Hebrews 3

Chap. III: Ver. 1—19. Christ more worthy than Moses, and disobedience to him more criminal than under the old dispensation.—St. Paul having shown at large the superiority of Christ to angels, though for a time he had humbled himself beneath them, for the purpose of making atonement for human transgression, now proceeds to recommend him to the Hebrews as the Apostle and High Priest of the Christian faith. Considering him [Christ] as the Apostle, or founder of our religion, he compares him with Moses, that eminent prophet and ministerial founder of the Jewish religion. The Hebrews had a very high opinion of Moses, their great prophet and lawgiver; but as they did not clearly perceive the design of the Mosaic economy, which was to prefigure and give testimony to the gospel revelation, in which it was to terminate, they were still strongly attached to it, as of perpetual obligation.

This, with the discouragements they met with from the opposition of their unbelieving countrymen, tended to keep their minds in a wavering state with regard to the Christian faith; so that they were in danger of reverting from Christ to Moses. Nothing, therefore, could better suit the apostle’s design of establishing the Hebrews in the Christian profession, than to compare together the respective founders of the Old and New dispensations. He [consequently] observes, (ver. 1—4,) that both Christ and Moses were faithful to God in the discharge of their offices; but that Christ was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as the founder and ruler of the house, or church, hath more honour than the house, or any eminent servant in it, such as Moses was.

For he that hath formed the church, and ordered all things relative to it, is God. [He adds, ver. 5, 6,] That Moses, indeed, was faithful in all things relative to God’s house, the Jewish church; but it was as a servant, and in a typical economy, designed for a testimony of the things which were afterwards to be revealed: but that Christ was faithful as a Son over his house, the gospel church; of whose house we who believe are members, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the [Christian] hope firm unto the end. The apostle then proceeds to caution the Hebrews against the awful punishment inflicted upon their ancestors in the wilderness, who, on account of their unbelief and rebellion against God, were excluded from his rest in the land of Canaan; intimating that, if they should apostatize from Christ, they would be excluded from a more agreeable rest in the heavenly [abode], of which the former was only a type.

(M‘Lean.) To the above extracts from a judicious commentator on this Epistle, we add two other observations:—1. We may remark, that the term house is here used equivocally, for both a family and a residence, and that both of God and man. Moses was faithful in all his house, as was witnessed of him, ((Numbers 11:7).) That is, he was a faithful steward in building the tabernacle, and regulating its worship exactly according to the orders he received. So Christ, in building up the Christian church, and managing all its concerns, acts in perfect harmony with the will of his heavenly Father. But in what sense are we to take the word when applied (ver. 4) to God himself? “Every house is builded by some one, but he who built all things is God.”

This, we think with Doddridge, applies most naturally to the works of creation at large. (See (Hebrews 11:3).) But it is equally true of the families of mankind— “Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?” ((Malachi 1:10).) 2. We may note the great importance of a present attention to religion, and the extreme danger of delay. “To-day, while it is called to-day,” the sceptre of mercy is held out to invite us; but if we neglect the call, as Israel did, to-morrow it may be too late for ever.

Chap. IV. Ver. 1-16. A rest remaineth for the people of God—attainable by faith in Christ.—This chapter opens with an inference from the preceding. Since Israel of old lost their earthly Canaan through unbelief, let us also fear, lest, by the same means, we should lose the heavenly country now promised to us. To understand the reasoning of the apostle in this chapter, “the reader ought to know,”

says Macknight, “that in the covenant with Abraham, God promised him two kinds of seed—the one by natural descent, and the other by faith; and that the promise, to give to him and to his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, being made to both…. it was to be fulfilled, not only to his natural progeny, by giving them the possession of the earthly Canaan; but also to his seed by faith, of which Canaan was the emblem and the pledge.” Upon these principles, the apostle affirms, that notwithstanding Abraham’s natural seed have obtained the possession of Canaan, there is still left to his seed by faith, consisting of believers in all ages, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, a promise of entering into God’s rest; for which reason he exhorted the Hebrews, in his own time, to be afraid lest any of them should fall short of that rest, as their fathers in the wilderness fell short of the rest in Canaan, (ver.

1.) His affirmation, that, in the covenant, there is still left to Abraham’s seed by faith, a promise of entering into God’s rest, the apostle establishes by observing, that the promise of the everlasting possession of Canaan being made to Abraham’s seed by faith, as well as to his natural seed, his seed by faith have received the good tidings of a rest in the heavenly country, typified by Canaan, as really as his natural seed have received the good tidings of a rest in Canaan. Only these good tidings do not profit the natural seed in the wilderness, because they did not believe them, (ver. 2.) More particularly, to show that all Abraham’s seed by faith shall enter into God’s rest in the country typified by Canaan, the apostle appealed to the words of God’s oath, by which he excluded the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness from his rest: for seeing this oath was sworn, notwithstanding the works of God were finished at the formation of the world, and the seventh-day rest was then instituted, (ver.

3;) also, seeing that rest was called God’s rest, in the passage of Scripture where Moses had said concerning the seventh day, ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,’ (ver. 4,) it follows, that the rest into which God sware that the Israelites in the wilderness should not enter, was not the seventh-day rest, in regard they were in possession of that rest when the oath was sworn.” ((Exodus 16:23); xx. 8.) The substance of the apostle’s argument is then summed up in ver. 9: “There remaineth therefore a rest—a sabbatism—for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest—that is, into the rest which God has provided for us—hath ceased from his own works, even as God did from his.”

From the account given in this verse of the rest which remaineth to the people of God, namely, that they do not enter into it till their works of trial and suffering are finished, it is evident that it must intend “the rest of heaven, of which the seventh-day [rest was a type].” (M‘Lean.) But, as an emblem, it pointed out not only a rest from labours and from sufferings, but also a state of purity and devotion—a state of positive happiness, made up of communion with God, and saints, and holy angels. The apostle hence urges the believing Hebrews, (ver. 11:) “Let us, therefore, labour to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” “The example referred to (says M‘Lean) is that of Israel in the wilderness who, though they had by a train of miracles been redeemed from Egyptian bondage, taken into covenant with God, and had the promise of the earthly rest in Canaan—yet, after all, forfeited that promise, and fell in the wilderness through unbelief.

By this awful example, the apostle enforces his exhortation to the Hebrews, that they should labour to enter into the heavenly rest, of which a promise was left them, lest they should come short of it through unbelief, as Israel did of the earthly rest.” To urge the converted Hebrews (as, indeed, all professing Christians) thus to labour to secure their interest in this eternal rest, the apostle reminds them, that the word of God, which had been preached to them, (ver. 12,) was “quick (or living) and powerful; sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,” &c.—that is, figuratively speaking, piercing the conscience and dissecting the heart; and it, [the word,] as here follows, “is a discerner (or judge) of the thoughts and intents of the heart;”

or, as we should say, (in the English idiom,) penetrates the deepest recesses of the mind. The term Logos, however, often so applied by the apostle John, may here intend, the substantial or essential Word, of whom it may be more strictly asserted, “all things are laid naked and bare to him with whom we have to do;” or, as Macknight renders it, “to whom we must give an account.” In the close of this chapter, Christ is again introduced as the great High Priest of our profession, (Christianity;) and who, on account of his compassion and sympathy towards us, we are encouraged to approach with a holy boldness, and to commit our whole interest into his hands. (Compare (Hebrews 2:17-18); iii. 1.)

Notes on the verses

Culap III. Ver. 1. Of our profession.—Macknight and M‘Lean, “profession;” i.e. of our faith. Ver. 3. He who hath builded the house.—The Greek term (oikos) is equally equivocal with our word house, and is used either in the sense of family or residence; and, under the latter, may be the residence of either God or man. Ver. 5. For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.— Doddridge, “A testimony of things afterwards to be mentioned;” namely, by Christ and his apostles. Ver. 11. They shall not enter.—Margin, “If they shall enter.” This is the form of an oath in Hebrew. Ver. 16. Not all that came out of Egypt.—Their little ones (i.e. all under twenty years of age) were expressly excepted in the oath, ((Numbers 14:31),) for the oath only excluded all who were numbered in the beginning of the second “conyear after they came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, being fit for war,”—and not the Levites. ((Numbers 1:45-47).)