“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1).
While the human author of the Biblical book of Hebrews remains unnamed, the divine Author behind this work commands our attention from the very first word: God.
One interesting aspect of this epistle is found in the fact that there are no introductory paragraphs used to open this book. In other words, there are no lengthy orations or extended greetings to begin this letter. This direct overture makes the epistle to the Hebrews unique among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. One commentary summarizes this straightforward approach by observing, “No other NT Epistle comes to the point as quickly as this one. Without benefit of salutation or introduction, the writer plunges into his subject.” (1)
That brings us to an important premise of this letter that appears in the very first sentence: God communicates with human beings. With this in mind, we should note that the Biblical Scriptures invest little (if any) effort in attempting to convince human beings that God is real. One reason for this is that God has already assigned the task of declaring His existence to various aspects of His creation. This may explain why Scriptural passages such as Hebrews 1:1 take God’s existence for granted.
So, if God does communicate with the members of the human family, the next question is, “how does God speak?” Hebrews 1:1 provides us with the initial answer to that question: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets…” (NIV). From the Biblical books of Moses all the way through to the last Old Testament prophet named Malachi, God used human agents (like the prophets) to carry forth His message.
Nevertheless, we should also notice the fragmentary nature of those messages: “In many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets” (AMPC). The late Biblical scholar Kenneth Wuest expands on this idea with an important distinction: “In the giving of the First Testament truth, God did not speak once for all, but in separate revelations, each of which set forth only a part of His will. One writer was given one, and another, another element of truth. God spoke in different ways.” (2)
We’ll discuss some of the methods God used to communicate with these Old Testament prophets and the superiority of His ultimate message to humanity over the next few studies.
(1) William Macdonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary Edited by Arthur Farstad Thomas Nelson Publishers (2 Corinthians 5:10) p.2158
(2) Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament [note on Hebrews 1:1] Copyright © 1942-55 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.