Hebrews Chapter Two, Marveling At Creation

 

This world to come is placed in subjection to mankind, not the race of angels. In Genesis 1:28 we read what God related to our first parents, “fill the earth and subdue it.” The command of subduing the earth is a strong one. The language suggests bondage, subjugation, or conquest. Man was meant to harness the natural world, being distinctively different from the plant and animal kingdoms that surrounded him, gifted with an intellectual and spiritual awareness unique to our race. This command is the foundation of true science, and men of science prior to (and after) the advent of Darwinism answered that command.

Influential theists (believers in God) included: Louis Aggasiz, founder of glacial science; Sir Francis Bacon, the man who established the scientific method of inquiry based upon experimentation and inductive reasoning; Sir Charles Bell, the first to extensively map the brain and nervous system; Robert Boyle, the found of Boyle’s Law for gasses; Nicolas Copernicus, who pioneered the first mathematically based system of planets orbiting the sun. There are more. We have Georges Cuvier, John Dalton, Rene Descartes, Jean Henri Fabre, Michael Faraday, James Joule, William Thomson Kelvin, Johannes Kepler, James Clerk Maxwell, Gregor Mendel, Sir Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Loius Pasteur for example.

 

The Greek parallel we find here in Hebrews for subjection is, “hupotasso,” and has an interesting etymology. Originally a military term, it denoted the idea of arranging troop divisions in military fashion under the command of a leader. The nonmilitary application connotes a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, or assuming responsibility. It is literally translated “to subordinate or obey.” The term is employed in 1 Timothy 2:11 when we read that women are to learn in silence and not to assert authority (leadership) in the church. The same is said of wives being in subjection to their husbands in 1 Peter 3:1, 5. Or how all saints should be in subjection to the Father, Hebrews 12:9.

 

For the church to maintain order, a headship was necessary. In the 1^st century Jewish women were to be subject to their fathers, and then to their husbands. The role and responsibility of the household’s head fell to the husband and father. And as all Christians are children of God, we are to be in subjection to our God’s parental direction in all obedience. Bearing these examples in mind, we find the world to come in subjection to Adam’s redeemed race. The created order is to be subordinate or obedient to the saints of God, and we find in Christ that at last the mandate to subdue the earth will, in Him, be fulfilled.

 

Hebrews 2:6 But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him?

 

That “one” who testified was David, from Psalm 8. Preceding this passage we read from that Psalm, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” Psalm 8:3, 4. David, in awe over the created order of the universe beyond the confines of the earth, finds himself grasping for a reason as to why God is mindful of the human race. Indeed, this awe-struck wonder would later become bitter cynicism in the minds of modern atheists such as Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett. While the former wonders about the mind of God and why importance is placed upon man’s existence, the latter scoff at the seemingly impossible notion that God, if He exists, would place any importance on a single race on a single planet in the vast reaches of the universe. The reason, of course, is to realize God’s purpose for redemption.

 

The heavens David mentions is not the Third Heaven, or the place of the throne of God, but the celestial or second heaven; in other words, the waters above the firmament that we now define as outer space. He gazes into them, seeing the whole of the celestial tapestry that the naked eye can take in and is dumbstruck. He generalizes at first, admitting amazement at the “heavens” as a whole unit, stretched as it were across the expanse of the sky. A million, million stars people the sky and as the apostle wrote, “one star differs from another star in glory (in its unique nature).” 1 Corinthians 15:41. To put the enormity of this statement, seemingly so elegantly simple, into perspective, it has been surmised that there are 200 sextillion stars in the universe, estimated. That is 21 zeroes following that 200! The genius of the Creator in making each star differ from another in glory boggles the mind. Words fail. David was stunned. Nature reveals God’s power and deity, Romans 1:20. He specifies beyond the immensity of the heavens, focusing on earth’s satellite and the visible stars, created to denote time’s passage and to give light, Genesis 1:14, 15.

 

Then David looks around him, and at himself and can’t help but wonder, “why us?” God is mindful of us; He is aware of our existence. Mindfulness begins with awareness. The Psalmist is reconciling the concept that deity, a Being who can create the majesty of the heavens by speaking, condescends to notice humanity. Considering how vast the universe is, truly beyond the scope of man’s imagination, it is easy to fall into this line of thought. But God considers mankind qualitatively. The creation week concluded with a conversation within the Trinity about man’s design. “Then God (Elohim, literally “Gods”) said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” Genesis 1:26. We’ll consider the remainder of that verse in a little while. Beyond awareness, which is a passive trait, God is attentive to us. If He were simply aware, that alone is remarkable. A God who created the spiritual world of angels and the Third Heaven, and then filled existence to bursting with an expansive, incomprehensible cosmos, takes note of humanity. But as Genesis relates, God simply spoke all things into being before arriving at our race. The Trinity conferred, and made humanity after God’s likeness. This is not anything physical, for God is a Spirit. So male or female, gender is not how this verse may be defined. We are told in Genesis 1:27, “male and female He created them.”

 

Balaam says of the Almighty, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent,” Numbers 23:19. There is something of a parallel in this passage to Psalm 8:4. What is man that God is mindful, or the son of man, that He visits him? God, according to the prophetic utterance of Balaam, is neither of these things. God uses male nouns and pronouns to define Himself in the Bible, but again, God is a Spirit. Christ incarnated as a male, and males are given by God to be heads of the family, and by extension the church, since the church is the family of God. Why? For one reason, to clearly define order. Men have a role to play that God designed us for, and woman also have a role to play that He likewise created them for.

 

Mingling the roles has always been spoken against, Deuteronomy 22:5, 1 Corinthians 11:3-15, etc. Again, why? God is a God of order. “The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God,” 1 Corinthians 11:3. As Christ our Lord is subject to the Father, so daughters or wives in like manner are to be subject to their fathers or husbands as the head of the household. God explained Himself in such terms to demonstrate that as the husband or father is the head in human relationships, the heavenly Father is the head in ALL relationships, male or female. A lack of understanding or interest in the divine ordination definitely bleeds down to a lack of respect or gender-defined boundaries in all aspects of human relations. Be it parent/child, spousal, friends or the church, straying from God’s plan for structuring our race results in confusion and discontent.

 

This topic could be a study unto itself, but let’s return to the matter at hand. In Hebrews the writer, taking his passage from the LXX, says God “takes care” of us. Psalm 8:4 in the NKJV, derived from the Masoretic Text, translates it, “You visit him”. The meaning is very similar. God looks after, or provides for us. He hears our prayers. He ordered the created universe, of which David marveled, to be so aligned that it is finely tuned to permit life on Earth. God cares for us.