God has Spoken
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 1:1-3
“God spoke to our fathers” (verse 1), “He has spoken unto us” (verse 2). Let that thought sink in for a moment…
A while back a friend was telling me about an experience he had. He and his wife were having breakfast at a local diner and noticed a famous person was also eating there. They approached this person and struck up a brief conversation. The celebrity was courteous and talked with them for a few minutes. The point is, he was telling me this story because he felt honored that a famous person talked to him. It isn’t likely that he was going to go around telling anyone a few months later about talking to me.
Now, put that in the light of what we are told here. God spoke to our fathers and God has spoken unto us.
Someone asked a question on Facebook. The question everyone was asked to respond to was, “Who is the most famous person you have ever spoken to?” I read several of the comments and they were filled with names of movie stars, politicians, and musicians. Then, me being me, I commented, “Jesus Christ.” I couldn’t think of anyone greater than that to have spoken to. But more astounding is the idea that the Creator God has spoken unto us.
A literal rendering of the phrase “by his Son,” in the second verse would be “in Son.” So, the full idea would be “God has spoken to us in Son.” It isn’t translated that was for good reason. It doesn’t make much sense in common English vernacular to say it that way. When we read “by his Son,” we think in terms of Christ being the vehicle or the message of God. Comparing it to verse one where it says, “God spoke to the fathers by the prophets,” we understand the prophets to be the ones through whom God spoke. We carry that idea over into verse two and understand that Christ is the One through whom God spoke.
That is not wrong, but it isn’t complete. The message of God unto us is not just given through what Jesus said, it is also in who Jesus is. He is, to use the literal rendering of Hebrews 1:2, the language of God. He is the Word (John 1). Jesus is the message of God unto us.