Prologue of Hebrews

God,
who at sundry times
and in divers manners
spake in time past
unto the fathers
by the prophets,

Hath in these last days
spoken unto us
by his Son…

Hebrews 1:1

I love the opening verses of the epistle to the Hebrews in the King James Version of the Bible. Other translations frankly make these verses sound rather ordinary. King James makes them soar.

“Sundry times” and “divers manners” are not expressions I use every day, but I understand them. God speaks to us in a variety of ways. We can be grateful for the messages we’ve received via prophets over millennia, including the words of living prophets. Those words point us toward God, but they are no substitute for the words of the Son of God Himself.

The night before Jesus was born, a prophet on the American continent heard His voice, saying, “On the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. (3 Nephi 1:13).

About 33 years later, Jesus visited a group of people on the American continent. He taught them, prayed for them, and blessed them. They bore record “that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come” (3 Nephi 11:15).

Jesus is greater than the angels (Hebrews 1). He is greater than prophets (Hebrews 3). He is greater than priests (Hebrews 5). But angels, prophets, and priests all point us toward Him. As Abinadi said, prophets publish peace and lead us to “the founder of peace” (Mosiah 15:13-18).

Nephi taught that we should “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:3).

Today I will be grateful for all of the ways God communicates with me, and particularly for the words of Jesus Christ.