Life in a universe with Jesus at its center
Background: Hebrews 1 begins by showing that the same law (hebr. Torah) which foretold the coming of Messiah also predicted that He will supersede this law (v4). After these prophecies have been fulfilled, we must pay even more attention to “what we have heard“, 2:1, cf 3:14; i.e. to not confound the gospel with the law. Since only Jesus can sanctify us (2:11), expecting that the law can do it is the same unbelief that wanted Messiah dead in the first place, and in the name of defending the law (6:6).
Warm-up: Are you fascinated by space research – why or why not?
Read: Heb 1:1-2:4
1) What can and what cannot be known?
- How can scientists know anything about the universe we live in?
- What does it mean to “know”?
- What can man know about God? cf Ecc 3:11; Ro 1:19-20 *
2) Read vv1-3. Hebrews starts by declaring that God made himself known by speaking: How?
- v2: To whom?
- The writer did not say “to all” => Who is included in the “us”? Only an inner circle of himself and the apostles? Or all “believers”? Only the Jews? Or all mankind?
3) He spoke “in many ways” “to our fathers” “by the prophets”: What is prophecy?
[Collect all opinions; depending on interest, consider studying the topic seperately]
- Do you believe that God literally inspired the writing of the Bible? cf 1Pet 1:9-12 How did the Holy Spirit speak to the writer of Hebrews and his readers, Heb 3:7? =>
- Did the author think of an audible voice that you may fail to even notice? Why not?
- Hint: What did they hear when this letter was read to them? cf Heb 4:12
- Why such emphasis on “Today when you hear…”?
- vv2-3: What is unique about the person and the sayings of Jesus?
- v3 states that Jesus fully represents God: Does it unpack/explain how?
- v3b: What did Jesus do that only God himself can do? cf Lk 5:21
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A god who died as the only acceptable atonement for our sins is only preached by the Bible. What do other religions offer for purification instead? cf e.g. Ecc 5:1
- Why do people find their own sacrifices so much more worthy?
4) vv5-13 quote from seven Psalms**: How do they prove that Messiah must be superior to ‘angels’?
- Why could this be important?
- v4 mentions ‘ministrations of angels’ : Why did some consider them to be superior to the gospel?
- Do v2 and/or Gal 3:19 speak of the moral law (ten commandments), or only of ‘ceremonial‘ laws? cf Gal 4:24 ***
5) While Ex 20 and Gal 3:19 only mention Moses, additional intermediaries on Mount Sinai are described as angels in Acts 7:38 and Acts 7:53. Where did this notion come from?
- Read cf Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7 “…all you gods (Hebr. elohim)”. By contrast, Heb 1:6 quotes Ps 97:7 as: Let all ANGELS (elohim) worship God! [Moses received the law from Elohim. The NT (and Josephus) testify that the Jews understood this as a reference to angelic mediators because the name of God “Elohim” was translated as “angels”]
6) Read again 2:1-4. What messages does the author compare to each other, and to what end?
- Already the OT Law promised that Messiah will come to be worshiped as God, and even by the angels. What conclusion does Heb 2:1 draw as the logically necessary consequence?
- If we reject or ignore that sanctification which truly can save is by faith alone, what will logically be left as the only alternative?
- Why are these ways mutually exclusive?
- Why is this such a big issue that the entire book of Hebrews presses it as its main point? cf Ro 11:6 [“…if by grace, then (i.e. only then) it is no longer by works”]
7) Personal and application
- Do you think it matters what we believe about prophetic revelation and where to find it? Why?
- If you doubt that there is such a thing as biblical prophecy, how do you explain that the OT is full of claims about the future, and of predictions about a Messiah, and about what he will reveal of God?
- How many alternative ways to heaven do you think this chapter is talking about: Only one, or two, or many? What distinguishes the way of the gospel from ANY other way?
- What practical application of chapter 1 is the author calling for in Heb 2:1? How do you put that into practice ‘to pay much closer attention to what we have heard’?
* Man cannot find out by himself the ‘work of God’; God himself must reveal it, or else it remains unknowable, Ecc 5:1; 1Cor 2:9
** Ps 2:7; 89:27; 97:7; 104:4; 45:6-7; 102:25-27; 110:1
***The law mentioned in Gal 4:24 was issued on Mount Sinai, suggesting that it ia about the Decalogue. In good agreement, Josephus, Jewish priest and historian in the 1st century, wrote: “We have learned the noblest of our doctrines and the holiest of our laws from the ANGELS sent by God.” (Antiquities XV:136, or XV,5:3)]
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