GOD SPEAKS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe.

Hebrews 1:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we begin a study of the letter to the Hebrews, a letter with rich content that overall highlights the supremacy of Jesus, especially in light of the Old Testament rites and rituals needed for atonement. This is something we see right away in chapter 1.

Now, while many might attribute this letter to Paul as his writings dominate the New Testament after the Gospels and the Book of Acts, the exact identity of the author is unknown and as we see in Paul’s letters, he is quick to name himself as an author or co-author. It’s also a bit of an uncertainty when Hebrews was written but it’s believed to be somewhere around A.D. 65.

With this, let’s look at the first two verses of chapter 1 which form the foundation for today’s message:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe.

The point here is clear.

God has always spoken since the beginning of all creation and the scriptures we have today is the entirety of His spoken Word, a Word that is completely God-breathed and “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” as it thoroughly equips all servants of the God Most High to carry out “every good work” He desires (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

In today’s passage, we are reminded some of the ways God spoke His word to His people. In Old Testament times (aka “in the past”), God selected special messengers we know as “prophets” to speak to the Israelites, the “ancestors” of the author, a statement that can lead us to be pretty confident the writer is a Hebrew himself.

As we look at the Old Testament, we find that prophets dominate, beginning with Isaiah and ranging all the way to the end and Malachi. We commonly find these prophets referred to as major or minor prophets but it’s important to remember that this isn’t because major prophets were more significant than the others. It’s just that the books attributed to the major prophets are longer than the minor prophet books.

It’s interesting to remember that we have a four hundred year gap between the end of the Book of Malachi and the advent of the Gospel writings in the New Testament, a period often called the Intertestamental Period where we have no documentation where God spoke through anyone.

Afterward this four hundred years ended, we find Jesus entering the scene, the long predicted and awaited Messiah and Immanuel as God came from Heaven to earth in the flesh, God Incarnate as Jesus.

With this, God no longer needed to speak to the prophets because He now was able to speak to His people in person in the form of Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). As part of God’s salvation plan, He so loved the world that He surrendered His only Son to be sacrificed as a final atonement for all sins so that all who would simply believe in Him wouldn’t perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

As a reward for all this, God granted all authority in Heaven and on earth to Jesus, His Son (Matthew 28:18) and after His resurrection and subsequent ascension, He assumed His place of sovereignty, sitting at the right hand of His Father, the Creator who made the universe through His Son. We know this from the opening of John’s Gospel where we read:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-3, 14

Today, God still speaks to us, both through the words He gave to the prophets and the words He spoke while walking the earth in the flesh as He and Jesus were One (John 10:30). This is what makes the Bible a living Word, because God still actively works to instruct us, reprimand us, encourage us, and train us so we, His servants, are ready to go and carry out His will, fully invested in His works.

In the end translation, God has never stopped, nor will He ever stop speaking to us as He illuminates His word so to impart on us truth and knowledge while He strives to reform and transform us into being more like His Son, which is the daily goal of any Christian.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.