Hebrews 1:4-14 – Jesus is Greater Than the Angels

Session 2 – August 4, 2020 – Men’s Morning Hebrews Haverim

Our Men’s Haverim group is reading through and discussing the book of Hebrews during the months of August and September. For more information, see this blog post.

⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs…

14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 1:4, 14 New International Version

Summary:

• The Hebrews author provides a number of scriptures from Psalms, along with a few others from Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel and 2 Chronicles, to support his statement in verse 4: Jesus became superior to the angels.
• The scriptures underscore that God calls Jesus His Son (Psalm 2:7, 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chron. 17:13), He calls the angels to worship him (Deut. 32:43) and while angels are his servants (Psalm 104:4), Jesus is set above his companions (Psalm 45:6,7). He is the creator who will remain after creation perishes (Psalm 102:25-27) and he sits at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1). Note the similarity of this list of seven attributes presented in Hebrews 1:1-3.
• The author ends this section by making the point that angels are ministering servants to those inheriting salvation, clearly a position below Jesus who provides that salvation.

Other Thoughts:

• The Hebrew author was very knowledgeable of the scriptures. Today we have Bibles in both paper and electronic forms, but he mostly had to memorize all of these texts, enabling him to draw from many Psalms and other books.
• He also assumed his audience would know these scriptures and states them without references.
• He is laying a foundation of overwhelming evidence of the superiority of Jesus to support what follows in Hebrews.
• Jesus is our foundation and will make his enemies his footstool – today we should recognize this more than they may have in their time.
• Do you trust Jesus, that he is above all things?