Objection: Hebrews 1:1 Says God Spoke Through the Prophets, Not the
Son
Dustin Smith tries to argue that Jesus is never presented as being
active in the Hebrew Bible. . . . Smith tries to support this contention by
referencing Hebrews 1:1-2, which says God spoke to us in past times through
prophets, but has now spoken to us through his son. Smith contends, “The author
of Hebrews argues that God used to speak through the prophets, but in these
last days he has spoken to us through a Son (Heb 1:1-2), indicating that God
didn’t speak through a Son in the Hebrew Bible.” First, it must be noted that God
does not exclusively speak through prophets in the Old Testament. There are
times in the Old Testament where God is depicted as speaking directly with a
person. However, while God spoke directly to prophets, God did not (for the
most part) go out and speak directly with the people. That was the job of the
prophets. God gave a message to the prophets; the prophets gave the message to
the people. Recognizing that Jesus is the angel of the Lord or the embodied
YHWH figure in the Old Testament would not change the fact that God will give
his messages to the people through the prophets. It is not as if recognizing the
angel of the Lord is Jesus suddenly changes the fact that God used Moses or
Jeremiah to deliver his messages. It is not as if the angel of the Lord was the
one regularly crying out in the streets for the people to repent in Isaiah or
Ezekiel.
However, unlike in the past, the Son has now taken on the function
that was normally reserved for the prophets. Whereas in the Old Testament the
person crying out in the streets and preaching to the common man was the
prophet, now that role is played directly by the Son. Thus, the author of
Hebrews can affirm that the Son was active in the Old Testament, while also
affirming that in the past God spoke to us through the prophets and has only
recently spoken to us through his Son. Before the coming of Christ, even if the
Son was active in the Old Testament, the everyday Israelite had their messages
from God conveyed through a prophet. However, now the middleman is removed. The
word of the Lord that commissioned Jeremiah and appeared to Samuel has now
walked the streets and taught the public directly. (James Agnew, The
Lord Appeared: Jesus as YHWH in the Old Testament [2025], 186-87)
