Hebrews 1:1-2a
Hebrews is a great book. It is written to a church in a pluralistic world. These people struggle with the same difficulties we face, and just like us, they’re constantly hearing many different messages about where to find peace and safety. Doesn’t this sound familiar?
Here’s the situation in this small Hebrew church:
“The writer of Hebrews was writing to admonish and encourage his friends, a small group of Jewish Christians who were scared stiff! Some had begun to avoid contact with outsiders. Some had even withdrawn from the worshiping community altogether (10:25). The author feared there might be those who, if arrested, would succumb to the conditions of release—a public denial of Christ (6:6; 10:29). The tiny home-church was asking some hard questions: Did God know what we going on? If so, how could this be happening to them? Did he care? Only God could protect them, but where was he? Why did he not answer? Why the silence of God?”
R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, 19.
So the writer sends this letter. It’s possible that he was actually there to preach this letter to them. Hebrews reads like a sermon. And what a sermon it was! He begins… “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:1, 2a). God has spoken! They haven’t been left alone; they haven’t been left in silence or without direction! He has spoken his final word, his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God Speaks
The first thing to note is that God is a speaking God. He is not a God who remains silent, who leaves his people in the dark about who he is or what he requires of us. Rather, he has spoken.
The text begins with these words… If you have memorized the KJV here, it is much more flowery… “who at sundry times and diverse manner spake in time past.” In fact, the Greek uses five words that begin with the P sound. The author of this book meant this to be somewhat flowery poetic language. God hasn’t simply spoken to us, he has spoken to us with beauty, precision, and purpose.
God has spoken in the past through a variety of different means. Through dreams, through visions dictated through angels to Moses, through the songs of David, by the mouth of a donkey. He spoke to his people through men specially purposed to preach his word—the prophets. This all happened at many different times and in many different ways.
In fact, the Old Testament contains a collection of God speaking in many different ways and at many different times. What we have in front of us in our Old Testament is nothing short of grace. We do not deserve this.
Apart from scripture, we have a “word” from God in the created world. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that we know that there is a God by his natural revelation in creation, that he is worthy of worship, and that we are worthy of judgment.
But it is through the grace of this special revelation in scripture that we know who God is. In Matthew 16, Jesus says to Peter that the only reason he was able to say, “Jesus is Lord” is because the Father revealed it to him. So, in other words, we cannot and will not know God—know him as Savior and Lord—without the grace of his word.
First, note that there is a contrast between the days “long ago” and “these last days.” Hebrews contrasts two different eras of history. One in which the gospel was hidden in types and shadows in the Old Testament and now one in which Jesus has come and spoken fully and finally.
We are in the last days. We have been in the last days since the resurrection of Jesus. The phrase “last days” comes up frequently in scripture, and it refers to the time in which God’s saving promises are fulfilled. We live in the time of prophetic fulfillment. All the way back in Genesis 49:1, when Jacob gathered his sons together to bless them, he said that he was going to tell them what would happen to them in the days to come, literally, in the “last days.”
The author of Hebrews says we are now living in the time of fulfillment, and that has been enacted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
So we should not expect a continuing revelation; we shouldn’t be looking for a new word of prophecy or another prophet to come and give us further information about God and salvation. Rather, he has spoken to us fully and finally in his Son.
The Greek text actually lacks the word “His” in front of “Son”. Literally, it says, “he has spoken to us in Son.” In other words, he is emphasizing the essential nature of the Son. The author is highlighting something special about Jesus. He is not merely pointing to his role as Son, but his very nature as Son. This Son is himself the very word of the Father.
In times past, he spoke through the prophets; that was their role. But in these last days, he has spoken finally through his Son, the second person of the Trinity, the incarnate one born to bear our sins. The Apostle John explains in the prologue to his gospel that Jesus has come to explain the Father, to “make him known” (John 1:18).
Do you see what hope the author is encouraging his readers with? They haven’t been left in the dark in a world of pluralism. Instead, from the fullness of God we have the Son through whom we receive grace and truth.
Do you see the contrast? What the writer is telling us is that the singularity of the Son is the primary key and indicates that God’s former revelation can only be fully understood through the Son. If you want to understand your bible, if you want to know the Father, look to Christ! Go back to what God has said in “many times” and in “many ways” and read them through the lens of Jesus. All of it points to him. He is our blessed hope.
Now, that statement is not going to make you many friends. I was reading a Jewish author recently who was talking about the arrogance of the Christian who would reinterpret the Old Testament through a New Testament lens. But this is exactly the point. We read our Old Testaments looking forward to their fulfillment in Christ, and we read our New Testaments as our key to understanding the Old Testament. This is one book with one central purpose, the exaltation of Christ to the glory of God the Father.
“Were a friend to tell you that he had visited a certain church, and that the preacher ‘spoke in Latin,’ you would have no difficulty in understanding what he meant: ‘spoke in Latin’ would intimate that that particular language marked his utterance. Such is the thought here. ‘In Son’ has reference to that which characterised God’s revelation. The thought of the contrast is that God, who of old had spoken prophetwise, now speaks sonwise.”
A.W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 27.
I like that. Let’s read our bibles “Sonwise.” Let’s understand reality “Sonwise.”
Conclusion
Now, why does the author start by talking about this? Well, as we continue through this book, we will see that it is full of Old Testament quotes, and his point is that the only way we can understand them fully and rightly is if we understand them as pointing to Jesus.
So what does this mean for us? Well, it means that we should read our Bibles the same way. Jesus is God’s final revelation, and all of the word speaks of him. So, if we do not approach the text through the lens of Jesus, we will miss the point. If we miss the point, we may be tempted to think the way people without hope think.
And just getting the point right isn’t what we’re after. We want to grow in the knowledge of Christ so that we’ll be like him. This is for the benefit of our own sanctification. He is the anchor of our souls. We need to hang on to Jesus for dear life. He works through the revelation of himself in his word to hold us fast. So we should pray, “Father, show me Christ as I open the word.”
The answer to the question Jesus asked Peter is what we are after. “Who do you say that I am?”