To which of the angels did He ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I may place your enemies as a footstool for your feet”? – Hebrews 1:13 (from the Greek), quoting Psalm 110:1

I walked down a very large hallway, mesmerized by the luxurious carpet and 20 foot high wood panel walls. I was a 29 year old IT project manager who had been summoned to Los Angeles by the president of the $6B company we’d acquired. He was in a high back leather chair behind a huge mahogany desk, with a massive bookshelf behind him and literally flags on both sides like a president. Then it got more surreal as I sat and realized that the legs on my chair had been shortened. Like out of a movie.

He had questions about the project I was running to integrate their store systems with ours. After several minutes of asking questions, he says, “You mean to tell me that we’re going to spend $X million repairing our communication system at the same time as we spend $X million buying a new one?” I sheepishly responded with only “Yes, sir”. He sat staring at me in silence, then opened his desk drawer, pulled out his headache pills and placed them firmly on the desk in front of him. “Explain!”

I didn’t have a great explanation at the time. I was just following the direction of my VP and he wasn’t telling me why he picked this strategy. Some things are beyond our knowledge. “Above my pay grade.” But a few months later I somehow found myself in Phoenix at a barbecue with a few VPs. As the drinks flowed a picture started to emerge. I got a peek behind the curtain that, well… if you’re struggling with finding meaning in your work you might want to skip this part:

• They were running a high priority project with this same president: 6 weeks to get it done, 60 of his people flown in for the duration. And… the whole thing is fake. It’s just a ruse to get IBM to believe we might switch vendors and give us a deal on our next contract.

• One guy seemed more interested in bragging that he bought $1B worth of merchandise with one signature, and did the others know that the cutlery on the company jet was gold?

• My VP pulled me aside and said, “Do you know why we do these jobs? It’s not for the money, we all have plenty of that. It’s for the power. It’s so I can call my old boss over at (company) and tell him, “I F**KED YOU!!”

We don’t like the powers fighting it out somewhere up there. The uncertainty is uncomfortable. We want to believe everything is always peaceful at the top. But what if that verse applies at the higher levels as well? What if the CEO establishing the company culture is also a process at the top, not just an event?

I was navigating unseen layers of authority at work, but Hebrews shows us there’s an even greater reality of powers and hierarchy in the spiritual realm.

Angels

We don’t like admitting there are powers jockeying beyond our scope of understanding. But there’s a lot going on that’s just “out there”. Listen to the context of Hebrews 1:13, where the author spends two chapters comparing Jesus to the angels:

• Jesus became superior to the angels – 1:4
• God became Jesus’s Father – 1:5
• The angels were told to worship him – 1:6
• God makes his angels winds, but Jesus’s throne is forever – 1:7
• God anointed Jesus above his associates – 1:9
• Jesus laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens – 1:10
• To which of the angels did He ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I may place your enemies as a footstool for your feet”? – Hebrews 1:13
• Angels are spirits that serve those inheriting salvation – 1:14
• The word spoken through angels was binding and the punishment has already been received – 2:2
• It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come – 2:5
• You made him a little lower than angels and appointed him over everything – 2:7
• Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while – 2:9
• Jesus calls us his brothers – 1:11
• Jesus is not helping the angels, but Abraham’s descendants – 1:16

What does it mean, for example, that the angel punishment has been received? Makes me wonder if this idea of establishing order happened first in the heavens, when rebellious angels were cast down.

• How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. – Isaiah 14:12-15
• Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. – Ezek 28:16-17
• He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” – Lk 10:18

Progressive Reign

Yahweh said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” – Psalm 110:1

What if things also needed to be cleaned up over time in the heavens? Listen to the Lord’s prayer this way: your reign come here the way it came in heaven.

• “Our Father who is in the heavens, holy be your name, your reign come, your will be done, as in heaven so also upon earth” – Mt 6:9-10 from the Greek

This prayer isn’t just about longing for a future kingdom; it’s about living in the process of Jesus’ reign being established here, just as it has been in heaven.