Sermon: Hebrews (Part Eight): Greater Than Angels (cont.)

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Given 21-Sep-19; 66 minutes

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The Book of Hebrews explains Christ's superiority over angels, an important instruction to converts from Judaism. Angels played a major role in establishing the Law at Mount Sinai and continue to minister as God's messengers today. Angels are intelligent beings, equipped with the power of choice (as seen in Satan's defection) and extraordinary power over the forces of nature (as seen in their ability to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah). Angelic beings, of whom there are apparently millions, are currently the highest of God's creatures; their home is heaven, though they are able to effortlessly traverse between heaven and earth. These mighty angels were at the disposal of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. Hebrews 1:3-4 describes the dramatic transitional period in which God begot Christ, making Him the only human being who could qualify as our Messiah and Savior. His death at the end of the 33½ years qualified Him to be our High Priest, giving us access to God the Father.


transcript:

As we left off on the previous sermon in this series, we were fairly deeply into becoming more familiar with the activities of the angelic host that God created. Now I never realized they were so actively and deeply involved in the Mount Sinai giving of the law and Israel making the New Covenant as they departed Egypt. But in Acts the seventh chapter, verse 53, it is clearly stated by Stephen during his defense before the Jewish religious leadership in Jerusalem, that Israel received the law by direction, or disposition, of angels. The apostle Paul states in Galatians, he actually used the term ordained in relation to this same incident.

Their specific activity is not described in Exodus, so even though they participated in some way, it remains a mystery to whatever the degree was. Now, I do not recall ever doubting their existence, but they always seemed to me to be mostly decorative message bearers. More specifically, I think what I discovered in this latest research is that I do not ever recall thinking of them as being truly practical parts of God's administration of Planet Earth. But then again, until just recently, I never did study into their practical operations, and thus I was woefully lacking in this area of understanding.

I should have known better. God makes no purposeless moves. He had, and He continues to have, practical uses for them and it is highly likely the gospel of John, with its wonderful first chapter focusing on Jesus' Godhead status, was written after Hebrews, thus providing even more support for the Jews standing, that is, in regard to angels.

Now, what I found in further research is that there is a great deal of biblical evidence giving us indications as to why the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, right from its very beginning, launched into working on persuading the Jews to drop their rigid support of angels and accept Jesus Christ as their High Priest in the covenant order that now exists.

First, he presented Christ's qualifications already achieved or given and topped by the fact that He is the very Creator God. When these are added to what the apostle John presents in the first chapter of his gospel, Christ's qualifications are undeniably unreachable by any other appointment to that position. Now, the author of Hebrews moved quickly to denying any Jewish claims in behalf of angels. He did this because the Jews held angels in such high regard. I found that the Jews thoughts regarding angels was a somewhat natural reaction to the Old Testament revelation. In other words, the Jews support of angels was a fairly reasonable one.

The Jews were not involved in demonism of any sort in doing this, and just remember that there was no New Testament available to clarify this issue for the Jews. That is a major reason why Acts 15 shows us a record of meetings held by church leadership with Jewish converts in attendance to present their case in order to clarify this issue. It was a big deal at that time.

Now, despite what I already gave regarding angels in the previous sermon, there is yet more biblical comments regarding them that I want to add to this listing.

The Jews were not going way out on a spiritual limb, so to speak. Here is an obvious example. In Ezekiel the 28th chapter, the Old Testament record clearly reveals the defection from God by the angelic Satan and other angelic beings. This revelation opened the door to allowing the Jews to understand that the angels were and still are, to this very day, choice-making creations somewhat like mankind, and involved in God's operations—and some of them made some very serious mistakes. Satan was one. They are spirit, they are not automatons. They possess a measure of liberty in carrying out responsibilities in their service to God.

What must be added to this basic understanding, in order to evaluate their character even more correctly, is that God also clearly refers to them as being "saints." That is pretty high standing. Holy ones, in a number of cases. Now, that indicates an evaluation by God approaching a godly righteousness and thus they were, and still are, highly intelligent beings of tested character in terms of obedience to God's laws. They can be trusted and they come very close to being eternal beings as well.

Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour [Jesus is talking about the end] no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."

This statement by Jesus indicates His appreciation of Jewish thought regarding angels. His evaluation here using the term "not even" indicates their consistent, trusted closeness to God Himself, and thus their being "in the know," as we might say, above others, including humans.

Now, as far as we know, angels and archangels are the highest of all of God's creatures and heaven is their home. So, even in their natural state they are shown to be higher, greater, and far more trustworthy than mankind.

We are beginning to get a feel for why they had some admiration for angels. Brethren, they, unlike man, are not tied to Planet Earth. They are pretty well-favored. That one reality alone places them high above mankind in terms of creation. You might recall that in John 3:13 it clearly states that no human has ascended to heaven except for Christ. And yet angels clearly, biblically, appear to travel back and forth between heaven and earth in the carrying out of their operations serving God. They are very highly placed.

In Psalm 103 we get a little bit of additional information. It states:

Psalm 103:20 Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.

They are pretty obedient.

Here is a bit more additional information regarding them. They are described as not only being obedient to God, but in addition to that, they excel in strength. Now, the term strength cannot be limited to physical strength. The angels had undoubtedly performed things before human witnesses that must have boggled men's minds. Such things—as the Bible shows them doing—as controlling the weather and other natural forces. I am expanding on this phrase, excel[ling] in strength. Those events took intellectual strength of mind to understand the operations of those forces. It involves an understanding of the generation of power and both directing and then controlling those powers to achieve what they desired. They did this before men that, much like I said, must have boggled men's minds when they did something like that.

In Genesis 19 we are just going to follow a storyline here. I will just read some selected verses so that you get the feel of the story. I know that you are familiar with this but I want to review it with you.

Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

Genesis 19:11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness [the angels did that], both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

Genesis 19:13 [the angels are speaking to Lot] "For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it."

Are they carrying atomic bombs in their back pocket somewhere? They were apparently, though, going to use what we would consider to be natural forces that they had at their command to destroy that city, and that all they had to do was speak the word and poof! It would have been gone.

Genesis 19:24 [This, of course, had a little time go by. Then God took a hand.] Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of heavens.

That almost looks like it was a cooperative effort between the angels and God.

Now this is evidence that awesome powers are available for their use as God permits. And because they are obedient, they do not run wild with that power, they control it for constructive use as God desires. But they have, I think we can see, a great deal of liberty in the use of that power. That is, that we can see in the by-play between Lot and the angels who were there.

Let us go to Psalm 104.

Psalm 104:4 Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.

Just breaking into this psalm at this point. But the entire psalm portrays God as actively involved in every aspect of the administration of His governance of the creation. And it portrays Him as using the creation's natural powers as His servants and angels are a part of the natural world. They are described here in this psalm as God's ministers employed to serve Him in the governing of His creation as God sees fit.

A more specific definition for the term minister can be this: A minister is a person employed to execute the will of another. The term minister can be a term synonymous with servant.

Let us go to Daniel 7. This is describing a vision that was given to Daniel.

Daniel 7:9-10 [Daniel is describing] "I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; and a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened."

I am assuming here, but I think that I am assuming correctly, that those ministering to him were angels, and the indications are that around God's throne is one busy place to be and angels were actively involved. A lot of them, brethren! Not a mere piddling amount at all.

Matthew 28:1-6 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. [I guess so!] But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

What we can pick up here is this: First of all, they are pretty strong—they excel in strength. They rolled that stone away. How many men it took to roll it up there, I do not know. Not only that, they radiate a glowing brilliance when it is helpful in a given situation. They do not always have it. There is no indication that they had it whenever Lot was talking to them. But the appearance of them in virtually every situation in the Bible, whether it was a single angel or many angels, it just seemed to knock the sense out of people. They were taken aback. You know, even when an angel appeared before this godly Mary who gave birth to Christ, she was frightened at first. She knew this was no human being and there is no indication she ever had a vision of an angel before. But Gabriel showed up there and bang! she was ready to run. But he calmed her down and told her not to fear, just like he did in this case.

Let us go to the book of Revelation. An awful lot of angels take part in Revelation and we are going to go to chapter 5.

Revelation 5:11-13 [the apostle John states] Then I looked, and heard the voice of many angels [The fact that voice is singular it seems as though they were either talking, perhaps, all the same thing, maybe even singing. I do not know.] around the throne [As I said previously, around the throne is a mighty busy place, there is an awful lot of angelic traffic going back and forth between the Father and the Son and They are sending them on various errands that need to be done during God's creation.], the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times thousands, and thousands of thousands [all these angelic creatures], saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!" And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!"

The figure that is given in these verses is 10,000 times 10,000 times, not just addition, 10,000 times 10,000 and I believe that is 100 million. Even if that is but a round figure, it is nonetheless a huge number of angelic creations. It might be helpful to you for comparison's sake that America's population is around 320 million. And there are, if this is an accurate figure and not just a generality, that is pretty close to the population of the United States of America right around God's throne.

Now you can be sure God is keeping them busy. They are not sitting on their duff waiting for time to go by. God does things purposely. What is He doing up there that He needs that many angels—and you know very surely He needs them. So is it any wonder that in the past certain persons were favored by being given a visit from these people and maybe they were sorry they were given that vision. But then, on the other hand, I am sure that the ladies who were at Jesus' tomb were pretty happy to find out that there were some of God's angels that were giving them instructions.

I believe that it is easily determined that it is through them that God carries on much of the administration of Their governance of Their creation. But as elevated as angels are in their placement and their use by God within His governance of the creation, and glorious in their powers, they were in subjection to the Lord Jesus, even when He was a man. Do you know why? He was still God. He was their Creator. Even when He was a man, He had at His fingertips hundreds of millions of angels that He could order about, if need be.

So even as a man, as a human being, they were subject to Him, He had them at His beck and call. And even more so now because that Man has now ascended to the heavens and the right hand of God, and thus brethren, there is now one who was formerly a man who is in heaven. The first one. Remember, John 3:13 says no man has ascended to heaven, but there is one there now, that is Jesus the Christ, and He is in an office exceedingly higher than any angel. Because when push comes to shove, angels are still mere creatures and therefore, being their Creator, He is immeasurably higher than they.

Now, let us put ourselves back into the shoes of a Jew at the time that they were being converted after Jesus ascended to heaven. Thus, to be a Jew at that time in their history and having received the spiritual education available to them at that time (remember, there was no New Testament), and then to be told that Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate—God manifest in the flesh, the Messiah Himself—and then to see, or at least hear, that He suffered an agonizing death despite the fact that He possessed a glory and a dignity far exceeding that of anybody on earth and excelling even that of angels, this was something that was beyond many Jews' initial ability to accept. That is why they had to be convinced. They were serious and it was built on the revelation that is in the Old Testament, but they did not really fully understand that He was the Messiah. That was knowledge that was coming to them.

We are getting back to Hebrews slowly but surely here, but I wanted you to have a good idea why it was necessary for the author of Hebrews to begin as he did, by showing that Jesus is of greater regard by far than the angels that the Jews believed in, and they did it sincerely. So, the point the author of Hebrews is making, even though he does not directly state it (that is, in the first chapter), is that the Old Covenant, the making of which on Mount Sinai was accompanied by this angelic activity, that covenant in reality ranked no higher in God's mind than angelic participation. As high as they were, it was awfully far down below Jesus Christ.

Now that in itself was impressive. But the making of the New Covenant, and all of these previous angelic activities, the angels were replaced by their Creator. What this was, was a way for God to show which covenant was more important for His purposes. The New Covenant is made directly by God Himself, that is, by Jesus Christ, thus implying an exceedingly higher level of authority than the Old Covenant. That is, that the New Covenant is exceedingly higher in authority than the Old Covenant.

Comparing Jesus with angels was a good place for the author of Hebrews to begin his scriptural reasoning efforts against the Jews' position. He did not want to assault them. He wanted to win them over. He wanted them to see by scripture that Jesus Christ was rightly placed into the office of High Priest and that they had to switch their loyalties. So this is why the author of Hebrews was thus continuing his establishing of Christ's superiority above all who might be considered as high priest worthy, including those most highly respected by Jews, that is, the angels.

Jesus' appointment was in no way an afterthought or merely something that was done on the fly. It was planned from the very beginning. Now, there is a section in this first chapter of the epistle that I neglected when studying through it in preparation for that earlier sermon (the one before this one). This might be a little confusing to you. I hope not. It took me a little while to figure it out, mostly to put it into a form that I feel is understandable. Now, I am going to attempt to make up for that lack because it helps reveal how thoughtfully and thoroughly precise God is in every move that He makes within His purpose. That is why I told you that He put Christ into that responsibility. It was planned from the very beginning.

Using the scriptures that are available to us we can understand, as I go through this, that the moves that were made by God may have been made 1,000 years before any literal fulfillment ever took place. That is, the placing of Jesus Christ in this position. Now, God's thoughtfulness must be understood in order for it to be created or appreciated. I am going to share with you a calculating system some worldly scholars use to help determine when Jesus fulfilled a prophecy regarding Him. Now scholars have to do this a number of times and we are just going to use the system that they used. It is a valid and good system, and you come up with the right answer.

Now, using evidence mostly from a context these scholars determine whether He performed or fulfilled this act, whatever it happened to be, by what they call His essential nature. Hang on to that term. It will just be important for a minute or two, that is all. Whether Jesus performed this act in which He fulfilled a scripture in His essential nature or whether He performed it in what they title, His mediatorial nature. His essential nature is what He always was before He was ever born as a human. The mediatorial nature thus did not begin until His incarnation as a human began.

What this does is it establishes a clear time-dividing-line. Now, it must be understood that His becoming incarnate did not change His character. He was always God. That is why I made sure that you understood that whether He was God up in heaven or whether He was God on earth, He was always God. Whether He was human on earth or whether He was spirit up in heaven, He never gave up being God. There was never a time that He is alive that He was not God.

This contextual calculation only provides a clear time-dividing-line, so scriptural dating of prophecies regarding Him becomes much more accurate. Now, this contextual discernment comes into play in this section of Hebrews. It is right in the first chapter and it is really not all that complex at all.

There was a time in Jesus' life when He was born of a woman and even though He remained God, He was now facing life, just think of this little thing, as a human, preaching, making choices, becoming our Savior, dying to pay for our sins, being resurrected, and qualifying to be the High Priest and Mediator between God and man. And all this while, thirty-three and one-half years to be more precise, passed.

Now, prophecies made in the Old Testament regarding Him were being fulfilled all that time. Every once in a while, you will run across a statement in the New Testament saying He did this to fulfill a prophecy. And sometimes fitting Him into the flow of history is easily discerned. This especially becomes apparent whenever He was getting ready to be murdered, put to death. And it even says that He told Peter to get a knife in order to fulfill a prophecy. That is just one little example.

Regardless of when those prophecies were fulfilled, His character never changed. He was always God. So whether before or after His birth to Mary, He remained the same person. But our understanding of this helps one pursuing answers to events in the Scriptures to some difficult questions as to the timing of these events, especially when they are tied to grasping fulfillment of prophecies correctly.

This really is not all that complex. It is just a matter of following the scriptures. So, we are going to begin in Hebrews 1, verse 4. That is the first verse that I want to focus on though the story flow continues on for several more verses. Verse 4 says this:

Hebrews 1:4 Having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

I want to focus most of the story flow on this verse right here at the beginning. That verse clearly states the Son became so much better than angels. I thought He was so much better from before. Now we are going to read verses 4-9 and get a little bit more context.

Hebrews 1:4-9 Having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, today I have begotten you? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son"? But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him." And of the angels, He says: "Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire." But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

Please go back to Psalm 2. We are going to read the whole psalm.

Psalm 2:1-12 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion." I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalm 2 is a prophecy that was not fulfilled anywhere close to the time when the prophecy was made.

Now I have a question because this impacts on Hebrews 1. When did the fulfillment of these events that we just read take place? More specifically, when did the begettal take place?

This is important to everything that follows in Hebrews because remember what we just read there in Psalm 2. Much of that appears in Hebrews 1. That is what is important to what we are looking into now. The question that I have asked is important to everything that follows in Hebrews from that point on because what follows hinges on what was accomplished and thus virtually all the author wrote about Jesus' qualifications in the epistle to the Hebrews.

Let us go back again to Hebrews 1. In Hebrews 1, my Bible's paragraph caption titles this section, Jesus Exalted Above Angels. The caption is titling His exaltation. His exaltation is the result of these procedures described there Hebrews 1, and that caption is helpful for understanding. Notice verse 4 clearly states that Jesus became so much better than the angels. That verse gives an indication that some sort of transition took place that elevated Jesus publicly above what He was before. It almost seems as though a developmental process was going on. But it was not a developmental process at all. It was an appointment, an assignment He rightfully deserved. That is why I told you, even before we began this section, that He was made High Priest from the very beginning. But something had to be gone into in order to satisfy the Jews.

Now I believe that it was stated by the Christian author of Hebrews in that manner, the way he did, because, considering what Jesus went through in order to be given the High Priesthood office, what is it that He had to go through? He had to go through thirty-three and one-half years of being a human being. And even though He never, ever gave up being God, at one at the same time, it appeared to men's eyes as though He did. That is what the Jews were stumbling over.

The Amplified Bible is helpful here. This transaction that we are reading of here in the first chapter is more easily grasped when the second sentence of verse 3 is joined to the first sentence of verse 4 virtually without a break. The action then described continues on through the end of verse 4 and from there through verse 9. Doing this gives one more context to think through. That context includes both mankind and angels because both mankind and angels are directly mentioned in context with whatever this action is or was, especially when Psalm 2 is also included. Make note that the Amplified Bible thus reads when joined like this. I am going to read the Amplified Bible's rendering of this.

Hebrews 1:3-4 (AMP) When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high, [taking a place and rank by which] He Himself became as much superior to angels as the glorious Name (title) which He inherited has is different from and more excellent than theirs.

Here is what occurred in this transition. In His exaltation (remember the title of the caption there is His exaltation), He officially became something He was not before the exaltation. He was not High Priest before verses 3 and 4 were fulfilled. He had gone through thirty-three and one-half years as a human being. When did He become High Priest? See if you can guess? He became High Priest when He died for our sins. But He had to go through thirty-three and one-half years to reach that point where He had fulfilled His responsibility of living sinlessly all that time.

We have one answer to questions I had for you a little while ago. The one answer is when did this period of time end? It ended with His death for our sins. He was now qualified to be High Priest. Even though it was planned from the very beginning by the Father, the Father worked it out this way. He made Jesus live for thirty-three and one-half years and prove to mankind that a human being, another man, died for their sins, but that other man was also not just a man—He was God in human flesh.

Now, whether you realize it or not, these verses, in a sense, they are one section of the Bible that is proving that it was God who died for our sins. It was not just another man. He was also a man, but He was also God. That is incredible, brethren! It is incredible that God knew all the way back when the prophecy was made in Psalm 2 that He was going to get trouble from the Jews disbelieving that this Man, this God, was qualified to be High Priest. And so this was the way He worked it out. He made the prophecy and there was only one Person who could fulfill that prophecy—and it had to be His Son.

Let us go a little bit further. In His exaltation, He officially became something He was not before this exaltation. Now, these two joined verses are definitely describing a transition of some sort and Jesus became something He was not before the transition. The transition being described is the appointment of Him to the office of High Priest. That He was so much better qualified than the angels, there could be no doubt. First, He was literally God and they were not. Second, in addition to Himself, He was the sacrifice as payment for mankind's sins. No angel ever did anything close to matching those qualifications. So God determined only another human could pay for mankind's sin and that human also had to be God. A life only with that value could pay for all of mankind's sins. Jesus was already God, but had not been the payment for sin before this time of His exaltation.

In verse 3 (we are still in Hebrews 1), it clearly states at least one clear time element in the life of Christ that helps resolve a possible issue here. And that time element was His dying for our sins and His exaltation to the office of High Priest. That He always was God even before that, there could be no doubt. Now this initiates a specific timeline to the life of our God, Jesus Christ. This specific act, this appointment to be High Priest under the New Covenant took place at the end of His human life period after He died for our sins.

Many of the other qualifications and accomplishments given earlier in the opening paragraphs, were qualifications given or accomplished as God in heaven. That is, in His eternal, essential character. But He was never High Priest under the New Covenant at any time prior to this appointment until He died for our sins, even though He was already God for an eternity. This almost gives the impression that a competition was underway between Christ and the angels. However, that was not so. There was absolutely no competition involved in this assignment.

Now, I just showed you purposely in my previous sermon and then added a bit more in this sermon to show that angels are of excellent intelligence, character, powers, and usefulness to God in His governance of this creation. We now know when this transition the author of Hebrews described ended. That is, when it was accomplished. It ended with Christ's death in payment for our sins and His being given a more excellent name. That is, an office and a title and a reputation and a responsibility rather than any angel.

I am kind of pushing this because I want to add one more thing to this, because now a second question must be asked. When did the transition that included with His appointment as High Priest begin? That is when it ended. When did it begin? The answer to this question will lead us to a correct understanding that will fill in a great number of details. Now, you may guess the answer or you may reason it out and that is good. And even if you reason it out, you may continue to be somewhat uncertain.

Here is the question. Where can you find anywhere in the Old Testament that the Jews would have read, see, in their time, that God addressed a specific angel saying, "I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'" There is only one such decisive statement in the entire Old Testament and it was not stated to an angel. This was addressed only to the Messiah in Psalm 2, who was very God even as the Father. John the first chapter, this is where it comes into play, makes this exceedingly clear.

Continuing on in this psalm, "I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son." This portion of these quotations is interesting because it does not appear in Psalm 2. It comes in a different prophecy altogether. It is in II Samuel 7 in a promise to David. Now, that had to be uttered regarding a God who was also a human being. That is one thing that prophecy does. Here then, is the answer to our question at this point. The background being described here in Hebrews 1 began during the same period of time that Jesus provided the payment for our sins. We know that the payment for our sins came at the end of the time period. Now, because it is only He to whom the level of Sonship is clearly addressed in Psalm 2. God never said such a thing to any angel regardless of their exalted position and standing before either God or man. Our sins were paid for by the One who was not merely a man, but fully God and fully man at one at the same time.

Pay attention to this command.

Hebrews 1:6 [God says] "Let all the angels of God worship Him."

Angels are commanded to worship Jesus Christ, our High Priest, our Creator God, and Redeemer/Savior—the first begotten of the Father. Worship of any other who is not God would have been idolatry. Psalm 2 is addressed to the One who is also God; and also consider: this level of Sonship would be given only to one who was also of the same kind as the One begetting Him as Son.

I think I am going to tell you the answer because it is already 4:30. The answer is really so clear once you start thinking. If it ended when He died for our sins, then it had to begin when He became a human being. That is when that prophecy in Psalm 2 was fulfilled and God begot Him as a Son. That encompassed the whole thirty-three and one-half years of His life as a human being.

Now, if you want to chase some of this out, you can find it in the New Testament in the book of Luke, the first chapter, and combine it with the information I gave you regarding Psalm 2 and Hebrews 1. Let me tell you, Hebrews 1 is easily one of the most magnificent chapters in the entire Bible. I mean, easily! It is so loaded with information upon which our eternal inheritance hangs. So, if you can learn more, just be aware of that. It began when Jesus was born of Mary. It ended when Jesus died for our sins.

JWR/aws/drm





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