This Week's Focus Passage

Hebrews 1:2 ‘Hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son.’

How has He spoken in his Son? Is it not through the Word and His Spirit? May we not ‘hear’ the voice of the Son through His Spirit as we read the Scriptures? The writer/preacher of Hebrews, whether an epistle or a recorded sermon, has left us with this inspired and remarkable statement about the legacy of the Son of God:

 

God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in diverse manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds; who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.—ASV-1901.

 

This superlative declaration which begins this sermon/epistle that we know as ‘The Epistle to the HEBREWS,’ is often, and rightly so, paralleled with the majesty of that well known beginning of the gospel ACCORDING TO JOHN. These have many features in common with one another, of course, but the feature to which we wish to give attention is the recognition of the Son of God referenced in Hebrews who hath spoken unto us ‘at the end of these days,’ with the Word—the Logos—of whom John has written this beautiful prologue to his own account of the life, ministry, and death of the Christ. The One of whom John speaks, namely, the Logos, is indeed the very One to whom the preacher of Hebrews is referring as the Final Word. It seems appropriate to repeat the remarks of H. P. Liddon from his 1866 Bampton Lectures cited recently by Chuck Hartman in his class-notes from The Plumb Line Thursday studies. Liddon’s lectures were titled The Divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The following citation is to be found on p. 154 of these class-notes;  

 

                  “And indeed St. John’s doctrine of the Logos has from the first been scrutinized by the mind of Christendom. It could not but be felt that the term Logos denotes at the very least something infinitely and everlastingly present with God, something as internal to the Being of God as thought to the soul of man. In truth the Divine Logos is God reflected in His own eternal Thought; in the Logos, God is His own Object. This infinite Thought, the reflection and counterpart of God, subsisting in God as a Being or Hypostasis, and having a tendency to self-communication,—such is the Logos. The Logos is the Thought of God, not intermittent and precarious like human thought, but subsisting with the intensity of a personal form.”

 

Who was speaking with Adam and Eve, and walking in the garden with them? And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat…. After our first parents rebelled, whose was the voice or sound they heard walking in the garden? Who called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou? What was the response of the man? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. Is there not good reason to believe that this was the Word of God; the Logos of God? After all, John has clearly stated, In the beginning was the Word.

 

We frequently read of the Angel of Jehovah speaking directly with mankind? Perhaps, the first recorded instance is found in Genesis 16:7-12, in the case of Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid. We are informed And the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. There are accounts of angels being sent to speak to persons as in the conspicuous case of ‘an angel of the Lord, even Gabriel, being sent to Zacharias, and then Mary, the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:19, 26). In the Old Testament, in Daniel 9, we find Gabriel coming to Daniel and speaking with him. We are expressly told that ‘he instructed me, and talked with me. We set these accounts forward to distinguish them from the occasions, such as in Hagar’s case, when the Visitor is said to be the Angel of Jehovah distinct from angels of the Lord. In the case of the meeting with Abraham in Genesis 18, the record is, And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre. Specifically, when Abraham lifted up his eyes, he actually saw three men whom he ran to meet. It becomes clear, subsequently, that one of the three is the Angel of Jehovah even though that is not definitely stated, and He spoke with His friend, Abraham, advising him of that which He was about to accomplish.

 

In one of the most ‘famous’ instances of the pre-incarnate Word speaking with a man, we learn from Exodus 3:2 that He spoke with His servant, Moses. God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. In the course of the directions given unto Moses, this Angel responded to the plea of Moses, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? with the answer, I AM THAT I AM, Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. God spoke unto the fathers through the prophets according to Hebrews 1:1. Moses was a prophet, God, the Angel of Jehovah, would speak through His prophets unto His people as in the aforementioned histories of the Angel of Jehovah encountering His people.    

                 

This was the case again and again in the history of Israel. In the book of Judges, the Angel of Jehovah appeared unto His people on numerous occasions. In chapter 2, and again in chapter 6 to Gideon; in chapter 13 to the parents (to be) of Samson, Manoah and his wife. He spoke with these persons; they heard His voice. The Angel of Jehovah spoke with Elijah on many occasions. In the prophet’s fear driven flight from the wrath of Jezebel (1 Kings 19), Elijah is encountered by the Word, the angel of Jehovah came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat. He spoke again to Elijah prior to His prophet being taken up in a chariot of fire. (2 Kings 1:3, 15). Was this not the pre-incarnate Word of God comforting, encouraging His people? Was this not the Logos of God? Has He not always been the Logos of God? Has He not spoken unto His people from the beginning? And does He not continue to speak to us through His written Word, preserved by Him for the Church?

 

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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