#DailyDevotion We Have Been Taught By God
Heb. 1 At many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers long ago by the prophets, 2but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son…”
The theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better than anyone or anything else, in creation, in the heavens, in the Torah and the Mosaic covenant. It begins here with the prophets. The opening words, “many times and in many ways,” implies in the language something that was partial, incomplete, and not fully revealed. God had spoken to us through the prophets. He preached through Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joseph had also made known the LORD in Egypt. He gave the Israelites His instructions through Moses. Then through many different prophets He spoke to Israel calling them to repentance and faith in Him. Yet these would not be the “Prophet” promised through Moses. Yet, the LORD conveyed enough through these prophets the people knew what His nature, attitude and will to them was. He conveyed there would be a Prophet who would come to be the Judge, Savior, and Redeemer of the world. In fact, it would be His Son, probably revealed as the Angel of the LORD in the Old Testament books.
In these last days, He, the Father, has spoken to us by His Son. There’s a bit to unpack there. First, last days, is something we should pay attention to with all the “apocalypse” nutty Christians running around. I’m shocked the number of Christians who ask me if I think we are in the Last Days. Too many Christians have been infected with a millenialism view of Scripture, you know, one where there are seven final years of history where all hell breaks loose. If we only paid attention to this sentence here and do a simple concordance search of “last days” we would certainly know that we have been in the Last Days since at least Pentecost, as Peter says in Acts 2, “16No, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about: 17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on all people.’” Paul and James also tells we are in the Last Days. We’ve been in the last days since the Apostles were sent forth into the world. We need not fear the last days as something coming upon us. We should make certain we are living repentant lives. Those who live repentant lives trusting in Jesus Christ have no fear of the Last Day. We know whose we are and where we are going. While we may not be as bold as Paul, thinking it joy to suffer with Christ, we do not fear it either.
The Father has spoken to us by His Son. Jesus testifies to this. In John 8:28 Jesus says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will know I am the one and I do nothing by Myself, but I speak as My Father taught Me.” In John 12:48ff Jesus says, “If anyone rejects Me and doesn’t take to heart what I say, he has one that is condemning him. The Word that I spoke will condemn him on the last day, 49because what I said didn’t come from Me, but the Father Who sent Me ordered Me to say and tell it. 50I know what He orders is everlasting life. And so, whatever I say, I say it just as the Father told Me.” In John 14 Jesus says, “10Don’t you believe I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? What I tell you doesn’t come from Me, but the Father, Who lives in Me, is doing His works.”
In the Gospels, but more than that, through the Apostles’ words after the resurrection, we have the very teachings, the very words of the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, our LORD. We are called then to believe, teach, confess and live out these words in our lives.
Merciful Father, You have spoken to us through Your Son, Jesus Christ, the words of life, that we may have eternal life through them. Grant us faith to believe. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.