Hebrews 3: Gospel greater than Law

• v.1-6 Jesus Greater Than Moses
• v.7-14 Beware Hard-hearted Unbelief
• v.15-19 Remember the Example of Israel

[Preliminary Note: Having started by exalting Jesus, the writer turns to consequences of believing all this – NOT to be hard-hearted and move away from faith [v.7 onwards]. Observe the ‘so’ of v.7 i.e. as a consequence. Those preliminary thoughts should bolster our faith and stop that happening.]

v.1-6 Jesus Greater Than Moses

v.1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

v.2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

v.3-5 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.

v.6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

[Note: Focus on Jesus for he, like Moses, was faithful to his task, but Jesus has more honor than Moses [Num. 12:7], because Jesus was faithful in bringing us to God.]

v.7-14 Beware Hard-hearted Unbelief

v.7-9 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.

v.10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’

v.11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

v.12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

v.13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

v.14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

[Note: So don’t follow Israel’s example of unbelief and who were chided by God, [Psa 95:7-11], so God promised they would not enter His rest. Beware having an unbelieving heart but exhort & encourage one another continually for our sharing in Christ is only meaningful if we hold to the end.]

v.15-19 Remember the Example of Israel

v.15-17 Israel’s disobedience meant they didn’t enter the Land (the rest)

v.15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

v.16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

v.17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?

v.18,19 So disobedience prevents us receiving his rest

v.18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

v.19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

[Note: The warning against hard-heartedness is clear [Psa 95:7,8] and these were the ones who knew miraculous deliverance from Egypt. Yet that generation died in the wilderness, for it was to them that God forbade their entry. The lesson is very clear: disobedience = non-entry.]

[Additional Note: The Flow of Writing: Our focus as New Testament believers is to be Jesus, not Moses because, as great a shepherd as Moses was, he was still only a servant in God’s dealings with Israel while Jesus, the Son of God, is over all. References to Israel remind us that the nation miraculously delivered out of Egypt, failed to follow through and so allowed their unbelief to disqualify them from entering the Land. With that warning in mind, in the next chapter the writer equates entering the Promised Land with entering a place of rest. When God ‘rested’ on the seventh day, it was because He had completed the work of creation and there was nothing more to do. Similarly IF (original, older generation) Israel had entered the Land, there was just a life of taking fuller occupation of it (but they didn’t). For us, entering into our salvation means there is nothing more we can do; we can’t make ourselves more saved, more holy, more children of God. The work has been completed by Christ.]  

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: