Hebrews 3:1-19

Background

Jewish believers in Christ tempted to return to Judaism (Temple worship, sacrificial system, etc.)

Jesus is superior to prior messengers

Jesus is superior to the prophets

Jesus is superior to angels

Hebrews 1:1–4 NKJV

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Jesus is superior to Moses (v.1-6)

Hebrews 3:1–6 NKJV

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Both were faithful to what God called them to do

Both were “apostles” in the sense of being specifically called, commissioned, and sent to accomplish a task

Although Aaron was High Priest, Moses was regularly the one who interceded for Israel

Especially when Aaron couldn’t because he was involved in the people’s sin

Exodus 32:7–14 NKJV

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

Moses was faithful as a servant of the house, Jesus is faithful as the builder of the hoiuse

Moses was a faithful steward of the house, Jesus is the faithful son and heir of the house

A Warning From Israel’s History (v 7-15)

Paul affirms that the things the Holy Spirit recorded about Israel’s past are for our instruction

Romans 15:4 ESV

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

1 Corinthians 10:11–12 ESV

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Hebrews 3:7–15 NKJV

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

This is a quotation from the last part of Psalm 95

There were several instances of Israel grumbling, rebelling and provoking God after their deliverance from Egypt

At the Red Sea when they saw the armies of Pharaoh pursuing them. (Exodus 14)

At Marah, where the waters were bitter and they couldn’t drink (Exodus 15)

In the Wilderness of Sin, just before God began to feed them with mana (Exodus 16)

At Massah and Meribah were God gave them water from the rock (Exodus 17)

At Mt. Sinai when they begged Aaron to make gods for them (Exodus 32)

After leaving Sinai, when the people complained they had no meat to eat (Numbers 11)

This Psalm refers to the people’s unbelief at Kadesh Barnea when they refused to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 14)

Numbers 14:26-39

The Consequences of Rebellion

Hebrews 3:16–19 NKJV

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Application

Remember the superiority of Jesus to everything else

Don’t be tempted to return to your former life

Luke 9:62 NKJV

But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Remember the warnings for Israel’s history and don’t permit yourself to fall into unbelief and rebellion