Today...Today?

~Veronica Brown

Just recently our Ladies Bible Class decided to spend a few months covering the Book of Hebrews. Since Hebrews has always been at the top of my favorites list when it comes to books of the Bible I got busy right away with the first three chapters. How quickly I was reminded and convinced that a lifetime of studying its thirteen chapters would still not unearth the depths of the riches of this book. One such treasure I uncovered in my personal study came from a verse I've read at least a gazillion times, both in the Old and in the New, yet I never really thought a whole lot about it.

 In Hebrews 1:5 the writer quotes from Psalm 2 and II Sam. 7 in order to prove that at no time did God ever refer to any of the angels as His Son. This I understood well enough so I always just moved on in the text. But have you ever given much thought to the quotation of Psalm 2:7? What I mean is, have you ever thought, "Hmmmm....what day was the "today" as quoted by David who was quoting God?" What day was it that God said to Jesus, "You are My Son, today I have begotten you"?

I posed this question to the ladies in our class. They all kinda just looked at me with wide eyes as they realized that they had never thought about it either. Was it at His birth? His baptism? His resurrection? It was a fun few moments as they guessed aloud and anticipated the answer. I gave them a clue: the answer lay within the context of the chapter, within the first three verses actually. They speedily read through them and soon someone guessed, "Verse two, at the creation!" Then someone read verse three and said, "When He died!"  Then still another, "When He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high!" Oh the suspense!

 If you'll turn to Acts 13 you'll find that Paul confirms the right answer. When Paul stood up in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia on the Sabbath to preach to the people, he began with a little history lesson and quickly fast forwards to the Jews' recent rejection of the Messiah. The point being, though you killed Him, God has raised Him. And in this God fulfilled Psalm 2:7—"God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He raised up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'" (Acts 13:33)

 

Putting two and two together we can now know that the "today" of which God spoke is the day that He raised up Jesus (Acts 13:33); the day when Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). Paul also put it this way in Romans 1:1-4—"...concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.....declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Early on that momentous first day of the week almost 2,000 years ago "when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2), the true and ultimate Son had also risen. And on that day God the Father declared to Jesus the Christ, "You are My Son, today I have begotten You." 

While I understand that this newly discovered gem of mine is only a little thing really in the grand scheme of all things spiritual, it still lends incredible testimony to who God is and to His inerrant word. Our God is a God of truth (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 31:5), therefore His words are truth (Ps. 119:160). 

May we ever treasure them so that we can assert even as the psalmist does, "I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure" (Ps. 119:62). 

Veronica is blessed to be the wife of Clint Brown. Clint currently preaches for the Farmersville church of Christ in north Texas. She is also blessed to be a stay at home mom to two boys, Jeremy (16) and Joshua (14). She has been a preacher's wife, Bible class teacher, missionary, and a host of other things for the Lord for the past 17 years and she's thankful for every moment God uses to mold her into His image.