PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 3:1-19

1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;

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 His 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 fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

10 “Therefore I was angry with this generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

and they did not know My ways’;

11 As I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

15 while it is said,

“Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

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

The preacher now enters into the second warning passage of this book to encourage them not to fall away; that is to encourage them to follow Christ’s faithfulness and warn them against unbelief. First he makes it clear that this passage is going out to the Christian community, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” This isn’t for the world to hear, but for those who profess Christ. And he calls them to “consider Jesus”. He wants them to fix their thoughts on Him. He wants them to study Jesus with all of their minds. For Jesus is the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. He was the Apostle who proclaimed God’s name, truth, and the coming kingdom. He is our High Priest in the work on the cross. Jesus is these things of our confession, which is our public testimony of the faith. Thus, the preacher wants to remind them of the confession they first made, that is of Jesus as Christ and now wants them to think on Him for a while.

“He [Jesus] was faithful to Him [God the Father] who appointed Him, as Moses also was in His house.” Here the preacher does an unexpected thing in bringing up Moses. I thought we were supposed to be thinking on Jesus? To do this the preacher brings up Moses, who was the most beloved and honored of all Old Testament men. Moses was the man who left the pleasures of Egypt to serve God, he led the people out of Egypt, he suffered through Israel’s unbelief, and through all of this he was faithful to God. Moses was faithful to God in God’s house.

But Jesus “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, but just so much as the builder of the house has more than the house.” The preacher beautifully takes Moses and praises him as a faithful man of God and then says, “Oh, look how great Moses is, he is great, but Jesus stands above him, look at Jesus.” Moses was a faithful man, but Moses served in the house of God as a part of the house, but Jesus is faithful as the One who made the house. “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” We should honor Moses as a great and faithful servant of God, but he is of the house. How much more should we praise Jesus who built the house? “Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later”. Thus Moses’ faithfulness was something demanded of him because he was a servant and his faithfulness was a foreshadow of something better to come.

“Christ was faithful as a Son over His house”. Where as Moses was faithful as a servant who had to be faithful, Christ is faithful over the house with invested interest. The servant does what he has does because he has to. But a son does what he does because of the invested interest and authority that he has. This catapults Jesus above Moses in the one who should be admired because of why each were faithful and Jesus was faithful over His house—“whose house we are”. As the New Covenant people, we are His house and He has been faithful over us as seen in His Apostleship and High Priestly service.

The preacher then gives a conditional statement to all of this, “if”. “If we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” How are we to know if we are of the brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, the house of God—if we preserver until the end. That is what can make us bold and have assurance in our relationship with God—are we persevering? “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”. Be receptive to the Word of God spoken in the Son. Don’t be like those in the wilderness who tried God by testing Him. Do not be like the generation that had to wander for forty years, and who God was angry with because they always went astray and did not know the Lord’s ways. Because of their drifting He swore in His anger, “They shall not enter My rest.” Don’t be like them, because only if you preserver to the end will you be saved.

“Take care, brethren,” listen to my words, “that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Search out the hearts of your people and make sure that none are falling away because of unbelief. “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Brother, you are charged with the responsibility of making sure that none fall away, let none of them be deceived and hardened by sin. It is your job to encourage them every day. “For we have become partakers of Christ, if”, listen up and pay attention, “if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end”, all the way man, you can’t give up. “Today, if you hear His voice”, if you hear God speaking in the Son, “do not harden your hearts,” as when they provoked Him. “For who provoked Him when they heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt lead by Moses?” Was it not the assembly of God that heard Him. Was it not the people who followed Him as He took them from Egypt? Was it not the people who professed to believe in Him? “With whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And who did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?” Don’t be confident in some profession you made. Do not trust in some prayer. If you are disobedient you will be like those who feel in the wilderness, because “we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” It was because they did not truly believe what they had professed that they fell away and the fact that they fell away into disobedience is proof of that. Because of unbelief they never entered into His rest.

Thus we must be ever mindful of our salvation and take heed to Paul’s words that we must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). We must never grow cold in our salvation and look to past experiences as proof for what is real today. Rather, we must evaluate our lives daily and see if we are still obedient. We must preach the gospel to our selves daily in order that we do not fall. When we have done this we must preach it to others, lest they fall. We do this by looking to Christ, who was faithful to the point of death on a cross. He was faithful over His house, thus taking on the sins of His house so that He might be our High Priest before God for us. If we neglect the message of the great Apostle of our confession and fall into disobedience we shall never enter His rest, because we will not be able to because of unbelief.