Hebrews was written to Jewish Believers who were beginning to abandon their faith in Yeshua as Messiah because of pressure from their Jewish families and the communities where they lived.
The Temple was still standing so it was easy to rationalize that since God had given us the Temple for Atonement, where our sins could be covered, one could still believe in their heart Yeshua is Messiah but continue to offer sacrifices with family and friends there.
But to believe that would be to deny before others that Yeshua is not the only way for atonement and reconciliation with God.
We live in a day when the Temple has been destroyed. Those who embrace the promised New Covenant, know that without the shedding of Blood there is no atonement.
But what if you lived in the days when the Temple still stood? When biblically ordained sacrifices were still being offered by the Biblical appointed priests.
Wouldn’t you be tempted to remain silent about your faith in Yeshua so that you would not be persecuted for your faith? Wouldn’t you want to avoid the anger and isolation, from family, and friends?
And if that were not bad enough but also threatened by and experiencing the hostile scrutiny and persecution from both Jewish and Roman rulers?
All you had to do was keep your faith to yourself and go to the Temple and offer the sacrifices the Law required.
That’s one of the reasons this letter was written. To exhort Jewish Believers that Yeshua is the only way to the father. That He is the only way for righteousness and life. Not just for disciples of Yeshua but for all Israel.
The writer is exhorting these Jewish Believers in Yeshua to confess that Yeshua is the only way to the Father. God has brought a new covenant as Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31-33). Jesus is the messenger of the new covenant that Malachi spoke of (Mal. 3:1).
What we believe and confess has eternal consequences, both in our lives today and when we stand before God in judgment. So the writer of Hebrews is laying out why they must stand up for Yeshua as the way, the truth and the life.
In this next section of Hebrews, the writer demonstrates that Yeshua is greater than the angels. Why? Because one of the assertions the Rabbis made was that the Law given at Mt. Sinai came through Angels.
Their conclusion was that the Mosaic Covenant would continue as long as the World itself. It was and still is, a source of pride to the Rabbi’s which emphasized the importance of angels. Today as then people focused on angels.
After establishing the significance of the Son in vv 1-4 which we covered in our previous study, the author demonstrates the superiority of Yeshua over angels in verses 5–14.
To do this he uses seven scriptures from the Tanakh. The first is in verse Heb. 1:5, from Psalm 2:7, “For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? This points to the Son as the unique heir of the Father.
Jesus has a special Sonship, a positional relationship with the Father. Psalm 2:7 declares He is the only begotten. The expression “only begotten” does not emphasize his birth or origin, or His coming into being as Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses claim.
The term “only begotten” is a legal term that stresses the rights of the firstborn, and also that the One spoken of here has the rights of the firstborn. This was never said to or about any angel.
While Jesus always had a Sonship in His relationship to God the Father, He was appointed a Son in a unique way at His Resurrection, just as in the Roman culture of that day.
Paul illustrates this in Galatians 4 when he compares a Roman son born into a Roman family and was positionally a son. However, when he reached the age of maturity he would be declared a son by the father.
That’s the same picture here. Yeshua was always the Eternal Son in His relationship to God the Father, but at a certain point, He was announced and revealed to Israel as God’s Son.
He was declared a Son at His Resurrection as King David wrote in Ps. 2: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
This is clear from a companion verse in Rom. 1:3–4 where Paul says “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.
While it’s true that angels are also called “sons of God” in the Old Testament, yet angels are always called sons of God collectively, never individually. No single angel in the Jewish Scriptures was ever called “a” son of God.
Believers are also called sons of God by virtue of their adoption, yet Yeshua is the only begotten Son in the sense that He has a unique relationship that’s not true of angels or believers.
He was declared the unique Son of God, and this was revealed several times during His lifetime. For example, when Gabriel spoke to Miriam, he said that her son would be “the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35).
The next time He was publicly declared the Son of God was at His mikveh or baptism (Mk. 1:11). A third time was at His transfiguration (Lk. 9:35). Paul, as we pointed out in Romans 1:4 declared it also, by virtue of His Resurrection when He was declared to be the unique Son of God.
The second Old Testament passage the writer of Hebrews quotes, is in v. 5, from 2 Samuel 7:14. I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”?
This is part of the Davidic Covenant spoken by God to King David, that from him would come the Messiah. Not only was He declared the Son of God, but He continues in that position forever.
This establishes Messiah Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The key promise of the Davidic Covenant is that the God-Man descended from David is destined to rule over a redeemed and restored Israel.
He will do so from Jerusalem where He will sit on David’s throne as Isaiah prophesied: Is. 9:6–7
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
And as Jeremiah prophesied in Jer. 23:5–6 Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’
Therefore, this Child born to us, by virtue of the Davidic Covenant, is destined to rule over Israel. No angel will have the privilege of ruling over Israel in the Messianic Kingdom.
In verse 6, there is a third quotation from Psalm 97:7. This passage says “worship him all you gods” the Septuagint translated “gods” as “angels”; and is a call to angels to worship Him.
The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Tanakh. The word Septuagint is Greek for “seventy.” Tradition holds that seventy Jewish scholars translated the Tanakh into the Greek.
The abbreviation for Septuagint is the Roman numerals LXX for seventy. However, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Tanakh has the right to quote and restate the truth as He sees fit in the New Covenant.
The context of this passage emphasizes the Son at the final judgment. Some day He will return and, when He returns at His Second Coming to judge the world, all angels will worship Him.
Since angels will worship the Son at His Second Coming, they are inferior to the Son who is being worshipped. In verse 7, the fourth quotation is from Psalm 104:4, WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.”
This stresses that angels are servants of God. Since angels are only servants, and subject to their Master who is the Son. Here again we see His superiority.
The Greek word used for servants is a word that means “religious devotion.” They are His servants in the sense of being devoted to Him; angels were created to serve the Son faithfully.
The fifth quotation, in verses 8–9, is from Psalm 45:7–8 YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM. “YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.”
Here two things are emphasized: the deity of the Son and His authority in the Messianic Kingdom.
Again, the writer focuses on how the Tanakh focuses on the eternality and deity of the Son contrasted with the nature of the angels. He is God and, the Creator and Master of the angels.
He has an eternal throne, which no angel has. He is anointed with the Holy Spirit; they are not. The Messiah is characterized as One who loves righteousness, hates lawlessness, and is above your companions who are the angels.
The anointing refers to what occurred at His baptism (Acts 10:38). you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power,
In the quotation in Hebrews, there are five specific ramifications combining the Old Testament context and what the writer says here:
- The Father addresses the Son as O God, showing His deity and co-equality with the Father.
- The Son is destined to have an eternal throne and kingdom.
- His reign will be righteous.
- The reason His reign will be righteous is because He loves righteousness and hates iniquity.
- The Son is exalted above all.
In verses 10–12, the writer quotes a sixth passage: Psalm 102:25–27. YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN; AND THEY ALL WILL BECOME OLD LIKE A GARMENT,
This points out several things:
- Jesus is superior in His basic existence
- He is the Creator of the universe
- The Son is sovereign over the changes in the universe
- The Son is the unchangeable Lord in the midst of a changing universe
- The Son is eternal
- While eternal, the universe will someday be discarded like a schmata, an old piece of cloth.
In the words of Revelation 6:14: You will roll them up. In 2 Peter 3:10, the universe is destined to be dissolved; while He is eternal, the universe is temporal.
In verse 13, the seventh and last citation is Psalm 110:1, SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET”
Which predicted the Messiah’s enthronement in glory and His seat at the right hand of the Father. The Son is a partner with the Father in the Father’s work. Because He is sitting, His work is completed.
In the ancient world, the one who sits on the king’s right hand has to be the king’s equal. When one king came to visit another, he would sit at the host king’s right hand.
That Jesus is seated at the right hand of God means He is equal with God. His being seated shows His work is finished, while the angels in v. 14 are shown still busy doing their work.
Their work is not finished. Rather, they are ministering spirits serving those who inherit salvation. This is as close as the Bible comes in showing that believers have guardian angels. They are ministering spirits, sent forth to serve those that will inherit salvation.
They are assigned specifically to care for us, and this care begins at infancy as Mat. 18:10 describes “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
Their care for us continues throughout our lives as Ps. 91:11 To guard you in all your ways. The existence of guardian angels does not mean that nothing bad happens to believers for bad things at times do happen to believers.
They guard in the sense that nothing will happen to believers outside the will of God. Angels observe our sufferings 1 Cor. 4:9 “God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”
When a believer dies, his soul is escorted to Heaven by angels as Yeshua relates in the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus in Lk. 16:22. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In this discussion the writer of Hebrews did not want to diminish or discredit angels but wanted his readers to understand their proper relationship to the Son of God.
As we close here are some thoughts; God’s angels should impress and intrigue us, but only God’s Word can enlighten and transform us.
God’s angelic servants minister to us, but only God’s Spirit can minister in us. God’s angels can protect us physically but only God’s son can save us spiritually.
Angels are significant and serve God and His people, but we’re never to put angels before the One whom they serve. God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. One true God revealed in three persons.
