Hebrews 2:5-9 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 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. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The Immediacy of the Moment (for a ‘Hebrew Audience’ in the throes of persistent suffering)—is that This “Great Salvation” will usher in a “world to come” that will Not be like this one!
THEN the author proceeds to explain how things that exist have come to be what they are …and the Vocabulary is Powerfully Focused!
v. 5, 8 “subjected/subjection” is used 4 times! (hypotassō; ‘to place under,’ ‘to affix,’ ‘to subordinate’ — be under obedience, subdue unto, (Theological Dict. of the N.T.)
v. 7 describes God “making” man (a creature) LOWER THAN the angels (another creature)
v. 7 describes God giving man unique status— “crowned with glory and honor”
v. 8 describes God “putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
What is this All About? …it is a presentation of the “Divine Order” that God Arranges for His Creation!
It is the “Background Info” (the course prerequisite) for having hope in “This Great Salvation” in the “World to Come”!! Thus, if you don’t get the existence of Divine Order and the RIGHT/POWER that God has to “Arrange” His Creation however He likes—Then You Can’t Really Have the Hope that is Offered in This Great Salvation!
The author “does Systematic Theology” by taking us outside of Hebrews to Psalm 8 (which offers an explanation of man’s role and place in creation.)
Psalms 8:3-8 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Psalm 8 is the “humble cry of the human heart” in the presence of God’s Infinite Arena of Creativity & Glory! … “Why on earth would we get any kind of special treatment?”
• He goes back to CREATION!
Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…
• Psalm 8:5-6 He is “OVER” the works of God’s hands—but “LOWER THAN” the Angels
A DIVINE PATTERN/PLAN OF SUBJECTION
There is a “pattern/plan of SUBJECTION” in God’s design. …God draws a contrast between this age and the coming age in relation to how things are “subjected” to man vs angels. Angels have some kind of role in the order that exists in this world.
Deut 32:7-9 Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the LORD’S portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
Although God has entrusted the administration of the present world to angels, he has not done this in relation to the heavenly world to come. The biblical evidence for the angelic administration of the world goes back to the Song of Moses: ‘…he established boundaries for the nations according to the number of the angels of God’ (Deut. 32:8 LXX).
This reading implies that the administration of the nations had been parcelled out among a number of angelic powers. The establishment of boundaries for the nations ‘according to the number of the angels of God’ implies that the nations of the world had been subjected to the angels. Later in the Old Testament and the literature of Second Temple Judaism this implication becomes explicit.
The world to come, which God has not subjected to the angels, is ‘the new world-order inaugurated by the enthronement of Christ at the right hand of God, the world-order over which he reigns from that place of exaltation, the world of reality which replaces the preceding world of shadows’. —David O’Brien, Hebrews, PNTC
Acts 17:26 “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”
Daniel 10:5-6, 11-13 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. … 11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia…
Genesis 28:12 “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”
Jude 1:6-9 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
??? (These are Not Explained in Detail!) …But “Divine Order is a BIG DEAL!” —and Setting it Aside Brings God’s Judgment!
1 Corinthians 11:3-10 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. … 7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
1 Timothy 2:12-13 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve…
CHRIST Values and Honors Divine Authority! …and it is Intended to Inform Our Daily Lives!
Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…
“Stay in Your Lane”!! …Be Submitted to God’s Purpose & Design for Your Life—THIS will impact things like “competition, comparison, and conflict”!!—Divine Order Does That!!
Submission to Divine Order is Part of Something BIG!! …Part of God Fulfilling His Divine Purpose! (v. 8-9 “He humbled himself …God highly exalted Him”)
Heb 12:9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
… hypotassō; — be under obedience, submitted to, subject to
One could say that “Redemption” is God Fixing the DISORDER in our world!
In This “Great Salvation”—God is “REORDERING” His Creation…
Hebrews 2:5-9 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 8 …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. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
…we don’t YET see this “Restored Order”—but we see HIM who brings This Great Salvation that is On Its Way! —Have Hope as you ‘Consider Jesus’!!
The first man―the first Adam―sinned and was subjected to futility and death. The second Adam, Jesus Christ, defeated death and restored the hope of Psalm 8 for all who are in him. You, Christian, who do not neglect this great salvation, you will reign with Christ, and all things will one day be put in subjection to you. All things will serve your great good. All things, without any mixture of pain or sorrow or regret will manifest the glory of God to you and through you as you rule with Christ.
What then shall we do? Put your faith in the promise of this great future grace―that what you see in Christ today will someday be your portion. Fix your eyes on Christ, not on the pain and futility and frustration and sickness and death of this age. They will not have the last word. Christ has conquered death and all the sin and pain that leads to death. Think on him. Consider him. Look to him.
And say to cancer and paralysis and sightless children and airplane-eating Everglades and child-shooting fathers―say to every unsubjected enemy―”Psalm 8 is my destiny! In Christ Jesus all things will one day be put under my feet, and I will rule with him in glory forever and ever. —John Piper, Who Rules the World to Come
I will rule and these things will be true because GOD will SUBJECT these things (“put them under my feet”)! This great hope and promise is true, Because God Puts Things in Their Place!
This is POWERFUL!! …But 2 things that cause us to MISS/Minimize THIS!
(1) A Lack of Systematic Theology
(2) Our American Democracy …What happens when “Divine Order” meets “The Declaration of Independence”
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The HOPE of “This Great Salvation”—is that GOD has the Authority, Power, & Right to REORDER Our World—No Matter Who Opposes That! …Our Hope is in HIS DIVINE ORDER