The second warning is found in 3:1-4:16. The opening words, “holy brethren,” link this chapter with the preceding chapter and with the concept of sanctification in 2:11. The author of Hebrews penned this chapter to warn professing believers who did not have their priorities straight. Having made a commitment to Christ, they were considering returning to the empty rituals of Judaism. They thought highly of Moses as the founding figure of Judaism. But Jesus was superior to Moses.
Verses 1–6 compare and contrast Jesus and Moses. Both had been faithful to God’s plan for them (3:1–2). Moses was presented as God’s servant working in God’s house for God’s people (3:5). Jesus had fulfilled a higher calling. As God’s Son, He stood over the house. Jesus was superior even to Moses, one of the greatest people in the history of Israel.
Next to Abraham, Moses was undoubtedly the man most greatly revered by the Jewish people. To go back to the Law meant to go back to Moses, and the recipients of this Letter to the Hebrews were sorely tempted to do just that. It was important that the writer convince their readers that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses, for the entire system of Jewish religion came through Moses.
A faithful representative does his/her job. Both Jesus and Moses were faithful (Num. 12:7; Heb. 2:17). For Moses, God’s house was the people of Israel. Moses fully carried out all God’s appointed duties with the chosen people. Jesus affirmed His own obedience in the task of representing God to human beings (John 17:4).
1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the boast of our hope.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Jesus’ sonship shows His superiority to Moses and reminds us that rejecting Him has more serious consequences than rejecting Moses.
- Jesus is superior to Moses because He is God’s Son serving over God’s house. Jesus has greater honor than Moses.
- Jesus presently rules over the church and will rule over all creation when His opponents are completely defeated. His house consists of all those who believe in Him
- Those who endure to the end, steadfastly placing their hope in the Son, will live with Him in eternity
CLOSER LOOK:
Verse 1: The readers were now addressed as “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.” This form of address gathered up the strands of truth which the author dealt with in chapter 2. They were indeed “brethren” (cf. 3:12; 10:19), not only with one another but with their Originator (2:11–12), and they were “holy” because He had made them so (2:11). They did share in the “heavenly calling” because God was “bringing” them “to glory” (2:10). The word “partakers” is rendered “companions” in 1:9 (metochoi; this Greek word is also used in this epistle in 3:14; 6:4; 12:8).[1] The author was thinking especially of their high privilege of being invited to participate in the future dominion and joy of God’s King-Son.[2] The “heavenly calling” of these partakers is to inherit salvation (1:14) and their future glory in Christ (2:10).
It was as such people that they were to focus their thinking on the One who is both “the Apostle and High Priest” of their Christian profession. The first of these titles probably points to the Lord Jesus as the One sent forth by God as the supreme Revealer of the Father (cf. 1:1–2), while High Priest picks up the role just mentioned in 2:17–18. The writer invites the Jewish believers to consider the faithfulness of Christ Jesus. Apostle means “one who is sent.” This is the only passage in the NT that labels Jesus as the Apostle. The title indicates that Jesus was “sent” by God to reveal the Father (Jn 4:34; 6:38; 7:28, 29; 8:16).
Verse 2: The readers are urged to fix their gaze on the person of Christ who is even now faithful to God. Thus they would find a model for their own fidelity. The faithfulness of Christ, moreover, has an Old Testament prototype in Moses.
The reference to Moses being faithful in all God’s house was drawn from Numbers 12:7 in which the tabernacle, the center of Israelite worship, furnished the backdrop. Therefore God’s “house” in the Old Testament situation would be the tabernacle itself which Moses had constructed in strict obedience to the divine directions. It was a prophetic testimony “of those things which were to be spoken later” (Heb. 3:5). In the same way as Moses with the tabernacle, Jesus had been obedient to the mission the Father had given Him. Through His obedience, God established a new house of God, the church.
Verses 3–6a: But Jesus as a “Builder” surpasses Moses in honor since Moses was simply a servant carrying out instructions. But what Jesus has built is, in fact, everything, for God is the Builder of “all things.” Implicit here is the Son’s role in Creation (cf. 1:2, 10) and indeed His identification as God (cf. 1:8).[3] But beyond this is the thought that God’s house in which “Moses was faithful” was a kind of miniature representation of “all things,” that is, of the greater house over which the Son presides at God’s right hand in heaven (cf. 1:3 with 4:14). The “holy of holies” in His earthly house was but a shadow of heaven itself where Christ has now gone “to appear for us in God’s presence” (9:24). Moses’ faithfulness consisted in erecting that shadow house, the tabernacle, so that it could properly prefigure the future order of priestly activity which now has the universe itself as its proper sphere. This is the sphere where the exalted Christ sits faithful in all His current ministrations as well as past ones, functioning “as a Son over His house” (3:6a). Thus, Jesus is certainly “worthy of more glory than Moses” (1:2, 8, 10). The implication is that the covenant established through Jesus’ death is more glorious than the covenant established at Mount Sinai.
The author of Hebrews continues the comparison between Moses and Jesus. While Moses was faithful “as a servant,” Christ’s faithfulness was greater because it was performed by a Son. “Things which were to be spoken later” indicates that Moses’ work pointed forward to Christ (9:10; 10:1-3). The regulations of the Law of Moses pointed out both the sin of humanity and the need for a perfect sacrifice to reconcile people to their holy Creator.
The phrase, “a Son over His house,” shows the Son is the One who will sit on the throne in the coming kingdom (1:8). He presently rules over the church and will rule over all creation when His opponents are completely defeated. His house consists of all those who believe in Him.
Verse 6b: By a natural semantic shift to which the Greek word for house naturally lends itself, the writer moved from the thought of the house as the sphere where priestly activities transpired to the thought of the “house” as consisting of the people who engaged in these activities. The readers, the writer affirmed, comprise His (the Son’s) “house” contingent, however, on one important consideration: if they hold fast to their confidence (or courage; parrēsian, used four times in Heb., here and in 4:16; 10:19, 35) and the hope of which they boast. Those who endure to the end, steadfastly placing their hope in the Son, will live with Him in eternity. As in the earlier warning passage (2:1–4), the writer used “we” and thus included themselves within the scope of their admonition. As the writer will shortly state (3:12), they were concerned that there might be in some of their Christian “brethren” an “unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” Should any of the readers do this, they would forfeit their roles in the Son’s priestly house, which is only maintained by holding firmly to their Christian profession (cf. v. 14 and 10:23–25, 35–36).
An “if” sentence warns readers. They needed to resist temptation and remain faithful to Jesus. Now the writer added: You are God’s house only if you endure in your commitment. You cannot return to Moses and ignore Jesus. You need to hold fast to the confidence and hope with which you started. We prove the genuineness of our profession of faith by our endurance in Christian commitment.
Because of this confidence in Christ and this confession of Christ, we can experience joy and hope (Heb. 3:6). The writer exhorted these suffering saints to enjoy their spiritual experience and not simply endure it. Jesus Christ is the beloved Son over His house, and He will care for each member of the family. He is the faithful High Priest who provides all the grace we need for each demand of life. As the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:19–20), Jesus Christ is using the experiences in His people’s lives to equip them for service that will glorify His name.
In other words, those who have trusted Christ prove this confession by their steadfastness, confidence, and joyful hope. They are not burdened by the past or threatened by the present, but are “living in the future tense” as they await the “blessed hope” of their Lord’s return. It is this “heavenly calling” that motivates the believers to keep on living for the Saviour even when the going is tough.
[1] metochoi is defined as sharing or participating in Heb 3:1, 14 and 6:4. Whereas in Heb 1:9, it is defined as partner or companion
[2] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 785.
[3] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 786.
[4] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 786.