1: 1-2a In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various waysa, 2but in these last daysb he has spoken to us by his Sonc, . . .
Unique among the letters of the NT, the letter to the Hebrews open without the customary greetings. We do not know if this was how the original letter was written or if the original greeting had been lost along the way. As it is, the letter suggests how passionately excited the writer was about what he had to say. Something new, with universe-changing significance, has happened and he wants his readers to understand clearly the transforming power of what it means. He is like a child all excited and he dives into the pool without ceremony.
In the past, the authors says, God had revealed himself, speaking at different times and in different waysa through the prophets. Here the author is not thinking of various claims to revelation among the pagans, or in the wonderful worlds in nature, but specifically to what had been spoken by God "to our forefathers" through the prophets of the Old Testament. As will become clear as we proceed into the letter, by this word, 'prophet,' he does not only mean only men like Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the way to Malachi. As his quotations from the OT to prove or to illustrate his points will demonstrate, what he means are all those whose revelations are now included in the OT, whether they are from the books of Moses, the Psalms, the Histories (Joshua-Chronicles) or the Prophets (as we know them). These revelations are true and from God, he says, but they are inadequate and inappropriate for the present.
"In these last days,"b the author avers, God "has spoken to us by his Son."c As he will demonstrate in the rest of the letter, everything we know about the Son—which, incidentally, he does not identify as Jesus until 2:9—is superior to the older revelations and antiquates them. More than 30x he will use words like "great/greater than," "superior to," "better than," "perfect/perfector," to characterize Christ , the Son, and the Christian faith, in order to urge his readers not to let go of their new found faith. He will go as far as to say that the older Mosaic covenant and the Levitical order is "obsolete" (8:13). In fact the thrust of the entire letter is the sharp contrast between what the old covenant represents and what the new in Christ implies.
An illustration may help clarify the contrast the author is making. Imagine that, as a king, you have been had good and cordial relationships with your neighbouring country. For as long as you can remember its king had sent agents to your court; good, reliable and extremely helpful agents. But now the king sends you a message that he will not be represented by any agent in your capital anymore. No, he will not even be sending any ambassadors. Instead he is sending a prince to represent him. But (as the distinctives in vv2b-3 make clear) he is not just any prince but the crown prince and coregent. That is the difference between "the past" and "in these last days" that the author of Hebrews has in mind.
This opening declaration has an especial importance for us in modern times. There has been an unhealthy movement in the church today of many popular preachers calling for "resorting the church to its Jewish roots."
Now, it is important and proper that we remember and appreciate our roots in the Jewish soil of faith. It is the failure to appreciate this that has led in the past to the terrible and wicked anti-Jewish attitudes and repressions that was such a rampant fixture in the Western churches. We must never permit such mis-guided teachings to innoculate our church again. What is often preached for nowadays is rather a return to (often pseudo-) Jewish practices in the churches, whether these are expressed in the blowing of shofars in the call to worship, or of fulsome (and expensive) participation in the Jewish festivals in Jerusalem every November, the adorning of a Star of David as a personal emblem of the Jewish roots, or the singing of Jewish-tuned songs of praise.1 Very often, the impression is given that our worship is more spiritual the more Jewish elements—however understood—it reflects, that a song in Hebrew is more sanctifying or pleasing to God than a hymn in the vernacular.
None of the authors of the NT, and especially of the letter to the Hebrews, would have thought to think such a thing. This opening declaration in Hebrews points to the fundamental principle that what is pleasing to God is not what is Jewish but what is "in Christ." The author of Hebrews will repeatedly stress in the rest of his letter that "in Christ" we have a far superior way than anything the Jewish roots—founded as they were in the Levitical order—have to offer. This is not anti-Semitism, but sound biblical Christology. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2), who is worthy of greater honour than Moses (3:3). "By calling this covenant 'new', he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear," the author reminds us (8:13). What is obsolete and ageing that will soon disappear cannot possibly be better or more spiritual than what we have in Christ.
Those of us who live with Muslim neighbours should take note of the power of the letter to the Hebrews to speak to them. Though we should be sensitive and say out publicly but only very caustiously, Hebrews very clearly clarifies what we are to think of the Muslim prophet Mohammed and what Islam teaches about Jesus. Very often in our evangelism to our Muslim friends, the discussion about Jesus as the Son gets bogged down in whether God can have a son or not. Hebrew's comparison of who Jesus is as the Son to what the prophets are provides a far more meaningful way to help them understand our Christian faith. Hebrew's presentation of the Son amounts to simply this: however exalted a prophet Mohammed may be, he remains only a prophet—an ambassador, not the crown prince. Think about that.
Low C. H., 2017