Hebrews Chapter One, The Worship Of Angels

 

Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son”? [6] But when he brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

 

The word angel means messenger. The messenger can be human or heavenly; if the former it is a prophet or minister elected by God for a specific reason. If the latter, much the same case, but often having purposes beyond the message bearing of the prophets. The first instance of angelic activity was in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:1 tells us that a serpent beguiled Eve, who in turn enticed Adam to disobey. We learn with absolute certainty that “the ancient serpent,” Revelation 12:9, NIV, also called the dragon, the devil, and Satan, was the self-same being in the primeval garden. Before Satan determined to corrupt our first parents in an act of defiant rebellion against his Maker, he had already departed in his heart.

Known once as Lucifer (meaning Shining One or Light Bearer), he was a cherub of God, an angelic power of the highest order, Ezekiel 28:13, 14, Isaiah 14:12. We learn in Genesis 3:24 that the cherubim were placed to guard the gate to Eden with the flaming sword after the expulsion of our first parents. The reason this might have been was that Eden was something of a primeval tabernacle in the pre-Flood world, and the cherubim are always associated as overshadowing the throne of God, Exodus 25:18-20. “You were the anointed cherub who covers…and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones,” Ezekiel 28:14, 15. The cherub, which may be a title given the highest honored of angels, stood before the throne of God. And it was in God’s very presence that Lucifer’s apostasy began. “I will exalt my throne above the stars (a euphemism for fellow angels, see Job 38:7) of God…I will be like the Most High,” Isaiah 14:13, 14. This self-same delusion is foisted upon our first parents by a now fallen Lucifer: “and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” Genesis 3:5. Satan, our first parents, and everyone else sold this delusion, “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever,” Romans 1:25. In the Antichrist’s time we read, “They did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,” 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11. The same angelic deception, whose germ first infected Lucifer’s otherwise pristine wisdom, personifies in the Man of Sin, “So that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Satan’s replacement Christ, deceived into believing the lie of godhood, sells it to his devotees who reject Christ’s sacrifice for sin and endeavor to ascend to deity personally instead. This is “the lie,” that any created thing deserves worship, or to be elevated to be “like God” since there is no being in existence like our God, eternal, infinite, all wise, almighty.

 

It seems then, that angels, like men, can seek to steal from God the worship due only to our Creator. Not all of them, of course. We are told that Satan led a full one third of Heaven’s host into his doomed rebellion, Revelation 12:4. Despite the bluster of the enemy Scripture stands firm, relating that God never declared to any of the angelic host that they were begotten of Him to be His heir. Whereas men are stewards or custodians of God’s creation ruling it in His name, angels are His messengers or emissaries that speak or act on His behalf. It is made abundantly, even painfully clear, that the Son God begot would be in the express image of His person, since He repeatedly explained to Israel that He would not surrender His rule or worship to another. In layman’s terms, the Coming One would be God Himself.

 

“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior,” Isaiah 43:10, 11. “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God,” Isaiah 44:6. “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another,” Isaiah 48:11.

 

There is no created being to parallel to the Lord God. He alone is Savior; He alone is God, no God was formed (i.e. created) before or after Him. He will not give His glory, the glory that is naturally His by virtue of His divine nature to another being. The creature grasps for what it cannot even vaguely perceive: the holy purity of the uncreated Triune God. The two OT verses cited both attest to a time when the Word would become the Son, and be begotten of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. “Today I have begotten You…I will be…and He shall be…” The prophets looked toward the consummation.

 

Verse 6, like the first two OT verses cited (Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14) distinctly speak of a particular time, a time of God’s appointment, when this thing will happen. The Father will bring the firstborn into the world. The Word of God will become Jesus the Christ, Israel’s Messiah and the world’s Savior. Christ was before all things; in fact His sacrifice for sin was already ordained of God before Adam or Eden. “In the hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,” Titus 1:2; see also 1 Peter 1:20. “Before time began,” is literally, “before times eternal.” We read in Revelation 13:8 that Jesus, as the perfect Lamb of God, was slain from the foundation of the world. When God slew an animal in Eden to cover our first parents it was symbolic of what was already an accomplished fact in the mind of God: the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross for our sins. In all things, Jesus our Lord has the preeminence.

 

This citation is taken from the Septuagint (LXX) or Greek translation of the Old Testament, and was also found in a Dead Sea Scroll manuscript in the Qumran Caves.  The King James Version follows what is known as the Masoretic Text from the scribal Masoretes, transcribed between the 5^th and 10^th centuries AD. In that vein, the NKJV likewise follows suit and omits this passage from the verse or relegates it to a footnote. The verse, taken in toto, reads: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; and let all the gods (angels) worship Him, for he will avenge the blood of His servants…” Deuteronomy 32:43. Since Jesus and the apostles (not to mention the Judaists of His day) universally used the Septuagint for the reading of the Old Testament it is not shocking to find the passage absent in the Masoretic Text. Yet Hebrews 1:6 testifies of this snippet’s authenticity, its preservation in the LXX and recovery in the Dead Sea Scrolls vindicate it’s inclusion and use in the epistle.

 

Nonetheless the verse is explicit in its command for the angels to adore the advent of the Son of God. The angels were given command to worship. Worship, in a sense, is an admission of our creatureness, if you will. As created beings it is natural to acknowledge the Creator and give to Him the honor, love and devotion due to a being that has given to us existence, consciousness and free will. Yes, angels worship the Lord like we do, Luke 2:13, 14, Job 38:7, Revelation 5:11-14. Now we have come full circle from Colossians 2:18, 19. It is the height of folly to offer or attribute worship to a created being. It reveals carnality; another way of stating that the individual so engaged in angel worship lacks genuine spiritual wisdom or discernment. This can extend to Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox saints, Mary, or any other created being. Worship is the prerogative of the believer to elevate God to the position He deserves: preeminence. It is wise to consider the doctrinal teachings of any professing Christian sect and what their views of Christ are. A devalued Christ (demoting Him to any creature status) invariably promotes human position and invites a legalistic/works religion. Verse 6, in contrast to this heterodox thinking, reminds us that God’s angels are to worship the Son. This places them firmly in the camp of a created race, apart from humanity, that are likewise entirely dependent upon the mercy and grace of God’s upholding power to sustain them. They are, as the angel told the apostle John, fellow servants. There is more to be said regarding the angelic orders as we continue our study of Angelology.