Year 9, Day 105: Hebrews 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Hebrews 1 takes the reader to a topic about which there isn’t much content in the Bible.  These would be the angels.  These are beings who exist in the presence of God and who have done so since before the creation of mankind.  The author of Hebrews – unidentified, but many think it is Paul – calls them ministering spirits.

The angels are not sons of God.  They are beings who dwell with God in the heavenly realm.  In several books of the Bible – Daniel and Revelation are the biggest examples – the angels are seen as messengers who serve as a go-between with respect to God’s truth and human understanding.  These angels are in the service of God, helping accomplish His will in creation.

As great as these angels are, though, the author of Hebrews teaches us that they are not the Son.  They are not to be worshipped.  N fact, the author of Hebrews makes the point that the angels are to worship the Son.

The author of Hebrews in making a very poignant decree that related culturally to his context and from which we can extrapolate an important message for those of us who don’t worship angels.  In the time Hebrews was written, people worshipped many gods.  Anything that had special power was a subject of worship.  People within the church began to worship angels, thinking that if they could catch the attention of an angel they might be able to get closer to God.  The author of Hebrews wants to put a stop to this.  The angels are different than us to be sure, they like us they are called to worship God.  Angels are not meant for us to worship, they are meant to help us worship God.

This is an exceptionally valuable point for us to learn.  We may not worship angels, but we have no shortage of things we worship in place of God.  In fact, we have many things – like church buildings, books (the Bible, to name the most grievous example), and family – that we end up worshipping instead of letting those things draw us more deeply into the worship of God.  The things we worship change, but humans are no different than the time of the Hebrew people.  We will worship things that have power over our lives.

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