Today, many a Christian is seeking new revelations about God and mystical insights into His plans for his or her personal “destiny.” Unfortunately, too often we find ourselves looking in all the wrong places. Perhaps in the hidden meaning of a Hebrew letter or number, a dream, the next lunar cycle, and the like. But the New Testament is explicit. God is speaking today, and He is doing so in His Son. In Jesus, all God’s “mysteries” are unveiled, and we ignore the “word of the Son” at our peril. If you want to know your “destiny,” look to Jesus, the “Author and Finisher of our faith.”
And Hebrews
leaves us in no doubt as to where to find this superior “word.” Considering
all that God has done, we need to give “more earnest heed to the things that were heard.” The word of salvation
was “first
been spoken through the Lord and confirmed unto us by them that heard,” namely, the apostles. And
the New Testament is the only reliable source we have for what the apostles taught.
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The Letter to the Hebrews exhorts believers not to abandon Jesus when difficult times arise. It does so by emphasizing the superiority and finality of what God has accomplished in His “Son” over the earlier and preparatory revelations that He provided “in the prophets.” And it does this by comparing the old Levitical system with its incomplete provisions and inadequate sacrifices to the “better” priesthood and “once for all” sacrifice of the “Son.”
Thus, the Letter demonstrates the superiority of the Son’s ministry,
priesthood, and one-time sacrifice over the priestly services and repeated animal
sacrifices of the now obsolete Aaronic priesthood and the rituals of the “former
covenant.”
In doing so, it does not denigrate God’s past revelations,
but it shows by comparison how much the “Word in a Son” surpasses the earlier
and incomplete “words” given “in the prophets.”
Hebrews is addressed to a congregation
that is experiencing pressure from outsiders. Consequently, some members are
contemplating a return to the local synagogue to avoid persecution and other
difficulties.
- (Hebrews 1:1-4) - “In many parts and in many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers in the prophets; upon the last of these days - He spoke to us <in a Son>, Whom he appointed heir of all things, Through whom also he made the ages, Who, being an eradiated brightness of his glory and an exact impress of his being, also, bearing up all things by the utterance of his power, having achieved purification of sins, sat down on the right hand{a} of the Majesty on High, By so much becoming better than the angels, by as much as, going beyond them, He inherited a more distinguished <name>.” [{a} – Quotation from Psalm 110:1. The terms “Son” and “Name” are emphatic in the Greek sentence].
In the original Greek text, the opening paragraph is one long
sentence consisting of 74 individual words. It begins by contrasting how God
spoke in the past with how He does so now – Partially, “of old” to the “fathers
in the prophets,” but today, definitively “upon these last days to us in
a Son.”
The sentence then describes the accomplishments of the “Son”
through several declarations with each prefaced by the relative pronoun “who.” And
it includes an allusion to what will become the Letter’s main proof-text, Psalm
110:1, 4 (See Studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews by Joseph B.
Rotherham, The Restoration Library, page 21).
Only in its final clause does the sentence begin to identify
who this “Son” is by ending the sentence with the word “name.” He
has inherited a “more distinguished name.” This prepares the reader for
the next paragraph in which the Letter contrasts the one it identifies as “Son”
with the “angels” of God.
THESE LAST DAYS
For the discouraged believer to return to the synagogue he or
she would need to conform to some, at least, of the rituals detailed in the Book
of Leviticus, and it would mean betraying and dishonoring the “Son” in
whom God has spoken with great finality. Hence, the severe warnings against apostasy
threaded throughout the Letter - (Hebrews 2:1-3, 2:15, 6:1-12, 10:25-39).
Accordingly, “upon THESE LAST DAYS,” the superior “Word
of God” has been spoken in one who is a “Son.” And this revelation marks
the end of one era and the commencement of another and vastly superior age.
The Greek sentence begins with two adverbs - polumerōs and polutropōs
– both formed with the adjective polus or “much, many.” Polumerōs is
formed with meros or “part,” and polutropōs with tropos
or “manner.” The terms stress different aspects of the past revelation “spoken
in the prophets.”
The individual “words” spoken “in the prophets”
were parts of a larger but incomplete whole (“in many parts”), and each was
revealed in a different “way” and at various times. Presumably, the
latter category includes prophecies, visions, dreams, and other forms of
inspired communication. God did speak before, but He only disclosed portions, “glimpses
and shadows” of His coming “good things.”
Three contrasts are presented in the sentence to prove the
superiority of this final “word.” First, God spoke “of old,” but now, He speaks “upon these last days.”
Second, He spoke to “the fathers, but now, “to us.” That is, to the
followers of Jesus, the church. And third, He spoke “in the prophets,” but
now, He is speaking to His people in one who is “a Son.”
The previous revelations were promissory but incomplete. They did not reveal all that God intended to do for His children; therefore, a fuller disclosure was required. As the Letter will argue, the priestly services and sacrifices of the Aaronic priesthood were incapable of achieving the “purification of sins” so desperately needed by all men.
The term, “these last days,” provides the time element
for this new “word” and the era it inaugurated. It began with the death,
resurrection, and exaltation of the “Son.” Afterward, he “sat down”
in God’s very presence where he now intercedes for his people as their “High
Priest forevermore.” Whatever the Letter means by the term “last days,”
that period began with the exaltation of the “Son” to God’s “right
hand” - (Acts 2:17, Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 1:10).
SON AND HEIR
In the Greek sentence, there is no definite article or “the”
before the word “son.” That omission stresses the class or status
of the one who is called “son,” not his identity. The “word” that
God now speaks is by means of ONE WHO IS A SON.
A son is in the closest possible relationship with his father,
and that familial closeness emphasizes his elevated status. As the “Son,”
he is superior even to Moses, the greatest of the “prophets.” Therefore,
his “word” is superior to all others by its nature as well as its
content. It is not just one among many inspired words, but one with absolute
and final authority.
The “Son” in whom God now speaks is the one He appointed
as the “heir of all things.” This clause alludes to the second Psalm, another
key proof text used in the Letter. Yahweh promised to give His Son the “nations
as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth.” But the Letter shortens
and clarifies that original promise so that now he is the heir “of ALL
THINGS” - (Psalm 2:7-8).
And the “Son” reflects the brightness of God’s glory
and is the “exact impress” of His essence. Jesus our High Priest shows us
the very glory and nature of God. This is not metaphysical speculation about the
nature of God or His Son. It points to the surpassing greatness of the position
he now holds. And only in God’s “Son” can His true Divine nature and
splendor be comprehended.
Thus, this “word” is superior to all past revelations.
This is especially so in two distinct ways. First, it is the last word in a
long series of prophetic revelations. Second, the “Son” is the means of
this communication and the consummation of those past “words.” Only in him
is the definitive word of Yahweh found.
What preceded the “word spoken in a son” was
preparatory, promissory, and never intended to be final. With the advent of the
Nazarene, God has “spoken” decisively and with absolute finality, and
nothing can or will ever be the same again.