Hebrews 3:1-6
Superior to Moses
Coming to chap. 3 of the anonymous preacher's sermon to the Hebrew Christians, we now switch gears from the first point of the sermon to the second. With vv. 17-18 of chap. 2, the preacher has introduced his new point: Jesus Christ is your merciful and faithful high priest.
The preacher reverses this order by first outlining the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in chaps. 3-4:14. Then in chaps. 4:15-5:10 the preacher looks at the compassion and kindness of Jesus Christ toward us sinners. The purpose of this point of the sermon is to look at both the complete faithfulness and utter mercy of Jesus Christ toward us so that in the present-day-of-salvation we do not refuse, or turn away from Jesus Christ.
It would be helpful at this point in our series in Hebrews to be reminded of the difficult situation of the Hebrew Christians to whom this sermon is addressed. The original hearers of this sermon were Christian believers who were formerly Greek-speaking Jews. As you can imagine by simply looking at the tribulations of modern people living in the Middle East who convert to another religion, you can get an idea of what these early Christians were having to endure in their ancient culture. Imagine what it must be like to live in a Jewish culture and go against the tide by converting to the true Messiah, the very one the Jews had crucified. This was anything but a pleasant journey for your ancient brothers and sisters in Christ.
The temptation to go with the crowd was extremely strong. Surely they thought that if there is such continuity between Judaism and Christianity, then why couldn't we just go back to Moses to keep the peace? After all, it would be far easier on our families, our jobs, and our neighbors. No more looting of our goods, no more loosing employment, no more persecution in the streets. If what we have in Christ is essentially the same as what we had in Moses, then why not just go back home where there is rest?
It is in this context that preacher now presses the superiority of Jesus to Moses. And the preacher uses an analogous illustration from Israel's history to give these modern Hebrew Christians a picture of what they are going through in their day. He reminds them of the story of the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings, with Egypt behind them and the Promised Land before them. The preacher describes this all-too-familiar story that every Hebrew boy and girl would have grown up hearing so that these Hebrew Christians could see what happened to Israel in their wilderness wanderings when they were wanting to turn back to what was their normal experience in Egypt, as a safe and secure place. The preacher wants his modern-day hearers to realize that they too are in the same situation in regards to Moses. Moses, for them, is all they had ever known. Moses is safe in a culture steeped in Judaism.
But these Hebrew Christians need to understand that they now have something far greater in Jesus that Moses could only dream about. A new day has arrived in the history of redemption to which Moses pointed forward. The preacher says in 10:1 that the Law of Moses was only a shadow of the good things to come and it was not the substance or reality of God's completed work. With the coming of that new day, the substance of God's eternal plan has arrived and with His arrival Jesus Christ has brought all those former ways of God's revelation to an end. As Paul says in Romans 10:4, Christ is the end of the Law.
So there is a real temptation for these Hebrew Christians to turn back. The sin that the preacher warns them about is unbelief, or apostasy. And so he warns in v. 6 that these fellow believers have received all the promises of the new covenant only "if" they hold fast their confidence in Jesus Christ.
But this was not only a problem for 1st century Christians; it continues to be an on-going struggle for even 21st century Christians. When the trials and tribulations of your life rage out of control, it's easy to try and hang onto what seems to be more real and tangible than the promises of Heaven. From time to time we all struggle with doubt. We wonder if all that we have heard about Heaven is truly real or whether or not it can really sustain in times of trouble. That's why we constantly look to the things of this world to make us happy. We think something that we can see or touch can make us feel more secure than something we possess merely by faith. How many times do we look to other people to make us feel important? Or, when we think we have to just get one of these things and then our life will be complete? Or, if we can just get this person elected to office, or get that person out of office, then our problems in the world will disappear?
Once we begin to travel down that road of looking at the things of this world as being more real and substantial than Heaven then it isn't very long until we begin to make those things our new idols to worship in the place of Christ. As Calvin says, we are all a "factory of idols," constantly churning out new gods to worship.
And this is the danger that the preacher warns these Hebrew Christians about in our passage this morning. Is it in fact true that Moses and Jesus are on equal footing, so that you can choose either one and hope to be saved? Well, could the Israelites equally choose between Egypt and Yahweh? Or, can we today equally choose between the things of this world and Christ?
That's why the preacher says today that not only is Jesus superior to the prophets of old, superior to the angelic hosts, having a name much better than theirs, but that Jesus is superior even to the ultimate prophet-priest of Israel, Moses.
There is no way we could possibly exaggerate the importance of Moses for the Jewish people. Moses was both the preeminent example of the prophets, who spoke as God's mouthpiece to the people, and the preeminent example of the priests, who interceded before God on behalf of the children of Israel. We see Moses' prophetic ministry most clearly in that he spoke with God directly on the mountaintop so that God said of him:
Numbers 12:6-8 If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. 7 "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?"
We see Moses' priestly ministry in how he often interceded before God on behalf of the children of Israel who sinned greatly before the face of God, as when they made a golden calf in the place of Yahweh (Ex. 32:11ff, 31f.) or when they rejected the report of the two spies who encouraged Israel to have faith that God would deliver them from their enemies (Num. 14:13ff.).
Indeed as the preacher acknowledges, Moses was faithful in the discharge of his duties before God. Moses was faithful in both his prophetic and priestly functions under the covenant made at Mt. Sinai (Heb. 3:2).
The preacher compares Moses' faithfulness to greater faithfulness of Jesus Christ in vv. 1-2. He begins by acknowledging the glorious calling you have all received through Jesus Christ. You are considered the "holy brethren" only because in 2:11 Jesus Christ has "sanctified" you to God through His own blood. Because He is the faithfully obedient Son, you have been declared holy before a righteous and just God through faith in Him.
Equally, it is because of Jesus' faithfulness that you have become "partakers of a heavenly calling." We have here a prelude of coming attractions latter in the sermon where the preacher emphasizes the difference between the Mosaic priesthood and Jesus' priestly ministry. At the most, the Mosaic priesthood provided a way into God's presence on earth through veiled tabernacles and only through human, sinful representatives. But Jesus has opened a new and living way into God's heavenly presence so that through your new high priest you have direct access to God's heavenly throne in your time of need.
Moses could never have granted you this kind of access to God because he was still limited by the burden of sin. But Jesus Christ has entered into the heavenly place and there in Him you have direct access continually before the face of God.
Now the preacher wants you to "consider," "to take notice of" Jesus, the apostle and high priest, whom we confess.
Here the preacher shows the parallel between Moses' calling and Jesus' mission here on earth. Jesus also fulfills the calling of a prophet and priest, but as we saw in 1:2 that Jesus far exceeds the prophets of old. The apostolic work of Jesus is found in his being sent by God as His ultimate mouthpiece to man. But Jesus is God's fullest revelation in these last days, the former ways having ceased. He has revealed God perfectly without veils or shadows. When you have seen the Son, you have seen God for the Son is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature (1:3).
But Jesus is also the preeminent priest of God who represents man before God. He is the perfect embodiment of man's obedient response to God. In Jesus Christ, these two offices find their fullest fulfillment that only Moses could provide as a pale representation. Jesus is the very one that all the prophets and all the priests of the Old Testament looked forward to as the ultimate prophet-priest to come.
In this way, both Jesus and Moses were faithful in each of their callings before God (v. 2) and if this was the end of the story, then those Hebrew Christians who thought they could turn back to Moses and be saved would have been right. But the preacher must go on!
As great as Moses was, his status was far inferior to Jesus Christ. While he came with glory, Jesus Christ came with even greater glory. The glory that Moses received found its source in another -- he received God's glory because of his faithfulness to God. But at the end of the day, that glory faded away and Moses, because of his own sin, failed to enter the promise land. As Yahweh said to Moses at the end of his life:
Deuteronomy 32:49-52 "Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. 50 "Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. 52 "For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel" (cf. Num. 20:8-13).
Ultimately Moses, like all of us, fell short of God's glory and did not finish the work of bringing the children of Israel into the Promise Land. Therefore, the task of entering into that Land of Promise was given to another.
In contrast, the glory of the Son is a perpetual glory that will never fade away because He proved faithful to the very end. And as a result of His finished work, He was raised to Heaven and made to sit at the right hand of Majesty on High. As we read previously in 2:9:
Because of the suffering of death He was crowned with glory and honor. The apostle Paul contrasts the radical difference between the glory of Moses and the far greater glory of the Son in 2 Cor. 3:7-18 (READ).
The preacher develops this contrast further this morning by looking at each of their relationships to the house of God. Throughout Scripture, the word "house" is often used to describe the people of God. For instance, Paul says to Timothy:
1 Timothy 3:15 I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
And Peter speaks of you as being a "living stone" with which God is building His house (1 Pet. 2:5).
Now Moses' relationship to the "house of God" was one of a servant, who served in the house (Heb. 3:5). Moses was himself a member of the people of God and therefore served God from within the house. But why did Moses serve within the house? Because he was a sinner like the rest of us. He was under the same law that enslaved all of Israel. He was, as Paul says in Gal. 3, shut up and kept in custody under the law of God. The Law served as Moses' pedagogical tutor to drive him to an awareness of his sin and therefore ultimately to Christ (Gal. 3:23-25). In other words, Moses was in the same condition as all of us. He served the house under "guardians and managers until the date set by the father" and was "held in bondage under the elemental things of the world" (Gal. 4:3).
But Jesus has received much greater glory than Moses as the builder of that house (Heb. 3:3-4). Ultimately, Moses belonged to the house that Christ built and is building. While Moses was a servant serving in the house, Jesus Christ is the Son who owns the house (v. 6a). While Moses belongs within the boundaries of the house of God, Jesus the Son stands over the house as the true heir of all that God has made.
And Jesus Christ is the One that Moses spoke of (v. 5b). Moses served his life as a servant within the house to bring ultimate testimony of the One who was coming. As John wrote in the beginning of his gospel:
John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
In fact, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they did not understand this relationship between Moses and Jesus:
John 5:39 - 6:1 39 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41 "I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? 45 "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"
In this task, Moses was indeed faithful in pointing forward to the greater prophet-priest to come.
And now that Jesus Christ has come as the heir of all things, the owner of the house of God, through His finished work you have become the household of God that Jesus now stands above (v. 6).
Now imagine how powerfully this struck these Hebrew Christians upon hearing this promise. It is through faith in Jesus Christ, not Moses, that you have become the house of God. And not servants in the house, but the house which houses God Himself. Paul states this in another way in Eph. 2:
Ephesians 2:19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
In this way, you are in an even greater position than Moses. In Christ, you have become the house of God -- the dwelling of God's Spirit.
And through faith in Christ, Paul says you are no longer a servant, but a son, an heir of God:
Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
By God's grace you have become a child of the King of the Universe, the very dwelling of God's glorious presence is hidden in jars of clay. And you will spend all eternity enjoying your heavenly inheritance that Christ has won for you at the cross. No longer a slave but a son who can now cry out to God at any time calling him, "Daddy! Father!"
Now the preacher ends this wonderful declaration with the warning, "if you hold fast with confidence and hope firm to the end" (v. 6b). In other words, Jesus Christ is the only one you can hold on to. You can't turn back to Moses for deliverance. You can't turn back to Egypt for sustenance. You can't look to this world to satisfy your deepest longings. Consider only Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession!
And the good news of the gospel is that even this "looking to Jesus Christ" comes only by God's grace. For faith is the gift of God and persevering in that faith is the work that God has begun in you that He will surely bring to completion (Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:6). You belong to Jesus Christ now and forevermore only because God has sovereignly given you to Christ and as Jesus promised:
John 10:27-30 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 "I and the Father are one."
Therefore, do not take your eyes off of Jesus Christ this morning, for salvation is found only in Him. Hold fast in confidence and bold hope to your merciful and faithful high priest, knowing that you hold on to Him only because He forever holds you in the palm of His gracious hand and He will never let you go.
Amen!
-SDG-
