God Has Spoken in His Son
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. - Hebrews 1:1-2
Back in 2018 I decided that I was going to try a new approach to studying the Bible. I was going to pick a shorter book in the New Testament and read it every weekday from beginning to end. I would then read a chapter from a commentary that I have in my library. I have always enjoyed the book of Hebrews and it can be read in about 20 minutes and so, I decided that this would be a good book to start with.
Every weekday morning the words from Hebrews 1:1-2 at the top of this article have greeted me. While I have been familiar with them and even prayed these words for a long time, the familiarity I am getting with these two verses has really caused me to think about what they mean. I come in contact with these words when I am the most focused in my reading each time. My mind hasn't had time to wander and so of all that I have read in Hebrews these words stand out to me the most.
God has spoken in his Son. What continues to stand out to me more than anything else is what unbelievably good news this is for us. As we look through the history of the Old Testament there were prophets who came to speak for God. This was something the people asked for. As Moses reminds the Israelites in Deuteronomy, they could not stand to have God come near to them and speak. They needed a mediator who would be the one who would deliver the message of the LORD to them. For this God used prophets and judges.
This carried with it two inherit drawbacks. Moses himself acknowledges this in Deuteronomy 18. The first problem is exhibited in the very reason that Moses is speaking to them. He is telling them a new prophet will come after him because he will not be with them forever. A prophet who speaks the word of the LORD will have to be replaced because eventually the prophet will die. The second problem Moses points out to us is a little more disturbing. There will be those who will claim to speak in the name of the LORD who are not from him. We can see both of these problems as we think about the stories we know from the Old Testament. There are numerous prophets. Death did not escape any of them except Elijah and still he was taken from earth and did not prophesy for all time. We also see the dangers of false prophets who speak a false word from God. It leads the people astray and brings death.
We can truly understand these problems. In my 14 plus years of youth ministry I often played a game with students. It was called two truths and a lie. If you have never played this, it is designed to help you get to know each other a little better. In this game you come up with three statements about yourself. Two of them are true and one is false. Some students are better at this game than others. There is always a student or two that have an obvious false statement. Something nearly as outrageous as a statement like "Last summer my family vacationed on the moon". Other students though are crafty and the game is very difficult. No matter how well you know them or their family, they are able to shape a statement that is difficult to identify as false.
If this is the case with a silly youth group game, there are always going to be people who are crafty in deceiving in the name of God. Unlike the youth group game, the consequences for being deceived in the name of God is deadly. We dare not be lead astray. This is why we need something better than fallible prophets. We need one who will never fade away.
While we correctly focus on the resurrection of Jesus bringing us eternal life and the guarantee of the resurrection of our bodies, let us not forget the other important consequences of Christ's victory of death. In his ascension Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father. The New Testament makes it clear that he is now our mediator. He is the one who goes between us and God on our behalf. He is also our eternal prophet. The point of the prophets in the Old Testament was to speak to the people for God but ultimately they were pointing to one greater than themselves. The purpose of the Old Testament revelation was to show us Christ. Now, we have him. In Jesus, we have a prophet who has spoken to us and he will not die and will not speak falsely. God has spoken in his Son.
I say that this is good news for us because we no longer need a prophet to tell us what God says, we have his Word. This Word testifies to the work of Jesus for us to save us and it is sufficient for all that we need. We do not need to look to modern day prophets for a word from God. We have the Word of God who suffered and died that we might have eternal life. To look anywhere else would be a waste of time.
God has spoken in His Son and as you sojourn through this life, you can trust the Word of God because it testifies to what Christ has done for us.
