A brief Exposition of Hebrews 1:1-2

Hebrews 1:1-2 (NASB)

God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His son.
I went for a walk as I meditated on this verse carefully thinking through its different parts. I think I am going to give a ten minute sermon on it so I will begin recording my observations and conclusions here.

As I walked some things resounded in my head. First,"God after He spoke" This in itself is wondrous. You have to convince so many people that God even exists but to convince them that He speaks is a whole different step. It is in fact a magnificent miracle that God spoke and that as we shall see God speaks period. When you take texts like "Then God said, 'Let there be light'" (Gen. i vs. iii), and, "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said...'Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?'" (Job 38:1,4) Truly this is a magnificent God. One who speaks and the light of a sun a million times the size of the earth springs into being and shines light in an otherwise lightless existence, who asks us, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" So this God has spoken, but while God speaking is breathtaking, it isn't the main point in this passage. This leads us to ask what the word after is talking about so we move on, "Long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways". If God spoke long ago and this was all we had the 21st century man would have the right to ask the question "So what?" but it isn't all we have, however we will leave this question for a following verse. Let us begin this section with an observation. Observation: God spoke in prophets in many portions and in many ways. Question: What does it mean for God to speak in someone? I paced myself around the building of my school asking that question repeatedly. How did God speak in prophets? The first thing that came to my mind was Jonah (followed by Isaiah). Jonah went to Babylon and a) Pronounced judgement and b)Pronounced Solution. Isaiah a)Proclaimed a broken humanity b) Proclaimed a Glorious Sovereign Lord c) Proclaimed a coming solution to to the broken humanity. So essentially God spoke about Himself, about our falleness, and about how on earth that problem would be solved. If you read the Old Testement God was exceeding quick to speak (many times/portions) and spoke through prophets, dreams, catclysmic signs, and even donkeys (many ways). In summation, for God to speak in someone/thing was to reveal our need and His person in the ways that Heb 1:1 says (prophets, many portions, many ways) and He did it often.

Finally we come to "In these last days, has spoken to us in His Son" I mentioned earlier that it would be absolutely right to ask the question "So what?" if Long ago was all we had. This verse resoundingly smashes that question as it begins by speaking about these last days. Now the writer of Hebrews is writing to Hebrews right? And that was 2000 years ago right? So what in the world does last days mean? It means only this, that as the writer of Hebrews writes he has one thing in mind, What God did and what He is doing now. And while last days does have some significance of a catastrophic kind of last days that should be left for a different post. Suffice it to say that of greatest import here is that last days refers to the days we live in now. It is talking to us as the writer refers to a third generation of Christians when he uses the express word us. We are in the last days before Jesus comes back. We are the us he speaks about. This thought alone will prbably merit an offshoot blog but for now should remain unspoken. Last days quite resoundingly makes us see that this is it, this is the "last word" so to speak. God has spoken and that is it. It doesn't say, "In these last days God has spoken to us in His son and in our relative experience as autonomous individuals." It says, "[God] has spoken to us in His son".

So what does this mean to us? I'll tell you what it means to us. It means that there is no more revelation we need than that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It means that Jesus is God's final and last word. It means that all of those things spoken in prophets and dreams is gone. Jesus stands brightly at the center of the universe as the last spoken word to us. John Piper says this, "There is a silent rebuke in these words and it says 'Why do you look for other words? Is Jesus not enough?'." How many times I have thought, "Oh if God would just speak to me Himself like He did to Abraham then I would be able to obey." or "If God would just send an angel to tell me what to do then I could do it." The writer of Hebrews speaks with absolute finality when he says, "[God] has spoken to us". Its over! We don't need any more words than Jesus words! We are sinning in looking for God to speak to us in dreams and miracles (though I believe He still does these things), in looking for God to speak again. If we have our faith and hope in Jesus Christ than Our chains haven fallen off and our hearts are free, free to worship God through Jesus His final word.

Sadly questions never cease to come to my skeptics brain. But I will seek to squash these when I write again. The question that blasted through my mind as I walked and later sat with my Bible in solitude meditating on these verses was, "So...why do we listen to the Apostles writings if Jesus was God's final spoken word?" This I will not answer now but suffice it to say that Jesus finality does not destroy the validity of the Bible, it backs it.

Taking my Joy in God's Last Word

Ryan