Hebrews 2:7 – For a Little While

We tend to forget the plans and purposes that God has for mankind.  Perhaps we get too caught up in the way of the world with its lures and temptations.  It was never supposed to be like this.  Recall that God’s original command to Adam and Eve was quite expansive, as Genesis 1:28-30 tells us:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion … Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth…”  And it was so.

In seeing all that he had made, God pronounced it very good.  We were integral to what should have been the transforming of the planet so as to make it just like the Garden of Eden.

That didn’t work out so well, but God wasn’t deterred.  After the fall of man and the destruction by the flood of all living creatures, the Lord commanded Noah in Genesis 9:1-3 with the same instructions:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”

Once more, man blew it, but God had a better plan.  He would send His Son Jesus to redeem the world in order to set things right and get the original project back on track.  You see, we needed divine help to do what God intended.  With that in view, Hebrews 2:6-9 gives us an intriguing bit of information:

It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,

    or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels;

    you have crowned him with glory and honor,

    putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus… 

Jesus is God, the 2nd Person of the Trinity.  In His incarnation on the earth, for a little while, He was made  lower than the angels.  Hebrews goes on to tell us that Jesus experienced what common mankind did, i.e. He tasted death.  Not only that, He suffered just as any regular person might.  However, His suffering and death had a grand purpose: that we should find salvation in Him and Him alone.

Through the salvation we gain in Christ because of what He did on the cross in shedding His blood for us, we are also sanctified, i.e. consecrated, set apart, made holy, in His Name.

Now watch this: In our sanctification, two astounding results come about that Hebrews 2:11-12 declares:

… That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;

    in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

One: Jesus calls us His brothers.  Not only is He our God, King, High Priest, Savior and Lord, but through this transformative process, we also become brothers of Christ Jesus.  We are family.

Two: This is something that many people miss.  A day is coming when Jesus will introduce us to the other members of His family in the spiritual realm.  Not only that, but He will laud us, i.e. He will sing our praises!

The congregation referenced in the above verse is the assembly of the heavenly host in the throne room of God.  It is what is called the Divine Council.  This is where the sons of God, the bene Elohim, all gather.  This includes all the loyal mighty divine princes of the heavenly realm, Seraphim, Cherubim, and the powerful angels, such as Michael and Gabriel.  It is in the midst of these that we who have been saved, sanctified, and glorified will come and be introduced by Jesus as His brothers.

What does this mean?  Jesus will proudly brag about us to those who are His spiritual brothers in the heavenlies.  Since we at this point have our glorified bodies and are also the brothers (and sisters) of Jesus, what is conveyed here is a family reunion.

At the point that we, who are the beloved Bride of Christ, are Raptured, we gain these glorified bodies.  Some time over the next seven years this introduction in the Divine Council will take place.  The end of the Tribulation sees us following behind Jesus back to earth with His subsequent reign for 1,000 years.  We will rule and judge with Him under His supervision.

Judgment is coming for the spiritual beings who rebelled against God.  We will participate in that day of judgment.  Going forward, we will work hand-in-hand with our new brothers in heaven who have cheered us on through our struggles on earth as we gained this glorious eternity because of Jesus.

Is it any wonder that the writer of this epistle asked in Hebrews 2:3:

… how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? … 

And this is just the beginning of the glory that we’ll experience in the time soon to come.  Isn’t it worth hanging on through our trials and tribulations to gain this great salvation with all that is to come after that?

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