The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)
He Sat Down
God used to speak in pieces. Through the prophets, at many times and in various ways, a section at a time, the way a long book comes off a press in signatures, folded and stacked and not a book yet. In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, and the writer says one thing after another about that Son without stopping.
A pressman tilts a proof sheet under the lamp until the type comes clear, and the light he’s reading by is the lamp’s own. You can’t carry the brightness out of the room without the filament. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, and there’s no prying the two apart.
He’s the exact representation of God’s being. He’s sustaining all things by his powerful word, and that sustaining is going on while you read this line. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
The pressman sits down when the last sheet is off and the machine has gone quiet, and his shoulders come down with him. The Son provided the purification, then he took the seat at the right hand, and he holds everything together from there. The word that sustains the universe is being spoken by someone who is sitting.
Around him everything is in motion. God makes his angels spirits and his servants flames of fire. He brings his firstborn into the world and tells all of them to worship him. And the Son, with the purification provided, sat down.
The writer says radiance and Majesty, and then he puts the Son in a chair. A week fills up with work that doesn’t finish, and the purification was finished before the sitting.
The angels are spirits and flames of fire. They’re told to worship the one in the chair.
A Prayer to Remember
I get up most days as though this all came apart without me, Father. Your Son provided the purification and then he sat down, and he’s been sustaining it ever since. Let me work today off the strength of that sitting instead of my own. Take back the jobs I’ve kept alive that were never mine.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
