“But to which of the angels has He ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?” (Hebrews 1:13).
One of the more frequently quoted Old Testament passages in the New Testament can be found here in Hebrews 1:13: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool'” (Psalm 110:1). In addition to its appearance here in Hebrews 1:13, this portion of Scripture also appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the book of Acts.
Jesus once employed this portion of Scripture in a manner that served to disarm His spiritual opponents…
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore” (Matthew 22:41-46).
This question revealed a truth regarding the Messiah that these religious leaders were not prepared to accept. Since Jewish culture traditionally held a father to be greater than his son, Jesus essentially asked the following question: “If the Savior is the Son of David, why does David call Him ‘My Lord’ instead of ‘My Son?'” The answer is that Christ (as God) is David’s Lord but He is also David’s son according to His genealogy.
One Biblical scholar provides us with a further explanation…
“Jesus stumped his skeptical Jewish questioners by putting them in a dilemma. How could David call the Messiah ‘Lord’ (as he did in Psalm 110:1 ), when the Scriptures also say the Messiah would be the ‘Son of David’ (which they do in 2 Sam. 7:12f .)? The only answer to this is that the Messiah must be both man to be David’s son (offspring) and God to be David’s Lord. In other words, in affirming these two truths from Scripture, Jesus is claiming to be both God and man.” (1)
Thus, the Son is seated in a position of authority, power, sovereignty, and honor, while the members of the angelic realm serve within their designated areas of responsibility. We’ll consider those responsibilities at greater length in our final study in this chapter.
(1) Geisler, N. L., & Saleeb, A. (2002). Answering Islam: the crescent in light of the cross (2nd ed., p. 266). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.