Heb 2

Prioritizing Jesus – why and how?

Warm-up: Do you like river rafting or swimming in a river with a strong current? Why (not)?

Read: Hebrews 2

Context: In the preceding chapter (Heb 1), the author said that God spoke in various ways, but that in these last days he spoke through Jesus by whom he made ‘purification for sins’, Heb 1:3. This begged the question of why the sacrifices prescribed by Moses should not suffice for purification, and how this new faith can be true if the Jewish leadership rejected it as contradicting the law of Moses. In other words, how could God’s earlier covenant with Israel in the Mosaic law be superceded lawfully by one that came only hundreds of years later?

According to the Old Testament, Moses had received the law and its prescribed ceremonies and animal sacrifices from Elohim, a Hebrew name for God that is grammatically a plural noun. Since this same law insisted that God is one, yet without resolving the underlying mystery of the Trinity, the name Elohim later became interpreted as referring to angels. Instead of attacking this interpretation, Hebrews chapter 1 shows that an argument against the superiority of Jesus that cited the authority of these messengers (elohim) in reality shoots itself in the foot. To achieve this, Heb 1 quotes seven passages from the Old Testament. All of these (and indeed all of Scripture, since the number seven is a symbol of completeness) show that Moses and angels must be inferior to Christ, since all of the quoted texts (and hence those ‘angels’ themselves, and indeed the entire OT) predicted that the law of Moses will be replaced one day by a new and stronger covenant. For in this new covenant, God will instead ‘place his law into people’s hearts’ to follow the commandments of Christ (cf Jn 13:34; 14:15, 21; 1Jn 2:7-11).

• The gr. word pararrheo (“drift away”) means “to flow by”, or here (in the Greek passive second aorist) “being carried (or swept) beside; flowing away past anything” => If you picture yourself in a river floating past a landmark, what is that landmark that we are warned not to miss?
  • Is it morality, in the sense of: “Do not be swept away into immorality by ignoring God’s laws!”? Or is this stern warning for Christians to pay close attention how to be saved, i.e. which kind of doctrine of salvation is safe to embrace?
  • Hebrews is about to explain that blood of animal sacrifices prescribed by Moses has never saved anyone, Heb 10:4-10. Who was offended by that, and why?
• Accordingly, what should we expect if we neglect or (after hearing it) willingly reject the good news of Jesus? cf Heb 12:25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking….

2) vv2-3 asks “how should we escape…”: Escape from what? [v2 “every disobedience (of the Israelites under Moses)…received just retribution“] =>

• What is such ‘just retribution’ (cf Num 15:30)? => Why is there no escape if we are left with only the law? cf Ro 3:19-21, Jn 4:10, Jn 1:10-11a  [To not know Jesus and the gospel means to be left with only the law and its condemnation of everyone]
  
• v3, “…such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord“: Compared to the Old Testament, what has changed in the New so that one can say Jesus was the first who began to proclaim this salvation? Why can this not be said of Moses and the prophets even though they already spoke about him? cf Ro 3:21

3) vv4-7: What evidence does Hebrews provide that Jesus now became Lord of all?

• v5, “because God did not subject the world to come to angels“: What is ‘the world to come’? cf Heb 6:5
• vv6-7: Based on what evidence did the author call for faith that this ‘new’ world is governed by Jesus? =>
  • Why is an ancient song (Ps 8:4-6) presented as authoritative truth to establish such an enormous claim? cf Heb 1:1
  • Optional, if you did not already discuss this last week: Even for someone who does not yet believe in the inspiration of scriptures, the fact that Ps 8 and similar OT texts make such predictions must be puzzling: If not as a prophecy about a promised future Messiah, why would such a song even bother to speak of submission and exaltation of one over angels? Even more strange: What would explain that the life story of Jesus is accurately predicted by such a mysterious ancient song, and believed throughout the world against all odds of fierce opposition?
• A claim of this scale about the authority of Jesus will be challenged everywhere any time in history by the objection: “But how is it proven that what you say is true?”. Does the author address this?
  • v4: a) By signs and miracles of the past while eye witnesses of Jesus testified of him? Or b) are signs and wonders promised in v4 to continue at all times to prove afresh to each generation again and again that the gospel is true?
• Discuss: If God desires to save more people from their unbelief, why does he not do more miracles to prove who he is, here right now, or all the time? Why are we instead studying this bookl? (cf Jn 14:22-25)

4) vv8-13: If Jesus is the author and heir of every possible universe (“all things”), why is it that “now we do not see everything put under him”?

• v8: Is it because Jesus still does not yet rule? Or because he only rules in heaven, but not (yet) on earth? [“…he left nothing outside his control”]
• What did Jesus himself say about this? cf e.g. Lk 19:12; Jn 20:29 Does this mean that even his enemies are under his control? cf Jn 19:11; 1Cor 15:25-26 What makes it hard to believe that Jesus rules sovereign and that nothing is beyond his control? e.g. Ro 8:22 [one has to believe it, despite sufferings that look like he is either not in control, or if he is, he allows “too much” evil]
• v9: What is the only thing that has already become visible of his kingship?
• vv10-13 quote OT verses that speak of Messiah becoming ‘our brother’. In what sense has Jesus become our brother, v10?
  • What must brothers experience together – through thick and thin? cf vv14+17
  • v11: How do ’those who are sanctified’ share with Jesus the same father? Who are these? cf Jn 17:9.16-19

5) vv14-18: A stumbling block for Jews to accept Jesus as Messiah has been that their interpretation of the OT did not foresee such a weak Messiah (Mat 27:40). How does Hebrews explain why Jesus had to suffer according to OT prophecy?

• cf v7 with Ps 8:4-6 – (Where) do you find a hint about suffering in this quoted text? Would you have concluded that this psalm must refer to Messiah even if it were not applied to him here in Hebrews? Why was a quote from this particular psalm most appropriate, if not ingenious?*
• For what else was this abasement of Jesus essential?
  • v14: To destroy through his death the devil – cf Gen 3:15. How so?
  • v15: To deliver ….from lifelong slavery – what kind? cf Jn 8:34-36; Ro 6:16
  • v16: To help the ‘offspring of Abraham’ – who is that? cf Jn 8:37-42; Ro 4:16; 9:7
  • v17: To become a merciful and faithful high priest…: The high priest was the one who once a year entered the innermost of the temple to make ‘propitiation’ for the sins of the people. Why was the suffering and death of Jesus essential for him to become the perfect high priest? cf Heb 8:1-2 [=> The author will go on to explain this main point in great detail]
  • v18: To help those who are tempted: Why could he not do that without becoming man?

6) Personal and application

• A common way to misunderstand Heb 2:1 (and some entire chapters), is to read it as a threat that now the punishment for sins will be even more fierce than under the old covenant of Old Testament law. Do you think this is what verses 1-3 are saying? Why not?
• What can you do to ‘pay closer attention to what we have heard’? Does this mean for you to read the bible more, or to read it differently? Why, or what else?
• Have you ever doubted God and his intentions because of any personal suffering, or do you know someone who has?
• Why do you think that Jesus did not lose faith in God despite his ultimate suffering of being cut off from him and having to die the most shameful death for a most unjust sentence for crimes he did not commit?
• How does being Christian, or this chapter of Heb 2 in particular, influence how you interpret sufferings?
• In your own temptations, do you find it helpful that Jesus himself was tempted, but without giving in? How so?

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*While the suffering of Christ was also predicted many times elsewhere, only Psalm 8 calls this willing submission of the Son of Man an abasement below the “elohim” (plural). Interestingly, the 72 rabbis who translated the OT into Greek in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE, and the author quoting that Septuagint translation in Heb 2:7 understood that elohim in Psalm 8 refers to angels, even though they knew that it is also a name of God and therefore translated it as “theos” when appropriate.