God’s first-hand message

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. (verses 1, 2)

Read Hebrews 1:1-14

One of the key words in the Letter to the Hebrews is ‘better’. With Jesus we have a better high priest, a better sacrifice for sin, a better hope of eternity, a better covenant with better blessings. Before beginning his argument that the Son of God is better than, superior to, the angels, the writer asserts that God’s revelation through his Son is better than all past revelation. In Jesus we hear the voice of God completely, clearly and finally.

This doesn’t mean that patriarchs and prophets failed to listen properly when God spoke to them. They were all faithful servants, but they were never more than pointers to the future. Only the Son knows the Father perfectly. He was with the Father at the creation of the world and he will be there when God perfects his work at the end of time (verse 2).

God can still talk to us through dreams and other life experiences, but they may be ambiguous and open to interpretation. Only in the Scriptures can you hear the clear voice of God. They are the swaddling clothes in which the Son of God is wrapped, as Luther says.

Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself perfectly through Jesus, your Son, my Lord. Help me to hear his voice in the Scriptures, so that I may know and do your will. Amen.

by Vic Pfitzner, in ‘Time Out…with Jesus’  (ACR, Australian Church Resources 2014)