6 And [a]when He again brings the firstborn into [b]the world, He says,
“AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.”
Deut 32:43
Now we come to the third quote in this series related to the Author’s discussion of Christ and the angels. I told you in Gem 2033, this third quote “is easy in one way but contains a major complication as well.” Did you spot the complication or did the length of the full quote I gave you put you off?
Deuteronomy 32:1-43
“Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.
I will proclaim the name of the LORD; how glorious is our God!
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!
“But they have acted corruptly toward him; when they act so perversely, are they really his children? They are a deceitful and twisted generation.
Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Isn’t he your Father who created you? Has he not made you and established you?
Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father, and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court.
“For the people of Israel belong to the LORD; Jacob is his special possession.
He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes.
Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions.
The LORD alone guided them; they followed no foreign gods.
He let them ride over the highlands and feast on the crops of the fields. He nourished them with honey from the rock and olive oil from the stony ground.
He fed them yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, together with the fat of lambs. He gave them choice rams from Bashan, and goats, together with the choicest wheat. You drank the finest wine, made from the juice of grapes.
“But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable deeds.
They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared.
You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth.
“The LORD saw this and drew back, provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.
He said, ‘I will abandon them; then see what becomes of them. For they are a twisted generation, children without integrity.
They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God; they have provoked my anger with their useless idols. Now I will rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people; I will provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles.
For my anger blazes forth like fire and burns to the depths of the grave. It devours the earth and all its crops and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap disasters upon them and shoot them down with my arrows.
I will weaken them with famine, burning fever, and deadly disease. I will send the fangs of wild beasts and poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
Outside, the sword will bring death, and inside, terror will strike both young men and young women, both infants and the aged.
I would have annihilated them, wiping out even the memory of them.
But I feared the taunt of Israel’s enemy, who might misunderstand and say, “Our own power has triumphed! The LORD had nothing to do with this!”’
“But Israel is a senseless nation; the people are foolish, without understanding.
Oh, that they were wise and could understand this! Oh, that they might know their fate!
How could one person chase a thousand of them, and two people put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock, as even they recognize.
Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison, and their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
“The LORD says, ‘Am I not storing up these things, sealing them away in my treasury?
I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.’
“Indeed, the LORD will give justice to his people, and he will change his mind about his servants, when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.
Then he will ask, ‘Where are their gods, the rocks they fled to for refuge?
Where now are those gods, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their offerings? Let those gods arise and help you! Let them provide you with shelter!
Look now; I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!
Now I raise my hand to heaven and declare, “As surely as I live,
when I sharpen my flashing sword and begin to carry out justice, I will take revenge on my enemies and repay those who reject me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—the blood of the slaughtered and the captives, and the heads of the enemy leaders.”’
“Rejoice with him, you heavens, and let all of God’s angels worship him. Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles, and let all the angels be strengthened in him. For he will avenge the blood of his children; he will take revenge against his enemies. He will repay those who hate him and cleanse his people’s land.”
Deuteronomy 32:1-43
The author of Hebrews has chosen just this one verse from the Torah – The Law, all of which good Jewish boys and girls have memorised – to say one thing. ALL THE ANGELS WORSHIP THIS SON! This is the one reference in all of the Torah, where either angel or angels are mentioned in a way that goes beyond them just simply being messengers or ministers who carry out the bidding of the LORD. This is the only verse in all of the Torah which gives any indication or their higher purpose beyond being merely ministers or messengers. All of God’s angels worship the LORD; thus all of the angels worship THIS SON. The author of Hebrews selects one small element of this very interesting chapter to tell us one thing – All angels worship the Son!
This one statement is made In the context of the author’s main point in the book which I have outlined before in Gem 2024 – don’t turn aside from the Son to worship angels. All angels worship the Son; a quick read of Revelation will show you that. So don’t fall into the trap of venerating and worshipping the angels. They are simply ministering messengers who worship THIS SON themselves.
I have picked out the references to the LORD in the passage above and coloured them a royal colour. I didn’t use purple this time but pink on the advice of one reader who said the text with a purple background was hard to read. But the point is the same – the One speaking, the One referred to in the whole of this passage from Deuteronomy is the LORD, the Most High, the Rock. He is the One speaking to you and telling you “all the angels worship him” – Him, the LORD and Him, THE SON. The purpose of the author of Hebrews at this point it to make his point that the angels worship Christ. Don’t turn from Christ and go back to Judaism. Don’t return to the state of mind of our ancestors!
Do you see the other repeated refrain in this passage? I haven’t highlighted it because I didn’t want to overwhelm you at first glance. But it is clear isn’t it that God is rebuking Israel for turning from Him, their one true God and “worshipping things that are not God” – Deut 32:21. This is a continuing refrain in the context of the passage in Torah from where the author has taken the quote. I could repeat again the refrain of the letter to the Hebrews.
- Don’t drift away
- Keep on Keeping on
- Don’t go back to Judaism
- Don’t shrink back from your faith in Christ
- Let us go on
Have you spotted the major complication? None of the above relates to the major complication. The complication is found in the separate words the author uses to introduce the quote from Deuteronomy in verse 6:
6 And [a]when He again brings the firstborn into [b]the world, He says . . .
This statement throws the commentators into a frenzy.
- What do you think?
- Do you see the complication?
- How would you solve this complication?
Angels have no interest in being worshipped themselves. They are totally absorbed with God.
Philip Ryken
When you don’t have the original languages at your disposal use the versions; don’t just stick to your favourite version.
Ian Vail
One hour with the biblical text is worth ten in secondary literature.
Andy Naselli
Until you decide that your spiritual development is worth at least an hour a day in the Word of God, you will miss the depth and subtlety of the Bible.
Ian Vail
God doesn’t love you more because you had a longer Quiet Time or spend time in deeper Bible study. He just loves you unconditionally.
Ian Vail
I’m not sure if my comments are getting through!
The only version I have available to me on e-sword that mentions angels in Deut 32:43 is NLT. Others mention Septuagint in the footnotes. What’s so different about the Hebrew that all the other versions miss it?
Mike
Have you made comments before this one? If so I have not seen them. You can also download the Septuagint (LXX) OT Greek for E-Sword. There is no difference between the Heb OT (Masoretic Text MT) and the LXX apart from language. The complication is not found in the quote but in the preface to the quote. i.e. “And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says. . .”
‘again brings the first born into the world?’ what have we got here has the Son been here before and if so who was He?
Good question
not much help!
I have left it in thoughts of us all to ponder until Heb 2;7 Ross.