Hebrews Chapter 3

We begin a section that will bring the Hebrew believers attention to figures in the Jewish faith that hold a high place and are seen as the founding fathers of the faith or “saviors” of the nation of Isreal

Paul does not hesitate to go after one of the big guns:

Moses,

For the next 2 chapters Paul will go into great detail about how

Christ is superior to Moses.

Next to Abraham, Moses was with out question the man most to be revered by the Jewish people.

To go back to the law meant to go back to Moses, and the recipients of this letter that Paul was writing, were very tempted to do just that.

It was very important that Paul convince his readers that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses.

That what they have in Christ is a better Savior then the deliver Moses.

Of all the godly characters brought before us in the Old Testament scriptures, there is not one who has higher claims on our attentive consideration than the legislator and deliverer of Israel.

Whether we think of his remarkable infancy and childhood,

his self-sacrificing renunciation (Heb. 11:24–26),

the commission he received from God and his faithfulness in executing it,

his devotion to Israel (Ex. 32:32),

his honored privileges (Ex. 31:18), or the important revolutions accomplished through his instrumentality;

“it will be difficult to find,” as one commentator has said, “in the records either of profane or sacred history, an individual whose character is so well fitted at once to excite attachment and command veneration, and whose history is so replete at once with interest and instruction.”

The history of Moses was remarkable from beginning to end.

The hand of Providence preserved him as a babe, and the hand of God dug his grave at the finish.

Between those terms he passed through the strangest and most contrastive vicissitudes which, surely, any mortal has ever experienced.

The honors conferred upon him by God were much greater than any bestowed upon any other man, before or since.

During the most memorable portion of their history, all of God’s dealings with Israel were transacted through him.

His position of nearness to Jehovah was remarkable, awesome, unique.

He was in his own person, prophet, priest and king.

Through him the whole of the Levitical economy was instituted.

By him the Tabernacle was built.

Thus we can well understand the high esteem in which the Jews held this favored man of God—cf. John 9:28, 29.

Yet great as was Moses, the Holy Spirit in this second part of Hebrews calls upon us to consider One who so far excelled him as the heavens are above the earth.

Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1954), 142–143.

From 3:1 to 4:13 we will see how Christ is superior to Moses in three respects

I. Christ is Superior in His Preeminence

(Heb. 3:1-2)

The words that the Holy Spirit uses here are very important:

“Consider” - this means to throughly ponder

We are to thoroughly ponder who and what he is.

We should weigh His dignity, excellency, and authority

We should think on what is due Him.

by diligently pondering things of moment and value that the understanding is enabled to better apprehend them, the memory to retain them, the heart to be impressed, and the individual to make a better use of them.

To “consider” Christ means to behold Him, not simply by a passing glance or giving to Him an occasional thought, but by the heart being fully occupied with Him.

“Set Me as a seal upon thine heart” (Song 8:6), is His call to us. And it is our failure at this point which explains why we know so little about Him, why we love Him so feebly, why we trust Him so imperfectly.

The motive that is presented here by the Spirit is why we should consider Christ.

The use of the word wherefore draws our attention back to all that has already been said.

Pink puts it so elequently

An Exposition of Hebrews Chapter 13: Christ Superior to Moses (Heb. 3:1–6)

Christ is the One through whom Deity is now fully and finally manifested, because He is the Brightness of God’s glory and the very Impress of His substance; because, therefore, He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than the angels; because He, in infinite grace, became “all of one” with those that He came to redeem, having made propitiation for the sins of His people; because He is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, and while there is “a merciful and faithful High Priest;” because He has Himself suffered being tempted and is able to succor them who are tempted;—therefore, He is infinitely worthy of our constant contemplation and adoration.

The word wherefore also makes us listen more closely to what follows.

because Christ is worthy of more honor than Moses, therefore consider Him.

a. The Titles Given (v.1)

Apostle

This has reference to the prophetical office of Christ

this title was employed becasue an apostle was the highest minister appointed in the NT times.

As an apostle had more honors conferred upon him than any other postion in the church (eph.4:11)

The term apostle means one “sent forth” of God, endowed with authority as His ambassador

In John’s Gospel Christ is frequently seen as the “Sent One,” 3:34, 5:36, etc. The general function of Christ as a prophet, an apostle, a minister of the Word, was to make known the will of His Father unto His people.

This He did, see John 8:26, etc. His special call to that function was immediate: “as My Father hath sent Me, so send I you” (John 20:21)..

High Priest

Christ Jesus, is as the “High Priest of our profession.”

As the priesthood of Christ will come before us, D.V., in detail in the later chapters, only a few remarks thereon will now be offered.

As we have already been told, the Lord Jesus is “a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God” (Heb. 2:17).

This at once gives us the principal feature which differentiates His priestly from His prophetic office.

As Prophet, Christ is God’s representative to His people; as “Priest,” He is their representative before God.

As the Apostle He speaks to us from God, as our High Priest He speaks for us to God.

The two offices are conjoined in John 13:3, “He was from God, and went to God.”

Thus He fills the whole space between God and us: as Apostle He is close to me; as Priest, He is close to God.

“Of our profession.”

The Greek word here is a compound and properly signifies “a consent.”

In the New Testament, it is used for the confession of a thing (1 Tim. 6:12, 13), and to set forth the faith which Christians profess (Heb. 4:14).

Here it may be taken either for an act on our part—the confessing Christ to be “the Apostle and High Priest,” or, the subject matter of the faith we profess.

Christians are not ashamed to own Him, for He is not ashamed to own them.

The apostleship and priesthood of Christ are the distinguishing subjects of our faith, for Christianity centers entirely around the person of Christ.

The confession is that which faith makes, see Hebrews 10:23

Hebrews 10:23 KJV 1900

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

b. The Truth Gathered (v.2)

“To speak of Moses to the Jews was always a very difficult and delicate matter. It is hardly possible for Gentiles to understand or realize the veneration and affection with which the Jews regard Moses, the man of God. All their religious life, all their thoughts about God, all their practices and observances, all their hopes of the future, everything connected with God, is with them also connected with Moses. Moses was the great apostle unto them, the man sent unto them of God, the mediator of the old covenant” (Saphir).

Admire then the perfect wisdom of the Holy Spirit so plainly evidenced in our passage.

Before taking up Christ’s superiority over Moses, He points first to a resemblance between them, making mention of the “faithfulness” of God’s servant.

let us dwell on the first part of the verse.

“Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him.”

The chief qualification of an apostle or ambassador is, that he be Faithful.

Faithfulness signifies two things:

a trust committed, and a proper discharge of that trust.

“Our Lord had a trust committed to Him … this trust He faithfully discharged. He sought not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him; He ever declared His message to be not His own, but the Father’s; and He declared the whole will or word of God that was committed unto Him” (Dr. John Owen).

Christ was ever faithful to the One who sent Him.

This was His chief care from beginning to end.

As a boy, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49).

In the midst of His ministry, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me” (John 9:4).

At the finish, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). “

As also Moses was faithful in all His house.”

“The key to the whole paragraph is to be found in the meaning of the figurative term ‘house,’

‘House’ here signifies a family or household.

This mode of using the word is an exemplification of a common figure of speech, by which the name of what contains is given to what is contained.

A man’s family usually resides in his house, and hence is called his house.

This use of the word is common in the Bible: ‘The House of Israel,’ ‘the House of Aaron,’ ‘the House of David,’ are very common expressions for the children, the descendants, the families of Israel, Aaron and David.

The same mode of speech is still used today

, ‘the House of Stuart,’ ‘the House of Hanover.’

Keeping this remark in view, the verse we have now read will be found, short as it is, to contain in it the following statements:

—Moses was appointed by God over the whole of His family (Isreal): Moses was faithful in discharging the trust committed to him.

Jesus is appointed by God over the whole of His family (Children of God): Jesus is faithful in the discharge of the trust committed to Him” (Dr. J. Brown).

c. The Total Glory (v.3-4)

This third verse presents to us the first of the evidences here furnished of the superiority of Christ over Moses:

He is the Builder of God’s house; this, Moses never was.

Its opening “For” looks back to the first verse,

advancing a reason or argument why the Hebrews should “consider” the Apostle and High Priest of their confession, namely, because He is worthy of more glory than Moses the typical apostle.

“The phrase, ‘to build the house,’ is equivalent to, be the founder of the family.

So we see a plain and immense contrast between the two.

1. Though officially raised over it, Moses was not the founder of the Israelitish family, but simply a member of it.

2. With the Apostle of our confession it is quite different

He is not only at the head of God’s family (Heb. 2:10, 13—His “sons,” His “children”),

but He is also the Builder or the Founder of it.

As we read in Ephesians 2:10, “for we are His workmanship, created in (or “by”) Christ Jesus.”

Moses did not make men children of God; Christ does.

Moses came to a people who were already the Lord’s by covenant relationship;

whereas Christ takes up those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and creates them anew.

Thus as the founder of the family is entitled to the highest honor from the family, so Christ is worthy of more glory than Moses.

“For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God” (v. 4).

Here the Spirit brings in a yet higher glory of Christ.

The connection is obvious.

In the preceding verse it has been argued: the builder is entitled to more honor than the building: as then Christ is the Builder of a family, and Moses simply the member of one, He must be counted worthy “of more glory.”

In v. 4, proof of this is given, as the opening “for” denotes.

The proof is twofold:

Christ has not only built “the house,” but “all things.”

Christ is not only the Mediator, “appointed” by God (v. 2), but He is God.

To how much greater glory then is He justly entitled!

“For every house is builded by some man,” should be understood in its widest signification, regarding “house” both literally and figuratively.

Every human habitation has been built, every human family has been founded, by some man.

So “He that built all things” is to be taken without qualification.

The entire universe has been built (“framed,” Hebrews 11:3) by Christ, for “all things were made by Him” (John 1:3), all things “that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Col. 1:16).

Therefore Christ made Moses, as the whole family of Israel.

“He that built all things is God.”

The Holy Spirit here designedly uses the Divine title because the work attributed to Christ (building the family of God) is a Divine work: because it proves, without controversy, that Christ is greater than Moses; because it ratifies what was declared in the first chapter concerning the Mediator, that He is true God.

Therefore should all “honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).

Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1954), 149–150.

II. Christ is Superior in His Ministry

(Heb. 3:5-6)

Moses’s ministry to the children of Isreal is not one to just dismiss because Christ has come into the picture. Paul is really emphasizing the importance of Moses by repeating what he said in v.2 by putting a verily in his restatement.

Paul tells his readers that Moses was faithful in all his house, as a servant..

The faithfulness of Moses was as a servant, this is a reminder to all of us that this should be a quality that should characterize all “servants” (faithfulness)

a. The Service of Moses (v.5)

The typical word translated “servant” in the New Testament comes from the Greek word doulos.

While “servant” is certainly an acceptable translation, it may not capture everything that the word doulos conveys.

Some scholars, for example, translate the word as “slave.”

However, the word translated “servant” in this passage does not come from doulos.

It comes from the Greek word therapo¯n.

A therapo¯n held a position of nobility under the authority of the one who appointed him.

Thus, verse 5 highlights Moses’s place of rank and honor.

In fact, Hebrews 3:5 echoes God’s own words concerning Moses in Numbers 12:7

Numbers 12:7 KJV 1900

My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.

But what did it mean for Moses to be a faithful servant?

The author clarifies that by faithfully discharging his ministry, Moses testified “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after”

In other words, Moses’s life and ministry displayed the superiority of Christ.

They meant to point away from Moses and toward the Messiah.

Moses’s ministry existed to testify about things to come.

Passages such as Deuteronomy 18:15 demonstrate this.

Deuteronomy 18:15 KJV 1900

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

As the author of Hebrews will later show, the priesthood, sacrifices, and entire old covenant system serve the same purpose.

Paul makes a similar claim in Romans 3:21

Romans 3:21 KJV 1900

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

The Law and the Prophets bore witness to the righteousness of God available to sinners in and through Jesus Christ.

The entire Old Testament is one large arrow pointing to the coming Messiah.

Whether through typological patterns, promises, or prophecies, Moses faithfully discharged his service in the household of God by pointing to one greater than himself, Jesus Christ.

Christ fulfilled all that Moses said in ways beyond Moses’s own understanding.

(R. Albert Mohler Jr., Exalting Jesus in Hebrews, (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 45.)

b. The Sonship of the Messiah (v.6)

Hebrews 3:6 draws an explicit contrast between Jesus and Moses.

Moses was a servant.

He was a faithful servant, but still just a servant.

Jesus, however, is the Son.

Jesus is not just a servant in the household; he is the One who inherits the house and functions as its Lord.

As the writer of Hebrews explains, the household is nothing less than the people of God, those who “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm until the end”.

This means that the household over which Jesus is faithful is the household he built by shedding his blood for sinners.

Other passages in the New Testament also use house language (the Greek word oikos means “house” or “household”) to describe the church and to show that Christ serves as its foundation

1 Peter 2:5 KJV 1900

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:19–20 KJV 1900

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

To say, then, that Moses was a faithful servant in God’s household is to say that he was a servant among God’s people.

Christ, however, is the Savior of God’s people.

The final phrase of 3:6 troubles Christians because it seems to suggest that our salvation is conditional.

Obviously the people of God are those who “hold fast” to their confidence and “rejoice” in their hope, but why would the author include the conditional “if”?

Is the author casting doubt on the certainty of eternal salvation available in Christ?

Hebrews, perhaps more than any other New Testament book, affirms the sufficiency of Christ and his work for our salvation.

Nevertheless, warnings against failing to persevere in the faith appear throughout the book.

This verse introduces that major theme in Hebrews.

Albert Mohler I think, explains perseverance perfectly when he says,

The author of Hebrews and the rest of Scripture teach that only those who persevere in faith will be saved, and that all who have genuine faith will persevere.

Believers constitute the household of God, which is to say that the church is made up of persevering believers who have authentic faith.

Our works neither save us nor keep us saved.

Only Christ can save us.

We must hold on to our “confidence” and retain our “rejoicing” in the gospel and in the Lord.

We do not boast in ourselves and our own spiritual achievements.

We boast in the cross and in the hope of resurrection.

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not mean we enter God’s kingdom by faith and stay in God’s kingdom by works.

Instead, it means we enter God’s kingdom by a faith that will persevere and never fail.

By faith, we confidently trust that Christ’s righteousness belongs to us.

He is our only boast. He is our unfailing hope.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., Exalting Jesus in Hebrews, (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 45–47.

III. Christ is Superior in His Rest He Offers

(Heb. 3:7-4:13)

a. The Failure to Reach a Place of Rest

(Heb. 3:7 - 11)

1. Failure to Listen (v.7-8)

2. Failure to Learn (v.9)

3. Failure to Love (v.10)

b. The Facts for Reassuring a Place of Rest

(Heb.3:12-4:3)

1. Search Your Heart (v.12)

2. Speak Daily With Others (v.13)

3. Stand Firm on Your Belief (vs.14-15)

4. Sin Less then those Before Us (vs.16-19)

5. Saved Believers Come by Faith (4:1-3)

c. The Future Realm of Peaceful Rest

(Heb. 4:4-13)

1. The Example of Rest from Creation (vs. 4-5)

2. The Expected Rest from Canaan (v.6-8)

3. The Excellent Rest from Calvary (vs. 9-13)

i. Our Work is Finished (vs. 9-10)

ii. His Word is Final (vs.11-13)

iii. Keeping Working until its Over (v.11)

a. Motives are Judged (v.12)

b. Mankind is Exposed (v.13)

First, Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His own person: Moses was a man of God, Christ was God Himself.

Moses was the fallen descendant of Adam. conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity; Christ was sinless, impeccable, holy.

Again; Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His Offices.

Moses was a prophet, through whom God spake; Christ was Himself “the Truth,” revealing perfectly the whole mind, will, and heart of God.

Moses executed priestly functions (Ex. 24:6; 32:11); but Christ is the “great High Priest.”

Moses was “king in Jeshurun” (Deut. 33:5); Christ is “King of kings.”

To mention only one other comparison, Christ was the immeasurable superior of Moses in His work.

Moses delivered Israel from Egypt, Christ delivers His people from the everlasting burnings.

Moses built an earthly tabernacle, Christ is now preparing a place for us on High.

Moses led Israel across the wilderness but not into the Canaan itself;

Christ will actually bring many sons “unto glory.”

May the Holy Spirit impress our hearts more and more with the exalted dignity and unique excellency of our Savior.

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