I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 1-5.

    The writer of the Book of Hebrews starts with a refutation of the idea that Jesus was just a senior angel (or even THE senior angel). It shows us that the Mormon teachings about Jesus and angels are nothing new, but were rebutted by the leaders of the early Church. As the writer continues into chapter 2 he further distinguishes between angels and human beings. The writer teaches that while we are on earth we are a little lower than the angels, but this is only for the short time we inhabit our mortal bodies. When we leave our mortal bodies we do not become angels, because the writer clearly states that Jesus did not come to help angels. There is one other important point which the writer makes in this portion. Jesus was made just like us in every particular.

    Having addressed the issue of Jesus’ relationship with angels and shown that He was a distinctly different sort of being and further shown that we as human beings are yet a third sort of being, the writer goes on to show that Jesus was not just a prophet. The writer makes clear that Jesus was greater than Moses. A careful reading of this passage and an understanding of Jewish theology informs us that Moses was the greatest prophet that could be. There are various Old Testament passages which indicate that another prophet would come who was as great as Moses, but no prophet could be greater (I believe this prophet who was equal to Moses was John the Baptist). Therefore, since Jesus was greater than Moses, He was not just a prophet, but something more. Just as the earlier section contradicted the Mormon teaching concerning Jesus, this section contradicts the Muslim teaching that Jesus was a great prophet.

    There is one final point from today’s passage which I want to highlight. Jesus is our High Priest before God and because He experienced all that we experience, except that He did so without sinning, we are entitled to boldly come before God. Despite our complete unworthiness, Jesus will intercede for us with God so that we will receive God’s grace at those times and in those instances where we need it most. We will never be able to understand how God’s grace is able to help us through the difficult times until we experience those difficult times. God’s grace is sufficient unto the troubles we experience, but we will not experience the grace necessary to get through the difficult times until we are in the difficult times. Otherwise we might think that it was our own strength which got us through.