Using Psalm 104 as his text, Paul claims angels were created to be the servants of God (Hebrews 1:7). This Psalm has been interpreted and translated several different ways. For example, some scholars believe it should be rendered in the reverse order: “Who makes the wind his messengers and the flaming fire his servants,”[1] which finds some support in Psalm 148:8. Nevertheless, Paul isn’t using Psalm 104:4 to mean the wind and fire are the servants of God, although clearly they are (Psalm 148:8). Rather, he seems to be telling his readers that angels were created in the image of nature that daily fulfills the will of the Creator (not the image of God as man was created – cp. Genesis 1:26-27) . To serve is the reason they exist. In fact, 2Esdras, which probably preserves how some Jews believed during the first century AD, says this about angels with an obvious reference to Psalm 104:4:
“…before whom (i.e. before God who sits on his throne) the army of angels stand with trembling, at whose bidding they are changed to wind and fire; [2Esdras 8:21-22; parenthesis mine]
It makes no difference whether or not these Jewish interpretations are true. The point is Paul was addressing the Jewish understanding of angels during the first century AD, and showed that, although the Jews held angels in very high esteem, even to the point of being co-creators of mankind, they were completely inferior to Jesus. Notice:
Rab Judah said in Rab’s name: When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to create man, He [first] created a company of ministering angels and said to them: Is it your desire that we make a man in our image? They answered: Sovereign of the Universe, what will be his deeds? Such and such will be his deeds, He replied. Thereupon they exclaimed: Sovereign of the Universe, What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou thinkest of him? Thereupon He stretched out His little finger among them and consumed them with fire. The same thing happened with a second company. The third company said to Him: Sovereign of the Universe, what did it avail the former [angels] that they spoke to Thee [as they did]? the whole world is Thine, and whatsoever that Thou wishest to do therein, do it.[2]
In contrast to the angels being created to be servants (Hebrews 1:7), the Son is addressed as God and shown to rule rather than serve. He has a throne and rules forever. During his public ministry Jesus had shown the world that he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God anointed him with the oil of gladness (Hebrews 1:8-9). In other words Jesus was declared to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the ruler of the kings of the earth (Psalm 89:27; cf. Psalm 2:1-12).
Quoting from Psalm 45:7-8, Paul said God anointed Jesus above his fellows (Hebrews 1:8-9). Some believe Jesus’ fellows are angels, which would make Jesus an angel before he became man, but this is unscriptural, as is proved in Psalm 45:2. There the Messiah is fairer than the children of men. Thus, being compared with men, men are the fellows of verse-9, showing that Christ is not and was not an angelic being.
In Hebrews 1:9 the Son is addressed as God, but this is not proof of Jesus’ Deity. Philippians 2:6 is a better Scripture for that purpose, in that there he is described as equal with God. However, in Hebrews 1:9, Jesus has a God. That is, the Father is higher in authority than Jesus, but what does this mean? The text shows that God (the Father) had anointed Jesus and calls him his Son. This is a Messianic title, as understood from Psalm 2, a Messianic Psalm that was sung at the coronation of nearly all of the kings who reigned from Jerusalem. The Son of God in this sense is the Messiah, who is also referred to as the Firstborn of God (Psalm 89:27). Jesus is the Firstborn from the dead (Revelation 1:5), and the Firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29). In other words, just as Jesus was begotten or born out from among the dead, so has he quickened many who had been dead in sin to a living hope (Ephesians 2:5-6), being begotten (or born) of God (1John 5:1).
Thus, while God does beget many children from the dead, he has only one **Only Begotten** from eternity (John 1:18; cf. John 1:1, 14), showing that when the Lord begat (gennao – G1080) his Son (Hebrews 1:5) and those he begets (G1080) through the Gospel (1Corinthians 4:15) are different from the **Only Begotten** (monogenes – G3439). Therefore, the writer of Hebrews is not, here, speaking of God’s eternal Son, but his Son, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Messiah.
The Messianic throne is a human throne and, therefore, **must** be inferior to the throne of God. The word god is often used for human rulers in Scripture (cp. Psalm 82), and it is in this sense that the Father is Jesus’ God. That is, the Father, on the throne of God, is higher in authority than Jesus on the Messianic throne (a human throne). Nevertheless, Jesus also sits on the throne of God, equal in authority with the Father (Revelation 22:1, 3). We are invited to sit with Jesus on his throne, i.e. the Messianic throne (Revelation 3:21), but not on the throne he shares with his Father.
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[1] See the NASB translation.
[2] Babylonians Talmud; Sanhedrin 38b
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