Hebrews 2:11-13
The reference in verse 12 seemse to be from Psalm 22, the same psalm that Jesus quoted on the cross: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46) and the one with the prohetic verse "They divide my garments among them /and cast lots for my clothing." (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 26:35) It's in this psalm that David declares "I will declare Your name to my brothers; /in the congregation I will praise You;" and the writer of Hebrews attributes this line to Jesus, as well.
In the context of the psalm, David says the quote as a result of God saving him from his enemies. The emphasis is on the praise to God. In a tactic common to New Testament writers, (see Matthew 3:1, Isaiah 40:3; Romans 3:4, Psalm 51:4) the author of Hebrews shifts the focus of the verse to the indirect object: to the ones to whom David was declaring his praise to God.
Jesus is declaring God's praise to His brothers, to the ones He came to save.
Again, the writer of Hebrews quotes Isaiah 8: "I will put my trust in Him;" and, "Here am I, and the children God has given me." This and chapter 7 in Isaiah have the Immanuel prophecy: God gives Isaiah a son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, and before the child grows old enough to learn how to speak, He says that Assyria will take over Syria and Ephraim.
I love Isaiah 7. We men see men like Gideon or Moses telling God, "I don't believe You unless You give me a sign!" and we think, How brazen and audacious these men are to question the word of God! And yet, here Isaiah tells King Ahaz: "Ask God for a sign, so He can prove His word to you;" and Ahaz says, "No way! I'm not going to test God!" And what was the result? Isaiah says, "You're getting on God's last nerve!"
Is it possible that God has more patience for those that are too afraid to believe in Him without some kind of proof than for those that refuse to test God at all?
God judges the hearts of men. (I Samuel 16:7) We look at the actions of faithful men and wonder, "How can God put up with this;" and yet, these actions we wonder at are those same actions that make God smile.
God's ways are not our ways!
The quote in Hebrews 2:13 is "I will put my trust in Him." In Isaiah (8:17), the people are frightened because of the Syro-Ephraimic alliance and because Israel and Syria are planning to invade Judah. God tells Isaiah, Don't worry about your enemies. "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, /He is the one you are to fear, /He is the one you are to dread." (v. 13) Isaiah should put his trust in God.
Verses 14 and 15 are a little troubling: "and He will be a sanctuary; /but for both houses of Israel He will be /a stone that causes men to stumble /and a rock that makes them fall. /And for the people of Jerusalem he will be /a trap and a snare. /Many of them will stumble; /they will fall and be broken, /they will be snared and captured." (See I Peter 2:7; I Corinthians 1:22.) The people of Israel and Judah had stopped listening to the words of the prophet of God, so God told Isaiah to close the book and put it back on the shelf. (v. 16)
Peter's commentary on this verse in I Peter 2:8b is perhaps the best: "They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for." To those that will not obey the word of God, even God becomes nothing more for them than a rock of offense.
The last quote in Hebrews 2:13 is "Here am I, and the children God has given me." The last half of the verse in Isaiah (8:18) reads "We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, Who dwells on Mount Zion." For Isaiah it was literal: God gave him a son as a sign to King Ahaz. For the writer of Hebrews, the focus of the verse is the children of God.
We have been created sons and daughters of God, part of God's family; and yet, we are flesh, different from God and separated from God by the weakness of our flesh, inherited from the sin of Adam. In order to open the door as a mediator between God and man, the Word came as a man and became a son of god. He was not arrogant or contemptful of his lesser brethren, but was born of a woman in order that He might become our full-blooded brother and might both show us how we're supposed to live for God and restore us to God.
Does that unspeakable event astound you as it ought?
God changed--the Timeless, the Eternal One, the Maker, the Boundless and Infinite God, Creator of Time and Lord of All. Infinity was His very essence, and yet, the Word changed His essence and became a mortal man, a son of god. This was something that our world had never seen: Infinity had become finite; the Absolute had undergone a metamorphosis into shifting, unstable, unfaithful flesh.
And yet, the man Jesus was still just the same being as ever He had been: He was everything man was supposed to be, He was the Will of God in the flesh. He was tempted, yet He was faithful. He was mortal, yet He was true. He was human, yet He was unblemished by evil. God had become (do those three words shake your soul the way they need to?) flesh, but in Him flesh became holy.
What else was it but a new archetype, a new paradigm, a new world? Through Adam, flesh had become corrupted and given to evil. Through Christ, flesh became redeemed and sanctified. (Romans 5:12ff)
And all this because Jesus was not proud, but subjected Himself to the Will of God and allowed Himself to be humbled and to come in human likeness. (Philippians 2)
This man, this Christ, is our true brother. If Jesus came down to men that would crucify Him, to a world that would hate Him, to men like me that would reject and shame Him, and called us brothers, and died for us, what is there for me? How can I look on a fellow man as anything other than my brother, when the Catalyst of Creation came down to be counted as my brother and to save me from my sins? How can I look on someone with anything other than compassion, when eternal God has looked on me with such compassion? How can I not serve my Lord Jesus, when He has proved Himself my King and my Savior?
In the context of the psalm, David says the quote as a result of God saving him from his enemies. The emphasis is on the praise to God. In a tactic common to New Testament writers, (see Matthew 3:1, Isaiah 40:3; Romans 3:4, Psalm 51:4) the author of Hebrews shifts the focus of the verse to the indirect object: to the ones to whom David was declaring his praise to God.
Jesus is declaring God's praise to His brothers, to the ones He came to save.
Again, the writer of Hebrews quotes Isaiah 8: "I will put my trust in Him;" and, "Here am I, and the children God has given me." This and chapter 7 in Isaiah have the Immanuel prophecy: God gives Isaiah a son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, and before the child grows old enough to learn how to speak, He says that Assyria will take over Syria and Ephraim.
I love Isaiah 7. We men see men like Gideon or Moses telling God, "I don't believe You unless You give me a sign!" and we think, How brazen and audacious these men are to question the word of God! And yet, here Isaiah tells King Ahaz: "Ask God for a sign, so He can prove His word to you;" and Ahaz says, "No way! I'm not going to test God!" And what was the result? Isaiah says, "You're getting on God's last nerve!"
Is it possible that God has more patience for those that are too afraid to believe in Him without some kind of proof than for those that refuse to test God at all?
God judges the hearts of men. (I Samuel 16:7) We look at the actions of faithful men and wonder, "How can God put up with this;" and yet, these actions we wonder at are those same actions that make God smile.
God's ways are not our ways!
The quote in Hebrews 2:13 is "I will put my trust in Him." In Isaiah (8:17), the people are frightened because of the Syro-Ephraimic alliance and because Israel and Syria are planning to invade Judah. God tells Isaiah, Don't worry about your enemies. "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, /He is the one you are to fear, /He is the one you are to dread." (v. 13) Isaiah should put his trust in God.
Verses 14 and 15 are a little troubling: "and He will be a sanctuary; /but for both houses of Israel He will be /a stone that causes men to stumble /and a rock that makes them fall. /And for the people of Jerusalem he will be /a trap and a snare. /Many of them will stumble; /they will fall and be broken, /they will be snared and captured." (See I Peter 2:7; I Corinthians 1:22.) The people of Israel and Judah had stopped listening to the words of the prophet of God, so God told Isaiah to close the book and put it back on the shelf. (v. 16)
Peter's commentary on this verse in I Peter 2:8b is perhaps the best: "They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for." To those that will not obey the word of God, even God becomes nothing more for them than a rock of offense.
The last quote in Hebrews 2:13 is "Here am I, and the children God has given me." The last half of the verse in Isaiah (8:18) reads "We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, Who dwells on Mount Zion." For Isaiah it was literal: God gave him a son as a sign to King Ahaz. For the writer of Hebrews, the focus of the verse is the children of God.
We have been created sons and daughters of God, part of God's family; and yet, we are flesh, different from God and separated from God by the weakness of our flesh, inherited from the sin of Adam. In order to open the door as a mediator between God and man, the Word came as a man and became a son of god. He was not arrogant or contemptful of his lesser brethren, but was born of a woman in order that He might become our full-blooded brother and might both show us how we're supposed to live for God and restore us to God.
Does that unspeakable event astound you as it ought?
God changed--the Timeless, the Eternal One, the Maker, the Boundless and Infinite God, Creator of Time and Lord of All. Infinity was His very essence, and yet, the Word changed His essence and became a mortal man, a son of god. This was something that our world had never seen: Infinity had become finite; the Absolute had undergone a metamorphosis into shifting, unstable, unfaithful flesh.
And yet, the man Jesus was still just the same being as ever He had been: He was everything man was supposed to be, He was the Will of God in the flesh. He was tempted, yet He was faithful. He was mortal, yet He was true. He was human, yet He was unblemished by evil. God had become (do those three words shake your soul the way they need to?) flesh, but in Him flesh became holy.
What else was it but a new archetype, a new paradigm, a new world? Through Adam, flesh had become corrupted and given to evil. Through Christ, flesh became redeemed and sanctified. (Romans 5:12ff)
And all this because Jesus was not proud, but subjected Himself to the Will of God and allowed Himself to be humbled and to come in human likeness. (Philippians 2)
This man, this Christ, is our true brother. If Jesus came down to men that would crucify Him, to a world that would hate Him, to men like me that would reject and shame Him, and called us brothers, and died for us, what is there for me? How can I look on a fellow man as anything other than my brother, when the Catalyst of Creation came down to be counted as my brother and to save me from my sins? How can I look on someone with anything other than compassion, when eternal God has looked on me with such compassion? How can I not serve my Lord Jesus, when He has proved Himself my King and my Savior?
posted by ionathas78 at 6:44 AM
0 comments
