Slices
Prepare
Look back to Thursday’s reading and ask Jesus to make you curious, to stretch your understanding of him a bit more (v 9).
Bible passage
Warning to pay attention
2 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Jesus made fully human
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honour
8 and put everything under their feet.’
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Explore
I’ve always liked Psalm 8, because of the dignity God has given to human beings, just ‘a little lower than the angels … [to be] rulers over the works of your [God’s] hands’ (Psalm 8:5,6). We, like the readers of Hebrews, might wonder why the writer quotes from Psalm 8. In effect, the timeline pattern of 1:1–4 is being repeated.
God commanded Adam and Eve to be stewards of his world (Psalm 8:6–8; Genesis 1:26–28). They failed. The place of humans in creation is one of fallen failure, as the climate crisis and global conflicts constantly remind us. We do not yet see human beings as they were meant to be (v 8). But we will. A glorious hope.
That does not prevent us seeing Jesus. In becoming human, he became lower than the angels. It was this that enabled him to taste death for everyone. Jesus has now gone higher, crowned with glory and honour, seated at God’s right hand, waiting for the end of time when his enemies will be placed beneath his feet (1:13; see Psalm 110:1).
Respond
We focus upon Christ, not angels. Pause to ‘see’ Jesus in all his glory – having tasted death, now crowned, seated beside his Father, reigning and sustaining his world. Maybe you’ll need to breathe in deeply as you tentatively grasp the impossible.
Deeper Bible study
Worship Jesus, now crowned with glory and honour at God’s right hand.
Today we discover why the writer thought it important to emphasise Jesus’ superiority to the angels. The chapter gives three reasons, two of which are in today’s reading. Verses 1–4 are the first warning passage of Hebrews, referring to the message spoken through angels. These words reflect an ancient Jewish tradition that the Law of Moses was mediated by angels.1 If violations of the Law (mediated by angels) received just punishment, how much more serious is it for those who neglect the gospel of salvation declared by the Lord?
The second reason is in verses 5–9, a meditation on Psalm 8:4–6. In the Greek Old Testament (which the writer always quotes) these verses refer to humans being both a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honour, having been given dominion over all God’s handiwork. Psalm 8 is Genesis 1 set to music, celebrating humanity’s dignity as made in the image of God.
Some think that these verses celebrate not the dignity of humanity as made in God’s image, but the exaltation of Jesus,2 but I think the TNIV has it right – the verses are about human dignity (vs 5–8) and Jesus’ exaltation (v 9). The section begins by claiming that dominion over the world to come has been given not to angels but to humans. Jesus enters the picture in verse 9 (the first time his name appears in Hebrews). At present we don’t see humans exercising our God-given dominion, but we do see Jesus, the representative human. He was made a little lower than the angels, suffering death for everyone, and is now exalted above the angels, crowned with glory and honour, where he rules the world to come (v 5) with the power and authority of God.
Adam’s role in the garden was ‘to work it and take care of it’.3 This is our calling, now and in the world to come. How are we doing?
1 See Gal 3:19 2 See, for example, these verses in the ESV translation 3 Gen 2:15
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Job 22,23; Psalm 85
Pray for Scripture Union
Spot the Difference, a holiday for primary age children, starts this weekend. It runs alongside Make the Difference where teenagers can take their first steps into leadership. Pray for leaders Steve and Nicola Clarkson and Ruth Hughes, and that the children and young leaders will feel welcomed and will grow in faith.
