God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets,
The letter to the Hebrews opens with no greeting and no author's name — the first word is God, and the first fact is that He has spoken. This verse tells us how God spoke before, and to whom.
Paul's other letters all begin with his name. This one does not, and commentators see purpose in it.
Readers have often noticed that this letter opens differently from all of Paul's other letters. I have no doubt that Paul wrote it, though I do not argue that here. His usual greeting is missing. Two things pressed hard on the apostle: the theme that filled his mind and heart, and the needs of his readers. With so much to say, it would have been out of place for him to put himself forward. So instead of the familiar name "Paul" at the opening, we have the blessed God brought before us at once.
Another writer finds the reason in what this letter does with the word "apostle."
This letter opens with no introduction or prelude. The usual style of Paul's letters (and I do not doubt he wrote this book) is absent, and for a beautiful reason. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ" would have been out of place in a letter where Jesus Christ Himself is presented as the Apostle. The author of the book is out of sight; its subject stands out at once in glory.
The first words of the verse describe the shape of that older revelation. Where modern versions read "at many times and in many ways," commentators press the sense "in many parts and in many ways."
The words that make up this grand opening are full of meaning, and they are true. In few words they show the character of what God said in the Old Testament. It could not be complete or final. It came piece by piece... He spoke "in many parts." His word came only in fragments. Each was perfect for its purpose, but it was not the fullness He meant to give when the right moment came. God used many different persons in that work, and He used "many ways" of revealing too: open speech to Moses, and usually visions and dreams to others.
The fragmentary character was not a failure of method. It reflected what was still missing.
God has spoken in the past in many parts; that is, we have to gather the sum of His truth from many portions of His Word. He had to give partial revelations. A full and complete revelation was not possible yet. It had to wait for One who could hold in Himself all that God was.
God did not use one kind of messenger only. He sent a line of them, each suited to a moment.
In times past God spoke to the fathers of Israel at various times and in various ways. God had spoken by Moses, asserting in the law His claims on man. At other times God had spoken by angels in His providential ways with His people. Later, God had spoken by the prophets to call a rebellious people back to Himself. Scripture mentions the prophets in particular, because they came just before the Son.
Calling the earlier word partial takes nothing from it. But treating it as final was the mistake Israel made.
This was real revelation, but God kept adding to it. So it stayed partial, and it was in no sense a complete revelation of God. Note too that God was free to choose any way He wished to speak. Israel knew this well. When their Messiah came, they should have expected a revelation just as distinct, and worthy of so great a God. Instead they were set on limiting God by their own ideas and tying Him to human tradition.
The verse does not set the old against the new. The same God stands behind both, and the change is in how He speaks, not in who He is.
God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. Now those days had come to an end. They were the days of God's dealings with Israel, the age in which the law should have held force... God had spoken in the Person of the Son. There is no break to begin a wholly new system. The God who had spoken before by the prophets now went on to speak in Christ.
A messenger can carry a message. Only one Person could be the message.
The time came for God to set aside partial revelations of Himself. To show all that He is, He spoke in the One who is Son. No one else could do it. No prophet on earth and no angel in heaven could bring to light all that is in the heart of God, or express all His character... The Son was the language in which God spoke.
- God spoke. The letter begins with God, not a writer's name. Attention falls on the message and its Subject, not the messenger.
- He spoke in pieces. God's older word came in many parts and many ways. It was real revelation, but it came in pieces, because no full disclosure was possible yet.
- He spoke through servants. Moses, angels, prophets — each one suited to a moment. The prophets come last, because they lead up to the Son.
- He spoke without a break. The same God who used the prophets went on to speak in Christ; this is continuation, not a rival system.
- He spoke fully at last. What prophets could only carry, the Son could be — He is the language in which God finally said everything.
at the end of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
God's last word does not come through a messenger. It comes in the Son Himself, and this verse sets three things side by side: God speaks in the Son, the Son is heir of everything, and the Son made everything.
The old order came in pieces, through many speakers across long centuries. The phrase "in these last days" closes that sequence for good.
There was a constant, increasing unfolding of truth. But now the Son of God has come. The Sun in all its glory and splendour has burst upon the vision of faith. What further revelation can there possibly be? This is not "the last days" in the sense Scripture sometimes gives that phrase. It does not mean days when Christianity declines. It does not mean the time when Israel will be restored and God will begin to deal with His ancient people — though then Messiah will have brought in blessing. Those are smaller uses of the phrase "the last days." Here it simply marks the revelation of Christ.
Prophets passed on a message from someone else. Here God does not use a go-between.
In the past God spoke by the prophets. But now He has spoken to us, not by or through anyone else, but "in His Son." He Himself spoke to us directly, in that character, for the Son was and is God just as much as the Father. So there is nothing more to be said.
The ESV reads "by his Son." Other translations have "in Son," because the Greek has no article before "Son." Commentators say this marks the character in which God spoke, not just the messenger He used.
Many learned men say the missing article is caused by the preposition in front of it, or by the emphatic position of the word. It is neither. The wording is deliberate… Yet the phrase has no article, so it does not set the person before the mind as an object. It brings His character to the front. The prophets were, like Moses, only servants. He in whom God spoke at the end of these days was Son… Now God spoke no longer in the prophets, nor in the form of an angel as He often had, but as Son.
English does not carry that as well, so J. N. Darby paraphrased the phrase in his translation and explained why in a note:
On the whole I have paraphrased it: in [the person of the] Son. It is God Himself who speaks. Not by another. Not as the Father. Not merely by the Holy Spirit using a person who is not divine, but as Himself a Divine Person — and that Person the Son.
The heirship is not a reward handed to an outsider. The One who will receive the universe is the One who called it into being.
The universe exists by the creative power of the Son; it is through Him that it has its being. In becoming "Heir of all things" He will take possession of that which owes its very existence to Himself. It will all be put under His hand, and He will acquire the glory of it all in a public way. And this, let us remember, will be in Manhood. As Man He will be "Heir of all things."
Human ambition reaches for the very same things.
Men are trying to own the earth, to rule the sea, and conquer the air. They strive to inherit power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing. Christ, as Son, will inherit all, for He is the appointed Heir of all, and He alone is worthy of all… Man had completely rejected the One who is the appointed Heir of all things, and nailed Him to a cross.
The ESV says He created "the world"; other translations read "the worlds." The Greek word usually means "ages," and here it carries a wider sense.
tous aiōnas generally means "the ages." But Greek-speaking Jews also used it, beyond any fair dispute, for the universe — perhaps as the stage on which God's dealings through the ages take place — as here and in Hebrews 11:3.
That claim lands hardest when you put it next to the cross.
Yes — the very Man they crucified by the hand of lawless men, the Man crucified in weakness! At the moment He bowed His head and died, He was holding all creation up. If He had been only a man, it would be absurd to think or say such a thing. But He was God.
The Heir has not yet taken possession, and the delay has a reason.
He is waiting for all the joint-heirs to be called out. He will give them the inheritance at the same moment that He takes it Himself. For if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
- Spoken — God has moved from speaking through many prophets to speaking in one Son. Nothing is left to add.
- Son — God speaks as a divine Person, with no go-between. "In Son" marks the character of the speaking.
- Made — the Son made "the worlds," a word meaning the ages and, by use, the whole universe.
- Heir — He will publicly take possession, as Man, of what already owes its existence to Him.
- Shared — He waits until God has called out every joint-heir. Then He and they enter the inheritance together.
who being [the] effulgence of his glory and [the] expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made [by himself] the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high,
This verse stacks up who the Son is before it says a word about what He has done. It holds two things together: a Person who carries the whole universe, and the same Person seated because He has dealt with our sins.
The first title uses a picture from light.
He is called "the brightness (the irradiation) of His glory" — the glory of God. The picture is something like the rays of the sun. If there were no rays we would not see the light of the sun, even though the sun might be in the sky… And so the Son of God is like the rays — the shining out of the glory of God. The Son is the same in essence. He is the shining out of that essence, so that it might reach us — so that there would be something to teach us the glory of God.
This shining is not a rank He picked up along the way.
Notice that this is not something the Son became, or was made, in the course of time. Other glories tied to His work and His offices might have a beginning. But the glory we are speaking of now belongs to Him as Son. It is the essential glory of His Person — true of Him before time began, and true of Him when time will be no more.
The second title moves from light to a seal pressed into wax. Older translations read "express image" where the ESV has "exact imprint."
He is also called "the express image of His person" (that is, substance). The word "substance" means essential being, or existence… The illustration is that of the impress of a seal. Though you had never seen the seal, I might show you the impress of it, the thing exactly like it, and from that impress you could form a true idea of the seal. So Christ is the "Impress" of the substance of God. He is the One in whom all the thoughts and feelings of God essentially are. This too was true of the Son before all worlds.
Because of this, the Son cannot be thought of apart from God.
He is not merely the outward display of what God is, but He is the very impress, the very character of God's own being. He is therefore one with God. You cannot think of the Son without thinking of God. As our Lord said: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
What holds the universe together is a word.
In verse 3 we also find the wonderful fact that the Son is the Upholder of all things. All things are upheld and hang together by the word of His power. We sometimes talk about the laws of the universe. We may watch the law of gravity at work, though we do not know the real why and how of it… We know that THE LAW of the universe is the word of His power. This is all that really matters.
Between the upholding and the throne stands the work. He did it alone.
No creature could share in this work. That divine and glorious Person undertook the whole work alone, and He would not take His seat on any other terms than as having perfectly finished it… Then, and not before — not until sin had been perfectly put away — did He sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So our sins are gone according to the perfection of the place of glory where He is now seated.
He sat down, and the sitting is the point. The same letter draws out what that means for those who trust Him.
Hebrews 10 presses this to its full consequences for us: "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."
And the glory that would otherwise terrify becomes the proof of pardon.
All that glory does not frighten me — and He is in the middle of the glory and majesty of the throne of God itself. This wonderful truth comes in: the glory of God is in the face of a man who has put away my sins, and who is there as the proof of it… I could not see Christ in the glory if there were one spot or stain of sin not put away.
- Radiance — God's glory reaches us through the Son, as sunlight reaches us through its rays.
- Imprint — He is the exact stamp of God's own being. See Him and you see the Father.
- Upholder — The universe hangs together on the word of His power. That is what really matters.
- Purifier — He made purification alone. No creature shared that work.
- Seated — He sat down only after putting sin away. So the glory that could terrify now proves the sins are gone.
taking a place by so much better than the angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they.
Hebrews opens by piling glory on glory upon the Son. Then verse 4 sets Him beside the angels, the highest beings its first readers could name. Why measure Christ against angels at all? And what is this "name" that no angel could hold?
The reason lies in the way the law first reached Israel.
Every Jew knew that angels played a very large part in the giving of the law by Moses, though Exodus says little about them. Stephen's words in Acts 7:53 show this, as does the second verse of our second chapter. This display of angelic might gave a very powerful sanction to Moses and the law he brought, in the minds of the people. And now there appears among men the Divine Spokesman, yet to them He is only Jesus of Nazareth, a humble and despised Man. They see no beauty in Him that would make them want Him or His words. No display of angels backs Him up. So it became vital to insist on the true glory of His person, immeasurably above all angels. Even if ten thousand times ten thousand angels had escorted Him in full view, it would have added nothing to Him!
The angelic ministry itself was gracious, but it carried a message about distance from God.
The ministry of angels is in itself a most gracious thing. Yet angels coming in between God and man does not point to the nearness that Christianity has brought us. It speaks instead of the true mark of the law: no one could see God's face and live. We do see His face — by faith, yes, but still fully revealed to us in the person of His Son — and He brings us near to Him.
The chapter itself spells out that name.
The Son has "become so much better than the angels." This is not only because of the glories He gained through the eternal redemption He obtained for us. It is because of what He is in His very being, in contrast with all the angels. He has "inherited a more excellent name than they." He has the name of Son in His own personal right, and angels do not. Without doubt the "more excellent name," besides "Son," includes "God" and "Jehovah," as the chapter shows later (Heb. 1:8, 10).
Scripture does call angels sons of God, so the difference lies elsewhere.
Scripture calls angels "sons of God" (Job 38:7). But God never called an angel "My son." He never said to any angel, and never could say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." This position was unique. It is His alone. He inherited it because of WHO and what He is, and because of His glorious position in the purpose of God.
Some have read "inherited" as though His exaltation made Him Son.
He did not become God's Son by being "appointed heir of all things," or by inheriting a more excellent name than all the angels. If I have an only son and he inherits my property, his being my heir does not make him my son. His being my son makes him my heir.
The ESV reads "having become" where older translations read "Being made." One writer finds two glories held together in that wording.
Verse 4 says two things. First, He has a more excellent name than angels by inheritance. Second, He has been made better than they. The words "Being made" can also read "Having become" or "Taking a place." The first points to His superiority because of His Godhead glory. The second points to the place He now holds as Man, the One who accomplished redemption. Notice that His superiority stands out just as strongly in both. The little words "SO … AS" in the sentence show it. Read the verse again for yourself, and see.
This standing settles where redeemed people belong.
Christ makes clear the ground of God's purpose to raise from among men those destined for a place far higher than that of angels… Scripture never says that angels reign. They serve, instead of sitting on thrones. We are to reign with Him. Yet we will serve then as we serve now, and serve all the better through grace. He has delivered us from the lowest state of guilt and evil. We are the objects of His unending, infinite love, and we will share His glory as surely as we now rest on His grace.
- Name. The excellent name is "Son," and later in the chapter "God" and "Jehovah." He holds it in His own personal right, and God never spoke it to any angel.
- Inherited. Heirship does not create sonship; sonship creates heirship. He inherits because of who He already is.
- Become. "Being made" also reads "having become" or "taking a place." His Godhead glory was always His. The place He now holds as Man is what He entered as the One who accomplished redemption.
- Better. Angels carried the law and kept men at a distance; the Son brings God's face into full view and brings us near.
- Ours. Angels serve and never reign; the Son raises redeemed people above them, to reign with Him and share His glory.
For to which of the angels said he ever, *Thou* art my Son this day have *I* begotten thee? and again, *I* will be to him for father, and *he* shall be to me for son?
The writer has just claimed that the Son inherits a name far above the angels. Verse 5 proves it from Scriptures the readers already knew. It gives two sentences God spoke, and He never said either of them to an angel.
The comparison is not random. The readers' old religious system was itself tied to angels.
The Jewish system was set up in connection with angels. But Christ has taken a position much higher than that of angels, because the name He inherits as His own — that is, a revelation of what He is — is far more excellent than theirs. So the writer quotes several Old Testament passages about the Messiah, to show what He is compared with the nature and position of angels. What these passages meant to a Jew who believed is plain... it was their own Scriptures that proved the Messiah was to have a position far more excellent and exalted than that of angels.
The angels' own place is settled later in the chapter, and it is a place of service.
In verse 7 we have a quotation which plainly states the nature of angels and the reason why they exist. They are spirits in their nature and they exist as ministers to serve the Divine will.
The force of the question sharpens when you notice that Scripture does call angels "sons of God." The distinction lies elsewhere.
He is clearly addressed as man born into the world, for "this day" belongs to time, not to eternity... This is all the more striking because angels too are called "sons of God," as in Job 1:6 and Job 38:7. The sonship shared by all spiritual beings whom the "Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9) created is one thing; the real relationship of a "begotten Son" is another... Here, in the condition of a creature, is One who is more than a creature. Men may be "offspring of God," and angels "sons," yet neither of them reach this place or inherit this name.
Commentators differ over which moment "today" points to. One reading takes it of His birth in time.
The first Scripture quoted is from Psalm 2:7. God never spoke such a word to an angel. It applies only to Christ. But how? The apostle John loves to dwell on His eternal Sonship... How is He viewed here? As Son of God born in time. We see Him so in Luke 1:32, and still more clearly in verse 35. Taking flesh did not lower His Sonship at all. He was Son of God from eternity, and He was no less Son of God when born of the virgin Mary, as He is in resurrection and forever in glory.
Others stress that these words rest on a relationship which had no beginning.
Adam was a son of God because God breathed life into him. An angel is a son of God as a created spirit. To either of them God might say, once he had been brought into being, "You are My son." But it seems unbelievable that God should say this to either of them before he came into the sphere of creation. Yet the LORD could and did speak this way to His own Son. The whole force of the quotation from the Psalm depends on its being true of the Son alone, who was the Eternal Son without any begetting — true of Him even before He was begotten in time as man.
The psalm this comes from tells of kings conspiring against God's Anointed. Their rage meets one answer: His title.
Why is it that the King in Zion can stand against all the hatred and opposition of the enemy?... it was because that King in Zion was His Son. "I will declare the decree," says the Son; and then He declares it. "You are My Son," God had said to Him; "today I have begotten You." He is in His kingly place as Son of God, and who can set himself against the Son of God with any success?
These words were first spoken about Solomon, David's son who built the temple.
The apostle strengthens this with a second quotation. It applied first of all to Solomon, but only as a picture of another. Even as Builder of God's house, the true Son of David was not Solomon but a Greater One, whose house and kingdom would both last for ever... But the point here is, "I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son." On both sides these relations will be all that they imply.
And no created being could fill that second half.
How could any creature, however blessed, be to God all that the name SON means? He alone stands infinitely above all creatures. He alone could present to God, in manhood, what called out every affection of God's heart, and He alone was an object fully worthy of those affections. He alone could give God a response that matched them.
- Name — The Son's greatness rests on a name He inherits, not on rank lent to Him. The proof comes from the readers' own Scriptures.
- Never — God never called an angel "My Son." Angels are sons of God as created spirits. A begotten Son is something else.
- Today — "This day" is the language of time, not eternity. Commentators differ over which moment it marks. All agree His coming as man never lessened His Sonship.
- Throne — In Psalm 2 kings conspire against God's Anointed. They cannot shake the King in Zion, because He is the Son.
- Mutual — The second quotation gives God's side of the bond. Solomon only pictured it. Only One could be to God all that "Son" means.
and again, when he brings in the firstborn into the habitable world, he says, And let all God's angels worship him.
Hebrews 1 sets the Son above the angels. This verse goes further: God commands the angels to worship Him.
The word marks rank and inheritance, not birth order.
When God introduces the Firstborn into the world, all the angels are called to worship Him. God presents Him to the world; but the highest of created beings must then cast themselves at His feet. The angels of God Himself — the creatures that are nearest to Him — must do homage to the Firstborn. The Firstborn is the Heir, the One in whom the glory and power of God begin to appear. It is in this sense that the word is used. It is said of the Son of David, "I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" (Ps. 89:27). So the Messiah is introduced into the world as holding this place in relation to God Himself. He is the Firstborn — the immediate expression of the rights and the glory of God. He has universal pre-eminence.
Angels know where worship belongs. One of them once told the apostle John so.
The angelic beings around the throne of God could not worship anyone who was less than God. No creature, however blessed by God, or given divine power, could rightly receive such honour. The idea would be sinful in the extreme. Angels know who the Son is, and that He died for man on the cross… They know well to whom worship belongs. John was once overcome by the bright shining of an angel and by the wonderful things made known to him. He "fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed him these things." The angel refused at once. He would not take the homage, but rebuked the mistaken apostle: "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets. Worship God!"
If worship belongs to God alone, this command settles what the Son is.
So there is no ground for doubt. "Angels" are meant here, and they are commanded to pay supreme honour to the Son as the risen and glorified Man — yet He is no less a divine person. If He were not, worthiness as man and given dignity could not justify the homage God claims for His Son from the highest creatures of heaven… He may take a place of humiliation, or a place of glorious rule, for the glory of God and the blessing of creation. In personal title and divine nature He is as truly Supreme as the Father or the Holy Spirit. To think otherwise is to disown His true Deity.
Commentators differ over this word. Does it mark another quotation, or a second entry into the world? Many read it as His return in glory, and note that He is brought in, not sent.
Of His first coming, Scripture says that Christ came into the world, that He was sent, that He was born. Here Scripture says He is brought, or introduced, into the world… So the promise that the First-begotten will be brought into the world again points clearly back to His earlier expulsion from it. Man drove Him out in disgrace when, by the grace of God, His beloved Son was crucified in weakness. He will re-enter it in majesty, according to the power of God.
Others hold that the point is not the date at all.
The apostle's aim appears to be this: not to fix the time when God brings the Firstborn into the world, but to prove the universal homage of all God's angels to the glory of the Son. Whenever that moment is, past or future, the homage stands. And Luke 2:13-14 is a beautiful witness to it. There is no ground at all to limit "the firstborn" to resurrection… At the same time, we freely allow that the fulfilment of Deuteronomy 32 or of Psalm 97 as a whole awaits the Lord's second coming.
"The world" here means the habitable earth.
This happens when He brings Him into the world, or "habitable earth" — His kingdom of a thousand years. The psalm describes Him coming into the habitable earth as Judge, to take His place and reign. As He comes, the One who once came as the Babe of Bethlehem comes in the clouds with power and great glory, and the hosts of heaven come with Him… There He is, the Object of angels' worship. This was never said of any angel. Angels are worshippers, not objects of worship.
What God commands of angels, the redeemed give from the heart.
God is jealous for the honour of the Son. If He commands the angels to own and respect the personal rights of the Firstborn, then we may be sure of this: the redeemed must and will gladly yield to Him their unbounded adoration. They will adore Him not only as the Firstborn of all creation, but as the Firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:15, 18).
- Firstborn. The title marks the Heir. It means rank and universal pre-eminence, not birth order — He is the immediate expression of God's rights and glory.
- Brought in. God does not only send Him. God brings Him into the earth that cast Him out, and He re-enters in majesty what He left in weakness.
- Worshipped. God Himself gives the command. No creature may take such honour, and angels themselves refuse it.
- Above. Angels worship; they are never worshipped. That settles the Son's place above the highest beings God has made.
- Gladly. Commentators differ on the timing. No one doubts the end: heaven's command becomes the redeemed heart's delight.
And as to the angels he says, Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire;
This verse is one of several Old Testament quotations the writer uses to set the Son above every angel. It raises a simple question with a large answer: what are angels made to be, and why does that settle their rank?
The readers of this letter held angels in the highest regard, which is why the argument opens where it does.
The writer sent this letter to Hebrews, and that explains the comparison and contrast between Christ and angels. A Hebrew saw angels as the highest and holiest beings, second only to Jehovah Himself. God also gave the law through angels (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19), and angels served in other well-known ways in Israel's history. So these beings held a high place in the Jewish mind. … Angels are only servants. Scripture never says that they occupy a throne, because they cannot reign. But Christ has a throne, and His redeemed will reign with Him.
Everything turns on the verb. God gives angels their nature. To the Son He speaks in a different way.
It has pleased God to give these agents of His power this nature of spirits. But of the Son He says, "Your throne, O God!" By His own will God makes His angels spirits, or flames of fire. But of the Son we never read that God makes anything of Him.
The wording quoted here can be read two ways. Older versions say "spirits"; the ESV says "winds." The choice matters, because it says something about what angels are.
According to the apostle, "He makes His angels spirits" states a fact about the nature of angels. That is a much higher fact than making "the winds His messengers," as some would have it. Either translation is possible, so the language alone cannot settle the meaning. This shows two things. No part of His creation stands separate from Him, and no physical agency is anything but the embodiment of His will. The spirits, who carry a responsibility of their own, represent Him and are subject to Him. They receive their character and their gifts from Him, according to His will.
Angels differ among themselves in rank. Their place before God, though, is the same for all of them.
Angels fall into various orders and ranks. But all of them, from the archangel down to the least, are servants. They have no relationship to God founded on redemption. They are servants, and never rise out of that position, nor do they wish to. Angel life has two great marks: unquestioning obedience and active service (Ps. 103:20; Heb. 1:7, 14).
The two images are not decoration. They show how these servants act in Bible history — sometimes rescuing, sometimes striking.
Of them we read that "God makes His angels spirits (winds) and His ministers a flame of fire." And again, "the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." At God's command they get ready to serve, in whatever the saint needs or the occasion under the throne of God calls for. They formed a travelling chariot to carry Elijah to heaven, and to carry Lazarus to Abraham's side. They now form chariots of war when the hostile bands of Syria surround Elisha. They have drawn the sword to strike a guilty city. Or with the strong hand of love they have dragged the unwilling one out of the doomed city. They are either as winds or as fire. They are messengers of mercy, and executors of judgment.
Read this chapter to its end, and the angels' service points in a surprising direction.
This quotation comes from Psalm 104, the psalm of creation. Here God is speaking of His works of creation and providence, and of the messengers He uses. They are angels, beings who excel in strength and delight to do His will. He makes the angels spirits, and they go like the lightning or like the wind, quick and certain in their work. Theirs is a blessed position, a place of exaltation as far as man is concerned — but after all, they are ministers. And as we read in the last verse of this chapter, "Are they not all ministering spirits?" They do not only serve God, going out as the rushing wind or the flame of fire to do His will. Are they not ministering spirits, sent out to serve us?
- Made. The verb rules the verse. God gives angels their nature. Of the Son we never read that God makes anything of Him.
- Spirits. Older versions read "spirits"; the ESV reads "winds." Commentators differ. Read as "spirits," the verse states what angels are by nature.
- Ministers. Wind and fire picture swift, sure service. Angels are messengers of mercy and executors of judgment — seen at Elijah's ascent and around Elisha.
- Servants. From archangel to least, none rises out of that place, and none wishes to. They have no relationship to God founded on redemption.
- Sent. Their service reaches down to us. They are ministering spirits, sent out to serve us.
but as to the Son, Thy throne, O God, [is] to the age of the age, and a sceptre of uprightness [is] the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy companions.
God's address to the Son continues, but the tone changes: the One just called God is now said to have a God, and to have companions. Two questions follow: why the anointing comes with a "therefore", and who these companions are.
Commentators are careful not to blur verse 8 into verse 9.
Do not confuse the language of verse 8 with that of verse 9. Verse 8 states the Lord's Divinity outright. It gives the sceptre of righteousness to the Son as something that belongs to Him from the first, as the Judge of all the world. In the other verse we see Him as the Perfect One. Jehovah bears witness to Him, and gives Him the rewards of righteousness as the Man of God's pure approval and delight.
The two are not in tension. They belong to one Person.
The past too is not forgotten, nor ever can be by God. "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness." Such was Jesus as man here below; for in truth He is both in one person, neither more truly God than man, nor man than God.
The quotes below read "iniquity" or "lawlessness" where the ESV has "wickedness". Loving the one and hating the other is a single attitude, not two.
To love righteousness is to hate its opposite, iniquity. The more intense the love of righteousness, the more intense the hatred of iniquity.
This was not a preference held at no cost. One writer sets the price beside the statement:
"He loved righteousness, and hated lawlessness," though it cost Him His blood, and being forsaken and bruised by God.
The anointing follows what He was as Man on earth:
God addresses Him as God, since He is a divine Person. Yet He is still seen here as the perfect Man on earth, the One of whom it can be said, "Your God has anointed You." Because of His moral perfection — His love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity — God has raised Him above all those He associates with Himself in grace.
One writer explains how the One called God can also have a God:
Because of this His God — remember, here He is Man, and so the expression "His God" is fitting — has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows, or companions. Kings of old were anointed with oil, but the Lord was anointed with the Holy Spirit. These words also show that in His kingship He has companions.
The oil does not stop with Him:
Though the measure is greater, the character of the gladness is the same. It is the same excellent oil which anoints Him in glory that flows down to us here. The same Spirit that rests on Him has come to all those who belong to Him. We share in the same gladness with Him.
Commentators differ here. Some identify them with Israel's faithful few:
These companions are the believing remnant of Israel. By grace He has made them His fellows. Yet He stands above them all, for by His love of righteousness — and that, at all costs — He was perfectly pleasing to God.
Another writer marks off who cannot be His fellows, and who can:
A new and surprising comparison now comes in. It is not a contrast, as with the angels, but a difference of degree only. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Angels are no fellows to the Son. They stand in complete contrast with Him, as we have seen. His fellows are none other than those for whom God has appointed this glory, by the exceeding riches of His grace: to be conformed to the image of His Son; for He is, and is to be, the Firstborn among many brothers.
The height of this verse does not shut others out.
How beautiful to see the largeness of grace and truth. After this lofty owning of Messiah as God by God comes the fullest acknowledgment of others. He Himself is no more ashamed to own us His companions or fellows than God is to own Him God.
- Cause. A life of loving righteousness and hating wickedness stands behind the "therefore". The anointing is God's answer to His moral perfection.
- Cost. That love was not cheap. It cost Him His blood, and being forsaken by God.
- Gift. The oil is the anointing of the Spirit, and the same oil that rests on Him flows down to those who belong to Him.
- Reach. Angels are never called His fellows; only those He associates with Himself are. Commentators differ on whether these are Israel's believing remnant or all who will be conformed to the image of God's Son.
- Result. He owns us as companions as freely as God owns Him as God — yet He is anointed above us all.
And, *Thou* in the beginning, Lord, hast founded the earth, and works of thy hands are the heavens.
Hebrews 1 builds its case for the Son from a chain of Old Testament quotations. This one comes from Psalm 102, where the Messiah pours out His grief and asks not to be cut off early. The startling thing is who is speaking to whom: the words about founding the earth are God's reply to that suffering One.
The verse opens with one small word: "and." It ties this quotation to the one before it.
Still more remarkable is the sixth quotation, from Psalm 102. Wonderful as His glory is in Psalm 45, Psalm 102 surpasses it. No human being would ever have known the real meaning of this psalm if it had not pleased the Spirit of God to give it in this chapter. The little word "and" shows that in verses 25-27 God addresses the Son of God as the Creator of all things.
Read the psalm on its own and you would naturally take these lines as the sufferer's words about God. Hebrews settles the question by telling us where the speaker changes.
It is certain from Hebrews 1:10 that there is a change of speakers at verse 25. For while the beginning of the psalm, in its full meaning, can only be the utterance of Christ suffering for His people, the apostle by his reasoning on and application of Psalm 45:5-6 and Psalm 102:25 shows that we have, in these last, God's answer to the divine sufferer.
This name carries a weight the title "God" does not.
The divine title differs. It is the name every Jew owns as supreme and belonging to God alone. The title "God" can be used in a lower sense of those who represent His authority as kings or judges. Compare Exodus 21, Exodus 22, Psalm 82. But Jehovah, translated "LORD" here, is only ever used of God in the highest sense. It is His name in His special covenant relationship with Israel, as the Everlasting and Unchanging One.
Notice what this name does to the question of who Jesus is.
In Hebrews chapter 1 the writer credits creation to the Son (verse 2). Lower down he quotes Psalm 102:25. The other passages referred to are quite clear. But this third reference would lead the simplest believer to conclude that Jesus is Jehovah.
The setting makes the words heavier. A Man in anguish asks that His days not be cut short — and heaven answers by naming Him the maker of the world.
God addresses the sighing One in Gethsemane, the blessed Son of God in His place of lowliness, as Creator and Maker of heaven and earth! When everything around us crumbles to nothing, He will remain in His eternal power and glory. Could two extremes seem further apart? On one side, utter need and helplessness — the complaint of One crying out in weakness to God. On the other, the answer comes from the very throne of God, addressing this pleading One as God over all, blessed forever.
That answer is also the hinge of everything God has promised.
Christ mournfully pleads, "O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days." Jehovah replies: "Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain." The crucified One was Himself also the Eternal. That is a blessed mystery, and the foundation of all God's counsels of grace and glory.
The next lines set Him against what He made.
Here we see His eternal glory in the visible creation, and also in contrast to it. The One called "God" is now called "Lord" — the first name pointing to His supremacy, the second to His authority. He has founded the earth and formed the heavens, and so they declare His glory. But "they will perish." He has decreed that they will not continue in their present form. Their very destruction underlines that He is the eternal One.
He sets the old aside, but He Himself does not change.
When these works of His hands have fulfilled their purpose, He will set them aside like a worn-out garment. Then He will establish a new creation in which righteousness will dwell. But in that new creation He will be the same. As He was and is, so He will always be. That is the pledge that His word will stand, and that every thought of God's heart expressed in blessing will last.
The verse calls the heavens "the work of your hands." The Gospels show those same hands at work.
What divine power we see in the touch of His hands as He went about as the meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth. And all that divine power that made the heavens and the earth was still in His hands. He went about as Man doing good and healing all whom the devil oppressed. Now He used that power in love and grace to meet the needs of His creatures. Above all, what divine perfection His work on the cross shows, as He hung there in seeming weakness by the nails in His hands.
- The "and" — one small word keeps the same listener in view. God is still speaking to the Son, and He calls Him Maker of everything.
- The Name — "Lord" here is the name Israel held to be God's alone, never shared with kings or judges. Applied to Jesus, it settles who He is.
- The Answer — the words are God's reply to a Man begging not to be cut off in mid-life. Heaven's comfort to the sufferer is His own creatorial glory.
- The Contrast — earth and heavens are His handiwork, but they wear out. Their perishing is what proves He does not.
- The Hands — the hands that founded the earth touched the sick and took the nails. Power and grace belong to one Person.
They shall perish, but *thou* continuest still; and they all shall grow old as a garment,
The words here are not the writer's own. They come from Psalm 102, where God speaks to His Son. That raises the question the whole chapter drives at: who is this Person? Heaven and earth wear out, and He stays.
These words answer a cry of distress. The One crying out, His days cut short, is the same One who laid the earth's foundation.
The One crying out of all this distress laid the earth's foundation. The heavens that then darkened over Him were the work of His hands. But the material creation, in the form we know, will perish, while He stands and endures. Its days will be numbered. Heaven and earth will show the signs of decay and age. But He will be the same, and His years will have no end. Notice how He speaks in His humiliation of His "days" four times over (verses 3, 11, 23, 24). In Jehovah's reply to Him, He speaks of "Your years." They run through all generations, and they will have no end.
The chapter has already called the Son God. Someone could argue over that word, so a second psalm follows with a Name no one else can carry.
The Psalms are cited to show that the Son is addressed there as God (Ps. 45:6-7). A fault-finding Jew might object that the same book describes rulers and magistrates in the same way (Ps. 82:6). So another Scripture follows, one that gives Him the incommunicable Name: "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning... they will perish, but you remain."
Two words carry the weight here: "you remain." What do they claim?
They speak of One who stands connected with creation at its widest — the heavens and the earth. Creation is temporary and perishable, and its removal leaves Him unaffected. He "continues still," and this is the meaning of the word "remain." This is not exactly about His essential and eternal existence. It means that while He is joined to what passes away, He abides.
The heavens and the earth show His glory. Their ending shows it too.
He has founded the earth and formed the heavens, and they therefore declare His glory (Ps. 19:1). But "they will perish." He has decreed that they will not continue in their present form. Their very destruction underlines that He is the eternal One: "You remain."
Wearing out is not the same as being written off. God is not finished with this creation.
When God calls a thing old He has finished with it... but God has not yet finished with the first birth or the first creation. We sometimes use the expression "old creation," but this term is not found in Scripture. The nearest approach to it is in Hebrews 1:11, "they will wear out"... So we are still connected with the first birth and can glorify God in it. And He will yet fill the first creation with His glory, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
And His remaining is the reason to expect something better after the wreck:
He is no distant God, no uninterested onlooker at anything His hands have made. He rules it as truly as He created it. If He sees fit, for some good reason, to dissolve His handiwork, He has the perfect right to do so, and the power. Yet He Himself remains! And if so, will not His continuing guarantee something greater and better — a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells?
People we leaned on pass away. The letter answers that at its start and again at its end.
They have gone, but Christ remains, with perfect love in His heart and perfect power in His hand... There is no difficulty He cannot enable us to overcome. There is no danger He cannot keep us from. There is no question that can arise which He cannot settle. He is our stay and resource — our all. With this presentation of Christ as the unchanging One the letter opens, and with this it closes. In the first chapter He is hailed as the abiding and unchanging One — "You remain" and "You are the same." Others pass away, but He remains.
- Sufferer. God answers One whose days were running out — the glory shines at the lowest point.
- Creator. They name Him with the Name that belongs to God alone, settling who the Son is.
- Remains. "Remain" means He continues still — standing beside what passes away, untouched by its removal.
- Perishes. Creation wears out like clothing, and its very collapse is what proves His permanence.
- Resource. Because He remains, a new heaven and earth lie ahead. Nothing that fails around us leaves us without help.
and as a covering shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be changed; but *thou* art the Same, and thy years shall not fail.
The closing words of this verse come from Psalm 102, where a suffering Man begs God not to cut His life short. Hebrews says God spoke that reply to the Son Himself — so who is this Person, untouched while heaven and earth wear out?
The quotation is not a general statement about God dropped into the argument. It is a reply, and everything turns on who receives it.
Jesus, in His humiliation, pours out His broken heart to Jehovah. The Psalm looks ahead to the rebuilding of Zion. If so, where would this struck-down Messiah be? If He is cut off in the middle of His days, how could He be there? God's answer is that He, the holy sufferer, is Jehovah, the Creator who made and orders all things. What a testimony to His unchangeable deity!
The wording itself carries the contrast. The Sufferer speaks of what is short; the answer speaks of what has no measure.
The One who is crying out of all this distress laid the earth's foundation. The heavens that darkened over Him then were the work of His hands. But the material creation, in the form we know, will perish, while He stands and endures. Its days will run out. Heaven and earth will show the signs of decay and age. But He will be the same, and His years will have no end. Notice how in His humiliation He speaks of His "days" four times over (verses 3, 11, 23, 24). In Jehovah's reply to Him, He speaks of "Your years." They run throughout all generations, and they will have no end.
"You are the same" describes what He is in Himself. The same expression returns at the end of the letter.
It is the same word (ho autos) in Hebrews 1:12 and Hebrews 13:8. His person as God is the foundation of all His offices and works. In this way the letter opens with the most glorious proclamation of this truth. Heaven and earth pass away, but Christ does not. The works of God's hand perish, but the One of God's anointing never can.
An owner uses a garment, then lays it aside. The One who lays creation aside is the One who made it.
When these works of His hands have fulfilled their purpose, He will set them aside as one would a garment no longer worn. He will establish a new creation in which righteousness will dwell. But in that new creation He will be the same. As He was and is, so He will always be. He is the pledge that His word will stand, and that every thought of God's heart expressed in blessing will remain.
The letter uses the phrase again in Hebrews 13:8, and that later verse looks back to this one.
In verse 8 our thoughts are also carried back to the things we started with in Hebrews 1. There we discovered the words in Psalm 102: "You are the same, and Your years will have no end." The psalm speaks them not to God in a general way, but to the One we know as our Lord Jesus Christ. The great statement that He is "the same yesterday and today and forever" expands this thought. Of whom could anyone say such a thing except One who was and is God?
Grief is where this truth is felt most sharply.
Our loved ones pass out of our sight, but He remains. It is a blessing for all believers at all times to realise that He remains. It is never more precious than in the deep sorrow of losing someone we love. Homes on earth break up and hopes on earth collapse. Then we can look up into His face and say, "You remain." And as He looks down into our stricken hearts with infinite compassion, He answers back, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
- The cry. Messiah asks not to be cut off in the middle of His days. Jehovah's reply tells Him He is the Creator.
- The contrast. In His humiliation He speaks of His "days." The answer speaks of His "years," which run through all generations and have no end.
- The title. "The same" (ho autos) is a statement of who He is in His person as God, and it is the foundation of everything He does.
- The change. He will set creation aside like a garment once it has served its purpose. A new creation comes in, and in it He is the same.
- The anchor. He remains and is the same. So the believer who watches everything else wear out has a fixed point no loss can move.
But as to which of the angels said he ever, Sit at my right hand until I put thine enemies [as] footstool of thy feet?
The chapter has stacked up Old Testament quotations to prove who the Son is. This last one comes as a question: God never spoke these words to any angel. It asks two things at once. Who can God tell to sit on His own throne, and what is that Person waiting for?
This is the closing quotation in the series. It moves the argument from what the Son is to where He now is.
One more quotation (Ps. 110:1) completes this series. Here He is Son at rest after His work is finished. Man rejected Him, but He waits for God to act and make His foes His footstool, while He Himself sits at the right hand of God. So the testimony is complete, and every quotation fills its place perfectly.
One writer works through the possibilities. Only one Person fits this invitation, and only from one point in His history onward.
To whom is that said? Who could be addressed like this? God never spoke that way to any created angel. To serve, not to sit, is what marks them out. God could not offer such a place as that Psalm describes to any mere man. To the Son of God before He became man such a word would have been quite out of place. From all eternity He could, and did, sit on the throne of God. But to Him as incarnate, how suitable! ... Always divine, but now a man too. ... He must be God as well as man — God to be there at all, and man for God to speak to like this.
Some will share a throne with Christ one day. Angels are not among them.
No angel was ever invited, as He is, to sit on that throne. In fact, though the saints are to sit with Christ on His throne in the age of His display, no angel ever will. God made angels to serve, not to reign; they never did and never will.
The seat is His by right. Yet He takes it as Man, by invitation, and the invitation has a reason behind it.
He has His own right to sit down at God's right hand. But in this Psalm He is invited to take His place on high, because God is satisfied with the great work He has accomplished.
The verse does not stop at the seat. One small word sets a limit on it.
Jehovah acknowledges Him as Lord and places Him at His right hand, but it is "until…" Something lies ahead of Him. The seat He is to occupy is very high, yet it is only for a time, until what lies ahead comes true. The day of His poverty is over. The day of His patience has begun.
The waiting is not empty. Something is going on here on earth while He sits.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by man, is sitting at God's right hand as Man, expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. Patient grace is working meanwhile to call sinners to a knowledge of the salvation which He has wrought.
That seat also answers a question people still ask.
Psalm 110 declares Christ's present glory. It explains the puzzle of Christ exalted above, while men reject Him outwardly and He has none of His rights yet here below. ... At last, when His enemies are made a footstool, Christ appears in person to tread them down.
Another writer turns it into a plain test for anyone who thinks the present age is the reign of Christ.
Christ is not yet sitting on His own throne... But the day is coming when He will put down His enemies and sit on His throne. According to the Scriptures, the present state of things is this: Christ is sitting at the right hand of God — until He makes His enemies His footstool. Look at all the wars and tumults and misery and wretchedness and superstition around us. Do you think that Christ is sitting on His throne?
- Work. The seat follows the finished work. God invites Him to sit because He is satisfied with what the Son accomplished.
- Word. The words themselves fit no angel and no mere man — only the Son, and only once He had become man.
- Seat. God made angels to serve, not to reign. He alone is invited to sit on that throne.
- Until. The place is the highest there is, yet it lasts only for a time. His day of poverty is over; His day of patience has begun, and grace is calling sinners while He waits.
- Footstool. The throne He now sits on is God's, not yet His own. That is why the world still looks as it does. The day when He treads down His enemies is still ahead.
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation?
The chapter has spent thirteen verses lifting the Son above every angel, and it closes with a question rather than a statement. If the Son sits at God's right hand, then the angels are the ones running errands — and the errands are for us.
The verse closes an argument, so its force depends on what stands beside it. One writer traces the final step: the Son's present seat in heaven, set against the angels' present job.
One thing remained to complete this chain of glory: the place Christ holds now, still in contrast with the angels. That place rests on two things — the divine glory of His Person, and the completion of His work. It is at the right hand of God, who called Him to sit there until He had made His enemies His footstool. To which of the angels has God ever said this? They are servants on God's part to the heirs of salvation.
The word "all" covers the whole angelic world, top to bottom. It also draws a line between angels and man.
There are rulers in the angelic world — "rule and authority and power and dominion" (Ephesians 1:21) — but their rule only extends over beings of their own order. Dealing with angels, Hebrews 1:14 asks, "Are they not all ministering spirits?" Yes — God created them all to serve, right up to the archangel himself. As far as Scripture tells us, God made only man to have dominion over others.
The surprise of the verse is not the angels but the people they serve. One writer names both sides, and says what the heirs are waiting for.
The ministers are angels. The receivers of the ministry are heirs. They are fellow-heirs with Christ. They are heirs of a Father whom they know and rejoice in as their Saviour and their God. Once sunk in sin beyond all natural hope, they are now, through grace, made in Christ the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. The inheritance they wait for is one single word: "Salvation." Christian salvation is not just an escape from wrath. God sends His angels out to help those He counts worthy of such ministry, because they bear the title of His Son.
One writer measures angels by what they are and whom they serve:
They are only spirits, glad to serve, according to God's will, such humble creatures as those who once were fallen sinners, but who will be heirs of salvation.
The verse speaks of people who are to inherit salvation — a future word. That fits how this letter uses "salvation" throughout.
Take the Epistle to the Hebrews. There, too, salvation is always presented as a future thing. "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him." The verse means God's people, not the unconverted, when it speaks of coming to God through Christ. For whom is He a priest? For the believer only. So in Hebrews the one who needs saving is the believer, because salvation there covers all the difficulties of our journey through the wilderness.
One writer names what angels do for believers day by day, and why we see so little of it.
Still, it is a blessed place they occupy. God has appointed them to bring protection, comfort and support in this life to those destined for eternal glory. No doubt we owe far more to angelic ministry than we notice in matters of physical strength and wellbeing. Yet as spirit beings they keep their ministry completely hidden. They are content to remain unknown to us, so that only God gets the glory for it.
Another writer treats this silence in Scripture as a mercy, and warns against filling the gap ourselves:
We are not told in what way, except that they protect us through God's providence. If God had given us details, that would open the door to the imagination of unbalanced minds. Instead we have this great comfort: angels, unseen and unnoticed, minister to us in a way that is enough for our needs, and God directs them in His love and wisdom.
Because this ministry is unseen, it is easy to leave the verse unused.
They minister now to those who are the heirs of salvation, who bear the title of sons in His Son and who have His life. How little God's people make use of this comfort! It takes an active and simple faith to see the real workings of angels' ministry in what people brush off as accidents of time and place.
- Seated. The Son sits at God's right hand. No angel was ever told to sit there. Chapter 1 turns on that difference: reigning or serving.
- Sent. God made every angel to serve, not to rule — the archangel included.
- Served. Angels serve former sinners, now heirs and fellow-heirs with Christ. The higher creature waits on the lower.
- Secret. Their help is real but hidden: protection, comfort, strength. God keeps the details back so that He alone gets the credit.
- Salvation. In Hebrews salvation is still ahead. It covers the whole journey through the wilderness — so the escort lasts as long as the journey.