Hebrews Lesson 18 July 7, 2005

^NKJ Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

We will be jumping around to several different places in the Old and New Testament to get an understanding of what is going on here in Hebrews 1:5. 

^NKJ Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?

He is God the Father. 

This is the first verse in the first section of Hebrews. Verses 1-4 are the opening prologue.  The prologue introduces some of the major themes and ideas that we will go through again and again as we go through this crucial book of Hebrews.  It ended in verse 4 with the statement that He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.  The point is that Jesus Christ at the ascension received a higher position than the angels.  This is clear from a number of other passages in the New Testament.

^NKJ 1 Peter 3:22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

^NKJ Ephesians 1:20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. ²² And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

That is the guts of the doctrine of the ascension and session of Jesus Christ.  In that ascension He was placed in authority over everything.  He was created a little lower than the angels but in the ascension He was elevated above the angels and everything in the universe.  He is the head of the church.  There’s an important connection there because His position as the head of the church relates specifically to His high priestly ministry to Church Age believers.  That is about as close as the Apostle Paul gets to the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is up to the writer of Hebrews to develop that whole doctrine and its significance for us today.  He concludes that opening section in verse 4 referencing this elevation of the Lord Jesus Christ to a position that is superior to that of the angels.   With that he ends the prologue and makes the transition into the first section that will demonstrate the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

But it is not to simply emphasize the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ but the significance of that for the spiritual life of the Church Age believer.  That becomes evident if you look at chapter two verse one where there is the exhortation. 

^NKJ Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

In other words this isn’t just a mere academic statement about Christ’s superiority to the angels or to His elevation at the session, but it has implications for how we think and how we live in terms of our own spiritual life.  This is based on two doctrines that are not discussed very much any more. 

We could bemoan the fact that nobody wants to learn Bible doctrine any more. No one wants to study any more.  But this is what the spiritual life is predicated upon – certain facts, understanding certain facts about who Jesus Christ is and what He is doing right now.  Who He is relates to something called the Sonship of Christ.  We’ve gone through the titles of Jesus Christ – the five titles related to His humanity and one to His deity.   They connect together under this concept right here of the Sonship and they connect in the two quotes of verse 5.  What is remarkable in this section is that the writer of Hebrews goes into the Old Testament and selects phrases and sentences from 8 different Old Testament passages and he weaves them together in order to establish this case of who Jesus Christ is and His position over everything in the universe.  That position also means that He has power.  That means He has authority to rule and to reign the creation. Position without authority is meaningless.  You have to have the power to execute in the area of responsibility that you have.  Here the argument is that the Lord Jesus Christ as the royal high priest, the king-priest, is superior because of His authority.  If I wanted to structure the argument in terms of a syllogism, I would say that the major premise is that the Messiah based on these Old Testament passages is superior to the angels.  That is the point that is made in verse five. 

^NKJ Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?

Messiah is superior to the angels.  The unstated minor premise is that Jesus is the Messiah.  That is assumed throughout the first chapter.  Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.  Messiah comes from the Hebrew word mashiyach meaning the anointed one or the appointed one.  The major premise is that the Messiah is superior to the angels.   The minor premise is Jesus is the Messiah.  The conclusion is that Jesus is superior to the angels.

Because Jesus is in a position superior to the angels and because you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are united with Him in Christ, we are in a position that even though experientially we are created is lower than the angels eventually at the rapture we will be higher than the angels.  We will rule and reign over the angels.  And as Paul points out in I Cor 6 we will indeed judge the angels. 

How are we going to judge the angels?  We all know if we have paid attention to the recent events in the news of the retirement of a Supreme Court judge and all of the battles going on in the Senate related to filibusters and judgeships, that you see a lot of criticism of the judges.  One in Minnesota let a child molester out of prison and he killed this little boy.  Then he kidnapped a little girl.  There is a problem with judges.  The problem is that most judges have no integrity in their souls.  They have no content in their souls upon which to base decisions.  If you don’t have integrity and content in your soul to make wise decisions, you can’t judge. That is the underlying issue throughout Hebrews.   As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our destiny is to rule and reign with Christ as those who are joint heirs with Him.  We will be metachoi.  We will be overcomers, companions, and partakers. We will be those who co-rule and co-reign with Him. We judge the angels.  You can’t get there without Bible doctrine in the soul.  If you haven’t passed through the training ground in your three score and ten years on planet earth, then you won’t be prepared to sit and execute judgment during the Millennial Kingdom.  That is why those who don’t make it there are said to be outside the kingdom.  They are not participants, owners or heirs of the kingdom.  They may be present but they are not there with a position of authority.  This is the background for the whole book.

It presupposes a certain understanding of these two doctrines - the session of Christ and the Sonship of Christ.  Last time we went through some issues related to Psalm 2.  This relates to the ascension of Christ.  We started off looking at Psalm 68:18 and how it is used in Ephesians 4 showing that the ascension is pictured as a victorious ascension.  Just as God took the high ground physically when the Ark of the Covenant was taken to the top of the temple mount that pictured the victory of God over the enemies of Israel in the Old Testament.   It is applied to Jesus ascending over everything at the ascension.  It is a victorious taking of the high ground.  Then we looked at Daniel 7 and following.  It indicated that there is a time lapse before He is given the kingdom.  Then we looked at Psalm 2.  We will eventually get to Psalm 110 because that is quoted in this passage as well.  These are the four major passages in the Old Testament that inform New Testament writers as to the significance of the ascension and session. 

This is review.  It is so important to understand Psalm 2.  Psalm 2 is not an easy psalm to understand.   I remember some years ago sitting in Christology.  It was a basic systematic theology course at Dallas Seminary.  We had a new professor who was later on promoted to the head of the department. He was at his best those first two or three years he was on the faculty.  He wasn’t as good later on for various other reasons.  He did an excellent job teaching Christology.  I sat front and center next to Tommy Ice.  We almost had a religious experience every single day in class because the lectures were so good.  It was a great class and he taught through Psalm 2.  He went through all passages of the New Testament passage that quotes Psalm 2.  It was tremendous how he put it together.  I went back and read those notes.  Every time I go through this I see new things.  This is one of the most basic passages from the Old Testament in terms of the New Testament.  Psalm 2:7 is referred to or directly quoted four times in the New Testament.  Psalm 2 is used four or five other times in the New Testament.  Whenever you have a psalm that is quoted several times in the New Testament, you’d better wake up and pay attention because God the Holy Spirit is saying that the theology in these psalms is crucial to understand what is going on in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and His work.  I don’t begrudge you a bit for having to repeat this again and again. For years I used to go back and almost start from scratch on Psalm 2 because it is not simple.  The implications are profound.

It is a prophetic Messianic psalm that looks forward to the time period at the end of the tribulation. That is the scenario.

^NKJ Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?

It is a picture of all the kings of the earth gathering together against the Lord and the Messiah at the end of the Tribulation.

^NKJ Psalm 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

This is a U. N. conspiracy against God the Father referred to in this verse as Yahweh and God the Son referred to in this verse as His Anointed.

This is what they say.

^NKJ Psalm 2:3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."

This is a continuous position of modern man since the fall.  It is getting more and more noticeable with modern man.  They don’t want Him in their lives.  We removed Him from the schools.  We have removed Him from the courtroom.  We want to remove Him from everything because we want to run it ourselves.  We don’t need God.  It is going to get worse until this final expression at the end of the tribulation. 

^NKJ Psalm 2:4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision.

This is somewhat anthropomorphic picture of God laughing at miniscule man who shakes his fist at the almighty, omnipotent God.  This is God’s view. 

^NKJ Psalm 2:5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure:

Then is the Hebrew word az.  Anger is the expression of His justice. He is not suddenly getting angry.  This is an anthropopathic term. That means a human emotion is attributed to God that He doesn’t actually possess in order to express God’s policy, plans or purposes.  There is a lot of debate over whether God has emotion or not.  Some people say that He has emotion.  What they mean may not be that much different from what we mean.  They would say that His emotion is not like our emotion.  But you see if emotion is defined as a response to stimuli (whatever that may be) then you can’t have God having emotion because emotion is a response to something.  Since God is omniscient, He always knows what is going to happen.  He does not become angry.  That would violate immutability.  That would mean that He has always known that they would rebel so He has always been angry.  That would mean that God is eternally angry.  That isn’t right.  Wrath is an anthropopathic expression of God’s justice.  We say that the judge threw the book at someone.  What an emotional outburst that is.  We don’t mean it literally.  We mean that the person felt the full wrath or extent of the law.  We had to pay the full penalty.  That is what this is indicating.  It is the full expression of His justice.

^NKJ Psalm 2:6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

This is where it gets difficult.  You have to pay attention to the pronouns.  Who is speaking in verse 6?  God the Father.  “I” is God the Father.  My King is the Messiah. There are two personages here. Who is My King?   My King is the Messiah.  Now we have Davidic overtones.  This indicates a human king. 

The Davidic Covenant is the expression of the seed paragraph of the Abrahamic Covenant.  The installation of the King is Davidic.  This is the Davidic Covenant. This is the essence of Sonship.  It is Jesus as the Son of God indicating His full deity.  The other part is that it recognizes that He is the Son of David.  This connects this quote to the second half of verse 5 that quotes II Sam 7:14. 

^NKJ 2 Samuel 7:12 " When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵ "But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 

Under the Holy Spirit the writer of Hebrews is connecting Psalm 2 and II Samuel 7.  This is a very interesting move because it shores up the magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Let’s remember the covenants.  There are three Gentile covenants in the Old Testament.  The first is the Edenic Covenant or the Creation Covenant.  It has to be modified because of the fall.  It becomes the Adamic Covenant. It sets up the first dispensation of perfect environment.  It is also called innocence.  Innocence is not really a bad term.  Innocence has two connotations in our language.  One is that of someone who is rather naïve and innocent.  That is not a good connotation.  But the other is a judicial connotation.  That is that the person standing before the bar of justice is innocent.  That is exactly how the word is utilized when CI Scofield chose it to describe this dispensation.  It referred to the fact that they were not guilty.  Not only were they not guilty, they were innocent judicially before the throne of God.  That is the issue.  Throughout the Bible again and again it is not experience that counts.  It has to do with the Supreme Court of Heaven and the God’s justice.  That is why you can’t be saved unless you are justified.  You must possess the perfect righteousness of God.  Confession is a judicial term.  All of these terms are borrowed from the legal structure. God runs the universe according to these covenants.  They are legal contracts.  So we have to think of these terms with legal nuances. 

The Adamic Covenant has to be modified again after the flood with the Noahic covenant. It is still in effect today.  Those are Gentile covenants and were for the entire human race. 

Because of the failure at the Tower of Babel, God called out a new and unique people who would be descendents of Abraham.  Abraham was given a covenant in Gen 12:1-3.  It was officially cut in Genesis 15 and reconfirmed with a sign attached to it in Genesis 17.  Then there are three more covenants given to Israel that expand the land, seed, and blessing aspects of the Abrahamic covenant.  There is a real estate or land covenant in Deut 30.  We have the Davidic Covenant in II Samuel 7.  And there is the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31. 

The interesting thing is that Hebrews recognizes and assumes the existence of the Abrahamic Covenant.  It does not deal with land covenant because that is a literal covenant to the Jews that they’re going to have eternal possession of this piece of real estate located in the eastern end of the Mediterranean between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates River.  There is a lot of discussion in Hebrews of the Davidic Covenant.  It is the background for understanding Sonship.  In Hebrews chapter 8 there is a reference to the New Covenant that replaces the old covenant.  So you have to understand this whole structure to understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying.  Under girding much of Hebrews is the fact that the Mosaic Covenant is no longer in effect because it is replaced or superceded by Jesus Christ the and His work on the cross.  That is an overlook of the covenants and how they fit together.

The Davidic Covenant

1. Scripture   II Samuel 7:11-14, I Chronicles 17:10-14, and Psalm 89 are the three key passages for understanding the Davidic Covenant.  The central passage is II Sam 7. 
2. Persons involved in the covenant   A covenant is a contract between two people or two groups of people or a person and a group.  We have two parties to the contract.  God is the party of the first part.  He is the one giving the contract to David.  David has not asked Him.  It is a free grace contract.  That means it is unconditional and unilateral.  Those are the two key words for every covenant in the Old Testament except the Mosaic.  It is unconditional and unilateral.  That means its possession is not conditioned upon anything.  It is unilateral in that God Himself is bound to the contract without putting conditions on man.  It is something that God bestows on the individual or the race.  In this case God is party of the first part.  David is the party of the second part as he represents his entire lineage.  That is known now as the Davidic dynasty.  David represents all of his heirs.
3. Importance of the covenant Why is it so important?  It is important because it establishes the meaning of the seed paragraph of the Abrahamic Covenant.  The seed is now specifically restricted to the Davidic line.  It is not just the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It is not just the line of Judah.  It is now specified to be the line of David.  It expands on the seed paragraph of the Abrahamic Covenant.  The Messianic seed is going go come through David.
4. The Provisions of the covenant 
1. God promised David a house.  This means a dynasty.  II Sam 7:11, 16, 17:10

^NKJ 2 Samuel 7:11 "since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that He will make you a house.

This is not a literal house.  This means a dynasty.

^NKJ 2 Samuel 7:16 "And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever."

2. Solomon, not the oldest son, will be established upon David’s throne.  II Sam 7:12

^NKJ 2 Samuel 7:12 " When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

3. Solomon will build the temple, not David.  II Sam 7:13

^NKJ 2 Samuel 7:13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Note the play on words here.  God will make a house for David and David’s son will make a house for God.  The Holy Spirit loves these paronomasias.  What was David’s heartbeat at this point?  To build a house for God.  But God said, “No. That is not my plan for you.  I will make a house for you instead.  I will give you a dynasty and it will be your seed that builds a house for Me.” 

4. The throne of Solomon’s kingdom will be established forever not the person but the throne itself, the throne of the kingdom. It will be an eternal throne.   II Sam 7:13, 16   You have to have an eternal line of descendents or a line of descendents that culminates with someone who is eternal.  Christ is the eternal one who will be able to fulfill this.  He has to be a human because He has to be from the physical lineage of David.  You get these hints all the way through the Old Testament that the Messiah is going to be human but on the other hand He would have divine attributes.  The Jews should not have been surprised by the Messiah claiming to be God.  It is embedded over and over again in some of the passages we will look at related to the Davidic covenant.
5. Solomon will be punished for disobedience but God’s covenantal love will not be removed from him.  There is the near application in Solomon.   
6. In the Chronicles passage the emphasis is on the Messiah, His throne, His house and kingdom that will be established forever.

^NKJ 1 Chronicles 17:10 "since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. Also I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore I tell you that the LORD will build you a house. ¹¹ "And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² "He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. ¹⁴ "And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever." ' "

It is talking about the throne of the Messiah that is the throne of David.  It was a literal throne in Jerusalem so we must determine that the throne of the Messiah will be an eternal throne in Jerusalem.  They spiritualize the throne.  They spiritualize the land.  They spiritualize the kingdom.  . 

5. The Promise  Four things promised include an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne and an eternal descendent.    The eternality of these things is guaranteed by the Messiah who is fully God.
6. Confirmations Confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant was given in II Sam 23 and Ps 89. God is very precise in that if He speaks to anyone in private there are confirmations and objective validations.  There is no basis for believers saying God told them to do x, y or z because there is no confirmation or objective validation.   You don’t find that ever in the Bible.  In fact there are few people that God audibly spoke to in the Scripture.    There is never an inner light voice.  It is an external reality.  I always get a little upset when I hear people talk about the still small voice.  That comes out of the study of Elijah.  In I Kings 19, Elijah dies.  He runs away and goes to Mt. Sinai and into a cave.  While he is in the cave God appears to him.  He gives him a demonstration of His power.  God is not in the earthquake.  God is not in the fire.  God was not in the wind.  Then you read about the still small voice. People say that this is the voice of God and they get real pious.  I went through this passage once again bound and determined to understand the passage.  I realized that it is in a context.   It is in a context you must pay attention to.  The earthquake is external to Elijah.  The fire is external to Elijah. The roaring wind is external to Elijah.  So is the voice of God! It is a running list.  The voice is not something that he is hearing in his head.  It is the voice of God.  It is small in contrast to these mighty external demonstrations that he has just witnessed.  This is a man of tremendous miracles.  God is demonstrating that the reality of God’s presence is not in the manifestation of the miraculous; it is in the communication of content.  It is not in all of these noisy things.  It is in the content of what He communicates.  The voice communicates data. It communicates information.  It communicates doctrine.  He is saying that Elijah should quite being distracted by the miracles and focus on the content of His revelation.  It has nothing to do with listening to a small inner voice.  That is what got the Quakers quaking and the Shakers shaking.  They distorted the still small voice.  Baptists get into it too.  They are just as bad.  We have these external confirmations.

II Samuel 23 confirms the Davidic Covenant.

All 52 verses of Psalm 89 are a reconfirmation the Davidic Covenant.  It emphasizes the fact that the Davidic Covenant would be fulfilled just as God promised despite of the behavioral flaws of David’s descendents.

7. The Extent  It is eternal justice as we have seen as the Abrahamic Covenant and the promise of the land.  It is eternal and everlasting.  If you try to make it something else, it has some terrible implications   Jesus is the eternal Son of David.  If the land is not eternal when you start toying with literal interpretation there is no objective guideline any more.  The next thing you know you can do away with the deity of Jesus Christ.  That is what happened in the progressive deterioration of theology. 

Isaiah indicates the extent.

^NKJ Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

The term Son is loaded with nuances.  What is a Jew going to think? 

This seems to be a synonymous parallelism but in fact it is an emblematic parallelism.  

What government would that be? 

A child is born but a son is given.  “Son given” to us is emphasis on the deity of Christ.

How would you understand that in the 6^th century BC as a Jew living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah while you have a Davidic descendent on the throne?  That is in Jerusalem.  God doesn’t play a bait and switch.  Only dispensationalism is consistent.    Justice and righteousness are the basis of His throne. 

^NKJ Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

It pictures something that will happen in the future.  It is a stem that has been cut down.  There is just a stub left.  The line of David had been cut down by the fifth cycle of discipline when the Southern Kingdom went out.  Even though the lineage was there,  there was no Davidic king..  It began a stub.  Jesse was David’s father. 

^NKJ Jeremiah 23:5 " Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. ⁶ In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

There is the implication that there will be a tearing down before a building up.

^NKJ Jeremiah 30:8 'For it shall come to pass in that day,' Says the LORD of hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck, And will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. ⁹ But they shall serve the LORD their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.

The term “hosts” is an antiquated word that means armies.

Here we have two personages, Yahweh and David the king.  Yahweh is Jesus Christ.  David in resurrection will be reigning over the Jews.  Jesus will rule over the Jews and the Gentiles.  David will be the primary administrator over the Jewish Kingdom.  Who will administer the kingdom to the Gentiles?  The church. 

In relation to the Messiah he is a prince.  In relations to his people he is a king.

God speaks.

^NKJ Ezekiel 37:24 " David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. ²⁵ "Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.

In relation to the messiah he is a prince. 

There is a return of David to the throne.  Israel will someday have national salvation.

^NKJ Hosea 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. ⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.

^NKJ Amos 9:11 " On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old;

This occurs at the end of the Great Tribulation. 

It is fallen now.  There is no king in Israel. 

In the Old Testament there are promises are made that are not fulfilled until the future.  The major covenants in the Old Testament are given but they are not fulfilled until the Millennial Kingdom.  The Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant are not fulfilled until the Millennial Kingdom.  Actually the New Covenant is applied to the Church Age. 

Back to Psalm 2:7 

^NKJ Psalm 2:7 "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Who is speaking?  Who is the Me?  The Son.  Remember that I said you have to make sure that you know who is speaking here. 

Literally the word there should be translated “You are always My Son.” Jesus Christ is the eternal second person of the trinity and the eternal Son of God.  He is always the Son.  The Father is always the Father.  This is a classic doctrine throughout church history called the eternal Sonship of Christ.  It indicates His eternal deity. 

The question becomes when was that day?  That day was at the resurrection when God the Father declares Him the begotten one with power as we shall see from Romans 1:4. 

^NKJ Psalm 2:8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

The king is installed at the Second Advent.  This is when He is given the nations and rules the nations with a rod of iron. The events of Psalm 2 take place just before this. 

The decree is a formal legal document. It is the Hebrew word choq.  It indicates something written.  It is something like a title deed. 

John is in the throne room of God.  He worshipped God in the fourth chapter with the living creatures.  The 24 elders represent the church.  In the midst of this scene comes chapter 5. 

^NKJ Revelation 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. ² Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?" ³ And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. ⁴ So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. ⁵ But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."

John watches all of this praise going on and he notices the one sitting on the throne has a scroll in His hand.

That scroll is this decree talked about in Psalm 2:7.  Part one says you are My Son. Part two says to ask and I will give you.  So what is in the scroll?  It is the title deed to that possession.  During the Church Age Jesus Christ has been asking for it.  

Here is the picture.  God is on the throne.  He is holding the scroll.  The angels are announcing, “Who is worthy?  Who is worthy?” The picture is that they are going around all through heaven asking who is worthy to open the scroll.  No one was able to open the scroll of look at it.

John is not just crying with a few tears flowing down his face.  He is weeping uncontrollably that no one can be found who can open the scroll and take possession of the earth.

This is the root of the stem of Jesse, the root of David.

^NKJ Revelation 5:6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. ⁸ Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, ¹⁰ And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth." ¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, ¹² saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"

What does he have to do to bring that to completion?  He opens the seals one at a time.  Each one is another judgment that purifies the earth and prepares Israel for the coming of her king and Messiah.

This event is at the end of the tribulation when the king is installed and He rules the nations and looks back.

^NKJ Acts 13:33 "God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.' 

He is talking about the resurrection of Christ.  Paul is saying that it is at the resurrection that is made.  This is when He is told that the title is waiting for Him.

^NKJ Romans 1:3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,

^NKJ Romans 1:4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Was He the Son of God already? Was He the Son of God a billion years ago?  Yes, He was.

The implications of that are profound for the Church.  That is what Hebrews is all about.

^NKJ Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?

This is the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.  .