Hebrews
Lesson 17 June 23, 2005
NKJ Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my
path
We’re in Hebrews 1:4. We are working
our way through the prologue. The prologue sets the stage for everything in
Hebrews. Hebrews 1:4 serves as a conclusion to the
prologue and provides a transition into the next section.
NKJ Hebrews 1:4 having become so much better than the angels, as He
has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
This is a conclusion of the writer’s
opening remarks. He is primarily hitting two ideas. The first idea is the
grammatical subject and predicate of the sentence. Once he mentions the Son, he
goes through a list of seven things that emphasize the superiority of the Son. Jesus
as the Son is not emphasizing His Sonship as the
eternal Son of God; but His Messianic Sonship, which
we also refer to as His Davidic Sonship. That will
come out clearly in this particular verse. He emphasizes His future destiny as
the heir of all things in verse 2. That will be picked up again at the end of
verse 4 that He has now inherited a more excellent name than the angels.
Now we come to this last statement. We
recognize that the writer has been driving to this particular point. We know
that because the rest of the chapter from verse 5 down through verse 14 is
designed to explain or give the basis for this final statement in verse 4. That
is that Jesus Christ has inherited a name that is more excellent than that of
the angels. Now this is a very complex verse grammatically in the Greek because
the writer wants to make sure that we get the point that Jesus Christ is
superior to the angels. That is a point of comparison. It is a point of
excellence. Jesus Christ is superior to the angels. So He is making this
comparison. There is a contrast between Jesus Christ on the one hand and the
angels on the other hand. To do that, he sets up four or five comparatives in
the sentence. It is very unusual. You don’t catch a sense of that in the
English because it would almost lose sense if you translated it literally. The
grammar emphasizes this comparison. He doesn’t want the readers to miss the
point.
I want to begin this by highlighting
the comparatives that are in the verse and then come back and hit the more
substantive words. He begins with the phrase “having become.” Then you have “so
much” in the English. It is the translation of the Greek intensifier tous outo. It
means so great, so much, or so much more. It is linked to the genitive of
comparison of the Greek adjective kreiton. It is
the genitive of comparison. The core meaning has the idea of something that is
more prominent or higher in rank. The idea is that Jesus Christ is superior in
rank to the angels. So tous outo
indicates His superiority and brings in the idea of so much. Then the word
greater indicates higher in rank.
Literal translation: He is so much higher in rank.
Then we have a comparative genitive
of the word diaphorateron.
The teron
ending indicates that it is a comparative. There are very few superlatives in Koine Greek. It means outstanding or more excellent or
superior. This is our third sense of comparison in this – so much, the
better, and now the more excellent. Then you have your comparisons that come in
– than the angels and than they. The point that is made here is that the Son
is superior to the angels. If we were to break this down into a very simple
paraphrase in English, what the writer is saying that the Son is greater than
the angels because God gave Him a higher status than they. It is a very simple
idea. But the grammar that he uses is very complex in order to make sure that
you get the comparative point – that the Son is greater than the angels.
The basic sense of the passage is that the Son is greater than the angels
because God gave Him a greater status than they.
Now let’s go back to the first word
in the verse. I know this is out of order but I wanted to emphasize the
comparatives stuff first so that you would get the point that the writer is
making in the Greek.
The first word in the verse is the
aorist middle participle of ginomai. This is an interesting word to use here. It has
some meanings that aren’t readily apparent to an English reader. In English we
translate this “having become.” We have the word “become”. We also have the word
“is”. We call these existential
verbs. That is a fancy word for something that talks about something that is or
exists, something that happens or something that becomes. The word “is”
emphasizes on-going existence. We go to John 1:1.
NKJ John 1:1 In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
“Was” is the past tense of the Greek
eimi. That is the verb we would use for “is”.
It is the past tense. It indicates ongoing existence in John 1:1.
In contrast you get down to verse 6
and it says there came a man named John.
NKJ John 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The difference is that the logos in John 1:1 is
eimi in verse 6. He continually exists. But in verse 6 you have this shift to
John the Baptist as a man who came into existence. The writer shifts from eimi to ginomai. Ginomai indicates
a change in status, something that comes into existence that wasn’t in
existence before or something that changes its status. It becomes something
that it was not. When we talk about God the Son and we are talking about
change, we have to recognize that it has to be talking about what? His deity or His humanity? In His deity He is the same yesterday,
today and forever. So immediately we have to conclude that this can’t be
discussing a title or qualification that relates to the deity of Christ but
qualities that relate to His humanity. The reason we have to make this point is
because throughout this section there is an emphasis on His Sonship
of Christ.
Vs. 2 He has in these last days spoken to
us by means of His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom
He also made the ages;
In verse 5 we will read a quote from
Ps 2:7.
NKJ Psalm 2:7 "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
Then in the second part of verse 5
we have a quote from II Sam 7:14.
NKJ 2 Samuel 7:14 "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the
rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
As we go through this we see “the
Son” again and again. We are talking about which Sonship? Remember there are the different Sonships of Jesus. He is the Son of Man. He is the Son of
Adam. He is the Son of Mary. He is the Son of God. He is the Son of David. Which
Sonship are we talking about? The other titles all
relate to His humanity but the Son of God relates to His deity. So which is in
focus? A human title. So what the emphasis is if you
want to get beneath the surface of the text (I am not talking about a hidden
allegorical super spiritual meaning. I am talking about being able to read the
passage in light of what happened in the Old Testament.) is
that we are talking about the Davidic Sonship of
Jesus. He is that promised Messiah.
The verse begins by saying that He
has become something that He was not. In His humanity in the First Advent He
was born a human being lower than the angels. We’ll get into this again in
Hebrews 4 or 5. We go back to the Psalm that He was created lower than the
angels then He was elevated above the angels. He is incarnate as a human being.
During the incarnation period that He is on earth, He is lower than the angels
and the angels are ministering to Him in His humanity.
“Become” is the aorist participle
sense of the verb. He sat down because He had become so much better than the
angels. That event took place at the ascension of Christ. He became so much
better than the angels. We studied that last time and showed some
cross-references in Ephesians 1 and some other places. At the ascension Jesus
Christ ascended over the angles. He was put in authority over all the angels
– all the principalities and powers in heaven. This is what is referred
to here.
Literal translation: Having become so much better than the
angels as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
This is the Greek comparative of para autos. It is simply another form of
comparison. You have two places of comparison here. The key idea in the middle
of the text is the verb klyronmeo.
He inherits.
He has by inheritance obtained a
more excellent name than they.
We see a contrast here between verse
2 where Jesus Christ is appointed heir of all things (That inheritance is yet
future.) and the inheritance spoken of in of verse 4. That is an inheritance
that took place at the resurrection when He received a more excellent name than
the angels.
That next phrase “name” is
important. What does it mean to receive a name more excellent that they? The
change of name in the ancient world indicates a change in position, a change of
privilege, and a change in status. The more excellent name, even though the
writer doesn’t indicate it, is that name that applies to Sonship.
We’ll see that as we get into the next verse. So that is the more excellent name.
So if we were to translate this more
literal fashion we would translate it this way.
Literal translation: Having become as much greater than the
angels, as the name which He has inherited, is
superior to theirs.
Notice that you
have one comparison as “much greater” and another comparison as “the name” and
then a final which is “superior to theirs”. It’s the very complicated if you take a strict literal translation. The
point is that at the ascension Jesus Christ is elevated in His humanity to a
position of authority over the angels. He already had that authority in His
deity, as the eternal Son of God.
As the human Son of David, as the human Messiah, He is now elevated to a
position higher than the angels. This concept is loaded with implications not
only for the Church Age today but also for the ultimate working out of God’s
kingdom plan on planet earth.
Having said that, the writer feels
the need to explain this a little bit. He made a simple statement that Jesus
Christ is elevated over the angels. He has a name that is superior to theirs. Then
the writer moves into an explanation in verses 5 that extends down to verse 14.
This is the first major exposition in Hebrews. I pointed out in the beginning
that there would be five expositions and five warning passages. This is the
first major exposition. It’s a development of the factual data related to who Jesus
is in the Old Testament. In fact, as you look at these verses from verse 5 down
through verse 14 you will probably notice in your Bible that they are in small
caps or in some versions italics to indicate that they are taken from the Old
Testament. These are all quotes from the Old Testament. In these ten verses
there are 8 quotations from the Old Testament. Seven of these come out of the Psalms and one comes out of
Isaiah 61. We will go back and look at these verses in their original context.
This is one of the great things about studying Hebrews is that if you don’t
know the Old Testament you’re lost in the study because the writer uses so many
illusions, illustrations, and direct quotes from the Old Testament. So we’ll
take a look at how the writer used the Old Testament in the book of Hebrews. It
is very important to understand the use of the Old Testament in this book.
All of this relates to his use of
the Old Testament. Right away we know that we will have to dig around in the
Old Testament to figure out what is going on.
NKJ Hebrews 1:5 For to
which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have
begotten You"? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?
We begin with the Greek word gar that indicates that you are
explaining the reason behind something you have already stated. He explains why
Jesus is elevated over the angels. He doesn’t do this from an abstract
theological perspective. He is going to do it by going back into the Old
Testament and taking these 8 scriptures and is going to base his argument on
these 8 scriptures and then he weaves them together in a fantastic pattern of
doctrinal development. In some of these cases as we’ll see, if you read those
passages in their original context you wouldn’t necessarily get this
application. He takes them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and weaves
these points together in order to substantiate the superiority of Christ and
His Davidic Messiahship over the angels.
Then he quotes Ps 2:7
NKJ Psalm 2:7 "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
NKJ 2 Samuel 7:14 "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the
rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
Now we need
take some time and to go back and look at what is going on in Ps 2:7 and II
Samuel 7:14.
What we are going to do is a slight
diversion to Daniel 7. We talked about the ascension and session last week by
way of introduction. We are going to Psalm 2 by way of Daniel 7.
There are four key passages in the
Old Testament that New Testament writers go to understand what’s happening in
the ascension and session of Christ. The first is Psalm 68 specifically verse
18 which is quoted and applied by the Apostle Paul in Eph 4:7.
He takes the Old Testament situation
where David is writing a victory psalm as the Ark of the Covenant as the
dwelling place of God in the Old Testament is taken up on Mt. Zion, the temple
mount in Jerusalem. This was the result of the final victories that David had
over the last stronghold of the Canaanites. There are still pockets of
Canaanites around. They will be a problem for several more years. In terms of
major strongholds, the final stronghold in Jerusalem, the
place where the Jebusites dwelt, was defeated by
David. This is described in II Samuel 5. Then in II Samuel 6, they take the Ark of the Covenant
into Jerusalem and have an incredible ceremony. David is dressed like a priest.
He is not a priest. He is not from the tribe of Levi. He’s from the tribe of
Judah. He is not acting in line with the Levitical
priesthood; but with an even more ancient priesthood, that of Melchizedek. What
is happening here is that we are tying elements together from Genesis and as we
will see elements from Revelation. Psalm 68 is a picture of the ascension taken
from the Old Testament as a victorious ascent. As a result of His victory over
sin and over Satan and the angels at the cross, Jesus Christ is elevated to a
position of the authority as indicated by the quote from Psalm 68:18.
Then Daniel 7:14 gives
us information about why He had to ascend in relationship to His future
kingdom. In our review last time I pointed out that the ascension and session
relates to the idea of the kingdom. You have to keep that in focus. Jesus
Christ came offering the kingdom to Israel. John the Baptist’s message was repent for the kingdom was at
hand. The message of the disciples was repent for the kingdom was at hand. What
was about to happen? The kingdom of heaven was going to happen. But it didn’t
happen because they rejected Jesus. It was postponed to the future.
In Daniel 7:14 we see what happens
in the future. He doesn’t get that
kingdom until the future. Psalm 2
tells us what’s going on now and what will again happen in the future. Then we
have Psalm 110:1. Psalm 110:1 is also quoted here in the first chapter of
Hebrews. So Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 are both part of the argument in Hebrews 1. I
want you to see how the author weaves these different passages together in
order to make his case.
We come to Daniel 7. Daniel 7 is
filled with all kinds of images of various beasts who represent the kingdoms of
man. These beasts all come out of the sea. The sea represents the tumultuous
chaos of human history. The first beast is the lion with the wings of an eagle
that represents the empire of Babylon, the Neo-Caledonian Empire. Then you have
the lopsided bear with three ribs in his mouth. That is Media-Persian Empire. Then
you have the four-headed leopard. That is the Greek Empire under Alexander and
then it’s division into the four smaller empires after his death. Then you have the arrival of the last
empire that is represented by a great and horrible beast that has ten horns. That
represents the Roman Empire, ancient Roman Empire, and its future manifestation
as the Revived Roman Empire centered around ten powerful kings or ten nations.
That’s the flow of human history.
In Daniel, God represents the best
and the brightest of human history as bestial. This is not a compliment to human
empire building or nation building. This is an insult. This pictures us as
being bestial. The picture of the beautiful image of gold, silver, and brass in
Daniel 2 is a picture of human empires from man’s perspective. We think it is
something valuable. But God looks at it as something bestial. Man is not what
God intended him to be. Sin has distorted his nature. These bestial kingdoms
are going to be destroyed by the One who comes like the Son of Man.
NKJ Daniel 7:9 " I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His
head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its
wheels a burning fire;
The Ancient of Days is the first
personality that we run into here. This is God the Father. I want you to see if
you recognize anything in this description. Does anything sound familiar?
The white hair is also found in Rev
1. When John is on Patmos and the Lord Jesus Christ appears to him with hair
white like wool.
NKJ Revelation 1:14 His head and hair were
white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
Burning fire is the Judgment Seat of
Heaven, the Supreme Court of Heaven.
NKJ Daniel 7:10 A fiery stream issued And
came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
We have a parallel passage and
description in Revelation 4 and 5.
Let’s stop and pull this altogether. This is one of those great global lessons where you tie a
lot of threads together. In
Revelation 4 and 5 you see a picture of the throne room of God. Around the
throne room of God you have the living beasts, the angels, and the 24 elders. John
appears and is caught up into the third heaven. He is before the throne of God
and he looks around and sees the angels coming out. The angels are bemoaning
the fact that they have a scroll or title deed that written on the inside and on
the outside. It is sealed. There were 7 seals on this document. That was
standard practice in the legal practice of the Roman world. They would take the
title deed that had private information that was not to be observed on the
inside and then the outside would have public information that people could
read. It was public and available to everyone. They would seal it up with seven
seals. They looked for someone who could open the seven seals. Opening the
seven seals is indicative of taking ownership of what is in the scroll. The
scroll contains the title to planet earth and to royalty and leadership over
the human race. That’s our picture. We see an element of that here in Daniel
7.
NKJ Daniel 7:10 A fiery stream issued And
came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And
the books were opened.
NKJ Daniel 7:13 " I was watching in the night visions, And
behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to
Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That
all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
The same imagery is picked up in
Revelation 1. Here we have a special term “One like the Son of Man”. He is not
a beast like these other kingdoms. He is a human. He represents pure and true
humanity. This is a title that the Lord Jesus Christ picks up and uses some 70
times in the gospels to refer to Himself. The only
place it’s used before the gospels is this passage. Jesus Christ constantly
identifies Himself with this figure. This is the Messiah.
He is presented before the throne of
God. It is at this point in time that is still in the future that He receives dominion,
glory, and a kingdom. He is given ownership of the planet earth.
What did we learn from Daniel 7? First
of all, that the goal is that every nation serves Him
in the kingdom. It is not simply a Jewish kingdom. That was part of the problem
that the Jews had when Jesus came. They thought that the kingdom was only going
to be made up of Jews. But what we see from Daniel 7 is that it is comprised of
every tribe of every nation. It expands the concept of the kingdom.
Secondly, we see from the phrase “to
Him was given” that at this particular point in time the Messiah is given the
kingdom. Five minutes before that He doesn’t have the kingdom. There is no
kingdom. Five years before that He doesn’t have the kingdom. There is no
kingdom. Five centuries before that He doesn’t have the kingdom. The point is
that the giving of the kingdom occurs right before He comes back at the Second
Coming. He comes to destroy all of the human nations. That occurs at the end of
the tribulation period. That means that right now there is no kingdom. We are
not in a form of the kingdom. We are not living in a spiritualized form of the
kingdom. We can’t bring in the kingdom. That is what the postmillennialists want
to do. The kingdom doesn’t happen until the God the Father gives it to the
Son.
NKJ Daniel 7:18 'But the saints of the Most High shall receive the
kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.'
Saints is a term that is not restricted
to just Jews from the Old Testament or Church Age believers. It simply means
holy ones or believers. It can be an umbrella term that encompasses both Old
Testament saints and New Testament Church Age believers.
That is what happens at the end of the
tribulation period. There is a period prior to that when there is no kingdom. And
the Son doesn’t receive the kingdom. That’s what is happening in Psalm 2. What
we are getting out of Daniel 7 is the recognition that there is a point in the
future that the Son of Man, a title that’s related to His Son of David title,
that He is given the kingdom. That is at some future time.
NKJ Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations rage, And
the people plot a vain thing?
Psalm 2 is a royal Messianic Psalm. In
the first three verses, we get a picture of the nations on the earth shaking
their fists in rage at God in a conspiracy and a coalition to prevent the
coming of the Millennial Kingdom or the Messiah. It is a picture of all
humanity that has aligned themselves together in order
to prevent the inauguration of the Millennial Kingdom.
The picture you see here is that
everybody is franticly trying to come up with some plan or strategy in order to
prevent the Messiah from coming. All of humanity is united against Him.
NKJ Psalm 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers
take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us break
Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."
This is all the nations, not just the
Revived Roman Empire. The kings of the east, the kings of the south, the
kings of the north, and all of the kings of the earth all take their stand. Where
does that ultimately lead to? Armageddon,
that great plain of Esduron in Israel.
The first two lines are in
synonymous parallelism. The focus
of their conspiracy is the Lord.
Who’s the Lord here? The
Lord is God the Father. His
Anointed is the Messiah. All the
rulers take their stand against God the Father and God the Son who is the
Messiah.
Now this is what the rulers of the earth say.
NKJ Psalm 2:3 "Let us break Their
bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."
Fallen man looks on God’s authority
as nothing more than negative restrictions. God doesn’t want us to be all that
we can be. God wants to destroy
all of our party time. He does not want us to have any fun. All of His mandates
and all of His laws are nothing more than fetters, chains, and bonds. These are
the words of the rebellious kings of the earth.
This is God’s response. He laughs at
them in derision. They are nothing more than ants trying to lead a rebellion
against Him. He sits in the heavens and laughs.
NKJ Psalm 2:4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision.
NKJ Psalm 2:5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress
them in His deep displeasure:
He is the Father. The wrath of God
is the outworking of His justice.
Then is a temporal adverb. When does
this take place? It takes place after they rebel. It is after they come
together in a coalition. Has this happened in history? No, it hasn’t. The
events of verse 5 and following don’t take place until after you have this
worldwide coalition in rebellion against God.
NKJ Psalm 2:6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."
God the Father speaks. In Psalm 2
you have to pay attention to who is speaking or you will get confused.
Who is the king? The king is the
Messiah.
Where does the king come from? The king that is going to be on Mt. Zion? This is the same
Mt Zion in Psalm 68:18 where the ark was taken up on the mountain. The king
goes back to the Davidic Covenant. The Hebrew word for install is nasak means to
set install or to inaugurate a leader.
It implies that until He puts the king on planet earth, on the mountain;
He is not the king. He is not
inaugurated yet. We are not in some spiritual form of the kingdom. There is no
a king yet. It is not until God installs or inaugurates the Lord Jesus Christ
on Zion that we have a king and a kingdom. It all goes back to understanding
the Abrahamic Covenant that we have gone over many
times. There are three key ideas.
II Samuel 7:14 is quoted in the
second part of Hebrews 1:5. The first part of Hebrews 1:5 is Psalm 2:7. The
writer of Hebrews pulls this verse out of Psalm 2:7 and another verse out of II
Samuel 7:14 and connects them to make sure that we understand that the Son who
is installed on Mt. Zion in Ps 2:5 is the Davidic Sonship,
the Messianic Sonship that is explained in II Samuel
7. The third dimension is the Abrahamic Covenant is the New Covenant that is not part of
our study.
NKJ 2 Samuel 7:12 " When your days are fulfilled and you rest with
your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body,
and I will establish his kingdom. 13 "He shall build a house
for My name, and I will establish the throne of his
kingdom forever.
Here we have the Davidic Covenant. There
is the same terminology of seed that is in the Abrahamic
Covenant.
If you are going to establish
somebody’s throne forever, what do you have to have? Either you have to have an ongoing succession of father to
son to grandson and on and on that goes on for all eternity or a line end that
ends with someone who is eternal. Embedded here is the idea that the king has a
divine dimension. He is going to be eternal. Because He is from the line of
David He has a human aspect. So embedded here if you really think about it is
the implication of a God-man. The perfect ideal king for
Israel is not just a human, He has to be divine.
He can’t be human because the human race is fallen. There has to be a unity of
humanity and deity.
NKJ 2 Samuel 7:14 "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the
rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. 15 "But My
mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it
from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
That’s the phrase that is picked up
and quoted in Heb 2:5b.
There is a near fulfillment in
relationship to Solomon. It applied to Solomon and the Davidic kings. It was
not applied to the ultimate figure, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s go back to Psalm 2.
NKJ Psalm 2:7 "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
Who is speaking here? The Lord is
God the Father. The “I” is the Son. The Son is being installed on Mt. Zion.
The word “begotten” is in an interesting
form in the Hebrew. The vowel points were added later by the Masorites. If you can look at the consonants it
could be either a qal stem or a hiphel. The reason that is important is that
the hiphel stem is a causative or declarative stem. That
would shift the meaning from simply saying, “Today I have begotten you” to the
idea that “today I declare that you are my begotten one”. It is a declaration.
The Lord Jesus Christ makes a
statement at the time that He is installed on the mountain. He looks back to an
earlier time when a decree was made. At that future date, at the Second Coming,
He will tell us about a decree that was made earlier. This word decree is an
interesting little word. It’s the
Hebrew word is choq.
It refers to a written decree, something that was engraved, usually a statute
or a law or some kind of legal document. It was used in many contexts to indicate
a written title deed. For example in Genesis 47:22 it refers to certain portion
of the land allotted or apportioned to Joseph. Think about
this a minute. The writer of Psalm 2 under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit chooses a word that has a specific concept of relating to something
allotted or apportioned.
NKJ Psalm 2:8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your
inheritance, And the ends of the earth for
Your possession.
What is He receiving when He is
receiving all of that? He is receiving a title deed.
Remember what I said a little while
ago? I said that there is an allusion in Daniel 7. The imagery is similar to
Rev 4 and 5 in the throne room of God. In the throne room of God, what is
happening? The angels are looking for someone to open that scroll. They are
desperate to find someone worthy to open the scroll. They are so desperate. The
scene is so intense that it says that John who has been taken to heaven bursts
into tears. He is weeping. It is a strong Greek word for weeping. He isn’t
sitting up there crying a little bit. He is bawling. He is at his wits end
because he realizes that no one is worthy to take the scroll. Then comes in the
Lamb in one of the most dramatic scenes in the Scripture. The Lamb steps
forward and takes the scroll and starts to cut the seals. The seals are the
first seven seal judgments in Revelation. It pictures that all of the Great
Tribulation is the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of God being poured out on
the earth to prepare the earth for His final coming to take His rightful place
as the Davidic son as the Messianic heir who will take possession of the earth.
This is why He has been elevated to such a position.
When you think about all of this,
the picture that you have in your head is a picture of the glories of the Lord
Jesus Christ that goes far beyond anything most Christians think about in terms
of who Jesus is. This is a picture of a mighty glorious ruler who comes back to
the earth and will take possession away from the kings of the earth through an
entire series of horrendous judgments that take place in the Great Tribulation.
That’s why we’re not going to be here. He is not going to take that wrath out
on the bride. We’re the bride of Christ. You don’t
beat up the bride before you get married. You purify the bride. The bride will
be removed and then He will come back.
Next time we will go over Psalm 2:7
again to make sure that we understand its implications and tie it into II
Samuel. Then we will move on into the rest of Hebrews 1. The main point here
talks about the new position of Christ over the angels. Hebrews 1:5-6 develop that whole theme of His current position. You have
to have a position before you have power.
Then from verse 7 down through the end of the chapter is the development of His authority and His power. That is what the rest of the chapter is all about – the position of Christ over the angels and His power or authority. Then when we get to chapter 2 it develops the implications of this and why it needs to radically change what you think about your spiritual life.