Hebrews 1:13 Commentary and Bible Study

This rhetorical question obviously expects the answer, ‘To no angel did God ever say this’. To reject this implied answer is to adopt a position that Scripture does not even bother to deal with. It should be obvious that no angel could ever be elevated to a position in which they sat at the right hand of God; that is a position for the Son alone. Even the saints who are privileged to share Christ’s throne with him (Revelation 3:21) are never said to sit at the right hand of God. That is a position which only one who reigns as God can occupy. It is the position of the King of heaven himself. He is identified as the great General of heaven’s army who personally defeats all the enemies of heaven. The Father does not say to the Son, ‘Till I make my enemies your footstall’, for Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God has taken the foremost position in confronting and contending with these enemies. The Father will place them as a footstool under his feet as he causes the Son to triumph over them in the most signal way. From this position Satan will never rise, having suffered defeat in the most ultimate sense in which is possible to suffer defeat. The conquering kings of old would summon the defeated king and he would have to grovel at their feet, and would place their foot upon his prostrate body and he would serve as it were – just momentarily, before his banishment or execution – as a footstool. All the enemies of Christ in that last day at his return shall be no more: death, Satan, his demons, the deniers of Christ, and the persecutors. Never was such language used of an angel. The inappropriateness of the ascription makes us instantly reject any such suggestion. The point is so obvious that no answer is given by the writer. And yet these words have been addressed by the Father to the Son. The quotation is from Psalm 110, a Psalm of David, where words are spoken by the Father to the Son. This is the very verse that Christ quotes in speaking of himself before the Pharisees and putting before them an incontrovertible argument for his deity. The introductory opening to these words in the Psalm are, ‘The LORD said to my Lord’, showing both speaker and hearer to be God. These are of course left out in Hebrews just because the rhetorical question, raises the impossible alternative that the words might be addressed to another.