Itzak woke before dawn frightened and trembling. He
woke from a terrible dream. The Roman soldiers were pounding at his door in
that dream. He felt his body relax as he
acknowledged that it was indeed only a dream. Last evening in the caves they
had heard a terrifying story of how the soldiers beat down Reuben’s door and
took his oldest son. The young man had
been out telling people about Jesus in the market place. He had been told to
stop and yet he did not heed the threats of arrest. Reuben was impassioned that his son had made
the right decision. Itzak clung to his own children that night, two boys and a
girl still small and fragile, and hoped that they would never make a choice
like that. That hope had turned into
real fear during his dreams. What if the
soldiers actually did come to his home?
How would he react? Would they only take him and leave his wife and
children?
Itzak got up as quietly as he could and pulled a
small blanket around his shoulders. He
went outside hoping that the dawn would shatter all the fear, all the torment,
all the doubts. He hoped that it would steal away the chill from his soul. He
stood as still as a stone on his doorstep looking out over the long, low valley
and watched as the images of houses, fences and wagons emerged hazy through the
darkness. But they were muted more than
usual because of thick clouds masking the sunrise. Itzak was disappointed and cold.
It would be another cold and damp day.
His mind moved from the stark tale of Reuben’s son,
who they were not certain they would ever see again, and the words he had heard
read from that letter—he who made the universe, God’s radiance in a Son,
sustaining power—these were truly perplexing words. If they had only been about God . . . He knew
in his heart that Jesus Christ had made a difference in him, but how he had
done that and who Jesus really was turned out to be very troubling. Was the letter right? Or were they just the mad ravings of someone
he did not even know? Itzak became lost
in thought, his head bent against his chest.
His mind was turned again when the sun burst through
the clouds and warmed his hands and head.
He blinked several times because the contrast was so great between the
dark and the sudden light. Looking up he
was nearly blinded by the intensity of the sun’s light. He marveled at how quickly he was warmed and
how clear the objects in the valley became when the sun . . . He heard the
voice of the reader in the cave, “The Son is the exact radiance of God’s glory
. . .” How he could feel the strength of the sun when that orb was so far away
he really did not know. And yet it did
warm him. It was that strong every day! Every day of his life that power, that
strength, that radiance had wakened him.
Every day of his life God had given him life. Itzak’s breath was suddenly taken away with
the wonder of this. Jesus was God! He
was the exact radiance—the exact! If Jesus
was the exact radiance then Jesus could be as trusted as God was
trustworthy. Itzak stretched in the morning
sun. The blanket slid off to the ground.
But Itzak did not let his arms fall as usual. He kept them raised toward the heavens and
the sun. And he was certain that it was the
Son who warmed him through and through.
Read Hebrews 1:1-3.
When the writer to the Hebrews penned
these first three verses the work of establishing Jesus as God had begun. These are purposeful and profound words. These words bear everything about
Christ. These words spoke to those who
had grown up in the centuries-old tradition of the Hebrews. And so the writer establishes God as the
authority from the very first verse. God
had indeed spoken in the past through many hundreds and thousands of his
prophets. Each one of these prophets had
declared who God was, what he would do and what he was saying. Prophets spoke and wrote in many ways. And there were more than just the prophets
who testified. The Apostle Paul states
that all creation itself testifies about God (Romans 1:20). The prophet Joel declared that God speaks
through dreams and visions (Joel 2:28). There
are countless ways and times that God has revealed himself to us.
And then there was a new way—the Jesus
way. “In these last days” bears much
weight. Many commentators bear out this
weight either through the description of the final days of humanity before
Christ’s return as well as the final days of God’s revelation in Jesus
Christ. But whatever that phrase may
have meant to the ancient reader, the greater weight rests in the truth bearing
it up. This truth is that Jesus Christ
is the means by which the Word of God has come from before creation and to
those of us born after the days of the prophets.
And this Jesus is the “heir of all
things.” Being careful here to
understand that the writer is attempting to describe a spiritual reality in
human terms, we need to come to terms with what this particular “heir”
means. This heir did not need to inherit
anything from a dead father. God did not
cease to exist and then Jesus became next in line. Morris and Burdick help us to discern this
use “heir” as a word indicating “lawful possession but without indicating in
what way that possession is secured” and that it is a distinctive “title of
dignity” only given to the Son.[i]
The writer to the Hebrews is also
careful to establish Jesus Christ’s existence prior to creation by saying that
it was through him that the universe was created. Jesus was not a creation, he
was the Creator—one with the Father and the Spirit hovering over the waters
(Genesis 1:2). It was very important for
the new believers to come to terms with this matter. So with extraordinary and beautiful imagery,
the writer to the Hebrews compares Jesus to the very light that emanates from
the sun. This is no mirror image or
offshoot or copy. This is God
himself. Just as the sun’s rays are made
up of what the sun is made of, so Jesus is God.
This is what the letter the Hebrews
seeks to establish in its readers—then and now. Jesus is not just a good man and he is not a
great prophet. His voice is greater than
the words of the prophets. His voice spoke
the universe into being and keeps everything going!
And his powerful Word provided the
solution for our sin problem as well. After he provided the final bloody
sacrifice—the sacrifice of sacrifices—in his own innocent body for all of
humanity the work was done. It was
sufficient, complete, full and satisfactory for our salvation. And because it was a whole, unblemished
sacrifice he could sit down in heaven.
Here again the writer wrestles with a tremendous spiritual reality in
human terms. How can we know that Jesus
is God except by faith! Yes, there is
the image of a being sitting next to God in heaven. But in spiritual reality
they are One and one with the Spirit.
Every believer has to come to terms with
what the writer in Hebrews was trying to establish in the first readers’ hearts. Just as people like Itzak wrestled with these
images of God so do we. At some point in our limited understanding, at some point in
our narrow definitions, we must come to a place where we lift our hands to the
heavens and accept the reality of Jesus Christ as God in heaven who has made a
way for us to stand before him. For all those who believe we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the
world. He watches over us—God,
Son and Spirit. He longs for us to know
him and continues to speak through written words, spoken words and through the
Word himself to each of us.
Amen.
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2013
[i] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary with The
New International Version: Hebrews and James, Leon Morris and Donald W.
Burdick, Zondervan, 1996, p. 13.
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