The writer to the Hebrews quotes from Psalm 8 to throw the spotlight on two aspects of the relationship between God and humankind:
First, the mighty mismatch between God and us. He is so far above us in personal power, glory and intellect… that the Psalmist says:
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
In other words… it would not surprise him if God did not bother with man. And you can see his point; after all, do you bother with the ants! God informed Isaiah: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Is 55.8
Not only is there a great discrepancy between God and us in the way of personal power, glory and intellect, but he has no beginning and no end whereas we find ourselves to be hemmed in by death.
We may be pretty but we are short-lived;
Is 40.6b All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall.
The writer to the Hebrews is forcing us to take stock of the enormous shortfall there is between God and us and to be amazed that God should take such a personal interest in, and care over, such temporary creatures as us. For us a few hours can drag by and seem like an eternity! For God, even when a thousand years have passed they have not put a slight scratch or dent on the surface of eternity!
Secondly, in spite of the mismatch between God and us, he has decided on an exalted position for humankind. He planned to lift us up.
Again, he uses Psalm 8 to express it –
You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour and put everything under his feet.
In spite of man’s insignificance, God created humankind to be only a little inferior to the angels. He created man to be given real and extensive responsibility to manage the earth. God decreed that no created thing will master him – everything will be put under him.
But we do not see it. In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
What an understatement! We sure don’t see everything under man’s feet.
We sure don’t see humankind mastering everything. When we look at humankind we see great potential and promise – but it is marred. What we do see is hopefulness and optimism consistently extinguished by death. The grass withers. The flower falls.
While men and women make some progress in one area, say, learn how to overcome polio or small pox, meanwhile AIDS and bird flu emerge.
While engineers master the construction of high dams to hold back waters and produce electricity, meanwhile the earth shakes, a tsumani begins its run and entire cities are obliterated.
And each individual faces the personal disappointment that for 18 years he or she looks forward to becoming a fully grown man or woman; then after 15 or 20 short years each person must face the fact that youth has gone and his or her strength is declining towards the grave.
How do we reconcile the assertion that God made humankind to be only a little lower than the angels with the reality that we are flowers that bloom today and are gone tomorrow?
The writer to Hebrews tells us to take a second look. Sure we do not see humankind in triumph (we see it defeated by the fear of death) but look again.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Jesus also was made a little inferior to the angels; only for him it was no privilege! For him it was a horrifying step down. The Creator was made a little lower than his best angel creatures. The Son of God, through whom everything was made, was born into the human family – he became one of us. What for? So he could taste death for every person. He purposely came under the burden of death that ruins humankind. He took that burden of death and triumphed over it by bringing human life irretrievably out the other side of death for the first time. He beat death. He brought life and immortality to light!
We see Jesus – crowned with glory and honour. He is the first man to fulfil the promise that no created thing will master humankind.
This is why you are a Christian – a follower of Jesus – a believer in Jesus. He is your Deliverer – your Rescuer – your Saviour from your current temporary, slavish existence. It is Jesus who has lifted you up with himself from slavery to death to become a son or daughter of God. He closed the gap between you and God by bringing you with him out from under the fear of death.
You will find that the writer of Hebrews constantly tells us to consider Jesus, to fix our thoughts on him and to ‘see Jesus’. Knowing him as he is revealed in through the gospel and the entire Bible, is the surest way to throw off the chains of slavery to the fear of death. You can start living for long term, eternal aims.
