Hebrews 2:4

‘God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.’

And not only did the word come directly from the Son through impeccable witnesses, but God also Himself bore witness to it among them, through those very witnesses, providing a further witness which came by signs and miracles and by many revelations of power wrought by them and among them, and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to those who heeded Him in accordance with His will.

The witness was both from without, in outward manifestations, and from within, through gifts of the Spirit (Romans 12:5-11; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 1 Corinthians 12:28-31; Ephesians 4:11-12). He had thus given them every opportunity to heed it, and it had been as He Himself had determined. It had been directly in accordance with His will. For He had wanted them to have full evidence of the truth that was being taught, and His assurance that He was behind it.

‘Both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit.’ Compare here Acts 2:22. Jesus had Himself given evidence of Who and What He was by ‘mighty works and wonders and signs’; by His control over nature, by turning water into wine, by stilling the storm, by multiplying bread, by raising the dead, by healing the sick, and by casting out evil spirits. And this had continued on with the Apostles, and in the early church (see Galatians 3:5).

Signs, wonders, and manifold powers as mentioned in this verse bring to mind the miracles by which God at certain points in history confirmed His message to man at crucial times. Moses appeared before Pharaoh in a series of amazing signs and wonders at the time of the deliverance from Egypt, followed by Joshua on entry into Canaan; Elijah, followed by Elisha, was involved in a number of signs and miracles at a time when belief in God was at its lowest, and the coming of Jesus, followed by His disciples, was a further time of signs and miracles as the Gospel first began to spread. There is a clear pattern. But outside of those times miracles have been rare.

We should not therefore be surprised that after the early church had been established miracles became a rarer phenomenon. It follows the pattern of history. And it was also in full keeping with that pattern that the new revelation preached to people through the Jesus and His Apostles should have been corroborated and confirmed in the beginning by certain signs and miracles.

The very birthday of the church at Pentecost saw the apostles speaking with known tongues so as to understood (Acts 2:1-11). The gift of prophetic foretelling was exercised by Agabus (Acts 11:28; Acts 21:10), and by Paul himself when he prophesied that all on board the shipwrecked vessel would be spared alive (Acts 27:34). The disciples rejoiced at their being able to cast out evil spirits and heal the sick while Jesus was on earth (Luke 10:17), and that continued with the disciples after Pentecost (Acts 3:1-10; Acts 4:33; Acts 5:12; Acts 6:12) and with Paul and the girl at Philippi (Acts 16:18), while the power to inflict divine punishment on the wicked, as in the case of Elymas who was blinded (Acts 13:11) and that of Ananias and his wife who were stricken with death (Acts 5:1-10), was a reminder that God was not to be dallied with. Thus the confirming miracles that established the word of the Apostles of Christ as being truly that of God Himself were numerous. But it is apparent that even then they died down to a lesser level, for they are rarely mentioned later, although see Galatians 3:5; 1Co 12:10 ; 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, both comparatively early letters. By the time of the death of the Apostles they appear to have almost, but not completely, ceased.

Note the contrast between Sinai and Christ. At Sinai the voice of angels, the manifestations of power and glory, both coming from the mountain; here signs and wonders and manifold powers and gifts of the Holy Spirit directly present among them and revealed before their very eyes, and even manifested through them. At Sinai God before them in veiled glory as their sovereign Lord, compared with God among them here as their Saviour and within them as their ‘Helper’.

The Son Is Now Declared To Be Jesus Who Has Been Made Lower Than The Angels In Order To Be Crowned As True Man So That He Might Suffer For Mankind And Make Them His Brothers Through Saving Them From Sin And Bringing Them To Glory, Destroying The Fear of Death, And Becoming Their Effective High Priest (Hebrews 2:5-18).

Having revealed the glory of the Son and His superiority to angels, the writer now develops the theme of how low He stooped in order to help mankind and what the result will be for those who respond to Him. For God did not choose out angels to be His assistants, He decided to choose out sinful men, paying for them a huge price that He might deliver them. The angels indeed have no great part to play in His plan (see the repeated ‘not to angels’ - Hebrews 2:5; Hebrews 2:16). While they do in their own way minister to the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14), they are very much in the background. The central players are God, Jesus and redeemed men. (So is the importance of angels thrust into the background as far as men are concerned. For in the writer’s day too much emphasis was being laid on angels).