Hebrews 1:10-12
14 July 2024
And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands;
they will perish, but You remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe, You will roll them up,
like a garment, they will be changed.
But You are the same,
and Your years will have no end.”
So we see in this text that we're focusing on in verses 10 to 12, Jesus Christ is there at the beginning. Jesus Christ is there when it all ends. Quite literally, even in the space of this short section within a wider argument that is being established in Hebrews 1, we deal with the very beginning, and we deal with the very end. And this is where we come once more to see the significance and the magnitude of the greatness and the superiority of the Son, even in contrast to, as we've seen in recent verses, to the angels. Jesus Christ is superior.
Now in this text that we're dealing with, just in these three verses, we have in verse 10 a very clear focus on the time of creation, and that Jesus Christ is there. We have in verse 11 the time when all of this will perish, and Jesus Christ is there. And then as we come to verse 12, we see how that will happen. So it's quite a clear structure that we're dealing with, but we are covering such a significant range in the course of just these three verses.
So if we come, first of all, to verse 10, and this is in some way a degree in which we are recapping what we have already considered previously in the early stages of Hebrews 1. Verses 10 to 12 can be grouped together because it is the latest of seven Old Testament citations that we have in just Hebrews 1 alone. This one, the longest of the seven, is taken from Psalm 102, verses 25 to 27, and we begin in verse 10 where it says, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of Your hands."
Now if we think back to what we saw in verse 2, we've already seen this language of the Lord being there at the foundation of the earth. Back in verse 2 it says, of the Son who is appointed heir of all things, it says, through whom also He created the world. Now what this is teaching us is that at the beginning, at the beginning of creation, Jesus Christ is there and He is the one who created the world. And we go on to see what we looked at last time in verse 8. Who is this Son, the one who created the world? It is the one who God says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever." Speaking of Jesus the Son, it says, "Your throne." Jesus Christ is seated on the throne.
Now why is this significant? Because Jesus Christ is not simply a Son who is detached from who God is. Jesus Christ is God. And what we also see in verse 8 is that He is forever and ever. He eternally exists. He eternally reigns. Jesus Christ. This is what we find in John 1:1-3, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made." So who was there in the beginning? Well, it's this Greek word Logos, which is Jesus Christ. He is there in the beginning. He is the one who created all things.
And what we've also already seen in Colossians 1:16, "For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him." So Jesus Christ has preeminence. Jesus Christ is there at the beginning. Now this, as we're already noting, is simply recapping an argument that has already been established in the opening nine verses of this chapter. And it's particularly striking in today's context because of the contrast of what we now come to unpack.
We see here that Christ is the one who laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of His hands. And then when we come to verse 11, we come to then see that Christ is also there when it all perishes. But there's a significant gap that we need to take time to engage with in the coming minutes. Christ is there at the beginning. Christ is there at the end. But notice another difference that we have between verses 10 and 11. This is where we begin to unravel the key focus this afternoon. We have the Lord creating the earth. The heavens are the work of the hands of the perfect one, the sinless one, the immutable God, the God who does not change. And if we were to note from the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1, it is God's creation which is all very good.
Then we come to verse 11 and we see suddenly they will perish, but You will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. An important question to consider as we deal with this verse is why. Why are we suddenly in verse 11 seeing what the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the triune God? Why are we suddenly seeing it perishing? Well, we would go back to the time just after the creation and we would attribute the fall and say this is why it is perishing. Because we have man created perfect in God's image and yet there is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil to which God has said to the man you must not eat of it. But we see in Genesis chapter 3 that the woman, then the man, they eat of this tree and sin enters the world. But we might then ask but where did this tree of the knowledge of good and evil come from? After all, we are in Hebrews chapter 1 and we are dealing with the subject of the angels. And so if we were to consider the angelic realm, we need to dial this question back.
Because there is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there is the existence, the presence of evil at the time in the Garden of Eden before man has fallen. The question we would then ask is why? Why has this happened? Is God the author of the evil as well as the good? Psalm 92:15 declares that the Lord is upright, He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. The Bible is consistent and clear from the very beginning to the very end that the most high God is the absolute expression of perfection. He is perfect in His holiness and righteousness. There is no evil, no sin in Him, and yet we have this existence of evil.
This is where we come to see that this existence of evil applies to the angelic realm, to the angels that we have been dealing with here. We have dealt so much already with the strength and the means by which they are used of God. But we are also told in Scripture that some of these angels fell. Now, we'll go through certain scripture verses, you can note down any that you might not have time to go to.
First, in the book of Jude and in verse 6 it says, "And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority." Now we should already have context here given what we have seen in Hebrews chapter 1. The angels have a position of authority within the heavenly realm. The Son is infinitely superior to all. The angels worship the Son, but they have a position of authority. This is what Jude 6 is saying. But it then goes on to say, "But left their proper dwelling. He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day." So what this verse is telling us is that some of the angels have fallen and they are now being kept until the Lord's judgment.
Also in 2 Peter 2:4 it says, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned." So 2 Peter 2:4 is saying angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. Very similar ending to Jude verse 6. Now, we look at this and we ask why? Why would any angel in the presence of the most high God sin? Arguably the biggest question that we could grapple with as we read the Word of God. Well, this is where we are going to turn to possibly the most helpful verse to get some idea of what happened. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 28.
If we go to Ezekiel chapter 28, here we have a section about a human king, the king of Tyre, who represents Satan. And in verses 12, the second part of verse 12 and verse 13, we have a description of his beauty. Ezekiel chapter 28, second half of verse 12, describing his beauty, "You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared."
So we have a picture of beauty, we have a picture of splendour. And yet, we go on to verse 17, and we see the problem, "Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour. I cast you to the ground. I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you." Here we have the most helpful description in all of the Word of God of what happened when the angel fell. And what we have to understand is the scale of this fall is not limited to one angel. In Revelation 12:4, it describes the tail of the dragon sweeping a third of the stars of heaven to the earth, which is a picture of the percentage of angels that fell. And given that Revelation 5:11 says there are myriads of myriads and thousands and thousands of angels, that means that a lot have fallen.
Now, we come back to this question. How can this happen? Do we attribute free will to the angelic realm? When we're dealing with such a term, we need to quickly clarify that if we are arguing that God does or does not have sovereign authority over the straying hearts of these angels, then we cease to understand what the Bible says of God's sovereign will and purpose. This is why in Romans 11:33 it says, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways." One of the other things that we certainly can see, not simply from the time of Genesis 3, but from before the foundations of the earth, from the secret counsel of the will of God, that it was not God reacting to what has happened to Satan.
It is not God reacting thereafter to what happens at the Garden of Eden. No, God planned it before the foundation of the earth. It was planned and decreed by the living God, the people that He had chosen to save. And the means by which He would save this people would be as a result of the fall of man. There would be a purpose through the history of redemption in the old covenant, which would take us to the coming of Jesus Christ, who would lay down His life for fallen sinners. He would suffer, bleed, and die. And what would Jesus Christ do? It was planned from the beginning that He would crush the head, the neck of the serpent. And as we come then to the book of Revelation, we come to the picture of the defeat of Satan and the casting into hell.
But when it comes to the question of why this could happen, namely the angelic realm and seeing some falling, we come to a verse like Romans 11:33, "How unsearchable are the judgments of our God and how inscrutable are His ways." Brothers and sisters, one of the things that we see in the Word of God is that there are mysteries that certainly this side of eternity we will not be able to come close to fully explaining or understanding. And we can give thanks to God that we do have a framework given in the Scriptures to help us see what has happened here, which helps us understand even how there could be a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that there is a fallen angel, that there is an evil one who is out to destroy. But we do not know why this happened on one level, though we can see, answering why, purpose and design that God had in and through that.
So when it comes to any aspect of Scripture, an important principle we must be governed by, if there is something that either you haven't got the answer to or something that doesn't quite make sense in the Word of God, this is all the more reason to study the Word of God, to scrutinise it, to seek to get as much of a handle on it so that we are allowing our thinking to be shaped and governed by what God has revealed in the Scriptures. We are not coming here this afternoon to speculate, to assume things that God has not revealed. And we can give thanks that what God has revealed is that He is the sovereign Lord Almighty, that He is the authority over all, that He is the authority over the evil one and the evil one is crushed and he will ultimately be absolutely defeated. It's why in Hebrews chapter 1, it is a passage which takes us to the superiority of the Son because the Son is the one who is seated on the throne, the Lord over all.
And so we come to verse 11 and we understand that because of the fall of the evil one, because therefore there is a fall of mankind in Genesis 3, the earth is afflicted. We see that there is a consequence for the serpent who in John 8:44 is Satan. We see there is a consequence for the woman. We see there is also a consequence for the man. And in Genesis 3:17-18 it says, "And to Adam He said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you.'" So here it is, in Genesis 3, the ground is cursed. "In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field."
Now brothers and sisters, this brings a timely exhortation to us all. There is a sell-by date upon this earth because of the fall, because this earth is afflicted. This is why people suffer, why there is sickness and disease, decay and death, why we have natural disasters, natural in the context of it being fallen. All of this to remind us of what we as Christians are invested in. Are we invested in the here and now with our ongoing atheistic lifestyle, or are we invested in the kingdom of God which will last forever? This is Christ's throne, this is Christ's lordship, this is Christ's kingdom, and when we consider the eternal scale of all of this, let's not invest in that which moth and rust will destroy. Let's invest in what is kingdom-building for eternal and glorious purposes because this is what will last.
Isaiah 40:6-8, "A voice says, 'Cry,' and I said, 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever."
Who is left standing, brothers and sisters, as we come to everything perishing? It is the one who created all things, the one who was there at the foundation of the earth, verse 10. He is the one who will remain, verse 11. It is Jesus Christ. He is this Word, the Word which became flesh, the Word which laid down His life that life would be restored, conquering sin and death. He is risen, He is exalted, He is victorious, He remains forever. We stand upon this truth, we magnify, we glorify this Lord and King, Christ Jesus our Lord.
And so when we come to verse 12, when we come to the subject of how, how will the earth perish because that's what verse 12 deals with. This isn't a doom and gloom verse, all misery, no. This is about restoration. When we get into view that this is an afflicted earth because of sin, this is a decaying earth, this is a practical moral mess. We have in verse 12, what will be destroyed in order to rejoice in what is restored. Verse 12, "Like a robe You will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed, but You are the same and Your years will have no end."
From verse 6 of Revelation chapter 8, it says, "Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter. The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, 'Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.'"
And also we have in 2 Peter 3:11-13, "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
This is what we're waiting for. We are waiting for this destruction, bringing about an end to what has been Satan's rule, Satan's wickedness, and as a result, the fall of man, where it says, "What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?" Why do we have such an exhortation? Because Hebrews 1:12 ends by saying, "You are the same and Your years will have no end."
He is the God who does not change from the very beginning to the very end. The purpose of our great Lord has been unchangeable. It has been unchangeable. And where do we, the Church of Jesus Christ, fit in with that? Well, it was the purpose in the Son coming to rescue and redeem an undeserving people in suffering for sinners like us. We have been restored. We have been bought with a price, the price of Christ's life, and we are no longer enslaved to sin. We are no longer controlled by the dominion of darkness. Satan does not have his way in and through and by our lives. Satan does not have authority over your life.
Now what a comfort this is to know, to consider just what power Satan yields, and were it not for the saving work of our great Lord, in what would we hope? But we know in what we hope, and it's contained in this passage. It's contained in this chapter. The one who is the same, the one whose years know no end. Brothers and sisters, may it be that we are comforted to know that even in the questions we cannot answer, even in the uncertainties we face in our lives, we know that we worship and rest in the one whose promises are steadfast, certain, and secure: Jesus Christ. And it is His Lordship that we rejoice in and to whom we submit and serve.
Is that a comfort to you here this evening? May it be so. May it be so, because the devil has been defeated. This earth is going to be burned up. But we have the promise of a new heavens and a new earth. We have the promise of new resurrected bodies. That's what Christ has restored, and that's what awaits the people of God in the presence of God forevermore. Praise be to God.