Hebrews 1:1-4 | What's happening (and who's involved)?

Unlike most books we see in the Scriptures, we remain uninformed of who wrote the book of Hebrews. Many speculations have been thrown out of who may have authored it. While that may be an important conversation in terms of the defense of the Scriptures, it is not directly pertinent to what we are doing here. In any case, I would like to provide some historical context behind the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews was written to Jewish believers during Nero's reign. If you wish to know more concerning Nero, you can learn more from this article here. Long story short, he was bad news for the believers. Under the Roman Empire, Judaism was recognized as a legal religion, however Christianity was not. Based upon the horrible way Christians were being persecuted as a result, many Jewish believers started to rejoin the synagogue and deny Jesus as the Messiah. This they would do in an effort to halt their persecutions. We will see these themes emerging throughout the book. The author intends to exalt Jesus above every other name and show the greatness of His glory and build up the faith of the believer. So let us unfold what the book of Hebrews has for us today.

Verses 1-4 of Hebrews 1 is a powerhouse of a section of Scripture. I remember my days in Bible college where we sat on these four verses for half of a semester. The intent was that we should get through the entire book in the semester, but my professor had noticed something concerning the book. If we miss what is in these first four verses, we will miss the heart of the lessons found behind the rest of the book. Just when we thought we had exhausted the text, there was more to be found. In no sense to I intend to exhaust the text as much as we had then, but I do encourage you to patiently wait upon the Lord over these four verses in the months to come as we explore Hebrews.

To begin, we are introduced to the most prominent figure in all of Scripture, God. This character is attributed to having spoken to the fathers by the prophets in various times and various ways. This draws the reader of the day to immediately consider just what God is being spoken of. This is the God of their fathers, the very one they worship. Not only has He spoken to the fathers through the prophets, but He has also spoken to us through His Son. The reader understood who God was. They read the prophets and gathered much from the Law concerning this God they serve. The Son is a "new to them" character that has a prevailing role through the Old Testament. So the Son gets an introduction. I will lay out point by point what is demonstrated concerning the Son:

• He is appointed heir of all things
• The worlds were made through Him
• He is the brightness of God's glory
• He is the express image of God's person
• He upholds all things by the word of His power
• He Himself purged our sins
• He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
• He is better than the angels
• He has obtained, by inheritance, a more excellent name than they

These are some seriously amazing qualities concerning an individual. The purpose of this is to highlight the excellence of Christ. None of the prophets before can check off this list. None of the angels check off this list. None of the fathers check off this list. Jesus will continue to be compared to these figures in the Old Testament and it will be shown that Jesus is better.

There is a lot to cover as we get into this throughout the week, and I am excited to be diving in. Let's see what the Lord reveals to us as we explore this. But I must ask as well, what observations are you making through this passage?