Hebrews 3

Hebrews 3:1

C. Christ Superior to Moses and Joshua (3:1-4:13) 3:1 Moses was one of Israel’s greatest national heroes. Therefore the third main step in the writer’s strategy is to demonstrate Christ’s infinite superiority to Moses. The message is addressed to holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. All true believers are holy as to their position, and they should be holy as to their practice. In Christ they are holy; in themselves they ought to be holy. Their heavenly calling is in contrast to the earthly call of Israel. Old Testament saints were called to material blessings in the land of promise (though they did have a heavenly hope as well). In the Church Age, believers are called to spiritual blessings in the heavenlies now and to a heavenly inheritance in the future. Consider Jesus. He is eminently worthy of our consideration as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. In confessing Him as Apostle, we mean that He represents God to us. In confessing Him as High Priest, we mean that He represents us before God. 3:2 There is one aspect in which He was admittedly similar to Moses. He was faithful to God, just as Moses also was faithful in God’s house. The house here does not mean only the tabernacle but also the entire sphere in which Moses represented God’s interests. It is the house of Israel, God’s ancient earthly people. 3:3 But there the similarity ends. In every other respect there is undisputed superiority. First the Lord Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses because the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. The Lord Jesus was the Builder of God’s house; Moses was only a part of the house. 3:4 Second, Jesus is greater because He is God. Every house must have a builder. The One who built all things is God. From Joh_1:3, Col_1:16, and Heb_1:2, Heb_1:10, we learn the Lord Jesus was the active Agent in creation. The conclusion is unavoidableJesus Christ is God. 3:5 The third point is that Christ is greater as a Son. Moses was a faithful … servant in all God’s house (Num_12:7), pointing men forward to the coming Messiah. He testified of those things which would be spoken afterward, that is, the good news of salvation in Christ. That is why Jesus said on one occasion, If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me (Joh_5:46). In His discourse with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luk_24:27). 3:6 But Christ was faithful over God’s house as a Son, not as a servant, and in His case, sonship means equality with God. God’s house is His own house. Here the writer explains what is meant by God’s house today. It is composed of all true believers in the Lord Jesus: whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. At first this might seem to imply that our salvation is dependent on our holding fast. In that case, salvation would be by our endurance rather than by Christ’s finished work on the cross. The true meaning is that we prove we are God’s house if we hold fast. Endurance is a proof of reality. Those who lose confidence in Christ and in His promises and return to rituals and ceremonies show that they were never born again. It is against such apostasy that the following warning is directed. 3:7 At this point the writer interjects the second warning of the Epistlea warning against hardening the heart. It had happened to Israel in the wilderness and it could happen again. So the Holy Spirit is still speaking through Psa_95:7-11, as He did when He first inspired it, Today, if you will hear His voice.3:8 Whenever God speaks, we should be swift to hear. To doubt His word is to call Him a liar and to incur His wrath. Yet that was Israel’s history in the wilderness. It was a dreary record of complaint, lust, idolatry, unbelief, and rebellion. At Rephidim, for instance, they complained because of lack of water and doubted God’s presence in their midst (Exo_17:1-7). At the wilderness of Paran when the unbelieving spies returned with an evil report of discouragement and doubt (Num_13:25-29), the people decided that they should go back to Egypt, the land of their slavery (Num_14:4). 3:9 God was so highly incensed that He decreed that the people should wander in the wilderness for forty years (Num_14:33-34). Of all those soldiers who came out of Egypt who were twenty years old or older, only two would ever enter the land of CanaanCaleb and Joshua (Num_14:28-30). It is significant that just as Israel spent forty years in the wilderness, so the Spirit of God dealt with the nation of Israel for approximately forty years after the death of Christ. The nation hardened its heart against the message of Christ. In a.d. 70, Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were scattered among the Gentile nations. 3:10 God’s keen displeasure with Israel in the wilderness brought forth this stern denunciation. He accused them of a perpetual proneness to wander away from Him, and of a willful ignorance of His ways. 3:11 In His wrath, He swore that they would not enter His rest, that is, the land of Canaan. 3:12 Verses 12-15 give the application which the Holy Spirit draws for us from Israel’s experience. As elsewhere in Hebrews, the readers are addressed as brethren. This does not mean that they were all true Christians. So all who profess to be believers should be constantly on guard against a pernicious heart of unbelief that might cause them to fall away from the living God. It is a constant menace. 3:13 One antidote is mutual exhortation. Especially in days of difficulty and distress, God’s people should be daily urging others not to forsake Christ for religions that cannot deal with sin effectively. Notice that this exhortation is not limited to a ministerial class but is the duty of all brethren. It should continue as long as it is called Today, that is, as long as God’s offer of salvation by grace through faith continues. Today is the accepted time; it is the day of salvation. To fall away is to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin often looks beautiful in anticipation. Here it offers escape from the reproach of Christ, lower standards of holiness, rituals that appeal to the aesthetic senses, and the promise of earthly gain. But it is hideous in retrospect. It leaves a man with no forgiveness of sins, no hope beyond the grave, and no possibility of repentance. 3:14 Again we are reminded that we have become companions of Christ if we hold fast our first confidence steadfast to the end. Verses like this are often misused to teach that a person can be saved and then lost again. However, such an interpretation is impossible because the overwhelming testimony of the Bible is that salvation is freely bestowed by God’s grace, purchased by Christ’s blood, received by man’s faith, and evidenced by his good works. True faith always has the quality of permanence. We don’t hold fast in order to retain our salvation, but as proof that we have been genuinely saved. Faith is the root of salvation; endurance is the fruit.

Who are Christ’s companions? The answer is, Those who by their steadfastness in the faith prove that they really belong to Him.3:15 Now the writer concludes the personal application of Israel’s sad experience by repeating the words of Psa_95:7-8 : Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. This poignant appeal, once directed to Israel, is now directed to any who might be tempted to forsake the good news and return to the law. 3:16 The chapter closes with a historical interpretation of Israel’s apostasy. In a series of three questions and answers, the writer traces Israel’s rebellion, provocation, and retribution. Then he states the conclusion. Rebellion. The rebels are identified as all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses. Caleb and Joshua were the lone exceptions. 3:17 Provocation. It was these same rebels who provoked Jehovah for forty years. There were about 600,000 of them, and by the time the forty years were ended, the desert was dotted with 600,000 graves. 3:18 Retribution. These were the same ones who were excluded from the land of Canaan because of their disobedience. The simple recital of these questions and answers should have a profound influence on any who might be tempted to leave the despised minority of true Christians for the vast majority of people who have an outward form of religion but deny the power of godliness. Is the majority always right? In this chapter of Israel’s history, only two were right and over half a million were wrong! A. T. Pierson emphasizes the seriousness of Israel’s sin as follows: Their unbelief was a fourfold provocation:

1. It was an assault on God’s truth, and made Him a liar.
2. It was an assault upon His power, for it counted Him as weak and unable to bring them in.
3. It was an attack upon His immutability; for, although they did not say so, their course implied that He was a changeable God, and could not do the wonders He had once wrought.
4. It was also an attack upon His fatherly faithfulness, as though He would encourage an expectation He had no intention of fulfilling. Caleb and Joshua, on the contrary, honored God by accounting His word absolutely true, His power infinite, His disposition unchangingly gracious, and His faithfulness such that He would never awaken any hope which He would not bring to fruition. 3:19 Conclusion. It was unbelief that kept the rebellious children out of the promised land, and it is unbelief that keeps man out of God’s inheritance in every dispensation. The moral is clear: beware of an evil heart of unbelief. The following verses form one of the most difficult passages in the entire Letter. There is little agreement among the commentators as to the exact flow of the argument, although the over-all teaching of the section is fairly clear. The theme of 4:1-13 is God’s rest and the need of diligence in reaching it. It will be helpful for us at the outset if we notice that several kinds of rest are mentioned in the Bible:
5. God rested after the sixth day of creation (Gen_2:2). This rest did not indicate weariness as a result of toil, but rather satisfaction with the work He had completed. It was the rest of complacency (Gen_1:31). God’s rest was interrupted by the entrance of sin into the world. Since that time He has been working ceaselessly. As Jesus said, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (Joh_5:17).
6. Canaan was intended to be a land of rest for the children of Israel. Most of them never entered the land, and those who did, failed to find the rest that God intended for them. Canaan is used here as a type or picture of God’s final, eternal rest. Many of those who failed to reach Canaan (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, for example) picture present-day apostates who fail to reach God’s rest because of their unbelief.
7. Believers today enjoy rest of conscience, knowing that the penalty for their sins has been paid through the finished work of the Lord Jesus. This is the rest which the Savior promised, Come to Me … and I will give you rest (Mat_11:28).
8. The believer also enjoys a rest in serving the Lord. Whereas the preceding is a rest of salvation, this is a rest of service. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me … and you will find rest for your souls (Mat_11:29).
9. Finally there is the eternal rest which awaits the believer in the Father’s house in heaven. This future rest, also called a Sabbath rest (Heb_4:9), is the final rest of which the others are either types or foretastes. This rest is the principal subject (Heb_4:1-13).