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 do that would be to deny Yeshua before others that faith in His sacrificial death was the only way for atonement and reconciliation with God. That either way was acceptable to God.
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 Jesus so that you would not be persecuted for your faith by family, friends and the governmental authorities both Jewish and Roman.
The writer is addressing those who began to drift by continuing to go to the Temple and offering the sacrifices and in their silence were denying the Lord.
One of the reasons this letter was written was to exhort Jewish Believers that Yeshua is the only way to the father. That He is the only way for righteousness and life. To confess that there was now no other name given among men for redemption and salvation.
God has promised and brought a new covenant not like the Old Covenant as Jeremiah prophesied. Malachi 3:1 echoed this:
Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.
Yeshua is both the messenger and Lord of the new covenant. What we believe and confess has eternal consequences, both in our lives today and when we stand before God in judgment.
The covenant given at Sinai remains, but it was pointing to the Messiah. As Paul writes in Romans, the Law is righteous holy and good, but the Law is weak in transforming our lives.
Only by coming to Yeshua can we be filled with the Spirit of God. And it is by His Spirit that He leads the us through this wilderness journey.
In this next section of Hebrews, the writer proves that Yeshua is greater than the angels. Why? 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 Israel, especially the Pharisees, who emphasized the importance of angels. Today as then people focus on angels.
After establishing the significance of the Son in vv 1-4 which we covered last week, the author demonstrates the superiority of Yeshua over angels in verses 5–14 by using seven scriptures from the Tanakh.
The first quotation, found in verse 5, is from Psalm 2:7, “For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? which points to the Son as being heir of the Father.
Jesus has a special Sonship, a positional relationship to the Father. Psalm 2:7 declares He is the only begotten. The expression the “only begotten” does not emphasize his birth or origin, or His creation into being as Mormons and JW’s claim.
Mormons View Yeshua as Divine, but not eternally God in the same sense as the Father. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate beings, not one essence.
Yeshua is seen as the firstborn spirit child of the Father and progressed to godhood. They believe He is a god, but not the one eternal, uncreated God.
Jehovah’s Witnesses View Yeshua as the highest created being and identified with Michael the Archangel. They teach He was created by God and used by God to create everything else.
The term “only begotten” is a legal term that stresses the rights of the firstborn, and that the One prophesied here has the rights of the firstborn. This was never said to an angel.
In Torah, the first born was given a double portion so that he would have the resources to stand in the place of the father, providing for the family.
But Jesus is eternally the Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever One God. The Greek word for begotten is monogenes, which means “unique” “one of a kind” “the only one of His kind”
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. The writer quotes King David in Ps. 2 seeing His Kingdom reign over the nations: 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.
A companion verse is Rom. 1:3–4 “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.
While it is true Angels are also called “sons of God” in the Old Testament, but they 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 only one of His kind” Son of God. 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 (Mk. 1:11). Where John the immerser confirms what Malachi prophesied. And A third time was at His transfiguration (Lk. 9:35).
Paul, in Romans 1:4 said that, by virtue of His Resurrection, He was declared to be the unique Son of God. There is something far different about the Messiah’s Sonship that is not the same for angels or believers.
The second Old Testament passage the writer of Hebrews quotes in v. 5, comes 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 given to King David, declaring that from one of David’s sons 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, and a unique son.
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 from Jerusalem 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.
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 One, 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. Note that the writer of Hebrews says “He again brings the First born into the world and all the angels will worship Him”.
This points to the Son at the final judgment. Some day He will return rule and reign and judge the world, and all the angels will worship Him. This also shows they are inferior to the Son.
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. Angels are servants, and subject to their Master who is the Son. Once again we see His superiority over angels.
Note that the angels may change their appearance according to God’s wishes for them (He makes them to be as Winds; Fire), in contrast to the Son who “is the same yesterday and today and forever.
”The Greek word used for ministers/servants is a word that means “religious devotion.” The 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 the writer of Hebrews points to the Father declaring the deity of the Son and His authority in the Messianic Kingdom – “Your throne O God”
In the quotation in Hebrews from Ps. 45, the writer says that:
- The Father addresses the Son as God, “your throne O God” showing His deity and co-equality with the Father. John 1:1-3
- The Son is destined to have an eternal throne and kingdom.
- His reign will be righteous. Because He loves righteousness and hates iniquity.
- The Son is exalted above all His companions.
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 the Creator of the universe
- The Son is sovereign over the changes in the universe
- The Son is the unchangeable in a changing universe
- The Son is eternal
- The universe will one day be discarded like 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 at right hand, 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 as still busy doing their work. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
Their work is not finished, they are ministering spirits serving those who inherit salvation. 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. 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.
God’s angels should impress and intrigue us, but only God’s Word through His Spirit 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 are never to put angels before the One whom they serve. God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. One God revealed in three persons.
Discussion Questions:
Why do you think the author of Hebrews spends so much time showing that Yeshua is greater than angels?
What does it mean that God says, “You are My Son”? How is this different from how angels or believers are called sons?
