Made like His brothers

“For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way...” Hebrews 2:16-17a
When we think of angels, we think of majestic, powerful beings, shining white, flying around, messengers of God, living in heaven. But when Jesus thinks of angels, He sees them as servants (Heb. 1:7). Bearing that in mind, we can begin to see that it would be a huge step down for Jesus to become an angel. But here’s the thing: He stepped down even further than that – He became a man. “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9, referring to Ps. 8:5). In today’s verse, we see the reason: Jesus came to help mankind – the descendants of Abraham (by faith). Jesus did not come to provide salvation to the angels. The fact that He became a man shows that He came to provide salvation for man.
And Jesus wasn’t just made a man in physical form. He had appeared in physical form as a man several times previously, in the Old Testament (see Gen. 16:9-10, Gen. 22:15-16, Num. 22:35, 38, Josh. 5:13-15, Judg. 6:11-14, Judg. 13:16-22, etc.). But this time, He took on all the limitations of being human – the intellectual, emotional, and physical limitations. For 33 years, He was confined to his physical body, and had to endure all of its weaknesses (tiredness, hunger, etc.). He was made like us in every way, being tempted and so forth. Why? So that we may become like Him (1 John 3:2).