Daily Meditations

Hebrews 1:6 Jesus is superior to angels Once again we have an Old Testament quotation, this time from Deuteronomy.  However, it’s true meaning is not clear in the NIV translation. Apparently, in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint (the earliest Greek version of the Old Testament, available before Christ came), Deuteronomy  32:43 is translated as follows:  - “Rejoice you nations, with His people, and let all the angels worship Him, for He will avenge the blood of His servants; He will take vengeance on His enemies and make atonement for His land and people.”  The reference to angels does not appear in some other versions of this text but it was clearly in the mind of the author of Hebrews who must have used a Greek version of the Scriptures. Perhaps because this would have been familiar to most of his readers? What is also evident is that the Jews believed the verse from Deuteronomy referred to Yahweh, or to God Himself, and yet we now see it being used ...

Hebrews 1:5 You are my Son We are about to read seven different Old Testament quotes that reveal that Christ is superior to the angelic beings. These quotations had existed for centuries but were not fully understood until they were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. The first quote comes from Psalm 2:7 and is repeated in Acts 13:33 where Paul preached in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, a city in modern Turkey. His sermon encompassed large chunks of Jewish history, and he explained how Christ was crucified and then raised from the dead by God. When this happened, God was saying to all creation, this is not just another king who is subject to me and who is loyal to me,  “You are my Son and I have become Your Father . ”    This conversation took place when Jesus returned to heaven at His ascension. He had been “born again” just as we have been, and He assumed a whole new status and relationship with God His Father. He became “the  firstborn  from the dead.” The whole o...

Hebrews 1:4 He is greater than the angels One of the themes of this extraordinary letter is the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all other created beings, including the angels. He also far exceeds what the Old Testament writers perceived and what had previously been revealed to Israel.  Historically, the Jews had regarded angels as the most exalted beings under God, they associated angelic beings with many events in their history including the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai. Now we are being told that Christ was superior to the angels and that He has a superior name to theirs. The writer does not seem to be inferring that “Jesus” or “Yeshua” or “Christ” is that name, rather that because He is declared to be “the Son,” He has a title and connections that exalt our Lord far above all angelic creations. However, we read in Philippians 2:9 that He has been  “given a name that is above every name and at that name every knee should bow.”   The suggestion is that His rank and ...

Hebrews 1:3c He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven This verse is so brimming with truth and content that we have to break it down, for it starts to lay the foundations for the rest of the Book of Hebrews. There is one more startling statement here which is almost impossible for us to completely comprehend. Firstly, we are reminded of Christ’s mission and purpose when He came to planet earth, it was to provide a way for mankind to be purified of their sins. The one, single, driving motive for His visit was not to heal the sick, or to feed the hungry or to tackle demonic powers, it was to be the once-for-all sacrifice for sinners. He came to rescue us from our wickedness and to wash us clean through His blood. Paul puts it like this, “ Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.”  Titus 2:14. Later chapters in the Book of Hebrews will explore this theme in much m...

Hebrews 1:3b Jesus is the exact representation of God have no arguments with the doctrine of the Trinity, even though it does not appear in the Bible. What does slightly worry me is that many Christians rank the three persons, so that God the Father is top, Jesus Christ is next, albeit slightly diminished, and then, at the bottom,  comes the Holy Spirit! That may not be deliberate or necessarily the position taken by all, it is certainly not what is taught here in Hebrews. Jesus did, of course, hint at deference to His Father when He said things like “ I must be about my Father’s business.”  We unwittingly read this in a human context and assume that He was behaving like any good, obedient Son. He was! But the relationship is far more complex than the paternal one that we humans understand. The man who walked the earth as a humble healer and teacher from Nazareth was and is, fully and wholly God!  Every quality and attribute that we assign to God the Father is e...

Hebrews 1:3a The exact representation of His being We all know how impossible it is to actually look at the sun in the sky. It is so bright, so brilliant, that unless there is cloud cover or we are wearing dark glasses, we will damage our eyes by trying to observe this heavenly wonder. But, the sun would not be the sun unless it shone brightly, would it? The glory of that heavenly object is revealed by the radiance that pours out of it. It is the same with Jesus Christ the Son of God, He has always existed, but His true glory is that the fulness of the radiance of God Almighty that shines from His being. He is God and everything that we can possibly know about God shines out from Christ, everything that God wants us to know about Himself can be seen in His Son.  The author of Hebrews takes this a step further, Jesus is not just a well-designed replica of the original, He is an exact representation of God. If we look closely, we cannot see anything that would distinguish the Son fro...