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Wednesday 2 December 2009

Hebrews 1:7-9

The quote in verse 7 comes from Psalm 104. This Psalm is all about God and His plans, and angels are merely the agents of His purpose. The people needed to have a right perspective on angels. Yes they exist, and yes they are important, but they are servants of God. Christ is the one we should worship. In Revelation the angel tells John that he is only a servant and must not be worshipped.

In contrast, he then quotes from Psalm 45. In the quote these is an ambiguity between God and the king, but this is fitting, for Jesus is both fully human and fully God. Jesus is the centre of it all, and He is exalted by the Father. The purpose of God’s plans is to glorify the Son, not angels.

We may find some of these quotes a little frustrating, for we would like a nice neat logical proof that Jesus is the Son of God, but the quotes do not provide that to our Western ears. However, to Jewish ears the quotes would be conclusive.

Many of these quotes had an immediate partial fulfilment, eg either in David or Solomon, and then their complete fulfilment in Christ. We were made in the image of God, but sin corrupted that image. Jesus showed us the man we were always meant to be, and that, in Him, we will become. So the quotes follow a pattern. We can see a glimmer of fulfilment in men, but we see the total fulfilment in Christ.

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