8. In These Last Days

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God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…

Hebrews 1:1

In recent articles we have considered the treasure trove of the first verse of Hebrews. The first great proposition of theology and the Christian faith is this: God is. The second great proposition that God is this: God has revealed Himself to man. The Word spoken by God is unlike any other word for it is powerful, enduring, and living. As God speaks so God does because God Is. Therefore, we must listen to Him, look to Him in faith, and we will live.

All of this is driving at the great theme of Chapter 1 – Jesus Christ is supreme and pre-eminent over all! Before the Son is introduced in verse 2, we are faced with several questions: When Did God Speak? How did God speak? To Whom did God Speak? By Whom Did God Speak?

Hebrews addresses two epochs of time in which God spoke: In time past…in these last days.. In the first two verses a comparison and contrast are presented between these two periods that divide all of history.

God Spoke In Time Past

When did God Speak? God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.

By referencing the fathers and the prophets, the writer of Hebrews is taking us first to the Old Testament era. In that epoch of time in the past, God Spoke. God spoke all these Words saying, I am the Lord thy God… (Exodus 20:1). Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea… (Isaiah 48:17-18).

In time past it was God who spoke and no other Word was given in the Scripture but the Word of God communicating it to Holy men taught by the Holy Spirit. God spoke in time past. Several doctrines proceed from the teaching.

First, God was not apart from the people of the OT. He was with them, speaking to them. From the beginning God was there.

Second, Because God spoke in times past as in the present, the message of the unchanging God was unchanged from the message in the present.

Hebrews is very concerned to teach the unity of the message of God in the Old and the New Testament. The Gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ His Son, the call to repentance and faith, the promise of salvation to the uttermost for all those that are in Christ and washed with His blood. That gospel is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone found in the Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. It is the same salvation in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Third, God affirms the unity of the Old and New Testament message in the book of Hebrews by first quoting the Old Testament in support of the doctrine of the New Testament. Then He makes it explicit in Hebrews 4:2, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”

Fourth, the Lord makes the Old Testament very practical to us and our salvation. In time past the gospel was proclaimed as it is now but in those times past many did not listen. Will you listen?

Fifth, there are not two Bibles, but one. There are not multiple ways God brings salvation, but one. Not multiple people of God, but one people of God.  While admittedly not the thrust of this message, this one verse refutes the teaching of historic dispensationalism popularized by the Scoffield Reference Bible that brings confusion to many Christians to the present day. It brings to nothing that old heretic Marcion who taught of the angry vengeful God of the Old Testament and compared Him against the supposedly different God of the New Testament books which Marcion decided were acceptable.

In time past the one and only God of the Old Testament who is the same and only God of New Testament spoke the gospel to the people through the preaching of the prophets.

How did God Speak? God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets…

Two different Greek words that appear just once each in the NT are here in this one verse. One has to do with a variety of time; One has to do with a variety of ways or methods. The NKJV gathers this sense by translating – who at various times and various ways.

Various Times

God did not speak all at once or on demand but He spoke as He chose according to His plan – Various times

Consider the garden after the fall. Adam did not go and find God and demand He speak. God came to Adam and spoke to Him. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day… Genesis 3:8. The Lord goes where He wills and speaks when He pleases. In times past He spoke at various times.

Notice the limitation of the these words, various times.  While God spoke in time past God did not speak all the time in time past! From creation until Moses it does not seem that one book of the Scripture was written for the people. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible many hundreds of years after the flood. Many of the generations in Genesis have no written account of God speaking to them. Others do – Enoch walked with God (Genesis 4:9). God spoke with Noah (And God said to Noah… Genesis 6:13). God spoke to Abraham many times but consider the long life of Abraham and the few special days recorded in Scripture when God spoke to Him.

Consider further the gaps in time – Nearly 400 years from Joseph to Moses as Israel was in slavery with only the promise of God to Jacob on their minds that deliverance from bondage would come. There was a similar gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And yet, at that great hour when the people called upon the Lord He heard and spoke to them again. At various times God spoke but not all the time. Nevertheless, God still spoke in times past and for those times it was sufficient.

Various Ways

With these two words, God reminds us that He did not always speak in the same way or on demand. He spoke according to His good time and in His good way – various ways.

Primarily, God spoke through the prophets – Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness – Exodus 5:1. God’s positive command to the prophets to announce His Word appears well over 1,000 times in the Old Testament.

God was not limited to the prophets. He also revealed Himself directly at times to the people: So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And you said, ‘surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet He still lives. (Deut. 5:23-24)

But the people could not bear the voice of the Lord directly to them so they who heard God speaking from the mountain said, For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die… you go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do it… (Deut. 5:24,26)

God spoke in many other ways: through a burning bush; from the mouth of a donkey; in the Urim and Thummim; with hand writing on a wall; with engraving on tablets of stone; in a still small voice; in a consuming fire and darkness; and by the ministry of angels. At various times and in various manners God spoke in time past.

To whom did God speak? God, who at various times and in various ways spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets…

We find a great blessing in these three words, unto the fathers. Those whom God set His tender mercy upon, He spoke to. He speaks to us today and knows us by name. What a comforting truth God has made known to His children. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God… (Isaiah 40:1).

There is also a limitation in these three words. In times past the LORD set a limitation on the expansion of His Word. It did not go to the greatest nations, rather it went primarily to the children of Abraham by blood, the nation and people of Israel.

Why did the LORD limit Himself in this way? He says in Deuteronomy 7:7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of the peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers…. Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them.

Unto the fathers God spoke remembering His promises and His love to His people. He primarily spoke to the fathers and few others. But even as He spoke to the fathers, to the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was revealing it would not always be that way for from Abraham all the nations of the Earth would be blessed.

God started drawing outsiders in to this glorious kingdom that the fathers had entered. Ruth, the Moabites. Rehab the harlot of Jericho. The Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah. In they came from the nations, slowly but surely as the Lord promised.

By whom did God speak?

God spoke by the prophets. The word of God came primarily through the prophets. His messengers sent by God to bring the Word. Here am I, Isaiah said to God, Send me!

Sometimes the prophets were reluctant as Moses in the early days and Jonah, nearly all his days. But God sent His Word forth and the Gospel of God with that Word through His prophets. They revealed the will of the Lord to the people. They taught the glorious message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day and He saw it (John 8:56). They looked for the glory that awaited saved sinners in Heaven. They looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God!

They saw the glory of God and declared the same to all the people. Consider the visions of Daniel and Ezekiel, the Comfort revealed through Isaiah, the new covenant through Jeremiah, the glory of the Lord on Mt. Carmel through Elijah, the slaying of the giant by David, the Lord standing with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, the Lord slaying Sihon and Og in the days of Moses, The glory of the Lord was revealed through the prophets by whom God spoke at various times and in various ways in times past…

Nevertheless, there was a weakness to the prophets. The prophets in times past all died. They were but mere men. Instruments of God, yes. But mortal instruments used in times past to reveal the glorious power and gospel of God to His people through His spoken Word. But they all died. They did not abide forever even though they spoke the Word which does abide forever. Another prophet was needed.

God, who at various times and in various ways spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets. Was that the end? No. God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…

God Spoke In These Last Days

One of Winston Churchill’s many famous quotes came after the British victory over Rommel at El Alamein in Africa in 1942. After the battle Churchill said, Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. As we come to God speaking to us by His Son in these last days we have come to both the end of the beginning, the time past… and we also come to the beginning of the end, these last days.

What are these last days?

Few questions have stoked more discussion, books, imaginations, and trouble than this question. Within the evangelical world there are those who imagine the last days to be well into the future, close in the future, or unknown. Some believe the last days are tied specifically to the physical nation of Israel and the city Jerusalem. Some believe the last days will be the glory days of the church, others think they will be a time of greatest persecution for the church. Occasionally these discussions lead us closer to God and His Word, often they take us far from it. Because of the latter, some prefer not to be involved in these thoughts or discussions at all.

What are Christians to do? In matters of controversy, we must always go to the Scripture with our questions and glean answers from God who speaks to us in the Scripture. When are the last days?

First, let us remember the last days is not a phrase unique to Hebrews 1:2. The prophet Joel spoke of the last days in Joel 2:23-32. This was picked up again by Peter at Pentecost when he revealed to all in Jerusalem that what they were seeing was that which Joel prophesied, “in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). The last days are when the Spirit of God is poured out in an altogether special way.

John in his first epistle is very direct, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time(I John 2:18). The last days are when there are many antichrists denying the Father and the Son.

Paul opens the book of Hebrews with the comparison and contrast between the time past when the prophets spoke the Word of God and the last days when God spoke through His Son. The last days are when God speaks directly to us by His Son.

Second, the Lord does not want us to be ignorant concerning the last days or the last time but He wants us to know with certainty that we are in those days. We have seen three things represent the end of the former days of the prophets and the Old Testament. 1) The Son will speak to us the Word of God. 2) The Spirit will be poured out. 3) Many antichrists will be in the world. Brothers and sisters, all those things came to pass with Christ’s first coming, His resurrection, and His ascension so that John can be very clear, little children, it is the last time. We can now say with confidence, these are the last days. We are in the last days. The last days are upon us. The time is at hand!

The last days of the Old Testament system have past.  The last days before Christ’s returns are upon us. The first days were before Christ, when God spoke through the prophets to the fathers. The last days of that era came with the incarnation of Christ the Son who spoke to us in the flesh. Those past days are ended, Christ has come. He has ascended, we are now in the last days waiting for Christ to descend on that last day of the last days.

Therefore

1 – There is something altogether the same about the time past and the last days. God Spoke in time past and God spoke in the last days. The same God doing the same thing – speaking. Therefore, we are to believe, embrace, and love the Word of God in the whole Bible out of love for the God of the whole Bible. From beginning to end, God Spoke!

2 – There is something altogether different about the time past and the last days. In time past the gospel was preached through mortal prophets, signs, sacrifices, the passover, etc… none of which were salvation for the people, nor were they intended to be salvation. They were all intended to point the people to the salvation that would come through the Redeemer. In these last days the sum and substance of the gospel has come in Jesus Christ the Lord. The one who spoke in these last days does not point to another but draws all men to Himself. He is the lamb of God, the living water, the bread of life. Life and salvation is in Him alone. Therefore, let all creation listen to Him, look to Him by faith, and live.

3 – As life and salvation has come through Jesus Christ Himself, therefore Jesus is supreme over all the Old Testament prophets, signs, types, and shadows for He is greater than them all. The eternal Son is able to save to the uttermost and He has surely done it.

God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past God spoke to the fathers by the prophets but now in these last days has spoken to us by His Son.