Teach Me The Bible
Hebrews: Give Heed, Earth Subject To Man, Jesus Briefly Humbled (Chapter 2)
Since the Son of God is greater than any angel, and since God disciplined those who came out of Egypt during the Exodus for rejecting the words of angels, these Jewish believers must endure and go forward rather than go back and fall under the discipline of the Lord.
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Since the Son of God is greater than any angel, and since God disciplined those who came out of Egypt during the Exodus for rejecting the words of angels, these Jewish believers must endure and go forward rather than go back and fall under the discipline of the Lord.
Stay engaged with new and up-to-date content, including newsletters, articles, podcasts, etc. Download the Teach Me the Bible App from any app store or Apple TV/Roku device.
You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible podcast. I'm Alex Wolfe. I'm here with Dr David Klingler and we are walking through the book of Hebrews a great book and we've been kind of over viewing it. The two weeks ago we did an overview and kind of jumped into chapter one. Last week and also started to relate chapter one to the rest of the book and what he's doing, where Christ is better than the angels, right, and so if they rejected the words of the angels and it went bad for them God laid them low in the wilderness then if they reject Christ, it's not going to go any better for them, and so that's kind of where we're headed into this second chapter. So just for a little recap, but we're just going to jump in and kind of pick up where we left off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so laid low in the wilderness. What does that mean? He killed them. How about that he killed them?
Speaker 2:That's not politically correct. So the laid low, you know how laid low in the wilderness.
Speaker 3:What does that mean? Well, he, you know, they came out of the exodus and they start complaining like immediately, and they reject the Lord and the Lord says all right, then I'm going to wipe this generation out, I'm going to raise up a new generation and they're going to go in and of course we see that the new generation any better than the first one, just as a rebellious. But we'll pick it up in chapter two, verse one, and so in chapter one and there's all kinds of Old Testament references and we just last week kind of mentioned them passing a Psalm two, second Samuel seven, psalm 97, psalm 45 and so forth.
Speaker 3:All of those passages, whenever you're reading in Hebrews is jam packed full of Old Testament references and and and so we're moving through this chapter by chapter, but we're going fairly quickly. You know, 30 minutes, 25, 30 minutes in a chapter is not not near enough to go into great detail. What would do you well if, for further study, is to go into each of those passages, psalm two, and read all of Psalm two. It's a verse, but it's a verse in a context, and so the authors of the New Testament are just simply quoting the verse. They bring out whole, they're saying, hey, that whole song is the point here, right? All of the Davidic covenant, all of them, the you know, the messianic Psalm of chapter verse 45, or the messianic Psalm of two, or Isaiah 61, or Psalm 102, psalm 110, all of it right is important here.
Speaker 2:Which the book was written to Hebrews.
Speaker 3:To Jews.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they knew this, yeah, so they know the context already, so when these are quoted, I mean their minds already pop up, absolutely. So they have a little more work here and now to kind of get that context and bring it with us.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so so of no angel did God ever say. The Lord said to the Lord. You know, the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And you know, and all of Psalm 110 is is right in view here. And so, as we mentioned last week in chapter two, chapter one flows right into chapter two, and this actually where it's kind of arbitrary. We always say this, you know, to cut this into chapters, but just for time purposes, we try to divide it and try to keep it along. The chapter breaks, but chapter two, verse one.
Speaker 3:For this reason, we must pay closer attention to what we've heard. What we've heard, not from how they heard it in the Old Testament, as great as it was, that the God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, and many portions, in many ways, and in the last days, he's spoken through his son, because the words of the son are greater than the words of the angels, Because of no angel did he ever say. In other words, the words of the angels were leading to the sun. And that's the point. All of this, moses, the whole Old Testament. So we're talking about angels. We're talking about Moses, we're gonna talk about the priesthood he brings a better priesthood, a better covenant, a new covenant, all a better sanctuary, all of the things that Christ is bringing, a better sacrifice, are superior to the Old Testament. And so if the Old Testament got him judged, rejecting the words of the revelation of the Old Testament, we better pay special attention to what's being said. The stakes of the game have been raised and you think if those were the stakes of the Old Game and they were judged for it, you think it's gonna go better for you.
Speaker 3:I don't think this is a good plan, right, for if the word spoken through angels proved unchangeable, unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, so great a deliverance? After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed by those who heard. God also buried witness with them, both by signs and by wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will, for he did not subject to angels the world to come, which we are speaking, but the one has testified somewhere. He's talking about Psalm eight. What is man that you would remember, him, or the son of man, that you are concerned about him, for you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over all the works of your hand. And so the writer of Hebrews is taking Psalm eight and say this is talking about the Christ, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, but then he was crowned, he was appointed over all the works of his hand and has made all things subject under his feet. He never said that of any angel. So he was temporarily made lower than the angels, but he was crowned with glory and all things were put in subjection under. For in subjecting all to him he left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet we do not see all things now subjected to him. So he has been identified as the one who will rule, who will reign.
Speaker 3:Psalm two, psalm 110, psalm eight here. But right now you don't see it. Now this is gonna tie right into the witnesses argument in chapter 11. All of these witnesses never received what was promised. They had to endure. You're not seeing what was promised right now. You're gonna have to endure, right so? But we do see him made a little lower, made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of his death, was crowned with glory and honor and by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone, for it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation. Now, to perfect, to complete the author, the beginning part of their salvation. Now, hold this in mind. You're gonna have to keep this in mind and we'll remind you of this later. But fix your eyes on Jesus, the initiator and completer of the faith. That's in chapter 12, verse two. He's already introduced this discussion. So Jesus is the fulfillment, he's the whole.
Speaker 3:The faith of the saints was begun in the Old Testament, but it was focused on Christ and he's the one who's going to bring it all to pass, to bring it to completion. So he is the completer of, the initiator of the salvation through suffering, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which he is also not ashamed to call them brethren, and he's going to now quote Psalm 22, saying for I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise and again I will put trust in him. This is out of Isaiah, chapter eight, verse 17. Behold, I and the children whom God has given to me. These are signs or wonders in Israel. And so in the book of Isaiah, the believing remnant, the disciples, the believing remnant have believed in the Christ. In the midst of Israel's rejection, there's this remnant that has believed, and so he's quoting this to exhort them to continue on.
Speaker 3:This is the Christ, is the one who not only is the focus of the faith from the start, he's the completer of it. But you don't see it yet, so you're going to have to endure. Since the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself, likewise, also partook of the same that, through death, he might render powerless. Him who had the power over death, that is, the devil, might deliver those who, through the fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives. Why is this relevant? Well, you're over here, terrified about death, and you're about to do the things going to get you killed.
Speaker 2:Disappointment, yeah, discipline.
Speaker 3:So don't right, for assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abram. So, therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Now, how are they being tempted? They're being tempted by going back. They're being tempted by not enduring. They're being tempted by, you know, giving in to the pressures on them to the persecution, the suffering.
Speaker 2:So the threat is that they will be persecuted if they don't turn back to anything. You're suffering.
Speaker 3:So they're suffering for their faith, and it was fitting for Christ to suffer, and so you can identify with Christ because he's been down the trail. You can identify with him. You endure. Christ endured, the saints endured. Hang in there, and so the reason they did it so, it was so that he might render powerless the power of death. So let me get this right You're gonna do the very thing that's gonna get you Kill kill, yeah, and you're afraid of death Get you dead, yet you're afraid of death.
Speaker 3:You're afraid that they're going to kill you. That's not who you need to be afraid of. They're going to persecute you. They're going to you know, to even bring you to the no, no, no. The thing that was promised was eternal life, and so the only hope for eternal life is forward, not backward, right, and so continue. Therefore, brethren, he's going to continue.
Speaker 3:In chapter 3, partakers of a heavenly calling considered Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him, who appointed him as Moses was in all his house, and so what he's going to do is he's transitioning from the angel section to the Moses section, and so he's just going part by part. So let's think this through yeah, christ was better than angels, and he suffered, and of no angel did he ever say these things. Now, it is true that he made him a little lower than the angels for a while, but then he crowned him, but we don't see him yet, and so there's. So he suffered, we're not delivered, yet he's going to perfect the faith, he's going to bring this whole thing to pass. So there's an endurance towards what's not yet.
Speaker 2:That's right. Come to reality, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so you know. So, just like in the wilderness, they were promised the land. They don't see it yet, they're not there yet. So they're going to have to endure to get there. And they're saying, no, no, we're going back. Oh, no, you're not going back, right.
Speaker 3:And so in chapter three, next time, we're going to be introduced to this Psalm 95 and this whole context of what happened with Israel rejecting the Lord in the wilderness. And you know, and it's going to end with this exhortation Therefore, take care, brethren, lest you should be, there should be in any one of you an evil and unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God, but encourage one another, day after day, as long as it is today, lest any of you be hardened by a deceitfulness of sin. So the deceitfulness of sin is to reject the Lord and go back, right. It's the deceitfulness of sin of going back. And so in chapter 12, he says therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who also endured because they never received what was promised, that's the end of chapter 11. Let us lay aside every encumbrance in the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with endurance the race set before us. It required them to have endurance. The race run before them.
Speaker 3:Very few of them endured in the wilderness. You have what Caleb and Joshua and that's really the extent of it. The others were laid low in the wilderness. So fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. So, chapter 3, he's gone from angels to Moses. Look, jesus is greater than angels and Jesus is greater than Moses. And you want to go back to Moses, as great as Moses was and, by the way, moses was laid low in the wilderness as well. So don't forget that. But this whole Moses is great as he was, and he was the initiator, the manager of the house, so to speak, the manager of Israel and of the covenant. But Christ is the builder of it. And so if they rejected Moses and it didn't go well for them, do you think it will go better if they reject you, reject the one of whom Moses spoke? That will not go better for you either. So they've not thought this through very well.
Speaker 3:It's a you know? Look, we all do it. We say we're suffering and I want to get out of suffering. Well, news flash there's no getting out of suffering.
Speaker 2:Going back will get you suffering by the discipline of the Lord, which is really interesting because it's easy to be hard on these guys and they're like what idiots? You know they're going back to this, but they're in a tough spot. They're facing death if they move forward and they're facing death if they go back. The question is, what do they want to die for? They want to die under the discipline of the Lord or do they want to die enduring in their faith? You know which is?
Speaker 3:much better. Yeah, on the one hand, they suffer the threat of death by the bad guys. By the bad guys, that's right, and so the other option is to have death insured. Yeah, right, and so in chapter 12, he's going to say look for, consider him, who suffered such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not lose heart and grow weary. And for you have not yet. This is in chapter 12, verse 4,. You've not yet resisted to the point of the shedding of blood and you're striving against sin.
Speaker 2:So you're not even dying yet, you're not even suffering yet, and you've forgotten the exhortation.
Speaker 3:So here you have. Here's your choice Go back and suffer the assured discipline of the Lord, or endure and maybe suffer the persecution of those. And so in the early church it was well assured death or you know, and they endured.
Speaker 3:They knew that this was the one who could raise from the dead. He was the initiator and the perfecter, the completer of the faith, and the only way to attain that salvation was moving forward. Okay, so I don't see this as a can you lose your salvation or not it's can you lose? They didn't lose their faith. That's not, I think, what's at issue here. They're losing their faithfulness, the faithfulness of their walk. No, that's good. And so they're being removed from their walk, from their life, and so I think that's really an important distinction, and I think that's how and you'll see this as we move through it but I think that's how the Old Testament illustration of Massa, which we'll get into next week, really helps us understand that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very good. Thank you for walking through chapter two again. Just continue to remind you we've said it a couple of times already but just because we're breaking it into chapters doesn't mean it's meant to be divided this way. We're doing this for time, and so we're gonna continue picking up in a chapter three, but the same argument's being made all the way through here and so. But we hope that this is starting to make sense to you. You're seeing that the logical argument that this author is making, and we're gonna continue to trace that in chapter three next week.
Speaker 1:So we'll see you then. Thanks for listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our desire is to use the power of God's word to change lives. For more information, download our app. Join us next week for another episode of Teach Me the Bible.