Hebrews 1:4-7 (HCSB)
So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs.
For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, or again, I will be His Father, and He will be My Son? When He again brings His firstborn into the world, He says, And all God’s angels must worship Him. And about the angels He says:
He makes His angels winds,
and His servants a fiery flame,
The starting premise for the writer of Hebrews is that the Son of God is superior to the angels. He won’t stop there, but he is starting with the lowest of the heavenly hierarchy, and will work out as he goes.
Some of the Jewish Christians who had been taught that since God is one, He can’t have a Son, were nonetheless willing to concede that perhaps Jesus was divine in the same sense that angels are divine. Or that maybe he was even an incarnation of an angel! But the writer pulls out numerous Old Testament Scriptures to show that that is absolutely not the case. The Son is vastly superior to any angel.
He begins with two well-accepted messianic Scriptures (Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14) to show that God calls the Messiah his Son, something that He never calls any angel in any Scripture. And at the same time, He calls himself the Father, the title Jesus used for Him consistently, and the name by which He taught His followers to refer to Him.
The next two scriptures (Deuteronomy 32:43 and Psalm 104:4) show that, instead of sons, God refers to the angels as servants and messengers, beings who worship Him, and who thus should not themselves be worshipped. This stands in strong contrast to Jesus, who was rightfully worshipped throughout the Church.
The writers overarching point here is that Jesus, the Son of God, falls into a completely different category from the angels, and Christians must not view His being an incarnate angel as even a possibility. Jesus is declared by God repeatedly in both the Old Testament and the New (Luke 3:22, 9:35) to be God’s son, and God His Father. And with His own testimony, no alternatives need to be looked for.
Father, I love how the writer of Hebrews approaches things so logically, starting with clear statements, and then countering arguments and “fallback” positions strongly. You really have been so consistent in how You have communicated about who Jesus is and what He would do from the very beginning (Genesis 3:15), all the way to the end (Revelation 22:20). Thank You for Your powerful testimony and Your absolute truth in this as in all things in Your word. Amen.