Hear the Prophet, God’s Word

Hebrews 1:1-4 

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Throughout the Old Testament times we heard from God through chosen men given His words to His chosen people.  These prophets were used by Him to remind of past failures of sin, of present perils, and of future consequences to them individually and as a people.  These warnings and consolations, with rewards and punishments, were given by inspiration of His Spirit and written down for continued hearing and learning from God of His will and ongoing plans for the future He laid out.  But when the fullness of times came He sent his Son, His very word as a man, to speak to us directly as the final or consummate prophet, foretelling us, “Him you shall hear (Deuteronomy 18:15, Acts 3:22, Acts 7:37).”  Jesus Christ was God speaking creation into existence, showing us God’s glory as the exact expression of our Father in His Son walking among us (Emmanuel).  Because He holds everything together as the power of God’s Word, He was able to clean away our sins (Psalm 51:7) forever by His perfect atonement.  He then rose from the grave to sit in sovereign reigning power above all creation and created beings, having the name above all names to be worshipped (Ephesians 1:21, Philippians 2:9-10, Isaiah 45:23).  His inheritance as the God-man is ours in Him, and this is why He is the final word above all prophets, yet culminating all they said as the one who gave them the words in the first place.  We therefore listen to Him through the apostles and chosen eyewitnesses who recorded the Word for us in the New Testament, knowing the Old is as valid because these words are all His (2 Timothy 3:16-17).