Hebrews – The Writer of Hebrews
The writer of Hebrews is masterful. He makes associations for us. He asks "to which of the angels did God ever say… you are my Son…" and at first look we say none. Then we look at angels in the Bible and find one in the Old Testament that fits the description of the Son, the angel of the Lord. And we learn that the angel of Jehovah is the 2nd person of the Godhead, the Christ.
We see this angel speak to Abraham after he raised his knife to offer Isaac. The angel tells Abraham to stop & then proceeds to give Abraham the promise (the promise of our salvation). The writer will mention the account in chapter 11, the chapter of great faith.
We see this angel in Zechariah with Joshua the high priest. The first priest to serve after Israel’s return from Babylonian captivity. Joshua’s name in Greek would be: Jesus. So we have a fore-shadow of the 2nd person of the Godhead & Jesus, the High Priest.
The writer will tell us about Jesus our High Priest in Heb 2:17; 3:1; 5:5-10; 6:20; 7:1-22
The writer uses descriptive words in unexpected ways. He tells us that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. And we scratch our heads and say, "What does that mean?" Ruminating on "our confession" takes us back to Peter first identifying & expressing it: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." So we learn that Jesus is the High Priest of the Son of God. Wrap your head around that! In the context Jesus tells Peter that upon that confession, which he calls "this rock," he will build his church.
The writer then tells us that a house is built by someone and Jesus built his house. He tells us we are Jesus’ house, "IF we hold fast our confidence and rejoicing of our hope firm to the end."
It is a pleasure to have our minds stretched by the word of God.