http://Creator, Prophet, HeirCreator, Prophet, and Heir: all fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, who at sundry times and in diver manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.”
The revealing of Scriptures was not to any one prophet but received in portions by many.
- To Noah was revealed the world to which the Messiah should belong.
- To Abraham, the nation to which Messiah would come.
- To Jacob, the tribe from which Messiah would descend.
- To David and Isaiah, the family.
- To Micah, the town of Messiah’s birth, Bethlehem.
- To Daniel, the exact time of Messiah’s coming.
- To Malachi, the announcement of God’s messenger of the covenant and Christ’s Second Advent.
- Through Jonah, Christ’s burial and resurrection.
- Through Isaiah and Hosea, Christ’s resurrection.
A part given to each Prophet, so when Christ came, that which was done in part was done away with.
Darkly in the N.T. is used as a metaphor, meaning an obscure declaration.
1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul writes, “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Darkly is used enigmatically, meaning a thing hard to understand, as in a riddle, puzzle, or obscure.
Numbers 12:8, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches.”
Proverbs 1:5-6, “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.”
Ancient writers called an obscure prophecy “A specular (a mirror) which is not clear.”
The oracles of God revealed by internal suggestions, audible voices, the Urim and thrumming, dreams, and visions.
In one way, God was seen by Moses, in another way by Elias, and in another by Micah. Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel each beheld a different form.
The number of Prophets given revelation demonstrated that each had prophesied only in part. With the coming of Christ our King, High Priest, and Prophet, the Father’s will was revealed fully, not in various hues of different colors, but by the whole spectrum of pure Light given in Christ.
God made known His will, in the manifestation of His love to the world, by giving us revelations for the salvation of humanity, first in part to the Prophets, then completed in Christ Jesus.
Between Malachi and John the Baptist, no Prophet spoke to the Jews for four hundred years. The Father’s intention was, in this dark period, the coming of the Son of God would be the object of the Jews’ expectations.
The Father spoke first through his prophets, then through Jesus Christ, he being the last and the highest manifestation of the Father’s called Prophets.
- Matthew 21:34, “When the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants (the Prophets) to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.”
- Matthew 21:37, “But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son.”
The Prophets sent in small measures, but Christ came in the fullness of the Spirit of God; he dwells in him bodily.
- John 1:16, “And of His (Jesus) fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
- John 3:34, “For He who God (the Father) hath sent speaks the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him (Jesus).”
- Colossians 2:9, “For in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Our Lord answers the objection of the Jews, drawing from their own Prophets, for He is the end of all prophecy.
- Revelation 19:10, “I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
- John 1:17, Jesus is the end of the law of Moses, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
- John 5:46, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me (Jesus,) for he wrote of me.”
“In these last days spoken unto us,” meaning the whole time. Time was divided into two stages; this age and the age to come. The world to come is the new dispensation brought in by Jesus, beginning in grace here and now and after, completed in glory.
It’s called “To come,” or “about to be,” as at the time of being subjected to Christ by Divine decree. It was then a thing of the future and is yet so concerning its completion.
Regarding subjecting all things to Christ in fulfillment of Psalms 8 (please read), the realization is still “to come.”
Paul wrote when the priesthood and O.T. rituals were still in force until Jerusalem’s destruction. The ancient Jews knew how to view the statements of Paul. We, like them, still pray, “Thy kingdom come,” for its manifestation is yet future. So, the days of Messiah were the transition period, the “last days,” in contrast to “In times past.”
“Spoken unto us by His Son.”
John 14:10, “Believe thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.”
Jesus’ majesty is set forth by the very title of Son, and by the predictions,
- “Whom He hath appointed,”
- “By whom He hath made the worlds,”
- “Who sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Jesus, the heir to the throne, follows His Son-ship and precedes’ His making the worlds.’
Proverbs 8:22, “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.”
Proverbs 8:23, “I was set up (anointed) from everlasting from the beginning, or ever the earth was.”
We see both the Father and Son together before the works of old, “The LORD (the Father) possessed me — before His works of old,” Jesus created all things, thus making Him Lord and God of all things, all to the glory of the Father who sent Him.
Ephesians 3:11, “According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As the “only begotten of the Father,” Jesus is the heir of the universe,
Hebrews 1:6, “Again, when He bringeth in the first begotten unto the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him.”
So, the Son of God, was the instrument by which the Father put His will into effect,
Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
“The word of God,” answers to “by whom,”
John 1:3, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
Christ Jesus was appointed in the Father’s eternal counsel to be the Creator of the material and spiritual worlds. His office, Creator, is his title, and the universe, his kingdom.
Jesus is “Heir of all things,” by right of creation. The promise given to Abraham that he should be heir of the world; this promise will have its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.
Romans 4:13, “For the promise, that He should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Galatians 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.”
Galatians 4:7, “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
In Genesis 1:3, God said, “Let there be Light, and their was light.”
That Light was the (Shekinah) glory of the Son, coming to a barren world, a world without life, and God said, “Let there be,” and life came into existence, for in Jesus is life. Therefore, Jesus is the “Heir of all things” by the right of creation.
“He made the worlds.” The inferior and superior worlds,
Colossians 1:16, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.”
Translated all things and persons belonging to them, the universe, including all space and periods, and all material and spiritual existences. The Greek tells us the Father appointed His Son as heir of all things before the creation and made the worlds by Him.
For Jesus is “The brightness of His (the Father’s) glory.” As a flood of Light, our Lord shines with great splendor, brightness, and Divine glory. To look upon Him in all His glory would bring to us death. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, for He upholds and sits at the Father’s right hand. From glory, He came; to glory, He ascended.
John 17:5, Jesus said, “Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
The Father’s will has been revealed in the words and works of His Last Prophet, ‘His only Begotten Son,’ Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Jews precisely what the Father had given to him. His words and His works published in the volume of the Bible.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com