045 - The Scepter

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, you've heard people talk about angels a lot, right? Yeah, why are we so fascinated with angels? Oh, they're cool. They do interesting things in the Bible.

And they show up on everything from greeting cards to refrigerator magnets, right? So today we're going to look at angels in Hebrews, right? Well, yes, but really we're going to look at angels in comparison to the Son of God.

Yeah, much better study. Not angels today, but Jesus on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And we are here at our dining room table, as we always are, to talk with you about the Scriptures.

Got my cup. We are so excited about entering this adventure into Hebrews. And we just barely scratched the surface on the introduction last week.

This is going to be a fun exploration. This writer wastes no time getting right into the guts of who is this Jesus. Who is Jesus. And kind of at the end of that argument and verses one to four was, you know, his name is more superior than any name ever given to an angel. He himself is superior to angels. So this segment that we're going to talk about today really is all about that comparison.

Yeah, yeah. We think that the people he's writing to are kind of hung up on angels. That would be a natural thing to do because Jesus' reputation for doing miracles, bringing people back from the dead, I mean doing big things from a science perspective, would be something during that time they'd say, well, you know, angels can do that, clearly, from the Old Testament, so maybe he's some kind of angel. So we think that that was probably, you know, we talked about last time how we make the idea of Jesus too small. Maybe he's an angel.

Oh, no, he's much bigger than that. And we know that there were particular Jewish parties in the first century who were so enamored with angels that they had created a whole kind of hierarchy of angels in their understanding. And so the writer here is saying, you know, we're going to dash that right at the start.

Yeah, we're just going to put the angels in their place. They are another order of being entirely than the Son. So we're going to pick up in chapter one, starting at verse five, and what he's going to do is parade in front of us a list of what we call uncontested passages about the Messiah. The Messiah, yeah.

So he can drop these and people go, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. So this is how we know he had a Hebrew, a Jewish audience who's conversant on the Old Testament. He just drops these things out and shows us the comparison between angels and Jesus to prove the point.

He's much bigger. And a Jewish audience also implicitly understood the distinction of a son as opposed to a servant. Yeah, exactly.

And so that kind of is what he's going to drive at here, too. Very big deal. And we might have to talk that even more as we go on because that idea of God's only Son, that has a lot of cultural stuff that we don't share today.

So how do you want to get into it? Do you want to start reading? Well, that's actually where the writer starts, right?

He does, I know. Let's just start reading in verse five. Okay.

And you stop me when you think we've got enough to chew on for a minute. Just do five. Okay, so verse five. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I've begotten you. Or again, I will be a father to him and he shall be to me a son.

Yes. Which angel did God ever say that to? Yeah, and when we talk about father and son, we get all messed up about trying to interpret that too literally or too strangely. But from a Jewish idea, an animal has an offspring of the same kind. And so this kind idea comes up. So the first place you can start with the father-son thing is that when you talk about fathers and sons, the son is of the same kind as the father. That's a really common old Hebrew idea. So here we understand that in some level, and we'll go into this much more deeply, in some level, the son isn't really that separate from the father. He is the same kind as the father.

That's a really strong idea. But there's more than that when we talk about the son. So, yeah, I'm just still thinking about that. I'm thinking about John calling him the only begotten. And actually I think that term is going to come up here in Hebrews at some point. Yeah, John uses it a lot. In fact, you remember that Nicodemus meeting?

He mentions it there. He mentions in John 3.16, later in John 3.18, the only son, the only begotten. In fact, you can only have one firstborn son after that. So the idea is the uniqueness of who he is. So you put together the idea that here's someone who is of the same kind as the father and a unique one in that sense as well. So we jumped into this so suddenly we probably need to remember that at the end of verse 4, the writer of Hebrews had said, he has become as much better than the angels that he's inherited a more excellent name than they. So the name in question here is son as opposed to messenger or servant.

Right. And there's a lot tied up in that as well because in the first century and even before that, firstborn sons had the name of the father and they could actually legally transact business for the father in his name. And it was understood that everything that belonged to the father would come to that firstborn son. And so he, if you saw the son, dealt with the son, you were dealing with the father. And he not only inherited the name of the father, he actually represented the name of the father as though he were the father. Okay, so the writer of Hebrews here is saying, and he's referencing Old Testament Psalms and his promise to David when he says, he never said to anyone other than the son, you're my son.

Never said that to an angel. That's right, that's a huge deal. In fact, that comes out of Psalm 2. And if you're keeping a list here, there's some very prominent, I called them uncontested passages about the Messiah. Man, Psalm 2 is a huge one. Right.

It's huge. It's legendary in Jewish lore. If you want to understand who the Messiah is, go to Psalm 2. Yeah, so go back and read Psalm 2. Every time you come in this passage today to an Old Testament quotation, once you've understood where it fits in the New Testament writer's thought, then go back and look it up.

Read the whole thing, yeah. Because the writer here is just using fragments out of these Psalms or the prophets, assuming that his readers understood what the whole Psalm was about. And so he's just referencing the part that wants to pique their attention, and then he's assuming that they, oh, then they'll put two and two together, and they'll know what the rest of the Psalm said. So we need to practice that, because we're not as steeped in this Old Testament literature as they were. Right. So here we have this unique relationship, Jesus' son to the Father.

That's not really an unusual idea. That's not a New Testament idea. You know, the Son of God. So that's just the start about how we were talking something about who Jesus is that's far superior than the angels. God never called them his son.

Okay, and then he goes on in verse 6 and says, then again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, well, there he is, the son. He says, let all God's angels worship him. Worship him. But of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

Well, there's a pretty big difference in kind right there, right? If the angels are worshiping him, yeah. The firstborn is to be worshiped by the others, the angels, the messengers. And God is quite adamant in the Old Testament that you shall worship no one but himself.

Only himself. So are we seeing here two Gods being involved? Because if you have an angel worship a false god, no, they're still worshiping God himself when they worship the son.

That's a huge point that he's making right here, huge. So Jesus is indeed preeminent and superior over all creation, all beings that God has created. In fact, they worship him just in the same way as they worship God. And in fact, not in place of, but they're worshiping God. Well, and he likens the angels to wind and fire.

Yeah, what's that all about? So they're my messengers, they do my bidding, they carry my intentions. But they do not represent my personhood.

Right, right. And when he calls them ministers, I've always been fascinated by this word. This word ministers here means literally people and workers. They're people workers.

That's exactly what the word means. So they serve. So they're servants. They're servants for the benefit of the people that they go to. And it'll make it even more clear in a second here.

So that's much different than who Jesus as the son is and as the creator. The angels are people workers and they have a message. Angel in its root means messenger. So messengers, they have a message. And winds, it's the word pneuma, it's exactly the same thing. They're blowing. They're breathing. You can't see them just like the air.

So there are a broadcast presence of messengers to people for their benefit. So that's so much different than who Jesus himself is. So he just starts right there. Well, how about go to verse 8. Well, but of the son, he says, now listen to this.

He's talking of the son. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. So the son apparently has a kingdom.

Yeah, how about that? And a scepter, he reigns. That's the permission to reign, the scepter.

Forever and ever. So those are characteristics that to a Jewish reader they would only liken to God himself. Exactly. God is the only one who can rule over Israel or over mankind.

Yeah, exactly. And what's interesting is that this is a very good king in verse 9. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. So we pine away for rulers and leaders and kings who are all about good and against bad.

We complain about corruption and government and stuff like that. Here's a king who is so pure that he loves righteousness and hates wickedness. And, you know, you should stand up and cheer and say, yeah, well, finally, finally someone who's all about good and not about doing bad and takes rule about that. Well, an anointed by God to do that. So the anointed one, that picture is being designated by God and his Holy Spirit being given and identifying this identifying fragrance of carrying out the work of God. And so, you know, when the psalmist says, you know, God, your God has anointed you, well, that actually is, that reference is picked up in Isaiah 61 when Isaiah says the Lord God has anointed me. Well, Jesus read that passage aloud in the synagogue in Nazareth. He read in Luke 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. It's verbatim from Isaiah 61. And Luke tells us he was reading from the Isaiah scroll.

Yeah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

Now, he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, looking in their eyeballs, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Look out. So he read them this passage. Yeah.

And then looked him in the eyeball and said, you're looking at him. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. Yeah.

Very clear. Well, what's astonishing about that is, you know, people say he never claimed to be God or God's anointed. Well, well, yes, he did.

And their response was that they hustled him out of the synagogue and out to the edge of the cliff because they were going to throw him over for blasphemy. Right? Yeah.

It didn't go down well, but he made the proclamation right at the beginning. But here's the writer of Hebrews quoting that same passage. Yeah. Yeah.

Jesus says, I'm the guy. I've always liked the picture, too, the oil of gladness. When you think about anointing, their process when someone was chosen to do something, like when they chose little David to become the king later on, you'd pour oil in their head.

That was the... It smells good. It smells good. It's a ritual.

Right. And as that oil came down your head, you were anointed. You were chosen that way, you know. But if you're chosen as a bad king, it would be the oil of oppression. If you're chosen as a good king, it would be oil of gladness. You're glad that this person has been chosen to rule over you. So that's why I like the oil of gladness because it goes with the anointing thing. So that's the effect of the anointing on the people who witnessed the ministry or the servanthood of this one, this designated one.

We are glad he's been chosen to be king because he's all about righteousness and he hates, hates, hates, hates wickedness. Yes, finally. So that's actually very good news. So much that he's done something about it. Exactly. Yeah. This is the kind of king that you want. And Isaiah says, you know, this is the king that we've been waiting for. Yeah. Well, let's push on. Oh my goodness.

He's ripping them off here. Verse 10. So we're still comparing the sons with angels.

So verse 10 says, and in his quoting here, another Psalm, you Lord laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe. You'll roll them up like a garment.

They'll be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end. So we're back to the creation thing. Yeah, but let me press on to finish the thought about the angels. To which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? So angels don't reign over us.

They serve. The son is our king. He's the one that we worship. The angels are servants.

They worship him too. Yep. Yep.

That's exactly right. So here in a compressed form, he already mentioned this in the previous, in the first four verses. You've got tightly connected here, his role as creator and the one who holds it together. His role as the ruler, the right hand man in that sense, you know, that all the enemies will be a footstool for him and the fact that that is so far superior to the fact that angels, although we like them, really are just people workers for the benefit of those who are going to inherit salvation.

So quite a huge distinction, huge distinction. And so he quotes right here, it's good to know about Psalm 102 because Psalm 102 is another one you might want to go back and look at because he mentions it a couple times right here. But I like the fact that this king, this one who came and made the place, he will always exist even though the natural world he created will wear out like a garment. Wear out like a garment.

That phrase, that idea shows up a number of times in the scriptures. So it's coming to a planned end. Right. Yeah.

It just, it's wearing down through use. Yep. It will come to a planned end, but his rule and reign will never stop.

Will never end. How about that? He is unchanging. Right. Indeed the writer of Hebrews is going to come back to that idea at the very end of the letter.

It does. A little fragment of a verse that you all know when he says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yeah, that's right. So we have Jesus here who isn't just creator.

That's not an instant just. I mean he's creator. But he's a creator who preceded the natural creation and he will come after the natural creation and he will reign and rule on both sides and it doesn't stop in nature.

And there's something hinted in this which you'll call more explicitly later about the fact that we have life expectations outside of this universe wearing out like a garment. He will continue to be king and ruler in our hearts as well. So there's something that goes far beyond what we can see and touch that he's made that preserves the fact that he indeed is our king and we are his subjects.

So he sits at the right hand until he makes your enemies a footstool for your feet. That comes also from another famous psalm, comes from Psalm 110. That psalm of David, Jesus used in an argument with the Pharisees. Yeah, Psalm 110 is a very famous messianic psalm and they were talking about it greatly in the time of Jesus because it starts, you know, the Lord said to my Lord, said at my right hand, well, the question was, who is David talking about? Yeah, if the Lord says to my Lord, the Lord Yahweh says to my master, well, who is the master? The Lord of David. Well, God was, oh, well, so Jesus even turned that on its head and turned it around to the crowd. And both, both Matthew and Luke record when he says to the crowd, you know, so what do you say? Because the Psalm says this, let's talk about the scriptures. He has a great debate with them right there because they're stuck. I mean, the logic is, is just, it's, you can't escape the logic. So you can find that conversation in Luke 20, 41 to 44 and Matthew 22, 41 to 46.

I would encourage you to look those up. Yeah. Take it, take a look at it as they use Psalm 110 as a debate about who is the real Messiah. And Jesus himself opens the question and says, let's, let's read this psalm together and talk about who is David talking about? Who is David talking about? David the King, the type of the Christ who was to come.

Who was he talking about? And I think it's instructive at this point that here when he's finishing in verse 13, his list of, you know, think about this, think about this, you know, these passages, these are uncontested. He's that one, which is, which is such a zinger when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. It's such a paradigm shifter for the Pharisees that this is what the author of Hebrews finishes with is like, okay, got all that stuff. Now Psalm 110, what do you have to say about that? And that's his closing kind of salvo in this entire thing. Well, he's going to continue to kind of talk about the word that came through angels in the coming chapter. But this is the kind of the end of the big comparison between the sun and the ministering spirits.

Yeah. And a smattering of these very important, very well known passages. And you know, I would really encourage you to go check out Psalm 110 too. It figures in the top five of the best known messianic passages in the Old Testament, talking about who this Messiah is because the prophets throughout the entire Old Testament talked a lot about this one who is coming, who would be king in a way that everyone wanted. So it really wasn't oil of gladness.

We really want this guy to be there, but it's not hints, but it's comments that if you collect them all together, you go, well, who is this guy and when is he coming? And there's a couple of real hotspots and Psalm 110 is one of those hotspots. And Psalm 2.

You put Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 side by side and just begin to make a list for yourself. How might these psalms be talking about Jesus as the anointed king? And the one Jesus brings up, Isaiah 61, I mean read all of Isaiah 61, it's a mind blower. Read the first three or four verses completely.

This is what Jesus is doing, this is who he is, I mean it's astonishing. And for those who would want righteousness and someone who would hate wickedness, you want this guy that's mentioned in Isaiah 61 and Jesus says, well, here I am. So another one I might point out, it was referenced here I think once or twice with Psalm 45.

Psalm 45 is really, really great because it talks about the mighty one. So it implies so much about his rule and his justice and the fact that he'll actually rule in righteousness. He rules for the purposes of good and not just naked power but for good itself. Because it's not good, I mean it's not good news for us if he is this sovereign, eternal king but he's not good.

Right that would be a bad deal. That's a despot. That's not a king that you want. That would be the oil of oppression. So the oil of gladness is, yeah we want this guy. He is actually pro-goodness and anti-wickedness, yay finally.

We're gonna have some justice. So justice is strongly implied in all of that and Psalm 45 is one about the mighty one who will bring justice. His rule is all about righteousness which is a really pretty good deal.

So as you are studying this on your own, make a list, compare what kind of statements are made about the sun and what kind of statements are made about angels and what is the difference? How is he superior to the angels? The firstborn as opposed to a ministering messenger or a servant. To be worshiped as opposed to being a worshiper. To be a king, a righteous king as opposed to just a wind that does someone's bidding. A servant for the people.

So that's helpful. What is the writer saying about the sun? And begin to put those things in your own words and then always ask the question, so what are the implications of that for me? Where is this sun in my understanding, in my heart?

Do I recognize these things about him? And I think to the degree we mentioned this before that we diminish the size of who Jesus is. We tend to diminish conveniently for us our need for response to who he is. But come on, if he started this whole ball rolling, if he created everything, if he's holding the thing together which means there's a purpose in store here and at the end of it it's all going to be wrapped up, wear out like a garment and there's something after that. I mean there's a large purposeful plan going forward in creation that he is at the center of.

He's the one who did it. And since he inherits it all, it's all going back to him. That's a gigantic thing because you and I are all creatures in that creation. So it begs the question, if he did this for a purpose, if there's something he has in mind, this is not accidental and we're part of that, we need to ask ourselves in relation to that creator who himself is actively holding us together, I wonder what my response has to be to that because I can't avoid who Jesus is because he made the whole place. And there is a day coming when all that we can see, touch and feel is going to be rolled up like a garment. Revelation gives us that picture when the sky is rolled up and the stars fall and it's almost a picture of the scenery being cleared from the stage and suddenly when all the scenery is rolled up and taken away, we're standing face to face with the one who created it and holds it all together. And it's not a place where there's nothing, it's a place where everything is God himself.

So it'll be interesting. This is how you make Jesus big when you realize that he's before and after all creation. Like there's a purpose throughout the middle of it too and that's where we are right now. And actually it occurs to me now, later on in the book, the writer of Hebrews is going to say, well it's appointed to men to die once and then comes judgment when for you the earth is rolled up and cast away like a garment, when your body is rolled up and cast away like a garment, then you're eyeball to eyeball with the one who judges righteously. So let Jesus be as big as the writer's telling you he is and don't let your own self voice argue yourself down that Jesus is smaller than you so you don't really have to make any decisions about him. You can even actually use this passage that we've talked about today and especially the one from last week in your personal worship. Just take these phrases one at a time and linger on them and speak them back to the Lord in prayer and see how the Spirit works in you as you are meditating on who is this son. And can he be far away when in fact he's actively holding everything together? Means he's holding not just the macro things together, he's holding the micro things, the things in me, my heart, my lungs, my blood cells. So there is a nearness of this creator in us who's like Paul said up in Athens, he made us so that we might grope around in the dark and find him. But he's not far from any of us and that's exactly what he's saying in so many ways here.

I'll give you one actually homework assignment if you want to do. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 21 about a vineyard owner who left and sent his messengers back and finally sent his son. You might take a look at that because that whole parable is mentioned in so many ways here. It's in Matthew 21 so just go take a look and see if you see the parallels there.

Got a closing comment? Well I was just thinking about how Paul in the letter to Colossians says, don't let anybody defraud you by delighting in the worship of angels. Exactly. Because we have one who is so much better than an angel. We have the only begotten firstborn son of God himself.

The king of kings whose name is above all names and we worship him. The only thing he has in common with angels is they're supernatural. But after that there's a huge gulf between the two.

Huge gulf. They're his creation. Worship him. So we're glad you're with us. Join us next week and we'll keep pushing forward. This is exciting. Oh we love Hebrews. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we'll see you next week. Bye-bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its