water. We have fresh and clean water so accessible that we often forget what it means to not have water.

In the same way when we see this verse in Hebrews, we just take it for granted that God spoke. We don’t realize the importance of God speaking and how life giving it is that God spoke and still speaks. We forget that for the Israelites, they went 2000 years with sporadic word from God… and only to a few.

it is unlikely that we would have considered this question before. In order for us to recognize how crucial it is that God spoke, let’s consider this question.

So What if God had not spoken through the prophets?

I would have this much to tell you about the OT?.......pause 10 seconds.... nothing.... I would have nothing to tell you, not even that God created because Gen-Deut was revealed to Moses.

But much worst than that...If God hadn’t spoken through the prophets there would have been no prophecies about Christ coming.

Without God speaking to the prophets we would know very little about God.

Jesus could still come, died and risen again. However, not a single person would be able to access that salvation. How incredible hopeless and devastating that would be.

If God didn’t speak there would be no hope. It would be like having the whole world without water, it would be lifeless, hopeless

If God didn’t speak there would be nothing. You would not exist, Creation itself wouldn’t exist.

And even if God spoke creation into existence, but He never spoke through the prophets. It would be hopeless. There would no Judaism or Christianity, most of the Western thought and philosophy also would not exist. It would be so different from the reality that we know that it is hard even to imagine it.

When we take the moment to consider the result of God never speaking we will recognize that often we fail to praise Him for speaking.

Allow me to take this yet a step further. We often forget that God didn’t have to speak. God had and has no obligation to speak. In the same way He didn’t have to create anything… or anyone!

How often to we read Scripture passages like this and we mentally shrug our shoulder saying I know that, I heard that before. If we are honest we will recognize that we are often guilty of not praising God that He spoke, and we can even be so disrespectful to God for just taking His words for granted and even ignoring what He said.

I can only imagine God’s heart when we ignore him, like when I talk to my son and he ignores and disobeys. But what a joy is when I speak and my son says: yes daddy I will listen.

But unlike us, God never ever needed anything from creation, and He never ever needed us. This is something you would rarely hear today. God has not and will never need us for anything. He never needed anything from creation. There is a thought to let it sink in.

We might say that we believe this. But honestly, practically and maybe unknowingly we act and live like we don’t. Take whatever ministry you do or support, let it be missions, worship, prayer or helping someone. Don’t we sometimes are so grateful for what God has done, that in the back of our minds we might think “I’m grateful that God needed me to bring this blessing.”

No, that’s wrong. He doesn’t need us. He can make the rocks cry out, he can make a donkey speak, and He can use us.

(SLOW) We should recognize God does not never ever needed us for anything, He never needed anything from creation. And if He uses us for anything for His kingdom is only because of His grace on us, we are unworthy servants it is all His work for his glory. If we think He needed us we might be trying to get a glory that only He deserves.

God is self sufficient and completely independent of His creation. He is self existent. This attribute of God is called Aseity. This might be the first time you heard this word, but to me when I see it and hear it, it causes me to worship God, just because of who HE is.

ASEITY

Aseity, from the Latin means from himself, that is He exists from himself. It is defined as “ the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God”

This is so different from everything in creation, we are creatures that are born in need and dependency. Even though we sometimes think we are autonomous, in reality we are not. Everyday we need food, water, clothing, sleep, friends, family etc.... the very fact that we came into existence is outside of our control, and ultimately God had to give us life or we would not be.

Whether I find myself where life is going well or I’m struggling, the Aseity God causes me to worship Him. Because it puts everything in perspective, my mind is resting worshipping Him, it reminds me that He is more than worthy of my trust, my hope, my love and my obedience.

Think about the vastness of the universe. We might consider Ohio and how long it takes us to cross the state (about 5h), but Ohio is so small compared to the whole earth (it would take 4 months in a car), and the earth is so small compared to the milky way (which travel by car cannot be measured), the milky way is so small compared to the rest of the universe.

As to the universe, NASA says that no one knows if our universe can be finitely measured or is infinitely large. This means that it is so vast that we have yet to observe an end. Distance in astronomy is measured by how long it takes for the light to travel, since the speed of light is constant. As a reference the light takes 8 minutes to go from the sun to the earth, that is how far we are from the sun. In 1 second in light speed we could around the earth 7.5 times.

From the sun to the furthest celestial body on the solar system, Pluto, it takes 5 hours. Now some scientists have tried to estimate that the observable universe is 93 billion light years. That is a long trip if going from Earth to the Sun is a 8 min short trip across town

Once you figure it out the vastness of the universe, think for a moment that God is far greater than all of the universe. He is far greater and billion and billions times more awesome than anything and everything we can observe in creation or the entire universe.

When David looked at the heavens he said in Psalm 8:

Psalm 8:1 ESV

1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Psalm 8:3 ESV

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

Psalm 8:4 ESV

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

When we consider God’s Aseity and His greatness, we should be in such awe of God that He cares for us, that He became a man, lived a perfect life and died for you and me and Rose again. It should be like the 93 billion light years… it is completely impossible to comprehend. And it is for this reason that He doesn’t need anything or anyone in creation.

Paul said the following when he was proclaiming the gospel to gentiles.

Acts 17:24–25 ESV

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God said the following to Job in Job 41:11

Job 41:11 ESV

11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

It is quite humbling to consider God’s Aseity, His greatness and His Independence from creation. And then to recognize that there is nothing we can give Him, that is independent from what He has given us already. There is nothing we can give Him, that is not a reflection of what He has given us already. Be that our life or the privilege and honor we have to give Him thanks, praise and glory through our obedience.

How then could we take any pride if God uses us. How then could we even think that God needs us, whether our obedience or worship?

PAUSE

I could stop right here, because this would be enough for us to pause and reflect. Allowing God to correct and refine us as we praise Him. But I want us to consider some other questions before we conclude looking at verse 1.

Let’s read this verse 1 again.

Hebrews 1:1 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

When Did God speak?

The author of Hebrews could have given us what we call general revelation. That is God reveals himself to everyone by His creation and our consciences. But instead he gives the special revelation, which is the specific revelation of God through the Bible. We could summarize v1 by saying that God reveals himself in the OT because it says God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. The Hebrew letter was written likely to 1st century Hebrews, Jews who had come to faith in Christ.

So we know that this letter was written likely to a majority of believers who in their background are very familiar with the Old Testament.

However, we don’t know who the author is. The author doesn’t identify himself in this letter. For some it is believed that this letter was written by Paul, famous theologians that defended Pauline authorship were Jerome and Augustine (4th century) and also the mention of Timothy in Heb 13:23 to favor Pauline authorship.

However, it is not conclusive that Paul wrote Hebrews. The list of other possible authors is not short and includes: Barnabas, Luke, Apollos, Silvanus among others.

Actually because the lack of the identification of the author, this letter was one of the last letters of the New Testament to be recognized as Scripture. There are three main aspects that were considered for the recognition of letters to be Scripture. Content, time and author.

Throughout the centuries the content of the letter was never questioned, any born again believer when reading this letter will recognize that this is Scripture. All its is content and doctrines are in accordance with everything else in Scripture. This letter was accepted by early Christians in the first century. It was already quoted by Clement in the year 96, indicating that it was written in the first century, while the eye witnesses of Christ death and Resurrection were still alive.

This hesitancy of recognizing this letter as Scripture should give us even more confidence that early on, the first few centuries of the history of the church, believers were very careful in recognizing a letter as Scripture.

All that to say that the letter of Hebrews is clearly the word of God. It would be an impossible task for us today in the 21st century to assert with decisiveness the author of Hebrews. But we can be decisive in its message. Therefore, let’s get back to the questions of when and how did God speak?

God says: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

When it says to our fathers by the prophets, it is clear that it is referring to what we know as the Old Testament.

Which prophets?

Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

That includes all of the OT, from Genesis to Malachi.

V1 also says long ago, at many times and in many ways. From Creation to Malachi there are around 4000 years. God has been speaking a long time!

From the very beginning of creation God has been revealing himself to his creation and telling us exactly what He wants and what He expects of us.

In the Old Testament we also see the many times and many ways that God spoke. From the beginning of creation to Malachi with Elijah and David and so many others in between.

What we see in these OT prophets is God reaching out to His people, a people that didn’t deserve to have Him speaking, but out of grace and mercy God kept speaking.

There is so much we can learn about God in the Old Testament. We can learn about God’s patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, righteousness, that He is unchangeable, all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, wise, just, merciful, gracious, loving, holy, glorious

PAUSE

Do you see how much we would loose if we ignore the OT? There are some who say that the the OT is irrelevant for Christians. This is a dangerous teaching. We need to affirm and stand that All of Scripture is breath out by God and profitable (2Tim 3:16) , the OT was written for our instruction (Rom 15:4)

Ultimately the OT is God’s word and if we disregard it we are going to be missing out on so much about God and all that He already said to all followers of Christ!

We have such a rich possession in knowing and having the OT, but the author of Hebrews continues in v2 by saying: “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”

Hebrews 1:2 ESV

2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Let’s consider this words from the first hearers of this letter in the 1st century. For these believing Jews that would have “rocked” their world and would have signified much. Everything they learned, quoted, held on to was through the prophets to their fathers! Now they are learning that what they have heard from Jesus has the same weight as the OT. They are now the fathers hearing words of God! Can you imagine what his meant to them?

Furthermore, here we can see the progression of God’s revelation. It is a progression from promise to fulfillment. By no means this nullify or make the OT irrelevant, but it makes it all the more clear that God has spoken promising the Messiah.

I’m reminded of Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were confused with everything that had happened, the crucifixion and now the reports of Jesus being raised from the dead, then He opened up their eyes to the OT to see how it was pointing to Him. Luke 24:27

Luke 24:27 ESV

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So we know how and when God spoke in the OT. Now let’s look at our last question: How can we know? How can we know that the Bible is God’s word?

How can we know?

Byron is at the age where he asks why to everything. Honestly often I like his questions, except when he uses it as an excuse for being disobedient, or delaying obedience. But often asking why helps us think and reflect on why we do certain things or believe certain things.

So we believe that Heb 1:1-2a is true and that God’s speaks through the Old and New Testament. But How can we know? But before we address this question, Byron might say, “but daddy why are you asking this question?”

Why should we consider this question? I don’t think anyone here doubts that the Bible is God’s word

I think it is important to consider this question, because we are living in a time where we often cannot trust any news or information, everything seems to come from a strong bias and it seems like everything has a twist in for politics or a particular agenda. It seems like truth and common sense is uncommon or rather, replaced by personal preferences.

When everything is unstable and unreasonable we need to be reminded of the steadiness and reasonableness of our faith.

We could summarize that our trust and belief that the Bible is God’s words with two words: Reason and faith.

Reason, because our belief is based on a multitude of evidence that points that what God said is true. The evidence is from inside Scripture and from outside resources that makes it clear that what the Bible says is true. There are books and books that provide clear arguments and evidence for this. I will mention two of them, both were written from atheists that honestly research the evidence and ultimately came to faith because of all the evidence. If you are interested you can read these two books: The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Cold Case Christianity by J Warner Wallace.

And faith we believe that every word of the Bible is God’s word because God said it. It gives us life, Jesus said in Matt 4:4 quoting Deut 8:3 that Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Our faith in God comes from hearing the word of God. Rom 10:17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Then in 1 Peter 1:23 we learn that we were born of imperishable seed that is the living and abiding word of God.

The word of God is crucial in our salvation and also in our sanctification, us growing more like Christ. 1 Peter 2:2 says that we should long for pure milk of the word because it will cause us to grow and be mature. Then in the priestly prayer of Jesus for us in John 17:17 He asks the Father for us to be sanctify in the truth, the word of God.

So how can we know? by faith and reason we believe God spoke, and we experience the effects the word has on us.

I know we believe this, but practically do we?

With everything that’s happening I see many of us, including myself, caught up trying to figure it out and we end up listening and following anything that will make some sense of the world’s nonsense. But in this attempt, practically we are not giving the importance and the priority to what God said. (SLOW) Practically we are living as if God didn’t speak.

We often forget who God is, His Aseity. God is self sufficient and completely independent of His creation. He is self existent. God does not never ever needed us for anything, He never needed anything from creation. But, He spoke, out of grace and mercy. He spoke and we have His word.

The question for us to reflect is who are we listening to? Are you listening to God?