God, who at various times and in diverse ways spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the world. He is the brightness of His glory, the express image of Himself, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Hebrews 1:2–3

When recently reading this portion of Scripture, it reminded me of a recent conversation. The gist of which was an objection to this phrase, “Jesus is God.” The objection went something like, “Jesus was God, but not at this time.” As He is sitting at the right hand of God.

Granted, when discussing this issue, things become very difficult for our finite minds to grasp. Even my bride asked me recently about these things, and they are hard to explain. I think there are multiple reasons. One is our limited physical reality which inhibits film understand of spiritual things. Second, and probably most important, is that He says there is no one like Him. I think that means there is nothing akin to God as One.

Remember the former things of old,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
“My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My good pleasure,”

Isaiah 46:9–10

I know that there are those who object to the idea that Jesus is God and is sitting at the right-hand of God because it doesn’t make sense. To cope with that, the explanation is as if somehow Jesus is separate from and takes off what it is to be God. The idea is rather difficult because there is nothing to like Him for comparison.

It’s a point that God says of Himself, He is not like anything else. He just is.

Considering that, I think the writer of Hebrews wants to convey the clear distinction between the Father and the Son… And how Each is no less God. (I would add ‘at any time,’ but that makes a mess of things because God is not encumbered by time.) I also think this portion of Hebrews lends help to enlighten a weird passage in the Torah. Which in turn helps to clarify the issue at hand.

Yes, the Father spoke though prophets, but then He sent His Son. The Son is Heir of all things. He is everything that God is. Yet there is a distinction. It is the Son Who Himself purged our sins. The Son then sat down at the right hand of Majesty. That hints that there is something significantly different about the Son… It is a term I think of as locality. It is also seems as if Jesus put Himself in the position of contingency to God. Paul indicates this in Philippians 2. He said that Jesus emptied Himself of what it was to be God and took on the form of a servant not considering equality with God as something to hold tight. This is instructive because Jesus has to rely on God, and in that way He becomes a model to follow.

The writer of a Hebrews will make the case that a body was prepared for the Son. A human body, conceived, gestated, born, grown to adulthood, and eventually wounded to death by sin. It’s the humility of the Savior submitting Himself to the penalty of sin, death. He is human in every way yet perfectly sinless. Death had no claim to Him and He took up His life again. Yet He still has a body, and is not like a spirit. He’s not like an angel at all. Therefore He has locality like any other human. Yet He is still God in every way.

He was made so much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
For to which of the angels did He at any time say:
“You are My Son;
today I have become Your Father”?
Or again,
“I will be a Father to Him,
and He shall be a Son to Me”?
And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says:
“Let all the angels of God worship Him.”
Of the angels He says:
“He makes His angels spirits,
and His servants a flame of fire.”

Hebrews 1:4–7

Jesus is far superior to the angels. He is Unique. The language reveals the conception of the Son. Humans conceive and beget children, angels do not. (Though the Bible speaks plainly that some of those left that estate and sought strange or different flesh.) It’s a precise idea being conveyed. Jesus is human, He has a body. Angels don’t have a body.

He is the Son and His position is clearly God as all the angels worship Him… At His birth, and even at the right hand of God. It is like God is talking to God. I write it that way because the Father is speaking to the Son, God to God. I’m certain this might just fry the thinking circuits of many. But God is clearly talking to God. He’s not talking to Himself, as there are two distinct Persons involved. The One speaking is God and the One being praised is God.

Don’t believe what I say. It is what the Bible says.

But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, lasts forever and ever;
a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
They will perish, but You remain;
and they all will wear out like a garment;
as a cloak You will fold them up,
and they will be changed.
But You are the same,
and Your years will not end.”

Hebrews 1:8–12

Your throne, Oh God… That’s the Son. Therefore God, your God… That’s the Father. It is crystal clear that God is talking to God. And it’s not like you or I when we talk to ourselves.

Now, it might all seem to be a game in semantics. But it is necessary to look back at the Torah for some contextual clues. I think there is one incident back in Genesis that is useful. It’s back when God calls Abram. God makes some promises to the patriarch. Promises that He alone will keep.

Genesis chapter 12 progresses from the first promises to chapter 15. This is where God again iterates the promises to Abram. Abram begins to boldly question God, not that He doesn’t believe but wants to know how it will be. God promises Abram the Promised Land as a possession. When Abram asks God how he will know God keeps His promises, this is the response.

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Then Abram brought all of these to Him and cut them in two and laid each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half. When the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Genesis 15:9–11

Yeah, to me, that’s just weird. But this is how covenants were made in those days. Animals were slaughtered by cutting them in half. Each half was laid to one side of the pooled blood between them. The next animal in line would be likewise slaughtered, and so on. This created a blood path between them. The significance is that both parties walk through the cut animals on the blood path to testify that if they break the covenant they will be cut to pieces and shed their blood as these animals. In other words, the person breaking the covenant must die.

It’s here that I must say that I think the significance of this is barely understood. Not so much the covenant and ritual, but the precision of the details. The parties of the covenant are going to walk that blood path placing a curse upon themselves if the covenant is broken.

Back to the scene at hand, Abram was shooing away the birds of prey. As was the custom, the greater party went first. Abram was prepared to go through and waited on God. But, a deep sleep came upon him. Then something odd happened.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and terror and a great darkness fell on him. Then He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will live as strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. But I will judge the nation that they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace and you will be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Genesis 15:12–16

God gave Abram a satisfying rest. Just as Jesus says to come unto Him and He gives rest. That detail alone is important and points forward to Jesus. It also provides a clue as to Who is really here. There is a hint to the prophetic detail of this particular incident.

I do have questions. One, I want to ask why was God talking to Abram in that deep sleep?

Perhaps this is a way of how God gives visions. It’s recorded for our edification. Which begs another question… Does that mean God cannot work on me until I rest?

It would seem like it. Nevertheless, God gives Abram details about his progeny. But, it’s what comes next that is difficult to ignore.

When the sun went down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot with a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

Genesis 15:17

Abram is sleeping. God talks to him in his sleep. Then It got dark. I think many overlook the significance of the Entities making the Covenant. It’s often said that God made a Covenant with Himself. That almost sounds like crazy talk. But it’s not crazy to think that covenants exist between two or more parties. In this case, we have at least two Persons if not three.

The first is the smoking firepot. Representing the Father, the all consuming fire, the One Who descended on on Mount Sinai in exodus. The One Who led the Israelis in the wilderness by the pillar of cloud. And there’s that smoke which surrounds God much like the Holy Spirit does in John’s Revelation.

The flaming torch is the Light, Jesus. He is the Begotten. He is the Heir of all things.

These parties walked as equals on the blood path signifying that should the covenant be broken, their own blood would be shed in like manner. God doesn’t have blood. From Genesis 3:15, the idea of God having begotten Progeny is clear. The blood path is pointing directly at the incarnation of Jesus.

Furthermore, These Parties will keep the contract. Jesus inherits the land. Israel is established forever. This points forward to the sealed scroll in Revelation. There is no detail that is not important.

On that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 15:18–21

What God did was to signify to Abram, even if you break the covenant I will be cut to pieces.

Covenants aren’t single party. It wasn’t God promising Himself. It was the Spirit promising to the Father and the Son, the Son promising to the Spirit and the Father, and the Father promising to the Spirit and the Son. It’s Their covenant to establish and keep, not Abram’s. Even if Abram broke it, the consequences fell to the Parties in the covenant.

The Son promised to keep the covenant. As did the Father and the Spirit.

The throne of the Son is a forever thing. With a promised purpose…

But to which of the angels did He at any time say:
“Sit at My right hand,
until I make Your enemies
Your footstool”?

Hebrews 1:13

Jesus is God. He has never changed, nor never will.