Hebrews: I Will Proclaim Your Name
Hebrews 2:11-13, Matthew 12:46-50, Psalm 22:22, Isaiah 8:17-18 - Jesus proclaims us (believers) as brethren and sings our praises. He is our sanctifier!
“For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
And again,
“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.””
Hebrews 2:11-13 NASB1995
The “For” at the beginning of verse 11 follows on from verse 10. The author of our salvation is He who sanctifies. And we who believe are sanctified! We are children of the Father and Jesus calls us brethren. The act of salvation required a perfect God who became fully human (and perfect as a human) for the sacrifice to be acceptable.
This is a good explanation from Charles Spurgeon (quoted in Precept Austin) on being sanctified:
What is meant by the expression, being sanctified? The essential part of sanctification means being set apart for holy uses. That which was meant to be used for God alone was sanctified, set apart, regarded as holy. The vessels of the sanctuary were sanctified when they were used only by the priests in the service of God. Of course; there arose out of this fact, which is the essence of sanctification, the further quality of purity, for that which is dedicated to God must be pure, that which is reserved for his service must not be defiled, it must be clean.
We cannot imagine the holy God using unholy vessels in his sanctuary; so that sanctification comes to mean purification, the making of that to be holy which was first of all set apart for holy uses. Holiness of character follows upon holiness of design. First are we set apart for God’s use and then afterwards we are made pure that we may be fit for God’s use. No man is truly sanctified unless he is sanctified by Christ. The Holy Spirit is made the Agent of our purification, but it is in Christ that we are first of all set apart unto God, and it is by His most precious blood, applied to us by the Spirit of God, that we are made clean and pure so as to be used in the divine service. Believers are the sanctified, and Jesus Christ is the Sanctifier.
He is not ashamed to call the saved His brethren! This hearkens back to the Gospel of Matthew (a similar passage is found in Mark):
“While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.””
Matthew 12:46-50 NASB1995
Reading commentary for this passage (which I found difficult in many ways to really understand), I noted that Jesus did not call His disciples brethren until after the Resurrection. This is the observation from the late John MacArthur, as found in Precept Austin; the last sentence is from the author of Precept Austin.
“The Lord Jesus never called His people brothers on the other side of the cross. Before Calvary He called them disciples or friends or sheep, but never brothers. Why? Because they could not truly be brothers until after the cross, when their sin was paid for and His righteousness was imputed to them. Only then did they become spiritual brothers of the Lord. As soon as Jesus was risen from the dead, He said to Mary, “Go to My brethren.” (Jn 20:17+) For the first time He called His disciples brothers. (See context in Hebrews Commentary)
“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
Verse 12 of Hebrews 2 is almost a direct word-for-word quote from the Septuagint (Greek) Old Testament from Psalm 22:
“I will tell of Your name to my brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.”
Psalms 22:22 NASB1995
Psalm 22 is the most Messianic of the Psalms, as it predicts the crucifixion. The transition from verse 21 to verse 22 in that Psalm 22 was noted by some commentators to be the transition from death on the cross to the Resurrection. In this usage in Hebrews 2, “I” is Jesus and the “Your/You” are referring to God. And Jesus did sing! Here’s commentary from Enduring Word quoting Charles Spurgeon:
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You: This wonderful quote from Psalm 22:22 (from the ancient Septuagint) reminds us that Jesus sang, singing worship to His Father among His brethren.
“Did Jesus sing? Yes, literally. After supper, they sang a hymn. It must have been most thrilling to hear Christ’s voice, quivering with emotion, singing the Psalms, which constituted the Great Hallel.” (Spurgeon)
“Behold, then, in your midst, O Church of God, in the days of his flesh there stood this glorious One whom angels worship, who is the brightness of his Father’s glory in the very heaven of heavens; yet when he stood here, it was to join in the worship of his people, declaring the Father’s name unto his brethren, and with them singing praises unto the Most High. Does not this bring him very near to you? Does it not seem as if he might come at any moment, and sit in that pew with you; I feel as if already he stood on this platform side by side with me; why should he not?” (Spurgeon)
That imagery certainly makes one want to be fully embracing of the songs of worship! He might be there with you singing those praises to God the Father!
By the way, in Season 5 of The Chosen, the events of Holy Week are seen through flashbacks from the Last Supper. All the actors playing disciples (and Jesus) sing to the Lord at the Seder and they also recite prayers associated with Passover that are beautiful and very moving.
Finally, this passage in verse 13 quotes from Isaiah 8 (the quote is from the Septuagint but here is the original version):
“And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
Isaiah 8:17-18 NASB1995
I’m going to go to Spurgeon again for verse 13. This is from his exposition on Hebrews, found on Precept Austin:
There are some passages which we should never have thought related to the Messiah if the New Testament had not told us that they do. Hence I have no doubt that we much more often err in not seeing Christ in the Old Testament than in seeing him there, for there may be many other passages besides those which are supposed to speak of Christ which do speak of him.
This is our Lord Jesus Christ putting his trust in the Father, overcoming by faith, even as we do. Oh, what a marvellous oneness there is here between Christ and his people! Well might the apostle say that “both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.”
We are connected to the humanity of the Savior so much that we are His brethren! God has given us to Him! Spurgeon is right - the OT points to Jesus in so many places that it sometimes doesn’t seem obvious. The writer of Hebrews really knew the prophecies and pointers and is bringing them forward to his recipients (as noted previously, likely struggling Jewish converts) to strengthen their faith.
My next devotional examines Hebrews 2:14-16 - Christ’s death breaks the power of evil.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Although I struggled a bit with this passage, I can see Your hand in it guiding the writer of Hebrews to point at the many places where Christ is seen as sanctifier and as a brethren because of His humanity. Thank you for leading me on this journey! Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 10/20/2025 to review commentary for Hebrews 2:11-13.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.