Bible Diary - Hebrews 1:5-12
April 27, 2008
I have since learned to value the book of Hebrews highly, but at first the opening passage about the heavenly hierarchy put me off. I think the angels and the Trinity were the cause of my confusion.
The Son Is Superior to Angels
1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? And in another place he says, “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 1:6 But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” 1:7 And he says of the angels, “He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” 1:8 but of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.
1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.”
1:10 And,
“You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord,
and the heavens are the works of your hands.
1:11 They will perish, but you continue.
And they will all grow old like a garment,
1:12 and like a robe you will fold them up
and like a garment they will be changed,
but you are the same and your years will never run out.”
The pecking order according to the author of Hebrews was God the Father, then Jesus the Son, followed by the angels and then you and me. Or that is what I assumed. But God and Jesus are co-existent. The angels and humanity are created beings at a lower level. The case for angels being higher than man is clouded by the fact that man was created in the image of God, which seems to leave the angels out in the cold.
Then, the new Christians were worshipping the angels instead of God through the Son. Today, many Christians tend to to ignore the angels and worship themselves. We don’t think of it that way, but that is what we are doing when we worship science and its claim to be the source of all truth. Think about that.
This passage points out what should be obvious from the whole of Scripture. God reigns, with the Son and the Holy Spirit over all of their creation. As a member of the Reformed franchise of the Church, this is the starting point for my thinking about God and me. The angels are created beings. I am a created being. The angels were not created to carry the image of God. I was. At this point my understanding falters, but at least the essential facts seem clear.
Dave, whose mind is still a work in progress.
-sdg-
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