Post 7 of Study: Hebrews 1:4

 For some reason, yesterday there was no installment. What does one say after "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high"? And to be honest, when I come to v. 4, I'm sort of, "What?" To be perfectly honest, I just ran out of time. I have a class at 9:25 and 10:50 on MW, and those tend to divert my attention from long typed discourses.

"...having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obained a more excellent name than they."

After praise to the fully human and fully God Messiah, why is the writer bringing up angels? Of course Christ is better than angels. What do angels have to do with it?

Because it is the human condition to get confused about such things. Angels do some pretty powerful things in the "First Testament" and the New. They show up and immediately say "Fear not" because their power and appearance knocks the visited off their feet, literally. They are eternal, and they serve and surround the throne of God and announce His will. Jesus Christ on the other hand came to earth and was crucified, which doesn't seem too mighty and even at that time was an argument in the Jewish mind that He couldn't be Messiah because Messiah was supposed to bring in the kingdom. So, it's not surprising that some would still put angels above Jesus in their hierarchical thinking. 

This begins the main argument of Hebrews, of course, that Christ is better than everything else that came before Him and that the Jewish religion was resting on or trusting in.  Priests, angels, Moses, David, etc. 

However, considering the abundance of angel imagery in pop culture, I don't think we should be surprised. Trusting in angels does not demand us to deal with a bloody crucifixion. In such thinking, angels say "fear not" and comfort people and bring nice news (not really, they are more likely to bring news of judgment). Angels don't demand a lot of Bible study or evangelism or obedience or tithing. I've never really understood the fascination with angels and don't think about them much in terms of my daily life, although I've had friends tell stories of angelic interventions that seemed plausible but also could have been hallucinations.  

From the beginning the writer says, "Get this right. Angels have their place in the kingdom, but they are inferior to Jesus Christ." 

We are also back to the "having become" quandary. Wasn't Christ superior to the angels before? "Yes, but ... " or maybe "Yes, and "(always better and more diplomatic). We'll go to that tomorrow.