Hebrews chapter 2 continues distinguishing Jesus from angels. The chapter includes additional Old Testament quotes in order to make these points. In addition, the writer warns against the dangers of ignoring the message of Christ and refers to the way Jesus became human in order to perfectly serve as our ultimate high priest.

It opens with a warning (Hebrews 2:1–4). According to the scriptures, when God delivers a message and it’s ignored, there are consequences. This applies to more than just a take-it-or-leave-it approach to God's message; "drifting" from His truth also results in problems. The original Greek includes terms related both to deliberate sin as well as to mistakes (Hebrews 2:1–2). Regardless of how it happens, moving from truth to error never ends well. In the case of this particular message, God has gone to great lengths to provide proof (Hebrews 2:3–4), so there are no good excuses for "drifting."

After that caution, the writer of Hebrews returns to the Old Testament. The purpose is to continue proving that Jesus, the Messiah, is not an angel. He is superior to angels both in His divine nature and as a Saviour for mankind. The quotations and arguments used emphasise the humanity of the Messiah (Hebrews 2:5–18). An angel could not experience true humanity—they cannot call mankind "brothers" (Hebrews 2:5–13). Christ became a man, in every respect, in order to completely destroy the Devil's power of death and sin over man (Hebrews 2:14–17).

The result is a Saviour who understands suffering and temptation personally (Hebrews 2:18). When He offers comfort and encouragement, it's sincere. Jesus can honestly look at our circumstances and say, "I know how you feel. I have been there, too." In order for Jesus to really be the perfect substitute for us, He needed to overcome what we could not: human temptation. This is why Satan attempted to short-circuit Jesus' path to the cross (Matthew 4:1–11; Matthew 26:36–46).

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Questions:

What practical things are believers to do to avoid neglecting our salvation?

Why was the death of Jesus necessary in order to destroy the one holding the power of death?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I stand in awe that Jesus chose to live a life of suffering and pain, all because of His love of me, to bring me into the heavenly glory of Your love. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.