So, if you’ve been following along with us in the book of Hebrews, you’re probably wondering something right about now:

What is this book’s deal with angels?

I thought you’d never ask.
Throughout the first chapter, all of the author’s arguments revolve around Jesus being superior to the angels (just as future chapters will compare Jesus with other figures from Israel’s history). While we don’t know too much about the audience receiving the book of Hebrews, the author indicates they’re in danger of sliding back into older customs that might conflict with their new lives in Christ, and one of those customs is a sort of hyper reverence for angels.

The Jewish people in Jesus’s day strongly emphasized the role of the angels, suggesting any place in scripture where a person spoke to God, an angel must have been present as an intermediary:
God giving laws to Moses on Mt. Sinai? Must have involved an angel.
God calling to Samuel at night? Gotta be an angel.
Elijah hearing a still small voice? Yep, angel.
You get the idea.
The author of Hebrews isn’t just picking on these angel devotees though; the author is setting the groundwork for a deeper conversation about who Jesus is. Sure, God uses angels to deliver messages before, during, and after Jesus’s earthly ministry, but the later chapters of Hebrews will set up Jesus as the truest intermediary. The angels ought not to be worshipped or prayed to in the way we worship and pray to Jesus; like us, the angels are serving something higher.

The author invites readers to cling to this message —the message of salvation through Jesus— so we don’t “drift away.” For the first readers of the letter, “drifting away” may have meant slowly reinstating their Jewish heritage at the expense of their new Christian identity, but for all of us reading the letter in the modern era, perhaps there are other treacherous waters into which we might drift.
Maybe our “drifting away” has to do with ego or possessions.
Maybe we’re letting political ideologies overwhelm our spiritual identities.
Or maybe it’s just the fact that we’re so damn busy all the time.
I imagine all of us reading these verses will have different drifts.
We’re distracted by different things vying for our attentions.
But the anchor to which we cling is the same:
the one who is higher than the angels,
the one who announced salvation,
the giver of the Holy Spirit,
Jesus.
Brews & Hebrews meets every Sunday at 6:30pm at Aardwolf Brewing Co. In our next session, we’ll pick up at Hebrews 2:6. While no prep ahead of time is necessary, it may be helpful to revisit previous chapters beforehand. I’d love to see you there!