“And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him” (Hebrews 1:6).
Jesus Christ is “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), but the day finally came when He had to proceed all the way to Earth, and the eternal Word “was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). A little later, He would be “declared to be the Son of God . . . by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). By eternal generation, by the incarnation, by the virgin birth, and by the resurrection, He is in every sense God’s “first begotten”—His only begotten—Son.
Our text says that when He first entered the world, born of the virgin, His heavenly Father called on all the innumerable angels in the heavenly host to bow down and worship Him. It is not clear whether this command is a quotation from the Old Testament or not, although it is cited in a passage which also quotes several other Messianic prophecies as applied to Jesus Christ. Psalm 97:7 and Deuteronomy 32:43 have been suggested as possible source verses, but neither of these seems to fit very well in context. Thus it may be that our text refers directly, and solely, to a specific decree of God, proclaimed throughout the universe at the time of the human birth of His Son, and recorded here alone. All the angels of the infinite cosmos bowed in solemn worship, but a special contingent was commissioned to watch directly over the birth, and proclaim the good news to those nearby. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:13,14). The angels saw and worshiped; the shepherds heard and told. And “all they that heard it wondered” (Luke 2:18). HMM
