Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. (1.1-2)
These verses say that God speaks and has been speaking for a long time. In times past, God spoke to the people through prophets – at many times and in many ways. That phrase “in many ways” literally means “in various pieces.” This means that the revelation of who God is and what he is like has been piecemeal, incomplete. Each prophet captured a piece of the picture of God, but there was always more to say.
But the writer of Hebrews says that all this has changed “in these last days.” What has changed? Not the fact that God speaks, but the way that God is speaking. “he has spoken to us by his son.” This verse is telling you that there is something different about the way that God has spoken through Christ and the way that he has spoken through the prophets of old. Verse 3 elaborates:
The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.
It’s like he saying, through the prophets, God had been sending advance sketches of himself, and now, in Christ, he gives us an exact portrait. God expresses himself completely and fully through Christ.
This does not simply mean that Jesus speaks the words of God. It means that everything about Jesus images, depicts, embodies God: everything he says, everything he does, says, “This is who God is.”
God’s words, spoken through the prophets, are powerful and beautiful and meaningful. But the coming of Christ communicates something deeper than words. Jesus is the supreme expression of God breaking the silence and speaking in a way so much more powerful, and vivid and effective than with words. How do we know what God is like? We look at Jesus. Jesus is the exact representation, the perfect picture of God.
Let’s look at him today. Amen.
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