1:7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.”
Having established that Christ is the exact representation of the Father, that He is the co-creator and co-sustainer of the universe, and that He has been established as the rightful monarch and heir of all things, the writer now turns his attention briefly to the angels by quoting this verse from Psalm 104:4.
As we have already seen, the exaltation of angels was a problem both among the Jews and among the Gentiles. Therefore, in establishing the superiority of Christ in every area, the author must show a clear comparison between Him and the angels, and he does that in this verse. He has already made it clear that, even though in the past angels may have been referred to generically as “sons of God”, no angel has ever personally received the specific title, Son. Now he gives the angels another designation: minister, or servant.
The difference between a servant and a son is vast. The son has absolute rights over the entire estate; the servant has only the right to perform the duties assigned to him by the master. The son owns everything; the servant has only what the master gives him. The son rules; the servant obeys. The son has a permanent place in the household, the servant remains only as long as the master has use of him. The son has authority; the servant, even when acting on behalf of the master, has only the authority delegated to him.
More than that, the angels are created, whereas the Son is uncreated. Verse 6 spoke of God bringing His firstbegotten into the world. The Son came forth from the very essence of the Father. The angels, however, He makes to be spirits and flames of fire. Unlike the eternal Son, they had a beginning; they are part of His creation, but the Son is co-creator.
The terms “spirits” (or “winds”) and “flames of fire” speak of two things. Firstly, they show the temporal nature of angels. When thinking about angels, it is easy for man to see them as semi-divine beings, sharing eternity with God. The writer here clearly insists that they are not. Rather, they are transient, as temporary as wind or fire.
Secondly, these words show the control of God over the angels. Just as He controls the wind and the fire, the angels are subject to Him, and can act only according to His directions. Since the Son is in every way equal to the Father, this also means that they can only act according to the directions of the Son.
Thirdly, these words show the swiftness with which the angels move to carryout the wishes of the Godhead. They are not only servants, but willing servants, every ready to respond to a word from the Master.
Without needing to labor the point, these distinctions make the superiority of Christ over the angels abundantly clear.
v.8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom. v.9 You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”
These verses from Psalm 45:6-7 were understood by most rabbis to be Messianic. The first thing to note is that they very clearly refer to the Son as God. Whilst some who want to deny the reality of the Trinity have tried to get around it by translating it as “God is Your throne”, most scholars agree that this is not a good translation, either of the original Hebrew of the Psalm, or of the Greek of the Book of Hebrews. The inescapable truth is, the Son is God, equal to the Father in every respect, and therefore in every respect superior to every created being.
Again, the throne speaks of rulership. It is the throne to which Christ as the Son is the rightful heir. And it is not a temporary thing. Every earthly king that ever was reigned for a time, then died, and his throne passed to someone else. The Son, however, will never die again. His throne will never pass into the hands of another. His kingship extends to the end of time and beyond.
The scepter also speaks of authority and rule, but promises that, unlike so many of the natural kings who ruled as despots seeking only their own benefit no matter what corruption was necessary to obtain it, the Son will rule in righteousness. Psalm 125:3 carries the promise that “the scepter of the wicked shall not remain over the land allotted to the righteous.” As we look around at our world today, it may seem that wickedness rules in so many areas: the prevalence of false religions, the upsurge in the occult, the predominance of injustice, the scourge of unnecessary poverty. The promise is that the Son will overthrow that rule of wickedness, and establish the rule of righteousness.
We might think that this was automatic. After all, as God the Son He had always held that position of authority; He had always been ruler of the universe. Yet as man, Christ had earned His position. As one who was fully human, as well as fully divine, He had a free will. If He had not been capable of unrighteousness, His righteousness would have meant nothing. If He had not been capable of sin, the devil would not have wasted his time trying to tempt Him in the wilderness. The world was brought into captivity to sin by one man’s act of willful disobedience. It could only be brought out of that bondage by one man’s willful act of obedience, His genuine choice of righteousness over unrighteousness.
Because He chose rightly, because He chose (loved) righteousness and rejected (hated) iniquity, He received the reward of the Kingdom. Again, the writer gives us the wonderful picture of God the Father anointing God the Son to His royal position. This anointing is a source of great joy to the Son. In chapter 12 verse 2 we are told that it was “for the joy that was set before Him” that Christ endured the cross. That joy includes not only the salvation of all men who will receive Him, but the full restoration of the Kingdom. Both His joy and His anointing are greater than those of any other man, for He alone has walked where no other ,man has walked, He alone has been totally faithful to the very end, He alone has clung to righteousness in spite of every temptation – and every opportunity – to turn to wickedness. Truly the throne is rightfully His, not just because of His eternal position but because of His completed work.