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| Chapter 3 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house. 3 For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by some man, but He that built all things is God. 5 And Moses verily was faithful in all His house as a servant, as a testimony of those things which were to be spoken thereafter; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His own house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. 7 ¶ Therefore as the Holy Spirit saith: "Today if ye will hear His voice, 8 harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, ’They do always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ’They shall not enter into My rest.’" 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is still called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the confidence we had in the beginning steadfast unto the end, 15 while it is said, "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation." 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke, however not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter into His rest, but to those who believed not? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. |
The Son is Superior to Moses and Joshua. (Heb 3:1-4:16). Jesus has a greater role and position in the House of God. (Heb 3:1-6.) Again the "Therefore" start tells us that this is connected to the previous chapters. "Partakers of the heavenly calling" indicates that the writer and readers had had a spiritual experience through Christ and this had made them sons of God. The Jew claimed that they were a chosen race through Moses, now there is a person more superior to Moses calling to an eternal kingdom. Jesus has taken on a two fold office of Apostle and High Priest. Under the Old Testament covenant these two offices were first held by Moses and Aaron. Both these people were held in great admiration and respect by the Jews. But now there was a greater who came with the message from God of the Gospel of Salvation, this replaced the Law which came through Moses and Aaron. v2 Moses was faithful in the task he was given by God, so to was this Man Jesus who obeyed The Father God who appointed Him. The use of the word ‘appointed’ shows that Jesus was not created. v3,4 The writer uses an example of the building of a ‘house,’ the house being the whole people of God. Moses was just a member of this house hold while Jesus was the builder, showing the superiority of Jesus. In v2 the house is God’s house, in v3 the Builder is Christ, yet in v4 the ‘Builder of all things’ is God. There is no distinction between God and Christ. v5 Moses is a faithful servant in this ‘house’, he had a time limit, not eternal, but he faithfully gave evidence and witness of those things which were to come, he showed the way. v6 The place of the house of God. But Christ was superior because he is ‘Son of the house’, more important than a servant. The Builder of this House is the true Messiah. We are this house if we take God’s gift of salvation in an unfailing faith. Another Warning, the danger of not believing. v7-19. v7-9 (Psalm 95:7) Not everyone who left Egypt with Moses were faithful, they gave in to the wilderness temptations, turned away from God (harden their hearts) Ex 17:1-7; Numbers 14:1ff and because of this they saw the grace of God for 40 years as they wandered in the wilderness. v10,11 Because of their continued unbelief and rejecting God’s goodness, they choose not to seek the ways of God, God is angry with the generation and so God said that this generation would not enter the promised land. Worth noting Heb 10:31. v12 "Take heed," could suggest that the writer felt that the readers were not responding to his warnings, see also Heb 12:25. It appears that the readers were not taking on the full teaching of the Gospel and because of this they may have been developing an "evil heart" due to their unbelief. v13 Give comfort each other daily, so making you stronger Christians. The word used "today," may have indicated that the writer felt that a time of trouble about to come upon the readers. "deceitfulness of sin" Sin blocks the mind to spiritual truth, perhaps the readers had turned away already from the truth of the Gospel, living in the past covenant. v14,15 They had become part of Christ by faith. The Christian life has to grow, you must not stay as you were at the beginning, you must grow in faith. Again the writer warns against ignoring the voice and guidance of God. v16-18 Three questions are asked, "who were doing the provoking? (deliberately making someone angry), it was those who came out of Egypt, who heard the message, experienced God’s redemption and miracles, yet did not believe. As a result they suffered for 40 years and God brought judgement on them. v19 Those who provoked God did not enter because they did not believe. God cannot work if there is unbelief, Mark 6:1-6. |
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