V. 1 – Therefore, because of these previous arguments, pay attention to what I am getting ready to say. He laid the foundation that Jesus is better than the angels. That the angels and all of creation are called to worship Jesus who is both the originator and the end of all things.

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What we have heard – both literally the teacher’s in Jerusalem (Peter, James, John, Paul, Jude, etc.) but also Scripture as a whole. As I mentioned last week, these believers would have had a significant portion of Scripture available to them – beyond the Old Testament.

Pay closer attention – because Jesus is better than the angels, prophets, is the final revelation – pay more attention,

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Lest we drift – this is the only time this phrase is used in the New Testament and only the 2nd time used in all of Scripture. It has the idea of to carelessly pass by or to let a treasure slip through your fingers. It isn’t talking about losing your salvation. Notice, it doesn’t say lest you drift away from salvation – rather lest you drift away from the doctrine. Don’t be allured by the glitter or the temptation to take the easy way out. Remain grounded in the truth of his Word and his Character

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V. 2 – Message – many parts of Scripture were delivered by angels. They were not responsible for choosing the content, but God did use them to deliver his message. The Law was given to Moses by angels (Acts 7:38, 53, Gal 3:19), but Scripture also has many instances of angels delivering messages to people (shepherds, Zachariah, Joshua, Daniel, etc.)

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Reliable – idea of steadfast/firm. It is also a wonderful, but intimidating reminder that God has kept his Word so far and he will do so again. The promises, the judgments – those are all still there

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Every transgression – every sin will have a just retribution. This is important to understand, 1. Jesus ultimately paid the price for sins on the cross, so every sin did have a just retribution. However, each individual who refuses to repent will also have a just retribution in the form of final judgment. It also though has the baseline idea that each transgression had a prescribed judgment. The Law didn’t leave room for questions about what was considered a just reward/punishment. God spent almost entire books of the Bible describing appropriate judgments/the price of transgressions.

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V. 3 – How shall we escape? – Why do you think you are special? The Greek actually is inherently negative here. Instead of “How” It is actually no – we will not escape if we drift away from this truth – from the final revelation of Jesus Christ himself. God had judged everyone else, and we will also face the consequences of our actions. Now, it is important to understand that the author is going to spend a large portion of this book explaining that we are holy, blameless, loved, accepted, and welcomed into the presence of God. However, the author is also equally clear that in this life, believers will experience judgment for their sins. It will not be an eternal judgment. It will not be a judgment for separation from the Father or condemnation, but there are consequences for our choices and we are not immune to those. Just because these believers were saved, they would not escape the very real consequences of missing the blessings they could have received if they were obedient or the very real physical consequences of the coming Roman invasion if they went back to Judaism and compromised on the truth of the Gospel. If you compromise on the essential core of truth and what it takes to be saved then we are not left with Christ – we are left with works or heresy.

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Declared by Jesus – attested to by us. The message is sourced from Christ directly (both the Old Testament and Jesus’ earthly teaching), but many other believers have attested to the truth since then. Many had already given their lives – Peter, James, likely Paul by this point – Jesus spoke and lived the testimony. Redemption was purchased in blood and blood has continued to be spilled in testimony of it’s truth.

We discussed this verse a good bit when we talked about potential authors so you can refer back to the introduction if you would like additional details.

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V. 4 – God (the Father) performed signs/wonders/miracles all through the Old Testament, but also extensively in the New Testament to bear witness/give weight to the message of Jesus.

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Gifts were distributed to enable us to strengthen one another and build up the body of Christ. I gave brief thought to diverting to talk about spiritual gifts, but I think we’ll save that for a different study. Still, I do want to briefly trace this notion of “gifts.” God had been doing miracles since the dawn of time. The very act of creation was miraculous. God’s spirit would come to rest on people in the OT to empower them for various tasks (i.e., David, Samson, Ezekiel, Elijah, etc.). However, he did not indwell anyone permanently because the Holy Spirit cannot permanently take up residence in someone who still has a sin nature. Those Old Testament believers were godly and remarkable on so many levels, but they lived before the cross, so their sin natures were not dealt with until Jesus’ death. They were waiting for the promise to come. Yet after the cross, things changed. The Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost (Acts 2). The early church history traces accounts of the Holy Spirit empowering and indwelling people. There are several times in Acts that discuss the Holy Spirit empowering people, filling them for the first time, or judging/being active (Acts 4 – apostles pray after arrest, 5 – Ananias and Saphira lie, 6 – men chosen to serve were full of the Holy Spirit, 6-7 – account of Stephen, 8 – Spirit caries Philip away, 9 – Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, 10 – Gentiles widely receive the Holy Spirit). He is the indwelling, agent that empowered believers to thrive in the midst of persecution. He is the ultimate gift who then produces the very fruit of the Spirit in our lives. However, he also gives us gifts – according to his will.

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This is so important – This is not according to the gifts we want. Paul discussed this multiple times, especially with the Corinthian church – 1 Cor. 12:1-11. They had their own personal agenda regarding the gifts they thought were the most valuable, but if we are obedient in our use of those gifts then that is all that is required.

Also note, that this isn’t just about the gifts we personally would like to have, but also in the context of the body of Christ, we can’t be frustrated by the gifts we find in the body. Now, God willing, the church grows, and new gifts are brought into the family of Christ to be used to build his body. However, we don’t resent one another for what we lack. We build one another up – we speak truth – we cultivate the gifts we are given, but we don’t argue with God about what he hasn’t give us because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t abandon New Testament believers. He grew them up, matured them and ministered to and through them.  

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V. 5 – The world was never placed under the rule of angels – not just this world, but the world to come . 

 

New Jerusalem and all that is to come. This isn’t just about our current or temporal circumstances. That is such a big part of the theme of Hebrews. Look beyond the temporal. Being grounded means going beyond the surface appearance and appeal. I don’t know that anyone in Jerusalem fully understood the change that was coming in just 1-2 years. We may not be facing anything as enormous as these people, but I don’t think they realized how big it was either. It is easy to see things as small or individual decisions when they actually impact so much more

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V. 6-8 – It is really interesting that he starts off by saying it has been testified “somewhere.” We know where this is from – it is a direct quote from Ps. 8:4-6. The Psalm starts by declaring “How majestic is your name in all the earth!” It is about the greatness of God. We also know that it was written by David. So why add this unusual phrasing? It is not the only time the author uses this phrase – it will come  up again in Hebrews 4:4. So let’s talk about what this is not doing and then a couple of options for why he may have phrased it this way.

1. Some have argued that the author is using this phrase because he is writing from memory and couldn’t quite remember the phrasing. However, unlike some of the other quotes where you need to look at specific translations to make the manuscripts match up, this is a direct quote – no questions about which translation of the Old Testament the author was using. Too, this was a Psalm of David – it would have been very well known. Third, this is inspired Scripture – he isn’t just hoping for the best.

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So, if that is not what is happening, then why this phrasing? First, it is a perfect indefinite – this was a very specific argumentative style made popular by a man named Philo Judaeus or Philo of Alexandria – he was a Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher and incredibly influential. He had died around 50ish AD. This audience would have likely recognized the grammatical formatting of this argument. It doesn’t mean anyone, but rather is only used when there was no doubt regarding the source of the material. It actually points to the definitiveness of the author – almost a statement of “obviously” – there was nothing vague or up to chance about this claim. The author also knew that his audience would have been familiar with the author. Third, this is placing a focus on what the author was saying – not who said it. Finally, it is highlighting a truth that is professed throughout Scripture. This quote is from Psalm 8, but we have already talked about this argument from chapter one. The idea that Jesus surrendered the independent use of his attributes and took on flesh occurs throughout Scripture. So somewhere, very specific, God said:

What is man – Starts out with a very broad questions – why do you care about man when you are so great? When you have so many other things to do, when your name is so majestic, why do you give thought/care for man? Why do you remember us is really the core meaning here – a fascinating question in terms of salvation. Why didn’t you abandon us to our sins? He still cares, which is a glorious thought.

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Son of man that you care – Literally the idea of the Son of Adam. There is a lot of debate about the meaning of these verses. A few different meanings – 1st, in relation to the original Adam, God gave him dominion (Gen. 1:26). But even after the fall, God cared enough that he promised a redeemer. He promised a 2nd Adam and that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12 – 21 and 1 Cor. 15:47). We do know from this Scripture and others similar to this passage are ultimately a foreshadowing of Jesus himself. We talked a little about this duality of meaning when we read the Davidic covenant a couple of weeks ago. So, it seems a little strange – of course the Father loves the Son. There are at least two factors in contention here. First, like much of David’s prophesy in particular, there is an overlapping of meaning with both his own physical descendants and Jesus himself. This is an appropriate question when considered in terms of David’s line – why are we special that you have taken time to specifically address me?

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However, it also is important in relation to the coming Messiah – what is man – why would you use this frail vessel – in comparison to the rest of your creation? What is man? You made him frail, and he will face death – yet you chose this vessel to visit mankind. He took on flesh.

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V. 7 – Made him for a little while – Temporarily, Jesus took on flesh and was, in his humanity, lower than the angels – in terms of manifest glory, physical power, etc. Also a reflection on mankind in general. Eventually, believers will reign with Christ and be exalted – but for now we are “lower” than the angels.

Crowned him with glory  - literally what it says, crowned him with worship and honor

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V. 8 – Everything in subjection – We have talked about this a couple of times – especially in Ephesians 1:22-23

Left nothing outside his control – There is nothing that will not bow the knee to him in the end. Either in worship or in frustrated surrender.

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We do not yet see everything – Two meanings here that are really neat – 1. Not all things are visibly under his control. There are certainly many facets of life that feel like they are out of control. You only have to turn on the news. 2nd – we do not see everything that he already has under control. He is not surprised by current events. We do not have a perfect perspective However, we do see him

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V. 9 – But we see him – we stare at – we discern clearly. Even when our perspective is shaky and uncertain. When our circumstances are unclear and we do not feel like he has everything under control – we see him as glorious. We see him as redeemer. We see him as exalted. We fix our eyes – 2 Cor. 4:16-18, 2 Chron. 20:12 

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Where is our focus? Where is our energy? Where is our love? Are our perspectives overwhelmed and stressed – where do we see him? Do we see him? If he is blurry, seek his truth in his Word – see him clearly. That old hymn Turn your Eyes on Jesus is a beautiful reminder that if we turn our gaze to him instead of the chaos around us, the things of this world will grow strangely dim in light of his glory and grace. However, if we focus on our circumstances, we will be overwhelmed and feel we are drowning. Still, just like Peter, when the waves are crashing and we have lost perspective, our response should be the same as his - cry out. Seek his deliverance and rest in the fact that he alone controls the waves of our lives.