A Comparison Between Jesus and Moses, The One The Son Over The House, The Other The Servant In The House ( Heb 3:1-6 )

‘For this reason, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.’

Because of all he has said about the superiority of Jesus the writer now calls on his ‘holy brothers and sisters’ to consider Him. ‘Holy’ reminds us of His act of sanctifying (making holy) them and making them brothers and sisters (Heb 2:11). If they are His He has made them ‘holy’, set apart for God by the power of His working. Compare Eph 2:19, ‘fellow-citizens with the holy ones (His people)’. ‘Brethren’ reminds us of the fact that they are one together with Him as ‘brothers’. The writer thus confidently hopes that he is speaking to those who are true believers.

‘Partakers of a heavenly calling.’ Their being sanctified by Jesus has made them partakers of a heavenly calling. This is in contrast with Moses’ call to an earthly Utopia, a ‘land of milk and honey’. They have been effectually called by Him and set apart to a heavenly life, both through enjoying ‘eternal life’, the life of ‘the world to come’, already in this life (Joh 5:24; 1Jn 5:13), and by living by faith now in the heavenlies, in the spiritual realm, in Christ (Eph 1:3; Eph 2:4-7), as citizens of Heaven (Php 3:20), setting their minds on things above and not on things that are on earth (Col 3:2), until they are ‘led to glory’ (Heb 2:10) and finally reach Heaven itself (Heb 12:22). For that is where they are now destined for, the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10), the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22).

‘Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.’ Having this wonderful privilege they are to fix their thoughts on Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest of the faith they confess. We note here that Jesus combines the two positions of authority and priesthood, something that Moses could not cope with.

He has already in the first two chapters given us a vivid word picture of the glory and status of Jesus in all that He is as the Son and in all that He has done for us, and now he says ‘consider Him, gaze on Him (‘behold’ – Heb 2:9), weigh Him up, take Him into your hearts, meditate on Him, and never cease having Him in your thoughts’.

‘The Apostle.’ Using this word of Jesus may suggest that most of the Apostles were now dead so that he sees Jesus as the Apostle supreme, the heavenly Apostle, Who is, in His heavenly presence, as it were, taking their place. But not because He is their successor but because He is their predecessor, and superior. It is as though he were saying that there would be no new Apostles to look to, for those who knew Jesus in the flesh were dying out, but that they still have Jesus, Who is always there, Who is greater than them all, alive from the dead and living in their hearts. Let them therefore now look directly to Him. For He was the original Sent One Who chose the Apostles and sent them out, and while they have ceased, He ever remains.

The word has deep significance. It is literally ‘One sent forth’, and could be used of an ambassador or an authoritative messenger, and is a reminder that Jesus was sent forth from the Father as the ‘Sent One’ (Mat 21:37; Luk 4:18; Luk 4:43; Luk 10:16; Joh 3:17; Joh 3:34; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:23-24; Joh 5:30; Joh 5:36-38 and in every chapter to chapter 17; Joh 20:21). The word thus links Jesus closely with the Father in a unique relationship and firmly establishes Him as God’s chosen. He is God’s direct ‘Sent One’, with no intervention of angels. He has come directly from God.

‘And High Priest.’ As God’s sent One He has become the High Priest of His people, as the writer has already stated in Heb 2:17, and will expand on later on (7-10). For that was why He was sent, to make the way of forgiveness and reconciliation available to those whom God has chosen. Thus does He combine within Himself that which had been too great a burden even for Moses. He is greater than both Moses and Aaron.

‘Apostle and High Priest.’ He was sent from God to His people from Heaven (Joh 3:13; Joh 3:16-17; Joh 3:31; Joh 3:34; Joh 5:36-38; Joh 6:29 etc.) as the Sent One (Apostle) that He might act on God’s behalf towards His people, and He was appointed High Priest that He might act on behalf of His people towards God. Thus was His ministry two-way. It was a complete ministry. He was the complete Deliverer.

But why should the High Priesthood be mentioned here when the writer is about to compare Jesus with Moses? It is certainly partly in order to confirm that He is the complete Deliverer but it surely also has in mind that before Sinai Moses was both Trek Leader and ‘High Priest’ of Israel. And the aim is therefore surely to undergird the verses which follow with the reminder of Jesus’ High Priestly work. It is because of His High Priestly work that they can be His house and enter into rest.

‘Of our confession.’ He is the One Whom they confess before the world as their God-given Saviour and Lord, and in Whose name they live out their lives in the world revealing His glory, the One Whom they proclaim as the revelation of God in all His fullness, and the One Whom they declare to be the Master of their destinies.

‘Even Jesus.’ There must be no doubt of Whom he is speaking, it is of Jesus, about Whom he has spoken in all that has gone before, the One crowned with glory and honour throughout His ministry on earth (Heb 2:9), and now crowned with glory and honour in Heaven.

This was in contrast with Moses. Moses also was ‘sent’ (Exo 3:12-15; Exo 4:28). But he came from the wilderness not from Heaven, and he was too weak to bear the burden alone so that Aaron became the High Priest.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus and Moses as Servants of God Lead God’s Children to Rest The author gives us an example of both Jesus Christ and Moses as faithful servants over the ministry that the Lord gave to them (Heb 3:1-6). Moses was a servant by leading the children of Israel out of bondage and through the wilderness towards their eternal rest; and Jesus Himself became an Apostle and High Priest in order to lead mankind into his eternal rest in fulfillment of Psa 8:5-7. As Moses was faithful over the Israelites, Jesus was faithful lead mankind into rest.

Jesus the Son Compared to Moses the Servant Heb 3:1-6 explains that Jesus Christ, the Son of God has been set over the house of God, which is the Church, in the same way that Moses, God’s servant, was set over the house of Israel. However, the Son (Jesus) has more honor than the household servant (Moses). If we consider the two offices that Jesus held as the Apostle and High Priest of our profession (Heb 3:1), we are told in this passage of Scripture that He was faithful in His office as an Apostle, and He is now faithful in His office as our Great High Priest. Just as Moses was a faithful servant who led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years, so will Jesus Christ lead us throughout spiritual journey in this life and bring us to our eternal home in glory. However, the Israelites did not “consider” Moses as their divine leader. They murmured and complained against him and brought upon them the wrath of God.

Heb 3:1  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Heb 3:1 “Wherefore” Comments – Craig Koester correctly notes that the Greek word (because of this) shows us that the author “is in the middle of an argument rather than at the beginning of a new section.” [204]

[204] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 224.

Heb 3:1 “holy brethren” Comments – Our holiness is bestowed upon us because of the Apostolic and High Priesthood offices of the Lord Jesus Christ. His suffering on Calvary and resurrection provided our initial justification, and His High Priesthood allows us to maintain this position of holiness as we confess our sins before the Father. Our relationship with Jesus Christ as our brother is established by the fact that He partook of flesh and blood by His incarnation.

Heb 3:1 “partakers of the heavenly calling” Comments – The author is addressing those who have partaken of the high calling, or the calling from above as described in the preceding exhortation (Heb 2:1-18), which exhortation the author refers to as the “heavenly calling.” We have become partakers of this heavenly calling because Jesus Christ came in the flesh and went before us and now calls us brethren. This means that he is speaking to Christians, in particular converted Jews. This heavenly calling is mentioned in Heb 2:1-18 by which we are called by the preaching of the Gospel to believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, which is the first exhortation of this Epistle and emphasizes the initial part of our spiritual journey described as “calling.”

Note that in at least four passages of the book of Hebrews, the recipients are referred to as saved people, and not to the lost (Heb 1:9; Heb 3:1; Heb 3:14; Heb 12:8). This Epistle is addressed to the Church, and not to the world. So, why the stern warnings in Heb 6:4-6; Heb 10:26-27 about falling away: simply because believers can fall away from Christ Jesus and out of His saving grace and miss Heaven.

Heb 1:9, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows .”

Heb 3:14, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”

Heb 12:8, “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”

Scripture Reference Note another reference to our heavenly calling in 2Pe 1:10, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:”

Heb 3:1 “consider” – Word Study on “consider” Strong says the Greek word “consider” ( ) (G2657) means, “to observe fully.” BDAG says it means, “to notice, observe carefully, look at (with reflection), consider, contemplate,” and in this passage it means, “to fix the eyes of the spirit upon.” Strong says it comes from the root word (G3539), which means, “to comprehend, heed.”

Comments The request to consider means that the author is about to teach his readers something in regards to Jesus Christ as our Apostle and High Priest. Thus, seems to open this passage of Scripture as a doctrinal discourse rather than an exhortation, which typically begins with “Let us” Note a similar statement in Heb 7:4, “Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.” We find a similar statement again in Heb 12:3, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds,” which begins a discourse on perseverance. However, we find this word used in an exhortation in Heb 10:24, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:”

In light of our calling to heed the Gospel, we are to consider Jesus Christ’s calling as an Apostle (through His Incarnation and Atonement) and High Priest (through His Exaltation). When we consider Jesus Christ as Heb 3:1 tells us to do, we must consider the fact that He partook of flesh and blood like us (Heb 2:17) and that He was tempted in all ways as we were (Heb 4:15). Therefore, He also had to learn obedience by the things that He suffered “in the flesh” (Heb 5:8).

Heb 2:17, “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

Heb 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

Heb 5:8, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”

The author will expound upon Jesus’ role in our perseverance so that we will be able to “consider” Him in his role as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Thus, the book of Hebrews guides us into an extensive “consideration” of the role of Jesus Christ in our perseverance of faith.

Heb 3:1 “the Apostle and High Priest” Comments – The word “apostle” literally means, “one who is sent.” Jesus was sent from heaven. God sent his Son into the world to save the world. Jesus was sent to bring the Gospel message of salvation (Heb 2:14-16).

The office of the high priest was to intercede for the sins of the people. Only the high priest could enter into the holy of holies and make atonement for the sins of the people. Jesus is now our high priest and intercessor to God (Heb 2:17-18). Jesus Christ now lives to intercede for us, His church. This is His present-day office and ministry.

Joh 17:9 “I pray for them : I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.”

Rom 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpth our infirmities: for we know what we should pray for as we ought: But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.

Rom 8:27 “Aid He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God”

Rom 8:34 “It is Christ that died, ye a rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us”

Heb 7:25 “where for He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

In addition, in order to serve in his office, the high priest himself must be holy. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus Christ Himself to be sinless (Heb 9:14, 1Pe 1:19).

Heb 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

1Pe 1:19, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

Heb 3:1 “of our profession” Comments – Jesus now serves the role as the High Priest of our profession, or as we say in modern English, our confession. During the time when Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, which many scholars believe was the mid to late 60’s, the first persecutions had begun against the Church. Nero blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome, and launched an assault against anyone who professed Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Thus, a believer’s confession of faith in Christ could cost him his life, and it did for many Christians during this early period in Church history. This Epistle, called a “word of exhortation” (Heb 13:22), will encourage the Hebrew Christians to hold fast to their confession of faith (Heb 10:23).

Heb 3:1 to Heb 10:18 teaches us about the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. Then, a new section begins in Heb 10:19 to Heb 13:17 by telling us our role as recipients of this High Priesthood. It begins by telling us that our job is to hold fast the profession (or confession) of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised;” (Heb 10:23) We are then given a multitude of examples of how to hold fast our confession of faith in Heb 11:1-40. This great chapter of faith reveals that each of the patriarchs held fast to a confession of faith and we bear witness to their confession because of the life that they lived.

For example, Abel’s testimony still speaks today of his sacrifice that pleased God. Enoch’s testimony was that his life pleased God. Noah’s confession was that a flood was coming to judge the earth and he prepared for it. Abraham kept his confession on a heavenly city whose builder and maker was God. They all had the confession that they were just pilgrims and strangers on earth and that God had something better for them (Heb 11:13). Abraham said that God would raise his son Isaac from the dead. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph all confessed and prophesied of better things to come. Moses held fast to his confession that he would rather suffer with God’s people in order to receive a greater and eternal reward. Thus, this passage teaches us that we are to hold fast the confession of our faith in God’s Word in order to persevere as did the patriarchs.

Since the foundational theme of the book of Hebrews is the perseverance of the saints, our faith within the context of this epistle is to be expressed by holding fast to our words of faith in God’s Word. Jesus was put in the office of High Priest to help us in every time of need. Thus, we lose our opportunity to receive God’s help when we lose our confession of faith in God’s promises.

Heb 3:1 Comments – Heb 3:1 echoes the offices of Jesus Christ the Son of God as it relates to mankind’s redemption. It says that in light of Jesus being the eternal Son of God (chapter 1) and in light of His redemptive work on Calvary by partaking of flesh and blood and dying for our sins (chapter 2), let us look at his present day ministry as High Priest at the Father’s right hand (Heb 3:1 to Heb 10:18). Note:

Heb 4:14, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”

Thus, Heb 3:1 echoes the three-fold office of Jesus Christ regarding man’s redemption in this passage. Jesus Christ was the Word of God in creation. He was the Apostle sent from God for our salvation, as mentioned in Heb 2:14-16. Today he is the Great High Priest who stands at the Father’s right hand interceding for the saints, as mentioned in Heb 2:17-18. Heb 3:1 only refers to Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest because these are the two offices that involve man’s redemption back to God.

As we examine the Old Testament, we see a type and figure of these two offices in the lives of two individuals with the name “Joshua.” We see how Joshua, the son of Nun, led God’s people into the Promised Land just as Jesus Christ has led us forth from bondage into victory. In addition, Joshua the high priest, who served in Jerusalem after the return from Babylonian Exile, serves as a figure of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the vision of Zechariah, the angel of the Lord rebuked Satan and declared that Joshua high priest was qualified to intercede for the people of Israel (Zec 3:1-10).

Heb 3:2  Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

Heb 3:2 “Who was faithful to him that appointed him” Comments – Heb 3:2 says that Jesus Christ was faithful to the one who appointed Him over His house, which is the Church. His act of faithfulness is described in the previous passage of Heb 2:1-18, which tells us that Jesus Christ partook of flesh and blood, preached the Gospel to us, then tasted death in behalf of every man.

Heb 3:2 “as also Moses was faithful in all his house” Comments – Num 12:7 tells us that Moses was faithful to execute his office over the children of Israel, despite their choice to disobey and rebel.

Num 12:7, “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.”

The office and ministry of Moses stands out unique in the Old Testament in many ways:

1. An enormous amount of God’s works and demonstrations of miracles was wrought through Moses.

2. There is a high frequency of references to Moses throughout the Scriptures.

3. Moses alone spoke with God face to face:

Num 12:7-8, “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

Deu 34:10, “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,”

How was Moses faithful?

1. He was a faithful intercessor in times of need.

2. He was faithful to speak God’s commandments to Israel.

3. He was faithful to judge Israel in their disputes with justice.

Illustrations of Moses as:

A teacher:

Deu 4:5, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.”

An intercessor:

Exo 32:11, “And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?”

Num 14:19-20, “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:”

A judge:

Exo 18:13, “And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.”

Moses was God’s spokesman throughout the Pentateuch. Samuel also was:

An intercessor and teacher:

1Sa 12:23, “Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:”

1Sa 15:11, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.”

God’s spokesman:

1Sa 4:1, “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.”

Jesus Christ is now our faithful intercessor:

Heb 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

So we, as God’s ministers, must take these as examples to live by.

Heb 3:2 Comments Moses was faithful over God’s children Israel as he led them through the wilderness to reach their Promised Land. Jesus will be faithful to bring us to our eternal home in Heaven and restore us to our original place of dominion over the earth in fulfillment of Psa 8:5-7 (Heb 2:6-8).

Heb 3:3  For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

Heb 3:3 “inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house” – Comments – We are the house of God. Note:

Zec 6:12, “And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:”

Mat 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Eph 2:20-22, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

Heb 3:4  For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

Heb 3:4 “but he that built all things is God” – Comments – We are God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10).

Eph 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Heb 3:5  And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

Heb 3:5 “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant” – Comments – In the Old Testament Moses is called “the servant of the Lord.”

Jos 13:8, “With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them;”

Heb 3:5 “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after” – Comments – That is, Moses’ faithfulness serves as a future testimony about Jesus. Moses’ office and ministry serves as a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry over the Church. Moses’ faithfulness over Israel was a type of Jesus’ faithfulness over God’s people. Therefore, Moses was able to prophesy that One was coming “like unto me.” (Deu 18:15; Deu 18:18-18; Deu 34:10)

Deu 18:15, “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;”

Deu 18:18-19, “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee , and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”

Deu 34:10, “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,”

We can find a number of similarities in the lives and Jesus and Moses:

1. The King sought to kill both Moses and Jesus when they were babies.

2. Moses tried in the flesh to deliver Israel at the age 40 by killing an Egyptian. He failed. Jesus delivered the children of God with His death and resurrection.

3. Moses’ name means, “drawn out,” or delivered (saved) from water.

4. Both were sent out by God. Moses was sent to the children of Israel, and then to Mount Sinai. Jesus was sent from heaven to earth.

Heb 3:6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Heb 3:6 “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we” – Comments – Moses as a servant, a man; Jesus as a son, the Son of God; so, Jesus receives more glory.

Heb 3:6 “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” Comments – Heb 3:6 reflects the underlying theme of the book of Hebrews, which is the perseverance of the saints. As God’s children, we cannot lose our salvation because it is secure in Christ; but we can renounce it and walk away from our security in Christ and lose it.

“if we hold fast” – How do we hold fast? 1Jn 2:28 explains that we hold fast by abiding in Jesus Christ.

1Jn 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

Also note similar verses:

Mat 10:22, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

Mat 24:13, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Rom 11:22, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

Gal 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Col 1:23, “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;”

1Jn 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Rev 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Rev 2:11, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

Rev 2:26, “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:”

Rev 3:5, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

Rev 3:12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”

Rev 3:21, ”To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

Rev 21:7, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

“the rejoicing of the hope” – BDAG translates this phrase, “that for which we are proud to hope” (see 1). Literally, “a boasting.” Note Rom 5:2.

Rom 5:2, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God .”

Also:

Heb 3:14, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end ;”

We will not be ashamed of our hope in Jesus.

Rom 5:5, “And hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

1Jn 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence , and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

“firm unto the end” The phrase “firm unto the end” is not found in a number of important ancient Greek manuscripts, which suggests that it was added to those manuscripts which do have these words. It is possible that this phrase was borrowed from Heb 3:14, where it again occurs with unanimous textual support. In the study of textual criticism, the insertion of a phrase into the author’s work is called an interpolation.

Heb 3:6 Comments In Heb 3:6 Paul is exhorting us to be steadfast in Christ, and to understand that His high priesthood is made available to us to deal with our sins. The author of Hebrews will follow this word of exhortation with an example of those children of Israel who rebelled and turned their hearts from following the Lord (Heb 3:7-11). They serve as an example of those who did not hold fast their confidence and rejoicing steadfast until the end. The Israelites in the wilderness gave up “the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope” (Heb 3:6). Paul will rephrase and expand his exhortation of Heb 3:6 again in Heb 3:12-14.

Heb 3:12-14, “Take heed, 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 To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Calling: Jesus Christ the Son of Man Has Come to Lead Us into Eternal Dominion Heb 2:1 to Heb 4:13 serves as the second literary section of this epistle, emphasizing mankind’s “heavenly calling” (Heb 3:1) to the Gospel in light of Jesus Christ’s calling to make atonement for mankind. The author first exhorts his readers to heed the heavenly calling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Heb 2:1-4), then gives a doctrinal argument to support this calling (Heb 2:5 to Heb 4:11), and concludes with a warning passage of divine judgment for those who neglect this heavenly calling (Heb 4:12-13). The literary structure of the epistle of Hebrews is primarily built upon the pattern of exhortation, discourse, and warning.

Exhortation Heb 2:1-4

Doctrinal Discourse Heb 2:5 to Heb 4:11

Warning Heb 4:12-13

Thus, the exhortation and warning passage in Heb 2:1 to Heb 4:12-13 form a literary device known as inclusio, where the author offers his readers an exhortation (Heb 2:1-4) and concludes with a warning for failure to heed his advice (Heb 4:12-13). [134]

[134] David MacLeon says, “An inclusio marks off a literary unit by using the same word or phrase at the end of a discussion that was used at the beginning.” See David J. MacLeod, “The Literary Structure of Hebrews,” Bibliotheca Sacra 146:582 (April 1989): 185-197, in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 187

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. 1 st Exhortation: Heed the Heavenly Calling Heb 2:1-4

2. 1 st Doctrinal Discourse: God’s Original Commission Heb 2:5 to Heb 4:11

3. Conclusion: Warning in Failure to Heed the Gospel Call Heb 4:12-13

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

First Doctrinal Discourse: Applying God’s Original Commission to Take Dominion on Earth to the Christian Faith – Heb 2:5 to Heb 4:11 offers a doctrinal discourse discussing man’s heavenly calling that follows the first exhortation of Heb 2:1-4 for us to heed the Gospel message. The author begins his discourse with a citation from Psa 8:4-6, which reflects God’s original calling in Gen 1:28 to take dominion over the earth, as God commissioned Adam to do in the Creation Story (Heb 2:5-9). Thus, the author explains to his Hebrew readers that the Gospel call is not a new call, but a call originally given to the Jews in the Old Testament. While man has generally failed in this calling, Jesus Christ came to earth in the Incarnation and fulfilled this divine calling. William Lane correctly said, “Jesus in a representative sense fulfilled the vocation intended for mankind.” [139] It is through heeding our heavenly calling that we will fulfill our original calling in the Creation Story. In order for Jesus to become our Apostle and High Priest, the Son of God (Heb 1:1-14) had to fulfill this original calling by becoming the Son of Man, made like His brethren, taking dominion over the earth (Heb 2:10-18). It became necessary for Jesus as the Son of God to partake of flesh and blood through His Incarnation and become our Apostle in order to deliver us from the bondage of Satan through His Atonement and Resurrection and become our Great High Priest by His Exaltation so that He could lead mankind in fulfillment of this divine commission through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He now becomes the Apostle and High Priest of our salvation, a role the author compares to Moses as he led the children of Israel in the wilderness (Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11).

[139] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:5.

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Man’s Original Place of Dominion Over the Earth Heb 2:5-9

2. Jesus is the Author of our Salvation Heb 2:10-18

3. Jesus is Apostle and High Priest of Heavenly Calling Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11

a) Jesus & Moses as Servants of God Heb 3:1-6

b) The Wilderness Journey & the Christian Faith Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11

Man is Crowned with Glory and Honor – While the epistle of Hebrews opens with a description of how God crowned Jesus Christ, His Son, with glory and honor (Heb 1:1-4; Heb 2:9), the author will also discuss how God created man and crowned him with glory and honor and gave him dominion over the earth (Heb 2:5-8). Jesus Christ came to restore mankind to his rightful place of dominion. He has become the Author of our salvation and restoration to dominion upon the earth (Heb 2:9-18). This explains why man’s depravity is so worthy of eternal damnation, since he carries the image of God in himself.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Jesus Is Now the Author and High Priest of This Heavenly Calling – In Heb 1:1 to Heb 2:18 the author has revealed the ministry of Jesus as the pre-incarnate, eternal Son of God (Heb 1:1-14) and the Apostle of our salvation sent from God to redeem mankind as the Son of Man (Heb 2:1-18). He will now take up the bulk of the epistle of Hebrews with a lengthy discourse on His present-day office as our Great High Priest, who is now seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb 3:1 to Heb 10:18). The lengthy passage in Heb 3:1 to Heb 10:18 reveals His third phase of ministry that is taking place today, as our High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for the saints. This Epistle introduced Jesus in His initial office as the eternal Word of God, creator of the universe, born as the Son of God (Heb 1:1-14). Then it discusses His second phase of ministry as the Apostle sent from Heaven in order to secure man’s salvation (Heb 2:1-18). Jesus Christ is now in His third phase of ministry as our Great High Priest, coming to our aid so that we might persevere until the end. Jesus will enter into His fourth and final phase of ministry as He one day will rule and reign in Jerusalem as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All the while Jesus Christ has been the eternal, pre-incarnate Son of God; and since partaking of flesh and blood He has now become our Brother.

It is important to understand that this passage of Scripture regarding Jesus’ redemptive role for mankind (Heb 3:1 to Heb 10:18) is described from the perspective of our need to continue in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to obtain this redemption. Thus, the theme of the perseverance of the saints is emphasized. In contrast, the lengthy discourse in the epistle of Romans, which emphasizes Church doctrine, discusses our secure position of justification through faith in Jesus Christ once we believe the message of the Gospel. However, in Heb 3:1 to Heb 5:14 we are told that our justification is dependent upon our willingness to persevere in faith and not turn back in rebellion, as did the children of Israel in the wilderness.

Heb 3:1 picks up the theme of the second literary section, calling it the “heavenly calling.” This passage of Scripture explains Jesus’ role as the Apostle and High Priest of our salvation who is faithful to lead us to our eternal rest that God has promised from the foundation of the world, a charge that the children of Israel failed to heed under Moses as he led them through the wilderness. The author first tells us that Jesus Christ now serves as the Apostle and High Priest of this heavenly calling (Heb 3:1-6). The author will support this statement with a doctrinal argument (Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11), which is based upon the analogy of the faithfulness of Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness (taken from Num 12:7) and the unfaithfulness of many Israelites in considering Moses as their appointed leader (taken from Numbers 13-14).

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Jesus and Moses as Servants of God Heb 3:1-6

2. The Wilderness Journey & the Christian Faith Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11

Using Old Testament Analogies in the New Testament Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11 gives us the Old Testament analogy of Moses leading the Israelites in the wilderness as a servant of God as a type and figure of Christ, the Son of God, leading the Church to their eternal heavenly rest. Thus, we are given a Scriptural basis for taking events out of the stories found in the Pentateuch and applying them to our spiritual journey. This passage teaches us that since Christ is set over us as in a similar way that Moses was over the children of Israel, we should be careful not to walk in unbelief and rebellion as they, but make every effort to enter into the rest that God has prepared for us.

The Perseverance of the Saints Led by Jesus Compared to the Perseverance of Israel in the Wilderness Led by Moses Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11 establishes the topic of the perseverance of the saints, which is the underlying theme for the epistle of Hebrews, as well as that of the General Epistles. In establishing this theme, the author chooses to use the example of the wilderness journey of the children of Israel in order to illustration the need for saints to persevere. Why would the author of Hebrews use this illustration found in the book of Numbers? Perhaps if we examine the themes of the Pentateuch and compare them to the themes of the New Testament books, we may find an answer.

The theme of the book of Genesis is the founding of the nation of Israel, God’s seed of righteousness, by which He plans to use to in order to accomplish the redemption of mankind. God will use several men who fulfilled their divine destinies to create the nation of Israel. These patriarchs, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, will play leading roles in the establishment of this nation in much the same way the Gospels and the book of Acts reveals the origin of the Church and how men like Jesus Christ, Peter, Stephen, Philip the evangelist and Paul the apostle played leading roles in the establishment of the early Church. Thus, the book of Genesis is structured around the genealogies of these men of righteousness in order to explain its theme of the founding of the nation of Israel. As the book of Exodus establishes the doctrines of the nation of Israel, so to the Pauline Epistles establish Church doctrine. As the book of Leviticus establishes the order of worship for the Israelites, so do the Pastoral Epistles establish Church order. As the book of Numbers explains the perseverance of the righteous, so do the Catholic Epistles explain the perseverance of the Church. As the book of Deuteronomy reveals how the nation of Israel is to enter in and to possess the Promised Land, so does the book of Revelation reveal to the Church how to enter into Heaven. Thus, the author of the book of Hebrews found it appropriate when discussing the topic of the perseverance of the saints in Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11 to draw its parallel in the Old Testament from the book of Numbers, which shares a similar theme.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Superiority of Christ over Moses.

Christ compared with Moses:

v. 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus,

v. 2. who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house.

v. 3. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.

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

v. 5. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

v. 6. but Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Having shown the superiority of Christ over the angels, the sacred writer proceeds to strengthen the allegiance of his readers in presenting Christ as the final Mediator. The angels, although the mediators of God in the disposition of the Law and of great power in the forces of nature, yet could not compare with the Lord of the angels. The same is now proved in regard to the earthly mediator of the Law: Wherefore, holy brethren, associates of the heavenly calling, mark well the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was in His whole house. The inspired author here apparently goes back to the first statement of his letter, concerning the fact that God spoke His final and saving word through His Son Jesus Christ. This the readers should mark well, for which reason they are tenderly urged and encouraged by the name “holy brethren” which the writer applies to them. All Christians are holy, sanctified, consecrated to God by virtue of the faith which was kindled in their hearts. By reason of this fact also they are companions of the writer, associates with him in the heavenly calling. Through the call of God in the Gospel they have actually secured a participation in all the heavenly treasures and blessings, Col 1:5. This being the case, the readers are also in a position to look upon Christ in a proper manner, to realize the scope of His office, to understand the greatness of His dignity, at least in a measure. For He was truly made and appointed by God as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He was sent forth by God with the message of our salvation, He was appointed to be our High Priest and Sacrifice at and on the altar of the cross. This we, who believe, freely and gladly confess and praise. The special qualification of Jesus for this important office, to which we and all believers should direct our careful attention, is His faithfulness or trustworthiness. It was the faithfulness of the Son to the obedience of the Father. Moses indeed was also faithful in God’s house, in the congregation of the believers of the Old Testament, in the Lord’s Church. This testimony God Himself gave him while he was yet living, Num 12:7. Even here the structure of the sentence, if not the words themselves, indicates that the faithfulness of Moses cannot truly compare with that of Christ.

This idea is more fully substantiated by the writer: For of greater glory than Moses has this Man been deemed worthy by as much as he that erects a house is greater than the house. For every house is erected by someone, but He that establishes all things is God. With emphasis the writer says “this Man,” since he is referring to that great God and man in one person, who assumed a true human nature in order to gain salvation for the whole world. He has been adjudged of God worthy of greater glory than Moses, the greater glory being seen in the more important place occupied by Him in the fulfillment of God’s purpose of salvation. So far as the worth and the dignity of Christ and Moses, respectively, are concerned, there is the same difference of degree as in the case of a man that erects and prepares a house for occupancy and the house itself. The man that plans a house, builds it, and equips it with all the paraphernalia necessary for a well-conducted household is greater than the household in its condition in the house. But He that builds, prepares, and equips the house of God, the Church in all its fullness, is Jesus Christ, who is thus identified with the Builder of the house of the Church, with God Himself, while Moses is considered only a part of the household. In the form of a proverb the author adds that every house naturally has someone that plans the building and the equipment, Jesus Christ in this case being the Builder of the structure of the Church. God, however, being the Author and Creator of all things, it follows that Christ is on a level with God and worthy of much more honor than Moses.

The argument is continued in the next verses: And Moses indeed was faithful in His entire house as an attendant, to a testimony of the things that would be spoken of, hut Christ is as a Son over His house, whose house are we, if we shall have held fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. This is not an unwilling concession, but a willing praise of Moses. He was faithful in every department of God’s house, in every branch of his difficult ministry. But he was, after all, only in the house of God, only in the congregation of the believers, as an attendant upon holy things, as a servant of God. So far as the people, the children of Israel, were concerned, the fact that God Himself had testified to the faithfulness of Moses was the guarantee also of the trustworthiness of the report and message which he gave of what the Lord had spoken to him on the mountain. The Law, as he preached it, was indeed the Word of God, and as such served a very definite purpose in the Church of the Old Testament. But Christ is more. As the Son of God, He is over the house, He is the Lord of the structure of the Church, to which, as the author points out, we and all believers belong. We are members of the Church of God and Christ, if we remain faithful to the end, if we adhere with all confident boasting to the hope of our salvation until the end. The hope of the Christians is not an unstable, uncertain quantity, which is subject to every fluctuation of feeling, but being founded in the promises of the Lord, it is a cheerful confidence, a quiet boast, that there is laid up for them a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give them on the last day, 2Ti 4:8. There is no self-reliance, no self-sufficiency in the true Christian, but only an unwavering trust in the love and power of God. “The Christian’s hope of a heavenly inheritance, of perfected fellowship with God, should be so sure that it confidently proclaims itself, and instead of being shamefaced, glories in the future it anticipates. And this attitude must be maintained until difficulty and trial are past and hope has become possession.”

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

THE SON SUPERIOR TO MOSES. Here begins the second section of the argument of the first four chapters (see summary given under Heb 1:5). But though a new branch of the argument begins, it is linked, after the artistic manner of the Epistle, to what has gone before in a continuous chain of thought. This sequence is denoted by the initiatory.

Heb 3:1

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus ( before is ill supported, and to be rejected from the text). Reference to what has gone before is perceptible throughout this verse. The persons addressed are “holy,” as being among the “sanctified” (Heb 2:11); “brethren,” as being, with the writer, in this relation to Christ (Heb 2:11, Heb 2:12, Heb 2:13, Heb 2:17); their calling is a heavenly one, being from heaven (Heb 1:1) and to heaven (Heb 2:10). Jesus is their” Apostle,” as having been sent into the world, as above set forth, from God; their “High Priest,” as implied, though not distinctly expressed, at the end of Heb 2:1-18., which led up to the idea. “Jesus” is added at the end in apposition, so as to fix attention on him, as the bearer of these titles, who was known by that name in the flesh. On the title “Apostle,” we may observe that, though it is nowhere else in the New Testament applied to Christ, yet its idea with respect to him is frequent both in flits Epistle and elsewhere (cf. Luk 4:43; Luk 9:48; Luk 10:16; Joh 17:3, Joh 17:18, etc). The word (translated “confession;” in the A.V., “profession”) is generally used for the Christian’s avowal of his faith before men (cf. Heb 4:14; Heb 10:23; 2Co 9:13; 1Ti 6:12). The genitive here depends on both the preceding substantives, its force probably being that Jesus, as Apostle and High Priest, is the object of our confession of faith. On Jesus, then, being such, the readers are called to fix earnestly their mental gaze, and in doing so take further note of his superiority to Moses, which is the subject of what follows.

Heb 3:2

Who was faithful (or, as being faithful) to him that appointed (literally, made) him, as also Moses was in all his house. The reference is to what was said of Moses (Num 12:7), “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house,” and serves aptly to introduce the intended comparison of Christ with him. In respect of faithfulness to him who constituted him in his office, Christ resembles Moses; in respect to his office itself, it is to be shown that he is far above him. Observe

(1) that “his house” means God’s house, as’ is plain from the text cited, i.e. the house of him who appointed him;

(2) that “in all his house” has reference to Moses only, not to Christ; for the main point of what follows is that Christ is over God’s house, not in it, as Moses was. As to the verb (translated in A.V. “appointed “), it may have been suggested by 1Sa 12:6, where the LXX. reads , the Hebrew verb being , which seems to mean in this case “constitute,” not “create” (so Gesenius). The preceding words, , though it is not necessary to supply them as understood, may be taken here to rule the meaning of . Certainly not to his eternal generation (as Bleek and Lunemann); such reference is foreign to the idea of the passage; nor could the word with any propriety be so used.

Heb 3:3

For of more glory than Moses hath this man (so A.V., for , supplying “man,” though it is to be observed that the humanity of the person spoken of is not expressed in the original) been counted worthy (: cf. Luk 7:7; 1Ti 5:17; Heb 10:24; 2Th 1:11), by so much as more honor than the house hath he that built (or, established) it. Here the account of Christ’s superiority to Moses begins. On the several expressions used we remark:

(1) The initiatory connects the sentence logically with in Heb 3:1, and thus retains its usual sense of “for.”

(2) The form of comparison in the Greek, , is the same as in Heb 1:4, where the account of Christ’s superiority to angels began (on which see supra).

(3) The “glory” () here assigned to Christ is the” glory and honor” spoken of above as attained by him in consequence of his human obedience (of. Heb 2:9, “because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor”). This, rather than “the glory he had with the Father before the world was” (Joh 17:5), is suggested by the word , as well as by the drift of the preceding chapters. We may suppose also a reference, in contrast, to the transitory “glory” on the countenance of Moses ( ), which is contrasted (2Co 3:1-18) with the in Christ. We observe, further, that in the latter part of the verse is substituted for , as more suitable to the mundane comparison of a house and its builder.

(4) may include the idea of fitting up and furnishing a house as well as building it. But what is the drift of the intended argument? It is usual, with the Fathers generally, to suppose that Christ () is intended to be denoted as the Builder or Establisher of the house in which Hoses was a servant, and that the argument is that he, as such, is necessarily greater than the servant, who was but a part of the house, or household, thus established. , it is to be observed, may include in its meaning the familia, as well as the house itself, as may include the idea of constituting the whole establishment (cf. infra, “whose house we are”). Among moderns, Hofmann and Delitzsch deny this identification of with : against which there are the following reasons:

(1) The SON has not been represented so far in the Epistle as the originator of the economy of redemption. Notwithstanding distinct intimations of his eternal proexistent Deity (as in Heb 1:1, Heb 1:2, Heb 1:10), it has been as the Messiah, the Apostle and High Priest, manifested in time, and passing through humanity to glory, that he has been regarded in the preceding argument. Nor is there any proof here adduced of his being the Builder of the “house,” so as to justify the conclusion on this ground of his glory being greater than that of Moses.

(2) The word (“has been counted worthy of”) suggests (as has been already remarked) refer once to the glory won by him, “on account of the suffering of death,” rather than to his pristine glory as the Divine Builder.

(3) Elsewhere in the New Testament, when the Church is referred to under the figure of a house, it is spoken of as God’s building (of. Heb 10:21; 1Ti 3:15; 1Co 3:9, 1Co 3:16; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:22; 1Pe 4:17; 1Pe 2:5). It is never spoken of as Christ’s.

(4) The wording of Heb 1:3 does not necessitate the identification of with . means “so far as;” it implies only that the glory of Christ is greater than that of Moses, in proportion as the honor of the builder is greater than that of the house.

(5) The identification increases the difficulty of understanding the relevance to the argument of Heb 1:4, of which more will be said presently. Taking, then, to denote God the Father, we may state the argument thus: God is the Builder, or Founder, of his own house. Christ has been already shown to be his SON, associated with him in dignity and power, and, as such, Lord over his Father’s house. Moses, on the other hand, as appears from Num 12:7, was but a servant in God’s house. As, then, the Founder is to the house, so is the Son and Lord to a servant in it; the Son partaking of the glory of the Founder; the servant only of that of the house in which he serves. According to this view of the argument, the premises have been established, and the conclusion follows; the relation of Christ to the Builder of the house has been set forth in the preceding chapter, and may be now assumed; that of Moses is sufficiently shown by the quotation from the Pentateuch. Thus also Num 12:5 and Num 12:6 are found to carry out naturally the idea here introduced, instead of unexpectedly starting a different one.

Heb 3:4

For every house is builded (or, established) by some one; but he that built (or, established) all things is God. Of the second clause of this verse “God” is rightly taken by modern commentators as the subject, not the predicate, though the Fathers generally take it otherwise. Thus Theodoret, regarding as a designation of Christ, views this clause as an assertion of his Deity on the ground of his being the Founder of all things. But this view introduces an idea out of keeping with the argument, and especially with the preceding expression, “faithful to him who appointed him,” in which Christ, in his office as the Christ, is distinguished from the Creator of all who appointed him to that office. The verse seems to be interposed in elucidation of the preceding , to make it clear that the Founder of the house spoken of is God himself, and thus to give full effect to the proportionate glory of Christ in comparison with that of Moses. Thus: the glory of Christ is greater than that of Moses by so much as the honor of the founder of a house is greater than that of the house;of the founder, we say; for every house has some founder: but God is the original Founder of all things, and therefore of necessity the Founder of this house of his own in which Moses was a servant. The verse, thus interpreted, seems (as intimated there) to fall in with the train of thought mere naturally than it can be shown to do if Christ is ‘regarded as the Builder. Possibly “all things” may be purposely used to denote the house itself over which Christ, as Son, is Lord. For, though the expression seems too wide for the limited house in which Moses was a servant, it is net so for the expanded and consummated house over which Christ in glory reigns; of. Heb 1:2, “Whom he appointed Heir of all things;“ and Heb 2:8, “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet;” the last being said in especial connection with the “glory and honor” wherewith Christ “has been counted worthy” to be crowned. It is not necessary to confine the meaning of “God’s house” to the Mosaic dispensation, or to assign to it (as some have done) two separate meanings in the eases of Moses and of Christ. It may be regarded as a comprehensive term, including in its general meaning the Law, the gospel, and the final consummation the whole dispensation of redemption, beginning with the Law, and completed at the second advent. Moses held office in its early stage, and there only as a servant; in its ultimate development it comprises “all things,” and over “all things,” thus comprised, Christ, as SON, has been shown to be by inheritance absolute Lord.

Heb 3:5, Heb 3:6

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterwards to be spoken; but Christ, as Son over his house. We have already anticipated the explanation of this passage, which, according to the view taken above, is a setting forth of the distinction between Christ and Moses intended from the first; that of one being “Son over,” the other but “servant in,“ the house of God. The rendering of the A.V., “his own house,” in Heb 3:6, where Christ is spoken of, is not justifiable. It is true that we have no means of knowing whether or was intended, and that even might, according to the usage of Hellenistic Greek, refer to Christ; but if the writer bad so intended it, he might easily have avoided ambiguity by writing , etc. He has not done so; and, therefore, it is most natural to take “his house” in the same sense throughout the passage; viz. As “God’s house,” referred to in Num 12:7, whence the expression is taken. We observe further that “the things that were afterwards to be spoken ( )” must be taken as denoting the future “speaking” of God to man “in his SON” (of. Heb 1:1); not, as some interpret, the speaking through Moses himself in the Law. Moses was inferior to Christ, not only in respect to his personal position as a servant, but also in respect to his work as such; which was only to testify beforehand, typically and prophetically, to a fuller revelation to come. Whose house we are. Here begins the transition to the warning intended when the “holy brethren” were first called on to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,” who has now been seen to be so much greater than Moses. We Christians constitute this completed “house of God,” over which Christ reigns as Son; if only warned by the example of the Israelites under Moses, we forfeit not our higher calling. This condition is expressed by If we hold fast the confidence (or, our confidence) and the rejoicing (rather, boast) of the (i.e. our) hope firm unto the end. (often rendered “boldness;” see below, Heb 4:16; Heb 10:19, Heb 10:35) is the confidence felt by assured believers; is the boast thereupon ensuing. This word (as also ) is often used by St. Paul (cf. Rom 4:2; Rom 5:2; 1Co 5:6 : 1Co 9:15; 2Co 1:14; 2Co 5:12; 2Co 9:3; Gal 6:4; Php 1:26; Php 2:16). Its proper meaning is not (as is by many supposed) the materies gloriandi, but the uttered boast itself (see note on 1Co 5:6, in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). The con- eluding words, , are omitted in the Codex Vatican, and, notwithstanding the preponderance of authority in their favor, may have been interpolated (as is supposed by Mill, Tischendorf, Alford, and Delitzsch) from Num 12:14, especially as the reading is not , so as to agree with the substantive immediately preceding, but , as in Num 12:14.

Heb 3:7-11

Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The warning, thus led up to, is now introduced by a long quotation from Psa 95:1-11., which is cited at length, because the writer is about to dwell on its whole significance in the remainder of this and also in the succeeding chapter. The warning is connected by with the conclusion of Psa 95:6. Since our continuing to be God’s house is on the condition of our steadfastness, therefore beware of failing, as the Israelites referred to by the psalmist did. With regard to the construction of the passage, there is some difficulty in discovering the apodosis to the initiatory (“as saith the Holy Ghost”). It seems best to suppose one understood, being suggested by “harden not your hearts,” which occurs m the midst of the quotation. Sentences thus grammatically incomplete are in the style of St. Paul. Otherwise the apodosis must be found in (verse 12), the long intervening passage being parenthetical. It is, after all, only a question of grammatical construction; in any case the general meaning is clear. As to the successive clauses of the quotation from Psa 95:1-11. (Psa 95:7-11), it is to be observed that

(1) “If ye will hear his voice” may probably mean in the Hebrew, “Oh that ye would hear his voice!” But the Greek of the LXX., cited in the Epistle, is capable of the same meaning. Here, again, the meaning of the particular phrase does not affect the drift of the passage.

(2) “Harden not your hearts” expresses the abjuration which ensues from resistance of grace. Elsewhere such judicial hardening is attributed to God; as when he is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart (cf. Isa 6:9, etc; Mat 13:13). The two modes of expression involve no difference of doctrine. It is God’s doing as being judicial; man’s as being due to his own perversity. As in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness. Here , which is from the LXX., may mean “at the time of“ (cf. Act 16:25, ), or “according to,” i.e. “after the manner of.” The former agrees best with the Hebrew psalm, which has “As at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness,” referring to the two places called by these names from what occurred there, when the people murmured for want of water. The first occurrence was at Rephidim, in the wilderness of Sin, at the commencement of the wandering (Exo 17:1-8); the second was in the wilderness of Zin, near Kadesh, towards the end of the forty years (Num 20:1-14). Both names are assigned to the former place in Exo 17:7; but elsewhere they are distinguished (see Deu 33:8). In the text, following the LXX., equivalents of the Hebrew names are given, Massah being rendered literally by : Meribah (equivalent to “strife “) by the unusual word , which occurs only here and in the psalm, though the verb is common in the LXX. The root of the word being (“bitter”), it may possibly have been suggested by the occurrence at Marah (equivalent to “bitterness”), where there was also a murmuring about water (Exo 15:23), being the LXX. equivalent of Marah.

(3) When ( in the sense of , as is common in the LXX. and New Testament) your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. In place of the reading of the Textus Receptus, (“proved me”), which agrees with the LXX., the authority of manuscripts is in favor of . This again, like the ether variations of reading, is of no importance with regard to the meaning. But further, in the original Hebrew, and apparently in the LXX., “forty years” is connected with the clause that follows: “forty years long was I grieved,” etc; whereas, in the text, the interposition of at the beginning of Exo 17:10, necessitates its connection with “saw my works.” It is possible that the writer of the Epistle intended a reference to the corresponding forty years from the manifestation of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, which were drawing to their close at the time of writing, and during which the Israelites of his day were trying God by their rejection of the gospel, or, in the case of some of the believers addressed, by their wavering allegiance to it. The supposition that this idea was in the writer’s mind is supported by the fact that Jewish writers refer to the psalm as assigning forty years for the days of the Messiah (see reference in Bleek, Delitzsch, Alford, etc). That the writer had an intention in his variation from the original is the more likely from his following it correctly afterwards in verse 17.

(4) As I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest. The reference here is to Num 14:21, etc., beginning with the Divine oath, “As truly as I live,” which is again repeated in Num 14:28. The occasion was not the murmuring either at Massah or at Meribah, but the general rebellion of the whole congregation after the return of the spies, betokening a universal spirit of (cf. Num 14:19). “If they shall enter ( ) “is an elliptical form of oath, expressing strong negation.

Heb 3:12

Take heed (literally, see), brethren, lest haply there should be (literally, shall be) in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God. Here begins definitely the hortatory application of the warning of the ninety-fifth psalm. Its drift, to the end of the chapter, is: You, being called under the SON to a far higher position than your fathers under Moses were, but the retention of your position being, as theirs was, conditional on your faithfulness, see that you do not forfeit it, as some of you may be in danger of doing. That you may, if you are not careful, is shown by the very warning of the psalm, and by the example of your fathers, referred to in the psalm, all of whom, though called, failed of attainment through unbelief. It is implied all along that the “today” of the psalm includes the present day of grace, and points to a truer rest than that of Canaan, still offered to the faithful. But the full bringing out of this thought is reserved for the next chapter. On the language of Heb 3:12 we observe:

(1) The same form of warning, , occurs infra Heb 12:25, but then, suitably to the context, followed by a subjunctive. Here the future indicative which follows, , denotes a fact in the future, distinctly apprehended as possible (cf. Col 2:8). It had not ensued as yet, nor does the writer anticipate the probability of its being the ease with all his readers; but in the state of feeling with regard to the gospel among the Hebrew Christians which the whole Epistle was intended to counteract, he sees ground for fearing it in the ease of some. Their present wavering might result in apostasy.

(2) It is not necessary to analyze the expression,” an evil heart of unbelief,” so as to settle whether the evil heart is regarded as the result of unbelief, or unbelief of the evil heart; the main point to be observed is that unbelief is connected with moral culpability, as is implied further in Heb 12:13. The unbelief so condemned in Holy Scripture is not mere intellectual incapacity; it is condemned only so far as man is responsible for it on account of his own willful perversity or carelessness.

(3) The outcome of such “evil heart of unbelief,” if allowed to become fixed and permanent, will be apostasy (: cf. Luk 8:13; 1Ti 4:1) from “the living God,” from him who is Eternal Life and the Source of all life and salvation. The thought of the momentous consequence of the falling away of Christians after light enjoyed is prominent in the Epistle (see especially Heb 6:4, etc; Heb 10:26, etc). The expression,” the living God,” further directs attention to the revelation of God in the Old Testament, in which he is continually so designated, and to the thought that it is the same God who has revealed himself finally in the SON. Addressing Hebrew Christians, the writer may mean to say,” In apostatizing from Christ you would be cutting yourselves off from the God of your whole ancestral faith.” There may be an intended allusion, too, to the oath, already referred to, of Num 14:21, Num 14:28, the form of which in the original is,” As I live” ( , LXX).

Heb 3:13

But exhort one another (literally, yourselves, as in Col 3:16, the idea being that of the responsibility of the believers themselves in keeping their own faith alive; the Church must keep itself from apostasy by the mutual admonitions of its members), day by day, so long as it is called Today (i.e. while the “Today,” , of the psalm is still called so, : while you are still living day by day within the limit of its meaning); lest any one of you be hardened (still referring to the warning of the psalm) by the deceitfulness of sin. Here again, as in Heb 3:12, the possible result of obdurate unbelief is distinctly traced to moral culpability. Sin is a deceiver (cf. Rom 7:11; Eph 4:22); it distorts the spiritual vision, causes us to take false views of things, and to lose our clear view of truth; and continued dalliance with sin may hare its result in final obduracy, which, as above remarked, is our own doing as it comes of our sin, God’s doing as it comes of his judgment. The sin contemplated in the ease of the Hebrew Christians as not unlikely to have its result in obduracy was, not only imperfect appreciation of the true character of the gospel revelation, and consequent remissness in mutual admonition and attendance at Christian worship (Heb 10:25), but also, as a further consequence of such remissness, failure in the moral purity of life, the active charity, the disentanglement from the world, and the endurance of persecution, required of Christians. This appears from the earnest exhortations that follow afterwards against all such shortcomings (see especially Heb 10:19-26, Heb 10:32-39; Heb 12:1-18; Heb 13:1-20). It was especially by conscientious perseverance in the religious life that they might hope to keep their religious faith steadfast and unclouded to the end; in accordance with Christ’s own saying, “If any man will do ( ) his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.”

Heb 3:14

For we are become partakers (or, partners) of Christ, if only we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. This is a repetition in another form of the assertion of our position as Christians, with the appended condition, in Heb 3:6. It is a question whether means that we partake of Christ as being in communion with him, or that we are partakers with him of the glory he has won for us (cf. , Rom 8:17). The first is undoubtedly the ordinary sense of with a genitive in classical Greek, and generally in the New Testament (cf. e.g. infra, Heb 6:4, ), and is on this ground maintained by Bleek, Alford, and others; but in the LXX. , followed by a genitive, is as undoubtedly used for” partner” or “companion;” of. Psa 119:63, : Hos 4:17, : and especially Psa 45:7, , which has been already cited (Heb 1:9), and justifies, as it may prove suggested, the expression in this sense here. Cf. also in the New Testament, Luk 5:7, where , though without an expressed genitive following, occurs in the sense of “partner.” Further, the second sense accords better than the first with the view of our relation to Christ so far set forth in the Epistle.

(2) On the word (translated “confidence”), see what was said under Heb 1:3. All the ancient interpreters understood it here in the same general sense as in the former passagethat of substance or subsistence, either as denoting our subsistence as members of Christ, or our faith regarded as the substance of our Christian life, or with other modifications of the general meaning. Modern commentators agree in understanding merely the sense in which the word is found to be commonly used by the Alexandrian writersthat of confidence, derived from the physical conception of a firm foundation. It thus corresponds with the of Heb 1:6.

(3) “The beginning” ( ) of this confidence refers to the earlier stage of the experiences of the Hebrew Christians, before their faith had shown any signs of wavering. There is no sufficient ground for Ebrard’s inference from this expression, that the Epistle was not addressed to the Hebrew Church at large, which was the oldest of all Churches, but to “a circle of catechumens and neophytes.” The phrase does not imply that the “beginning” was recent. All it need mean is, “Go on as you began.” Further, we find, in Heb 5:12, a distinct intimation that the Church addressed is one of old standing.

(4) “Unto the end “may have an individual reference to the end of life, or (the Church being addressed as a community expecting the second advent) a general one to the close of the period of grace during which “it is called Today.”

Heb 3:15

While it is said, Today, etc. Commentators have found unnecessary difficulty in determining the connection of . Many, taking the words as the beginning of a new sentence, have been at pains to discover the apodosis to them. Cbrysostom, Grotius, Rosenmuller, and others find it in , Heb 4:1; notwithstanding the , which seems evidently to introduce a new sentence, and the long parenthesis which, on this supposition, intervenes. Others find it in (“harden not your hearts”), in the middle of the citation of Heb 4:16, as if the writer of the Epistle adopted these words as his own. Delitzsch finds it in Heb 4:16, taken as an interrogation (, not : see below); thus: “When it is said, Today harden not your hearts as in the provocation, who did provoke? Nay, did not all?” The after he accounts for by its idiomatic use found in such passages as Act 8:31; Act 19:35, conveying the sense of the English, “Why, who did provoke?” But this use of , obvious in the texts adduced as parallel, would be forced here; the structure of the sentence does not easily lend itself to it. Still, this is the view taken by Tholuck, Bleek, De Wette, Lunemann, and others, as well as Delitzsch. But, notwithstanding such weighty support, difficulties are surely best avoided by taking , not as commencing a new sentence, but in connection with Act 19:14 preceding, as it seems most natural to take it in the absence of any connecting particle to mark a new proposition. In this case the translation of the A.V. gives a fully satisfactory sense: “If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, while it is still being said, Today,” etc; i.e. (as in Act 19:13) “so long as it is called Today.” Ebrard, Alford, and others, taking the same view of the connection of the words, prefer the translation, “In that it is said.” But the other seems more in accordance with the thought pervading the passage.

Heb 3:16-19

For who, when they heard, provoked? Nay, did net all those who came out of Egypt by Moses. That both these clauses are interrogative, and not as taken in the A.V., is now the prevalent view. The reasons for thus understanding them are

(1) the analogy of the two following verses, both of which are interrogative, and in the first of which a question is similarly answered by putting another; and

(2) the sense required. If the clauses were assertions, they could only be meant to express that the provocation was not universal, inasmuch as Joshua and Caleb (and it might be some few others) remained faithful. But to say this is unnecessary and irrelevant to the argument, the drift of which is to warn by “the example of unbelief;” and could (“some”) possibly be used to denote the whole congregation with the exception of so few? It is to be observed, too, that the ) at the beginning of the second clause is a proper Greek expression (equivalent to “nay”) in the case of one question being answered by another (of. Luk 17:7, Luk 17:8). This verse, then ( retaining its usual sense of “for”), begins a proof, put in the form of a series of questions, of the preceding implied proposition, viz. that the retention of Christian privilege is dependent on perseverance, and that the privilege may be forfeited. In order to show this fully, the history of Num 14:1-45., referred to in the warning of the psalm, is examined in connection with the successive expressions of the warning; and it thus appears that all who came out of Egypt by Moses (the small exception of the faithful spies being disregarded) provoked God, and so forfeited their privilege, and that the cause of their failure was sin, disobedience, and, at the root of all, unbelief. The conclusion is obvious that, as their example is held out in the psalm as a warning to us, we may, all or any of us, similarly forfeit our higher calling. That the psalm is a warning to us, the rest it points to being the rest won for us by Christ, is more fully shown in the following chapter. We observe how the leading words in Psa 95:1-11. are taken in succession in the three successive verses in verse 16, in verse 17, in verse 18and how answers to the three questions suggested by these words are found in Num 14:1-45.to the first, in Num 14:2, Num 14:10, etc., “all the children of Israel,” “all the congregation;” to the second, in Num 14:29-34, with citation of the words used; to the third, in Num 14:21-24. It is to be observed, further, that it is not simply , but its exhibition in actual sin and disobedience ( ), that is spoken of as calling forth the Divine wrath and the Divine oath. The second of the above words implies more titan “believed not” (as in the A.V); differs from in implying disobedience or contumacy. And this view of the case of the Israelites agrees entirely with the historical record, where an actual rebellion is spoken of a refusal to go on with the work they had been called to. It suits also the application to the case of the Hebrew Christians, among whom (as has been said) it was not only wavering of faith, but, as its consequence, remissness in moral duty and in the facing of trial, of which the writer of the Epistle had perceived symptoms, and on the ground of which he warns them to take heed lest growing indifference should be hardened into apostasy. But in both instances, as faith is the root of all virtue, so want of it was the cause, and again the growing result, of moral decadence. And so the argument is summed up in the concluding verse, And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

HOMILETICS

Heb 3:1

Consider Jesus.

The exhortation of this verse marks the transition from the first section of the treatise to those which follow. Its reference is both retrospective and prospective. Indeed, the whole Epistle says in effect, “Consider what is written herein concerning Jesus; for he is greater than the prophets, greater than the angels, greater than Moses and Joshua, greater than Aaron, and pre-eminent among the heroes of faith.”

I. A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST.

1. The “Apostle” of the gospel Jesus, the Son of God (and no longer prophets or angels), is now the Divine Ambassador to men. God has sent him to us, as he sent Moses (Exo 3:1-22) to the ancient Israelites (Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13). It is singularly appropriate that Christ, the Sent of God, should be called God’s “Apostle.”

2. The “High Priest” of the Church. As our Mediator, Jesus draws near to God for us. He expiates, propitiates, reconciles, and intercedes (Heb 4:14; Heb 10:18). Through Christ, as Apostle, God holds intercourse with us; and through Christ, as High Priest, we hold intercourse with God.

II. A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST‘S PEOPLE.

1. “Holy brethren.“ This phrase evidently looks back to Heb 2:11 and following verses. Believers are so styled on account of their common oneness with Christ, their Sanctifier and eider Brother.

2. “Partakers of a heavenly calling.“ This refers to the sovereign gift of regeneration, and of the blessings flowing from it, which all believers have received. The “calling” is “heavenly,” because it has come from heaven; it creates heaven within us; and it conducts to heaven.

3. Confessors of Christ. Jesus expects his people to make an open and proud avowal of attachment to him as their Teacher and Priest. Believers confess him by connecting themselves with his Church, by sitting at his table of communion, by defending his honor, by spreading his truth, and especially by reflecting his likeness in their lives.

III. A DUTY OF CHRIST‘S PEOPLE TOWARDS HIM. Christianity centers in Christ; in fact, Christ himself is Christianity. Personal religion does not consist in any merely intellectual acceptance of gospel truth; it is a life of loving devotion to the living Savior. How necessary, then, that we “consider Jesus,” earnestly, intensely, habitually, and make the study of him the main interest and business of life! We must” consider” him:

1. To know him. We are saved through faith in Christ; but knowledge is necessary in order to faith. If we would know the Redeemer in his Person, natures, offices, and work, we must “consider” him.

2. To love him. A Christian is one who loves Christ; but this love will fill his heart only in so far as he gazes admiringly upon the God-Man, who loved him and gave himself for him.

3. To serve him. If we truly love Christ as our Savior, this love will control and dominate our life. But, in order to know his will, our “eyes” must always “look unto the hand of our Master.”

4. To become like him. Sanctification can be effected only by always “looking unto Jesus” for mercy and grace and aid, until we finally attain the prize of the heavenly calling.

CONCLUSION. This subject suggests a test of character. Do I belong to the holy brotherhood? Have I accepted the heavenly calling? Do I confess Christ with my lip and in my life? Is the contemplation of Jesus my most cherished desire?

Heb 3:2-6

Christ greater than Moses

It was a delicate thing to utter such a thought even to many of the Jews who had embraced Christianity, for the whole Hebrew nation guarded with intense jealousy the name and fame of Moses. But the writer acknowledges to the full the lofty dignity and splendid services of the ancient lawgiver, and then proceeds to show that Jesus Christ has been counted worthy of still greater honor.

I. CHRIST‘S SIMILARITY TO MOSES. (Heb 3:2) The very fact of a comparison being instituted between Jesus and Moses reminds us of Moses’ greatness. Moses had a romantic personal history; his character was adorned with the grandest gifts of grace and genius; and he accomplished an illustrious life-work. He was a type of Christ both in character and career. The Jews venerated him almost to idolatry as their deliverer, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and advocate with God. Now, Christ was “a Prophet like unto Moses” (Deu 18:15). He is the Moses of the New Testament. Heb 3:2 suggests points of resemblance between the two.

1. Each introduced a new dispensation. “The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” The Jews were “baptized unto Moses;” Christians are “baptized into Christ.” The writings of Moses are to the Old Testament Scriptures what the granite formation is to the other strata of the earth’s crust; so the written life of Christ is the foundation of New Testament Scripture.

2. Each was divinely commissioned and supported in his work. Moses, with his marvelous gifts, was raised up and trained and called by Providence to his life-task; and so was Jesus. Moses enjoyed peculiarly intimate intercourse with God, for “the Lord knew him face to face;” and so did Jesus.

3. Each was divinely recognized as “faithful.“ Fidelity to duty is the crown and flower of character. “My servant Moses is faithful in all mine house” (Num 12:7). “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Mat 17:5).

II. CHRIST‘S SUPERIORITY TO MOSES. (Heb 3:3-6) It was right that the memory of the lawgiver should be cherished with profound veneration; but, behold, a greater than Moses is here. Jesus has merited still larger honor.

1. Christ is the “Builder” of the Church; Moses was only one of the stones in it. (Heb 3:3, Heb 3:4) The Son of God, “through whom also he made the ages” (Heb 1:2), is the real Founder of every dispensation of religion. He redeemed the Old Testament Church, not less than the New, with his blood, and caused it to grow by his Spirit. Moses only introduced the Hebrew economy; it was God in Christ who founded it. Moses was a constituent member of the Jewish Church, i.e. a ransomed sinner, saved by grace like other men; a “living stone” built into the spiritual house by Christ the Master Builder.

2. Christ is a “Son“ set “over God’s house;“ Moses was only a “servant“ within it. (Heb 3:5, Heb 3:6) Moses ministered in the Church as a confidential house-steward, or honored upper-servant; but Christ entered it as its Master, to preside over it by virtue of his Divine sonship. The author has already expatiated on this theme in Heb 1:1-14; and surely Jesus, the Apostle of Christianity, is more renowned than Moses, seeing that he is the very Image of God, and. the Lord of all the angels.

3. Christ is the incarnate “Word of God;“ Moses was only his forerunner. (Heb 1:5) Moses bore “testimony“ to “those things which were afterward to be spoken”to the new and final revelation to be made at last, when God should speak “in his Son” (Heb 1:2). “Moses was the harbinger, Christ the illustrious Prince himself; the revelations of Moses were the faint twilight of the morning, those of Christ the full splendor of noonday; the institutions of Moses were the scaffolding, those of Christ the finished fabric of religious truth” (Lindsay).

CLOSING PRACTICAL REFLECTION. (Heb 1:6) If we remain perseveringly steadfast in our gospel faith, and joyful in our spiritual hope, we have therein the evidence that we ourselves belong to God’s house, the Church.

Heb 3:7-19

Beware of unbelief.

Eminent and honored though Moses had been, the generation of Hebrews whom he led out of Egypt became unbelieving and disobedient, and were in consequence overtaken by a dreadful doom. So the writer of this Epistle, realizing the strong temptations to relapse into Judaism which beset the Hebrew Christians, warns them against the still more dreadful consequences of apostasy from discipleship to Jesus Christ.

I. A BESETTING SPIRITUAL DANGER. It is that of losing our participation m God’s house; or, more particularly, of

1. Present unbelief. (Verse 12) Unbelief is distrust of God, want of faith in the Divine promise and providence, and especially refusal personally to confide in the Lord Jesus as “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” Unbelief may either presume upon God’s mercy, or despair of it, or neglect it.

2. Growing hardness of heart. (Verse 8) “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;” and the heart also is the fountain of sin. Acts of refusal to listen to God’s voice petrify into habits, so that the heart becomes the longer the more careless impenitent, and disobedient.

3. Final apostasy. (Verse 12) As acts produce habits, so habits form character. A human heart indurated by unbelief, and confirmed in moral insensibility, will lapse either into atheism, or immorality, or settled worldliness; and, unless Divine grace interpose, will for over “fall away from the living God.” This danger easily besets us allmuch more easily than many professing Christians suspect. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

II. A STRIKING HISTORICAL WARNING. (Verses 7-11) This the apostle introduces in words borrowed from Psa 95:1-11, which describe the career of the Israelites of Moses’ day, in the wilderness. They had, as a people, been:

1. Highly privileged. (Psa 95:9) As the result of the ten plagues of Egypt, and by means of their magnificent march through the Red Sea, they had been emancipated from slavery. They “saw God’s works forty years,” in the falling manna, in the water from the rock that followed them, in their raiment which did not wear out, and in the cloudy pillar which accompanied them on their journeys. Yet they were:

2. Habitually faithless. (Psa 95:8, Psa 95:9, 16) They despised these abiding miracles, and demanded other signs as a condition of believing. They doubted and grumbled; they longed to return again to Egypt; they refused at God’s command to go up to take possession of Canaan; and at last they fell into the idolatries of the heathen around. Zin, Rephidim, Taberah, Kadesh-barnea, and Shittim are names which remind us how the ransomed Jews did “always err in their heart.” They were obstinate and unanimous in their apostasy (verses 16, 17). So they were:

3. Hopelessly doomed. (Psa 95:11, 17-19) The words of the psalm, “I sware in my wrath,” reflect the intensity and depth of the Divine displeasure; and the language borrowed from the history, “whose carcasses fell in the wilderness” (Num 14:29, Num 14:32), suggests the deep misery of the retribution which fell upon that entire generation. But a ruin still more fearful shall be the portion of all who refuse or despise the gospel spoken by our Lord Jesus, the “Apostle” greater than Moses.

III. AN EARNEST PRACTICAL COUNSEL “Take heed, brethren” (verse 12). This exhortation is, in fact, the key-note of the whole Epistle; it is the chord which rules the strain. While the grace of God does not allow any real Christian to backslide irretrievably, he preserves his people from apostasy by the use of means suited to their rational and moral nature. So, here, the Holy Spirit exhorts every individual believer (verse 12) to “take heed.” If we would not “fall away from the living God,” we must:

1. “Hear his voice.“ (Psa 95:7, 15) That voice speaks to us now in the sweet and glorious gospel, and tells us of far grander “works” than those which were wrought for ancient Israel. “God hath spoken unto us in his Son” (Heb 1:2). To obey his voice will at once soften and strengthen our hearts. It will make us large-hearted as well as tenderhearted.

2. “Exhort one another.“ (Verse 13) Christians are associated in Church fellowship that they may promote one another’s welfare. The Church is a spiritual mutual benefit society. Friendly counsel and admonition are a valuable safeguard against apostasy. Two considerations which should stimulate to this duty are mentioned:

(1) the shortness of life;

(2) the insidiousness of sin.

3. Continue “firm unto the end.“ (Verse 14) It is dangerous for a believer to rest satisfied with the consciousness of his original conversion; he ought to be constantly turning from sin to Christ. It is unwise for him to lay stress on past frames and feelings; he must cherish through life an always-fresh and. living “confidence” in the Saviora faith which more and. more certifies itself by the ripening “fruit of the Spirit.” He must remain ever on his guard against unbelief. Only by persevering steadfastness will any one who has accepted the “heavenly calling” finally enter into the heavenly “rest.”

HOMILIES BY W. JONES

Heb 3:1

The sublimest contemplation.

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,” etc.

I. THE CHARACTERIZATION OF CHRISTIANS.

1. They are fraternal in relation. “Brethren.” These Hebrew Christians were brethren in a twofold sense to the writer of the Epistlefirst, as being his kindred according to the flesh; and next, as being of the same religious faith. Every Christian is a member of a glorious brotherhood. We are brothers inasmuch as we have all one Father and one elder Brother; we are animated by one Spirit; we are tending to one home, our “Father’s house.” Let us endeavor to realize this relationship, and to practically express its spirit. “Love the brotherhood.”

2. They are consecrated in character. “Holy brethren.” By applying to them the term “holy,” the writer does not affirm that all those whom he was addressing were in a state of sinless purity. The adjective conveys two ideasconsecration and transformation. Christians are holy because they have consecrated themselves to the Lord, and are being transformed into moral resemblance to him.

3. They are exalted in privilege. “Partakers of a heavenly calling.” This calling “is the invitation given on the part of God and Christ to men, to come and partake of the blessings proffered” in the gospel. In two senses it is “a heavenly calling.”

(1) It is heavenly in its origin; a calling from heaven. The holy voices and gracious invitations are from above. All saving influences and impulses are from God.

(2) It is heavenward in its end; a calling to heaven. Spiritual, sublime, eternal, heavenly, are the blessings to which we are called. It is “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The “partakers” of this calling are not those who have merely heard the call to gospel blessings, but those who have both heard and accepted that call.

II. THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE LORD AND SAVIOR.

1. He is “the Apostle of our confession.“ There is here a comparison of Jesus with Moses. Moses was “sent” of God to be the emancipator, chieftain, and ruler of the Israelites (see Exo 3:10,Exo 3:12, Exo 3:14, Exo 3:15). In this sense he was an apostle of God. Jesus Christ was the Sent of God (see Joh 3:34; Joh 5:36, Joh 5:37; Joh 6:29; Joh 10:36; Joh 17:18). He was sent on a still grander mission of redemption (see Isa 61:1-3). Moreover, the Jews designated the minister of the synagogue, who had the charge of its affairs and presided over them, an apostle. And in the verse following our text the writer goes on to speak of Jesus and Moses as each presiding over the affairs of a house. In this sense also our Lord is “the Apostle of our confession.” He is sent, not only to emancipate, but also to rule over his Church; to be both “a Prince and a Savior.”

2. He is “the High Priest of our confession.“ Here the comparison is with Aaron. As Aaron was high priest of the Jews, and, as such, made expiation for the sins of the people, so our Savior has made atonement for the sins of the world by the offering of himself in sacrifice. Through him we approach unto God. He maketh intercession for us. He pleads with us and in us and for us. Through him we shall rise to heaven. As the Apostle, he is the Representative of God to men; as the High Priest, he is the Representative of men with God.

3. He is Jesus. There is perhaps a reference here to Joshua, the great general of the Israelites, who led them into the promised land. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” How great, then, is our Lord and Savior!

III. THE ATTITUDE WHICH CHRISTIANS SHOULD MAINTAIN TOWARDS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOUR. “Wherefore, holy brethren consider the Apostle and High Priest,” etc.

1. The argument. “Wherefore,” i.e. because we have in Jesus such “a merciful and faithful High Priest,” such a mighty and gracious Helper, we should attentively consider him. And such consideration would be likely to strengthen the Christian faith of any who were in danger of falling back into Judaism; for they would find him a greater Apostle than Moses, a greater High Priest than Aaron, a greater “Captain of salvation” than Joshua. The great principle is this, that the greatest safeguard against weariness, discouragement, and apostasy is an earnest consideration of Jesus; a believing, steadfast, looking unto him.

2. The exercise. “Consider the Apostle,” etc. Contemplate him as “the Apostle of our confession.” How much greater is he than Moses! Moses did not lead the people into the Promised Land, or even enter therein himself; but Jesus has entered heaven as our Forerunner, has led multitudes into its blessedness, will lead all his people there. Contemplate him as “the High Priest of our confession.” How much greater is he than Aaron! Aaron’s priesthood was imperfect, typical, preparatory; but our Lord’s is gloriously perfect. By his sacrifice he has made full atonement; his intercession is divinely efficacious. Contemplate him as our Savior, “Jesus.” He is “mighty to save;” “able to save to the uttermost,” etc. Here is the sublimest contemplation. In weakness and weariness consider him, and you will be strengthened and animated. In darkness consider him, and the night will shine even as the day. In sin consider him, and you will seek and obtain forgiveness. In sorrow consider him, and the troubled heart will grow calm and restful. In death consider him, and his rod and staff will comfort you, and he himself will lead you through its dark portals into the joys and glories of heaven. Let this be our constant attitude”looking unto Jesus.”W.J.

Heb 3:6

The Church, God’s temple.

“But Christ as a Son over his house; whose house are we,” etc. Observe

I. THE CHURCH IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD. It is here designated “his house.” And St. Paul speaks of “the house of God, which is the Church of the living God.” Individual Christians are spoken of as temples of God (1Co 3:16). And the whole company of Christians are spoken of as “a holy temple” (Eph 2:20-22), and “a spiritual house” (1Pe 2:5). The figure suggests several ideas; e.g.:

1. Design for its construction. The tabernacle was built and furnished by Moses in accordance with minute directions from God. “Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount” (Exo 25:1-40). Solomon erected and furnished the temple from plans which he received from his father David, and for the making of which David was divinely instructed. “All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern” (1Ch 28:11-19). And of the sublime spiritual temple God himself is the great Architect. This spiritual house, from its foundation to its topstone, is being built after the Divine plan. Hence, we may infer, it will be strong and stable, sublime and beautiful, ere

2. Cohesion of its several portions. This glorious edifice is “fitly framed together.” There is unity of design, unity of construction, etc. The Church of Christ is one in a unity more true and deep than that of any outward forms, or symbols, or organizations. It is one in its filial relation to the great Father, in its faith in the redeeming Son, as being inhabited by the Holy Spirit, and as consecrated to the glorious cause of Christ. In these respects all true Christians are one.

3. Inhabitation by God. God dwelt in symbol in the tabernacle of Moses and in the temple of Solomon. The sacred Shechinah was there in the holy of holies. By his Spirit he dwells in every Christian. “Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” He dwells also in the Church as a whole. In Christ Jesus “ye are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.”

II. CHRIST IS THE BUILDER OF THIS TEMPLE. In Heb 3:3 he is spoken of as “he that built the house.” “On this rock,” said he, “I will build my Church.” Christians “are his workmanship;” they “are God’s building.” “The Lord aided to the Church daily those that were being saved.” All other laborers on the glorious edifice work under him. He allots them their respective duties, appoints them their sphere of operation, sustains them in their work, and crowns their work with success. Passing to another figure, Paul “planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”

III. CHRIST IS THE LORD OF THIS TEMPLE. Our text teaches that Christ as a Son is over this house of God. He is “Head over all things to the Church” (Eph 1:22). “The Church is subject to Christ” (Eph 5:23, Eph 5:24). “He is the Head of the body, the Church that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” “One is your Master, even the Christ.” His authority is supreme in the Church, higher than that of conferences or councils, synods or convocations, archbishops or lopes; and it should be recognized as such and loyally obeyed. He ordained the laws of the Church; he instituted its sacraments, etc.

IV. PERSONAL INCORPORATION IN THIS TEMPLE IS CONDITIONAL. “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence,” etc. Here are two conditions:

1. The maintenance of assured Christian confidence. This confidence, or boldness, as Ebrard says, “is nothing else than the itself in its most direct and most practical expression, manifesting itself as the inward power of the peace which dwells in the heart, in circumstances of outward difficulty It denotes that joyful boldness which flows from within and is victorious over unfavorable circumstances; it is joyfulness felt in situations in which others would despair; hence it is the immediate fruit of the objective peace obtained with God through the atonement.”

2. The maintenance of their exultant hope. “If we hold fast the glorifying of our hope.” Here also Ebrard’s note is excellent. “The Jews boasted of their descent from Abraham (Joh 8:1-59), of their temple and priesthood, of their being the chosen people of Godall palpable and manifest advantages. The poor Christians had nothing of the kind in which they could glory. Regarded by the Gentiles as a Jewish sect, by the Jews as apostates from the people of Israel, forming no state, no people, without rulers, without a head except One who was crucified, the refuse and off scouring of the people, they had nothing of which to boast but the glory which they hoped to receive.” But how splendid a hope was theirs!the hope of perfect holiness and of perfect blessedness. And such a hope is ours. Let us, then, “hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.”W.J.

Heb 3:7, Heb 3:8

On hearing God’s voice.

“The Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Introduction. The witness of the New Testament to the Divine inspiration of the Old. “The Holy Ghost saith” (Psa 95:7-11). We have in the text

I. A GREAT FACT IMPLIED. That God speaks to man. The “if” does not indicate uncertainty as to the Divine voice, but as to man’s attention to this voice. There is no question as to whether God will speak to man or not, but whether man will heed his communications. Notice:

1. The object for which God speaks to man. This object is that man may be saved. The Divine voice proclaims and proffers a “great salvation,” and publishes redemptive truth to man.

2. The organs by which he speaks to man.

(1) By the sacred Scriptures, and especially in the life and teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ, as recorded therein. “God hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son.”

(2) By Christian ministries, especially the preaching of his gospel. “We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us,” etc. (2Co 5:20).

(3) By the voice of our conscience. In its approbation of the right and its condemnation of the wrong, God speaks to us.

(4) By the events of his providence.

(5) By the influences of his holy Spirit. He speaks within the soul of man. He imparts emphasis and energy to the other voices by which God addresses us.

3. The frequency with which he speaks to man. Our text implies that he speaks to us daily. And surely by some one or more of these voices, every day he addresses to us some prohibition or persuasion, some caution or encouragement, some precept or promise, some invitation or warning. Were our susceptibility to Divine influences greater, we should ever hear the utterances of the Divine voice.

II. A MOMENTOUS DUTY EXPRESSED. Our duty is to hear God’s voice. Consider:

1. The signification of hearing God’s voice. It is not mere hearing that is meant here, but earnest attention to God’s voice, hearty belief in his communications, and willing obedience to his commands.

2. The season for hearing God’s voice. “Today; i.e. now.

(1) Because life is uncertain. “Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?” etc. (Jas 4:14).

(2) Because procrastination is perilous. The postponement of our duty today facilitates a further postponement of it tomorrow.

(3) Because it is a present duty, and to defer the performance of it is, therefore, sinful. We ought to attend to God’s voice now. The urgency of this duty is suggested in the text. In the psalm from which it is quoted, our text “is virtually the expression of a wish, ‘Today if ye will but hearken to his voice! ‘” or, “Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice!” The pathos and earnestness which the Holy Ghost puts into this wish suggests the deep importance of the duty; cf. Psa 81:13, “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me!” etc.

III. A SOLEMN CAUTION GIVEN. “Harden not your hearts.” The sapling is pliant; it may be bent and trained as to the direction and form of its growth. The full-grown tree is fixed in form, firm in texture, and unbending in its resistance; it is hardened. Men harden’ their hearts by disregarding the voice of God, by not recognizing the authority of their consciences, by postponing the performance of religious duties, by neglecting the great salvation, and by practically despising or resisting the Holy Spirit of God. St. Paul speaks of men who were “alienated from the life of God, because of the hardening of their heart,” and “who being past feeling” had abandoned themselves to persistent and active wickedness. For such moral insensibility what hope remains? “Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice!”W.J.

Heb 3:12

Apostasy.

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you,” etc. Our text leads us to consider

I. APOSTASY IN ITS NATURE. “Departing from the living God.”

1. This departure is not local. In this respect separation from the Divine presence is impossible “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” etc. (Psa 139:7-12).

2. This departure is not theological The corruption of a man’s creed will almost certainly be followed by deterioration of his character and conduct; yet a man may retain his hold of a true creed, and at the same time be falling away from the living God.

3. This departure is not ecclesiastical. Membership and activity in the visible Church of Christ may be fully maintained even while one is departing from God. Apostasy may exist in the heart long before it is manifested in action.

4. This departure is spiritual. It is a falling away from the living God in sympathy and in service. “They do always err in their heart” (Heb 3:10). It is the decline of love and loyalty to God.

II. APOSTASY IN ITS ROOT. “An evil heart of unbelief.” Confidence in God is essential to union with him or love to him. Let any one doubt God’s existence or character, that he is wise and righteous and good, and that man’s sympathy with God will speedily perish. His apostasy has already begun. Doubt of our friends will be the death of our friendship. And unbelief towards God must lead to spiritual alienation from him, and that alienation persisted in must issue in spiritual death. It is of the utmost importance that we firmly grasp the truth that this unbelief is not intellectual, but moral; it is not the doubt of the inquiring mind, but of the wandering heart. It is the faith of the heart that unites man with God. “If thou shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shelf be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” etc. It is the unbelief of the heart that separates man from God. “An evil heart of unbelief.”

III. APOSTASY IN ITS PERIL. There is the danger of:

1. Drifting further away from God. It is impossible for us to remain stationary in our relation to him. We are ever either drawing nearer to him or departing further from him. In this “failing away from the living God” the soul falls lower and lower.

2. Deprivation of spiritual blessings. Unbelief excludes the soul from the rest of God. The peace of the forgiveness of sins, the rest and joy of affections centered in God, the comfort of Christian hope, and the blessedness of true progress, are forfeited by the unbeliever.

3. The death of the soul. The soul lives only as it is united with God, and its union with him is impossible apart from faith in him. “Departing from the living God,” its death is inevitable. What a death is that! A man in whom truth and trust, purity and love, righteousness and reverence, moral effort and aspiration, are extinct. What a death!

IV. APOSTASY IN ITS PREVENTION. “Take heed, brethren,” etc.

1. Guard against the insidious advances of unbelief. “Watch and pray,” etc.

2. Seek the increase of your faith in God and of your love to him. A nearer approach to God is the surest preventive of apostasy from him.

CONCLUSION. Is “thy heart right in the sight of God”? “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”W.J.

Heb 3:13

An awful peril and an inspired preventive.

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today,” etc. We discover in these words

I. AN AWFUL PERIL. “Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” The danger is that of growing into a condition of moral obduracy, of becoming “past feeling.” The greatness of this peril largely arises from two facts.

1. That this condition is generally reached gradually. Men do not become hardened in sin by one act of wickedness. Moral insensibility is the result of a process. The progress may sometimes be distinctly traced.

(1) The hardening of the will against certain Divine commands, as in the case of Pharaoh (Exo 5:2). The refusal to do a manifest duty.

(2) The hardening of the entire moral disposition in sin. In this stage the struggle against temptation to sin is renounced, and the effort to be and to do what is true and right is given up (cf. Eph 4:18, Eph 4:19).

(3) The hardening of the heart against the influences of Divine grace. In this stage the offers of the gospel are rejected; unbelief becomes positive and active (cf. Act 7:51). How inexpressibly terrible is such a condition of soul!

2. That this condition is generally reached insidiously. “Hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin never approaches the soul in its true aspect. It assumes attractive disguises; it propounds plausible reasons; it exhibits fascinating yet fictitious prospects. For example, to those who are “not far from the kingdom of God,” and who are almost entirely decided to serve him heartily and wholly, the deceitful and dangerous suggestion is presented that tomorrow will be more favorable in circumstances than today for beginning a decided Christian life, that a more “convenient season” for genuine personal religion will speedily arrive. And. so the holy decision and. consecration are deferred; procrastination becomes habitual; the heart hardens in procrastination. Again, to the Christian the temptation to unbelief is never presented in its real character, or it would be rejected immediately and decisively. It approaches the heart in fair forms, and with a show of reasonableness and righteousness. Thus, if a man be not on his guard, the hardening process will have begun ere he is aware of it. Hence the awful peril.

II. AN INSPIRED PREVENTIVE. “Exhort one another daily, while it is called Today.”

1. The nature of this preventive. “Exhort one another.” The word translated “exhort” indicates two exercises.

(1) Admonition of each other. Stuart translates, “Admonish one another.” Let Christians warn each other when they detect impending dangers.

(2) Encouragement of each other. Let Christians endeavor to inspire their disheartened brethren with new hopes, to comfort their troubled brethren with Christian consolations. “Wherefore, lift up the hands that hang down,” etc. (Heb 12:12, Heb 12:13). Christians, being children of one Father, disciples of one Master, members of one great community, exposed to similar perils, sustained by similar influences, and inspired by common hopes, ought thus to “exhort one another.” Moreover, there is a preventive mentioned in the preceding verse against, this dread peril which each one must exercise for himself. “Take heed.” Be watchful, etc.

2. The season for the exercise of this preventive. “Exhort one another daily,” or, “day by day.” Mutual oversight and help should be continuous. Watchfulness and prayer and Christian effort must not be irregular or intermittent, but steady and constant; not occasional exercises, but abiding dispositions.

3. The limit to the exercise of this preventive. “While it is called Today.” This may mean while our present form of life shall last; as in our Lord’s words, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day,” etc. Or it may mean while the day of grace continues. Adopting either interpretation, the season for this mutual exhortation is limited and uncertain. “We have but an uncertain season for the due performance of most certain duties; how long it will be called Today, we know not; the day of life is uncertain, and- so is the day of the gospel; a summer’s day for clearness, a winter’s day for shortness; our working day is a wasting day.” Let the solemn gravity of the peril lead each of us to a diligent use of the Heaven-inspired preventive.W. J.

Heb 3:19

The dread disability.

“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Our text

I. REFUTES SEVERAL ASSIGNED REASONS FOR MAN‘S FAILURE TO ATTAIN SALVATION.

If any one does not enter the spiritual rest which God has graciously provided for man, it is:

1. Not by reason of anything in the purposes or predestinations of God. His purposes are the purposes of a Being of perfect righteousness, and of infinite wisdom and love. He could not ordain an evil thing, or have any intentions which are inimical to the well-being of his creatures; for he is Godthe Supremely Good (cf. Eze 33:11; 1Ti 2:4-6).

2. Not by reason of any deficiency in God’s redemptive provisions. These are abundant, inexhaustible, and entirely free. The atonement of Jesus Christ, which is perfectly adapted to reconcile man to God, is as efficacious for a million hearts as it is for one (cf. Isa 55:1, Isa 55:2, Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7; Mat 22:1-10; Luk 14:16-23; Joh 3:14-17; Rev 22:17).

3. Not by reason of any inability to accept God’s redemptive provisions. The condition upon which salvation is appropriated by man is sincere and hearty faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every sane man can comply with this condition if he will.

4. Not by reason of any deficiency of evidence for the essential truths of Christianity. The Christian religion is founded upon facts, which are as well attested as any facts of history.

II. AFFIRMS THE TRUE REASON FOR MAN‘S FAILURE TO ATTAIN SALVATION. “They were not able to enter in because of unbelief.” This unbelief is not intellectual or theoretical, but practical, and resulting in disobedience. The unbelief of the Israelites here spoken of totally unfitted them for entering the promised land (see Num 14:1-4, Num 14:22-25). Their unbelief had stripped them of hope and of courage, and reduced them to humiliating despondency and cowardice. No one can enter upon any worthy inheritance without the exercise of faith. For the discovery of new countries, for the exploration of unknown lands, for the carrying out of great reformations or ameliorations, for the perfecting of beneficent inventions, for the accomplishment of every worthy and noble enterprise, the possession and exercise of faith is indispensable. The attainment of salvation is impossible apart from faith. Unbelief it is which excludes men from the true rest of the soul. They are “not able to enter in because of unbelief.” This is the dread disability, the unwillingness to heartily and practically believe in Jesus Christ. “Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” If any man is not saved, he alone is to blame. He is diseased, yet he turns aside from the remedy. He is condemned, yet he refuses to accept the offered pardon. He is self-destroyed.W.J.

HOMILIES BY C. NEW

Heb 3:1-6

The superiority of Christ to Moses the reason why they should cleave to Christ.

The writer has met the objection to Christianity raised by the supposed want of dignity in its Founder, as opposed to the greatness of the angels through whom the old dispensation was said to be “ordained.” He proceeds to deal with another objection. “The Law was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator;” but, he says, however great this mediator was, Christ is greater still. SubjectThe superiority of Christ to Moses the reason why they should cleave to Christ.

I. ALL THAT MOSES WAS TO GOD‘S PEOPLE, CHRIST IS. A very delicate subject. To exhibit Moses in a subordinate position was to touch a point on which the Hebrews were very sensitive. The writer, therefore, begins by simply speaking of Christ as, at least, on a level with Moses.

1. Moses and Christ were successively the divinely appointed heads of Israel. “House” equivalent to “household.” Both Moses and Christ successively presided over, administered the affairs of, the household of God on earth. The New Testament often draws a parallel in some kind between Moses and Christ: “As Moses lifted,” etc; “The Law was given by,” etc; “They sing the song of Moses,” etc. This parallel is more sharply drawn in the affirmation that Moses and Christ occupied this position in the twofold capacity of “Apostle and High Priest.“ The two aspects of the mediatorial position: an apostle is one sent of God to represent him to the people, and the high priest is one appointed to represent the people before God. Moses fulfilled this dual position with regard to Israel; but the Hebrews had lost nothing in advancing from him to Christ, for they had all this in Jesus.

2. Moses and Christ were both faithful in their fulfillment of the Divine appointment. Not, “Each was personally faithful,” but “Each perfectly fulfilled the part allotted to him;” so that if Moses did less than Jesus, he did all that was incumbent on him as administrator of the old economy. The writer is careful not to sink Moses that he may exalt Jesus. (We need not undervalue any of God’s gifts in order to extol Christ)

II. WHILST CHRIST IS ALL THAT MOSES WAS, HE IS ALSO MORE. From the resemblance he proceeds carefully to the superiority.

1. Moses was but a part of the household; Christ is the Founder of it. Moses was born into the family which existed before him, and had to share its privileges, duties, responsibilities, etc. But God was the Founder of the family, and Jesus has before been shown to be God. He must, therefore, be greater than Moses. (All the beauty in anything we love must be more fully in Christ, because it originates in him)

2. Moses was but a servant to the house; Christ is Lord of it. Moses only did what he was bidden: “The Lord said unto Moses.” What he did for the nation was not due to him, but was the carrying out of the will of another, and therefore the reverence and thankfulness given to him were really due to the Master whose instrument he was. And that Master was Christ. By so much is Christ better than Moses. (Do we think of that when anything ministers to our well being, that it is only a servantall things come of God?)

3. Moses was but a symbolic witness in the house; Christ was the realized Life of it. “Moses was for a testimony of those things which were afterwards to be spoken.” He and his work were symbolic of things to comea dead symbol. The contrast is drawn in Heb 3:6 : “Christ, whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying,” etc; that is, the Church is a living organism, whose life is Christ; Christ’s family are such by a living faith which binds each member of it to him. Christ is the quickening Spirit to which Moses, as a symbol, pointed. (Everything we value on earth is only a symbol of something better in Christ. Happy we if, ere the evanescent symbol fades, we have grasped the reality; if, when Moses passes out of sight, Jesus is left!)

III. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST IS THE POWER TO CONFIRM THE WAVERERS IN THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO HIM. Christ is better than Moses; therefore, ye wavering Hebrews, cleave to Christ;that is the idea. The practical lesson is, that:

1. Moses, in the case of Israel, corresponds with anything which in our case competes with Christ. What Moses was to them many an object is to us, and we stand hesitating between it and our Lord.

2. Then, remember that all that is to be found in this object is to be found in Christ, and much more. Whatever good it promises us is but the shadow of a greater good in him.

3. Then, when we are tempted to leave Christ for anything, our safety is in considering him. If we leave him it is because we do not know him, and that is because we do not reflect upon him. As you “consider him,” and he turns on you a sad look, asking, “Will ye also go away?” you will answer decidedly, joyously, “Lord, to whom shall,” etc.?C. N.

Heb 3:7-19

The comparison of Christ and Moses suggests the possibility of apostasy from Christ.

As Christ and Moses occupied similar positions as leaders of the household of God, and Israel was faithless under the leadership of Moses, and came to ruin as the result, so it is possible that, under the leadership of Christ, there may be the same infidelity and the same bitter end.

I. THE FEAR OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. This solemn exhortation is written to professing Christians; and such professors (see Heb 10:32-34)! Their piety was of such a nature that onlookers could not doubt it; yet, says the apostle, even these may apostatize. Members of the Church, this speaks to you. “Take heed.” This possibility is enforced:

1. By Scripture warnings against the repetition of the wilderness-sin. For what means the quotation here from Psa 95:1-11., and the four-times repeated “today”? Not that the day of grace is short and may speedily terminate, but rather that it was possible for the men of the writer’s time to repeat the sin of their fathers in the wilderness. That sin was not confined to those who came out of Egypt; for, five hundred years afterwards, David said to Israel, “Today it may be true of you.” So the writer here says, “Learn from your Scriptures that the guilt of your forefathers, the awful effects of which you know so well, may be repeated by other generations. Beware, therefore, lest it be repeated in you.” We have the same reason for godly fear. What mean the parables of wheat and tares, and wise and foolish virgins; the declaration, “Many will say unto me in that day,” etc; the assurance that at the judgment many will be surprised to find themselves on the left hand of the Judge; and such passages as in this Epistle (Heb 6:14), but that the wilderness-sin may be true of today’s Church?

2. By the subtlety of the sin of unbelief. “Take heed lest,” etc; “Lest any of you be hardened by the,” etc; as though this sin could grow upon the soul that is unaware of it. It is easy to mistake the nature of faith and the fruits of faith, and to have a spirit of unbelief, the one deadly sin, without knowing it.

3. By the fact that continuance is the test of true faith. “We are partakers of Christ if we hold our begun confidence,” etc. Where vital faith exists it endures, the continued mediation of Christ for his people being the ground of this. But it is not uncommon for professors to think themselves to be Christians because of what they were. As long as there are members of the Church whose hope is of this character, the Church will have those in it who apostatize from the living God. “Lord, is it I?”

II. THE EVIL OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST.

1. To apostatize from Christ is to depart from the living God. (Verse 12) We cannot leave Jesus without losing God. “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” To relinquish Christ is to be rejected of God. “He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him.”

2. To apostatize from Christ reveals an extraordinary degree of inward evil. “An evil heart of unbelief.” Is unbelief, then, so very evil? It is the relinquishing the Son of God; it is the making God a liar; it is (in the case of an apostate) the breaking away from Christ, not held fast even by the glory of the fuller vision.

3. To apostatize from Christ is to fail of the rest to which he leads. “For to whom sware he,” etc. Rejection from Christ is the one deadly sin. “This is the condemnation;” “He that believeth not is,” etc; “And this is the condemnation, that light,” etc. How much more so in the case of the apostate! “I saw,” said Bunyan, “that from the very gate of heaven there was a path down to hell.”

III. THE PREVENTION OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. There is only one meanscleave to Christ. Apostasy springs from unbelief; its antidote is faith. How can a persistent faith be maintained?

1. Faith depends greatly on the condition of the heart. “They do err in their heart;” the passage is full of that. Men do not, for the most part, leave Christ because of conscious hostility to him, or a desire to depart; it is rather because the lust of other things entering in blinds them to his beauty, and insensibly draws them from his service.

2. Faith must be shielded from outside influences which tend to weaken it. “Take heed.” There are enemies to faith outside as well as inpleasures, companionships, literature.

3. Faith must be supplied with its natural food. “Exhort one another,” etc. That is, present the truth. The food of faith is truth, and in order to produce or maintain faith we must present truth to the mind. Let Scripture be unstudied, and faith will die.C.N.

HOMILIES BY J.S. BRIGHT

Heb 3:1-6

The superiority of Christ.

I. HERE WE HAVE THE PRE–EMINENCE OF CHRIST OVER THE JEWISH LAWGIVER ASSERTED. Having proved that our Lord was by nature and by his work infinitely above the angels, and that his assuming our flesh qualified him to be the great High Priest, it was desirable to show that he was immeasurably greater than Moses, who was the human mediator in establishment of the covenant and Law. The apostle knew the luster with which the name and ministry of Moses were always surrounded in the minds of the people of Israel, and therefore with admirable wisdom he proceeds to claim for Jesus Christ his rightful ascendancy and special glory. Jewish believers are addressed as “holy brethren” and partakers of the heavenly calling, which differed from the calling which invited the tribes to march and take possession of Canaan. It is heavenly because it comes to them from heaven and calls them to heaven, and is heard continually by the spiritual ear of those who are advancing to the “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” Moses had a glory which was that of fidelity to the thoughts and ideas of Jehovah, who said to him, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” When the tabernacle was finished God looked upon the work and blessed it, because it faithfully realized his design. He was faithful in receiving communications from God and delivering them to the people, and in publishing the laws respecting sacrifices, ceremonies, and social life. He uttered predictions respecting the future course of Israel and the character and ministry of the Lord Jesus, and could say, as Paul said, “That which I have received of the Lord have I delivered unto you.” He was faithful to the interests of the people, and in a time of danger from the righteous anger of Jehovah was willing to die for them (Exo 32:32). He was a servant in the house, and ministered under him who was its Architect and Builder. Our Lord rises infinitely above Moses, because he is a Son, and by his dignity and nature is far above all angels, all patriarchs, and prophets, and even Moses himself, who spake to God “face to face.” This is confirmed by the events of the Transfiguration, for when Moses and Elijah were with him in glory the voice was heard, “This is my beloved Son; hear him.” The apostle invites us to consider the sublime edifice of the Church, which is the work of God, who created all things, in which Jesus Christ has a special and glorious ministry as the Son of the Father. He is faithful as Moses was in the range of his Divine communications, and said, “Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to me, so I speak” (Joh 12:50). He came to do the Father’s will in his mighty and sacrificial sorrows, and drank the bitter Cup that we might drink the cup of blessing. He promised to see his disciples again, and to pour out the Spirit upon them. St. Peter stood with joy on the day of Pentecost, and affirmed, “He hath shed forth that which ye now see and hear.” The existence of his Church proves his faithfulness; for the gates of hell have not prevailed against it; and “blessed are all they that trust in him.”

II. THE NEED AND ADVANTAGE OF REVERENT CONSIDERATION OF HIS GLORY. To “consider” signifies to withdraw from the excitement and turbulence of human life to look steadily at the Son of God, and resemble, in some degree, the astronomer who enters into his observatory to gaze in silence on the glory of the heavens above. It was needful for Jewish Christians to look to the glory of Christ, as the best way to counteract the discouragements which arose from the opposition of the synagogue and of those to whom the cross of Christ was a stumbling-block and an offence. The truth of his priesthood was to be acknowledged, and the glory of his apostleship was to be confessed; for he was sent by the Father to reveal his will and claim our faith; and “whosoever will not hear this Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.” If the steady contemplation of Jesus Christ was necessary for Jewish believers, it is equally so for ourselves. It is by beholding him we are changed into the same image of constancy, and hold fast the cheerful confidence with which we began the career, and cherish the exaltation of our hope to the end of our earthly life. Then those who die in the Lord gain the precious recompense of the congratulation and welcome of the Redeemer, who will greet them with those sacred words, “Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Believers are besought by the endearing appeal to their brotherhood to be faithful to him who was faithful as a Son, to whom they are predestinated to be conformed; and as he is not ashamed to call us brethren, we should strive to please him who encourages us to be faithful unto death, and he will give us “the crown of life.”B.

Heb 3:7-11

There is an example here of the resources and adaptation of Old Testament Scripture to New Testament conditions.

The sacred writer turns to the ninety-fifth psalm to give force to his remonstrances, and cautions against unbelief and disobedience. This part of the Psalter contains an impressive description of the conduct of the ancient tribes of Israel in their passage from Egypt to Canaan. There were two occasions on which the hardness of their hearts was specially and painfully manifest. The first of these was their unbelief at Rephidim (Exo 17:1 -17), when they murmured against God and against his servant Moses, and chode with the man of God respecting their want of water; and the place was called Massah (“temptation”) and Meribah (“striving” or “contention”). A similar occurrence took place at Kadesh, when the people murmured again, and when supply of water was miraculously obtained; it was called “water of Meribah” (Num 21:13). These acts of unbelief sprang from hardness of heart, which the thought of the Divine deliverances wrought for them and the designs of love revealed to them failed to overcome. The goodness of God did not lead them to repentance, but after their hardness and impenitent heart they “treasured up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” They tempted God, and proved him to find whether he was able to do great things, and whether he was the supreme Ruler of them and all creatures. They found that he was of one mind, and none could turn him. “Harden not your hearts,” was the counsel given by the psalmist; and by Isaiah, whose mission, through unbelief in the people of Judah, was a “savor of death unto death.” The prophets, and Jesus Christ the great Prophet, repeated and urged the same counsel upon the attention of the Jewish people, and urged it in vain. Jehovah was grieved and vexed with the former generation; and the Image of the invisible God wept over Jerusalem, and said, “If thou hadst known the things that make for thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” The punishment of the murmurers in the wilderness was that they should not enter into the rest of Canaan, which was designed for the obedient and those who should become a “kingdom of priests.” There is probably a sacred meaning in the choice of the psalm, which specially refers to forty years, which length of time was nearly the period which elapsed from the crucifixion of our Lord to the predicted overthrow of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and cessation of sacrifices, and the captivity and dispersion of the people. Holding up the examples and punishment of unbelief before the eyes of Jewish believers, the Holy Spirit taught them to remember the severity of God, and to fear lest their apostasy from Christ should shut them out from the higher and more glorious rest of heaven.B.

Heb 3:12-14

There is here asserted the need of mutual exhortation to avoid unbelief and follow Christ fully.

Apart from the labors of the ministers of the gospel, who were to teach that Christ was” the same yesterday, and today, and for ever,” there was to be brotherly love among Christians, who were affectionately to warn each other against the evils of departing from the truths and profession of the gospel. Their counsel was to be directed to the state of the heart, which if unbelieving was an “evil heart,” and therefore full of guile, pride, readiness to receive objections against the gospel, and willingness to yield to the blinding influence of Satan. It would lead them to depart from the living God, and. conduct them to ceremonies, and produce works which had no Divine life in them. This work of friendly exhortation was to be done at once, “while it is called Today;” and whatsoever their hand found to do they were to do with all their might; for sin was full of allurement, and promised, as it did in Paradise, large illumination, freedom, and pleasure. It would be bitterness in the end, and. the song of the wren would allure to destruction. The hardening would, if unchecked, go on with imperceptible advance, and would silently desolate the conscience, understanding, and heart. This was to be avoided by perseverance in acts of faith and unlimited confidence in Jesus Christ, who inclined them to begin the course to the upper kingdom of God. As they had “received Christ they were to walk in him,” and then they would partake of his Spirit, and share the blessedness which, as a Forerunner, he has gone to prepare. They would share in the joy he has promised to confer upon the brave and immovable in their profession, who shall “sit down with him in his throne, as he has overcome, and sits down with his Father in his throne.”B.

Heb 3:15-19

As redemption from Egypt did not protect Israel from punishment, so misbelief in Christians will be visited with the Divine displeasure and final failure.

The sacred writer refers us to the psalm from which he had drawn such affecting exhortations to steadfastness in the spiritual life, and now advances to enforce the lessons of earnestness by a series of weighty inquiries derived from the overthrow of many Israelites in the desert. The ideas resemble those of Paul, who in 1Co 10:1-5 instructs us that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, and ate spiritual meat and drank spiritual drink, and yet many were overthrown in the wilderness. The first question is (in the Revised Version)Who were they that did provoke at Meribah and awakened the Divine displeasure? This inquiry is answered by another. Did they not all come out of Egypt, anti while the destroying angel was abroad their families were safe; when the sea opposed their march it was dried up to give them passage, and when the enemies pursued them with rage and breathed out threatenings and slaughter, were they not redeemed? These were they who added the baseness of ingratitude to the sin of unbelief. Another inquiry follows, which isWith whom was he displeased, and was it not with those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? It is the historic realization of a truth penned many centuries afterwards by St. James, who writes,” Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” These unbelievers died under the frown of Jehovah, and left their sad experience as a beacon to warn against sins which provoked the Divine anger and laid them low in the dust of death. The inquiry advances once more, and asksWho were they who were denied the privilege of entering upon the much-desired inheritance of Canaan? There is an awfulness in the oath which Jehovah takes, that the unbelieving Hebrews should not enter the pleasant land, with its fertile soil, its pastures, its vineyards, its brooks and streams, and the margin of the Mediterranean Sea. There is no secret in the cause of their failure, as there is no secret in the cause of Christian success. They could not enter in because of unbelief, which, while it barred their entrance into Canaan, excludes men from the “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” If these sad and awful punishments overtook Israel according to the flesh, then the truth which the author designed to teach is that redemption from sin, condemnation, must, to secure all the fruits and issues of the gospel, be associated with humble and persevering fidelity to our profession of faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.B.

HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG

Heb 3:1

Heavenly things.

There are four heavenly things spoken of in this Epistle which it may be well here to connect together.

I. THE HEAVENLY CALLING. Elsewhere the upward calling. A voice out of the pure, the abiding, the unchangeable. A voice of love, pity, invitation, authority, such as could not sound from anywhere in this distracted, defiled world.

II. THE HEAVENLY GIFT. The the free donation of God; the gift bestowed for men to taste and live by; the bread of eternal life. Remember what James says, that “every perfect gift is from above” (Heb 1:1-14 :17).

III. THE HEAVENLY COUNTRY. The fatherland; the of the Christian. The voice from heaven calls us there. The heavenly gift is for our provision by the way; the manna of our desert life (Heb 11:16).

IV. THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM Where all the glory of the heavenly fatherland is concentrated. The treasures of a land are represented in its capital city. Jerusalem gave a site for the temple, a palace for the king (Heb 12:22).Y.

Heb 3:1

What Christ is to us.

I. CONSIDER THE PEOPLE HERE ADDRESSED, AND THE SPEAKER IN RELATION TO THEM. Amid the endless, fruitless discussion as to the authorship of this Epistle, so much at least it is not unreasonable to conclude, that the author was a Hebrew Christian, not a Gentile one. The Hebrews were now divided into what might be called Christian Hebrews and non-Christian HebrewsHebrews of the gospel and Hebrews of the Lawand in addressing the Christian Hebrews the writer implies certain profound distinctions. He calls them:

1. Brethren. This not a mere word of courtesy. It acknowledged the relation between writer and readers; it indicated the writer’s interest; he had a certain claim to be listened to. And, to put this brotherhood beyond doubt, there is the subsequent “our.” Then there is the brotherhood of the readers to one another, and their brotherhood to the Son of God.

2. Holy; or perhaps better taken as a substantivesaints; men with the stamp of consecration on them. The Jewish nation was a holy nation, holy by nature; and now these believers, with the Holy Spirit’s work going on in them, were twice holy.

3. Partakers of a heavenly calling.

4. Those who have made an acknowledgment, a profession, with respect to Christ.

II. CONSIDER THE IMPLIED PARALLEL WITH THE EXPERIENCES OF THE HEBREW NATION. All Hebrews were brethren, in this sense, that they had descended from one father, Abraham. They were holy by the consecration of Jehovah’s historical dealings with them. God had not dealt so with any other nation. They were partakers of a heavenly calling. It was a voice of God, not some self-dictated impulse, which sent out Abraham and directed and bounded the track of his posterity. And, most important of all, the Hebrew nation made their acknowledgment of apostle and high priest. The apostle was Moses, and of the high priest Aaron may be taken as representative. Though while living Moses had been only too often the object of hatred, jealousy, rebellion, he had now come to be vehemently acknowledged. It could not be too much proclaimed by the Hebrews of the Law that he was the sent of God.

III. CONSIDER THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST OF OUR PROFESSION. The Hebrews of the gospel had only one Person to consider, where the Hebrews of the Law had two. The matter is one for considerationclose and penetrating application of the mind. Consideration as opposed to negligence, as opposed to superficiality; sufficient examination as opposed to insufficient. To obey the exhortation meant to bend the mind to all the subsequent arguments and illustrations of the Epistle. The writer was going to exhibit the results of his own consideration. And though the interest and responsibility of this consideration is special to Jews, yet it is well for all Gentiles to consider how thoroughly Jesus is a sent Person. Moses was clearly a sent person; there is nothing to show that in himself he was a man of extraordinary gifts. By so much as the nature of Jesus is richer and purer than that of Moses, we need to be on our guard against forgetting that he is a sent Person. We must acknowledge him as such; the supreme Sent One, out of the infinite, the eternal, the unseen.Y.

Heb 3:6

What we are to Christ.

To us Christ is related as Apostle and High Priest (Heb 3:1). To Christ we are related as the house where he holds the unique position of Son, Heir, Director.

I. WE ARE MORE TO CHRIST THAN EVER HIS BRETHREN COULD BE TO MOSES. Moses had great authority, honorable position, but he was never as a son over his own house. Moses at best was the steward, and even he bad checks which reminded him that he was but the first among servants, not an all-controlling lord. And yet he was a man to be honored. Mark this in the Epistle, that its writer, in exalting Christ, exalted Moses also; whereas the enemies of Christ only exalted Moses, that by the same movement they might correspondingly depreciate Christ. The nation of Israel was as the house where Moses dwelt as appointed responsible director and custodian. A servant certainly, but a servant of a peculiar kind. He is called . Nowhere else in the New Testament is a servant called by this name; it is as if there must be a unique description for a unique relation. If simple servitude had been all needing to be signified, would have done; if simple ministry, would have done. But Moses has a servant-name to himself; as much as to say, “Among all the servants of God there has been none greater than Moses.” The word indicates at one and the same time service and the greatest responsibility that could rest on mere man. Moses was the great steward of God in God’s house for the time being, even the people of Israel. Compare him with the man spoken of as Joseph’s steward (Gen 43:19; Gen 44:4). Consider also the question of Jesus in Luk 12:42 : “Who then is that faithful and wise steward ), whom his lord shall make ruler over his household ()?” “It is required in a steward that he shall be found faithful.“ Thus the nation of Israel was a great deal to Moses, but not so much as we are to Christ. We are for the use of Christ, at his disposal, under his control, in a way far transcending the control which Moses had over Israel. Moses died and Joshua succeeded. Joshua died and others succeeded. But as a Son over his house, over the successive generations of Christians, Jesus is, emphatically, “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

II. THE CONDITIONS WHICH MAKE US ABIDINGLY THE HOUSE OF CHRIST. We are the house of Christ who is the Son of God. It is a great destiny to feel that we are of use and service to him. Bat the use and service depend on our perseverance. Christ asks great, arduous, necessarily painful things from his household. Not that he rejoices in paineverything but that; but to hold a place under him requires faithfulness in extremities. His household may have to resist unto blood, striving against sin. As to the members of Christ’s household, Christ has infused into their hearts an expectation of serving him amid surroundings and conditions far different to those of the present service. And this expectation is one which at times makes them confident and also free of speech in their approaches to their Master. It is an expectation in which they can glory as the world looks curiously on them, because of present things they give up for the sake of the expectation. But here is the peril lest the confidence and the expectation sink so low in the heart as to lose power over the life. Moses was faithful in his house, but the house was not faithful. The privations and delays of the wilderness well-nigh killed the joy of liberty from Egyptian bondage, and the noble aspirations towards the land promised by Jehovah. Jesus will be faithful in the household of God; and some in that household will always be faithful to Jesus, through whatever dubious and protracted experiences. The point is one for the individual. Will he, through impatience and want of the single eye, the straightforward gaze, lose his place and promotion in the household of God?Y.

Heb 3:12

The evil heart of unbelief.

I. THE NEED OF WARNING. The state of things indicated is repudiated by many in whom it obtains. Those in whom unbelief is most deeply seated think themselves real believers in whatever is reasonable and true. Therefore warning is neededaffectionate warning, it will be observed. The readers are again addressed as “brethren.” Also individual examination is suggested. Men have fallen from what seemed the strongest faith into the most shameful apostasies. A brother, sent of God, warns us to be on our guard.

II. THE DEEP–SEATED MISCHIEF. There may be outward discipleship and service, but a heart not trusting in the living God. There may be abundant manifestations of the Divine love and power, but the heart may be so subdued to worldly considerations that nothing shown by God can produce its proper impression. We believe too much in living men, in their power to help or to hinder; we trim everything to catch their favor or keep in their good graces. And meantime the living God is as if he were not. If at any moment we have been in real connection with his infinite grace and power, there is something in our hearts which tends to draw us gradually away. Nothing is more absurd than unbelief in God, and yet nothing is harder than practical faith. And to get rid of unbelief we need to have the heart renewed and inspired. We readily see the need of heart-renewal if it he some other sin that is in questionif it be malicious, or selfish, or sensual feeling that we want to get rid of. And so our prayer should be, “Make us feel that unbelief is sin, moral malady, a something that needs to be cured by the turning of the heart to God.” There is manifestation of truth enough, evidence enough; the lack lies in our disposition.Y.

Heb 3:13

The deceitfulness of sin.

It matters little whether we take the reference here as to the sin of unbelief specially, or to sin in general. All sin is deceiving in its beginnings. The seed hides much which the sower cannot understand until he is compelled to reap the fruit. And his only safety is to trust a timely warning, and have nothing to do with the seed. And though to each of us individually some forms of sin appear not at all deceitful, yet we are deceived by others. Some form of sin is deceitful to every one of us. The great enemy of man considers us according to our individuality. There are temptations for the appetite, temptations for the senses, temptations for the intellect.

I. WE SHOULD REST IN THE CONVICTION THAT SIN IS A DECEITFUL THING. We cannot be too cautious, too observant, in pursuing our path through this complicated world. Agencies are always at work to make the worse appear the better reason. Things visible, whether things attractive or repulsive, press upon our eyes; and concerning the attractive we find ourselves saying, “This is worth making ours even at a great price;’ concerning the repulsive,” This is to be avoided at whatever cost.” The world around us speaks with a voice that discountenances things invisible and Divine. If we begin to act as hearing a voice from heaven, others say they have heard no voice; whereupon we are easily persuaded that no voice really spoke. Sometimes sin dresses itself up in the guise of liberality and charity, and again it is found beneath the appearance of zeal for God and goodness. If there is no danger that we should be tempted into any kind of vicious living, then most of all is the deceitfulness of sin be feared. Before the readers of this Epistle a great historical example was put, drawn from the conduct of their own ancestors. The behavior of the children of Israel in the wilderness is an illustration, on a great scale, of the deceitfulness of sin; especially of the proneness of the heart to kill into unbelief with respect to spiritual things. It might have seemed safe to predict that, after all the great Divine deliverance of which they had been objects, they would have steadily gone on in the way of obedience; whereas only a very short time elapses before they are found believing the wishes of their own hearts rather than the word of God through Moses. “Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.” Those who are fallen today were standing yesterday, and some standing today will be fallen to-morrow. And if we are not among the fallen, it will be because we are giving daily practical heed to this truth concerning the deceitfulness of sin.

II. HOW ARE WE TO GUARD AGAINST THIS DECEITFULNESS? All that the writer says just in this part of the Epistle is negativeat least, it seems negative. But that simply means the iteration and reiteration of the danger of unbelief. No one knows better than the writer that we cannot guard against unbelief in a negative way. The only way of getting better of the deceitfulness of sin is to rise above it, and be so intent on our Savior’s business as to have no time, no inclination, to attend to what sin may have to say.Y.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Heb 3:1. Wherefore, holy brethren, &c. Holy brethren may refer to what he said of those who were sanctified in Christ, ch. Heb 2:11. Partakers of the heavenly calling signifies,”Partakersof the call given us in the gospel to pursue immortality and glory.” See Heb 3:14. The word apostle is, by way of eminence, put for “one sent of God;” and our Saviour has frequently, in St. John’s Gospel, spoken of himself as sent by the Father. St. Paul therefore exhorts the Hebrews to consider Christ, who was infinitely higher than the angels;who was, for our sakes, made in the flesh lower than they for a short time, but has obtained a more excellent name than they: who was sent by God the Father into the world, and so sent, as to taste death. “Consider him in these capacities, and add to them, that he was our High-priest, and entered into the holy of holies for us, removing all obstacles to the eternal happiness of his faithful people, and then judge if he be not superior to Moses. Moses was sent into Egypt, to redeem the children of Israel; Jesus was sent from heaven to redeem mankind: but then he was not only thus the Apostle, but he was likewise the High-Priest of our profession; and in consequence, not only infinitely superior to Moses, but to Aaron too; as will soon appear.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 3:1 . ] refers back to the total characterization of Christ given in chaps. Heb 1:2 . Wherefore, i.e. seeing that it stands in such wise with Christ, His nature and disposition. As regards its contents, is unfolded by the immediately following, inasmuch as by these designations the preceding total-characterization of Christ is recapitulated in its two main features ( vid. infra ). For if the author says: “Therefore regard well Jesus, the !” that is only a Greek form of expression for the thought: “Therefore, because Jesus is the , regard Him well!”

] belongs together. With Michaelis, to separate the two words from each other by a comma, would be permissible only if by the isolation thereof a gradation were obtained. But this is not the case; since then only two relations parallel to each other, namely, on the one side the relation of the readers to the author ( ), and on the other side their relation to the non-Christian world ( ), would be rendered separately prominent.

] designates the readers not as brethren of Christ (so with an unwarranted appeal to Heb 2:11-12 ; Heb 2:17 , Peirce, Michaelis, Carpzov, Pyle; comp. also Delitzsch, according to whom this is at least also to be thought of), nor does it express the brotherly relation in the national sense, i.e. the descent from the Jewish people common to the author and readers (Chr. Fr. Schmid), but has reference to the spiritual, ideal brotherly relationship, into which author and recipients of the letter have been brought towards each other by the common bond of Christianity.

] ye who are partakers of a heavenly calling . This second direct address to which Grotius needlessly supplies “nobiscum” strengthens the former, and the two forms of address explain the ground of the obligation to the , by pointing to the reader’s state of grace. stands actively. It denotes the call or invitation, which God [54] has by Christ given to the readers, to participation in the Messianic kingdom. This calling, however, is termed , either because the blessings, the possession of which it promises, are existent in heaven and of heavenly nature (Grotius, al .), or, what is more probable, because they have come to men from heaven [so Owen], where God their supreme author has His throne, and whence Christ their proclaimer and procurer ( Vermittler ) was sent forth. It is possible, however, that both references are to be combined: “a calling which proceeds from heaven and leads to heaven.” So Bengel, Tholuck, Stuart, Ebrard, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 693; Alford, Maier, Kurtz, and others.

] direct your view to Jesus, sc . in order to cleave firmly to Him; regard well what He is and what you have in Him!

] the Envoy and High Priest of our confession , is comprehended into a unity of idea by the article only once placed (“Him who is and in one person”), in connection with which is then also most naturally referred in equal degree to both substantives. , however, is not to be resolved into (Luther, Cameron, Calov. Wolf, de Wette, Maier, and others; similarly Delitzsch: “who is the subject-matter of our confession;” and Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 427 f.: “who appertains to our confession”), but stands, like , Gal 1:23 , and , Col 1:5 , objectively: of our Christian confession (of our evangelical faith). Comp. Heb 4:14 , Heb 10:23 ; 2Co 9:13 ; 1Ti 6:12-13 . [So Calvin, Piscator, Owen (with hesitation), Stuart.] The opposition is to the pre-Christian or Mosaic confession, without, however, the emphasis, as Kurtz supposes, falling upon , which is forbidden by the position of the words: The deputed One ( sc . of God) for our confession, i.e. sent by God (comp. Gal 4:4 ; Mat 10:40 , al .) in order to bring about our confession or Christian faith. The signification “mediator,” which Tholuck attaches to the word , after the example of Braun and others, appealing in favour thereof to the authority of Rabbinico-talmudic usage, the latter never has. The notion of mediator follows, alike for as also for , only from the context. By , namely, is referred back to the main thought of the last and highest divine revelation (the ), contained in Christ, of which the writer has treated Heb 1:1 to Heb 2:4 ; by , to the main thought of the reconciliation of sinful humanity to God by Christ, then further treated in the second chapter. Aptly, therefore, does Bengel distinguish and as “eum, qui Dei causam apud nos agit” and “qui nostram causam apud Deum agit.”

[54] For God , as everywhere with Paul also, not Christ , as Delitzsch supposes, is thought of as the .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Heb 3:1-6 . Even above Moses is Christ exalted. By so much higher than Moses does He stand, as the son exercising authority over his own house has precedence over the servant of the house. This new dogmatic consideration, to which the discourse now advances, was indeed already contained implicite as the minus , in the preceding argument as the majus ; it must, however, still be separately insisted on, inasmuch as, in addition to the angels as the suprahuman agents ( Vermittler ) in connection with the founding of the Old Covenant, Moses, as the human agent ( Vermittler ) in the founding of the same, could not remain unmentioned. Appropriately to the subject, however, the author treats of this new point of comparison only with brevity, blending the same with the exhortation, derived from that which precedes, to cleave firmly unto the end to Christ and the Christian hope; and then, from Heb 3:7 forward, further developing this exhortation in detail, in the form of a parallel instituted between the people of God of the present time, i.e. the Christians , and the people of God of Moses’ time, in their interest, with even a warning impressiveness.

On Heb 3:1-6 , comp. Carl Wilh. Otto, der Apostel und Hohepriester unsres Bekenntnisses . An Exegetical Study on Heb 3:1-6 , Leipz. 1861, 8vo. [53]

[53] This writer finds (comp. p. 96), by dint of a long extended chain of arbitrary assertions and erroneous presuppositions, the absolutely impossible sense in the words: “(Ver. 1) From this (Heb 2:10-18 ), beloved brethren, who, delivered from death, are presented a sacrifice to God, and have your right of citizenship in heaven, perceive that the Ambassador and High Priest, who in His own person has borne our confession to the heavenly goal, and as mediator continually introduces into heaven, namely Jesus (ver. 2), is one entrusted (an organ of confidence) of Him who made Him (such), i.e. (comp. p. 65) called Him into existence as Jesus, as was also Moses in the house of God, i.e. in the limitation and subordination, as this was presupposed by his position in the house of God. (Ver. 3) For (comp. p. 87) greater glory ( i.e. higher position of power) has been vouchsafed to this man than to Moses, in which measure, as the house ( sc . of God), so has He who has fitted it up, greater honour ( sic! ). (Ver. 4) For every house is fitted up by some one (but to correspond to all its requirements, no one is able); He, however, who has fitted it up with all things ( sc . as Jesus the house of God, for time and eternity) is omnipotent, is of divine nature. (Ver. 5) And Moses, indeed, was trustworthy in all his house, as a servant, to testify what was to be revealed (ver. 6); Jesus, however, as the Christ (comp. p. 90), trustworthy as Son ( sc . of God) over His ( sc . God’s) house. Whose ( sc . God’s) house we are and remain, if at any rate we retain the joyfulness and boasting of hope to the end.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

SECOND SECTION
SUPERIORITY OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE DIVINELY-SENT SERVANTS AND LEADERS OF ISRAEL, MOSES AND JOSHUA
______
I
The exhortation to fidelity toward Christ, the faithful Messenger of God, rests on the preminence of Christ, as Son ruling over the house, above Moses, the faithful servant in the house

Heb 3:1-6

1Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the [a] heavenly calling, consider [, mark with attention, observe attentively] the Apostle and High Priest of our profession [, confession], Christ Jesus1 [om. Christ]; 2Who was faithful to him 3 that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all2 his house. For this man [this personage, he] was [has been] counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch [by as much] as he who hath builded [established, ] the house hath more honor than the house. 4For every house is builded [established] by some man [one]; but he that built [established] all things3 is God. 5And Moses verily [Moses indeed] was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after [to the things hereafter to be spoken, ]; 6But Christ as a Son [was] over his own [his, ] house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence [boldness, ] and the rejoicing [glorying, ] of the [our] hope firm unto the end.4

[Heb 3:1., whence, wherefore, logical, as nearly, or quite always in this Epistle.: emphatic; mark with attention, contemplate earnestly. Moll: Richtet euren Sinn anf. , of lingering, penetrating regard, a favorite word of Luke. (Del.), commissioned one, then Apostle. Moll and Del.: Gottesbote; De Wette: der Gesandte; used of Christ as Gods great commissioned one of the New Testament, as Moses was of the Old. Moses was the and Aaron the of the Old Covenant; Christ combines in himself both characters in the New.

Heb 3:2. , being faithful. Eng. ver. renders was faithful; so De Wette; Moll, following Bleek, renders is, but justly censures Bleek for pressing the force of the present . The truth is is not necessarily present at all, except to the time that is expressed by the finite verb, or that is present to the mind of the writer. Here I take it to be clearly that of Christs residence on earth, and hence follow Eng. ver. and De W., in supplying was rather than Moll and Del. in rendering is. But see exposition.

Heb 3:3.This man, Eng. ver., is often difficult to render into Eng. This one is inelegant English; This man, directs an undue amount of attention to the word man (for here the reference is almost equally to Christs sojourn as man on earth, and his present heavenly exaltation): this personage, is too formal; he is not sufficiently emphatic. The German dieser is unexceptionable. Has been counted or deemed worthy; Perf., much better than Auth. ver. was counted worthy, because the reference is not merely to that reward of glorification which Jesus once received, but which he still retains.

Heb 3:4.Founded, , furnish out, prepare, equip; not , to build, as also the noun is not , a house proper, but , an estate, a domestic establishment, a household.

Heb 3:5.And Moses indeed, or while Moses. Eng. ver. renders here, as often elsewhere, verily; but always unfortunately.

Heb 3:6. , etc. The ellipsis may be supplied so as to read, But Christ, as a Son, was faithful over His house, or was faithful, as a Son, over His house; or, as a Son was over His house, which construction I adopt with Moll and Del. (except that they put is for was, which, perhaps, is admissible, the discussion sliding forward into the present) as the simplest, the idea of fidelity retreating, and that of authority becoming prominent. Both the best texts and the connection demand His (viz., Gods ) not his own ().K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb 3:1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.The , wherefore, links the exhortation of this verse with the preceding characterization of Jesus. The same holds also of the designation of the readers (holy brethren) who, however, are not here addressed as brethren of Christ (Michael., Carpz., etc.), nor as Jewish compatriots of the writer (Chr. Fr. Schmidt); but as consecrated members of the Christian brotherhood, who have become partakers of a call to the kingdom of God, which has come from heaven (,= , Php 3:14, comp. Heb 12:25), and has proved itself effectual, i.e., has secured to them an actual participation in heavenly treasures and blessings (Col 1:5)designations from which the following exhortation receives, alike in form and substance, both confirmation and emphasis. The combination holy brethren is not found elsewhere (1Th 5:27, the reading is doubtful), but is here a most appropriate summary of the ideas developed from Heb 2:11. The other epithets point still further backto Heb 2:1, and even Heb 1:1. [, as usual also with Paul, marks of course not the degree of individual holiness, but the collective, and, so to speak, official, or rather ideal character of Christians. As a community in their relation to Christ, who alone can procure sanctification, they are characteristically .K.].

Consider attentively the apostle and high-priest of our confession. denotes the turning of the to an object, not, however, for the sake of theoretical recognition, but for the practical weighing of that which we have in Himi.e., for moral and spiritual heeding. The two epithets, descriptive of Jesus, bring most impressively before the readers the substance of the preceding statements. Jesus is the highest organ of the revelation of God to man, and at the same time the true and perfect Mediator of redemption. Precisely for this reason He is not like Moses and Joshua, a mere lawgiver and leader, but with all His resemblance to these servants of God, is yet exalted infinitely above them. To avoid all misunderstanding, however, He is not called , but , which word corresponds as well with the Heb. maleach, as with His essential relations, Gal 4:4; Joh 3:34; Joh 5:36; Joh 6:29; Joh 10:36; Joh 20:21. Thol. and Biesenthal (after Braun, Deyling, Schttg.) are inclined to refer the term to Rabbinical usage, in which = might bear the sense of Mediator. But according to Del. the priest has this name only precisely in his quality of delegate partly of God, partly of the congregation. Otto (The Apostle and High Priest of our confession, 1861) assumes a reference to Numbers 13, and sums up the result of his investigation in the following paraphrase: Therefore, ye brethren who have been rescued from the world, and been endowed with the prerogative of a heavenly home and citizenship, observe that the Apostle and High-priest of our confession, i.e., He who first trod the sacred land of our inheritance with the confession, Jehovah delivers, and now stands at our head as leader, but who at the same time is the high-priest of our confession, i.e., who brings before God our confession, Jehovah delivers, in that He secures by His mediation our entrance into the heavenly home,in fine that the Apostle and High priest of our confession, Jesus (as it were, our Joshua) is to Him who has constituted Him. We have here an interpolation of references and allusions which, indeed, a subtle ingenuity might easily enough light upon, but which are wholly alien to the context. Equally without foundation is also the remark of Kluge (p. 19): From His , act of calling, the Son receives the name of , from His , sanctifying, the name of . In His two-fold character Jesus is immediately described as belonging specifically to our, i.e., the Christian confession, in order that the readers may direct their mind to Him, and consider what they have in Him. The rendering of the Itala: Constitutionis nostr, reminding us perhaps of the Messenger of the Covenant (Mal 3:1), is inadmissible, since in the New Testament signifies only confession, acknowledgment, never contract or covenant, and this along with the subject (De W.) and the object (Bl., Ln.) of the confession, 2Co 9:13; 1Ti 6:12-13. The Gen. marks possession, belonging to. [The high-priest who belongs to our confession: the high-priest whom we confess, acknowledge, i.e., (as Beng.) agree with; God , man .]

Heb 3:2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.According to Otto does not designate a moral quality, but position next the heart of a higher personage (p. 47), and should for this reason be taken in the sense of trusted, confidential, organ of trust. This by no means harmonizes with Heb 2:17, where assuredly a moral quality is indicated for the display of which in His high-priestly calling the Son of God became incarnate. But the faithfulness of Jesus creates an obligation of like faithfulness in His church. The mention of the former lays a foundation for demanding the latter; and this all the more in that the two historical and visible founders of the old and of the new covenant, in their exhibition of this fidelity in their respective positions, have left a pattern to their disciples, that, viz., of fidelity toward Him to whom they owed their respective historical positions. In this respect there is a close analogy between Jesus and Moses, which adds weight to the writers exhortation. The object of , attentively observe, is not the fact that Jesus is a (Otto), but the person of Jesus, already signalized as entirely peculiar, and whose permanently abiding quality the renders prominent. Bleek, after Seb. Schmidt, erroneously presses the present, as if indicating that the reference is to the exalted Messiah. It is also an error (with Calv., Bl., Ebr.) to place a comma after Moses; for the following words are cited from Num 12:7, and apply properly only to Moses. For in respect of Jesus we are immediately reminded of His prerogative of being over the house. [I doubt if this is any adequate reason against inserting the comma with Calv., Bl., and Ebr. Because although Christ was a Son over the house, He was also a servant in the house, and the point of resemblance is that which is first adverted to: the distinction comes out later. In His double character Christ could be at once compared and contrasted with Moses. Like him and more fully than he, He proved a faithful servant in Gods house, but unlike him, He was also a Son over it. In the exceedingly elliptical language of the author some elements of the parallel are taken for granted, and hence its difficulty. Still I incline on the whole, though with hesitation, to obliterate the comma after Moses.K.]5

The , make, constitute, appoint, denotes the placing or putting forward of Christ on the theatre of history (De W., Del., Thol.). Bleek, Lnemann, and Alford, with Ital., Ambros., Primas., D. Schultz, adhere to the proper signification of the word, and refer the either to the incarnation of the Son, or to His eternal generation. [Alford: The word, thus taken, however, is, of course, to be understood of that constitution of our Lord as Apostle and High-priest, in which He, being human, was made by the Father]. They are right, in so far as they take the word absolutely; for it is quite unnecessary to supply a second accusative (as is done by the majority following Chrys.), as if the construction were who made Him, scil., Apostle or high-priest. But on the other hand, to refer the word to the eternal generationconsidering that is used Heb 1:1 for actual creation, would give the passage a strong tincture of Arianism, and resolve Christ into a creature (), in decided contradiction to Heb 1:3. And again, to refer the word to the incarnationthe commencement of the temporal and earthly life of Jesusthough done by the orthodox Fathers, is scarcely admissible; for this term would hardly have been employed to designate the assumption of human nature by the Logos in the bosom of the virgin, or the overshadowing influence of the Holy Spirit and of the power of the Highest (Luk 1:35). The author was, perhaps, led to the term by 1Sa 12:6 [ . Heb. ]. Bl. The house designates the family of God, or the Theocratic nation (Heb 10:21), in which Moses had a position in which he could show fidelity. The reference of to Moses (Oec. and alt., with whom I formerly agreed) is inadmissible, since the words refer to Num 1:2; Num 1:7 : the reference to Christ (Bl., Riehm) would be anticipating.

Heb 3:3. For of greater glory than Moses has he been deemed worthy by how much, etc.The passage is not explaining or analyzing Heb 3:2 (De W.), but enforcing the exhortation . It expresses directly the elevation of Jesus above Moses, which appears all the more worthy of regard as it comes out in connection with the recognition of a like fidelity on the part of both. The relation between them is then illustrated in the relation which always exists between a house and its founder. . is not barely building, but fitting out a house with furniture and servants. But from this it does not follow that we are to construct with , honor from the house (Wolf, Michael., Steng., etc.). The Gen. depends rather on . The respect and admiration rendered to a house redound in a very high degree to him who has reared and established it. In the same relation stands the glory () of Christ to that of Moses. There is here no comparison drawn between the splendor of the countenance of Moses when, having spoken with Jehovah on the mount, he was about to utter His word to Israel, and the radiance which involved the whole person of Jesus on the mount of transfiguration (Hofm., Weissag., II. 188). The reference is to the glory of their respective callings and positions. Entirely untenable is the assertion of Del., that by understanding Christ to be here referred to as the founder, we involve in confusion the entire course of argumentation. Such a view by no means necessitates the absurd conclusion that in that case Moses must be the house. For the thought may perfectly well be, that Moses, as servant, is only a member or a part of the house of which Christ is the founder. We can only say that the language does not speak directly and in terms of Christ, but has the form of a universal statement, and that there appears as yet no occasion to pass beyond the comparison immediately expressed in the text between the relation of Jesus to Moses and the relation of a founder to a house. But we involuntarily turn our thoughts upon Jesus, and are justified in applying the passage to Him, as the founder of that house of God which we Christians constitute.

Heb 3:4. For every house is established by some one: but he who established all things is God.This is also a general statement of unquestionable correctness, forming a link between the premise and the conclusion, but neither the conclusion itself, nor a remark merely incidental and parenthetical. If Christ is founder of the true Theocracy, it follows not from this that He has reared this house alongside of that which was established through the instrumentality of Moses. The general statement that God is the universal founder and establisher, who has placed Jesus, as He formerly did Moses, in His historical position [as founder of His New Testament house], would rather and simply suggest that the Theocracy founded by Jesus is in correspondence with the will of God. [And also, perhaps, it incidentally illustrates the way in which both Moses and Jesus could be faithfulthe ground on which fidelity could be predicated of them, viz., that while each of these was a founder in his respective sphere, yet each worked under God as supreme founder, and to whom, therefore, both stood responsible.K.].

Many older expositors have erroneously regarded (with Theodoret) as predicate, and found in it a proof passage for the divinity of Jesus, whom they assumed to be the subject. So also Otto, who, by , Heb 3:3, understands specially the house of God, and thus paraphrases the following (p. 87 and 96): For every house is founded by some one (but to meet and supply all its needs is in the power of none). He who has furnished the house with every thing (as Jesus, for example, has supplied it with all that was needful for time and eternity),such an one is all-powerful,such an one must be Divine (). But the absence of the article involves no necessity of assuming this construction, for here has nearly the force of a proper name; and the connection is opposed to it. [Alford: Apart from the extreme harshness and forcing of the construction to bring out this meaning, the sentiment itself is entirely irrelevant here. If the writer was proving Christ to be greater than Moses, inasmuch as He is God, the founder of all things, then clearly the mere assertion of this fact would have sufficed for the proof, without entering on any other consideration; nay, after such an assertion, all minor considerations would have been not only superfluous, but preposterous. He does, however, after this, distinctly go into the consideration of Christ being faithful, not as a servant, but as a Son, so that he cannot be here speaking of his Deity as a ground of superiority].

designates not the house in all its parts, the whole house, but according to the usage of our Epistle Heb 5:1; Heb 5:13; Heb 8:3 [and correct classical usage], every house. They who refer the previous clause ( ) directly to Jesus, interpolate the idea that the question is here answered how fidelity can be predicated of Jesus, at the same time that He is asserted to be the founder of the Theocracy. The solution then is this: The Theocracy stands in the same category with every household, in that it must have a [subordinate] founder; while it yet remains true that God is the causa prima of each and all (Thol., Ebr., etc.) But the question itself, raising such a query, and demanding a solution, is entirely gratuitous: inasmuch as the Messiah has been from the outset designated as Son, and in the most definite manner declared to be the Mediator of Revelation and Redemption, as well as Mediator of the creation and government of the world. In these relations then the matter of His fidelity has of course already come up and been disposed of. This point is no longer under discussion; the topic now under consideration is the relation of him who has founded a house to the house. And as God is the supreme and universal founder, the Theocracy, as well in its Christian as in its Mosaic form, must be referred back to Him. And in perfect harmony with this view is the fact that a little before God is styled in reference to the Messiah , and that it is only by this view that the following verse (Heb 3:5) is brought into logical connection with Heb 3:3, as legitimately authorizing its assertion of the superior glory () of Christ. [That is: Heb 3:3, Christ, the founder of the New Testament house, is declared to have been deemed worthy of higher glory than Moses, by all the difference between the founder of the house and the house itself. Then Heb 3:4 reminds us that the New Testament house, as well as the Old Testament Mosaic house, was also founded under the ultimate and supreme direction of God, whence Moses and Christ, both in their respective positions, sustained direct relations to God, each having been placed, constituted, viz. , by God in his position. Consequently we are prepared at Heb 3:5, to see the different relation which these two personages sustained to the house, on the one hand, and to God as the common founder, on the other; Moses being a servant, and Christ a Son; Moses being in the house and a part of it, and Christ over it. Yet I cannot see, after all, any very essential difference between the authors view of the force of , and that of Ebrard and Tholuck, which he rejects. Ebrard makes it declare God the supreme founder, and thus answer the implied question, how Christ as founder could have fidelity predicated of Him. Moll says: that as God is the universal founder, therefore, the Theocracy, in its Christian as well as in its Mosaic form, must be referred back to Him. This comes to near the same thing as the other. Both make the passage put God as universal and supreme founder into His true relation to both Moses and Jesus in their respective spheres. But with respect to the statement of Moll, regarding the Mediatorship of the Son, he seems to me to put the Sons mediatorship in the creation and government of the world, as eternal Logos, one and equal with the Father, too nearly on a level with His Mediatorship in His humbled and servile character as Redeemer. In the latter the question of His fidelity is indeed often raised, and is absolutely vital: in the former relation, I do not remember where the term is applied to Him, and I scarcely see how it could be without derogating from His divine dignity.K]. Riehms opinion, (Lehrbegriff, I. 310) that Christ is designated as the founder of the Old Testament kingdom of God, and that Moses has held his position in it as assigned by Christ, cannot be substantiated by an appeal to the doctrine of our Epistle, that the Son is the Mediator of every form of divine agency that is directed to the world. It is here decidedly to be rejected, because the subject of discourse is here specially Jesus, the Messiah, as actually and historically manifested.

[Molls exposition of this difficult and vexed passage seems to labor under obscurity from his having failed to do justice to the elliptical character of the passage. The first thing, it seems to me, to be settled, is whether Moses and Christ are conceived by the author, as both in one house of God, or as in two, i.e., each in that respectively to which God had assigned him. This Alford, following Delitzsch, denies, maintaining that both are in one house of God, Moses as servant, and Christ as Son, and that the force and strictness of the comparison requires this. It seems to me that this confounding of the houses in which Moses and Christ were, raises at once an inexplicable difficulty. The question arises, How could Moses be in a house which was not reared or founded until by Christ, many centuries after? Or, how could Jesus found or rear a house in which Moses had officiated as servant, many centuries before? For that Christ founded or reared the New Testament house of God, is certain, and Christ, on the other hand, did not rear the Old Testament house of God; for Christ, the God-man, the Mediator, Jesus, had not then an existence. And to bring in here the Logos, the Eternal Son, as founding the Old Testament economy, is entirely out of the question; for with Him as such, the passage has nothing to do. The comparison is between Moses and Jesus, and by the whole tenor and sentiment of the Epistle, it is between Moses, as the servant of God in founding the Old Testament or Jewish economy, in rearing the house of God in its Old Testament form, and Jesus, in founding the New Testament economyin rearing the house of God in its New Testament form. The comparison is between the two historical characters in the work which each respectively had performed. And it matters not that the two housesthe house of Moses and the house of Jesusare in their deepest significance one houseas they certainly areboth Gods houseyet for the purposes, and in the representation of the author, they are different housesthe one an earthly, transitory, typical house, the other a heavenly, spiritual, imperishable house. In these two houses, respectively stand Moses and Jesus; both raised up of God, made, constituted (see applied to Moses, 1Sa 12:6, and to Jesus, Heb 3:2, I have little doubt the latter suggested by the former)each for his special work. Each was a founder, an institutor, inaugurator,Moses of the Old Testament economy, Jesus of the New Testament economy. Each had the high honor of being appointed by God as the introducer and inaugurator of His respective system. But each was not only a founder, he was also a servant: Moses a servant (, often so called in the Sept.); Jesus still more manifestly and deeply a servant (, ); yet both faithful in both relations. Moses was faithful as a founder under God, of the old economy, and as a servant in it; Christ was faithful as a founder, under God, of the new economy, and as a servant in it. Thus far the resemblance; now the contrast. Moses, while apparently a founder of the old economy, a builder of the Old Testament house, was in reality only a servant in it; his highest function was purely ministerial. Christ, while apparently, and indeed really a servant in the New Testament house, yet in reality was a Son over it; His character of servant was but secondary and temporary; His highest and trne nature was that of Son. Thus Moses, the apparent builder of the Old Testament house, yet in reality and ultimately sinks to the level of the house, and becomes a part of it. Jesus, the builder of the New Testament house, and also seemingly an humble servant in it, yet ultimately rises completely above this servile condition, and by virtue of His essential equality and identity with God, the Supreme Founder of all things, becomes precisely as much superior to Moses as the founder of the house which He truly and absolutely was, is to the house itself, to which Moses only belonged as a part. The paradox, it is perceived, is a necessary one. It grows out of the double nature of the great Head of the New Testament Church. Lower than the angels, He yet rises in position, as He was in essential nature, infinitely above them. Appearing lower than Mosesas much lower as a , slave, is lower than a , voluntary attendant, He yet rises transcendently and infinitely above him, by virtue of that nature which He shared in common with the eternal Father. I should, therefore, paraphrase the exceedingly elliptical passage somewhat as follows, reminding the reader that the facts regarding the positions both of Moses and of Christand certainly of the formerwere so well-known, that the author, in his comparison, could safely presuppose them: ConsiderJesus, who was faithful in the New Testament house of God to Him who constituted Him as builder and servant, as also Moses was faithful in all Gods Old Testament house to Him who constituted him builder and servant in it. For Jesus has been deemed worthy of, and been advanced to, higher glory than Moses, by how much the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house (and of course, therefore, the Old and the New Testament houses) must be founded immediately and secondarily by some one, as was the former by Moses, and the latter by Jesus; but He who ultimately and absolutely founded all things, and therefore was ultimate and supreme founder of these, was God. And while Moses, though apparent and formal founder of the Old Testament house, was in reality in his highest nature, but in it, and strictly but a part of it, Jesus, the founder of the New Testament house, though apparently a servant in it, was, in reality, and in His highest nature, as Son, equal with and substantially identical with the absolute and Supreme Founder Himself.This paraphrase introduces no elements into the comparison which are not presupposed in it, and which do not lie on the very face of the historical facts. It simply says thus: Moses and Jesus, each a founder of and a servant in the Old and the New Testament Theocracy respectively; each appointed of God and each faithful; but Moses, after all, only faithful as a servant, who was thus but part of the house; but Christ faithful as a Son, who was, therefore, in spite of His servile appearance, equal with the Supreme Founder Himself.

The only point on which there can be doubt, is as to the dual nature of the house of God; but I confess I do not see how there can be legitimate doubt on this point. Moll himself, who with most, denies this duality, is yet obliged to speak of the house of God in its Old and its New Testament form, and I suppose he could hardly deny that Moses was founder or rearer of the house in its Old Testament form, as was Jesus of the house in its New Testament form. But this comes very nearly to the same thing as affirming two houses. None can doubt that ultimately, and in their deepest meaning, they were indeed identical; i.e., both were not only from one Supreme Founder, but stood in close connection with the same great economy of salvation. But formally, and historically, and according to the whole scope and treatment of our author, they were different; as different as the Mosaic Tabernacle in which Aaron ministered, and the heavenly Tabernacle in which Christ ministered; as different as were the many animal sacrifices of the one, from the single spiritual and life-giving offering of the other. The Old Testament house of God which Moses reared, but in which he was but servant, was earthly, material, typical and transitory; the New Testament house of God which Jesus reared, apparently a servant, but in reality a Son and Lord, is heavenly, spiritual, archetypal and eternal.K.].

Heb 3:5. And while Moses indeed is faithful, etc.Moses, as well as Christ, has been raised up, set, forth by God, and designated in his fidelity, not merely for an individual service, or for a special department of action in the administration of Gods house, and his agency and fidelity stand in relation to the entire Theocracy. But (as shown by the , Moses indeed, within this similar relation, which is common to Moses and Christ, we are to recognize a profound and fundamental difference in the two persons. Moses has officiated as a servant, by no means indeed as a slave (), or as a domestic servant, or menial, (), but (Wis 10:16) as a , a word always implying voluntary subordination, and willing and honorable service. But at the same time all this has been but typical and preparatory. The are not the revelations which Moses was hereafter himself to receive, thus requiring the translation: in order to render testimony to that which was then to be spoken. Bleek, De W., Thol., Ln., so understanding the words, refer them specially to the law; Riehm reminds us of the expression, Num 12:8, . These words, it is true, indicated the definite point in the life of Moses in which to him himself future revelations were promised. But the question is here no longer of the resemblance between Jesus and Moses, in fidelity to their respective vocations, but of the elevation of Christ above Moses, which, in fact, receives attestation even from the fidelity of Moses, who scrupulously held himself entirely within his prescribed sphere. The term refers therefore to those revelations to whose necessity the very ministry of Moses renders in all respects its testimony; and these, too, are not the revelations of later prophecy, nor specially, again, the declarations contained in our Epistle. They are rather those which have been disclosed in full perfection in the Son, John 5:49 (Erasm., Calv., Ebr., Hofm., Del., etc.). Precisely for this reason the name now employed is not , but .

Heb 3:6. Yet Christ as a Son over his house, whose house are we.The reading, , instead of , in Heb 3:6, is critically unsustained, and the article is wanting before , as frequently before , , and similar familiar terms. The house is still the Theocracy in which Moses served, but at the head of which stands Christ, who, as Son of Him who appointed Him, and erected the house, receives a position of authority and preminence, and inasmuch as He, as Son of God, is not merely Lord and Heir of all possessions, but the essential agent in originating and procuring them, has a corresponding glory. These declarations, with which the Epistle opens, could not possibly remain unregarded by the readers. But with them the representation here given stands in the most perfect harmony, and emphatically precedes, because, while even a servant of higher grade might be entrusted with the management of a household, yet this would leave the specific distinction between Christ and Moses entirely unexpressed. For this reason we are neither to refer , Heb 3:5, to God, and , Heb 3:6, to Christ (cum., Bl., De W., etc.), as if designing to place in contrast the fact that Moses has his special position in an alien house, but Christ in His own; nor are these genitives to be regarded as genitives of reference=in his, i.e., in the house assigned to him (Ebr., who speaks confusedly of two houses); but they both refer grammatically to God (Chrys., Theod., Calv., Lun., Del., etc.), as does also the relative , although referring as matter of fact to the Christian dispensation; for this is quite frequently called the house of God, Heb 10:21; 1Co 3:9; 1Co 3:16; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:22; 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 4:17; 1Pe 2:5; but never the house of Christ. We give most emphasis to the contrast by simply supplying with (Erasm., Grot., Del., etc.), while the supplying of is yet undoubtedly admissible, Heb 10:21; Mat 25:21 (Bez., Grot., Thol., etc.); not, however, twice (Bl., De W., Bisp.)=Christ (is faithful) as a Son over his house (is faithful). The cannot here signify quemadmodum, but simply ut.

Provided that we hold fast the confidence and the glorying of our hope, etc.Christianity, as such, bears the above assigned character of the house of God; hence exclusion from the temple need occasion no anxiety to the Church. But whether, as a Church, we preserve this character (not whether we are permitted personally to apply to ourselves this designation, or to regard ourselves as this house), depends on the fulfilment of the requisite condition. The denotes here, as Heb 4:16; Heb 10:19; Heb 10:35; not bold confession (Grot., etc.), but resolute confidence, and triumphant joyfulness of faith, corresponding to the mentioned Heb 6:11, which gives to itself a corresponding expression, even in the most unfavorable circumstances. This expression the , Heb 10:23, is here called , which denotes the result of the act of glorying (), not glorying itself (Bl., etc.), and not the mere object of glorying (Ln.). The denotes, in a specifically Christian sense, the hope of the perfect consummation of the Kingdom of God, and of participation therein. For this reason refers not to the death of the individual (Schlicht., Grot., Kuin.), but to the end of the present order of things.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The connection of Christians among one another has its peculiar character, as that of a holy association, in the fact that it, as a fellowship of the children of God, who are called to the Kingdom of Heaven, received its beginning, its progress, and perfection, alone through its living connection with the historical God-Man. It is hence charged with the duty, not merely of recognizing this relation, but also of expressing it in confession and in action, and hence, in imitation of, and likeness to Christ, of appropriating to itself His fidelity, as a principle which lies at the very basis of perfection in life.

2. In their fidelity, in their respective vocations, towards God who has given to His messengers their respective historical position, appears a striking parallel between Jesus and Moses, inasmuch as the vocation of both has special reference to the establishment of the kingdom of God among men. It is by this that Moses takes precedence above all the prophets and messengers of God in the Old Covenant. But the infinite elevation of Jesus Christ is not, in this respect, in the slightest degree disparaged; but within the limits of the parallel stands forth sharply and clearly. Moses was neither priest nor king, but within the Theocracy, to whose establishment his ministry and fidelity had reference, was a servant, and so served that the true theocracy was designated by Himself as still in the future. Christ, on the contrary, is a High-Priest and for this reason, inasmuch as redemption was accomplished through His sacrifice of Himself, He announces, at the same time, a present salvation; and again, because He is Son He appears, indeed, as a messenger of God, but is, at the same time, ruler over the kingdom of God, and not one of its servants and citizens.

3. The confession of Christians has, as its specific subject, the historical God-man, and Him, as one who in His essential agency appears as, at one and the same time, the author and the herald of salvation. This confession is the original, universal, and comprehensive confession of the primitive church. It is the fundamental, Apostolical, Scriptural testimony, which, as such, is not merely to regulate subsequent developments, but also, as an expression of the living faith of the Church, has, to direct individual souls in their impulses of thought, feeling, and will, toward the person of that Saviour, who, as Son of God, possesses an incomparable elevation, an everlasting ministry, and a Divine ubiquity.

4. The actual earthly ministry of Jesus, with its beginning in time, within local relations, and under given conditions, by no means reduces Him as a historical personage, to the level of a creature. Nor is this result produced by the fact that the life of the God-man has an actual historical commencement. For although the commencement of the life, and the ministry of Jesus may, and must, on the one hand, be regarded as determined, and at a definite point of time, originated by the will and power of God, yet, on the other, we must maintain with equal emphasis the self-determining purpose and act of the Son of God by which, in time as well as in eternity, He kept Himself in undisturbed harmony with the will of His Father. For the Holy Scripture says no less that He cameMat 9:13; Mat 18:11; Joh 16:28; Joh 18:37, than that He was sent, Mat 10:40; Joh 20:21, and lays no less emphasis upon His offering Himself in sacrifice (Joh 10:17-18; Eph 5:2; Heb 7:27), than upon His being delivered up for the expiation of the sins of the world (Rom 8:32; Joh 3:16; 1Jn 4:10). Neither again has the man Jesus at any time received or acquired the Divine nature; nor has the prexistent Son of God so emptied Himself in His incarnation, that a complete destitution of the essence of the Logos, even to the extent of an unconsciousness of the commencement of life, existed in the human embryo. But the uncreated Son of God received, at the incarnation, human nature into the personal unity of an actual theanthropic consciousness and life. If the carrying out of the doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum, led in fact to that conception of the which we have just denied, which Gess. (The Doctrine of the Person of Christ, Basle, 1856) has most unqualifiedly developed, it were then high time to surrender this form of our doctrine for the sake of preserving its real substance. The inconsequence of the earlier Lutheran theologians, who denied the applicability of the intrinsically possible fourth kind of the communicatio idiomatum argues a higher mode of thinking, and is substantially more correct than the formal consistency of many recent divines; but still shows the necessity of a reconstruction of this doctrinal formula which, in the form it has hitherto held, is untenable.

5. In that the same God who brought forward Moses upon the stage of history, in like manner brought forward Jesus, any internal contradiction between the Mosaic and the Christian Theocracy is out of the question; while at the same time the fidelity of these two persons who are brought into comparisona fidelity having reference to the theocracy in its collective character as a house of Godfurnishes a pledge that in both cases the founding and arrangement of the house in question has been made in entire accordance with the Divine will. But the diversity of the two persons introduces a corresponding diversity of the Mosaic and the Christian Theocracy. And equally also from the diversity of the economies, which, as a matter of fact, comes first under our eyes, we may reason back to the diversity of the persons. And this diversity is not barely that relative diversity expressing itself in a merely negative way, which the synagogal Midrash expresses in the words (Jalkut on Isa 52:13): the servant of Jehovah, the King Messiah, will be more venerable than Abraham, more exalted than Moses, higher than the angels of the service; but it is the positive and absolute distinction between preparation and fulfilment on the one hand, and between a creaturely servant, and a son and lord equal with God, upon the other.

6. Moses prophesied, not only by his vocation, and his fidelity in that vocation, but also by his testimony (Joh 5:47) to the Son, the Apostle of the final salvation. None the less did the Old Testament house of God, in which Moses had the employment of a servant, viz., the Old Testament Church, which had, as its central point, the tabernacle of testimony (Act 7:44; Rev 15:5), with its typical furniture and administration, prophesy of the New Testament house of God, over which Christ is placed as Son, viz., the New Testament Church which has its central point in Christ, in whom God appeared incarnate, and in whom as antitype that tabernacling () of God among men which was prefigured in the Old Testament tabernacle (), has thus been realized. Del.

7. Christ is not, indeed, ashamed to call us His brethren; and He has in reality become truly man, and by circumcision has subjected Himself to the Jewish law (Gal 4:4), and become incorporated with the Israelite people of God. But in respect to the New Testament people of God, He is not a member, but Head and Lord. He is, indeed, the first-born among many brethren (Rom 8:29); and, by that completed and perfected life on which our Epistle lays special stress, holds a relationship to men who, by regeneration, become children of God, and becomes a type and pattern to all who are perfected through Him. But the expression first-born points to His relation to those who, after the resurrection, are perfected in the Messianic kingdom (Heb 1:5; Col 1:18; Rev 1:5). In His essential being, He is chief of the creation (Rev 3:14), and (Col 1:15). The attributes which are ascribed to the Son in the opening of our Epistle, forbid our assigning to this term, in the present section, any other signification than that He who, as Son of the Universal Founder, is elevated over the house of God, is essentially equal to Him, so that an indirect proof of the deity of Jesus Christ may be drawn from this passage.

8. While the mention of the fidelity of Jesus reminds us, indeed, of His moral perfection, and the comparison of His vocation with that of Moses, reminds us of His agency in establishing a new relation of man to God, in a new covenant and kingdom; while the mention, at the same time, of the filial nature and imperial dignity of Jesus Christ rises above and beyond the sphere of mere morality and natural religion; and the whole tenor of Scripture forbids our interpreting the language used in such a way as to favor the subordinatian and Arian heresy,so, on the other hand, the declaration that God made Him, and has founded all things, precludes the interpretation which merges the Father in the Son, and yet lends no countenance to Monarchianism or Unitarianism.

9. Calling () denotes not merely an invitation into the kingdom of God by means of preaching. To this conception of a called one (), as occurring in the parables of Jesus (Mat 20:16; Mat 22:14), and there without doctrinal import, but simply standing in inseparable connection with the depicting of well-known usages and customs, corresponds in our Epistle, the term , Heb 4:2, or (Heb 4:6). The , on the contrary, is, precisely as with Paul, one in whom the gracious call has been made effectual. He is one destined for the Messianic salvation (Heb 1:14), for the eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15), which is the substance of the , Heb 6:17, has His citizenship in heaven, Heb 12:23, and has been given by the Father to the Son, Heb 2:13, and by a Divine act, in which the eternal purpose of grace realizes itself in time in the case of individuals, has become, by means of the preached Word, an actual member of the Church which is destined to eternal salvation. But since the Word of God works, not magically, but spiritually, and, as a condition of its saving efficacy, requires repentance and faith (as unfolded in the passage immediately following), steadfastness in a gracious state and the attainment of perfection, are secured by our imitation of the fidelity of Jesus Christ.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The duty of fidelity 1. in its ground and reason in our relation to God; 2. in its extent in the calling assigned to us; 3. in its patterns in the servant and in the Son of God; 4. in its blessings, in securing to us the joys of salvation; 5. in its cultivation within and by means of the Church.Moses and Christ 1. in their resemblance, a. as sent of God; b. of unimpeached fidelity; c. in the aggregate nature of their vocation, as having reference to the establishment of the kingdom of God; 2. in their diversity, a. in position and office; b. in their nature and history; c. in their influence and the honor conferred upon them.We are the house of God; 1. in what sense? 2. under what conditions? 3. with what obligations?What in the confession of our faith have we principally to regard? That it be 1. true in its substance; 2. clear in its expression; 3. sure in its living power; 4. correct in its grounds; 5. adapted to its ultimate end.If the hope of our calling is to be fulfilled in us, then 1. our calling must become effectual in us, a. in its heavenly character, b. under a gracious Divine influence, c. within the sphere of the Christian brotherhood; and 2. our hope must express, a. in its confidence, faith, b. in its glorying, a living power, c. in its steadfastness, the fidelity of the servants and children of God.Even those who are placed highest among us should not cease to be 1. servants of the true God; 2. members of the house of God; 3. imitators of the Son of God.Also the humblest among us must not forget 1. that God has founded and established all things, and 2. that they are partakers of a heavenly calling.The beginning in Christianity is harder than the beginning in any earthly work; yet the beginning in Christianity is easier than steadfast perseverance to the end.Complain not of God if thou hast no hope of salvation, but murmur 1. against thine unbelief in the heavenly calling: 2. against thine unfaithfulness in the service committed to thee; 3. against thy negligence in using the gracious means of salvation.The blessings of Christian church-fellowship and life, correspond in the Divine arrangements 1. to the tasks which we have to fulfil; 2. to the dangers which threaten us; 3. to our essential needs.The confession, whose obligation rests upon us, urges us 1. to a joyful faith which we are unanimously to profess; 2. to a holy love which we are fraternally to exercise; 3. to a blessed hope which we are faithfully to maintain unto the end.We are called 1. by a heavenly calling; 2. into a holy fellowship; 3. to the inheritance of the Son of God.

Berlenburger Bible:Stability of doctrine takes the lead; to this, therefore, stability on our part must be added, not from our own powers, but from grace. We must look to it that we do not fall from our own steadfastness (2Pe 3:17). In this we should place the glory of our religion.

Starke:That which was required to be said, and actually is said of the ways of God, demands to be heard, and received with faith. Blessed, therefore, are ye who hear and keep the word of God (Luk 11:29).What avails it to have begun in the spirit and to end in the flesh? The end crowns the work.It is a great dignity of believers that they are, and are called the house of God. Angels are called, indeed, thrones (Col 1:16), but never the house of God; but believers are so named, alike on account of the essential, and on account of the gracious presence of God, by which He dwells in them. This house, Jesus Christ as the true light, illuminates by virtue of His prophetic office; He sanctifies it by virtue of His high-priestly office, whence it is called (1Pe 2:5) a spiritual house; He maintains and protects it by virtue of His kingly office. But as He dwells in this house so is He also its foundation upon which it is built (1Co 3:11; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6).

Laurentius:Believers may take courage; they are the house and temple of God.In faith firmness is requisite.

Von Bogatzky:But believers, even the most dull-eyed, see that they cannot too much trust in our God, and cannot so much hope in Him that they do not always need to arouse themselves still more, to this confidence and this hope. For there are always many things which would fain take from us confidence, faith, and hope; therefore should we hold all fast, and in such trust and such hope, not allow even our short-comings to render us weak and unstable.

Steinhofer:Faith and the confession of faith before God and men, are the two things demanded of a Christian in the Gospel of the new covenant (Rom 10:4).By faith we come, really to a blessed enjoyment of grace, and to an essential communion with the Father and with the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and by the confession of this faith, we come, at the same time, into the joint partnership of those who have received the like precious faith, and have Jesus as their Lord and Head.From all that transpires in the house of God we may discover that the eternal Son, whom the whole creation has got to recognize as its Creator and Lord, is in especial the God and Lord of sinners.O Thou who art faithfulness, make us faithful to Thee!

Hahn:He who has directed his look toward Christ will have ample encouragement to fidelity, and will all the more look to it that it be not found wanting in him.The faithfulness of all the servants of Christ is but a weak and shadowy image of the faithfulness of Christ our Lord.

Rieger:As an apostle, Jesus has brought to us the testimony of God, as High-Priest; He manages our cause with God; and faith recognizes Him, or accepts Him for that for which He has been made unto us of God. Confidence, and the glorying of hope, are the bands by which this house, this divine race, are united with its head, and the call to one faith, and to one hope of their calling, unites also among one another these members of the household, provided only they hold fast to their profession.Stier:That house of God, wherein Moses is called faithful, was only the forecourt and the beginning of the structure which only appears entirely completed in Christ.Fricke:With the coming of Christ the house of God appears completed; all is ready; we need only to enter in; but if we enter in, we shall be ourselves (1Pe 2:5) living stones in this house.

[Owen:That men be brethren, properly and strictly, it is required that they have one father, be of one family, and be equally interested in the privileges and advantages thereof. The saints calling is heavenly, 1. from the fountain and principal cause of it; 2. in respect of the means whereby it is wrought, which are spiritual and heavenly (the word and the Spirit, both from above); 3. of the end, which is to heaven and heavenly things, wherein lies the hope of our calling. All true and real professors of the Gospel are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and made truly and really holy.No man comes into a useful, saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, but by virtue of an effectual, heavenly calling.The spiritual mysteries of the Gospel, especially those which concern the person and offices of Christ, require deep, diligent and attentive consideration.Solomons merchants would not have gone to Ophir had there not been gold there as well as apes and peacocks.The business of God with sinners could be no way transacted but by the negotiation and embassy of the Son. It was necessary that Gods Apostle unto sinners should, in the whole discharge of His office, be furnished with a full comprehension of the whole mind of God, as to the affair committed to Him. Now, this never any was, nor ever can be capable of, but only Jesus Christ, the Son of God.Truths to be believed are like believers themselves; all their life, power, and order consist in their relation unto Christ; separated from Him they are dead and useless.The builders of the New Testament church are servants; (1) they act by virtue of commission, from Him who is the only Lord and ruler of it: (2) it is required of them as servants, to observe and obey the commands of their Lord; (3) as servants they are accountable; (4) as servants they shall have their reward.It is an eminent privilege to be the house of Christ, or a part of it; Whose house are we.Although these living stones are continually removed, some from the lower rooms in this house in grace to the higher stories in glory, yet not one atone of it is, or shall be lost for ever.Interest in the Gospel gives sufficient cause of confidence and rejoicing in every condition.].

Footnotes:

[1]Heb 3:1.The simple has in its favor the usage of the Epistle, and the authority of A. B. C.* D.* xvii. 34. [So Alf., Ln., etc.].

[2]Heb 3:2.The is sustained by the authority of Sin. A. C. D. E. K. L. M., and by the fact of its being found in the passage (Num 12:7), which is virtually cited by the author.

[3]Heb 3:4.Instead of we should read barely after Sin. A. B. C.* D.* E.* K. M., 17, 53.

[4]Heb 3:6. is, since Mill, regarded by some as a gloss transferred from Heb 3:14, and is harsh, though not without classical analogies. [It is harsh as to gender, overleaping , and going back to the preceding , or possibly determined by . A more serious objection is the repetition of so marked a phrase in two passages so near each other (Heb 10:6; Heb 10:14), which, as Del. well observes, is singular in so careful and practised a writer. Hence Del., with Tisch., expunges it; Bleek, De Wette, Thol., Ln., retain it.K.]. It is sustained by Sin. A. C. D. E. K. L. M.

[5][Regarding the fidelity of Moses Owen speaks thus: Moses was faithful. It is true he failed personally in his faith, and was charged of God in that he believed Him not (Num 20:12); but this was in respect of his own faith in one particular, and is no impeachment of his faithfulness in the special office intended. As he was the Apostle, the ambassador of God, to reveal His mind, and institute His worship, he was universally faithful: for he declared and did all things according to His will and appointment, by the testimony of God Himself, Exo 40:16, According to all that the Lord commanded him so did he. He withheld nothing of what God revealed or commanded, nor did he add any thing thereunto; and herein did his faithfulness consist].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2278
NAMES AND OFFICES OF CHRIST

Heb 3:1. Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.

OUR Lord possessed, from all eternity, a nature infinitely superior to that of angels [Note: Heb 1:3; Heb 1:8; Heb 1:10.]: yet did he submit to the lowest humiliation for us [Note: Php 2:6-7.]. And it is by the knowledge of him, as humbled, that we attain salvation [Note: Joh 17:8.].

The Apostle having spoken much on this subject in the foregoing chapter, enforces it with this affectionate exhortation

I.

Explain the exhortation

The first thing that calls for our attention is the description which he gives of all true Christians

[Wishing to persuade, he strove by tenderness to conciliate their esteem: he calls them brethren; which they are, both by relation [Note: Mat 23:9.] and affection [Note: 1Jn 3:14.]. They are holy; set apart for the service and enjoyment of Godwashed in the fountain of Christs blood, and renewed after the Divine image: they are partakers of an heavenly calling; called to heavenly exercises and enjoymentsobedient to that calland suitably influenced by it in their hearts and lives. How amiable is such a character! brethren! holy! called! &c. Who would not wish to be found of their number?]

The next thing which demands our notice is the object he sets before them

[When he speaks of Christ in common, he places the name Jesus first; but when with more than ordinary solemnity, the name Christ is first. He here describes the Saviour both by his names and offices. His names Christ [Note: It is of the same import as Messias, Joh 1:44 and means Anointed.], Jesus [Note: Jesus is the same with Joshua, Heb 4:8.; and Joshua is a contraction for Jah Oseah, the former of which signifies God, and the latter Saviour. This name was given by God to Hoseah the son of Nun, who, as a type of Christ, led the Israelites into the land of Canaan: and the giving of this name to the Virgins Son may be justly considered as an accomplishment of that prophecy which said he should be called Emmanuel, God with us. Its import therefore is, Divine Saviour. See Mat 1:21-23 and Bp. Pearson, p. 69, 70.], are peculiarly significant in this connexion: his offices are such as Moses and Aaron sustained under the law. Christ is the Apostle of our profession, as being sent, like Moses, to publish that religion which we profess: he is also the High-priest of it, because, like Aaron, he performs all that is necessary for our reconciliation with God [Note: Jesus, as our High-priest, offered himself a sacrifice for usis gone into the holy of holies to present his blood before the mercy-seatliveth to make intercession for uspresents our offerings unto the Fatherbears us on his breast-plateand makes known to us the will of God.].]

The last thing to explain is the duty which he presses upon them

The word which we translate consider, implies an attentive regard [Note: .]. It might easily be shewn how important this duty is; but our observations on this subject will occur more properly in another place.]

Having spoken what was necessary to unfold the meaning of the exhortation, we proceed to,

II.

Enforce it

To those who answer the foregoing character we address the exhortation

1.

Consider the object set before you

His names
[As Jesus, Divine Saviour, he is able to save to the uttermost: As Christ, he was anointed of God for this very purpose. Had he not been appointed of God, or had he been less than God, you might have been afraid to trust in him; but his names attest his right and ability to save. Think how these words would sound in hell; and let them be as sweet to you as they would be to the unhappy spirits there.]
His offices
[As the Apostle or Prophet of the Church, he will instruct all [Note: Mat 11:29.] As the High-priest, he will open a way for us into the holy place [Note: Heb 10:19-20.] O reflect on these, till your hearts burn within you with gratitude and love!]

2.

Consider more particularly the view given of him in the preceding and following context

His compassion as an High-priest
[He himself has endured persecution from men, temptation from Satan, desertion from God, &c. [Note: Heb 2:17-18.]: he will sympathize with you under your trials [Note: Heb 4:15. This may be further illustrated by the care of a refiner, whom Christ is said to resemble, Mal 3:3.]. Let this be a source of comfort to you under every affliction.]

His faithfulness as a Prophet
[He extends his care to all his people [Note: Heb 3:2.]: he never suffered the weakest believer to err finally [Note: Isa 35:8.]; nor will he fail to guide us aright [Note: Isa 30:21. Psa 73:24.]. Go to him then for teaching in every doubt and every difficulty.]

Those who do not answer to the character may reap

benefit from the exhortation
[Ye who are unholy, and strangers to the heavenly calling, consider this description of our blessed Lord. Consider itwith attention, that you may understand itwith faith, that you may have an interest in itwith affection, that you may delight in itwith gratitude, that you may display its influence in your heart [Note: This subject may be reduced to more of unity and simplicity, thus:Mark,

I.

What offices the Lord Jesus Christ sustains for us

Every religion has its apostles, who propagate it, and its priests, who perform its rites. Of our religion our incarnate God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is both the Apostle and High-priest. These offices were assigned to him from eternity, Psa 40:6-8. He executed them faithfully when on earth; the prophetic, Heb 1:2; Heb 2:3; the priestly, Heb 1:3; Heb 2:14; Heb 2:17. He still discharges them for the good of his people; as a prophet, teaching them by his Spirit, Joh 16:7-11; as a priest, compassionating and relieving all their spiritual necessities, Heb 2:18; Heb 4:15.

II.

Our duty towards Him in relation to them

We should consider him in these characters: with attention, that we may have the fullest knowledge of him; with faith, that we derive all benefit from them; with gratitude, that we may give him the glory of them.
Address
1.

Those who profess to be partakers of the heavenly calling

If indeed you have experienced the power of divine grace, you will need no incentives to this duty. To contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ in all his excellency and glory, will be the richest delight of your souls.
2.

To those who are strangers to this holy exercise

Alas! what do you lose! There is no other subject under heaven that would so repay your labour. The more you delight yourselves in Christ, the more evidence you will have of his grace in your souls, and the better preparation for his glory.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

The Holy Ghost is here still preaching Christ. The Lord, the Spirit, calls upon the Church, to pause, and contemplate, the Person of Jesus. He draws a Comparison between Christ and Moses. He shews the awful State of Unbelief!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

(1) Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; (2) Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. (3) For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. (4) For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. (5) And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; (6) But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Who, but must admire, the very beautiful method in which the Apostle opens this Chapter! Having in those two which are preceding, drawn out, in the most animated manner, to view, the Person of the Son of God; both in his divine nature, and in his human, and in the mysterious union of both; he now stands and calls upon the Church to behold and consider him! And what a glorious sight would it be, had we our spiritual senses, and the organs of vision so quickened and enlarged, as to form suitable apprehensions of his infinite dignity and greatness? I would beg the Reader’s attention, to the very great beauty, contained in these few verses on this subject, both as it relates to the persons called upon to behold Christ; and Christ himself.

And first, let him remark of the persons called upon. They are said to be, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. By which, as I have uniformly all the way along observed, in all the Apostle’s writings, is meant, the church, as distinguished from the carnal world. Holy brethren: by virtue of their oneness with Christ, being holy in Christ. Originally, and eternally, chosen by God the Father in Christ, to be holy and without blame before him is love. And predestinated, to the adoption of children for this purpose. And willed by the same Lord, to this holiness, as the final end of their creation in Christ. Be ye holy, for I am holy. And hence, by regeneration, made so, in Christ. And brethren; not only of each other, but of Christ their elder brother; being chosen in the same eternal purpose of God; and formed in the same Womb of eternity. Hence, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren.

And they are all partakers of the heavenly calling. For they are alike said to be a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, 1Pe 2:9 . Hence, from everlasting having been set apart in the grace union, with their glorious Head and Husband, they partake, in all the communicable grace, which flows from Jesus, to his members here; and in all that is communicable of glory from him, in the life to come. Now, it is to such, Paul calls to the contemplation of their adorable Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed it is such, and such only, that can take pleasure and find interest in the view. For to a carnal mind, there is no beauty to desire him: while to the faithful, and believing, regenerated by grace, he is the altogether lovely, and the fairest among ten thousand!

Let the Reader next look to Christ, and consider, while obeying the Apostle’s call to behold Christ, the very gracious characters which Paul here particularly holds forth for the contemplation of his redeemed to view him under. First, the Apostle; and next with it, the high Priest of our profession. These he singles out, amongst numberless other most lovely, and engaging characters, as being more immediately suited to the subject, he had them before him. Reader! do not fail to mark them. If Jesus be dear to you, as your high Priest: (and how would a throne of grace be accessible or blessed without him,) surely to behold Christ in this office, as sent and authorized, as the Almighty Apostle from God, must endear him, and make him so. Here indeed lies the vast stress, of the whole blessedness of the gospel. Christ is the great high Priest, Altar, and Sacrifice; in whom alone, and by whom alone, all our approaches to the throne are made. But it is Jehovah’s authority, which gives efficacy to all. Christ is the great Apostle come from God and faith’s great warrant to come to God by him. And the child of God, taught of God the Spirit, these precious, distinct, and at the same time, united views; finds all the encouragement to give him an holy boldness. For the poor sinner, that thus comes to God, in, and by Christ; comes to God, in God’s own way. This is the remedy of God’s own providing. And therefore it can never fail. It is, as if a child of God should say; how can I fear, how can I doubt of acceptance with God as long as I come to God, in this new and living way of God’s Apostle and high Priest? Christ’s blood and righteousness my offering; and God’s own appointment for my pleading? Oh! that all the holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, may daily hear, the command of God the Holy Ghost, by his servant the Apostle, in this sweet scripture; and feel the blessed influence of the Spirit, at the same time in their hearts; and consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession Christ Jesus!

I beg the Reader next to notice, the beautiful method, which God the Holy Ghost adopts, in order to glorify the Lord Jesus. Indeed, it is a grand feature this, in the Spirit’s teaching. He began this Epistle, with shewing the vast superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ to Angels; declaring that he was not only Him, by whom Jehovah made the worlds; but that when Jehovah brought him in, as the first begotten into the world, he commanded all the .Angels of God to worship him, Heb 1:2-6 . And here, while writing again to the Hebrews, and knowing their attachment to their great minister Moses, the Apostle introduceth Moses to their view, by way of manifesting, that Moses, though such a Prophet as never before arose in Israel, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which the Lord sent him to do; yet, compared to Christ, was no more than a servant to a Son, Deu 34:10-11 . And to confirm it, if possible, yet more, under the similitude of an house, and builder, the Apostle states that Moses, as a creature, or as an house which could not make or build itself, was but as both in the Lord’s hand. Now he that built all things (and all things were made by Christ, and without Him, was not anything made, that was made: Joh 1:3 ) is, and must be, God: and consequently Christ is God. Reader! what can be more decisive, in confirmation of the true, and proper Godhead of or Lord Jesus Christ.

Neither, according to my apprehension of things, was it without an eye to the firm establishment of this glorious truth, of the Godhead of Christ, in the mind of the Church at this place; that the Holy Ghost, thus guided Paul to write, because the Lord was about to speak so much, as he hath done, of the true and proper manhood of Christ also. For the Lord the Spirit is here opening to the Church’s view, Christ’s faithfulness in his office, of the priesthood. For this man, (saith the Lord,) was faithful to him that appointed him, and consequently counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Certainly, when the S on of God stood up at the call of his Father, as the Head and Husband, and Sponsor, and Surety of his Church; he became in her law-room and stead, the servant of Jehovah, and as such, faithfulness became him and his house forever! And what can be more blessed to the Church, than the consciousness and assurance of Christ, as God-Man Mediator, being a faithful High Priest to God and Man; and acting in that high capacity, in all he did, for his Church, his house, whose house are we? I detain the Reader, over what is here said, (and repeated with some little variation in verse 14,) to observe, that when it is added, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end: this is not said, as if our being Christ’s house, was made, in the least, conditional, or in any way depended upon somewhat to be done, or held fast by us. If it were, indeed, it would reduce the house of Christ itself to a peradventure and make the whole of God’s grace to rest upon the will of man. If the Reader will notice the words a little more closely, he will discover, through divine teaching, that it is our confidence, and our rejoicing which we are said to hold fast, and not our interest in Christ, if we would know for our joy, that we are Christ’s house. My happiness, and my enjoyment of my interest in Christ, will indeed be more or less, as, through grace, I find strength, to hold fast my confidence in Christ. But my safety in Christ is in the Lord’s holding me fast; and not I him. Men, who read their Bibles, untaught of God the Spirit, may fancy that such ifs and buts as they meet with here and there, are put for conditions and causes. But certainly not so. Here are no such things. Christ’s house is of God the Father’s laying in Christ himself, the sure foundation in Zion. And all his members are living stones, built up by God himself in this house, for an holy temple to the Lord, and an habitation of God through the Spirit, Isa 28:16 ; 1Pe 2:5 ; Eph 2:20-22 .

Reader! I beseech you, as you value your privileges, and high calling in Christ; learn of God the Spirit how to estimate your safety in Christ. So wretchedly low at present is the tide of things, in the spiritual life of God in the soul, according to modern profession, of what some men call the Gospel; that in this land, where once it stood at high water mark, it is now nearly gone out, and left our shore at the lowest ebb. They do not live upon Christ, but upon their own self attainments. And while anything in self, can be found to satisfy their minds, they are at ease; though they have no communication, from the ocean of Christ, in those streams, which alone can truly make glad the city of God, Psa 46:4 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Revelation in a Son

Heb 3:1

The text of the Epistle to the Hebrews will be found in the first verse of the third chapter, ‘Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus’. Like all Christian teaching, it finds its centre in the historic Personality and Life, which is the constant element because it is the Divine Fact.

I. It is of the utmost importance to make clear to ourselves the fact that the work of Christ is essentially a unity, that He is not at one time concerned with making known the name of God, at another with fulfilling His Will in the redemption of mankind. He manifests the love of God, as He could not fail to do, in fulfilling the Father’s loving purpose of reconciliation through death. The Fact of Christ crucified, the work of Calvary, the Death of the cross is itself God’s word, God’s message. It is this position, established in the first two chapters, that justifies the author in proceeding to his theme. ‘Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.’

II. When God speaks in the prophets, He does so indirectly, mediately, through the interposition of the human voice. When God speaks in a Son, He does so directly, immediately, through the facts themselves, which the human voice more or less imperfectly represents. It is the difference between nature and science, between reality and representation, between the actual world and the lesson-books which describe its processes. Prophecy interprets God’s purposes: facts realise them.

III. It is important to remember that the union of the messenger and the priest was already portrayed in the pages of that Old Testament prophet the fulfilment of whose ideal in Jesus the Messiah was the characteristic discovery of the Apostolic Church. The second Isaiah is the great anticipator of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is he who fixes for ever the sacrificial idea as the only adequate expression of the deliverance, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, which the Messenger and Servant should preach as a gospel to the poor. For this elect and beloved representative of Jehovah was to be, not like the prophets a preacher of righteousness, but a bringer of salvation, and as such a man of sorrows, led as the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter, bearing the iniquity of His people, and, because He had poured out His soul unto death, dividing the spoil with the strong. I think we shall best represent the difference between the work of the Servant and the work of that long line of ‘servants in the house,’ from Moses onwards, who had preceded Him, if we say that, while the prophets declared the righteousness of God, in the Suffering Servant that righteousness was to become redemptive.

IV. The priestly mediation of Jesus, of which His death is the embodiment, and His exaltation the Divine acceptance, is not only the subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but is itself the message of the Gospel. He is God’s Apostle in His capacity as priest. This means an entirely different view of the proportions of the Christian Faith from that with which we have been made familiar by the teaching, for example, of the late Bishop Westcott, whose interpretation of this Epistle is, if my view be correct, prejudicially affected by the general point of sight which he adopts. There is, as I believe, in the New Testament no Gospel of the Incarnation as such, far less a Gospel of creation. The Scriptures give us no warrant for speculation as to whether the Word would have become flesh independently of the actual conditions under which God intervened in human life. Christ is not presented as the necessary consummator of a development which, apart from the fact of sin, would have been incomplete without Him. We simply do not know what such a development would have meant. But He is the reconciler, His death being the essential feature in this historical manifestation: ‘I am the living one, and I became dead’. To acknowledge this is of the highest importance if we are to appreciate the self-surrender and voluntary love of God, the debt we owe Him, and the dependence in which we stand towards His Christ, who for our sakes became poor, took upon Him (the exact expression which follows should be noticed) ‘the form of a slave,’ and endured the cross. And it enables us to understand what the writer of Hebrews means by God speaking to us in a Son. He does not mean us to dwell upon the Incarnate Son as an object of contemplation, His personality, His teaching, His self-expression as a revelation of the Eternal Father, and then to go on to consider His redeeming work. He has not really omitted to develop in detail the work of the Son as the Apostle, referring us, as it were, to the Gospel according to St. John for a fuller treatment of the subject. No, God’s speech is nothing else but the facts of the sufferings of Christ and the glory in which they issued. ‘When He had made purification of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.’

J. G. Simpson, Christus Crucifixus, p. 51.

References. III. 1. G. Trevor, Types and the Antitype, p. 206. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Hebrews, p. 258.

Consider

Above all, Romanes,’ said Darwin to G. T. Romanes, cultivate the habit of meditation.’

Heb 3:4 ; Heb 3:6

‘Life,’ says George Macdonald, ‘is no series of chances with a few providences sprinkled between to keep up a justly failing belief, but one providence of God.’

Reference. III. 5, 6. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 28.

Heb 3:6

Had we fast-hold on God by the interposition of a lively faith; had we hold-fast on God by Himselfe, and not by us; had we a divine foundation; then should not humane and worldly occasions have the power so to shake and litter us, as they have. Our hold would not then yeelde to so weake a batterie: The love of noveltie; the constrainte of Princes; the good success of one partie; the rash and casuall changing of our opinions, should not then have the power to shake and alter our beleefe. We should not suffer the same to be troubled at the wit and pleasure of a new argument, and at the perswasion, no, not of all the rhetorike that ever was: we should withstand these boistrous billowes with an inflexible and unmoveable constancie.

Montaigne ( Florio ), II. 12.

References. III. 6. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 410. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Hebrews, p. 268. III. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx. No. 1160. III. 7, 8. John Watson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 81. C. Perren, Sermon Outlines, p. 305. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Hebrews, p. 275. III. 8. H. D. M. Spence, Voices and Silences, p. 247. H. Woodcock, Sermon Outlines (1st Series), p. 52.

Heb 3:12

The commonest sort of fortitude prevents us from becoming criminals in a legal sense; it is from weakness unknown, but perhaps suspected, as in some parts of the world you suspect a deadly snake in every bush, from weakness that may lie hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not one of us is safe.

Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (ch. v.).

The parting of Life’s road at Doubt and Faith! How many pilgrim feet throughout the ages, toiling devoutly thus far, have shrunk back before that unexpected and appalling sign! Disciples of the living Lord, saints, philosophers, scholars, priests, knights, statesmen what a throng! What thoughts there born, prayers there ended, vows there broken, light there breaking, hearts there torn in twain! Mighty mountain rock! rising full in the road of journeying humanity!

Jas. Lane Allen.

Heb 3:12-13

A proper sense of public duty will prompt endeavours to stop abuses the moment they become visible, without waiting for them to become serous. The misdoings which, in course of time, make useless or mischievous this or that administration, begin with trivial derelictions of duty, which no one thinks it worth while to protest against. Each increment of mischief, similarly small, is passed over as unimportant; until at length the evil is found to have grown great and perhaps incurable.

Spencer, Principles of Ethics ( 470).

References. III. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, xliv. No. 2552. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 128. III. 13. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 13. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 87. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 620, and vol. xxxvi. No. 2130. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Hebrews, p. 285. III. 14. Ibid. p. 295. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1042. III. 15. H. Windross, Preacher’s Magazine, vol. x. p. 272. III. 16. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 157.

Heb 3:19

In the first chapter of The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, which is based on Heb 4:9 , as its text, Baxter observes: ‘When God would give the Israelites His Sabbaths of rest, in a land of rest, He had more ado to make them believe it than to overcome their enemies, and procure it for them’.

Reference. III. 19. G. H. Morrison, Scottish Review, vol. i. p. 130.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

XX

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES AND JOSHUA, AND THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH GREATER THAN THE JEWISH SABBATH

Hebrews 3-4.

This discussion commences at Heb 3 . The “wherefore” refers to statements made in the preceding chapter, and particularly to the latter part of Heb 2 , which opens the discussion of Christ’s priesthood, a matter that will again be taken up at length. It was introduced there simply in connection with the argument showing the superiority over angels.

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,” that is, who have been called from heaven to the world to come. It may be called heavenly because the call issues from heaven, and because the call is to heaven. In view of what has been said, “consider the apostle and high priest.” An apostle is one sent to bear witness to the truth and to teach the truth, as expressed in chapter I “hath in these last days spoken unto us through his Son.” Jesus was the one sent to be the prophet. “Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, even Jesus.” That is to say, when one makes a profession of religion, he makes an open confession before witnesses that Christ is his prophet, his sacrifice, his priest, his judge, and his king. Paul is making an appeal to that first ceremonial qualification of church entrance confession first, then baptism. Before you were received into the church you made a public profession or confession of Christ as your Saviour. So see what you are to consider even Jesus.

What are we to consider about him? “He was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.” He is preparing to institute another comparison. These Jews were about to abandon Christianity and go back to Judaism and this whole letter is to show the folly of such a course. One reason for their going back was their undue magnifying of Moses. In one particular Christ and Moses are alike they were both faithful to the One who appointed them.

But we come to a point of difference: “For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house.” That is the first point of distinction between Christ and Moses. Moses is a part of the house, but Christ built the whale house. The house he is talking about is the antitype of the tabernacle the true church, the church of which every converted man in the world from the beginning of time to the end of time will be a member. That is the house that Jesus is building. “He is counted worthy of more glory than Moses by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house, for every house is builded by some one, but he that built all things is God.” Again, “Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is a Son over his house.” That is the second point of distinction Moses was only a servant in the house, while Christ was a Son over the house.

Already in Colossians and Ephesians we have pointed out how Christ was head over all things to the church, whether as an institution, a particular church, or the church in glory. Christ is over even the typical shadows of the Old Testament. But to show you what house he has in mind he says: “Whose house are we.” This accords with a previous statement to the Corinthians: “Ye are God’s building;” “ye are the temple of God” the spiritual house which Christ built. So here: “Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorifying of our hope firm unto the end.” That is to gay, whosoever does not persevere unto the end is not God’s.

“He that overcometh is heir to all things.” All through this epistle he discusses religion in two distinct views: First, of profession; second, of reality. Only those who possess the internal reality really belong to Christ, and are a part of ibis house. “Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.” This letter uniformly presents the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, not from the starting point in profession, but in the outcome. He only is a true Christian who is faithful unto death.

The earthly church consists of professors. Whether profession was true or false is determined by the issue. He illustrates by quoting that remarkable psalm of David Psa 95:7-11 : “Today, if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by proving me, and saw my works forty years; wherefore, I was displeased with this generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts: But they did not know my ways; as I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.” (Heb 3:15 ).

It is very important to notice the significance of this passage. These two thoughts in it are: First, God had an ostensible people whom he led out of Egypt toward a country ahead of them a place promised to the believing and faithful as a land of rest. The majority of them never got there they were always erring in their hearts, and did not know God’s way. They did not have the true faith, and because they did not they were destroyed on the way.

The second thought is: That as were the fathers so were the descendants in David’s day, therefore the psalmist said to them: “Today, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts with unbelief, as your fathers did when they provoked God in the wilderness.” This whole book shows that whoever failed in getting the good rest, failed from lack of faith. They did not have a faith that would stick. It was a temporary faith, which did not take hold of the power of the world to come.

We may readily foresee Paul’s application: “You professing Hebrews, I call your attention to the reason your fathers failed in the wilderness and also their descendants in David’s time; they professed outwardly, but apostatized because they were without true, persistent faith in God. Like them, you have professed, but it seems that some of you will fall short through unbelief.” The church on earth cannot see and judge the heart. They receive members on credible profession.

Hence the exhortation: “Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day so long as it is called today.” That is to say, there comes a time in every man’s life when his opportunities cease. With most people that time is at death, but with those who happen to sin against the Holy Ghost, it ceases before death. Jesus had that thought in his mind when, weeping over Jerusalem, he said: “Oh, if thou hadst known the day of thy visitation I”

When a man is in doubt as to his status and sometimes good people do doubt their status in the sight of God you may rest assured that the status is not determined by their doubt or confidence. You may be so confident that never a shadow of doubt rolls across your mind, or you may be so far gone that, like the Laodiceans, there is never a sense of need. That is false confidence. Or you may be apprehensive when there is no need to be so. He calls attention to this: “Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin is exceedingly deceitful, and whenever a man imagines that he is exempt from being imposed upon by sin he is apt to get into trouble. For instance, sin will tell a man: “You are a little out of the way, but not much you can get back easily. I only ask you to step over here and walk in the shade instead of upon the hard, hot highway.” He is beguiled and deceived beguiled until finally his heart is hardened, and he is insensible to warning impression. Let us get that thought clearly before us.

A lady once determined to get up early in the morning, and go bought an alarm clock. She set the alarm for exactly 6 o’clock, and when it rang she got up. The next time when she heard it ring she waited a little while before getting up. The next time she waited a little longer, and while waiting she fell asleep. After that it never disturbed her.

Whoever disregards an alarm soon quits hearing it. If we go toward a light it gets brighter; if we go from it, it gets feebler. If we go toward a fire, we get more and more of its heat, while if we go away from it, we lose the power of its heat. Sin blunts the conscience. Take Nero, for instance. When a young man he would weep if he stepped on a worm and crushed it unthoughtedly, but after continual indulgence in sin and crime he could dance and make music over his mother whom he had murdered, and could actually enjoy driving between parallel lines of burning Christians. That is what is meant by hardening the heart. “Take heed, lest through the deceitfulness of sin, you shall be hardened in unbelief.” Their unbelief was arising largely from the fact that Christ did not come when they thought he ought to come. It had been preached to them that he was coming, and they had fixed dates for his coming, but as date after date failed, they began to disbelieve the whole thing.

“We become partakers of Christ if we hold fast our boldness and the glory of our hope firm unto the end.” There is your solution. You want to know whether you are a partaker of Christ. You are if you hold fast to the end. If before you get to the end you turn loose and quit, you are not a partaker of Christ. I repeat the old proverb: “When you see a star fall you may know it is not a star.” That expresses the thought exactly. Stars do not fall. Meteors fall, and they look like stars, but if one falls it is not a atar. We are partakers of Christ if we hold fast to the end.

He repeats David’s exhortation, and he uses it a great deal more before he gets through. “While it is said, Today if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. That fits this case just as well as the people of David’s time, or the people in the wilderness. Some through lack of true faith through unbelief did not get there, and it will be so in your case.” “For who, when they heard, did provoke? Did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses? And with whom was he displeased forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter the rest, but to them that were disobedient? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of their unbelief.” Moses had charge of that crowd. “Let us fear, therefore, lest haply a promise being left of entering into the rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest: even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” There we see the point of his exhortation. Never from the beginning of this letter until the end does he vary from this thought that final apostasy is decisive proof that they were never Christians. This brings us to a new item in the analysis:

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA As Christ is superior to angels and Moses, so he is superior to Joshua. Joshua indeed led the people into the earthly Promised Land, but the conquest was not complete. Through unbelief they left much territory in the hands of their enemies, which plagued them for generations, and ultimately brought about their loss of the whole land, as Moses had foreshown. Joshua indeed secured for the people a rest at the end of his wars (Jos 11:23 ), but the rest was not the true rest, it was only temporary, as the dark period of the Judges shows. So that in summing up the work of Joshua, great as it was, we find these defects:

1. It led to an earthly Canaan.

2. This Canaan was not all conquered.

3. The rest attained was only temporary. But our Lord, the Captain of our Salvation, leads to a heavenly Canaan. His conquest is complete. His rest is glorious and eternal. In this connection, the author passes to a new thought a comparison of memorials, which brings us to consider another item of the analysis:

THE SABBATH-KEEPING OF THE NEW COVENANT The whole matter is found in Heb 4:4-11 . The interpretation is confessedly difficult, and the best of scholars differ widely as to the import. The reader will understand that the views now presented are not urged dogmatically, but are offered for fair consideration along with variant views. Take them at their intrinsic value and form your own judgment. First of all, read the whole passage carefully and particularly, and note the following words in the original:

1. The word “rest” Greek, katapausis , (Heb 3:11 ; Heb 3:18 ; Heb 4:1 ; Heb 4:3 ; Heb 4:8 ; Heb 4:10-11 ).

2. “The seventh day” Greek, hebdome , (Heb 4:4 ).

3. “Another day” Greek, alla hemera , (Heb 4:8 ).

4. “Sabbath-keeping” Greek, sabbatismos , (Heb 4:9 ).

The difficulty of interpretation has resulted from three causes:

1. A failure to note the contrast between the “seventh day” in Heb 4:4 , and “another day” in Heb 4:8 .

2. In translating sabbatismos in Heb 4:9 as if it were kaiapausis . Uniformly in all the context when the apostle means “the rest” in any sense he uses the katapausis . The change to sabbatismos is inexplicable if he means the same thing. But sabbatismos is a verbal noun, and means “the keeping of a sabbath,” and so explains the contrast between “the seventh day,” as appointed of old, and “another day” foretold in the prophetic psalm.

3. In arbitrarily referring to the pronouns, “O,” autou and autos in Heb 4:10 to the Christian, instead of to Christ as the true antecedent.

In the deliberate judgment of the author there is no Justification for any one of those three things. The idea of the context is:

1. God rested after creating the world, and appointed the seventh day to be kept in commemoration.

2. The prophets foretold “another day” instead of the seventh, to commemorate a greater rest, following a greater work than creation.

3. Into this greater rest Joshua never led the Jewish people.

4. But our Lord, having finished the work of redemption on the cross, he himself rested from the work on the first day of the week, as God had done from his own on the seventh.

5. To this cross he nailed the whole typical sabbatic cycle, taking it away (Hos 2:11 ; Col 2:14-17 ).

6. Therefore, in commemoration of the glorious rest following the greater work of redemption there remaineth a sabbath-keeping to the people of God. The reader is urged to reread the last sermon in my first book of sermons for full discussion of this point.

7. It was necessary for the argument, to show the Jew who was glorying in his sabbath day, that the Christian had a great sabbath day.

He closes the chapter with this statement: “Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” We confessed faith in Christ; they confessed faith in Joshua, were led into the Promised Land, and in the book of Joshua we are told that they had rest. But it was a very temporary rest, and was not the real Promised Land that the man of faith saw all of the time. Abraham saw far beyond Canaan. He never got as much of that land as he could cover with his foot. He sought a city which hath foundations, and whose builder and maker is God. Another reason is that our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities because be has been in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Now comes the exhortation: “Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us in time of need.” The whole letter has this end in view to stir up, to put to full test what is worked in you. If you are God’s child you will hear the exhortation and hold on. If you are not God’s child, your heart will become hardened in unbelief, and you will turn loose and go back.

QUESTIONS

1. In what particulars is Christ superior to Moses?

2. What the two distinct views of religion in this book?

3. What Paul’s application of these views to the ones addressed in this letter?

4. What is his exhortation based thereon?

5. What of the Christian’s doubts relative to his status?

6. What is the warning relative to the deceitfulness of sin? Illustrate

7. What is the evidence that any one is a partaker of Christ as taught in this book?

8. Of what exhortation of David does Paul make frequent use in this letter, and what the point of his exhortation?

9. In what particulars is Christ superior to Joshua?

10. What the crucial Greek words in Heb 4 bearing on the change of the sabbath day?

11. What the three causes constituting the difficulty of interpretation?

12. Can there be a sabbath day, not the seventh?

13. Who is the antecedent of the pronouns, “he,” the first “his” and himself” of Heb 4:10 , and what is the argument therefore?

14. What is the several historical backgrounds of the seventh-day sabbath?

15. What is the historical background of the Christian sabbath?

16. Paraphrase Heb 4:9-10 so as to bring out the meaning.

17. What scriptural proof that the seventh-day sabbath and all its cycle of sabbaths was abrogated?

18. What name was given the Christian sabbath, and what the proof of its observance?

19. What are Paul’s exhortations in the closing part of this chapter, and what the application of each?

20. What is the purpose of the letter as seen from the closing part of this chapter?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Ver. 1. Holy brethren ] HOLY, because partakers of a calling that is heavenly. 1. Rations fontis,Phi 3:14-15Phi 3:14-15 . Phi 3:2 . Ratione finis, to the fruition of heavenly privileges in Christ.

Consider ] Gr. . Bend your minds with utmost diligence upon him.

The apostle and high priest ] Those two chief offices of both Testaments, ut ubique superemineat Christus.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1 .] Whence (i. e. seeing that we have such a helper: it is connected with the result of ch. 2: not, surely, with ch. Heb 1:1 , as De W. The fact just announced in Heb 2:18 , is a reason for : see below), hely brethren (Michaelis proposed to put a comma at , and treat the two as separate, brethren (and) saints . But, as Bleek observes, the rhythm seems against this, . . following. And a graver objection may be found in the choice of the words themselves: for there can hardly be a doubt that both are used in reference to the and of ch. Heb 2:11-12 . Not that the here are Christ’s brethren: but that the use of the word reminds them of that brotherhood in and because of Christ, of which he has before spoken. Whether the idea of common nationality is here to be introduced, is at least doubtful. I should rather regard it as swallowed up in the great brotherhood in Christ: and Bleek has well remarked, that, had the Writer been addressing believing Jews and Gentiles, or even believing Gentiles only, he would have used the same term of address and without any conscious difference of meaning), partakers (see on , ch. Heb 2:14 ; and reff. here) of a heavenly calling ( , as usual, of the invitation, or summons, of God, calling men to His glory in Christ and hence of the state which is entered by them in pursuance of that calling: cf. especially Phi 3:14 , . Then also (see reff.) a calling made from heaven, see ch. Heb 12:25 ; “vocatio qu de clo,” Syr. Or it may mean, the calling which proposes a heavenly reward, whose inheritance is in heaven. By far the best way is, to join the two meanings together: so Bengel, “per Dominum e clo fact, et eo, unde facta est, perducentis.” In fact the calling being and proceeding from heaven, must of necessity be heavenly in its purport and heavenward in its result; eine vom himmel aus ergangene und gen himmel rufende: ihr Ausgangsort, ihr Inhalt, ihr Ziel das Alles ist himmlisch . Delitzsch), contemplate (survey, with a view to more closely considering. The word is used of the survey of the spies at Jericho ( , . . . Jos. Antt. v. 1. 2: cf. also Gen 42:9 , , , and Num 32:8-9 ); and of fixing the thoughts on any object, see reff. Luke, with whom it is a favourite word. The meaning then of the exhortation here is not, ‘pay attention to’ (“ut sedule attendant ad Christum,” Calv.), ‘be obedient to,’ but as above) the Apostle and High Priest (notice that but one art. covers both . and ., thereby making it certain that both words belong to ) of our profession, Jesus ( , as superior to the , being Himself the angel of the covenant, God’s greatest messenger: the word being, as Ebrard, avoided, on account of its technical use before, to prevent Christ being confused with the angels in nature. He is : see Joh 20:21 . (I may remark, that the circumstance of the Writer using without scruple, as designating our Lord, may shew that the as a class were not so distinctly marked as they have since been: a view supported also by some expressions of St. Paul: e. g. 2Co 8:23 .)

Ebrard well remarks, that all the difficulties which Commentators have found in this term vanish, on bearing well in mind the comparison between Christ and the angels in ch. Heb 1:2 . See an instance of this in the elaborate discussion of its meaning on Hebraistic grounds in the last edition of Tholuck; who, by rendering ., “ mediator ,” has lost the joint testimony of the two, . and ., to Christ’s mediatorship. Bengel says well on the two, “ . , eum qui Dei causam apud nos agit: . , qui causam nostram apud Deum agit. Hic Apostolatus et Pontificatus uno mediatoris vocabulo continentur.” ., of our Christian confession , i. e. of our faith: so Thl., , . And so Thdrt., c., and Erasm., Calv., Beza, Grot., al. Tholuck objects, that thus we get no good sense for : but he does not seem to have taken into account the parallel with ch. Heb 1:14 . Thos. Aquinas, Luther, Camero, Calov., Owen (as an altern.), Wolf, al., and De Wette, and Tholuck, take the words as merely importing “ whom we confess .” But although De W. defends this from ch. Heb 4:14 , it does not seem to agree with the usage there, , nor with ch. Heb 10:23 , nor 1Ti 6:12-13 . To render by “ covenant ,” as Camerar., Tittmann, al., is not according to N. T. usage, which always has for this idea. There is a remarkable passage quoted by Wetst., out of Philo de Somn. i. 38, vol. i. p. 654, containing the expression : a parallel hardly to be accounted accidental, especially as the here spoken of is the (see above, 37, p. 653, , , , ). But Bleek has argued that, there being nothing in the context, or in the usage of Philo elsewhere, which can justify there, the only inference open to us is, that it has been inserted in Philo’s text from this passage.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 3:1 . , “wherefore,” if through Jesus God has spoken His final and saving word (Heb 1:1 ), thus becoming the Apostle of God, and if the high priest I speak of is so sympathetic and faithful that for the sake of cleansing the people He became man and suffered, then “consider, etc.”. The of Heb 3:17 strikes the keynote of this paragraph. Here for the first time the writer designates his readers, and he does so in a form peculiar to himself (the reading in 1Th 5:27 being doubtful) , “Christian brethren,” literally “brethren consecrated,” separated from the world and dedicated to God. Bleek quotes from Primasius: “Fratres eos vocat tam carne quam spiritu qui ex eodem genere erant”. But there is no reason to assign to any other meaning than its usual N.T. sense of “fellow-Christians,” cf. Mat 23:8 . But there is further significance in the additional , “partakers of a heavenly calling” ( cf. , Heb 9:15 ) suggested by the latent comparison in the writer’s mind between the Israelites called to earthly advantages, a land, etc., and his readers whose hopes were fixed on things above. “In the word ‘heavenly’ there is struck for the first time, in words at least, an antithesis of great importance in the Epistle, that of this world and heaven, in other words, that of the merely material and transient, and the ideal and abiding. The things of the world are material, unreal, transient: those of heaven are ideal, true, eternal. Heaven is the world of realities, of things themselves (Heb 9:23 ) of which the things here are but ‘copies’ ” (Davidson). , “consider,” “bring your mind to bear upon,” “observe so as to see the significance,” as in Luk 12:24 , , though it is sometimes, as in Act 11:6 ; Act 27:39 , used in its classical sense “perceive”. A “confession” does not always involve that its significance is seen. Consider then “the Apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus,” the single article brackets the two designations and Bengel gives their sense: “ . eum qui Dei causam apud nos agit. . qui causam nostram apud Deum agit”. These two functions embrace not the whole of Christ’s work, but all that He did on earth ( cf. Heb 1:1-4 ). The frequent use of by our Lord to denote the Father’s mission of the Son authorises the present application of . It is through Him God has spoken (Heb 1:1 ). Moses is never called (a word indeed which occurs only once in LXX) though in Exo 3:10 God says . Schoettgen quotes passages from the Talmud in which the high priest is termed the Apostle or messenger of God and of the Sanhedrim, but this is here irrelevant. , a title which, as applicable to Jesus, the writer explains in chaps. 5 8. , “of our confession,” or, whom we, in distinction from men of other faiths, confess; chiefly no doubt in distinction from the non-Christian Jews. , as the etymology shows, means “of one speech with,” hence that in which men agree as their common creed, their confession , see ref. As Peake remarks: “If this means profession of faith, then ‘the readers already confess Jesus as high priest, and this is not a truth taught them in this Epistle for the first time’.” [Carpzov quotes from Philo ( De Somn .): , but here another sense is intended.] is added to preclude the possibility of error. occurs in this Epistle nine times by itself, thrice with .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:13 . Chapters 3 and 4 as far as Heb 3:13 , form one paragraph. The purpose of the writer in this passage, as in the whole Epistle, is to encourage his readers in their allegiance to Christ and to save them from apostacy by exhibiting Christ as the final mediator. This purpose he has in the first two chapters sought to achieve by comparing Christ with those who previously mediated between God and man, the prophets who spoke to the fathers, and the angels who mediated the law and were supposed even to regulate nature. He now proceeds to compare Jesus with him round whose name gathered all that revelation and legislation in which the Jew trusted. Moses was the ideal mediator, faithful in all God’s house. Underlying even the priesthood of Aaron was the word of God to Moses. And yet, free channel of God’s will as Moses had been, he was but a servant and in the nature of things could not so perfectly sympathise with and interpret the will of Him whose house and affairs he administered as the Son who Himself was lord of the house.

He therefore bids his readers encourage themselves by the consideration of His trustworthiness, His competence to accomplish all God’s will with them and bring them to their appointed rest. But this suggests to him the memorable breakdown of faith in the wilderness generation of Israelites. And he forthwith strengthens his admonition to trust Christ by adding the warning which was so legibly written in the fate of those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, but whose faith failed through the greatness of the way. It was not owing to any incompetence or faithlessness in Moses that they died in the wilderness and failed to reach the promised land. It was “because of their unbelief” (Heb 3:19 ). Moses was faithful in all God’s house, in everything required for the guidance and government of God’s people and for the fulfilment of all God’s purpose with them: but even with the most trustworthy leader much depends on the follower, and entrance to the fulness of God’s blessing may be barred by the unbelief of those who have heard the promise. The promise was not mixed with faith in them to whom it came. But what of those who were led in by Joshua? Even they did not enter into God’s rest. That is certain, for long after Joshua’s time God renewed His promise, saying “To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts”. Entrance into the land, then, did not exhaust the promise of God; there remains over and above that entrance, a rest for the people of God, for “without us,” i.e. , without the revelation of Christ the fathers were not perfect, their best blessings, such as their land, being but types of better things to come. Therefore let us give diligence to enter into that rest, for the word of God’s promise is searching; and, by offering us the best things in fellowship with God, it discloses our real disposition and affinities.

The passage falls into two parts, the former (Heb 3:1-6 ) exhibiting the trustworthiness of Christ, the latter (Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:13 ) emphasising the unbelief and doom of the wilderness generation.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Hebrews Chapter 3

Heb 3 follows 1 and 2 in beautiful order. For “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” answers to the chapters before: the first of these titles of Christ being specially connected with His being Son of God, as the second is with that of Son of man. He comes from God to man on earth; He goes from man to God in heaven. And this is largely, though not entirely, the reason why the writer was led not to speak of himself as an apostle. He had it as his task to present Christ as the Apostle. This might have been enough for one whose reverence was guided unerringly by the Holy Spirit. We can understand why he forebore to speak of himself or any other when so speaking of Him; even if there had not been the gracious reason of not so introducing himself beyond his allotted sphere of the uncircumcision. And we may notice the further and not unimportant or uninteresting fact that, in writing to the Hebrew believers, he is exercising the function of a teacher rather than of an apostle, however truly he was this. He is unfolding the treasures of the O.T. in the light of Christ, of His blood, and His presence in heaven most particularly. And thus we are indebted to the exceptional circumstances in which the Epistle was written that it is the richest specimen of inspired teaching in the Bible, more than any other affording and applying the key of Christ’s work and position and offices, and grace and glory in all; to unlock what had otherwise been to us hard and obscure. What an incentive and aid to encourage us to follow in the same path in our poor measure, by His grace who so enabled him! Were all the commentaries that are extant on the O.T. to be effaced, is it too much to say that it would be a real gain if the Lord’s servants betook themselves afresh to its study with a believing use of this single Epistle to the Hebrews? Certain it is that few have adequately profited by it, because they have so much tradition to unlearn; and that the mass even of saints are so steeped in preconceived ideas that the simple yet profound truth it presents is foreclosed and escapes them.

Christ’s apostleship leads to the comparison with Moses, as His high priesthood with that of Aaron, the main topic in a large part of the treatise.

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; faithful as he is to him that appointed him, as also [was] Moses, in all his house. For he hath been accounted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honour than it. For every house is builded by some one; but he that built all things [is] God. And Moses indeed [was] faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things afterward to be spoken; but Christ as Son over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the boldness and the glorying of the hope firm to the end” (verses 1-6).

There is emphasis, of course, in the unusual combination, “holy brethren.” Since the Jews as such were accustomed to be called “brethren” after the flesh, there was the more propriety in designating Christian Jews “holy brethren,” however truly it applies to any Christian.

Again, as the chosen nation was partaker of an earthly position and hope, we can understand well the force of describing the believers in Christ from its midst as “partakers of a heavenly calling.” Such indeed they were. They entered the new privilege not by a tie of birth but by call of God; and this, as it was from Christ in heaven, so it was to heavenly glory, bearing earthly rejection, suffering and shame, as the Epistle shows from first to last. The calling upward or high calling of Phi 3:14 answers to it.

Truly we must distinguish the heavenly calling from the calling in Eph 4:1 , developed in that Epistle which is still more intimate and precious. For it is bound up with the mystery concerning Christ and concerning the church. Accordingly we do not hear of the oneness of the body with its Head in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as we do not hear of Christ the High Priest in that to the Ephesians. Even when church is spoken of in our Epistle (Heb 12:23 ), it is regarded in its individual components, not in its unity: so distinct is the design of each. Hence we are not viewed here as quickened with Christ, raised up together with Him and seated together in Him in heavenly places, but as represented by Him in heaven, where He appears for us and gives us while here below access into the holies.

Christ is shown to surpass Moses and Aaron next, as we have already seen the angels left behind in Heb 1:2 . The contrast with Moses is traced in Heb 3 . That with Aaron begins in the latter part of Heb 4 . But it is well also to notice “our confession.” It leaves room for such as turn out mere professors; for it is not even said “our faith,” though this might soon become a lifeless creed. And this is borne out by the solemn warnings not to neglect, to hold fast, and the like, which abound throughout our Epistle, as we find similarly in the First Epistle to the Corinthians and in that to the Colossians.

It will be noticed that the name of “Jesus” stands here in its simple majesty. For a Jewish Christian it was all-important. Every Jew owned the Messiah or Christ. The Christian Jews confessed Him already come in Jesus. And the aim of this Epistle is to open even from the ancient oracles the varied glories that centre in Him with all the store of blessing for those that are His.

Nor is it only that Jesus “was” faithful, though this is true. But “is” goes farther as the more general and absolute term. Only it seems strange that reverent minds should venture to apply to Him , in the sense, so liable to misconstruction and error, of making or creating Him, when the context clearly points to constituting Him officially.

If Moses was a messenger of God singularly honoured as all confess, he was after all in an inferior position, however faithful in all the house of God. But Jesus was not only a Man approved of God among the Jews beyond all by miracles and wonders and signs in their midst, not only anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, going about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, unequalled in word and deed yet withal the lowliest in obedience and love and holiness; but “He hath been accounted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as He that built the house hath more honour than it” i.e. the house. And in this case the reason has no limit. “For every house is builded by some one; but he that built all things [is] God.” The allusion is evident to the argument and the proofs of Heb 1 . Jesus, whatever office He may fill, is God. He sheds glory on the position He takes, though assuredly the way in which He administers each office redounds to the glory of Him that appointed Him.

It is interesting to see that the axiom of the fourth verse is the morally irresistible argument from design, which has been more or less ably applied by those who have written on the evidence of creation to its Creator. Prof. M. Stuart labours in vain over this verse, and gives up its relevance in the context as hopelessly obscure. But as in Heb 1 and 2 we have seen the universe in relation to Christ, so it is here. God formed it all, but Christ created it as the divine person active in the work, for He is God no less than the Father, and set over the house not as servant like Moses but as Son, and this in the closer sense of the house wherein He dwells, besides the broader one of the universe which He established. The Jews were apt to confine their regards to His choice of themselves. God does not forget, nor would He have us to forget, Christ’s supremacy as Heir of all things.

But there is a truth also of the deepest interest to believers. The house or dwelling-place depends on redemption. Whatever might be the ultimate end of God in what He made, sin came in at once through the creature’s lack of dependence. God could only dwell on the ground of redemption. Hence it is that in Genesis we have no dwelling of God here below. He might visit Adam, or yet more and more touchingly Abraham; but even with Abraham He does not dwell. In Exodus God has His dwelling in the midst of a poor unworthy and failing people; but it is solely in virtue of redemption. No doubt it was only partial and provisional, alike the redemption and the dwelling of God, each the type of that which is perfect and everlasting. And the wonderful fact in Christianity is that both are now verified by the coming and work of our Lord Jesus. No redemption will ever surpass or even equal what is already. With (or by) His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained everlasting redemption. Hence, as Ephesians teaches, we are builded together for God’s habitation in Spirit. The Holy Ghost sent down from heaven makes it good. What an incomparable privilege is God’s dwelling, and Christ’s body, as the same chapter had shown, to say nothing now of the many and yet fuller testimonies! Redemption of the body and of the inheritance will be more evident., but the redemption of our souls now, while only in Christ before God, which is attested and enjoyed in the Holy Spirit’s power, bringing the deepest knowledge of and communion with God for heaven.

Here, however, it is first the general truth of the universe as God’s house, with which we do well to compare Rev 21:3 . It is in the eternal scene fully that this will be vindicated and manifested. Our Epistle does not here develop that perfect rest of God, but pursues its present aim of comparing the great chief of the legal economy with the still greater One Whom the Jews had crucified by the hands of lawless Gentiles. “And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as an attendant for a testimony of thinks afterward to be spoken; but Christ as Son over His house, whose house are we” – we emphatically, as the Epistle never confounds the “sanctified” with mere Jews or all mankind. It states carefully those that are set apart by the Sanctifier, even Jesus, the test of God for man. Moses never rose above a servant, nor is the creature in any case, were he Gabriel in heaven or yet Michael the archangel. Jesus is the Son, the eternal Word, the Only-Begotten who is (not was merely, but is) in the bosom of the Father from everlasting to everlasting. In His case therefore it was not merely for a testimony of what should be spoken. His was and is glory intrinsic and personal. He was the Faithful Witness, as in all things He has the pre-eminence; and so He is here and now spoken of as Son over His house, the house of God, as it ought not to be doubted. There is no sufficient ground for “His own” house as in the A.V. It is the house of God throughout, even though its present application is immensely and necessarily modified by redemption in Christ. Hence His confessors really constitute this house, with the implication in the serious words that follow, “if we hold fast the boldness and the boast of the hope firm to the end.”

The Spirit of God foresaw the danger of those addressed. Freshness of enjoyment is apt to pass, and souls are thereby exposed, under trying circumstances, to turn toward what was left behind when grace and truth wrought in power. The course of time, with distractions within (for so it will be till Christ come, in presence of an enemy who hates all that is of Him) and with attractions for the flesh without, tests souls. It is well when we hold fast firm to the end the boldness and the glorying which the hope forms and entitles us to. But it may be very different even with real children of God; and it will assuredly prove those that are unreal. For the same things which injure those born of God are the ruin of those who have not life in Christ. Hence the grave caution here enjoined, peculiarly needed by those addressed, and in no small measure by those drawn to the Lord’s name out of a professing mass, when clouds gather, difficulties increase, and desertions are frequent.

Is it not an extraordinary deduction from verse 6, that the Christian is in danger from confidence in his soul, and from the boast which glory before us inspires? Yet such is the perversion that prevails among those who shrink from enjoying the revealed riches of God’s grace in Christ. It is plain and sure that the Holy Spirit here takes for granted that the Christian has the confidence to which Christ and His redemption entitle every simple-hearted believer, and that the glory of God we hope for is a happy and settled boast. Those who think otherwise have been defrauded of their proper portion by ignorant, perhaps false, guides. The real danger against which the Hebrew confessors are warned is giving up that confidence and boast. They are urged to hold it fast. This is the reverse of cautioning them against such confidence. The Christian dishonours the Lord by not cherishing true confidence and abounding hope; and yet more by giving them up, through difficulties or trials, when once possessed. This is the dangerous unbelief against which they are admonished.

It is clearly not our standing which is in question; for this being wholly of God and in Christ is settled and sure and unchanging. There is no “if” either as to Christ’s work or as to glad tidings of God’s grace. All there is unconditional grace to faith. The wilderness journey is before us, flowing very simply from the allusion to Moses. And this is followed up with evident suitability in the quotation from Psa 95 . Here it is that “if” has its necessary place, because it is our walk through the desert, where there are so many occasions of failure, and we need constant dependence on God.

“Wherefore even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted [me] * by proof and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was displeased with this * generation, and said, They always err in their heart, and they ignored my ways: as I swore in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. See, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief in falling away from a living God; but exhort yourselves each day while it is called today lest any of you be hardened by deceitfulness of sin” (verses 7-13).

*Text. Rec. follows the later copies, as they with the Septuagint add me and read . The more ancient give the text adopted in this version. A similar remark applies to “this” rather than “that” as in the common text.

Now Psa 95 is in its open force a final call from the Spirit of Christ to Israel in view of the great morrow when the kingdom is introduced for the earth in the power and glory of Messiah’s presence. They are therefore to hear His voice “today” (verse 7). Hence it is truly applicable since the apostles called souls to believe the gospel in view of Christ’s appearing. But nowhere is it more apt than as here urged on the Hebrews.

To hear His voice is the characteristic of Christ’s sheep. So the rejected Son of God puts it Himself in Joh 10:3 , Joh 10:4 , Joh 10:16 , Joh 10:27 : compare Joh 5:24 . On this depend the most blessed issues; as the rejection of His voice is to lie down in sorrow, the prey of a mightier rebel than man. It is the work of the Spirit to give one hitherto deaf to hear Him, according to His will who spoke on “the holy mount” (Mat 17:5 ; Mar 9:7 ; Luk 9:35 ). It is life, eternal life.

Alas! it was easy to hear with the outward ear only, and to harden the heart, even as Stephen warned. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Act 7:5 Act 7:1 ). Sin is in the measure of truth heard and despised; and what testimony can God present to those who refused the voice of Christ not only humbled but glorified, who died for sinners? The very blessedness of the gospel, “so great salvation,” marks the desperateness of the need, and the imminence of the danger.

So, but not at all to the same degree, it was with Israel of old “in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness” (verse 8). The allusion is to Meribah and Massah which the Septuagint thus translates. Compare Psa 95:8 : The Septuagint, however, in Exo 17:7 , gives not “provocation” as in the Psalms, but “reviling” as in verse 2 also. Elsewhere Meribah is rendered , contradiction. Massah is uniformly translated , temptation, and this against God as the strife or reviling was against Moses more immediately. Tempting Jehovah in the desert was saying, Is Jehovah among us or not? This may seem to unbelievers a small offence; in the eyes of God and of faith it is heinous. Had He not broken the pride and power of Egypt on behalf of His poor unworthy people? Had He not brought them out of the house of bondage. triumphantly, their Guide and their Rearguard, to dwell among them and be their God?

“For ask now of the days that are past which were before thee” (says Moses to Israel, Deu 4 ), “since the day that God created man upon the earth and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God essayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptation, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors according to all Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” And was He less toward them all the wilderness journey in daily manna and rock-flowing water, in sheltering care and guiding mercy, notwithstanding their too constant murmuring and waywardness, their disobedience and stubborn rebellion every now and then? Righteousness indeed there was in Him, and holy abhorrence of evil; but O what unwearied compassion and unfailing goodness! Truly they tempted by putting Him to the proof in the midst of unceasing tokens of His faithful presence. It was bad for heathen blinded by lusts and Satan’s power to say, because of the chastisements of Israel’s sins, Where is their God? How much worse for themselves to ask, Is Jehovah among us or not? And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. . . . How often did they rebel against Him in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert! And they turned again, and tempted God and provoked (or limited) the Holy One of Israel (Psa 78:18 , Psa 78:41 , Psa 78:42 ). The least that became such a people before such a God was to judge self and go forward in the assurance of His gracious power. But not so did Israel, though they “saw His works forty years” (verse 9).

“Wherefore I was displeased with this generation, and said, They always err in their hearts, and they ignored my ways” (verse 10). It was just because He is just and true that God felt so deeply the refractory and deceitful rising up of Israel against His will. Their error lay not in their understanding but in their heart: hence they never got to learn God’s ways but ignored them. Moses truly feared and loved Him: thus only are His ways discovered and delighted in. as it is written in another psalm (103), “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” Above His palpable doings they did not discern. “As I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest” (i.e. they shall not). A solemn sentence of exclusion. In man’s mouth it is elliptical, God do so to me and more, if – ! In God’s lips the condition of man’s entering is the moral certainty that it is all over with him. Good is only and wholly of grace. There is no entrance into the rest of God, if it depend on man’s deserts. If they shall enter means for unbelievers, that they shall not enter.

It may be well here to say that God’s rest is for us future and in glory. We lose the force of the teaching in these two chapters, especially Heb 4 in which it is so conspicuous, if we conceive it to be anything given to us on our first believing in Jesus, or found experimentally in submitting to His easy yoke and light burden. Both of these are real and important now, as we know from Mat 11:28-30 . But the rest of God is when work is over and burden is no more; when the enemy deceives not and creation no longer groans, when judgment is executed on earth and righteousness reigns, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day, Heaven and earth shall be united in a chain of descending goodness and universal blessing, when Christ is no longer hid in God, and His sons are revealed for the deliverance which the long enthralled creation awaits. Till that day God works, because there is still unremoved sin and misery; and we work in the communion of His love. When it comes, we shall be in the rest of God.

“See, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief in falling away from a living God; but exhort yourselves each day while it is called today, lest any one of you be hardened by deceitfulness of sin” (verses 12, 13).

Here the root of the mischief is touched. It is “unbelief.” This hindered Israel of old from setting their hope in God (Psa 78:7 ). This exposed them to forget His works and to break His commandments, neither the heart prepared aright nor the spirit stedfast with God. It is impossible that He should lie or be not faithful, yea gracious. Faith is invited and may be bold to rest on Him confidently, now especially that He has raised Christ from the dead and given Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. None, however, were so liable to stop short and ask for signs as the Jews, accustomed as they were to a religious system of rite, ceremony, and symbolism. As Christendom has largely fallen back from faith into a resumption of these rudiments of the world, which the work and glory of Christ now condemn as weak and “beggarly elements” (Gal 4 ). there is like danger of unbelief. It is in truth departure from a living God for forms which He used to do service before Christ came and died atoningly, when redemption from under the law was effected, and the believer passed from bond-service into the status of a son and heir of God, receiving the Spirit of adoption so as to cry Abba, Father. Anything short of this is not Christian relationship; and it is in evident contrast with Jewish subjection to ordinances, to which the Catholic bodies (not Romanist only) have turned back again. It is a deceptive form of unbelief, a going away from the living God to dead forms, because the heart lacks confidence in His grace in Christ.

So it was with Israel; so it is with Christendom. No wonder that it is denounced as “a wicked heart” of unbelief. For what else is or can be distrust of such a God? The more His love is revealed, the more is the heart convicted of wickedness that refuses to receive His grace, or (worse still) gives it up. Nothing more false than to regard faith as a mere process of the mind, involving nothing moral, but on the deep principle of subjection to God’s word. To believe, to bow to Christ Whom God has sent, is the first and most imperative of calls. What obligation to compare with being at the feet of the Son of God, Who became incarnate to suffer for my sins? God too was glorified in Him and His cross, as in nought else. Hence the Father’s glory raised Him from the dead, that believing in Him I should know myself and all who have been brought nigh to God. Is it not a wicked heart of unbelief that neglects so great salvation? It is this even in a worse degree, after confessing Him, to depart from a living God thus proved for any other object: for here only is He known truly by a sinner and best honoured. For us love, service, worship, and all that is good follow faith and cannot exist without it.

Hence the call to encourage, not exactly one another, though this is included, but “yourselves,” which seems rather more pointed than the former phrase. They were to encourage each other day by day as long as it is called today (the day of grace), that none should be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. For which of us knows not by humbling and bitter experience its luring character and slippery paths? A little evil allowed is the beginning of very great evil. The heart is hardened as we look off from Jesus, and self-pleasing takes the place of doing God’s will; and only mercy’s intervention hinders the end from being, according to the way. Truly sin is deceitful.

It is the wilderness which is ever before us in this Epistle; not Canaan, the type of the heavenly places, which is the ground of the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is here therefore the scene of trial and danger through unbelief, with the fleshly and worldly lusts to which it exposes. Hence here too the early exhortations are interspersed with doctrine. Further, as in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, profession has prominence. For though reality is assumed, room is left for those whose minds only accepted the truth which their lips confessed, but they were not born of God, and hence fell away through fear, external attractions, revival of their religious habits, or other causes of a natural kind. For this reason we have responsibility urged with grave warnings, and as the Gentile saints are so dealt with in Corinth, so here are the Hebrews that bore the name of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, as has been often remarked, the “ifs” which so abound in this context as elsewhere. Faith profits by the admonitions which flesh takes lightly to its fall in the desert. Where the tie of life and love was never formed between Christ and the soul, the need of grace and mercy is not felt; glory on high, fades into nothingness, as the earth rises before the heart as a place of present enjoyment in desire, if not effectively.

“For we have become companions of Christ, if indeed we hold fast the beginning of the assurance until the end while it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For who on hearing did provoke? Nay, did not all that came out of Egypt through Moses? And with whom was he displeased forty years? And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest but to the disobedient? And we see that they could not enter in on account of unbelief” (verses 14-19).

The word often translated is the same as is quoted from the Greek version of Psa 45 in Heb 1:9 . “Companion” would be more modern English, but the same rendering is kept up here as in the Psalm to which the allusion is made. “Partakers” not only breaks the thread of connection, but suggests what might easily mislead. There is no lowering of Christ’s glory in applying the word to those who confess Him. For when first used, the Holy Spirit carefully recalls how God owns Messiah as God, and even when grace adds companions of His people, He is anointed as man above them all. He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one, and to be manifested in the same heavenly glory. But some who seem to begin well stop short or turn aside. It was faith of mere mind and feeling, not the Holy Spirit’s living work in the conscience; and such in the strain of trial, or weary of habitual self-judgment, or turning again to the mirth and pleasant enjoyments of the world, abandon first the path and then the word and the name of Christ. The dangers of the Hebrew confessors found its parallel in their fathers’ snares during the journeyings of the wilderness, and we now in Christendom are exposed to like danger. The possession of the heavenly privileges is evidenced and conditioned by holding stedfast to the end the beginning of the assurance of the Christian.

How then say some who assume to teach that it is presumption to have any such “assurance”? For the assurance here insisted on as proper, incumbent, and necessary from first to last is grounded on the glorified Lord Jesus, our propitiation and our high, priest, on the divine dignity of His person and the accepted efficacy of His work for us, leading, as He undertook, many sons to glory. One can hardly therefore find doctrine more opposed to the gospel than a preliminary denial of that assurance which every Christian is solemnly exhorted, not merely to have but to hold fast, yea firm to the end. If assurance be founded on anything in ourselves, the sooner the better to abandon what was really self-righteous and unbecoming and spurious. The confidence which dispenses with continued dependence on God is worthless and a delusion of the enemy. But if we rest on Him by faith, we are bound to have and cherish by faith what is only His due. And it may be that the Hellenistic sense of “confidence,” while certain from the usage of Polybius (4: 54, 10; 5: 16, 4; 6: 55, 2; Diod. Sic., etc.), as cited in modern commentaries, flows from its primitive meaning of subsistence, substance, and the like. Compare Heb 4:3 ; Heb 11:1 . It points strongly to an objective base in the Christ, instead of a mere sentiment in the soul which might easily change and fade away. But the Spirit, where there is life, keeps believers true to the Lord.

Doubtless “today” is a serious and trying time (verse 15). We are in the wilderness, and without God what is there but difficulty and danger for His people, weak as spilt water in themselves? But there especially He speaks in His word; and even when the kingdom comes, the prophetic word calls His own to hear His voice. If they were bitterly provoking, He was patient and gracious. And if there be difference now, as there is assuredly, since Christ accomplished redemption, and took His seat at God’s right hand, and sent down the Holy Spirit to be in us who believe, it is still said, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.” What He has done and revealed and made ours, so transcending all wrought of old in Egypt and the desert, ought to be the most powerful stimulus, as well as firm foundation, in heeding His revealed will against our treacherous hearts, so sure to grow hard if we slight His word or tamper with sin. “Today” is till Jesus comes, the point so constant in N.T. expectation. Is He your expectation, my brother?

“For who on hearing did provoke? Nay, did not all who came out of Egypt through Moses?” (verse 16).

The A.V. followed the indefinite pronoun, not the interrogative as is here preferred with the R.V. Thus the appeal has all force. It was not “some” only but the mass, as is put immediately afterwards, a shameful answer to Jehovah’s favour toward Israel. And it is of painful interest to observe how the Spirit employs the same scenes with yet more detail in 1Co 10 to warn the Gentile faithful at Corinth, as here for the Jewish. What made the case so grave is that it was after they heard they fell into the provocation. So sin is worse far in a baptised man than in a mere Jew or Gentile; and the idolatry of Mary or Peter or an angel worse in the sight of God than that of Zeus or Venus. “All that came out of Egypt by Moses!” O what power, judicial and delivering, had they not witnessed! What continual goodness and withal solemn dealings with rebellion and profanity! The Christian profession is admonished to beware of similar departure. “And with whom was He displeased forty years? Was it not with those that sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?” (verse 17.) It was no mere sudden slip, but the grave evil of habitual state that aroused His strong displeasure; alas! the whole period of His unparalleled intervention in the wilderness, where their stay gave occasion to His constant and wondrous tokens of mercy before all eyes. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, or walk in obedience, holiness, and love. Without it there is but sin continually; as they sinned, and their carcases fell. For God is not mocked, nor His righteous government which was then visibly displayed.

“And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to the disobedient?” (verse 18.) Disobedience, and above all disobedience such as this, God abhors and judges. It is not meant in isolated acts, but insubjection to Himself; just the opposite of what Rom 1 calls the obedience of faith, now especially as He has in grace revealed Himself in the lord Jesus. It is yet deeper than obedience to His commands, however important this may be in its place, and the proof not only of love but of divinely characterised faith, and therefore of life in Christ Such as are insubmissive to Himself, especially now that the Son has declared Him, shall assuredly not enter into the rest of God, the heavenly glory at Christ’s coming. So He swore then; as His wrath is now revealed from heaven against all such ungodliness, even if after a sort they hold the truth ever so fast in unrighteousness.

The next verse closes this portion with a word on the root of the evil thus disclosed. “And we see that they could not enter in on account of unbelief” (verse 19). Their having disobeyed God in the sense of hearkening not to His word, and thus of insubjection to Himself, pointed to their inward unbelief. Present, palpable, visible things were their all. God was in none of their thoughts really; for it is no question of idle dreamy sentiment but of spiritual life. How could unbelief or those marked by it enter His blessed glorious rest?

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

Hebrews

CONSIDER JESUS

Heb 3:1

THE kinds of consideration enjoined in these two exhortations are somewhat different. The former of them is expressed by a word which means fixed attention and close scrutiny. It is employed, for instance, by our Lord in His injunctions to consider the ravens and the lilies, and by Peter in his account of his vision of the great sheet let down from heaven, upon which, when he had fixed his eye, he considered. Such a fastened gaze of awakened interest and steady contemplation, the writer would have all who are partakers of the heavenly calling to direct upon Jesus. The other exhortation refers to a specific kind of contemplation. The word might almost be rendered ‘compare,’ for it means to weigh one thing in relation to another. It is the contemplation of comparison which is meant. What or whom is the comparison to be drawn between? Jesus, as the Leader of the great host of the faithful, and ourselves. The main point of comparison is to be found in the difficulties of the Christian life. Think what he has borne and what you have to bear; how He bore it and where, having borne it, He is now. The Captain has sustained the whole brunt of the assault and has conquered. Think of Him and be brave, and lift up the hands that hang down, and confirm the feeble knees. So, then, throwing these two injunctions together, we may regard them as impressing upon us an all-important exercise of mind and heart, without which there can be no vigorous Christian life, and which, I fear me, is woefully neglected by the average Christian to-day. I. I ask you to think first of this gaze of the Christian soul ‘Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.’ I have said that the word implies an awakened interest, a fixed and steady gaze; and that is almost the Alpha and the Omega of the Christian life. So to live in the continual contemplation of Jesus our Pattern and our Redeemer is the secret of all Christian vitality and vigour. There must he no languid look, as between half-opened eyelids, as men look upon some object in which they have little interest, but there must be the sharpened gaze of interested expectancy, believing that in Him on whom we look there lie yet undiscovered depths, and yet undreamed-of powers, which may be communicated to us. There must be not only the sharpened look of contemplation, but there must he a very considerable protraction of the gaze. You will never see Jesus Christ if you look at Him only by snatches for a moment, and then turn away the eye from Him, any more than a man who comes out from some brilliantly lighted and dazzling room into the darkness, as it at first appears, of the midnight heavens, can see their glories. The focus of the eye must be accommodated to the object of vision, before there can be any real sight of Him. We must sit before Him, and be content to give time to the gaze, if we are to get any good out of it. Nobody sees the beauties of a country who hurries through it in an express train. These passing glances, which are all that so many of us can spare for the Master, are of little use in revealing Him to us. You do not feel Mont Blanc unless you sit and gaze and let the fair vision soak into your souls, and you cannot understand Jesus Christ, nor see anything in Him, unless you deal with Him in like fashion. But if there be this steady and protracted contemplation of the Lord, then, amidst all the bustle of our daily life, and the many distractions which we all have to face, there will come sudden flashes of glory and the clouds will lift often, and let us see the whole white range in its majesty and sublimity. They who know what it is to come apart into a solitary place, and rest awhile with Him, will know what it is to bear the vision with them amid all the distractions of duty and the noise of the world. There is no way by which we can bring an unseen person to have any real influence upon our lives except by the direction of our thoughts to Him. So if you professing Christian men and women will give your thoughts and your affections and the run of your minds to everything and everybody rather than to your Master, there is no wonder that your religion is of so little use to you, and brings so little blessing or power or nobleness into your lives. The root of weakness lies in the neglect of that solemn and indispensable duty to consider Jesus, in patient contemplation and steadfast beholding. Now such thoughts as these, as to the relation between the protracted gaze and a true realisation of the Master’s presence, cast light upon such a question as the observance of the Sunday. I do not care to insist upon anybody keeping this day sacred for devout purposes unless he is a Christian man. I would not talk about the obligation, but about the privilege., And this I say, that unless you have a reservoir you will have empty pipes, and the water supply in your house will fail And unless you Christian men and women use this blessed breathing time, which is given to us week after week, in order to secure that quiet, continuous contemplation of the Master, which is almost impossible for most of us amidst the rush and hurry of the week day, your religion will always be a poor thing. I know, of course, that we may be taunted with concentrating and clotting, as it were, devout contemplations into one day in seven, and then leaving all the rest of the week void of Christ, and may be told how much better is worship diffused through all life. But I am sure that the shortest way to have no religion at all is to have it only as a diffused religion. If it is to be diffused it must first be concentrated; and no man will carry Jesus Christ with him throughout the distractions of daily life who does not know what it is to be often in the secret place of the Most High, there in the silence of fixed spirit, to ‘consider Jesus Christ.’ Then let me remind you, too, that such a gaze as this is not to be attained without decisive effort. You have to cut off sidelights; just as a man will twist up a roll of paper and put it to his eye and shut Out everything on either side, if he wants to see the depth of colour in a picture. So we have to look away from much if we would look unto Christ, and to be contented to be blind to a great deal that is fascinating and dazzling, if we would be clear sighted as to the things that are far off. The eye of nature must be closed if the eye of the Spirit is to be opened. And if we are to see the things that are, we must resolutely shut out the false glories of the things that only do appear. For these are perishable, and the others are real and eternal. II. Secondly, notice here a little more particularly the object of the Christian gaze. We may dwell briefly in this connection upon the predicates of our Lord in these two verses. According to the true reading of the first of them we are to consider Jesus. The first thing that is to rivet our interested and continuous contemplation is the manhood of the Lord. That name Jesus is never used in this epistle, and seldom in any part of the New Testament, without the intention of especially emphasizing the humanity of Christ. It is that fair life, as it is unrolled before us in the pages of the Gospels, to which we are to look for illumination, for inspiration, for pattern and motive of service, and for all companionship in suffering and victory in warfare. ‘Consider Jesus,’ our Brother, the Man that has lived our life and died our death. Note that we have to consider Him in His offices, ‘the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.’ This is the only instance in scripture in which the name ‘Apostle’ is given to our Lord. And of course it is here employed not in its technical, but in its wider and etymological sense. It means ‘one who is sent.’ The contrast floating in the writer’s mind is apparently between Jesus and Moses; the two men both of whom, though in different fashion, were God’s messengers to found a polity. Perhaps another contrast is floating in his mind, such as he has drawn out at length in the first chapter of this great epistle, between those by whom ‘at sundry times and in divers manners God spake unto the fathers’; and Him ‘by whom in these last days, He has, once for all, spoken unto us.’ Possibly there is also a contrast between Jesus Christ the Lord of the angels, and the ministering spirits who, the previous context tells us, ‘are sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation’ The name thus lifts Christ above Moses, prophets, angels, and sets Him on a pedestal, as the sole and single Revealer of the will of God to the world. The Father sanctified and sent Him into the world to be the one communicator of His perfect Name. The completeness and uniqueness of our Lord’s revealing mission are expressed in that title. The other side of what is needful for communion between God and man is expressed in the other designation, ‘the High Priest.’ Two things go to make complete communion – God’s revelation to us and our approach to God. Christ is the Agent of both. As the subsequent context – where this idea of High Priest is more fully developed – distinctly shows, the main ideas connected with it in the writer’s mind here, are intercession and sympathy. So on the one hand, as Apostle, He brings God to us; and on the other hand, as Priest, He brings us to God; and makes the golden link by which heaven and earth are united, and God tabernacles with man. It is this Christ – not merely in His manhood, but in that manhood interpreted as being the medium of all revelation possible to the world, and as being, on the other hand, the medium of all the access that sinful men can have to God – it is this Christ whom we are to consider, not merely in the sweetness and gentleness and holiness of His lovely Manhood as recorded in the gospels, but in these mighty offices of which that Manhood was the discharge and the expression, whereby God dwells with man, and sinful men can dwell with God. We hear a great deal in these days about Christianity being Christ and not doctrines. I say, too, Christianity is Christ, but I say it is the Christ whom these great truths proclaim to us that we have to grasp. And it is not enough to consider Jesus from a mere humanitarian point of view, nor will the consideration of Him be peace and power and holiness and life to men, unless they consider Him as the ‘Apostle and High Priest of their profession.’ And again, we have to consider not only the Manhood in itself, and the offices which that Manhood discharges, but also the sorrows through which it passes. That is the force of the second of my two texts. We have to think of that Lord, who is the Leader of all the great host of the faithful, whose praises have been sung in the magnificent roll-call of the eleventh chapter; and to turn away from their lesser struggles, and paler beauties, and less complete victories. We have to think of what Jesus Christ bore, of what was laid upon Him, of how He bore it, and of how He has been exalted now to the right hand of God. Compare our difficulties and trials with His, and think that these are the pattern for us; and that we have to tread the path which He trod. Then consider how insignificant ours are in comparison with His. The whole fury of the tempest broke upon Him. It is only the tail of the storm that comes to us. The whole force of the blow was sustained unfalteringly by the steadfast Christ. It is only the blunt sword which has glanced off His strong shoulder to smite us.

‘We need not seek a resting place Where He we loved had none.’

And if we will ‘consider Him that endured,’ sorrow and difficulty and opposition in our Christian life will dwindle into a very little thing, and will become a token that as is the Master so is the servant. III. Lastly, notice the blessings of this gaze. First, let us consider Him for calmness amidst a world full of noise and confusion. We live in a time and in a city where life is very crowded; and the pressure of every day is almost more than some of us can bear. There is no relief from the continual agitation about trifles, from the hurry and bustle of this community and this country, as continuous, and in the truest point of view as aimless and insignificant as the running of ants upon an ant hill – except we live in the daily contemplation of Jesus Christ. Nothing will quiet a man like that. It gives a certain sense of remoteness, and a very positive conviction of insignificance, to what else is intrusively and obtrusively near, and fallaciously appears to be important to us. Christ’s voice quiets the storm.

‘On my soul Looks Thy fair face and makes it still.’

If you would have inward calmness, without which life is busy slavery, ‘consider Jesus.’ Again, that gaze will help us to a fixed confidence amidst the fluctuations of opinion. We live in a day of unrest, when the foundations are being re- investigated, and the Tree of Life can scarcely grow because men are digging it up to look at its roots. Let us try to remember that the vital centre of all is Jesus, that faith is independent of criticism, and that if we can realise His presence in our lives in these great capacities of which I have been speaking, and as the Companion of our difficulties who has trodden the same path that we have to tread, then we can look very quietly upon all the unsolved questions which are important in their place, but which, however they are answered, do not touch that central fact and our possible relation to Him. ‘Consider Jesus,’ and then you will be able to say, ‘The things which can he shaken are removed that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.’ Ceremonies, churches, creeds, have all of them a human element, which will go. The divine Christ is the permanent in Christianity. I might turn the word of my text in another direction for a moment, though it is a digression. After unbelieving theories have done their worst, I would say to the men who advocate them, ‘Consider Christ.’ Look at that fair vision. Where did it come from? Account for Him on any hypothesis but the truth of these four gospels. Account for His influence in the world on any hypothesis but His divine mission. You may talk till Doomsday, but you have to reckon with Jesus Christ, and to explain Him. Until you do, you have not established your negations. The reef on which so many goodly ships of unbelief have struck, and where their hulls lie broken and covered with the drifting sands of oblivion, is waiting for many a flaunting theory of today. ‘Consider Christ.’ That shatters anti-supernatural religion. And, last of all, let us do it for diligence in service and patience in suffering. If we lay that fair image upon our hearts, it will lead to love, and love will make us toil in His service. If the sensitive plate be laid in the sunshine it will receive the image of the sun. If we consider Him, thereby, and not without such consideration, shall we become like Him. As for our suffering and toils and difficulties, how they dwindle, and how easy patience is when we think of Him! Simon the Cyrenian had to carry the Cross after Christ, but we have only to carry a very little, light one, when compared with that which He bore and which bore Him. We compare our suffering with His, and are silent. We have to think of what He deserved and we deserve, and the blush comes to our cheeks. We have to remember how He bore, and how we have borne, and we are ashamed of our fretfulness and petulance. We have to think of Him at the right hand of God. The poor fighters in the arena can lift their eyes to the place where the Emperor sits between the purple curtains, and with the flashing axes of the guard round Him, and remembering that He, throned there, was once wrestling here as we are, and that we shall be throned with Him, the thought will make us bear the blows, and run the race, and face the lions. So, dear brother, the sure means of calmness amidst agitation, of confidence amidst the fluctuations of a restless age, of strenuous warfare, of diligent service, and patient endurance, lies here in the consideration of Christ. If we try to keep Him before our eyes life will be blessed. The secret of joy and peace on earth is the consideration of the Master by faith, and to see Him as He is will be the heaven of heaven. Here, the condition of holiness, joy, peace, power, is ‘consider Jesus’; and yonder the Charter of new felicities and new capacities will be, ‘Behold the Lamb.’ If we set Him at our right hand we shall not be moved, and shall walk in the light of His countenance on earth, and He will set us at His right hand in the heavens, where His servants shall serve Him and see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb 3:1-6

1Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3For 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. 4For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 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.

Heb 3:1

NASB, NKJV”holy brethren”

NRSV”brothers and sisters”

TEV”my Christian friends”

NJB”holy brothers”

To whom was this book addressed? The term “brethren” is used repeatedly (cf. Heb 2:11; Heb 3:1; Heb 3:12; Heb 10:19; Heb 13:22) which (along with the subject matter) implies Jewish believers.

“partakers of a heavenly calling” This concept is used in several ways in the Bible.

1. Israel was called by God to be a kingdom of priests to bring the world back to God (cf. Gen 12:3; Exo 19:5). In the OT this was a call to service, not individual salvation, and a corporate call (national Israel) to an assigned task (worldwide evangelization).

2. Individual believers are called (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65) to an eternal salvation.

3. Every individual Christian is called to serve the body of Christ through spiritual giftedness (cf. 1Co 12:7; 1Co 12:11).

SPECIAL TOPIC: CALLED

“consider Jesus” This is an aorist active imperative. It means to consider thoughtfully (cf. Heb 10:24). In context this implies comparing His person and work with the leaders of the Mosaic covenant.

“the Apostle and High Priest” These two titles deal with Jesus’ superiority over Moses as official messenger and Aaron as the Levitical high priest. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with Jesus’ superiority over Aaron. Since the Greek terms for “messenger” and “angel” are the same, “apostle,” which was a Greek term “to send,” may relate to both angels sent by God to serve those being saved (cf. Heb 1:14) and to Jesus sent by God to redeem those who are being saved (cf. Joh 3:17). This is the only place in the NT that Jesus is called “the Apostle,” although John uses the verb over and over to refer to Him being “sent” from the Father (cf. Joh 3:17; Joh 3:34; Joh 5:36; Joh 5:38; Joh 6:29; Joh 6:57; Joh 7:29; Joh 8:42; Joh 10:36; Joh 11:42; Joh 17:3; Joh 17:18; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; Joh 17:25; Joh 20:21).

“Apostle” This comes from the verb “to send” (see Special Topic: Send (apostell ) and was used by the rabbis in the sense of one sent as an official representative of another. Moses served in the house of God as a servant while Jesus was “a son,” a family member. God called Moses to serve, but sent Jesus from heaven.

“High Priest” Hebrews is the only book of the Bible to call Jesus high priest (cf. Heb 2:17; Heb 3:1; Heb 4:14-15; Heb 5:5; Heb 5:10; Heb 6:20; Heb 7:26; Heb 7:28; Heb 8:1; Heb 8:3; Heb 9:11; Heb 10:21). It takes an extensive rabbinical argumentation to convince first century Jews that Jesus, from the tribe of Judah, really was a priest. The Dead Sea Scrolls community expected two Messiahs, one royal (tribe of Judah) and one priestly (tribe of Levi, cf. Psalms 110; Zechariah 3-4).

“our confession” This is the Greek term homologia, which is a compound of “to say” and “the same.” The readers had made a confession of their faith in Jesus Christ. Now they must hold fast this confession/profession (cf. Heb 4:14; Heb 10:23). This is one of the main issues of the book.

SPECIAL TOPIC: CONFESSION

Heb 3:2 “He was faithful to Him who appointed Him” In context the emphasis is on (1) the Father’s choosing and equipping Jesus for an assigned redemptive task (cf. Mar 3:14) and (2) Jesus exercising faith (present participle) in the Father as believers are to exercise faith. He is truly one with mankind. However, one possible etymology for “appointed” is “create.” Arius used the verb “appointed” in his controversy with Athanasius to assert that Jesus was the highest creation (cf. Pro 8:22) of God, but not deity Himself (cf. Act 2:36; Rom 1:4; Col 1:15). This fourth century controversy produced the clear teaching of one divine essence, but three eternal personal manifestations, Father, Son, and Spirit (the Trinity). These three divine persons have eternally made up the one true God (cf. Joh 1:1-18). For a good brief discussion of Arianism, see Christian Theology (2nd ed.) by Millard J. Erickson, pp. 711-715.

“all His house” This is a reference to Num 12:7-8. The people of God being the house of God is an oft repeated biblical metaphor (cf. Heb 3:6, “household,” Gal 6:10; 1Ti 3:15; “spiritual house,” 1Pe 2:5; “household of God,” 1Pe 4:17). “House” is used six times in this paragraph, sometimes with the connotation of a building and sometimes of a family. The argument seems to run as follows

1. Moses was part of God’s house/household, but Jesus was the builder of that house

2. Moses is a servant, while Jesus is a family member

3. Moses failed to bring in God’s rest, while Jesus will not fail

Heb 3:3 “counted worthy of more glory than Moses” This is a perfect passive indicative. This would have been an absolutely shocking statement to Jews (cf. 2Co 3:7-11).

Heb 3:4 “For every house is built by someone” This has been used for the philosophical/theological argument of “ultimate cause” in an attempt to prove the existence of God (cf. Thomas Aquinas). However, this line of reasoning (“first cause”) can never arrive at the revelation of God as Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor at God as friend of sinners.

“but the builder of all things is God” The Father is creator of all (cf. Rom 11:36; 1Co 15:25-27). Jesus was the Father’s agent in creation (cf. Joh 1:3; 1Co 8:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2).

Heb 3:5-6 “but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house” Jesus a son (there is no article, cf. Heb 1:2; Heb 3:6; Heb 5:8; Heb 7:28) is contrasted with Moses, the servant (cf. Heb 1:2; Heb 3:5; Heb 5:8; Heb 7:28; Exo 14:31; Num 12:7). Moses was a faithful servant (cf. Num 12:7), but Jesus was a family member!

Heb 3:5 Moses spoke of Christ in Deu 18:18-19 (cf. 1Pe 1:11). This repeats the truth of Heb 1:1.

Heb 3:6 “whose house we are” This is the family of faith described as a house (cf. Gal 6:10; 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 4:17). This same type of collective building metaphor is employed when the church is called a temple (cf. 1Co 3:16). The focus is on (1) Jesus’ ownership and (2) the people of God as a corporate entity.

It is unusual to speak of the church as Jesus’ house. Because of this some ancient Greek manuscripts changed the pronoun so that it refers to the Father (cf. MSS P46 and D*).

“if” This is a third class conditional which means potential action (ean plus a subjunctive). This gives the statement an element of contingency (cf. Heb 3:14; Heb 4:14; Rom 11:22; 1Co 15:2).

“we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope” “Hold fast” is a continuing emphasis on perseverance (aorist active subjunctive, cf. Heb 3:14; Heb 4:14, see Special Topic at Heb 4:14). The rest of this chapter and chapter 4 is one continual warning (1) for the Jewish believers to move to maturity and (2) for those who have heard the gospel and seen it powerfully in the lives of their believing Jewish friends to fully accept it themselves.

“boast of our hope” This emphasis on hope is characteristic of Hebrews (cf. Heb 3:6; Heb 6:11; Heb 7:19; Heb 10:23; Heb 11:1). Hope refers to the sure consummation of our faith!

SPECIAL TOPIC: HOPE

“firm until the end” This phrase does not appear in the ancient Greek manuscripts P46 or B and, therefore, is possibly not original. However, it is included in other ancient uncial Greek manuscripts (, A, C, D, K, and P). It is included in Heb 3:14 and was probably transposed here by a scribe for the sake of balance. It surely fits the theology of the context. See Special Topic at Heb 7:11.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

holy. See Act 9:13.

brethren. i.e. of one another.

partakers. Greek. metochos. See Heb 1:9.

heavenly. Greek. epouranios. See Joh 3:12.

calling. Compare Heb 12:25.

consider. App-133.

Apostle. Only here applied to the Lord. App-189

profession. Greek. homologia. See 2Co 9:13.

Christ. The texts omit.

Jesus. App-98.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

1.] Whence (i. e. seeing that we have such a helper: it is connected with the result of ch. 2: not, surely, with ch. Heb 1:1, as De W. The fact just announced in Heb 2:18, is a reason for : see below), hely brethren (Michaelis proposed to put a comma at , and treat the two as separate,-brethren (and) saints. But, as Bleek observes, the rhythm seems against this, . . following. And a graver objection may be found in the choice of the words themselves: for there can hardly be a doubt that both are used in reference to the and of ch. Heb 2:11-12. Not that the here are Christs brethren: but that the use of the word reminds them of that brotherhood in and because of Christ, of which he has before spoken. Whether the idea of common nationality is here to be introduced, is at least doubtful. I should rather regard it as swallowed up in the great brotherhood in Christ: and Bleek has well remarked, that, had the Writer been addressing believing Jews and Gentiles, or even believing Gentiles only, he would have used the same term of address and without any conscious difference of meaning), partakers (see on , ch. Heb 2:14; and reff. here) of a heavenly calling (, as usual, of the invitation, or summons, of God, calling men to His glory in Christ-and hence of the state which is entered by them in pursuance of that calling: cf. especially Php 3:14, . Then also (see reff.)-a calling made from heaven, see ch. Heb 12:25; vocatio qu de clo, Syr. Or it may mean, the calling which proposes a heavenly reward,-whose inheritance is in heaven. By far the best way is, to join the two meanings together: so Bengel, per Dominum e clo fact, et eo, unde facta est, perducentis. In fact the calling being and proceeding from heaven, must of necessity be heavenly in its purport and heavenward in its result; eine vom himmel aus ergangene und gen himmel rufende: ihr Ausgangsort, ihr Inhalt, ihr Ziel-das Alles ist himmlisch. Delitzsch), contemplate (survey, with a view to more closely considering. The word is used of the survey of the spies at Jericho ( , … Jos. Antt. v. 1. 2: cf. also Gen 42:9, , , and Num 32:8-9); and of fixing the thoughts on any object, see reff. Luke, with whom it is a favourite word. The meaning then of the exhortation here is not, pay attention to (ut sedule attendant ad Christum, Calv.), be obedient to, but as above) the Apostle and High Priest (notice that but one art. covers both . and ., thereby making it certain that both words belong to ) of our profession, Jesus (, as superior to the , being Himself the angel of the covenant, Gods greatest messenger: the word being, as Ebrard, avoided, on account of its technical use before, to prevent Christ being confused with the angels in nature. He is : see Joh 20:21. (I may remark, that the circumstance of the Writer using without scruple, as designating our Lord, may shew that the as a class were not so distinctly marked as they have since been: a view supported also by some expressions of St. Paul: e. g. 2Co 8:23.)

Ebrard well remarks, that all the difficulties which Commentators have found in this term vanish, on bearing well in mind the comparison between Christ and the angels in ch. Heb 1:2. See an instance of this in the elaborate discussion of its meaning on Hebraistic grounds in the last edition of Tholuck; who, by rendering ., mediator, has lost the joint testimony of the two, . and ., to Christs mediatorship. Bengel says well on the two,- ., eum qui Dei causam apud nos agit: ., qui causam nostram apud Deum agit. Hic Apostolatus et Pontificatus uno mediatoris vocabulo continentur. ., of our Christian confession,-i. e. of our faith: so Thl., , . And so Thdrt., c., and Erasm., Calv., Beza, Grot., al. Tholuck objects, that thus we get no good sense for : but he does not seem to have taken into account the parallel with ch. Heb 1:14. Thos. Aquinas, Luther, Camero, Calov., Owen (as an altern.), Wolf, al., and De Wette, and Tholuck, take the words as merely importing whom we confess. But although De W. defends this from ch. Heb 4:14, it does not seem to agree with the usage there, ,-nor with ch. Heb 10:23,-nor 1Ti 6:12-13. To render by covenant, as Camerar., Tittmann, al., is not according to N. T. usage, which always has for this idea. There is a remarkable passage quoted by Wetst., out of Philo de Somn. i. 38, vol. i. p. 654, containing the expression : a parallel hardly to be accounted accidental, especially as the here spoken of is the (see above, 37, p. 653, , , , ). But Bleek has argued that, there being nothing in the context, or in the usage of Philo elsewhere, which can justify there, the only inference open to us is, that it has been inserted in Philos text from this passage.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Shall we turn in our Bibles now to Hebrews the third chapter.

Wherefore, holy brethren ( Heb 3:1 ),

The word wherefore immediately leads us back to that which is immediately preceding, and that is the declaration of the superiority of Jesus over the angels. Because He is superior over the angelic beings being the Son of God.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus ( Heb 3:1 );

Here we are called upon to consider Jesus, and that’s what the book of Hebrews, really, is all about. And again later on we’ll be called to consider Jesus.

Paul calls them, “holy brethren and partakers of the heavenly calling.” He calls Jesus, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.”

The book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews. Those who had grown up and had been thoroughly trained in the religion of the Hebrews, in Judaism, who were used to having a high priest; used to the ceremonies in the temple; used to all of the regalia and the worship of the priesthood. They were used to the high priest going in on the Day of Atonement and making atonement for the sins of the people. Now he is going to declare we have a high priest, and in time he is going to show the superiority of our High Priest over the priests who are after the order of Levi.

But for the time being in chapter three, he is going to show us the superiority of Jesus over Moses through whom the priesthood was established. In other words, God established His house, the spiritual house, through Moses. And it was through Moses that the tabernacle was set up and the dimensions and all declared. And so he’s going to show the superiority of Jesus.

“Consider now the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, the Messiah Jesus.”

Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all of his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has builded the house has more honor than the house ( Heb 3:2-3 ).

Now it is interesting that the figure of the house is used for the congregation of the people of God. We are told in the New Testament that the church is the building of God. We are the royal priesthood. We are of the household of faith. This idea of the house of God being the church, God’s people, where God dwells. In the Old Testament Israel was the house of God and the temple was known as the house of the Lord. When Solomon built the temple, he called it the house of the Lord. “I know that the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that we have built.” ( 2Ch 6:18 )

The interesting thing to me, the glorious thing to me is that God desires to dwell with His people. Now, He could dwell anywhere in the universe that He pleased, and He does fill the universe, but it is the Lord’s desire to come and to dwell among His people. God just loves dwelling among His people. Oh, that we would recognize the presence of God as He comes to dwell among His people. And so tonight as we lift our voices in worship and praise unto Him, God dwelling here in the midst of His people. Just an awesome reality how God loves to dwell among His people.

The one who builds the house is greater than the house itself. It was the Lord who built the house; thus, He is greater than the house. He is deserving of more honor and glory.

For every house is builded by some man ( Heb 3:4 );

That is the idea of the effect and a cause. You cannot have an effect without a cause. Every house is built by some man. You look at a house and you like the architecture and the style and you say, “I wonder who built that house. I wonder who drew up the designs.” And if I would try and snow you and say, “Nobody built that house, just one day it appeared there. You know, we had an earthquake and the earth was shaking and all, and pop. Right out of the earth here this thing is; beautiful dormers and stainglasses and the whole thing, just marvelous.” You’d say, “You’re crazy, man.” You can’t have an effect without a cause. You can’t have a house without a builder. Things just don’t happen that way, unless they’re man according to the evolutionary theory. Every house has a builder, the cause and effect, and the builder of all things is God. It is the argument of cause and effect.

Here’s the house. And if you’ve got a house, you have to have a builder of the house. Here’s the church. You have to have one that built the church. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” So he who has built the house is greater than the house itself.

and he who built all things is God. Now Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after ( Heb 3:4-5 );

So Moses was faithful; he gave to us the laws of God. He was a servant and he declared unto us the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, the worship, the ordinances, which were all a shadow of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in Colossians, “These things were all a shadow of things to come. The real substance is Jesus.” If you go back in the law, if you go back in the sacrifices, if you go back in the ordinances and in those things, you will find that Jesus is behind it all. It is all pointing to Jesus. The offering for sin and all, they are all pointing to Jesus. So he was a faithful servant as he testified of those things which were to be spoken after. So there is the prophetic aspect to the writings of Moses that were fulfilled in Jesus.

But Christ as a son over his own house ( Heb 3:6 );

Moses was a servant in the house, faithful, but Christ is as the son over the house.

whose house we are, [the house of Jesus Christ, the building of God, the church, the place where God has chosen to dwell] if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end ( Heb 3:6 ).

Here we have the exhortation towards perseverance. There was a danger and it was happening that some of the Jews who had come out of Judaism and all of its traditions, they were beginning to slip back into Judaism, going back to the traditions. So Paul is warning them . . . I believe it is Paul. Whoever it was that wrote Hebrews is warning them, and if I slip and say Paul, you’ll know that that’s my opinion. Is warning them to maintain their hope that they have come to in Christ and hold fast that confidence and the rejoicing of hope unto the end.

Wherefore as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works for forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest ( Heb 3:7-11 ).

So he is going to make reference to this ninety-fifth Psalm a couple of times here in chapters 3 and 4, as he is going to be pointing out the superiority of Jesus over Moses. For Moses, a servant in the house bringing them the testimony of God and the law of God, could not lead them into the rest. Moses could not lead them into the Promise Land. They came to the waters of Meribah, which means strife. They came to the wilderness to the area of Meribah and they cried unto Moses and said, “You’ve brought us out here to die. We have no water. We’re going to perish. We would have been better to have stayed in Egypt.” Moses had been hearing this stuff for forty years, and he had had it. He couldn’t take it any more. He went in before God and said, “God, I’ve had it. I can’t stand it. Nothing but murmuring and griping for forty years. They’re not my children. I didn’t produce all these people and I’m sick of trying to carry them.” God said, “Moses, they’re thirsty. They need water. You go out and speak to the rock that it might bring forth water.” But Moses was angry. He was upset. He was sick of their murmuring and so he went out and said, “You bunch of hypocrites, always murmuring and complaining. Must I take my rod and smite this rock again to give you water?” He took his rod and he smote the rock. The water came forth and the people drank. But God said, “Moses, come here, son. Did I tell you to strike the rock?” “No.” “What did I tell you?” He said, “Speak to the rock.” “Why did you smite it?” “I was angry.” “Yes. Moses, you are my representative to those people. They look to you to understand Me, my attitudes. Moses, you misrepresented Me. You represented Me as being angry and upset. I’m not angry and upset. They need water and I know that. I’m compassionate. I’m cognizant of their need. Because you failed to represent Me before the people, Moses, I just can’t let you lead them into the land.” “Oh, come on, Lord. You can’t be serious.” “Yes, I am Moses.” “Lord, that’s been the ambition of my life. It’s the only reason I’ve been hanging around.” “Sorry, Moses.” “Oh, please!” “No way.” And though Moses besought the Lord, the Lord would not let him lead them into the land. He could not take them into the rest.

That is significant in that Moses being representative of the law through history, it is interesting to observe the fact that the law, or the works of the law, can never bring you into the place of rest in the Lord. By your obedience to the law, by your keeping the law, it will never bring you into rest. The law cannot bring you into the rest of God.

The people provoked God earlier in their history, then they came to Kadesh-Barnea. It is an eleven-day journey from Mount Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea the scripture says, but it took them forty years. They came to Kadesh-Barnea in the beginning. They sent spies into the land, of which ten came back with an evil report bringing fear into the hearts of the people, which ultimated in unbelief. They said, “We can’t go in. We can’t do it. We can’t take the land.” Because of that heart of unbelief, God was provoked. He said, “All right, because you’re not trusting in Me, you say that you’re afraid if you go in there your children will all be killed, I’ll tell you what. This is going to be the longest funeral procession in history. You’re going to stay here in the wilderness until you all die and your children for whom you feared, they will be the ones who will go in and take the land.”

So they never entered into God’s rest. Moses couldn’t bring them into God’s rest, and so he quotes from this Psalm. As the psalmist, talking about the goodness of God and the mercies of God and all, turns to the subject of their failure in the wilderness to enter into the rest. “Harden not your hearts,” He said, “as in the day of provocation when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. And I said, They have not known my ways, so I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.'”

Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God ( Heb 3:12 ).

Again, the departing from God. These people had been delivered from Egypt. They’d come out of the bondage of Egypt. The issue isn’t the deliverance from sin, the issue is the entering into the fullness that God has for you. There are many people who have peace with God because they have been delivered from the power of sin from darkness into the kingdom of light, but they don’t have the peace of God. They have not entered into the rest. They haven’t entered into that full, rich, abundant life of the Spirit that God has promised unto us. Their Christian experience is a wilderness experience, as they wander through the wilderness. They don’t really enjoy the walk with the Lord as they should be enjoying it. It’s sort of a constant trial where God wants you to come into that fullness of the life in the Spirit and know the victory of the Spirit of God within your life, entering into that rich fullness of the Lord.

And so they wandered for forty years as an example of what happens when we, by our unbelief, fail to receive the promises of God. So we are needing to take heed that we not depart 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 are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end ( Heb 3:13-14 );

Again, the exhortation towards perseverance twice here in the text. Actually, three times within the text. “If we hold our confidence steadfast to the end.”

While it is said, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved for forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? and to whom sware he that they should not enter into the rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief ( Heb 3:15-19 ).

It is important for us to notice their failure was the failure of faith. They did not believe God was able to bring them into the land. They, somehow, were looking at their own resources and looking at the power of the enemy. They were saying, “We can’t do it. We’re unable to go in.” Many times we find that it is our unbelief that keeps us from entering into that full rich life that God would have us to experience and to enjoy. Again, our problem is our looking at our own resources and looking at the power of the enemy. Always when we get our eyes off the Lord and onto the enemy, terror fills our heart, and unbelief. We’ve got to know that there is greater power with us than that which is against us. “Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world” ( 1Jn 4:4 ).

And so Jesus the High Priest of our confession, greater than Moses in that Moses was only a servant in the house. Jesus, the Son, ruling over the house, the builder of the house. Moses unable to take them into God’s rest, whereas Jesus will bring us into God’s rest.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Heb 3:1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus:

Oh, that he had more consideration at our hands! Consider him; you cannot know all his excellence, all his value to you, except he is the subject of your constant meditation. Consider him; think of his nature, his offices, his work, his promises, his relation to you: Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Heb 3:2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

See how our Lord Jesus Christ condescended to be appointed of the Father. In coming as a Mediator, taking upon himself our humanity, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a servant, we find that he was faithful; to every jot and tittle, he carried out his charge.

Heb 3:3. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

And Moses was but one stone in the house. Though in a certain sense he was a servant in it, yet in another, and, for him, a happier sense, he was only a stone in the house which the Lord Jesus Christ had builded. Let us think of our Lord as the Architect and Builder of his own Church, and let our hearts count him worthy of more glory than Moses; let us give him glory in the highest. However highly a Jew may think of Moses, and he ought to think highly of him, and so ought we, yet infinitely higher than Moses must ever rise the incarnate Son of God.

Heb 3:4. For every house is builded by some;

By someone or other;

Heb 3:4. But he that built all things is God.

And Christ is God; and he is the Builder of all things in the spiritual realm, ay, and in the natural kingdom, too, for without him was not anything made that was made. So he is to have eternal honour and glory as the one great Master-builder.

Heb 3:5-6. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

You see, then, that the apostle had first made a distinction between Christ and Moses on the ground of, the Builder being greater than the house he builds; now, in the second place, he shows Christs superiority to Moses on the ground that a son in his own house is greater than a servant in the house of his master. How sweetly he introduces the truth that we are the house of Christ! Do we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the midst of us? How clean we ought to be, how holy, how heavenly! How we should seek to rise above earth, and keep ourselves reserved for the Crucified! In this house, no rival should be permitted ever to dwell; but the great Lord should have every chamber of it entirely to himself. Oh, that he may take his rest within our hearts as his holy habitation; and may there be nothing in our church life that shall grieve the Son of God, and cause him even for a moment to be withdrawn from us: whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Perseverance final perseverance is the test of election. He whom God has chosen holds on and holds out even to the end, while temporary professors make only a fair show in the flesh, but, by-and-by, their faith vanishes away.

Heb 3:7. Wherefore

Now comes a long parenthesis:

Heb 3:7-11. (As the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shalt not enter into my rest.)

Oh, that none of us, as professors of the faith of Christ, may be like Israel in the wilderness! I fear there is too much likeness; God grant that it may be carried no further! May we hear the voice of God, as they did not hear it, for their ears were dull of hearing! May we never harden our hear as they did, for they kicked against the command of God, and rebelled against the thunders of Sinai! May God grant that we may never tempt him, as they did, when they were continually proposing to God to do other than he willed to do, something for their gratification which would not have been right, and which therefore he did not do! Oh, that we might never grieve him as they did, for they grieved him forty years! He bore with them, and yet they bored him. He forgave and overlooked their errors only to be provoked by the repetition of them, for they would not know what God made very plain. His works were such that, the wayfaring men might have read them; but they did not know Gods ways, and at last he banished them from all participation in His rest. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, and they entered not into the land of promise. Wherefore

Heb 3:12-13. Take heed, 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.

Watch over each other as well as over yourselves. Take heed lest sin hardens you before you are aware of it; even while you fancy that you have wiped it out by repentance, petrifaction will remain upon your heart through the deceitfulness of sin.

Heb 3:14-16. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Not all, for there were two faithful ones. See how the Spirit of God gathers up the fragments that remain. If there are but two faithful ones out of two million, he knows it, and he records it.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Heb 3:1. , whence) An urgent particle. From those very things which have been said in ch. 2, consideration ought to flow.-, brethren) He now for the first time addresses those to whom he is writing. And the title, brethren, from ch. Heb 2:11, has in it the idea of sanctity.-, holy) There is a Chiasmus in this verse.- , of the heavenly calling) made by the Lord from heaven, and bringing them on to that place, whence it was made, ch. Heb 12:25, of the calling of God from above ( ), as Paul says, Php 3:14. The correlative of calling is , confession; concerning which the writer treats presently: so Paul in 1Ti 6:12.-, partakers) There is the same word, Heb 3:14, ch. Heb 6:4, Heb 1:9, Heb 12:8.- , the apostle) the Ambassador of God the Father; Him who pleads the cause of God with us. Thence we are said to be partakers of the heavenly calling.- , and High Priest) who pleads our cause with GOD. On this account we are called holy. This Apostleship and High Priesthood are included in the one term Mediator. He compares Jesus as an apostle to Moses, and as a priest (and this appellation is taken up again, Heb 4:14) to Aaron, and at the same time prefers Him to both; He alone holds both dignities united, and in a more eminent degree, which those two brothers [the duumvirate of brothers] held apart. Here He is called in a relative sense , faithful, as , true, Joh 5:31, unverwerflich, a testimony which cannot be refused.- , of our confession or profession) The confession or profession is intended, not that which is made to men, but that which is made to GOD. This word admirably expresses the nature of faith, which is borne with a ready response towards (in respect to) the promise: GOD, who sent His Son and gave Him as a priest to us, , speaks: man , declares his agreement, assents, subscribes. So ch. Heb 4:14, Heb 10:23. They did that most solemnly in baptism. The opposite is , contradiction, ch. Heb 12:3.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Heb 3:1-6

Heb 3:1-6

Near the close of the last section (Heb 2:17), the Apostle, while discussing the question of Christs humanity, refers for the first time to his priesthood. And hence we might reasonably expect that this would be made the next topic of discussion. But connected with this, and naturally and historically antecedent to it, is the apostle- ship of Christ. Moses preceded Aaron in the economy of the Old Testament; and Christ appeared as the Leader of Gods people, before he entered on the duties of his priesthood. And hence while our author blends together in some measure the discussion of these two functions of Christs mediatorial office, he devotes the next section mainly to the consideration of his apostleship and such other matters as depend essentially on it. The following are the main points which he makes in the discussion and development of this part of his subject:

I. He shows the great superiority of Christ over Moses, as the Apostle of God. (Heb 3:1-6.)

1. In making this comparison between Christ and Moses, our author shows no disposition to disparage the latter in any way. He concedes that Moses was faithful to God in all his house (Heb 3:2). . .

2. But then he argues that according to the Divine arrangement, Christ is as much superior to Moses as he who builds a house is superior to the house itself (verse 3). This argument may be briefly stated as follows: God built all things, including, of course, both the Jewish house and the Christian house. But Christ is God, one with the Father (Heb 1:8.) And hence it follows, that Christ is as much superior to the Jewish or Old Testament house of God, including Moses himself and every other member of the

3. Theocracy, as he who builds a house is superior to it (Heb 3:4-5).

4. Furthermore, Moses was but a servant in the symbolical house of God; but Christ as a Son presides over the real house of God; which is to the symbolical house of the Old Testament economy, as the substance is to the shadow (Heb 3:6).

II. From this subject, the transition to the pilgrimage of the Israelites under Moses and ours under Christ, is easy and natural (Hebrews 3:7-19).

1. According to Moses (Num 2:32-33), about six hundred thousand (603,550) Israelites, besides the Levites and the women and children, left Egypt with the fairest and

most encouraging prospects of entering Canaan.

2. But, nevertheless, very few of them ever reached the Promised Land. They provoked God in the wilderness, till he finally swore in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest. (Num 14:22-30.)

3. From this chapter of sacred history, the Apostle therefore solemnly warns his Hebrew brethren, and through them also all the followers of Christ, of their many dangers, and of the necessity of their giving all diligence in order to make their calling and election sure during their earthly pilgrimage (Heb 3:12-18).

4. It is true that our advantages and privileges are now, in many respects, greatly superior to those of the ancient Israelites. But human nature is still the same; our greatest enemies are still the same; the deceitfulness of sin is the same; many of our trials and temptations are the same; and hence what was written aforetime was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. It becomes all Christians, therefore, to exhort and admonish one another daily Heb 3:13).

I. From the pilgrimage of the Jews under Moses and ours under Christ, the Apostle is next led to consider the rest which remains for the people of God. (Heb 4:1-10.)

1. The idea of rest was a very pleasant and consoling thought to the Israelites. They had long been accustomed to reflect on the many pleasures and advantages of a sanctified rest.

(1.) From the regular observance of the weekly Sabbath.

(2.) From the habit of sanctifying many other days to the Lord; as, for example, the first day of every month; the first and last day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, etc.

(3.) From celebrating the Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee.

(4.) From the ease and repose which they enjoyed in Canaan, compared with the many toils and trials which their fathers had endured in the wilderness. From all of which it is manifest, that in an argument designed for the encouragement of the Hebrew brethren, it was particularly necessary to dwell on this element of the Christian religion, and to show that there is a rest remaining for the people of God, that far transcends in importance any earthly rest that was ever enjoyed by the seed of Abraham according to the flesh.

2. But just here the Apostle seems to have anticipated an objection which might peradventure be urged by the judaizing party. That most of the Old Testament references to the heavenly rest were made through types and shadows there can be no doubt. And with some it might, therefore, be a question, whether in such portions of Scripture there is really anything more intended or implied than the mere temporal rest to which the ancient Prophets primarily referred.

3. To this question he makes the following reply:

(1.) He refers to Psa 95:7, from which he proves that God in his wrath had sworn to the Israelites under Moses, that they should not enter into his rest. And hence he argues that this could not be the Sabbatical rest, because it was instituted in the beginning when God finished the work of creation (Gen 2:2), and had been enjoyed by the Israelites throughout all their journeyings (Exo 16:22-31). And hence it follows that there must be another rest for the people of God: a rest into which the rebellious Israelites under Moses never entered (verses 3-6).

(2.) But lest it might be supposed that the promise of God guaranteeing rest to his people, was fulfilled in its fullest and ultimate sense when the Israelites under Joshua entered Canaan, the Apostle refers again to the ninety-fifth Psalm, and proves from it that even in the time of David, after the children of Israel had possessed the land of Canaan for nearly five hundred years-even then there was danger that the living generation would, like their fathers, be excluded from the promised rest. From all of which, it clearly follows that there is still a rest remaining for the people of God. For as our author says, if Joshua had given the people rest in the land of Canaan, then most assuredly God would not afterward have spoken of another rest by the mouth of his servant David (verses 7-9).

II. The section closes with a renewed exhortation to labor earnestly to enter into the rest of God, especially in view of the heart-searching character of his word by which we are all to be judged at the last day (Hebrews 3:11-13)

1. Here we may often deceive one another; and sometimes we may even deceive ourselves; but nothing can escape the eye of God and the all-permeating power of his word.

2. And hence the necessity of the most careful and constant self-examination, lest, like the Israelites, we too fall short of the promised rest.

Under this section, we have therefore the four following paragraphs :

I. Heb 3:1-6. Christ superior to Moses.

II. Heb 3:7-19. Exhortations and warnings drawn from the example of the Israelites under Moses.

III. Heb 4:1-10. Concerning the rest which remains for the people of God.

IV. Heb 4:11-13. Renewed exhortation to strive earnestly to enter into Gods rest, in view especially of the all-penetrating and heartsearching character of Gods word.

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES

Heb 3:1-6

Heb 3:1 —Wherefore,-We have here a very beautiful illustration of the easy and natural manner in which our author passes from one subject to another. The word wherefore (hothen) is illative, and shows the very close and intimate connection of what follows in this verse, with what has been said of Christ in the two preceding chapters; and especially in the last paragraph of the second chapter. But what is here introduced as a consequence from premises considered, is made also a ground of transition to another subject.

Heb 3:1 —holy brethren,-These were the Hebrew Christians. They are addressed here by the Apostle, not as Jews, nor as brethren of Christ, but as his own brethren in Christ. And they are called holy brethren, not because they were all in possession of that holiness of heart which the Gospel requires, but because they had all professed to believe in Christ, to put on Christ (Gal 3:27), and to be separated from the world as the peculiar people of God. In this sense, the Corinthian brethren are all called saints (agioi, 1Co 1:2); though we are assured by Paul in both his letters to the Corinthian Church, that some of them were very impure men. See references, and notes on Heb 2:11.

Heb 3:1 —partakers of the heavenly calling,-The word rendered calling (kleesis), means properly a call, a summons, an invitation; and hence by metonymy it means also the state or condition into which anyone is called. In 1Co 7:17-20, for example, Paul says to the Corinthian brethren, As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk; and so I ordain in all the churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not be uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. In this passage, the word calling evidently refers to the social rank and secular condition of each individual when he was called of God to partake of the heavenly calling ; some were Jews and some were Gentiles, some were slaves and some were freemen. The heavenly calling, according to Paul, is not designed to nullify and set aside arbitrarily and unconditionally all such distinctions. The Jew, though converted to Christ, might nevertheless consistently remain in circumcision; and the Gentile, in uncircumcision. In this metonymical sense the word calling is used in our text to denote, not merely Gods gracious invitation to sinners, but also and more particularly the benefits of this invitation; having special reference to the present state and condition of those who, in obedience to Gods call, have put on Christ as he is offered to us in the Gospel. It is the high and holy calling of God in Christ Jesus (Php 3:14), to which our author here refers. And this is denominated a heavenly calling because it comes from Heaven, leads to Heaven, and fills with heavenly joys the hearts of all who are made partakers of it.

Heb 3:1 —consider the apostle and high priest-Meditate carefully and profoundly (katanoeesate) on the nature and character of Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Our author makes here an earnest appeal to his Hebrew brethren to consider well all that he had said, and all that he was about to say, concerning Christ; to think of his Divinity, his humanity, his sufferings, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his glorification, his universal dominion, his love, his sympathies, and every other attribute and perfection of his character. And this he does for the purpose of confirming and strengthening their faith, increasing their love, and guarding them against the sin of apostasy.

The word apostle (apostelos) means one who is sent: a messenger of any kind. In this sense it is here applied to Christ, as the one sent by God for the redemption of mankind. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. (1Jn 4:14.) Christ is then the Apostle of God under the New Economy as Moses was his Apostle under the Old Economy. True, indeed, Moses is nowhere called the Apostle of God in the Holy Scriptures; but words equivalent to these occur frequently in the Old Testament. In Exo 3:10, for example, God says to Moses, Come, now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou may- est bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And in the twelfth verse of the same chapter he says, And this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. See also Exo 3:13-15 Exo 4:28 Exo 5:22 Exo 7:16, etc. It is evident, therefore, that our author here applies this term to Christ as the Apostle, or Messenger, of the New Covenant (Mai. 3: 1), for the purpose of comparing him in this capacity with Moses the renowned and honored Apostle of the Old Covenant. They were both sent by God; and were therefore the Apostles of God. But the ministry of Christ, as Paul now proceeds to show, was far superior to that of Moses. In the fourth, sixth, and eighth sections of the Epistle, the priesthood of Christ is compared with that of Aaron, and shown to be superior to it in every respect.

Heb 3:1 —of our profession,-The Greek word here rendered profession (homologia) means (1) an agreement or compact; and (2) an admission, acknowledgment, or confession. It is Gods prerogative to speak (legein), and it is mans duty and privilege to acknowledge (homologein) the justice and propriety of what he says. Thus God spoke the words of the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai (Exodus 20-23), and the people then acknowledged his words, and consented to observe and do all that he had commanded (Exodus 24 :3)

In like manner God has made known to us all the terms and stipulations of the New Covenant; and to these he requires us to give a hearty and unreserved assent and acknowledgment. But as Christ is himself the central truth, the Alpha and the Omega, of the New Covenant, it follows of course that all things pertaining to it are briefly summed up in the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Mat 16:16.) On this rock, says Christ, I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Mat 16:17.) This soon became publicly known as The Confession of the primitive Christians; and hence it is that the Greek article is always prefixed to the noun which is used to express it. In Pauls first Epistle to Timothy, for example, he says to him, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession (teen kaleen homologian) before many witnesses. (1Ti 6:12.) And in the next verse he says, I charge thee in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot and without reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. See also Heb 4:14 Heb 10:23; 2Co 9:13. In all these passages the Greek article is used before the noun (homologia), as in 1Ti 6:12, to denote that the confession made by Christ and Timothy was the common and well- known confession that was then required of all, as a condition of church-membership. For as Paul says to the Roman brethren, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:10). And Christ says, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in Heaven. (Mat 10:32.)

When the confession is made publicly in the presence of witnesses, it may also be called, as in our text, a profession (profes- sio); which means simply a public avowal of ones belief and sentiments. But the word confession or acknowledgment better expresses the meaning of the Apostle, and is also more in harmony with Greek usage.

Heb 3:2 —Who was faithful to him that appointed him,-More literally, as being faithful to him that made him. The present participie being (onta) indicates that fidelity to God is an abiding and perpetual characteristic of Christ in his whole sphere of labor. He came to do the will of him that sent him. (Joh 4:34.) This he did while he tabernacled with us here on Earth; and this he is now doing in the discharge of the higher functions of his mediatorial reign. In his hands, the government of God and the interests of mankind are alike perfectly secure. Sooner will Heaven and Earth pass away, than even one jot or one tittle of the Divine law fail in his hands.

He that appointed or made (to poieesanti) him, is, of course, God the Father. The reference here is not, as some think, to Christs being eternally begotten of the Father (Bleek, Liine- mann); nor is it, as others allege, to his incarnation (Athanasius, Ambrose); but it is simply to his being officially appointed by the Father (De Wette, Delijzsch, etc.) ; to his being made the Apostle and High Priest of ou confession. It is the Lord, says Samuel, that advanced Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. (1Sa 12:6.) Here the Hebrew word rendered advanced means, literally, made, and it is so rendered in the Septuagint. (ho poieesan ton Mouseen kai ton Aaron.) It is, however, quite manifest that Samuel refers here, not to the creation of Moses and Aaron as men, but to their official appointment as the Apostle and High Priest of the Old Covenant. See Mar 3:14. And so also the word (poieo) is used in our text. God has made Jesus both the Apostle and High Priest of our confession ; and in the discharge of all the duties appertaining to these sacred functions, he (Jesus) has always been faithful.

Heb 3:2 —as also Moses was faithful in all his house.-That Moses was faithful in the discharge of all the duties of his office, God has himself borne witness. If, says he in his admonition to Aaron and Miriam, there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. (Num 12:6-8.)

This much, then, is evident, that Moses was faithful to him that appointed him, in the discharge of all his official duties. But what is the meaning of the word house (oikos) in this connection? and to whom does the pronoun his (autou) refer?

A house is a dwelling-place; and the word is manifestly used here to designate the Church of the Israelites, as Gods ancient dwelling place. This is obvious (1) from the context. We learn from the sixth verse of this chapter, that the house over which Christ now presides and in which he officiates, is the Christian Church; which, as Paul says in his Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph 2:20-22), is a holy temple, fitly framed together, and designed as a habitation or dwelling-place of God through the Spirit. See also 1Co 3:16-17 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 2:5, etc.

The same thing is made evident also from the consideration of sundry other parallel passages, in which God is represented as actually dwelling among the ancient Israelites. In Exo 25:8, for example, God says to Moses, Let them [the Israelites] make me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them. And in Exo 29:45, he says, I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God. See also Lev 26:12; 1Ki 6:11-13, etc. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the house in which Moses was faithful as the steward of God, was the house of Israel; the same as the Church of God in the wilderness. (Act 7:38.)

Let us, then, next inquire for the proper antecedent of the pronoun his (autou) in this connection. What is it? Some think that the word his is used here to represent Christ; and that the Apostle means to say that Moses was faithful in the house of Christ. This is Bleeks opinion; but it is forced and unnatural, and scarcely deserves to be mentioned. Others make the pronoun refer to Moses, regarding it, not as a genitive of possession, but of locality. According to this construction the meaning of the Apostle is simply this: that Moses was faithful in the house to which he belonged and in which he served. This opinion, supported by Ebrard and others, is thought to be plausible and in no way inconsistent with the context. But others again, as Delitzsch and Alford, maintain with more probability that this pronoun refers to God as its proper antecedent; to him who appointed both Moses and Christ to their official positions; the one as a servant in the Old Testament house, and the other as a Son over the house of the New Testament. This construction is favored by the reference which our author makes to Num. 12: 7, where God says as above, My servant Moses … is faithful in all mine house.” This view is also most in harmony with New Testament usage. See references.

Whatever may be thought of these minor points of grammatical construction, the general scope of this verse is very plain and obvious. Our author, wishing to compare Christ with Moses, refers first with great delicacy and propriety to one point in which they may within certain limits be regarded as equal. They were both faithful to him who appointed them, in their proper spheres of labor. But having conceded so much, the Apostle now proceeds to show that the difference between them is really infinite.

Heb 3:3 —For this man, etc.-This verse in connection with the three following, has long been a stumbling-block in the way of many commentators. And it must be confessed that the passage is very elliptical, and that the construction is therefore somewhat obscure. But the argument of the Apostle manifestly implies that Christ sustains to Moses the same relation that the person who builds and furnishes a house sustains to the house itself. Consider well, he says, Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; for though he and Moses were both faithful to him who appointed them, he has nevertheless been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in proportion as he who has builded and furnished a house has more honor than the house. Why so? Manifestly, because Christ is here regarded as the builder and furnisher of the whole house of Israel, of which Moses himself was but a member.

But how, it is asked, could this be, since Jesus was not born for fifteen hundred years after the birth of Moses ? And how, we may ask in reply and with equal propriety, could God by his Son make the worlds many ages before the Logos became his Son ? See note on 1:2. How could Paul say to the Colossians (Col 1:16-18), By him [God’s dear Son] were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist; and he is the head of the body, the Church; that in all things he might have the preeminence ? And how could the beloved John say, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made? How could the Word be God and be also with God ? The truth is, we often confound ourselves and our readers by endeavoring to comprehend and explain, not indeed what is contrary to our reason, but what is infinitely above it. The sublime truth is, however, clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures, and in no part of them more clearly than in the first chapter of our Epistle, that the Father and the Son are both God; both included in the Eloheem Jehovah of the Old Testament, and the Lord God Omnipotent of the New; and that each of them, as well as the Holy Spirit, has an agency in all that pertains to the redemption of mankind. Jesus, as our author avers in 12: 2, is both the Author and the Finisher of the faith. The laws and ordinances of the Patriarchal and the Jewish age, as well as those of the Christian age, are all the product of his wisdom and benevolence, as well as of the wisdom and benevolence of the Father. And hence it may be truthfully said, that he, as God, was the builder and furnisher (ho kataskeuasas) of the whole house of Israel, including Moses and everything else that pertained to it.

Heb 3:4 —For every house is builded by some man;-This is a sort of axiomatic expression which the Apostle throws in here for the purpose of connecting more clearly and distinctly the more remote links on his chain of argument. The nation of Israel under the Theocracy was a house, a dwelling-place of the Most High. And as such it must of course have had a builder and furnisher: for every house is builded by some one. A design always implies a designer; and the building of every house implies a chief architect. Under him there may of course be many subordinates; but in order to secure unity of design there must of necessity be a chief designer. And just so it was with the house of Israel. It was built, and its affairs were administered through the agency of both men and angels. But still, God himself (including the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) was the Supreme Architect in building the house of Israel, as well as in building the universe. And hence it follows, as before stated, that Jesus in his entire personality, including his Divine as well as his human nature, is as much superior to Moses, as the builder of a house is to the house itself.

I am aware that their is in the human mind a tendency to think of Christ merely as a man; and so to bring him down in our conceptions to an equality with creatures of high and exalted intelligence. And I am also aware that with such opinions concerning him, no one can understand the reasoning of Paul in this connection. No Socinian or Arian can ever give us a fair and consistent explanation of this short paragraph. But surely the Apostle never intended to call on his Hebrew brethren or any one else to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, merely as a man. For if so, then why does he present to us so fully the evidence of his Divinity in the first chapter of this Epistle? To my mind it is quite evident that he purposely discusses the leading questions relating to both the Divinity and the humanity of Christ, before he attempts to compare him with Moses, the Apostle of the Old Covenant. And then he calls on us to consider him as the Creator and Founder of all things, including the Jewish Theocracy as well as the Christian Church. In this view of the matter, all is plain and simple.

Heb 3:5 —And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant,-In this and the following verse, the Apostle proceeds to state two other points in which Moses was inferior to Christ: (1) Moses was but a servant (therapon) a waiting-man in the house of God; but Christ as a Son presides over the house of his Father. (2) The house in which Moses served was far inferior to that over which Christ presides. True, indeed, each of them is called the house of God; but the former was to the latter as the type is to the antitype, or as the shadow is to the subsance. (Col 2:17; Heb 10:1.) The Law was given through Moses on account of transgression, till the Seed should come (Gal 3:19) ; and it was designed to serve (a) as a code of rules and regulations for the political government of the Israelites (1Ti 1:9). (b) It was given to convict men of sin; and thus to make them feel the necessity of a better covenant established on better promises. (Rom. 7:7.) (c) It was designed to restrain transgression, and so to prevent the universal spread of idolatry previous to the coming of the Messiah. (Dan. 9:24.) But (d) the main design of the Sinaitic Covenant in its fullest and widest sense, embracing its subjects, ordinances, rites, and services, was to furnish to the world clear and unmistakable evidence as to the Divine origin of the Church of Christ and all that pertains to it. The ministry of Moses was therefore intended to be for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, concerning Christ and his Church. (John 5:45-47.) And hence the particularity with which Moses was instructed to make the Tabernacle of witness and all that belonged to it. See, said God to him, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. (8:5.) Had Moses possessed the spirit of Cain or of some modern Rationalist, he might have so far departed from his received instructions, that there would really be now but little, if any, resemblance between the ordinances of the Old and the New Economy. But not so. He was faithful to the trust committed to him. He made all things according to the pattern showed to him in the mount; and so the intended harmony between the Old and New Institutions has been fully preserved. Anyone may now easily perceive not only that there are many existing analogies between the Church of God under the Old Covenant and the Church of Christ under the New, but if he carefully examine the evidence submitted he will see further that these analogies were all designed and preordained by him who sees the end from the beginning, and who does all things according to the counsel of his own will. And hence no amount of sophistry can now fairly set aside the evidence given through the writings of Moses that the same all-wise and benevolent Being who anciently spoke unto the Fathers by the Prophets, has also in these last days spoken unto us by his Son and his Apostles.

Heb 3:6 —But Christ as a Son over his own house, etc.-Or rather, But Christ as a Son is faithful over his [God’s] house. Moses was faithful in the Old Testament house of God, as a servant; but Christ is faithful over the New Testament house of God, as a Son. There is no authority whatever for the use of the word own in this connection. The Greek pronoun rendered his (autou) is of the same form and import in the second, fifth, and sixth verses, referring, no doubt, to God in every case. See note on verse 2. And accordingly in Heb 10:21-22, our author says in the conclusion of his argument on the priesthood, Having [then] a High Priest [Jesus Christ] over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Th expression, house of Christ, does not occur in the Bible; but the phrase, house of God, is of frequent occurrence. See references.

Heb 3:6 —whose house are we,-The Apostle here evidently intends to make a distinction between the Old Testament house of God in which Moses officiated as a servant, and the New Testament house of God over which Christ presides as a Son and High Priest. The former was composed of Israelites according to the flesh; but the latter is composed of Christians, or Israelites according to the Spirit. The former was an earthly, transitory, and typical house; but the latter is a heavenly, imperishable, and spiritual house. The former was the shadow, and the latter is the substance. The former was constructed and its services were performed for a testimony of the good things which were to be spoken afterward; but the latter is the sublime and glorious reality itself, concerning which Moses and all the other Prophets have borne witness.

Heb 3:6 —if we hold fast the confidence, etc.-The present tense in the first member of this clause, whose house are (esmen) we,” is used for both the present and the future. As if the Apostle had said, We are now of the spiritual house of God, and we will ever belong to it, if we hold fast the confidence and the boasting of hope firm to the end of life. This use of the present tense for both the present and future, and indeed for all time, is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament. In Joh 12:26, for example, Jesus says to his disciples, If any man serve me let him follow me; and where I am (eimi) there shall also my servant be.” And in Joh 14:3, he says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am (einii) there ye may be also. See Winers Gram. Section 40, 2, a.

The Greek word rendered confidence (parreesia) means (1) freeness and boldness of speech, and (2) that confidence which prompts any one to the use of such freedom of speech. In the Gospels and Acts, it is generally used in the former sense; but in the Epistles, it always means an inward state of full and undisturbed confidence. See, for example, 6: 11; 10: 19, 35. The word rendered rejoicing (kaucheema) means properly boasting, or a matter of boasting. And hope (elpis) is used here, not to denote an affection of the mind, but rather the object of our hope, as in Rom 8:24.

The object of the Apostle, then, in the use of this clause, is simply to encourage his Hebrew brethren to hold fast their confession, by assuring them that as they were then members of the house of God, so also they would ever continue to be members of it on condition that they would be faithful to the end of life. In that event, as he assures his Roman brethren, God would make all things work together for their good, so that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature would be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 8:28-39.)

Heb 3:6 —firm unto the end:-That is, to the end of life; at which time ends also our state of probation. These words are supposed by some to be an interpolation from the fourteenth verse of this chapter, and as such are rejected by Tischendorf, Green, and Alford, on the authority of the Vatican Manuscript, the Aethiopic Version, and certain citations made by Ambrose and Lucifer. But as they are found in manuscripts A, C, D, K, L, M, and also in the Latin Vulgate, it is not surprising that they should be retained and defended as genuine by Tholuck, Liinemann, and others.

Commentary on Heb 3:1-6 by Don E. Boatman

Heb 3:1 –Wherefore holy brethren

They are brethren, not by race or nationality, but by belief.

a. It is impossible to have brotherhood when the fundamentals of faith are denied.

b. International brotherhood will not be attained until men are brothers in Christ.

The verse speaks of holy brethren.

a. In what way are we holy?

1. We are made holy by sanctification at our baptism when we bury the old man of sin and rise to walk in newness of life.

2. We are holy if we walk in holiness.

b. None will see God unless holiness is present. cf. Eph 5:5; Heb 12:14.

c. Church people need to live up to the name, holy brethren.

Heb 3:1 –partakers of a heavenly calling

Gods heavenly, or holy, calling comes through the Word:

a. Heavenly agencies sometimes are used to bring preacher and convert together, but the call comes through preaching.

1. Peter and the household of Cornelius were brought together, but the Word called Cornelius and his household to salvation.

2. Paul was brought to the preacher by a heavenly instrumentality, but he was told what to do to be saved. Act 9:6.

b. This call is to a unique life:

1. 1Co 1:2 : -called to be saints.

2. 2Th 2:14 : -called . . . to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Gal 5:13 : -called for freedom.

4. Rom 1:6 : -called to be Jesus Christs.

Heb 3:1 –consider the Apostle

Singular attention is now to be given to Jesus Christ for several reasons:

a. He was faithful. Heb 3:2.

b. He was appointed. Heb 3:2.

c. He was counted of more glory than Moses. Heb 3:3.

d. He was a Son over His house. Heb 3:6.

Consider the apostleship of Jesus:

a. The word, apostle means, one sent. Jesus claimed to have been sent:

1. Luk 4:43 : I must preach. . . . for therefore was I sent.

2. Luk 20:9-16 : He was the Son in the parable of the husbandman.

b. To whom was He sent?

1. Strictly speaking, to the Jews:

a) Mat 15:24 : -unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

b) Joh 1:11 : He came unto His own.

2. Purposefully speaking, to all men:

a) 1Jn 4:14 : -to be the Saviour of the world.

b) Joh 3:16 : -the world.

Heb 3:1 –and High Priest

The priestly system is more easily understood by some than by others:

a. The Jews had a priestly system. See Leviticus 16.

b. Most heathen groups have a priestly system, although it is a very corrupt one.

The Christians High Priest is Christ, Who is perfect, without sin and at the right hand of God.

Heb 3:1 –of our confession

The word confession is translated profession in the King James version:

a. It is the Greek word, homologia, used in several other places:

1. 1Ti 6:12 : Profession in K.J.; confession in A.S.

2. 2Co 9:13 : Profession in K.J.; confession in A.S.

3. Heb 4:14 : Profession in K.J.; confession in A.S.

4. Heb 10:23 : Profession in K.J.; confession in A.S.

b. We do confess our faith in a person:

1. Mat 10:32.

2. Rom 10:9-10.

c. The confession of our faith is a profession; we confess faith, which obligates us to a way of life:

The idea of profession is challenged by Newell. (p. 80)

a. He seeks to emphasize that it is a confession in a person, and not a way of life.

b. In reality, he is correct. We do confess faith, but the idea of profession is too often left out, so people are baptized and come out wet sinners.

Heb 3:1 –even Jesus

What are we to confess about Jesus?

a. Mat 16:13-18 : The Christ, the Son of the Living God.

b. 1Jn 4:15 : Jesus is the Son of God.

Some confess Him to be only a good, moral martyr.

What about those who will not confess the truth?

a. 2Jn 1:7 : They are deceivers, and the anti-Christ.

b. 1Jn 2:22 : They are liars.

Heb 3:2 –who was faithful

The faithfulness of Jesus stands out:

a. He was faithful to God in temptation.

b. He was faithful to God in the miracles, giving God the glory.

c. He was faithful in Gods work, His Fathers business.

Luk 2:49; Heb 3:2.

d. He was faithful even in death, Mat 26:42; Joh 17:4; Joh 19:30, We may believe that He is now faithful in being our High Priest.

Heb 3:2 –to Him that appointed Him

This word, appointed, is also translated advanced or made;

a. Milligan suggests that the word refers not to origin, nor to begetting, but to task.

1. His example is 1Sa 12:6 : The Lord advanced Moses and Aaron.

2. Christ was appointed to a task. Joh 9:4; Heb 12:2; Heb 3:2.

3. It was a timely appointment.

4. Jesus came willingly to His appointment.

There are some appointments that should concern men:

a. A day to repent, Act 17:30-31.

b. A day to die, Heb 9:27.

Heb 3:2 –as also was Moses in his house

Moses was a faithful person:

a. Heb 11:25 : He chose ill treatment with the people of God.

b. Exodus is a picture of wayward, whimpering Israel and faithful Moses:

1. They murmured, but Moses prayed.

2. They worshipped the golden calf, but Moses worshipped God.

c. Num 12:7 is a commendation of the faithful one. Israel was the house of God, not the house of Moses:

1. Exo 25:8 : Let them make me a sanctuary.

2. Exo 29:45 : I will dwell among the children of Israel.

Heb 3:3 –more glory than Moses in all his house

Moses was a glorious person:

a. He represents one division of the Old Testament. Luk 24:44.

b. He was selected to be transfigured with Jesus. Matthew 17.

c. Moses glory vanished. Mat 17:5-6.

What is meant by glory?

a. It means fame, honor, brightness, splendor, praise.

b. Jesus is the most famous person in the world. Washington and Lincoln, are national heroes, but Jesus is international.

What can be said about Jesus glory, pertaining to time?

a. He had some glory on earth:

1. Joh 17:4 : I have glorified Thee.

2. Joh 7:37-39 : Jesus was not yet glorified.

b. He received glory after His earthly mission:

1. Act 2:36 : God hath made Him both Lord and Christ.

2. 1Pe 1:21 : God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.

c. The church is now glorifying Him: Eph 3:21.

d. His glory is yet to come:

1. Mat 16:27 : He came in the glory of His Father.

2. 1Th 4:13-18.

Heb 3:3 –more honor than the house:

Does this imply that Jesus built the house of Israel?

a. Yes, says Milligan. (p. 115)

b. Christ may be regarded as the Builder and Furnisher of the whole house of Israel, of which Moses himself was a member. Christ is eternal; He was the rock from which Israel drank, so this figure is reasonable.

Heb 3:4 –He that buildeth all things is God

The purpose of this verse is to establish the deity of Jesus.

Everything that is done should be ascribed to God.

1Co 3:6 : Apollos watered, but God giveth the increase.

Heb 3:5 –Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant

Several verses establish Moses faithfulness:

a. It is established in Heb 11:24-30.

b. He was faithful in building the Tabernacle according to the pattern, Exo 25:40.

c. Num 12:7 : -faithful in all my house.

Gods house is referred to: cf. Num 12:7, He is faithful in all my house.

Moses was a servant: Num 12:8.

Heb 3:5 –afterward to be spoken

In this sense, Moses was speaking as a prophet and giving an example of faithfulness:

a. He was a herald of a doctrine to be published later.

b. He was a forerunner of a coming prophet, Deu 18:15.

c. His example is for all: 1Co 10:11; These things happened . . . by way of example.

Heb 3:6 –but Christ as a Son over his house

Moses was a servant, but Christ was a Son in Gods house:

a. This is only one of the many figures applied to Jesus:

1. Mat 16:13-18 : He is the Builder.

2. 1Pe 2:4-6 : He is Cornerstone.

3. Heb 3:6 : Son in the house.

4. Heb 10:21 : High priest over the house of God.

b. The word own appears in the King James version: . . . over His own house.

1. Milligan challenges this translation. In this figure it is not His own house, but the house of God.

2. The expression house of Christ never appears, but always the house of God.

a. Eph 2:19 : Household of God.

b. 1Ti 3:15 : -in the house of God.

c. Heb 10:21 : -over the house of God.

d. 1Pe 4:17 : -judgment begins at the house of God.

e. Eph 2:22 : -in whom ye are builders together.

f. 1Pe 2:7 : -head of the corner.

Heb 3:6 –Whose house are we

The former house was presided over by the High Priest and by Moses:

a. It was transitory and typical, a shadow of something better to come.

b. Now we are the glorious eternal house of God.

It is a joy to be a part of a house that cannot be destroyed:

a. Mat 16:13-18 : The gates of Hades cannot prevail against it.

b. Mat 7:24-27 : Storms of life will not destroy it.

Heb 3:6 –if we hold fast our boldness

Faithfulness is an absolute essential to salvation, for the book of Hebrews eliminates the doctrine of once in grace, always in grace.

a. We are of the household if we hold fast.

b. The implication is that when we turn loose, we are no longer in the house of God.

c. Many scriptures speak similarly:

1. Mat 10:22 : -endureth.

2. Luk 9:62 : -putteth his hand to the plow.

3. Rev 2:10 : -faithful unto death.

4. Heb 3:14 : -if we hold fast.

5. Heb 6:5-6 : -fall away.

The word boldness is also translated confidence:

a. It has the idea of freeness and boldness of speech.

b. It means an inward state of full and undisturbed confidence. (Milligan.)

Heb 3:6 –and the glorying of our hope

It is also translated, the rejoicing of hope:

a. This is a contrast to crying, complaining Israel.

b. Hope refers to the object of our faith.

1. It is in the realm of the unseen.

Rom 8:24 : Hope that is seen is not hope.

2. We hope for the glorious body, the new heaven and the new earth.

Heb 3:6 –firm unto the end

Our task is to complete a course that we have started:

a. God will save us because of our effort, not in spite of it.

b. A person cannot become a willful weakling and expect God to save him.

Study Questions

327. What is the great theme of Chapter Three?

328. What is it that makes men brethren?

329. Can we be called brothers to those who deny the fundamentals of brotherhood?

330. In what way are we made holy?

331. What is the descriptive word used concerning brethren? Is it important? cf. Eph 5:5; Heb 12:14.

332. Do we live up to the term?

333. Of what are we partakers?

334. How is it a heavenly calling?

335. What heavenly agencies are used?

336. What agencies were used in the life of Peter? Paul?

337. Name some things related to our call concerning our character, relationship, etc.

338. Who is the apostle to be considered?

339. How can He be called an apostle? cf. Luk 4:43.

340. Name the various things said about Jesus in this verse.

341. To whom was Jesus sent primarily?

342. Did He claim to be sent to all men? cf. 1Jn 4:14.

343. Does the Christian have a priest?

344. Is the idea developed in this verse? In the book of Hebrews?

345. How is Jesus our High Priest?

346. How often does He sacrifice?

347. What can be said about His sympathy?

348. What can be said about His character?

349. What is meant by the expression, of our confession?

350. What is the alternate word used for confession in the King James version?

351. Is our confession of faith in Christ also a pledge of profession?

352. What do we confess?

353. What do we confess about Him?

354. What does the scripture declare concerning those who will not confess that He is the Christ? cf. 2Jn 1:7; 1Jn 2:22.

355. Discuss the faithfulness of Christ throughout His life on earth. cf. Luk 2:49; Heb 12:2.

356. If Christ was faithful on earth, what may we suppose about Him now?

357. To whom was He faithful?

358. What does the word appointed mean?

359. Is the word advanced a good translation?

360. Does the word made carry the idea?

361. What appointment is referred to in Heb 3:2?

362. Who appointed who? To what was He appointed?

363. Did Jesus approach the appointment gladly?

364. What appointments has God made for the sinner?

365. Does the Christian have any appointments?

366. Discuss Jesus faithfulness on the cross. Mat 26:42.

367. Discuss Moses faithfulness in the building of the Tabernacle.

368. Compare the waywardness of Israel with the faithfulness of Moses.

369. Discuss the house referred to here.

370. Is it Gods house or Moses house?

371. Was the Tabernacle, or sanctuary, ever spoken of as belonging to Moses?

372. Does the name of God appear in the original manuscript, as the new version would lead you to believe?

373. Tell of the glory of Moses in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

374. What does glory mean?

375. What glory had Jesus on earth?

376. What glory is ascribed to Christ in Acts; in the Epistles; in Revelation?

377. Should the church glorify Christ? cf. Eph 3:21.

378. Does Heb 3:5 infer that Moses did not build the house?

379. Does Heb 3:6 infer that Jesus built the house of Israel?

380. What scriptures teach Christs presence during the wilderness journey?

381. Should everything be ascribed to God?

382. Does everything that is made necessitate a builder?

383. Is there room for evolution in this verse?

384. Check different versions. Do they translate it (Heb 3:1-6) His house, or Gods house?

385. Consult verses that speak of Moses faithfulness. cf. Exo 25:40; Num 12:7-8.

386. Whose house is spoken of in Num 12:8?

387. What relationship did Moses have to the house?

388. What is meant by afterward to be spoken?

389. Was Moses speaking a prophecy through his life or by an oral message?

390. Were these Old Testament experiences an example to us? cf. 1Co 10:11.

391. If Moses was a servant, what was Christ in Gods house?

392. Was Christ in the house or over it?

393. Is the idea of the faithfulness of Christ inferred here?

394. Is the word own that appears in the King James version a problem of exegesis? Whose house would it be if the word own is allowed?

395. Do we have the expression, house of Christ, in the New Testament?

396. Compare the verses that speak of the house of God, Eph 2:19; 1Ti 3:15; Heb 10:21; 1Pe 4:17.

397. Who is in the house of God? Do Christians comprise it?

398. What qualification is made in this verse?

399. If we turn loose of our boldness, can we be of the house of God?

400. Is this true, once in grace, always in grace?

401. What are we to hold to?

402. What will keep us in Gods house?

403. Name some other scriptures which speak of mans need for faithfulness.

404. What is boldness? What other word could be used.

405. How do we hold fast to our boldness?

406. What does the word glorying mean?

407. How do we glory in hope?

408. Is there room for complaint when our hope is alive?

409. What is a firm hope? How does hope differ from faith?

410. How long is our hope to be firm?

411. What end is meant?

Commentary on Heb 3:1-6 by Burton Coffman

CHRIST IS BETTER THAN MOSES;

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES;

BOTH CHRIST AND MOSES ARE FAITHFUL;

CHRIST TO RECEIVE GREATER GLORY;

EXHORTATION AGAINST APOSTASY;

WARNING FROM THE FATE OF ISRAEL

Heb 3:1 –Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus. (Heb 3:1)

Holy brethren is the third term of endearment already used in this epistle to describe God’s people, the other two being “sanctified” and “sons” (Heb 2:11-13). That mortal man should be considered holy is due to the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and to their having received the gift of the Holy Spirit subsequent to their being baptized into Christ (Act 2:38). Thus their holiness was not in any sense a consequence of their being born of Jewish parents, a preponderantly Gentile congregation receiving the same designation (1Th 5:26, margin).

Partakers of a heavenly calling is a reference to the universal and eternal dimensions of the Christian vocation, which is a heaven-centered faith, its emphasis being emphatically upon the things in heaven, rather than upon the things of earth. This concept pervades the whole book of Hebrews and makes even the most sacred things on earth the mere copies of things in heaven. The heavenly nature of this calling is not seen merely in the fact that it came from heaven, for the Jewish system did also. Rather, here is a reference to the spiritual and eternal inheritance of Christians, as contrasted with the mortal and earthly goals of Judaism.

Consider is a common word in English, but it has a rich etymological significance, being formed from two Latin words, “con” (with) plus “sideris” (stars or constellation), thus having a literal meaning related to observing the stars. One who takes the time to behold the beauty and majesty of the night sky is literally WITH THE STARS in his thoughts and emotions and cannot fail to receive deep impressions of awe, wonder, and appreciation. It is with this very attitude that people are invited to consider Christ.

The Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus. Nowhere else in scripture is the title of “Apostle” applied to Christ, but it certainly fits the office of our Lord as the official messenger from heaven, since the primary meaning of the word is “one sent or commissioned for some important communication”; and although the word “apostle” is not in other places used of Christ, the meaning of it surely is. The Old Testament prophecy named him “the messenger of the covenant” (Mal 3:1), and Jesus referred to this phase of his work as follows, “The Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (Joh 12:49). An additional implication in the meaning of the word “apostle” is that the person sending is greater in dignity than the one sent; and to make clear just what is meant by its reference to Jesus, the author of Hebrews uses the term “Jesus,” that being the usual scriptural word where the human nature of our Lord is meant. It was only in his human nature that the lesser dignity of “Apostle” could be imputed to Christ; because, in his eternal nature, he was equal to God (Php 2:6).

Christ’s representation here as High Priest is a part of the argument for his superiority over Moses, who was not a high priest. Moses was prophet, mediator, and king (in a sense); but the office of high priest pertained only to Aaron. Christ was all that Moses was, and more; he was also High Priest.

Our confession is not reference to some formal subscription to any such thing as a creed but is used here to mean the holy religion of Christ.

Heb 3:2 –Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.

In Heb 2:17, Jesus had already been mentioned as a merciful and faithful high priest, and it is his “faithfulness” that needed stress here. Note how delicately the inspired writer defers to the deserved honor of Moses, whom he did not belittle or diminish in any way. Both Moses and Jesus were faithful to deliver God’s message to people, each in his own way, and each in his own capacity. A more detailed study of Moses the type and Jesus the antitype reveals both the similarities and the contrasts.

MOSES AND JESUS

Similarities:

In their birth, both became sons of virgin princesses, Moses through adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, Christ by means of the incarnation, and his birth by miracle, of the virgin Mary.

Both were Israelites, it being specifically prophesied that the Messiah would be raised up from amidst “the brethren” (Deu 18:15).

Both were sent to the children of Israel, Moses from Midian, and Christ from heaven.

Both forsook the high status of their lives to perform a mission of rescue, Moses leaving the court of Pharaoh, and Christ leaving heaven.

Both were rejected. The Jews said to Moses, “Who made thee a ruler and judge over us” (Exo 2:14). Christ was rejected and crucified.

Both accomplished their missions. Moses delivered Israel from Egypt; Christ delivers from sin all who follow him.

Both wrought many miracles, signs and wonders.

The first miracle of each had a startling resemblance. Moses changed the water into blood; Christ changed the water into wine.

The inauguration of the Law of Moses and that of Christ had this in common: that three thousand souls were involved in each case, three thousand being lost at Sinai, three thousand being saved at Pentecost (Exodus 32:38; Act 2:38 ff).

Both were transfigured, Moses on Sinai (Exo 34:29-30), Jesus on Mount Hermon (Mat 17:2).

Both delivered God’s law to people.

Both offered themselves to die for Israel (Exo 32:32; Joh 10:17).

Both made a marriage with the Gentiles, Moses literally, Christ in a figure, the Gentiles becoming a part of his bride (Num 12:1; Eph 5:25 ff).

Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; Christ lifted himself upon the cross (Joh 3:14).

Israel was baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1Co 10:2); spiritual Israel are baptized into Christ (Gal 3:27).

Moses gave to the people bread from heaven (Exo 16:15); Christ gave the people loaves and fishes in the wilderness, a figure of him who is the Bread of Life (Joh 6:31; Joh 6:49 ff).

Both were the subjects of a special interposition on the part of God when they died, Moses being buried by God (Deu 34:6), and Christ being raised from the dead (Mar 16:6).

There are also many similarities between the lives of Moses the great Lawgiver of Israel and Jesus Christ the great Lawgiver of all mankind; but the above are far more than enough to establish the truth that Christ was indeed “the Prophet” like unto Moses (Deu 18:15).

Contrasts:

Moses was faithful as a servant, Christ as a Son, over God’s house.

Moses labored in a house he did not build, Christ in the house he built, his own house.

Moses did not lead the people into the promised land; Christ does lead the people into glory.

Moses was sinful, Christ is sinless (Deu 32:51-52; Heb 4:15).

Moses brought only the patterns of things to come, Christ the realities.

Moses’ miracles were inferior to those of Christ, as in the changing of the water already noted, and because Christ raised the dead.

Moses delivered from physical bondage, Christ from the spiritual bondage of sin.

Moses gave bread from heaven to sustain physical life, Christ bread from heaven that gives and sustains eternal life.

Moses appeared with Christ on the mount of transfiguration but was caught away, so that people saw “Jesus only” (Mat 17:8).

Moses’ mission pertained only to Israel, Christ’s, ultimately, to the “whole creation” (Mar 16:15).

Moses was only a man; Christ was and is both God and man.

Moses’ body was buried and saw corruption; Christ’s was spared that by means of the resurrection.

Moses was not a high priest; Christ is the eternal High Priest.

It would be nearly impossible to note all of the contrasts which proved the absolute supremacy and superiority of Christ over Moses, but enough are listed to give some indication of it.

Heb 3:3 –For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that hath built the house hath more honor than the house.

This singles out the principal superiority of Christ over Moses and affords another glimpse of the deity and Godhead of Christ, making Christ to be the builder of the house in which Moses served. This is then a reiteration of those immense claims on behalf of Jesus Christ which were outlined in the first paragraph of the epistle. It was long centuries after God had built or established that house in which Moses served, that Jesus was born in Bethlehem; and the identification of Jesus in this verse as the builder of that house places him upon an equality with God. (See under Heb 1:8).

One cannot pass this verse without regarding the essential unity of God’s children in all ages. The Jewish system, no less than the Christian, was divine in its origin; and many New Testament passages emphasize the connection of Old Testament references with that new Israel which supplanted the old (1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11; Rom 15:4; Joh 5:39; Act 17:2-3). It was in view of this unity that Jesus said,

And ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without. And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God (Luk 13:28-29).

This basic unity of God’s heavenly establishment, changed though the covenant was, is attested by the deliberate judgment of mankind in binding both the Old and New Testaments into a single volume to form the Bible. Respect to such a unity does not contradict the fact of progression in the will of God as he moved to abolish the old covenant and establish the new.

Heb 3:4 –For every house is builded by some one; but he that built all things is God.

This verse is engraved in letters of stone over the principal portal of the Central Church of Christ, Houston, Texas. The thought expressed is a teleological thunderbolt; it is the ancient and indestructible argument from design, bluntly and unequivocally stated, first in the truism that every house has a builder, and secondly in the deduction that the far greater house of the whole universe likewise has its builder who can be none other than God. A noted research chemist, Thomas David Parks, said:

I see order and design all about me in the inorganic world. I cannot believe that they are there by the haphazard, fortunate coming together of atoms. For me this design demands an intelligence; and this intelligence I call God.[1]

Christians ought not to be ashamed of the argument from design; for here it is in the word of God itself, commending itself to the unbiased mind, and standing absolutely uncontradicted by any vaunted achievements of science. The most determined atheist, in his tenderest and most thoughtful hours, cannot escape the persuasive eloquence of that argument from design which demands a Designer. An excellent instance of this is documented in the experience of Whitaker Chambers, who for a while was a militant atheist, but who yielded to the tender whispers of this argument when God spoke to him through the fantastic beauty and loveliness of his little daughter’s ear. Chambers was a dedicated Communist; but after he was enlightened, he gave a touching account of how that first ray of light penetrated his soul. Here are his words:

My daughter was in her high chair. I was watching her eat. She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life. I liked to watch her even when she smeared porridge on her face or dropped it meditatively on the floor. My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear – those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: “No, these ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature (the Communist view). They could have been created only by immense design.” The thought was involuntary and unwanted, I crowded it out of my mind. But I never wholly forgot it or the occasion. I had to crowd it out of my mind. If I had completed it I should have had to say: Design presupposes God. I did not then know that, at that moment, the finger of God was laid upon my forehead.[2]

The interrelation between design and the Designer is a fact observable alike by a little child or the wisest man who ever lived. A three-year-old will ask, “Mommy, who made the cow?” And the simple question simply means that intelligence that has not been corrupted accepts the argument from design as truth; and the axiomatic nature of that truth was affirmed twice in the word of God: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa 14:1; Psa 53:1). “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa 19:1).

[1] Thomas David Parks, The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1958), p. 74.

[2] Whittaker Chambers, Witness (New York: Random House, 1952), p. 16.

Heb 3:5 –And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, as a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken.

This designation of Moses as a servant is founded on the word of God himself (Num 12:7); and this entitled the author of Hebrews to conclude that Moses was not the great lawgiver through any power and ability of himself alone, but that it was his capacity as God’s representative and as a vessel for the conveyance of God’s message that his noble work was achieved. Furthermore, Moses delivered the Christian system embryonically, as well as the Judaic. In the prophecies about Christ, in the minute details of the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and in the definite instructions for all the feasts, sacrifices, and ceremonies of the Judaic system, all so faithfully delivered by Moses, the entire body of truth delivered by Moses foretold and eventually proved the redemptive ministry of Christ. The Christian system is contained prophetically in the old. Moses did not merely deliver the Judaic system of religion; but, in the sense that the flower is contained in the bud, he delivered the Christian system also, identified in this verse as “those things afterward to be spoken.” Westcott stated it thus:

The position of Moses and of the Mosaic dispensation was provisional. Moses not only witnessed to the truths which his legislation plainly declared, but also to the truths which were to be made plain afterward.[3]

ENDNOTE:

[3] Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 77.

Heb 3:6 –But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.

Reiterating the supremacy of Christ, the author, on the basis of a bold deduction, names Christians themselves as components of God’s house, “whose house we are”! The old Israel is no more. The Son having been revealed, men are no longer under a servant, even so true and faithful a servant as Moses (Rom 2:28; Rom 9:6-8; Gal 6:15; Joh 8:39). Think of the house of God. He laid the foundations of it, even before the world was (1Co 2:7), provided the blue prints of it in the dispensation of Moses, and extended it upward and outward to include all the families of man in the church of Christ; and, finally, he shall present all to himself in that glorious fulfillment of the everlasting kingdom at the last day (2Pe 1:11).

If we hold fast our boldness emphasizes the necessity of perseverance in the Christian life, if one is to win the crown. Bruce wrote:

The conditional sentences of this epistle are of special attention (Heb 3:14; Heb 10:26). Nowhere in the New Testament more than here do we find such repeated insistence of the fact that continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality.[4]

Bruce might have meant by that comment that a failure to continue means there was no reality to begin with, such being the thesis of Calvinism; but continuity must be viewed as a divinely imposed condition of salvation, upon the fulfillment of which destiny depends. Roddy put it squarely thus,

There is no shallow “once saved always saved” here. No superficial being saved and lost, in and out, experience either. But a realization that the evidence of the reality of the grace of God in the life is a constant and living faith regardless of circumstances and inward questions.[5]

The climate for the proper maintenance of faith is not exclusively produced by, nor does it depend solely upon, external conditions. On the other hand, it must be aided by and controlled by the attitude of the believer himself, who has the power to further and strengthen his own faith by a constant, bold, and optimistic proclamation of it. Thomas was aware of this when he wrote:

Weakness is a spiritual peril; and this emphasis on boldness and glorying is a significant reminder that only as we continue courageous and confident can we expect to be firm unto the end. There is an old saying about “whistling to keep up the courage”; and there is no doubt that in things spiritual the secret of courageous and steadfast living is to be bold and to glory constantly in our Christian hope.[6]

Thus there devolves upon the believer himself a frightful responsibility for the preservation and development of his own faith; and this coincides with the fact that faith, rather than being exclusively intellectual, also rests upon and flows out of moral considerations of the highest order (Joh 3:19).

[4] F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 59.

[5] Clarence S. Roddy, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1962), p. 41.

[6] W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 41.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Heb 3:1-2. , , , , , .

The Vulgar leaves out , Christ; all ancient copies and translations beside retain it.

, that is, unde, properly from whence. But these words are used as illatives; as proinde, itaque, quamobrem, quocirca quare; all which are made use of by translators in this place, wherefore. Respect is had unto the preceding discourse, from whence the apostle infers his ensuing exhortation: Seeing that things are thus, that the author of the gospel is such an one as hath been described. , vocationis coelestis, of the heavenly calling. Syr., , which is from heaven. Some render it, supra- coelestis, above the heavens; as are things upon the earth, and so above it. And Plato, Apolog. Socrat., opposeth , things under the earth, and , things above the heavens. And this word is almost peculiar unto our apostle, being used frequently by him in this and his other epistles, and but twice besides in the whole New Testament, Mat 18:35; Joh 3:12. See 1Co 15:40; 1Co 15:48-49; Eph 1:3; Eph 1:20; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12; Php 2:10, 2Ti 4:18; Heb 6:4; Heb 8:5; Heb 9:23; Heb 11:16; Heb 12:22. And as he useth this word frequently, opposing it to , so he expresseth the same thing in other words of the same signification: Php 3:14, , the supernal calling; that is, . For , saith Aristotle, de Mund., is , , that of the world which is above, the dwelling-place of God. And as our apostle opposeth , heavenly things, so he doth also , things above, absolutely, unto , things that are on the earth, Col 3:1-2. This phrase of speech is therefore the same, and peculiar unto our apostle. And both these expressions denote God, the author of this callings, who is , Job 31:28, God above ; , God over all, Eph 4:6; , heavenly, Mat 18:35.

, participes, partakers; consortes, Beza. To the same purpose, Syr., , who are called with an holy calling, omitting the force of this word, intended to express their common interest in the same calling. The signification of this word was declared on Heb 2:14. The matter intended is fully expressed by the same apostle,Eph 4:4, , , One body and one Spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling; that is, partakers of and companions in the same heavenly calling.

, considerate, contemplamini, consider, meditate on. is properly animadverto, to set the mind diligently to mark and consider, so as to understand the thing considered; whence it is often rendered (as by Cicero) by intelligo, and perspicio, to understand, and perceive. See Rom 4:19, where it is denied of Abraham. Consider diligently. , apostolum, legatum, the apostle, legate, ambassador. Syr., hune apostolum, this apostle. He is so only; he that was sent of God, namely, to the work of revealing him by the gospel. And by a periphrasis hereof he often describes himself, calling his Father , him that sent him. Ethiopic, apostolum vestrum, your apostle.

, et pontificem, and the high priest, or chief priest; Syr., , prince of priests; whereof we have spoken before, Heb 2:17. is properly a joint agreement, consent, or concurrence in the declaration of anything. It is used also in good authors for a convention, covenant, or agreement. Syr., , of our confession; and so the Vulgar, confessionis nostrae: both with respect unto the Greek translation of the Old Testament, wherein in Hiphil, signifying properly to celebrate,to praise, to set forth praise by words, is constantly rendered , to confess. Hence these words of our apostle, 2Co 9:13, , are rendered by the Vulgar, Deum glorificamus quod subjecti sitis confessioni evangelii; We glorify God that you are subject to the confession of the gospel; very imperfectly, and without any clear sense. The subjection of your profession is a Hebraism for professed subjection, as ours well render the words. is but once used in the New Testament for to confess, 1Jn 1:9, any otherwise than as to confess is coincident in signification with to profess or make profession. And this hath obtained in common use; whence the doctrines that men profess, or make profession of, being declared, are called their confession, or the confession of their faith. So our apostle calls it , that good confession, 1Ti 6:12-13; and absolutely , profession, Heb 4:14 of this epistle; and , Heb 10:23, the profession of hope. And it is to be observed that this word also is peculiar unto our apostle, and by him frequently used. It is public or joint profession. Some copies of the Vulgar read vestra, your profession, but without countenance from ancient copies or translations.

, facienti ipsum, ei qui fecit ipsum, to him that made him. Some Socinians from these words would prove that Christ is a mere creature, because God is said to make him. But it is not of the essence or nature of Christ that the apostle treateth, as Schlichtingius himself acknowledgeth, but of his office and work. See Act 2:36, , God hath made him both Lord and Christ; the same with , Heb 1:2, he hath made, appointed, designed, exalted him. So in the Hebrew, , fecit, he made, is used and applied 1Sa 12:6, which the LXX. render, , who made Moses and Aaron; that is, or , raised up, or exalted, or appointed them, that is, to their office. For whom God raiseth up or exalteth, he doth it unto some work and service; and whom he appointeth unto any service, he doth therein exalt.

, Even as Moses in his whole house. These words, in his whole house, may be referred unto the former expression concerning Christ, Faithful to him that appointed him in his whole house, even as was Moses. So the Arabic translation disposeth the words. Thus a comma is to be placed after Moses, or, even as Moses, is to be enclosed in a parenthesis. Or they may be referred unto Moses, and then they are to be rendered, as by ours, as was Moses; and then the sense is to be supplied by repeating faithful: As Moses was faithful in his whole house. But as to the matter itself, both are intended, and the same words are used of Moses elsewhere. Num 12:7. [1]

[1] EXPOSTION. Jesus is called , from the analogous relation in which he stands to the as messenger of God to men; , from the analogy between him and , as representative of men before God. Ebrard. TRANSLATIONS. . Confession. De Wette, Wahl, Craik, Conybeare and Howson, Ebrard. Covenant. Titmann, Tholuck. Whom we have acknowledged. Storr, Stuart. ED.

Heb 3:1-2. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider [diligently] the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful [being faithful] to him that appointed him [made him so], even as Moses in all his house [in his whole house.]

The apostle in these two verses entereth upon the application of the doctrine which he had declared and confirmed in the two foregoing chapters. Herewithal, according to his constant method in this epistle, he maketh way for what he had further to deliver of the same nature and importance.

The first word respects that which went before, wherefore, or, seeing things are as I have manifested, namely, that he of whom I speak unto you is so excellent and so highly exalted above all, and that whereas he was humbled for a season, it was unspeakably for the benefit and advantage of the church, it cannot but be your duty to consider him; that is, both what he is in himself, and what he is unto us.His design is to press upon them his general exhortation unto constancy and perseverance in the profession of the gospel; but he doth not express it in these verses, insisting only upon an intermediate duty, subservient unto that principally intended. Now, this is their diligent consideration of Jesus Christ, with what he had delivered concerning him, and what he was yet further to declare unto them. And this he urgeth as the only way whereby they might be prevailed on unto and assisted in the stability aimed at. This is the connection of his discourse and the intention of his inference; whence observe, that,

I. All the doctrines of the gospel, especially those concerning the person and offices of Christ, are to be improved unto practice in faith and obedience.

This course our apostle insists on: having before laid down the doctrine of the person and offices of Christ, here he applies it unto their duty and establishment in the profession of the truth. These things are not revealed unto us only to be known, but to be practically used for the ends of their revelation. We are so to know Christ as to live to him in the strength of his grace, and unto the praise of his glory. If ye know these things, saith he, happy are ye if ye do them, Joh 13:17. It is our privilege to know them, a great privilege; but it is our blessedness to do them. When men content themselves with the notion of spiritual things, without endeavoring to express their power and efficacy in the practical conformity of their minds and souls unto them, it proves their ruin. That word which is preached unto us ought to dwell in us. See what it is to learn Christ in a due manner, Eph 4:20-24. There is a miserable profession, where some preach without application, and others hear without practice.

To hear that we may learn, to learn that we may learn, is but part of our duty; indeed, in and for themselves no part of it. To hear and to learn are good, but not for themselves, for their own sake, but only for the practice of what we hear and learn. The apostle tells us of some who are always learning, but are never able to come , 2Ti 3:7; that is, to a practical acknowledgment of it, so as to have an impression of its power and efficacy upon their souls. And such are some who are , such as make it their business to hear and to learn, so that they scarcely do any thing else. Gospel truths are medicina animae, physic for a sin-sick soul. Now, of what use is it to get a store of medicines and cordials, and never to take them? No more is it to collect, at any price or rate, sermons, doctrines, instructions, if we apply them not, that they may have their efficacy in us and proper work towards us. There is in some a dropsy of hearing; the mere they hear, the more they desire. But they are only pleased with it at present, and swelled for the future, are neither really refreshed nor strengthened. But every truth hath, as the Hebrews express it, , meat in its mouth, something for our own nourishment. We should look unto sermons as Elijah did to the ravens, that brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, 1Ki 17:6. They bring food with them for our souls, if we feed on it; if not, they are lost. When the Israelites gathered manna to eat, it was a precious food, bread from heaven, angelsmeat, food heavenly and angelical, that is, excellent and precious; but when they laid it up by them, it bred worms and stank, Exo 16:20. When God scatters truths amongst men, if they gather them to eat, they are the bread of heaven, angelsfood; but if they do it only to lay them by them, in their books, or in the notions of their mind, they will breed the worms of pride and hypocrisy, and make them an offensive savor unto God. When, therefore, any truth is proposed unto you, learn what is your concernment in it, and let it have its proper and perfect work upon your souls.

Secondly, In the manner of his pressing his exhortation two things occur:

1. His compellation of them, in these words, Holy brethren.

2. His description of them by one property or privilege, Partakers of the heavenly calling.

1. In the former, two things also are observable:

(1.) The appellation itself which he makes use of, Brethren.

(2.) The adjunct of that appellation, Holy.

(1.) This term of relation, brethren, is variously used in the Scripture; sometimes naturally, and that most strictly, for children of the same father or mother, Gen 42:13; or more largely for near kinsmen (and among the Hebrews the descendants of the same grandfather are almost constantly so called; whence is that expression of the brethren of our Lord Jesus Christ, who were descendants of his grandfather according to the flesh, Gen 13:8; Gen 24:27; Mat 12:46; Mat 13:55; Mar 3:31; Joh 2:12; Joh 7:3; Joh 7:5; Joh 7:10; Act 1:14,): or, in analogy thereunto, for all the branches of one common stock, though a whole nation, yea, though of many nations. So all the Hebrews were brethren, Deu 15:12; and the Edomites are said to be their brethren, because of the stock of Abraham, Deu 23:7. And in this sense, in another place, our apostle calls all the Jews his brethren; that is, his kinsfolk in the flesh, Rom 9:3. Sometimes it is used civilly, and that,

[1.] On the mere account of cohabitation, Gen 19:7;

[2.] Of combination in some society, as,

1st. For evil, Gen 49:5;

2dly. For good, Ezr 3:2.

And sometimes it expresseth a joint profession of the same religion; on which account the Jews called themselves brethren all the world over, Act 28:21. Lastly, It is also an expression of spiritual cognation, founded on that of our Savior, All ye are brethren….. and one is your Father, which is in heaven, Mat 23:8-9. And herein is an allusion to the first, proper signification of the word. That men be brethren, properly and strictly, it is required that they have one father, be of one family, and be equally interested in the privileges and advantages thereof. This is the nearest bond of alliance that is or can be between equals, the firmest foundation of love. And thus it is with those who are brethren spiritually, as will afterwards appear.

Now, though the apostle stood in the relation intimated with the Hebrews upon a natural account, yet he here calls them brethren principally in the last sense, as spiritually interested in the same family of God with himself; although I am apt to think that in the use of this expression to the Jews the apostle had respect also unto that brotherhood which they had among themselves before in their ancient church-state. So Peter, writing to some of them, tells them that the same afflictions which they suffered would befall , the whole brotherhood of them in the world, 1Pe 5:9; that is, all the believing Jews. And whereas they had a particular and especial mutual love to each other on that account, our apostle warns them that they should not think that that relation or love was to cease upon their conversion to Christ, Heb 3:1 : , Let that brotherly love continue which hath been amongst you. But principally I suppose he respects their new relation in Christ; which further appears from the adjunct of this compellation annexed, holy.

(2.) Holy. This is the usual epithet wherewith our apostle adorns believers, Rom 1:7; 1Co 1:2; 2Co 1:1; Eph 1:1; Php 1:1. And in many places he joins their calling with it, which here he subjoins unto it. And this is peculiar to Paul. What he means by , holy, he declares, where he terms the same persons , sanctified ones, 1Co 1:2; Eph 5:26; 1Co 6:11; 1Th 5:23; Joh 17:19. He accounted them holy, not upon the account of an external separation, as of old all the people were holy, but also of internal, real sanctification and purity. This he judged the professing Hebrews to be interested in, as being called by an holy calling. And it may be, in the present use of this expression, he hath respect unto what he had before affirmed of believers, namely, their being , sanctified, or made holy by Christ, Heb 2:11; considering that from thence he infers their relation unto Christ as his brethren, Heb 2:12, and so becoming in him brethren to one another, even all of them , a brotherhood, or fraternity, 1Pe 5:9. And by this compellation of holy brethren doth the apostle manifest his high regard of them or respect unto them, looking on them as persons sanctified by the Spirit and word of Christ, and a dear affection for them as his brethren. By this treatment also of them he gives a great evidence of his sincerity in dealing with them; for they might not fear that he would impose any thing on them whom he honored as holy, and loved as brethren. And hereby he smooths his way to his ensuing exhortation.

2. He describes them from their calling, . This is usual with our apostle: Called to be saints Sanctified in Christ Jesus. And this calling or vocation he first describes by its quality; it is heavenly, or super-celestial; or, as elsewhere, the calling that is from above: and then ascribes an interest unto them therein. And he calls it heavenly,

(1.) From the fountain and principal cause of it; that is, God, even the Father, which is in heaven. As our election, so our calling is in an especial manner ascribed unto him, 1Co 1:9; 1Th 2:12; Rom 8:28-30; 1Pe 1:15; 1Pe 2:9; 1Pe 5:10; Php 3:14; Gal 5:8 : for no man can come unto the Son, unless the Father draw him. Believers, indeed, are termed , Rom 1:6, The called of Jesus Christ; that is, to him, not by him; or, by him as executing the counsel and dispensing the grace of the Father, 2Co 5:20.

(2.) In respect of the means whereby this calling is wrought, which are spiritual and heavenly, namely, the word and Spirit, both from above, Joh 16:7-11 : for the word of the gospel is on many accounts heavenly, or from heaven; whence our apostle calls it the voice of him that speaketh from heaven, Heb 12:25. And Christ, who is the author of it, is called The Lord from heaven, 1Co 15:47; and that on this account, that he who was in heaven came down from heaven to reveal the gospel, Joh 3:13; Joh 6:38. And so also the Spirit is poured out from above, being given of Christ after he was ascended into heaven, Act 2:33.

(3.) Of the end also; which is to heaven and heavenly things, wherein lies the hope of our calling, Eph 1:18; Eph 4:4. So that effectual vocation from God above, in his grace and mercy by Jesus Christ, is here intended.

Herein the apostle assigns a participation unto these Hebrews; they were partakers of it, had an interest in it, together with himself were so called. And this he doth for several reasons:

(1.) That he might manifest wherein their great privilege consisted, and which, as such, they were to value. They were apt to boast of the privileges they enjoyed in their Judaism, Joh 8:33, Rom 2:17-18; which also were great, Rom 3:1-2; Rom 9:4-5 : but they were all of no esteem in comparison of what they had now obtained an interest in, by the grace of Jesus Christ, in their high, holy, and heavenly calling. This he manifests in the instance of himself, Php 3:4-9. The call of Abraham, which was the foundation of all their privileges in their Judaism, was but an earthly call, on the earth and to the earth; but this is every way more excellent, being heavenly.

(2.) To set forth the grace of God towards the Jews, and his own faith concerning them, that they were not all rejected of God, notwithstanding the hardness and obstinacy of the most of them, as Rom 11:2; Rom 11:4-5. And, on the other hand, he insinuates that they were not to make an enclosure of this privilege, like those wherewith of old they were intrusted. The Gentiles being fellow-heirs with them therein, they were partakers with others in this heavenly calling; as Eph 3:6.

(3.) He declares his own communion with them in that great privilege, whereby they might understand his intimate concernment in their state and condition.

(4.) He minds them of their duty from their privilege. Being partakers of this calling unto Christ, it must needs be their duty diligently to consider him; which he exhorts them unto. But we may make some observations on the words unfolded already.

II. Dispensers of the gospel ought to use holy prudence in winning upon the minds and affections of those whom they are to instruct.

So dealeth Paul with these Hebrews. He minds them here of their mutual relation; calls them brethren; ascribes unto them the privileges of holiness and participation of a heavenly calling; all to assure them of his love, to remove their prejudices against him, and to win upon their affections. And, indeed, next unto our Lord Jesus Christ himself, he is the most signal pattern and example of holy wisdom, tenderness, companion, and zeal, unto all ministers of the gospel. The image of his spirit, expressed in his instructions given unto his two beloved sons, Timothy and Titus, sufficiently testify hereunto. Yea, so great was his wisdom and condescension in dealing with his hearers, that seducers and false apostles took occasion from thence to say, that being crafty he caught them with guile, 2Co 12:16. The words are an objection of his adversaries, not a concession of his. He shows how in all things he was tender towards them, and put them neither to charge nor trouble. Hereunto he supposeth a reply by the false apostles: , , Be it so, that I myself did not burden you, nor put you to charge, yet being every way crafty, I took you by deceit. This is their reply unto his plea, and not any concession of his; for both the words, and , are such as will admit no interpretation in a good sense, so that the apostle should ascribe them unto himself. But wherein did that craft and deceit consist which they would impute unto him? It was in this, that though he himself put them to no charge, he burdened them not, yet when he was gone, and had secured them unto himself, then he sent those to them which should receive enough for him and themselves. Unto this calumny the apostle replies, 2Co 12:17-18, showing the falseness of it. Did I, saith he, make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? This was that which was imputed unto him, which he rejects as false and calumnious. And he confirms what he says by an especial instance: I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? So that this reproach is every way false, and such as may be evicted so to be. And this is the true sense of this place. This was not his way. But this he always did, and on all occasions, he testified unto them his great affection, his readiness to spend and to be spent for them, 2Co 12:14-15. His gentleness towards them, cherishing them as a nurse cherisheth her children, 1Th 2:7, or as a father his, 1Th 2:11, forewent that which in earthly things was due to him by the appointment of Christ, that he might no way burden them, 2Co 11:9-11, Act 20:33-35; enduring all things for their sakes, 2Ti 2:10, amongst which were many able to make the stoutest heart to tremble. His care, pains, travail, watchfulness, patience, love, compassion, zeal, who can declare or sufficiently admire! By these means he removed or rendered ineffectual the great peddle of forsaking Judaism, kept up a regard in his hearers against the insinuations of seducers and false apostles, raised their attention, prepared them every way for instruction, and won them over to Christ. Blessed Jesus! what cause have we to mourn when we consider the pride, covetousness, ambition, wrath, negligence, self-seeking, and contempt of thy flock, which are found amongst many of them who take upon themselves to be dispensers of thy word, whereby the souls of men are scandalized and filled with offenses against thy holy ways every day!

III. Believers are all related one unto another in the nearest and strictest bond of an equal relation. They are all brethren, holy brethren.

So the Holy Ghost calls them in truth; so the reproaching world calls them in scorn. They have one Father, Mat 23:8-9; one elder Brother, Rom 8:29, who is not ashamed to call them brethren, Heb 2:11; and have one Spirit, and are called in one hope of calling, Eph 4:4, which being a Spirit of adoption, Rom 8:15, interesteth them all in the same family, Eph 3:14-15, whereby they become joint-heirs with Christ, Rom 8:17. The duties of unity, love, usefulness, and compassion, which depend on this relation, are more known than practiced, and ought to be continually pressed, Psa 133:1; Heb 13:1. Of old, indeed, the Pagans spake proverbially of the Christians, See how they love one another! in a way of admiration. The contrary observation hath now prevailed, to the shame and stain of the profession of these latter days. What through dissensions and divisions amongst them who have any real interest in the privilege of sonship; what through an open, visible defect as to any relation unto God as a father, or unto the Lord Christ as an elder brother, in the most of them that are called Christians, we have lost the thing intended, and the name is become a term of reproach. But when iniquity abounds, love will wax cold. In the meantime, it were well if those who are brethren indeed could live as brethren, and love as brethren, and agree as brethren. The motives unto it are great and many. That mentioned in the business of Abraham and Lot seems to me of weight: Gen 13:7-8,

There was a strife between the herdmen of Abrams cattle and the herdmen of Lots cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be men that are brethren.

Abraham and Lot were brethren naturally, as near kinsfolk, for Abraham was Lots uncle; and spiritually, as the children of God. A difference happening between their herdmen, Abraham, as a wise man, fears lest it should proceed to some distance and variance between themselves. Thereupon he takes into consideration the state of things in the place where they were. The Canaanite and the Perizzite, saith he, are in the land; The land is full of profane men, enemies to us both, who would rejoice in our divisions, and take advantage to reproach the religion which we profess.This prevailed with them to continue their mutual love, and should do so with others. But our condition is sad whilst that description which the Holy Ghost gives of men whilst uncalled, whilst unbelievers, is suited unto them who profess themselves to be Christians, See Tit 3:3.

IV. All true and real professors of the gospel are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and made truly and really holy.

So Paul here terms those Hebrews, exercising towards them the judgment of charity, declaring what they ought to be, and what they professed themselves to be, what he believed them to be, and what, if they were living members of Christ, really they were. It is true, some that profess holiness may not be really holy. But, first, If they do not so profess it as not to be convinced by any gospel means of the contrary, they are not to be esteemed professors at all, Act 8:20-23; Php 3:18-19; 2Ti 3:5. Secondly, If that holiness which men profess in their lives be not real in their hearts, they have no right to the privileges that attend profession, Joh 3:5.

V. No man comes unto a useful, saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the gospel, but by virtue of an effectual heavenly calling.

These Hebrews came to be holy brethren, children of God, united unto Christ, by their participation in a heavenly calling. We are called out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1Pe 2:9; and this not only with the outward call of the word, which many are made partakers of who never attain the saving knowledge of Christ, Mat 20:16, but with that effectual call, which, being granted in the pursuit of Gods purpose of election, Rom 8:28, is accompanied with the energetical, quickening power of the Holy Ghost, Eph 2:5, giving eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to obey the word, according unto the promise of the covenant, Jer 31:33-34. And thus no man can come to Christ unless the Father draw him, Joh 6:44.

VI. The effectual heavenly vocation of believers is their great privilege, wherein they have cause to rejoice, and which always ought to mind them of their duty unto Him that hath called them.

For these two ends doth the apostle mind the Hebrews of their participation in the heavenly calling; first, That they might consider the privilege they enjoyed by the gospel far above and beyond whatever they boasted of under the law; and, secondly, That he might stir them up unto the performance of their duty in faith and obedience, according as God requires of them who are called. And this calling will appear a signal privilege if we consider:

1. The state from whence men are called, which is a state of death, Eph 2:1; and of darkness, Col 1:13, 1Pe 2:9; and of enmity against God, Col 1:21, Eph 4:18, Rom 8:7; and of wrath, Joh 3:36, Eph 2:3. It is a state of all that misery which the nature of man is capable of or obnoxious unto in this world or to eternity. Or,

2. By whom they are called, even by God above, or in heaven, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1Co 1:9, Rom 8:28, 1Pe 1:15; Php 3:14, Gal 5:8. And,

3. From whence or what inducement it is that he calls them; which is from his own mere love and undeserved grace, Tit 3:3-5. And,

4. The discrimination of persons in this call. All are not thus called, but only those that are, in the eternal purpose of the love of God, designed to so great a mercy, Rom 8:28; Rom 8:31-32. And,

5. The outward condition for the most part of them that are called, which is poor and contemptible in this world, 1Co 1:26-28, Jas 2:5. And,

6. The means of this calling, which are the holy Word and Holy Spirit, Joh 17:17, 1Co 6:11, 2Th 2:14. And,

7. What men are called unto; which is to light, 1Pe 2:9, Col 1:13; and to life, Joh 5:24-25; to holiness, Rom 1:7, 1Co 1:2, 1Th 4:7; and unto liberty, Gal 5:13; unto the peace of God, Col 3:15, 1Co 7:15; and unto his kingdom, 1Th 2:12, Col 1:13; unto righteousness, Rom 8:30; and to mercy, Rom 9:23-24; and unto eternal glory, 1Pe 5:10. Of all these benefits, with the privilege of the worship of God attending them, are believers made partakers by their heavenly calling. And this minds them of their whole duty ;

(1.) By the way of justice, representing it unto them as meet, equal, and righteous, 1Pe 1:15;

(2.) Of gratitude, or thankfulness for so great mercy, 1Jn 3:1, 1Pe 3:9;

(3.) Of encouragement, etc. Proceed we again unto the exposition of the words.

Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. The words may be read either, Consider Christ Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our profession, and so the person, of Christ is placed as the immediate object of the consideration required, and the other words are added only as a description of him by his offices; or, Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, and then the apostle and high priest of our profession are the proper objects of this consideration, and the name added doth but indigitate the individual person who was clothed with these offices.

This is the immediate duty which the apostle here presseth them unto, namely, the consideration of that apostle and high priest of our profession, whose greatness, glory, excellency, and pre-eminence in all things he had declared. And herein the nature of the duty and the object of it are represented unto us.

First, The nature of it, in the word consider. Some suppose that faith, trust, and confidence,, are intended or included in this word. But is nowhere used in any such sense, nor will the present design of the apostle admit of any such interpretation in this place; for the duty he exhorts unto is in order unto faith, and constancy therein. And this is no other but a diligent intension of mind, in their considerations, thoughts, meditations, and conceptions about Jesus Christ, that they may understand and perceive aright who and what he is, and what will follow upon his being such. And this rational consideration is of singular use unto the end proposed. And as he afterwards blames them for their remissness and backwardness in learning the doctrine of the gospel, Heb 5:11-14; so here he seems to intimate that they had not sufficiently weighed and pondered the nature and quality of the person of Christ, and his offices, and were thereupon kept in their entanglements unto Judaism. This, therefore, he now exhorts them unto, and that by fixing their minds unto a diligent, rational, spiritual consideration of what he had delivered, and was yet further to deliver concerning him and them.

VII. The spiritual mysteries of the gospel, especially those which concern the person and offices of Christ, require deep, diligent, and attentive consideration.

This is that which the Hebrews are here exhorted unto: , Consider attentively, or diligently. This is assigned as one means of the conversion of Lydia, Act 16:14. , she attended diligently to the things spoken by Paul, as an effect of the grace of God in opening her heart, Careless, wayside hearers of the word get no profit by it, Mat 13:19. Their nature and worth, with our own condition, call for this duty.

1. In their nature they are mysteries; that is, things deep, hidden, and full of divine wisdom: 1Co 2:7, , The wisdom of God in a mystery; such as the angels desire to bow down (not in a way of condescension, but of endeavor, ) and look into, 1Pe 1:12. For in Christ, and through him in the gospel ( , , unto the acknowledgment of the mystery of Christ; in whom, or wherein), are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col 2:2-3. And hence are we directed to cry after knowledge, to apply our hearts to understanding, to seek her as silver, to search for her as hid treasures, Pro 2:3-4; and not to consider these things as easily exposed to every wandering eye and lazy passenger. Such persons find not mines of silver or the hid treasures of former generations. Of this search the prophets and holy men of old are proposed for our example, 1Pe 1:10-11. Unto this purpose they are said , to investigate or diligently search into the Scriptures; as we are commanded to do if we intend to attain eternal life, Joh 5:39. For the most part men content themselves with an overly consideration of these things. It is the of their lives, what they do on the by, or when they have nothing else to do whereby they come to know no more of them than they must, as it were, whether they will or no, which upon the matter is nothing at all. Carnal sloth is not the way to an acquaintance with spiritual things or mysteries.

2. The worth and importance of these things bespeaks the same duty. Things may be dark and mysterious, and yet not weighty and worthy, so that they will not defray the charge of diligent search after them. Solomons merchants would not have gone to Ophir had there not been gold there, as well as apes and peacocks. But all things are here secure. There are unsearchable treasures in these mysteries, Eph 3:8, , riches not in this world to be searched out to perfection. No tongue can fully express them, no mind perfectly conceive them. Their root and spring lies in the divine nature, which is infinite, and therefore inexpressible and inexhaustible. There is in them , Mat 13:46, an exceeding precious pearl, a pearl of great and invaluable price; a stone which, though by some rejected, is yet esteemed of God elect and precious; and so also by them that believe, 1Pe 2:6-7. The merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold: it is more precious than rubies, Pro 3:14-15. Whatever is of worth and value in the glory of God, and the everlasting good of the souls of sinners, is wrapped up in these mysteries. Now, every thing is (at least comparatively)despised that is not esteemed according unto its proper worth. So undoubtedly are these things by the most of them to whom they are preached.

3. Our own condition calls for diligence in the discharge of this duty. We are for the most part, like these Hebrews, , Heb 5:11, slothful, or dull in hearing. We have a natural unreadiness unto that hearing whereby faith cometh, which is the consideration here called for; and therefore cannot sufficiently stir up our spirits and minds unto our duty herein. The manner of the most in attending unto the mysteries of the gospel should cause our sorrow here, as it will theirs (if not prevented) unto eternity.

Secondly, The object of this consideration is Christ Jesus, who is the apostle and high priest of our profession. Together with the especial indigitation of the person intended by his name, Christ Jesus, we have the description of him as he is to be considered, by his offices, an apostle, and a high priest; with their limitation, of our profession.

1. He is said, and he is here only said, to be an apostle, or the apostle. An apostle is one sent, a legate, ambassador, or public messenger. And this is one of the characteristical notes of the Messiah. He is one sent of God upon his great errand unto the children of men, his apostle. Speaking of himself by his Spirit, Isa 48:16, he saith The Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me; and again, Isa 61:1, , The LORD hath sent me, namely, according unto the promise that God would send him unto the church to be a savior, Isa 19:20. And this he tells the church, that they may gather and know from his love and care, namely, that the Lord God had sent him, Zec 2:8-9, that he was his legate, his apostle. And because God had promised from the foundation of the world thus to send him, this became a periphrasis or principal notation of him, He whom God would send; that is, his great legate. Hereunto Moses seems to have had respect in these words, Exo 4:13, ; Send now, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send, namely, to be the deliverer and savior of thy people.Hence in the old church he came to be called emphatically , he that was to come, that was to be sent. So when John sent his disciples to Jesus to inquire whether he was the Christ, he doth it in these words, ; Art thou he that was to come? that is, to be sent of God, Mat 11:3, Joh 11:27. And thence the ancient Latin translation renders Shilo, Gen 49:10, qui mittendus est, he that is to be sent, it may be deriving the word, by a mistake, from , to send. But it well expresseth the common notion of him in the church after the giving of the first promise, He that was to be sent. And in the Gospel he doth not himself more frequently make mention of any thing than of his being sent of God, or of being his apostle. He whom God hath sent, is his description of himself, Joh 3:34; and him he calls , him that sent him, or made him his apostle, Mat 10:40. And this is most frequently repeated in the Gospel by John, that we may know of what importance the consideration of it is: see Joh 3:17; Joh 3:34; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:23-24; Joh 5:30; Joh 5:36-38; Joh 6:29; Joh 6:38-40; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:57; Joh 7:16; Joh 7:28-29; Joh 8:16; Joh 8:18; Joh 8:29; Joh 8:42; Joh 9:4; Joh 10:36; Joh 11:42; Joh 13:20; Joh 12:44-45; Joh 12:49; Joh 14:24; Joh 16:5; Joh 17:3; Joh 17:18; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; Joh 17:25; Joh 20:21. Two things, then, are included in this expression or title:

(1.) The authority he had for his work. He came not of himself, but was sent of God, even the Father; and therefore spake in his name, and fed the church

in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God, Mic 5:4.

And as he became the apostle of the Father by his being sent of him, so by his sending of others in his name he made them his apostles, Joh 20:21. As the love, therefore, so the authority of the Father is much to be considered in this matter.

(2.) His work itself, which is here included, and elsewhere largely declared. It was to reveal and declare the will of the Father unto the children of men, to declare the Father himself, Joh 1:18, and his name, Joh 17:6; Joh 17:26; that is, the mystery of his grace, covenant, and whole will concerning our obedience and salvation, Heb 1:1-2. For this end was he the apostle and ambassador of the Father, sent into the world by him, Mal 3:1. In brief, the prophetical office of Christ, with respect unto his immediate authoritative mission by the Father, is intended in this title. And it is a title of honor as well as of office that is here given him. Hence the impious Mohammedans, when they would persuade or compel any one to their sect, require no more of him but that he acknowledge Mohammed to be Resul Ellahi, The apostle of God. In this sense, then, is the Lord Christ called The apostle of our profession, in that he was sent of God to declare his mind and will, in his name and with his authority, as ambassadors are wont to do in reference unto them that send them.

But whereas our Lord Jesus Christ was in an especial manner, as to the time of his conversation in the flesh, and his personal revealing the will of God, sent unto the Jews, and therefore says, Mat 15:24, that he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that is, as unto his personal ministry on the earth; and our apostle affirms that he was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, Rom 15:8; and being only in this place unto the Hebrews called an apostle, I leave it unto consideration whether there may not be some especial respect unto his peculiar mission, in his person and ministry unto them, intended in his name and title, here only given him.

2. Hereunto is added the high priest; both in one, as the kingdom and priesthood are also promised, Zec 6:13. Both the Hebrews and we are now to look for all in him.

These offices of old were in several persons. Moses was the apostle, or ambassador of God, to declare his will and law unto the people; and Aaron was the high priest, to administer the holy things in the worship of God. This was the poverty of types, that no one could so much as represent the work between God and the church. I will not deny but that Moses was a priest in an extraordinary manner before the institution of the Aaronical priesthood; but his officiating in that office being but a temporary thing, which belonged not to the condition of the Judaical church, it was not considered by our apostle in his comparing of him with Christ. To manifest, therefore, unto the Hebrews how the Lord Christ hath the preeminence in all things, he instructs them that both the offices, that of an apostle, which of old was executed by Moses, and that of the high priesthood, committed unto Aaron, were vested in him alone, intending afterwards to evince how far he excelled them both, and how excellent were his offices in comparison of theirs, though they came under the same name.

3. The limitation adjoined is, of our profession: The apostle and high priest of our profession. The words may be taken objectively and passively, The apostle and high priest whom we profess, that is, believe, declare, and own so to be; or they may actively denote the author of our profession, the apostle and high priest who hath revealed and declared the faith which we profess, the religion which we own, and therein exerciseth in his own person the office of the priesthood.In this sense he is called The author and finisher of our faith, Heb 12:2. Our faith objectively, and our profession, are the same. Our profession is the faith and worship of God which we profess. This is our , even the gospel, with the worship and obedience required therein. And the Lord Christ was and is the apostle of this profession, as he revealed the will of God unto us in the gospel, as he brought life and immortality to light thereby, teaching and instructing us in the whole will of God, as Moses did the Jews of old. He is also the high priest of this our profession, inasmuch as he himself offered the one and the only sacrifice which in our religion we own and profess, and continues alone to perform the whole office of a priest therein, as Aaron and his successors did in that of the Jews. It belonged not unto the office of the high priest to institute and appoint any thing in the worship of God, but only to execute his own duty in offering sacrifices and interceding for the people. So the Lord Christ, who, as the apostle of our profession, instituted the whole worship of God to be observed therein, as our high priest doth only offer the sacrifice of the church and intercede for the people.

The word our is added by way of discrimination, and is regulated by the compellation and description foregoing: Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, he is the apostle and high priest of our profession;

Whatever by others he be esteemed, he is so to us; and our inestimable privilege and honor it is that he is so.

This is the present exhortation of the apostle. That which he finally aims at, is to prevail with these Hebrews to hold fast the beginning of their confidence unto the end. To this purpose he exhorts, warns, and chargeth them, by all the bonds of mutual love and endearedness, by the greatness of the privilege which they are made partakers of, and the inexpressibleness of their concernment therein, that they would fix themselves unto a diligent consideration of him in whom all those offices now in our profession, which of old were shared amongst many, in a low, carnal administration of them, are gloriously vested. And how useful this would be unto them, and wherein this consideration doth consist, shall afterwards be made to appear. For the present we shall make some observations on the passages of the text that have been opened.

VIII. The business of God with sinners could be no way transacted but by the negotiation and embassy of the Son.

He must become our apostle; that is, be sent unto us. He did, indeed, at sundry times send servants and messengers into the world about his affair with us; but whereas they could never accomplish it, last of all he sent his Son, Mat 21:37; Heb 1:1-2. There was a threefold greatness in this matter, which none was fit to manage but the Son of God:

1. A greatness of grace, love, and condescension. That the great and holy God should send to treat with sinners for the ends of his message, for peace and reconciliation, it is a thing that all the creation must admire, and that unto eternity. He is every way in himself holy, good, righteous, and blessed for evermore. He stood in no need of sinners, of their service, of their obedience, of their being. But he was justly provoked by them, by their apostasy and rebellion against him, and that unto an indignation beyond what can be expressed. His justice and law required their punishment and destruction; which as he could have inflicted unto his own eternal glory, so they did not in any thing, nor could by any means, seek to divert him from it. Yet in this condition God will send a message unto these poor, perishing rebels, an embassy to treat with them about peace and reconciliation. But this now is so great a thing, includes such infinite grace, love, and condescension in it, that sinners know not how to believe it. And, indeed, who is fit to testify it unto them? Objections that arise against it are able to shake the credit and reputation of any angel in heaven. Wherefore God commits this message unto his Son, his only Son, makes him his apostle, sends him with these tidings, that they may be believed and accepted: 1Jn 5:20, The Son of God came, and gave this understanding.It is true that God sent others with some parts of this message before; for he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets from the beginning of the world, Luk 1:70; but yet as the first promise was given out by the Son of God himself, as I have elsewhere declared, so all the messages of the prophets in or about this matter depended on the confirmation of them that he was afterward to give in his own person. So saith our apostle: Rom 15:8,

Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. The truth of God in this matter delivered by the prophets was further to be attested by Jesus Christ, to whose testimony they referred themselves. And with respect hereunto he tells the Pharisees, that if he had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. If the sealed book of prophecies concerning the judgment of God, in the Revelation, was of so great concernment that no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, that is, no creature, was able to open it, or look thereon, Rev 5:3, until the Lamb himself undertook it, Rev 5:6-8, how much less was any creature meet or worthy to open the eternal secret counsels of the bosom of the Father, concerning the whole work of his love and grace, but the Son only! The grace of this message was too great for sinners to receive, without the immediate attestation of the Son of God.

2. There is a greatness in the work itself that is incumbent on the apostle of God, which required that the Son of God should be engaged therein; for,

(1.) As the ambassador or apostle of the Father, he was perfectly to represent the person of the Father unto us. This an ambassador is to do; he bears and represents the person of him by whom he is sent. And no king can more dishonor himself than by sending a person in that employment who, by reason of any defect, shall be unmeet so to do. God had, as was said, sent other messengers unto the children of men; but they were all but envoys of heaven, anteambulones, some that ran before as particular messengers, to give notice of the coming of this great apostle or ambassador of God. But themselves were not to represent his person, nor could so do. See Mal 3:1. Indeed he once, in a particular business, made Moses his especial legate, to, represent him to Pharaoh; and therefore he says to him, , Exo 7:1, that is, instead of God, one that may represent me in my terror and severity unto him:but this was in one particular case and business. But who could fully represent the person of the Father unto sinners in this great matter? None, certainly, but he who is in himself the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, Heb 1:3; and so represents unto us the holiness, the goodness, the grace, the love of the Father, by whom he was sent. Hence he tells his disciples that he who hath seen him hath seen the Father, Joh 14:9; and that because he is so in the Father, and the Father in him, that he represents him fully unto us, Joh 14:10. He is the image of the invisible God, Col 1:15; that is, the Father, who in his own person dwells in light, whereunto no creature can approach, hath exhibited and expressed the glorious properties of his nature unto us in the person of his Son, as our apostle expresseth it, 2Co 4:4. None, then, was fit to be this great apostle but he, for he only could fully represent the Father unto us. Any creature else undertaking this work would, or might, have led us into false notions and apprehensions of God. And the great wisdom of faith consists in teaching us to learn the Father, his nature and will, his holiness and grace, in the person of the Son incarnate, as his apostle and ambassador unto us; for beholding his glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, we behold the glory of his Father also. So he and the Father are one.

(2.) The greatness of the work requires that he who undertakes it be intimately acquainted with all the secret counsels of God that lay hid in his infinite wisdom and will from all eternity. None else could undertake to be Gods apostle in this matter. But who must this be? It is true that God was pleased to reveal sundry particular things, effects of his counsels, unto his servants the prophets; but yet it is concerning them that the Holy Ghost speaks, Joh 1:18,

No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

The best of them had but a partial acquaintance with God. Moses saw but a glimpse of his back parts in his passage before him; that is, had but a dark and obscure revelation of his mind and will, sufficient for his work and employment. This will not suffice him who is to manage the whole treaty between God and sinners. Who, then, shall do it? The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. In his bosom; that is, not only in his especial love, but who is partaker of his most intimate and secret counsels. This the design of the place requires to be the meaning of it: for so it follows, He hath declared him; He hath revealed him; he hath made him known, in his nature, his name, his will, his grace; he hath exhibited him to be seen by faith: for he only is able so to do, as being in his bosom; that is, acquainted with his nature, and partaker of his most intimate counsels.Without this none could in this matter be Gods apostle; for the work is such as wherein God will reveal and make known, not this or that portion of his will, but himself, and all the eternal counsels of his mind, about all that he will have to do with sinners in this world, and the whole glory which he aims at therein to eternity. This knowledge of God and his counsels no creature was capable of. The Son alone thus knows the Father and his mind. If it were otherwise, if our apostle did not know the whole counsel of God in this matter, all that is in his heart and mind, it is impossible but that in this great concern sinners would have been left under endless fears and doubts, lest some things might yet remain, and be reserved in the unsearchable abyss of the divine understanding and will, that might frustrate all their hopes and expectations. Their sin, and guilt, and worthlessness would still suggest such thoughts and fears unto them. But in this embassy of the Son there is full and plenary satisfaction tendered unto us that the whole counsel of God was originally known unto him; so that there is no ground of the least suspicion that there is any reserve in the counsels of God concerning us that he hath not made known.

(3.) To this end also it was necessary that he should have these counsels of God always abiding with him, that at all times and on all occasions he might be able to declare the mind and will of God. It was not enough that originally, as he was God, he knew all the things of God, but also as he was sent, as he was the apostle of God, the counsel of God was constantly to abide with him. This is another thing; for the wisdom and knowledge of Christ as mediator, to be acted in the human nature, was distinct from his knowledge as he was in himself God over all, blessed for ever. And without this none could have been a meet apostle from God unto sinners; for how else should he reveal the will of God unto them according unto all emergencies and occasions? When the council of Trent was sitting, and any hard matter (indeed almost any thing) came to be determined amongst them, the leaders of them, not knowing what to do, always sent to Rome to the pope and his cardinals for their determination. When this came to them, they decreed it under the usual form, It pleaseth the Holy Ghost, and us Hence there grew a common by-word amongst the people, that the Holy Ghost came once a week from Rome to Trent in a portmanteau. But when any men are not sufficiently furnished in themselves for the discharge of their duty, according to the variety of occasions and emergencies that they may meet withal, they will put themselves, as will also those with whom they have to do, unto great difficulties and distresses. It was necessary, therefore, that Gods apostle unto sinners should, in the whole discharge of his office, be furnished with a full comprehension of the whole mind of God, as to the affair committed unto him. Now, this never any was nor ever can be capable of, but only Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It wholly exceeds the capacity of any merely created person to comprehend at once, and have resident with him, the whole of the will and mind of God in the business of his transaction with sinners; for after the utmost of their attainments, and the communications of God unto them, they still know but in part. It is true, they may be able to know so much of the mind of God as to declare unto others the whole of their duty, whence Paul tells the elders of Ephesus that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God, Act 20:27, yet, as to a full, habitual comprehension of the whole mind of God in this matter, to reside with them, answering all occasions and emergencies, and that originally and immediately, that no mere creature was capable of. But as this was needful to the great apostle, so it was found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Spirit of the LORD did rest upon him (not came upon him at times, but did rest upon him, remained on him, Joh 1:32-33),

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and made him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD, Isa 11:2-3.

It may be you will say, It did so in some degrees of it only, or in a singular measure above others.Nay, God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him, Joh 3:34, when he was sent to speak the words of God; not in such a way as that he should only have a greater measure of the Spirit than others, but in a way wholly different from what they received. So that when it is said, he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Heb 1:9, it is not intended only that he received the Spirit in a degree above them, but the same Spirit in another kind; for it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell, Col 1:19, all fullness of wisdom and counsel, in a complete comprehension of the whole will and mind of God. And accordingly, in him were hid (laid up safely) all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col 2:3. This also was requisite unto this great apostle, and it was possible to be found only in the Son of God.

(4.) The nature of the work required that the ambassador of God to sinners should be able to make his message to be believed and received by them. Without this the whole work and undertaking might be frustrated. Nor is it sufficient to say that the message itself is so great, so excellent, so advantageous unto sinners, that there is no doubt but that upon the first proposal of it they will receive it and embrace it; for we find the contrary by multiplied experience. And not only so, but it is certain also that no sinner is able of himself and in his own strength to receive it or believe it; for faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Now, if this ambassador, this apostle from God, have not power to enable men to receive his message, the whole design of God must needs be frustrated therein. And who shall effect or accomplish this? Is this the work of a man, to quicken the dead, to open the blind eyes, to take away the stony heart, to create a new spiritual light in the mind, and life in the will? all which are necessary, that Gods message unto sinners may be savingly received. This also could be done only by the Son of God; for

no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him, Mat 11:27.

And this he doth by the effectual working of his Spirit, the dispensation whereof is committed wholly unto him, as hath been elsewhere declared. By him doth he write the law of his message in the fleshy tables of the hearts of them to whom he is sent, 2Co 3:3, as Moses wrote his message, or had it written, in tables of stone. So that the nature of this work required that it should be committed unto the Son of God. And so did,

3. The end of it. This was no less than to proclaim and establish peace between God and man. It is not a place to show how old, fixed, lasting, and universal this enmity was; nor yet how great, excellent, and precious, in the means, causes, and nature of it, that peace was which God sent about. These things are known and confessed. These things were such as none were fit to intermeddle withal but the Son of God only. He alone who made this peace was meet to declare it. He is our peace; and he came and preached peace, Eph 2:14; Eph 2:17. And on the account of the discharge of this work is he called , the Word of God, Rev 19:13, Joh 1:1, as by whom God was declared; and Isa 63:9, The angel of Gods presence; and , Job 33:23, The angel the interpreter, the great interpreter of the mind of God; and , Isa 9:5, The counsellor; and , Mal 3:1, The angel (or messenger) of the covenant; as here, The apostle of our profession.

And hence we may see the great obligation that is upon us to hearken unto this message, not only upon the account of the message itself, but also on the account of him that brings it. The message itself is worthy of all acceptation, and everlasting woe will be unto them by whom it is rejected. He that refuseth peace with God shall have war and wrath from him to eternity, and that deservedly. But God expects that great weight should be laid on the consideration of the person that brings it. Surely, saith he, they will reverence my Son. It may be men may think in their hearts that if they heard Christ himself delivering this message, if they had heard him preaching this peace, they would undoubtedly have received and embraced it. So indeed thought the Jews of old, that if they had lived in the days of the former prophets, they would not have dealt with them as their forefathers did, but would have believed their word and obeyed their commands; as the rich man thought that his brethren would repent if one might rise from the dead and preach unto them. All men have pretences for their present unbelief, and suppose that if it were not for them they should do otherwise. But they are all vain and foolish, as our Lord Jesus manifested in the former instances of the Jews and the rich man in hell. Here there is no pretense of this nature that can take place; for this great apostle and ambassador of God continueth yet to speak unto us, and to press his message upon us. So saith our apostle, Heb 12:25, See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For how shall we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven? He did not only speak of old, but he continueth to speak, he speaketh still; he still speaketh in the word of the gospel, and in the administration of it according to his mind and will. When from thence we are pressed to believe, and to accept the terms of peace that God hath prepared for us and proposeth unto us, if we refuse them, we reject this great apostle which God hath sent unto us to treat with us in his name. And what will be the end of such men? what will be the end of us all, if the guilt hereof should be found upon us? Another observation also the words will afford us, according to the foregoing exposition, which shall only be briefly mentioned, namely,

IX. Especial privileges will not advantage men without especial grace. The Lord Christ was in an especial manner an apostle unto the Jews. To them was he sent immediately. And unto them was his ministry in the flesh confined. Greater privilege could none be made partakers of. And what was the issue? He came unto his own, and his own received him, Joh 1:11. Incomparably the greatest part of them rejected him, and the tidings of peace that he came to bring. It is worth your consideration who are intrusted with all gospel privileges. They will not save you, they may ruin you. Look after grace to make them effectual, lest they prove the savor of death unto death to any of you. Once more, from the ascribing of both these offices to our Lord Jesus Christ,

X. The Lord Christ is all in all in and unto his church, the king, priest, and apostle or prophet of it, all in one.

So our apostle tells us that Christ is , unto believers, all things, and in all things, Col 3:11; supplying all wants, answering all privileges, the spring of all grace, electing all mercy: so that in him alone they are complete, as Col 2:10 of the same epistle. Here he proposeth it as a privilege and advantage that we have in him above what was enjoyed under the old testament. And this consisteth in two things:

1. That what they had in the type only, that we have in reality and substance.

2. Such was the poverty of the types, that no one of them could so much as shadow out or represent all that advantage which we really enjoy; and therefore they were multiplied, and the work distributed amongst them which they were to represent.

This made them a yoke, and that grievous and burdensome. The way of teaching in them and by them was hard and obscure, as well as their observation was difficult. It was a hard thing for them to learn the love, grace, and mind of God by them. God revealed himself in them , by many parts and pieces, according as they were capable to receive impression from and make representation of divine wisdom, goodness, and grace; whence our apostle says, that the law had but , a shadow, and not , Heb 10:1, the image itself of things. It had some scattered shades, which the great limner had laid the foundation of symmetry in, but so as to be discernible only unto his own infinite wisdom. A perfect image, wherein all the parts should exactly answer unto one another, and so plainly represent the thing intended, that it had not. Now, it was a work beyond their wisdom, out of these scattered pieces and parts of revelation, especially being implanted on carnal things, to gather up the whole of the grace and good-will of God. But in Christ Jesus God hath gathered all into one bead, Eph 1:10, wherein both his person and grace are fully and at once represented. Thus they had no one that was king, priest, and prophet to the church; nor could any be so after the giving of the law, the kingdom being promised unto the tribe of Judah, and the priesthood confined to the house of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Neither could any typical person alone of himself answer exactly and completely that wherein he was a type; for besides their own imperfections and failings, even in the discharge of their typical office, which rendered them a weak and imperfect representation of him who was absolutely perfect in all things, they could not in and by themselves at all discharge their office. Kings who were his types were to act, and did act, according to the counsel of others, and those sometimes none of the best; as David was much guided by the counsel of Ahithophel, which was to him as if he had inquired at the oracle of God, 2Sa 16:23. But Christ, our king, hath all stores of wisdom and counsel in himself, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man, Joh 2:25. So it was prophesied of him that upon one stone, the foundation-stone of the house of God, there should be seven eyes, Zec 3:9. Counsellors are , the eyes of kings. And in the monarchy of Persia, whence this prophet was newly come, there were always seven of Ezr 7:14, Thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors; and their names at that time are reckoned up, Est 1:14. But,saith he, all these eyes shall be on the foundation-stone itself, so that he shall no way need the advice or counsel of others.Or, to the same purpose, it may denote a perfection of wisdom and knowledge, which by that number is frequently signified. And for the high priest, he could do nothing alone. Unless he had an altar and a sacrifice, fire from above and a tabernacle or temple, his office was of no use. But our Lord Jesus is all this, both priest, Heb 4:14, and altar, Heb 13:10, and sacrifice, Eph 5:2, and tabernacle or temple, Joh 2:19; Joh 2:21, Col 2:9, and the fire, Heb 9:14, all in his own person, as shall, God willing, be afterwards declared. The like may be said of the prophets. Who sees not, then, herein the great privilege of the new testament, seeing we have these things all really which they had only in type, and all in one which among them were distributed amongst so many, and those all weak and imperfect.

Now, seeing that he is thus all unto us, two things do naturally and necessarily follow:

1. That we should seek for all in him. To what end were all typical offices, with their attendancies, instituted in the church of old? was it not that in them, one thing in one, another in another, they might find and obtain whatever was needful or useful for or unto the worship of God, their own edification and salvation? And shall we not seek for all in him who was represented, and that but darkly and infirmly, by them all? Whatever any one stood in need of in the commonwealth of Israel, he might have it fully answered either by king, priest, or prophet. And shall we not be perfectly justified by him who is really and substantially all in one? Yea, all our defects, weaknesses, and troubles, arise from hence, that we make not our applications unto him for that assistance which he is able, ready, and willing to give unto us.

2. As we must go to him for all, so we must receive and take him for all, that he may be all and in all. We are not only to address ourselves unto him as our priest, to be interested in his sacrifice and the atonement made thereby, but as our king also, to rule us by his Spirit, and to instruct us as the apostle of our profession. To take Christ, as some do, for a prophet, the apostle of God, but not as a high priest, or a priest properly so called, is to reject the true Christ, and to frame an idol to ourselves in our own imaginations. It is the same to divide him with respect unto any of his other offices or parts of his work whatever.

The exposition of the second verse yet remaineth, which will make way for that observation which is comprehensive of the principal design of the apostle in this place. Having laid down the sum of his exhortation, by an addition of the fidelity of Christ the apostle maketh a transition to the comparing of him with Moses as to his office apostolical or legatine, as afterwards he proceeds to compare him with Aaron in his office sacerdotal.

Heb 3:2. Being faithful to him who appointed him, even as Moses in his whole house.

Entering upon a comparison of the Lord Christ with Moses as he was the apostle of God, or one sent by him to reveal his will, he recommends him to the faith of the Hebrews under the principal qualification of a person in that office, He was faithful. This being a term of relation, he further describes it by its respect unto God, and that act of God whereunto it answered, To him that appointed him : and then in general expresseth the comparison intended;

By naming the person with whom he compared him, Even as Moses; and, the subject of his employment, The whole house of God.

First, The chief qualification of an apostle or ambassador is, that he be faithful. Gods apostle is the chief steward or dispenser of his mysteries, and it is principally required in stewards, that a man be found faithful, 1Co 4:2. , an apostle in the house is , the steward and dispenser of all things in and unto the house. This, therefore, the apostle expresseth in the first place, and that absolutely and comparatively. He was faithful, and faithful as was Moses. His faithfulness as a high priest, and wherein that faithfulness did consist, we have declared, Heb 2:17-18. Here, though that expression, , being faithful, is annexed unto the mention of two offices, apostolical and sacerdotal, yet, as appears from the ensuing discourse, it relates only unto the former.

Now, the fidelity of a legate, ambassador, or an apostle, consists principally in the full revelation and declaration of the whole mind and will of him by whom he is sent, as to the end for which he is sent., and nothing in his name but what is so his mind and will. Thus, our apostle, to declare his faithfulness in his office apostolical, affirms that he had kept nothing back from them to whom he was sent, that was profitable unto them, Act 20:20, nor shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God, Act 20:27.

There are two things in faithfulness; first, trust; and, secondly, the discharge thereof. Faithfulness respects trust. Our Lord, therefore, must have a trust committed unto him, wherein he was faithful: which also he had, for it pleased the Father to lay up in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col 2:3, to commit unto him the whole mystery of his will and grace, and so sent him to declare himself, Joh 1:18; and his name, Joh 17:6, to make known the last full declaration of his mind and will, as to his worship, with the obedience and salvation of the church, Heb 1:1-2, and therewithal to seal up vision and prophecy, Dan 9:24, that no new or further revelation of the will of God should ever be made or added unto what was made by him, Rev 22:18-19. Being intrusted with this work, his authority for it is proclaimed, the Father giving command from heaven unto all to hear him, Mat 17:5, who was thus sent by him. And therein he received from God the Father honor and glory, 2Pe 1:17, being declared to be that great prophet whom all were obliged to hear on pain of utter extermination, Deu 18:18-19; Act 3:22-23. This was the trust of the Lord Christ in this matter, and in the discharge hereof did his fidelity consist. And this he manifested in three things:

1. In that in this great work he sought not his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him, Joh 8:50; declaring that he came not in his own, but in his Fathers name, Joh 5:43. He turned not his message unto his own advantage, but unto the advantage or honor of him that sent him.

2. In that he declared his word or message not to be his own, that is originally or principally, but his Fathers: The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Fathers which sent me, Joh 14:24.

3. In that he declared the whole will or word of God that was committed unto him, for the end mentioned: I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, Joh 17:8; witnessing therein a good confession, 1Ti 6:13, sealing the truth with his blood, which he came into the world to bear witness unto, Joh 18:37. And greater faithfulness could not be expressed.

Secondly, This faithfulness he discharged towards him that appointed him. The apostle mentioning the offices of Christ distinctly, addeth unto every one of them his designation or appointment to them: unto his kingly office, Heb 1:2, He was appointed heir, or lord of all;unto his sacerdotal, Heb 5:5, He took not on himself the office of a priest, without the call of God;and here, as to his apostolical or prophetical office, He was appointed of God.And this he doth for two ends; first, To evidence that the Lord Christ took not any thing upon him in the house of God without call or authority; secondly, That we might see the love and care of God, even the Father, in the mediation of the Lord Christ, as appointing him to his whole office and work.

To him that appointed him. This appointment of Christ, or his being made the apostle of God, consists in a fivefold act of God in reference thereunto:

1. In his eternal designation of him to his work and office; for as he was in general , 1Pe 1:20, fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, so was he in particular designed of God to be his apostle for the instruction of his church, Isa 48:16; Zec 6:13; Pro 8:22-31. Hence that eternal life which he was to manifest, 1Jn 1:2, and to bring to light by the gospel, 2Ti 1:10, is said to be promised before the world began, Tit 1:2, even because of this purpose of sending the Son to declare it; on which account also it is said to be with the Father before it was manifested by him, 1Jn 1:2. And herein lies the foundation of the appointment of Christ unto his office.

2. In the solemn promise made from the beginning to send him for this purpose. This gave him a virtual law-constitution, whereby he became, as its prophet, the object of the churchs faith and expectation. And this was included in the first promise, Gen 3:15. Darkness, blindness, and ignorance, being come upon us by sin, he that was to deliver us from all the effects and consequents of it must of necessity be our instructor in the fight and knowledge of God. But the first open, plain expression of it by the way of promise is Deu 18:18; which is confirmed by following promises innumerable. See Isa 11:1-5; Isa 40:11; Isa 42:1-7; Isa 49:1-4; Isa 49:8-9; Isa 52:15; Zec 6:12-13; Mal 3:1-4.

3. In sending him actually into the world to be the light of men, Joh 1:4, and to manifest that eternal life which was with the Father, 1Jn 1:2; to which end he furnished him with his Spirit and all the gifts thereof in all fullness, for the discharge of his office, Isa 11:2-3; Isa 61:1-3. For to this end he received not the Spirit by measure, Joh 3:34, but was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Heb 1:9; of which unction we have treated at large before.

4. In the declaration he made of him to be his apostle and ambassador by a visible sign. This was done in the descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the likeness of a dove, Joh 1:32-33.

And herewithal did God commit his charge and trust unto him, which he was to keep and preserve, Zec 6:12-13. Being thus sent by the Lord of hosts, Zec 2:8, and therein clothed with his name, authority, and majesty, Mic 5:4, he acted in all things as his legate and apostle, by his commission and authority, in his name, and unto his glory.

5. Lastly, Unto these acts of his appointment God added his command, and published it from heaven unto all, to hear and obey him, as the great teacher sent from God, as his apostle, speaking in his name, Mat 17:5. By these means was the Lord Christ appointed to be the apostle of God; and he was faithful unto him that appointed him, as hath been declared.

Thirdly, As was Moses in his whole house. The last thing in these words is the further assertion of the fidelity of Christ by a comparison with Moses, who was faithful in his whole house. We observed before, that it is not evident unto whom these words are immediately applied. But whomsoever they have respect unto, they belong also to the other; for the one as well as the other was faithful in the whole house of God. But the apostle seems directly to express the words used by God himself concerning Moses, Num 12:7 : ; In tota domo mea fidelis ipse; He is faithful in all my house. And they are therefore here firstly intended of him. Three things are, then, considerable in these words:

1. The commendation of Moses, he was faithful

2. The extent of his faithfulness, it was in all the house of God; both which are expressed in the words.

3. The comparison implied between Christ and him.

1. Moses was , faithful. It is true, he failed personally in his faith, and was charged of God that he believed him not, Num 20:12; but this was in respect of his own faith in one particular, and is no impeachment of his faithfulness in the especial office intended. As he was the apostle, the ambassador of God, to reveal his mind and institute his worship, he was universally faithful; for he declared and did all things according to his will and appointment, by the testimony of God himself, Exo 40:16, According to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he. He withheld nothing of what God revealed or commanded, nor did he add any thing thereunto; and herein did his faithfulness consist.

2. The extent of his faithfulness was in the whole house of God, : that is, saith Chrysostom, , in the whole people. In his house; that is, in his household, his family: Act 2:36, Let the whole house of Israel know; that is, the whole family, the posterity of Jacob, or Israel. See house for household, Act 16:15; 1Co 1:16; 2Ti 1:16. The house of God, then, is his household, his family, his church; called his house,

(1.) By way of appropriation; his lot, his potion, as a mans house is to him. Deu 32:9, The LORDS portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance

(2.) Because of his inhabitation. He dwells in his church by his especial and glorious presence, as a man in his own house, Rev 21:3. Both which are springs of care, love, and delight. In this house was Moses faithful. And this commendation of Moses is on all occasions celebrated by the Jews. So they do in their hymns in the rituals of the Sabbath, in Machzor, part. i, fol. 49,

Thou calledst him thy faithful servant; and didst put a glorious crown on his head, when he stood before thee in mount Sinai, and brought down the two tables of stone, wherein was written the observation of the Sabbath, etc.

3. As to the comparison in these words, as Moses, we may consider,

(1.) That the apostle was now entering upon the greatest strength of the Hebrews, and that wherein they were most warily and tenderly to be dealt withal; for although they would allow that the angels were in some respect above Moses, yet they adhered unto their old institutions principally on his account, as one who was so eminently testified unto by God himself. He was the visible internuncius and mediator between God and their forefathers when their church-state was erected, and they were brought into the enjoyment of those privileges wherein they were exalted above all the nations of the world. The apostle, therefore, deals not with them in this matter directly until he had made such a declaration of the person of Christ, and proved him to be so incomparably exalted above the angels, that they could not be justly prejudiced if he preferred him before Moses also; and which that he should do was of indispensable necessity unto his design.

(2.) That whereas, treating concerning the angels, he urgeth those testimonies concerning them which respect their service and subjection, coming to speak of Moses, he produceth the highest and most honorable testimony that is given concerning him in the whole Scripture. And hereby he both at once grants all that they had to plead concerning him in this matter, and removes all suspicion from himself, as though he intended to derogate any thing from him; under a jealousy whereof he suffered much, as is known, amongst the Jews. Moreover, he discovers a consistency between the true honor of Moses and the exaltation of Christ, which as yet many of them did not understand, but thought that if Christ and the gospel were established, Moses must be cast off and condemned.

(3.) In this comparison he minds them that the Lord Jesus was the great promised prophet of the church, whom they were to attend unto on pain of being cut off from the people of God. God says unto Moses, Deu 18:18, I will raise up a prophet , like unto thee, as thou art. And yet it is said, Deu 34:10, that there was no prophet in Israel , like unto Moses, or, as Moses. One signal prophet there was to be raised up that should be like unto him; that is, who should give new laws and ordinances unto the church, which no other prophet was to do.

And thus doth the apostle make an entrance into his intended proof of the preference or pre-eminence of Christ above Moses:

1. He grants that they were both prophets, both apostles of God, sent by him to declare his mind and will; 2. That they were both faithful in the discharge of their office and trust; 3. That this trust extended itself to the whole church, and all that was to be done therein in the worship of God. Wherein the difference lay he declares in the next verse.

And in these two verses we may observe much of that wisdom which Peter ascribes unto Paul in his writing of this epistle. He is, as was said, entering upon the strongest hold of the Jews, that whereon they abode most pertinaciously in the observation of their ceremonial institutions, namely, the dignity and fidelity of Moses. At the entrance, therefore, of this discourse, he useth a compellation manifesting his intense love towards them and care of them, calling them his brethren; and therewithal minds them of that eminent privilege whereof by Jesus Christ they were made partakers, even the heavenly calling, which by the gospel they had received. Then, entering upon his designed comparison between Christ and Moses, wherein he was to be preferred above him, he doth it not before he had evinced not only that he was more excellent than the angels, but also far exalted above the whole creation of God, and, besides, the author of such incomparable and unspeakable mercies as no otherwise were or could be communicated unto men. Again, he lets them know that he was so far from derogating any thing from the honor and authority of Moses, as he was falsely accused to do, that he grants as much concerning him, and ascribes as much unto him, as any of themselves could justly grant or ascribe. And therefore, in the entrance of his discourse, he declares him to have been the legate, apostle, or ambassador of God unto the people in the sense before declared; and that in the discharge of his office and duty, he behaved himself with that fidelity which God himself approved of. This being the sum of what was pleaded by the Jews on the account of Moses, it is all granted and confirmed by the apostle. How suitable this course of procedure was to the removal of their prejudices, to inform their minds, to endear their affections, and consequently what wisdom was used in it, is open and evident. It remains that we consider the observation which is principally intended in the words, leaving others to be afterwards expressed.

XI. A diligent, attentive consideration of the person, offices, and work of Jesus Christ, is the most effectual means to free the souls of men from all entanglements of errors and darkness, and to keep them constant in the profession of the truth.

These are the ends for which it is here called for by the apostle. These Hebrews were yet entangled in their old Judaism, and by reason of their temptations, prejudices, and persecutions, were ready to decline from the truth. To free them from the one, and to prevent the other, the apostle calls them to the consideration of what he had delivered, and what he was yet to deliver, concerning the person, offices, and work of Christ. This being the principal intention of the place, we shall abide a little in the confirmation and application of our observation. What is in this duty considered subjectively was declared in the exposition of the words; what is in its manner of performance, and especial object, must be now further unfolded. And,

1. There are in it these things ensuing:

(1.) A diligent searching into the word, wherein Christ is revealed unto us. This himself directs unto, Joh 5:39. The Scriptures reveal him, declare him, testify of him. To this end are they to be searched, that we may learn and know what they so declare and testify. And this Peter tells us was done by the prophets of old, 1Pe 1:10-11. They searched diligently into the revelation made in them by the Spirit of the person, suffering, and grace of Christ, with the glory that ensued thereon. Christ is exhibited unto us in the gospel; which is therefore called The gospel of Christ, and The word of Christ, that is, concerning him, as our apostle declares, Rom 1:1-3. Both the prophets of old, saith he, and the gospel also, treat concerning the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. Herein, then, consists the first part of this great duty. SEARCH the Scriptures, with all the advantage of help afforded, that you may find out, discern, and understand, what is revealed concerning him in them, as he is the end of the law and the fullness of the gospel, the center in whom all the prophecies, promises, rules, and precepts of them do meet. Without this aim in our reading, hearing, searching the word, we labor in vain, and contend uncertainly, as men beating the air. Unto him, and the knowledge of him, is all our study of the Scripture to be referred. And the reason why some, in the perusal of it, have no more light, profit, or advantage, is, because they have not more respect unto Christ in their inquiry. If he be once out of our eye in searching the Scripture, we know not what we do, nor whither we go, no more than doth the mariner at sea without regard to the pole-star. Truths to be believed are like believers themselves. All their life, power, and order, consist in their relation unto Christ; separated from him, they are dead and useless.

(2.) Meditation upon what is discovered unto us is also included in this duty. When a revelation was made of Christ and his work unto the blessed virgin his mother, it is said, she kept the sayings, and pondered them in her heart, Luk 2:19; as Eliphaz adviseth all to do, Job 22:22. And the apostle bids us take care that the word of Christ may dwell in us richly, Col 3:16; that it may not pass through our minds with some transient effects, as it doth in reading and hearing, if it only casts some glances of light upon the understanding, some motions on the affections; but make its abode and dwell with us, that is, by constant meditation. But this duty is by many spoken unto, and the evil of the neglect of it sufficiently declared.

(3.) A spiritual endeavor, in this search and meditation, to bring the soul unto a conformity with that revelation which is made of Christ in the word. This is the genuine effect of them, if duly attended unto, 2Co 3:18. The glory of Christ is revealed in the gospel, as a face is represented in a glass. This we behold by a spiritual search into it, and meditation on it. By this intuition we are assimilated unto the glory so revealed. The Holy Ghost thereby brings upon our hearts that very likeness and image which we so contemplate. And although properly this be rather an effect of the duty treated of than any part of it, yet because it is that which we ought continually to aim at, and without the attainment whereof we labor in vain, I reckon it thereunto. When the image of Christ is wrought upon our hearts, and the dying and life of Christ made manifest in us, 2Co 4:10, then hath this duty its perfect work.

2. The object of it is to be considered. This in our proposition, following the apostle, is confined unto his person, his offices, and his work. These he dealeth with the Hebrews about.

(1.) He treateth about his person, and concerning that proposeth two things especially unto consideration;

[1.] His glorious excellency;

[2.] His condescension and grace. The one is the sole subject of the first chapter; the other the principal subject of the second.

[1.] He calls them to consider the glorious excellency of the person of Christ. He had instructed them how in his divine nature he was the eternal Son of God, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, by whom the worlds were made; and therefore deservedly exalted, even as mediator, being incarnate, incomparably above the most glorious beings of all Gods creation. This he would have us especially to regard in our consideration of him. So did the apostles of old. They considered his glory as the only-begotten of the Father, therefore full of grace and truth, Joh 1:14. This excellency of the person of Christ brancheth itself into many instances, not here to be recapitulated. It may suffice in general that this is to be the principal object of our meditation. The revelation which he made of himself under the old testament had an especial respect unto this glory. Such is the description of him, Psa 68:17-18, applied unto him, Eph 4:8; as that also, Isa 6:1-3, applied unto him, Joh 12:41. And it is a signal promise, that under the gospel we shall see the king in his beauty, Isa 33:17, or see by faith the uncreated excellencies and glory of this king of saints. And indeed the faith of the saints of the old testament did principally respect the glorious person of the Messiah. In other things they were very dark, and little can be gathered from the Scripture of what spiritual apprehension they had concerning other things whereby they were instructed; but their minds and faith were distinctly fixed on his person and his coming, leaving his work and the mystery of redemption unto his own wisdom and grace. Hence had they so many glorious descriptions of him granted unto them; which were always to keep up their hearts in a desire and expectation of him. And now under the new testament, it is the greatest trial of faith, whether it be evangelical, genuine, and thriving, namely, by the respect that it hath to the person of Christ. If that be its immediate and principal object, if it respect other things with regard unto him and in subordination unto him, it is assuredly of a heavenly extract; if otherwise, it may justly be suspected. This is that head of gold which the spouse admires in her beloved, Son 5:11. And unspeakable is the influence which the consideration of this glorious excellency of Christ, attended with infinite wisdom and power, hath into our preservation in the truth.

[2.] His grace and condescension. This the apostle insists upon, Hebrews 2. His design therein is to show what this glorious and excellent person submitted himself unto, that he might save and deliver sinners. And this he greatly presseth, Php 2:5-8. This glorious one humbled himself into the form of a man, of a servant, unto death, the death of the cross. A due mixture of greatness and grace or goodness is the most powerful attractive and loadstone of affections. Hence God, who is infinitely great and infinitely good, is the ultimate object of them. In the person of Christ it is incomparably and inimitably, so that there is nothing in the creation to shadow it out unto us. See Rev 1:5-6; Rev 1:11; Rev 1:13-16. He who is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the prince of the kings of the earth, even he loved us, and washed us in his own blood. Hence unto a believing soul, he becomes white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand, Son 5:10. See Psa 45:2-4. This is a means of preservation. Hence the apostle wonders at the Galatians, that they should depart from the truth, after that Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth before their eyes, crucified amongst them, Gal 3:1; for an evident declaration of him, and representation of his love in the preaching of the gospel, is a sufficient means to preserve men from such miscarriages. We see what a warm, natural, blind devotion will be stirred up in the Papists by the superstitious pictures of Christ which they have amongst them. And if a false means shall be effectual to stir up a false love and devotion, shall not the true, proper, instituted means of the representation of the glory of Christ, in the gospel, be effectual to beget constancy and perseverance in faith and obedience? These things the apostle minds them off concerning his person, to be improved unto the ends proposed.

(2.) Consider him as to his offices. In these verses the apostle minds the Hebrews of his prophetical and sacerdotal; but he directs them to his regal also, which he had treated of, chapter 1. Neither doth he mind them so directly of the offices themselves, as the qualifications of his person on their account. His authority as a king, his mercifulness as our high priest, and his faithfulness as a prophet, or Gods apostle, are the things he would have them consider.

[1.] His authority, as king, lord, and heir of all, Heb 1:1-3. His dealing with the Hebrews was principally about the institution of new ordinances of worship, and abolishing of the old. This, sovereign authority was required unto. This the Lord Christ was furnished withal, as the Son, as the heir and lord of all. A due consideration hereof would thoroughly remove all doubts and scruples in this matter. And the neglect hereof is the cause of all that confusion and disorder that is at this day in the world about the worship of God. Men not considering the authority of Christ, either as instituting the ordinances of the gospel, or as judging upon their neglect and abuse, are careless about them, or do not acquiesce in his pleasure in them. This hath proved the ruin of many churches, which, neglecting the authority of Christ, have substituted their own in the room thereof. The consideration, therefore, of this kingly, legislative authority of the Lord Christ by men, as to their present duty and future account, must needs be an effectual means to preserve them in the truth and from backslidings. See Rom 14:9-12; 2Co 5:9-10.

[2.] His mercifulness, as the high priest of his church. This he had asserted, Heb 2:17, and that upon a full and evident previous demonstration. Consider him that is so, and as he is so. This, because of its importance, he often presseth, Heb 4:14-16; Heb 7:25-28; Heb 9:12-14; Heb 10:21-22. And this is of singular use to preserve believers from decays and fainting in the profession of the truth; for from his mercifulness, unspeakable encouragement, strength, and consolation, in obedience and profession of the gospel, may be educed, as in our progress, God assisting, we shall manifest. Want of a due improvement of this encouragement, and the assistance that may be obtained thereby, is the occasion of all the decays and backslidings that are found among professors. What can thrive in the soul, if the love, care, kindness, and ability to save, that are in Christ, all which are included in this mercifulness, are neglected?

[3.] His faithfulness. This relates unto his office prophetical, which is by the apostle ascribed unto him, and confirmed to be in him in these verses. Yea, this is that which he would have them immediately and in the first place to consider, and which being once fixed on their minds, those other things must needs have the more effectual influence upon them. For if he be absolutely faithful in his work, his authority and mercy ought surely diligently to be heeded. To this end the apostle compares him in particular with Moses in these verses, and in the next exalts him above him. And no better medium could be used to satisfy the Hebrews, who were sufficiently persuaded of the faithfulness of Moses. He being, then, ultimately to reveal the will of God, and being absolutely faithful in his so doing, is to be attended unto. Men may thence learn what they have to do in the church and worship of God, even to observe and to do whatever he hath commanded, and nothing else, Mat 28:20; Rev 1:5; Rev 3:14.

(3.) As his person and offices, so his work also is proposed unto our consideration, for the ends mentioned. This the apostle fully discourseth, Heb 2:9-10; Heb 2:14-15; Heb 2:17-18. The specialties of this work are too many to be here so much as recounted. In general, the love and grace that were in it, the greatness of it, the benefit we receive by it, the glory of the wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness, and righteousness that shines forth in it, are the principal immediate objects of our faith and consideration.

These things we have instanced in particular, as those which, being of great importance in themselves, we are likewise directed unto by the series of the apostles discourse; but we mention them not exclusively unto other concernments of the Lord Christ. Whole Christ, and all of him, is by us diligently to be considered, that we may attain, and we shall attain, the ends laid down in the precedent observation: for,

1. Our faith and our obedience are our walking with God, Gen 17:1, or our walking in the truth, 2Jn 1:4; 3Jn 1:4 : and that which is principally incumbent on them that would walk aright, is to have a due regard unto their way. This way is Christ, Joh 14:6. I am the way, saith he; no man cometh unto the Father but by me: such a way as wayfaring men shall not err in, Isa 35:8; such a living way as is also a guide. In attendance, therefore, unto him, we shall neither err nor miscarry. And as all mistakes in faith arise from a want of a due respect unto him as the real way of going unto God, so all aberrations in doctrine or worship spring out of a neglect of a due consideration of his person and offices, wherein all truths do center, and whereby they are made effectual and powerful.

2. They that consider him in the way and manner explicated, cannot but take him for their only guide in the things of God. See Joh 1:14, with Joh 6:68-69. To whom else should they go or betake themselves? This is foretold concerning him, Isa 42:4. And for this duty we have the command of God, Mat 17:5, HEAR HIM. This they will do who consider him. And to them who do so, he is given to be a guide and a leader, Isa 55:4; and a light, Isa 51:4; and a shepherd, to direct them in the fresh pastures of the gospel with care and tenderness, Isa 40:11. And no soul shall miscarry under his conduct, or wander into danger under his care. But here lies the root of mens failings in this matter, they seek for truth of themselves and of other men, but not of Christ. What they can find out by their own endeavors, what other men instruct them in or impose upon them, that they receive. Few have that faith, love, and humility, and are given up unto that diligent contemplation of the Lord Christ and his excellencies, which are required in those who really wait for his law so as to learn the truth from him.

If it be yet inquired whether these who duly consider Jesus Christ may not yet mistake the truth and fall into errors? I answer, they may; but,

(1.) Not into any that are pernicious. He will assuredly preserve such persons from destructive errors. As he hath not prayed that they may be taken out of the world, but preserved in it, so he doth not take them out of all possibility of errors or mistakes, but from such only as may prejudice the eternal condition of their souls.

(2.) They shall not act their mistakes and errors with a spirit of envy, malice, and disquietment against the truth; for none that duly considereth Jesus Christ can be captivated under the power of such a frame of spirit, seeing there is nothing more unlike unto him.

(3.) Even their mistakes are from failures in their consideration of the Lord Christ, either in the matter or manner of it. Either they search not after him with that spiritual diligence which they ought, or they meditate not on the discoveries that are made of him in the word, or they labor not after assimilation and conformity unto him; and upon these neglects it is no wonder if errors and mistakes do arise.

3. Because all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ, Col 2:3; and therefore from him alone are they to be received, and in him alone to be learned. Now, wisdom and knowledge have both of them respect unto truth. Where they are obtained, there truth itself doth dwell. In the due consideration of the Lord Christ are these treasures opened unto us. And although we may not at once clearly and fully discern them, yet we are in the proper way to know them and possess them. There is not the least line of truth, how far soever it may be extended, and how small soever it may at length appear, but the springs of it lie in the person of Christ. And then we learn it aright, when we learn it in the spring, or as it is in him, Eph 4:21; which when we have done, we may safely trace it down, and follow it unto its utmost extent. But he that looks on gospel truths as sporades, as scattered up and down independently one of another, who sees not the root, center, and knot of them in Jesus Christ, it is most probable that when he goes about to gather them for his use, he will also take up things quite of another nature. They say that all moral virtues are knit up in one, that is, righteousness; so that he who hath that hath all the rest, at least radically and virtually. This I know, that all spiritual truths are knit up and centred in him who is the truth; and they who have learned him, as the apostle speaks, Eph 4:20, have with him received the seeds of all truth: which being watered and attended as they ought, will in due time flourish into all their proper branches and fruits; for all things are gathered into one head in him, Eph 1:10.

4. The right performance of this duty enlivens, excites, and acts all those graces and gracious affections, which are effectual to preserve us in the truth, and to keep us from decays in our profession. The Lord Christ being the proper object of them, and this consideration consisting in the application of the faculties of our souls unto that object, by a due exercise of those graces, they must needs be increased and augmented thereby; as all grace grows and thrives in and by its exercise, and ordinarily not otherwise. And when any grace is so applied unto Christ as spiritually to touch him, virtue goes forth from him for its strengthening. The neglect then also hereof must of necessity produce the contrary effect, Joh 15:5-6. Thus in particular is faith increased; for according as the object of it is cleared, manifested, represented suitable and desirable unto the soul, so is faith itself exited, stirred up, and strengthened. Now, this is no otherwise done but when the soul is enabled graciously to ponder on the person and offices of Christ. There it finds all that is needful unto it to make it happy and blessed, to procure pardon, peace, righteousness, and glory for it. This faith receives, and is improved by it. So the apostle informs us, 2Co 3:18. Having boldness and liberty given us in the gospel to consider and behold by faith the glory of Christ, we are thereby transformed into his likeness and image, namely, by an increase of faith, whereby we grow up into him who is the head. And this brings along with it an increase in all other graces, whereby we are preserved in the profession and practice of the truth.

By this means, also, a fountain of godly sorrow is opened in the hearts of believers; which is a precious grace, Zec 12:10. The consideration of the Lord Christ as pierced for us, or by us, will melt and humble the soul, or it will never yield unto any ordinance of God.

The spouse, in like manner, in the Canticles, giving an account of her great and incomparable love unto her beloved, manifests that it arose from the exact consideration that she had taken of his person and all that belonged thereunto, Son 5:9-16. The like may be said of all other graces; and by these must we be preserved, or utterly fail. As to the use of these things,

(1.) We may see hence the reason why so many turn aside, and fall off from the truth and ways of the gospel. They have given over a due consideration of Jesus Christ, his person, offices, and mediation, and so have lost the means of their preservation. They have been weary of him, not seeing form or comeliness in him for which he should be desired. What a sad instance have we hereof in those poor deluded creatures, who, neglecting him, pretend to find all light and life within themselves! This is their Beth-el, the beginning of their transgression; for when men have neglected the person of Christ, is it any wonder if they despise his ways and ordinances, as is their manner? Indeed, the ordinances of the gospel, its worship and institutions, have no excellency, no beauty in them, but what ariseth from their relation unto the person and offices of Christ; and if they are neglected, these must needs be burdensome and grievous. And as it is in vain to draw men unto the embracement of them who know him not, who are not acquainted with him, seeing they appear unto them the most grievous and intolerable of all things that can be imposed on them; so they who on any account cease to consider him by faith, as he is proposed unto them in the gospel, cannot long abide in their observation. Give such men the advantages of liberty, and keeping up a reputation of profession without them, which they suppose a new and singular opinion will furnish them withal, and they will quickly cast them off as a burden not to be borne. And as it is with gospel worship, so it is with all the articles of faith, or important truths that we are to believe. The center and knot of them all is in the person of Christ. If they are once loosed from thence, if their union in him be dissolved, if men no more endeavor to learn the truth as it is in Jesus, or to acquaint themselves with the will of God, as he hath gathered all things unto a head in him, they scatter, as it were, of their own accord from their minds; so that it may be they retain no one of them, or if they do so, yet not in a right manner, so as to have an experience of the power of them in obedience. This is the cause of the apostasies amongst us; Christ is neglected, not considered, not improved. A light within, or a formal worship without, is enthroned in his stead; and thence all sorts of errors and evils do of their own accord ensue. Deal with any whom you see to neglect his ways and truths, and you will find this to be the state of things with them: they have left off to value and esteem the person of Christ; or they had never any acquaintance with him. And in vain is it to dispute with men about the streams whilst they despise the fountain. The apostle gives us a threefold miscarriage in religion, Col 2:18 :

[1.] A pretense of a voluntary, uncommanded humility, a pretended mortification, indeed a bare covering of base and filthy pride;

[2.] A worshipping of angels, an instance to express all false, self-invented worship; and,

[3.] Curiosity in vain speculations, or mens intruding themselves into the things which they have not seen, setting out things with swelling words of vanity, wherewith in truth they have no acquaintance, whereof they have no experience. And all these, saith he, Col 2:19, proceed from hence, that they hold not the Head; they have let go the Lord Christ, from whom all truths are to be derived, and consequently all truth itself. Here lies the spring of our frequent apostasies.

(2.) Again, we may hereby examine and try ourselves. Do we at any time find any of the ways, institutions, or ordinances of Christ grievous or burdensome unto us? do we find a secret dislike of them, or not that delight in them which we have formerly enjoyed? If we search into the root of our distempers, we shall find that our hearts and spirits have not been exercised with that consideration of the person and offices of Christ which our duty calls for. We have not been kept in a constant adoration of his majesty, admiration of his excellency, delight in his beauty, joy in his undertaking, holy thoughtfulness of his whole mediation. This hath betrayed us into our lukewarmness and indifferency, and made us faint and weary in his ways. Hence also all endeavors for a recovery from such a frame, that regard only the particular instances that we are sensible of, are languid and successless. He that finds himself faint in or weary of any of the ways of Christ or any duties of obedience unto him, or that discovers an undervaluation of any of the truths of the gospel, as to their use or importance, and thinks to recover himself and retrieve his spirit only by applying himself unto that particular wherein he is sensible of his failure, will labor in the fire and to no purpose. It may be that after some days, or months, or years, he will find himself more at a loss than ever; and that because although he striveth, yet he striveth not lawfully. If we would recover ourselves, we must go to the source and beginning of our decays.

(3.) This tends directly unto our instruction in these perilous days, such as the latter days are foretold to be. All means that ever the devil made use of from the foundation of the world, to draw off or deter men from gospel obedience, are at this day displayed. The world smiles upon apostates, and promiseth them a plentiful supply of such things as the corrupt nature of man esteems desirable. Errors and false worship, with temptations from them, spread themselves with wings of glorious pretences over the face of the whole earth. Trials, troubles, storms, persecutions, attend and threaten on every hand; and he only that endureth unto the end shall be saved. He that, like Jonah, is asleep in this tempest, is at the door of ruin; he that is secure in himself from danger, is in the greatest danger of falling by security. What, then, shall we do? what means shall we use for our preservation? Take the counsel of our blessed apostle, Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession; and again, Heb 12:3, Consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Be much in the consideration of the person, offices, and work of Christ. This will conform you unto him, derive strength from him, arm you with the same mind that was in him, increase all your graces, keep you from being weary, and give you assured victory. He deserves it, you need it; let it not be omitted.

5. This will give direction unto them who are called unto the work of teaching others. The person and offices of Christ are the things which principally they are to insist upon; for that which is the chiefest object of the churchs faith ought to be the chiefest subject of our preaching. So Paul tells the Galatians, that in his preaching Christ was evidently crucified before their eyes, Gal 3:1. He proposed Christ crucified unto their consideration, determining, as he speaks in another place, to know nothing amongst them but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. For if the consideration of Christ be such an important duty in believers, certainly the due proposal of him unto their consideration is no less in preachers. Christ alone is to be preached absolutely, and all other truths as they begin, end, and center in him. To propose the Lord Christ as amiable, desirable, useful, and every way worthy of acceptation, is the great duty of the dispensers of the gospel.

I have insisted the longer on this observation, because it compriseth the main design of the apostles words, and is also of singular use to all that profess the gospel. Those which remain shall be only named.

XII. The union of believers lies in their joint profession of faith in the person and offices of Christ, upon a participation in the same heavenly calling. So it is described by the apostle; and the addition of other things, as necessary thereunto, is vain.

XIII. The ordering of all things in the church depends on the sovereign appointment of the Father. He appointed the Lord Christ unto his power and his office in the church.

XIV. The faithfulness of the Lord Christ in the discharge of the trust committed unto him, is the great ground of faith and assurance unto believers in the worship of the gospel. To that end is it mentioned by the apostle.

XV. All things concerning the worship of God, in the whole church or house now under the gospel, are no less perfectly and completely ordered and ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ than they were by Moses under the law. The comparison is to be taken not only subjectively but objectively also, or it will not suit the apostles purpose. As the faithfulness of Moses extended itself unto the whole worship of God and all things concerning it under the old testament, so that of Christ must be extended to the whole worship of God and all the concernments of it under the new testament It is true, the faithfulness of Christ intensively would be no less than that of Moses, if he revealed all that was committed unto him of his Father unto that purpose, for Moses did no more: but herein would Moses be preferred before him, if all things any way needful or useful to or in the worship of God, in matter and manner, were committed unto him, so that nothing might be added thereunto, and not so unto Jesus Christ; which surely neither the design of the apostle in this place nor the analogy of faith will allow.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

The argument now passed to the second claim of superiority, that over all human leaders. He is first seen as superior to Moses and Joshua. He is “the Apostle” completely fulfilling the function represented by the work of these two; He is also ‘High Priest,” thus realizing everything suggested in the position of Aaron.

The position of Moses was that of a servant in the house of God. His faithfulness was shown in that he made all things according to the pattern. The spiritual house of God consists of the “holy brethren” and the partakers” of the divine calling, and over them Christ is the Head.

Then follows a second solemn exhortation and warning. The readers are reminded by another quotation from their Scriptures of what had happened in the wilderness. The heart was hardened by unbelief, and therefore they were shut out from rest. In view of this example these readers are warned against the peril of being “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

The argument of warning returned to the first illustration, and shows how many who came out of Egypt never entered the promised land. This was because they had sinned. The sin is described as disobedience, the disobedience of unbelief. If, then, because of unbelief in the servant Moses, men were excluded from rest, how much more will that be so in the case of those who are disobedient to the Son.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

1 Holy brothers ( = , 2:11), you who participate in a heavenly calling, look at Jesus then ( in the light of what has just been said), at the apostle and highpriest of our confession; 2 he is faithful to Him who appointed him. For while Moses also was faithful in every department of God`s house, 3 Jesus (, as in 10:12) has been adjudged greater glory () than (, as 1:4) Moses, inasmuch as the founder of a house enjoys greater honour (, a literary synonym for ) than the house itself. 4 (Every house is founded by some one, but God is the founder of all.) 5 Besides, while Moses was faithful in every department of God`s house as an attendant-by way of witness to the coming revelation-6 Christ is faithful as a son over God`s house.

In v. 2 (om. p 13 B sah boh Cyr. Amb.) may be a gloss from v. 5. In v. 3 the emphasis on is better maintained by ( A B C D P vt Chrys.) than by (p 13 K L M 6. 33. 104. 326. 1175. 1288 vg) or by the omission of altogether (467 arm Basil). In v. 4 has been harmonized artificially with 1:3, 2:10 by the addition of (Cc L P 104. 326. 1175. 1128 Athan.).

For the first time the writer addresses his readers, and as (only here in NT, for in 1Th 5:27 is a later insertion), (6:4 etc., cp. Psa 119:63 , Ep. Arist. 207; de Mundo, 401b). In Php 3:14 the is the prize conferred at the end upon Christian faith and faithfulness. Here there may be a side allusion to 2:11 ( ). In (a verb used in this general sense by Ep. Aristeas, 3, ) ., the writer summons his readers to consider Jesus as ; but, instead of explaining why or how Jesus was loyal to God, he uses this quality to bring out two respects (the first in vv. 2a-4, the second in vv. 5-6a) in which Jesus outshone Moses, the divinely-commissioned leader and lawgiver of the People in far-off days, although there is no tone of disparagement in the comparison with Moses, as in the comparison with the angels.

In the description of Jesus as , is almost an equivalent for our religion, as in 4:14 (cp. 10:23).1 Through the sense of a vow (LXX) or of a legal agreement (papyri and inscriptions), it had naturally passed into the Christian vocabulary as a term for the common and solemn confession or creed of faith. is emphatic. In our religion it is Jesus who is , not Moses. This suits the context better than to make the antithesis one between the law and the gospel (Theophyl. , ). Possibly the writer had in mind the Jewish veneration for Moses which found expression during the second century in a remark of rabbi Jose ben Chalafta upon this very phrase from Numbers (Sifre, 110): God calls Moses faithful in all His house, and thereby he ranked higher than the ministering angels themselves. The use of as an epithet for Jesus shows the fresh creative genius of the writer and the unconventional nature of his style (Bruce). Over half a century later, Justin (in Rev 1:12) called Jesus Christ , and in Apol. 1:63 described him as , , (the connexion of thought here possibly explains the alteration of into in Heb 2:12). Naturally Jesus was rarely called ; but it was all the easier for our author to call Jesus , as he avoids the term in its ecclesiastical sense (cp. 2:3). For him it carries the usual associations of authority; is Ionic for , not a mere envoy, but an ambassador or representative sent with powers, authorized to speak in the name of the person who has dispatched him. Here the allusion is to 2:3, where the parallel is with the Sinaitic legislation, just as the allusion to Jesus as recalls the of 2:11, 17. On the other hand, it is not so clear that any explicit antithesis to Moses is implied in , for, although Philo had invested Moses with highpriestly honour (praem. et poen. 9, , de vita Mosis ii., I, ), this is never prominent, and it is never worked out in Hebrews.

The reason why they are to look at Jesus is (v. 2) his faithfulness , where means to appoint to an office (as 1 S 12:6 , Mar 3:14 ). This faithfulness puts him above Moses for two reasons. First (vv. 2b-4), because he is the founder of the House or Household of God, whereas Moses is part of the House. The text the writer has in mind is Num 12:7 ( ), and the argument of v. 3, where , like our house, includes the sense of household or family,1 turns on the assumption that Moses belonged to the in which he served so faithfully. How Jesus founded God`s household, we are not told. But there was an before Moses, as is noted later in 11:2, 25, a line of who lived by faith; and their existence is naturally referred to the eternal Son. The founding of the Household is part and parcel of the creation of the (1:2, 3). includes, of course (see 9:2, 6), the arrangement of the (cp. Epict. i. 6. 7-10, where is similarly used in the argument from design). The author then adds an edifying aside, in v. 4, to explain how the was God`s (v. 2 ), though Jesus had specially founded it. It would ease the connexion of thought if meant (as in 1:8?) divine as applied to Christ (so, e.g., Cramer, M. Stuart), or if could be read for , as Blass actually proposes. But this is to rewrite the passage. Nor can we take in v. 6a as Christ`s; there are not two Households, and (v. 4) does not mean each (so, e.g., Reuss). in vv. 2, 5; and 6a must mean God`s. He as creator is ultimately responsible for the House which, under him, Jesus founded and supervises.

This was a commonplace of ancient thought. Justin, e.g., observes: (Rev 1:20). It had been remarked by Philo (De Plant. 16): , , and in Legum Allegor. iii. 32 he argues that just as no one would ever suppose that a furnished mansion had been completed , so anyone entering and studying the universe would naturally conclude that .

The usual way of combining the thought of v. 4 with the context is indicated by Lactantius in proving the unity of the Father and the Son (diuin. instit. iv. 29): When anyone has a son of whom he is specially fond (quem unice diligat), a son who is still in the house and under his father`s authority (in manu patris)-he may grant him the name and power of lord (nomen domini potestatemque), yet by civil law (civili iure) the house is one, and one is called lord. So this world is one house of God, and the Son and the Father, who in harmony (unanimos) dwell in the world, are one God.

The second (5-6a) proof of the superiority of Jesus to Moses is now introduced by . It rests on the term used of Moses in the context (as well as in Num 11:11, Num 11:12:7, Num 11:8 etc.; of Moses and Aaron in Wis 10:16, 18:21); is not the same as , but for our author it is less than , and he contrasts Moses as the with Jesus as the Son , used as in 10:21 ( ) and Mat 25:21, Mat 25:23 ( ). Moses is egregius domesticus fidei tuae (Aug. Conf. xii. 23). The difficult phrase means, like 9:9, that the position of Moses was one which pointed beyond itself to a future and higher revelation; the tabernacle was a (Num 12:5) in a deep sense. This is much more likely than the idea that the faithfulness of Moses guaranteed the trustworthiness of anything he said, or even that Moses merely served to bear testimony of what God revealed from time to time (as if the writer was thinking of the words which follow the above-quoted text in Numbers).

The writer now passes into a long appeal for loyalty, which has three movements (3:6b-19, 4:1-10, 4:11-13). The first two are connected with a homily on Psa 95:7-11 as a divine warning against the peril of apostasy, the story of Israel after the exodus from Egypt being chosen as a solemn instance of how easy and fatal it is to forfeit privilege by practical unbelief. It is a variant upon the theme of 2:2, 3 suggested by the comparison between Moses and Jesus, but there is no comparison between Jesus and Joshua; for although the former opens up the Rest for the People of to-day, the stress of the exhortation falls upon the unbelief and disobedience of the People in the past.

6 Now we are this house of God (, from the preceding ), if we will only keep confident and proud of our hope. 7 Therefore, as the holy Spirit says:

Today, when (, as in 1Jn 2:28) you hear his voice,

8 harden not ( , aor. subj. of negative entreaty) your hearts as at the Provocation,

on the day of the Temptation in the desert,

9 where ( = as Deu 8:15) your fathers put me to the proof,

10 and for forty years felt what I could do.

Therefore I grew exasperated with that generation,

I said, They are always astray in their heart;

they would not learn my ways;

11 so ( consecutive) I swore in my anger

they shall never ( = the emphatic negative in oaths) enter my Rest.

12 Brothers, take care in case there is a wicked, unbelieving heart in any of you, moving you to apostatize from the living God. 13 Rather admonish one another ( = ) daily, so long as this word Today is uttered. that none of you may be deceived by sin and hardened. 14 For we only participate in Christ provided that we keep firm to the very end the confidence with which we started, 15 this word ever sounding in our ears:

Today when you hear his voice,

harden not your hearts as at the Provocation.

16 Who heard and yet provoked him? Was it not all who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 And with whom was he exasperated for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses1 fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did he swear that they (sc. ) would never enter his Rest? To whom but those who disobeyed (, cp. Act 19:9)? 19 Thus ( consecutive) we see it was owing to unbelief that they could not enter.

In v. 6 (a) is altered into by D* M 6. 424 Lat Lucifer, Ambr. Priscillian, probably owing to the erroneous idea that the definite article (supplied by 440. 2005) would have been necessary between and . (b) is assimilated to the text of v. 14 by a change to in c A C Dc K L W syrhkl Lucifer, Chrys, etc. (von Soden). (c) After the words are inserted from v. 14 by a number of MSS; the shorter, correct text is preserved in P13 B 1739 sah eth Lucifer, Ambrose.

V. 6b introduces the appeal, by a transition from 6a. When Philo claims that is the mark of intelligent religion (quis rer. div. haeres, 4, , ), he means by the confidence which is not afraid to pray aloud: cp. ib. 5 ( , ;), where the prayers and remonstrances of Moses are explained as a proof that he was God`s friend. But here as elsewhere in the NT has the broader meaning of confidence which already appears in the LXX (e.g. in Job 27:10 ). This confidence is the outcome of the Christian (for goes with as well as with ); here as in 4:16 and 10:19, 35; it denotes the believing man`s attitude to a God whom he knows to be trustworthy. The idea of is exactly that of Rom 5:2 ( ), and of a saying like Psa 5:12 ( ).

in v. 7 goes most naturally with (v. 8), the thought of which recurs in v. 13 as the central thread. The alternative, to take it with in v. 12, which turns the whole quotation into a parenthesis, seems to blunt the direct force of the admonition; it makes the parenthesis far too long, and empties the second of its meaning. is no more abrupt in v. 12 than in 12:25; it introduces a sharp, sudden warning, without any particle like or , and requires no previous term like . The quotation is introduced as in 10:15 by the holy Spirit as the Speaker, a rabbinic idea of inspiration. The quotation itself is from Psa 95:7-11 which in A runs as follows:

,

1 ,

.

,2

3 4 ,

.

,

.

In vv. 9, 10, though he knew (v. 17) the correct connexion of the LXX (cp. v. 17a), he alters it here for his own purpose, taking with what precedes instead of with what follows, inserting (which crept into the text of R in the psalm) before for emphasis, and altering into .5 The LXX always renders the place-names Meriba and Massa by generalizing moral terms, here by and , the former only here in the LXX (Aquila, 1Sa 15:33; Theodotion, Pro 17:11). The displacement of was all the more feasible as meant for him the experience of God`s punishing indignation. ( is better attested than (Moulton, ii. 66) for the first century.) There is no hint that the writer was conscious of the rabbinic tradition, deduced from this psalm, that the period of messiah would last for forty years, still less that he had any idea of comparing this term with the period between the crucifixion and 70 a.d. What he really does is to manipulate the LXX text in order to bring out his idea that the entire forty years in the desert were a day of temptation,6 during which the People exasperated God. Hence (in v. 9) he transfers the forty years to , in order to emphasize the truth that the stay of the People in the desert was one long provocation of God; for is not an aggravation of their offence (though they felt what I could do for them), but a reminder that all along God let them feel how he could punish them for their disobedience. Finally, their long-continued obstinacy led him to exclude them from the land of Rest. This finally does not mean that the divine oath of exclusion was pronounced at the end of the forty years in the desert, but that as the result of God`s experience he gradually killed off (v. 17) all those who had left Egypt. This retribution was forced upon him by the conviction (i.e. would not learn my laws for life, cared not to take my road).

The rabbinic interpretation of Psa_95 as messianic appears in the legend (T.B. Sanhedrim, 98a) of R. Joshua ben Levi and Elijah. When the rabbi was sent by Elijah to messiah at the gates of Rome, he asked, Lord, when comest thou? He answered, To-day. Joshua returned to Elijah, who inquired of him: What said He to thee? Joshua: Peace be with thee, son of Levi. Elijah: Thereby He has assured to thee and My father a prospect of attaining the world to come. Joshua: But He has deceived me, by telling me He would come to-day. Elijah: Not so, what He meant was, To-day, if you will hear His voice. The severe view of the fate of the wilderness-generation also appears in Sanh. 110b, where it is proved that the generation of the wilderness have no part in the world to come, from Num 14:35 and also from Psa_95 (as I swore in my anger that they should not enter into my Rest). This was rabbi Akibas stern reading of the text. But rabbinic opinion, as reflected in the Mishna (cp. W. Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten2, i. 135 f.), varied on the question of the fate assigned to the generation of Israelited during the forty years of wandering in the desert. While some authorities took Psa 95:11 strictly, as if the rest meant the rest after death, and these Israelites were by the divine oath excluded from the world to come, others endeavoured to minimize the text; God`s oath only referred to the incredulous spies, they argued, or it was uttered in the haste of anger and recalled. In defence of the latter milder view Psa 50:5 was quoted, and Isa 35:10. Our author takes the sterner view, reproduced later by Dante (Purgatorio, xviii. 133-135), for example, who makes the Israelites an example of sloth; the folk for whom the sea opened were dead ere Jordan saw the heirs of promise. He never speaks of men tempting God, apart from this quotation, and indeed, except in 11:17, God`s or probation of men is confined to the human life of Jesus.

For in v. 10 Clem. Alex. (Protrept. 9) reads . is a LXX term for the indignant loathing excited by some defiance of Gods will, here by a discontented, critical attitude towards him. In v. 11 is used of Canaan as the promised land of settled peace, as only in Deu 12:9 ( ) and 1 K 8:56 ( , ). The mystical sense is developed in 4:3f.

The application (vv. 12f.) opens with (for the classical ) (as in Col 2:8 ( ), the reason for the future being probably because the verb has no aorist, which is the tense required, Field, Notes on Translation of N.T., p. 38) -the same concern for individuals as in 4:11, 10:25, 12:15- (genitive of quality-a Semitism here). must mean more than incredulity; the assonance with was all the more apt as denoted the unbelief which issues in action, -the idea as in Eze 20:8 , , though the preposition was not needed, as may be seen, e.g., in Wis 3:10 ( ). Our author is fond of this construction, the infinitive with a preposition. The living God suggests what they lose by their apostasy, and what they bring upon themselves by way of retribution (10:31), especially the latter (cp. 4:12). There is no real distinction between and , for the article could be dropped, as in the case of and , once the expression became stamped and current.

In v. 13 (cp. Test. Lev 9:8 ) emphasizes the keen, constant care of the community for its members, which is one feature of the epistle. In (elsewhere in NT with aorist or future), which is not a common phrase among Attic historians and orators, is a Hellenistic form of (p13 M) used sometimes when a vowel followed. is God`s instant men call years (Browning), and the paronamasia in 1 led the writer to prefer to a term like . The period (see 4:7) is that during which God`s call and opportunity still hold out, and the same idea is expressed in . (v. 15). is sufficiently emphatic as it stands, without being shifted forward before (B D K L d e etc. harkl Theodt. Dam.) in order to contrast with (v. 9). As for , it is the sin of apostasy (12:4), which like all sin deceives men (Rom 7:11), in this case by persuading them that they will be better off if they allow themselves to abandon the exacting demands of God. The responsibility of their position is expressed in , a passive with a middle meaning; men can harden themselves or let lower considerations harden them against the call of God. As Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. ix.) explains: . ; , , .

In v. 14 (which is not an equivalent for the Pauline , but rather means to have a personal interest in him) answers to in v. 1 and to in 6:4; betrays the predilection of the writer for rather than its equivalent . an intensive particle (for , v. 6) (genitive of apposition)-i.e. our initial confidence (the idea of 10:32)- (echoing v. 6b). The misinterpretation of as (Christs) substance1 led to the addition of (A 588. 623. 1827. 1912 vg). But here as in 11:1 denotes a firm, confident conviction or resolute hope (in LXX, e.g., Rth 1:12 , rendering , which is translated by in Pro 11:7), with the associations of steadfast patience under trying discouragements. This psychological meaning was already current (cp. 2Co 9:4 ), alongside of the physical or metaphysical. What a man bases himself on, as he confronts the future, is his , which here in sound and even (by contrast) in thought answers to .

It is possible to regard v. 14 as a parenthesis, and connect (v. 15) closely with or (v. 13), but this is less natural; (while it is said, as in Psa 42:4 ) connects easily and aptly with , and vv. 14, 15 thus carry on positively the thought of v. 13, viz. that the writer and his readers are still within the sound of Gods call to his to be .

The pointed questions which now follow (vv. 16-18) are a favourite device of the diatribe style. (Hesych. )2 in v. 16 seems to have been coined by the LXX to express rebellious with a further sense of provoking or angering God; e.g. Deu 31:27 (translating ), and Deu 32:16 (translating ). The sense of disobey recurs occasionally in the LXX psalter (e.g. 104:28, 106:11); indeed the term involves a disobedience which stirs up the divine anger against rebels, the flagrant disobedience (cp. for in Deu 1:43, Num 27:14) which rouses exasperation in God. , one rhetorical question being answered by another (as Luk 17:8), logically presupposes , but must be read in the previous question. By writing the writer does not stop to allow for the faithful minority, as Paul does (1Co 10:7f. ). In the grave conclusion (v. 19) (from v. 12) is thrown to the end for the sake of emphasis.

But, the author continues (4:1f.), the promised rest is still available; it is open to faith, though only to faith (1-3). No matter how certainly all has been done upon Gods part (3-5), and no matter how sure some human beings are to share his Rest (v. 6), it does not follow that we shall, unless we take warning by this failure of our fathers in the past and have faith in God. Such is the urgent general idea of this paragraph. But the argument is compressed; the writer complicates it by defining the divine Rest as the sabbath-rest of eternity, and also by introducing an allusion to Joshua. That is, he (a) explains Gods in Psa_95 by the of Gen 2:2, and then (b) draws an inference from the fact that the psalm-promise is long subsequent to the announcement of the . He assumes that there is only one Rest mentioned, the into which God entered when he finished the work of creation, to which were called under Moses, and to which Christians are now called. They must never lose faith in it, whatever be appearances to the contrary.

B [03: 1] cont. 1:1-9:18: for remainder cp. cursive 293.

sah The Coptic Version of the NT in the Southern Dialect (Oxford, 1920), vol. v. pp. 1-131.

boh The Coptic Version of the NT in the Northern Dialect (Oxford, 1905), vol. iii. pp. 472-555.

Amb Ambrose.

[01: 2).

A [02: 4].

C [04: 3] cont. 2:4-7:26 9:15-10:24 12:16-13:25.

D [06: 1026] cont. 1:1-13:20. Codex Claromontanus is a Graeco-Latin MS, whose Greek text is poorly* reproduced in the later (saec. ix.-x.) E = codex Sangermanensis. The Greek text of the latter (1:1-12:8) is therefore of no independent value (cp. Hort in WH, 335-337); for its Latin text, as well as for that of F=codex Augiensis (saec. ix.), whose Greek text of has not been preserved, see below, p. lxix.

P [025: 3] cont. 1:1-12:8 12:11-13:25.

K [018:1:1].

L [020: 5] cont. 1:1-13:10.

M [0121: 1031] cont. 1:1-4:3 12:20-13:25.

6 [ 356] cont. 1:1-9:3 10:22-13:25

33 [ 48] Horts 17

104 [ 103]

326 [ 257]

1175 [ 74] cont. 1:1-3:5 6:8-13:20

1288 [ 162]

[044: 6] cont. 1:1-8:11 9:19-13:25.

Athan Athanasius

1 Had it not been for these other references it might have been possible to take . . . here as = whom we confess. The contents of the are suggested in the beliefs of 6:1f., which form the fixed principles and standards of the community, the Truth (10:26) to which assent was given at baptisra.

LXX The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint Version (ed. H. B. Swete).

Philo Philonis Alexandriai Opera Quae Supersunt (recognoverunt L. Cohn et P. Wendland).

1 Our author avoids (see on 2:12) , unlike the author of 1Ti 3:15 who writes , .

Blass F. Blass, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch: vierte, vllig neugearbeitete Auflage, besorgt von Albert Debrunner (1913); also, Brief an die Hebrer, Text mit Angabe der Rhythmen (1903).

1 in this sense is from Num 14:29, Num 14:32, a passage which the writer has in mind.

424 [O 12] Horts 67

440 [ 260]

2005 [ 1436] cont. 1:1-7:2

W [I] cont. 1:1-3, 9-12. 2:4-7, 12-14. 3:4-6, 14-16 4:3-6, 12-14 5:5-7 6:1-3, 10-13, 20 7:1-2, 7-11, 18-20, 27-28 8:1, 7-9 9:1-4, 9-11, 16-19, 25-27 10:5-8, 16-18, 26-29, 35-38 11:6-7, 12-15, 22-24, 31-33, 38-40 12:1, 7-9, 16-18, 25-27 13:7-9, 16-18, 23-25: NT MSS in Freer Collection, The Washington MS of the Epp. of Paul (1918), pp. 294-306. Supports Alexandrian text, and is quite free from Western readings.

c (Codex Colbertinus: saec. xii.)

1739 [ 78]

1 ca adds (so T), which has crept (needlessly, for may be used absolutely as in 1Co 10:9) into the text of Hebrews through c Dc M vg pesh harkl boh arm Apollin.

2 In some texts of Hebrews (p 13 A B D* M 33. 424** vg Clem. Apollin.) this becomes (under the influence of the literal view of forty years?) ( in C Dc K L P syr sah boh arm eth Eus. Cyril, Chrys.).

3 The Ionic form (B) has slipped into some texts of Hebrews (A D 33. 206. 489. 1288. 1518. 1836).

4 The LXX is stronger than the Hebrew; it appears to translate not the of the MT, but (cp. Flashar in Zeits fr alt. Wiss., 1912, 84-85).

5 () is read in the text of Hebrews, by assimilation, in c Dc K L vg syr arm eth Apollin. Lucifer, Ambr, Chrys. etc. i.e. C was altered into C.

Moulton J. H. Moultons Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. i. (2nd edition, 1906).

6 The in (v. 8) is temporal as in 1:10, 7:27, not after the manner of (secundum, vg).

1 The common confusion between and led to the variant (AC).

1 Another early error was to regard it as our substance, so that meant faith as the beginning of our true nature (a view already current in Chrysostom).

623 [ 173]

1827 [ 367]

1912 [ 1066]

vg vg Vulgate, saec. iv.

2 In Deu 32:16 it is parallel to ; cp. Flashars discussion in Zeitlschrift fr alt. Wiss., 1912, 185 f. It does not always require an object (God).

Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament

Superior to Moses

Heb 3:1-11

Dwell on those opening words:-holy, such is Gods ideal for us; brethren, by reason of our union with Christ, and with one another in Him; partakers, etc., God is ever calling upward and heavenward. Jesus comes from God as Apostle and goes for us to God as Priest. In His human life, how humble and faithful; but He originally built the Jewish polity and commonwealth! He was and is as much greater than Moses as the architect than the foreman and the son than the servant.

It is not enough to begin the Christian race; we must hold fast our confidence and hope to the end. That was the point specially to be emphasized among these harried people. These Hebrew Christians missed the splendid ceremonial of their ancient faith, and were suffering heavily from persecution and opposition. But was it not worthwhile to persevere, if only to be recognized as belonging to the household of God? Surely for them and for us the experiences of Israel in the forty years of wandering are full of warning. Be admonished by that Wilderness cemetery!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Section C. Heb 3:1-6.

The Glory of the Son over the House of God

Having thus introduced Christ Jesus as High Priest of our confession, we are now bidden to consider Him in that character as the Apostle of the new dispensation. It is Christ who has superseded both Moses and Aaron. Moses was the apostle of the separated people who were partakers of an earthly calling, and Aaron was their high priest. But Jesus is both the Apostle and High Priest of the holy brethren, holy as we have already seen, because set apart to God in Him, and thus partakers of the heavenly calling.

He is infinitely superior to Moses because Moses, though faithful in his day, was simply a servant in the house of God, but Christ Jesus is the Builder of the house and is Son over His own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Observe that the term house is used here in three senses. The house in which Moses was faithful was the tabernacle. But the tabernacle was the pattern of things in the heavens, so the house that God built is the universe. But the house over which Christ is set and to which we belong is that building composed of living stones in which every believer has a place.

And now we have the first word of warning, lest in cherishing a temporary confidence we seem to be animated by the joy that hope in Christ gives, and yet, after all, are lacking in a faith that is genuine. The if in Heb 3:6 is a test of profession. It was very possible then, and it is still, that men might mingle with a Christian company and find a certain amount of gladness and joy springing from an intellectual acquaintance with Christianity, who after all were not truly born of God. Continuance proves the reality of our confession. This is further stressed in the portion that follows.

Section D. Heb 3:7-19; Heb 4:1-13

The Perfected Saviour Leading His People through the Wilderness to the Eternal Sabbath of God: Warning as to Coming Short

In this lengthy section the warning is continued and is based upon Israels experiences of old. Just as their fathers had left Egypt a great multitude, yet many (in fact, the majority) failed to enter the land of Canaan because of unbelief; so a vast throng of Jews had become outwardly obedient to the faith, but there was ever the danger that their conversion to Christianity might be merely intellectual and their forsaking of Judaism simply what people sometimes call today a change of religion. Therefore the importance of examining themselves in the light of the Word of God and pressing on to make their calling and election sure, as the apostle Peter elsewhere puts it. We are saved entirely by grace, but we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, as we read in Ephesians, and no one has a right to confess himself a Christian who is not seeking to live for the glory of God. If there be not a nature that delights in the will of God, there is every reason to doubt whether one has ever been truly saved.

And so we have here a warning word taken from Psa 95:7-11 : For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways: unto whom I sware in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest. Notice how this quotation from the psalm is introduced, As the Holy Ghost saith. It is not merely the word of David or some other unknown author, but it is the word of the Holy Spirit Himself warning those who profess the name of the Lord against hardening their hearts and walking in disobedience.

To these Hebrews the exhortation is given: Take heed, 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 are made partakers (companions) of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end (Heb 3:12-14). Faith is manifested by a godly walk. Where there is lack of faith, the outward life may for a time seem to be consistent with the Christian profession, but eventually the old carnal nature will assert itself and there will be a turning back to the world; or, as in this case, to that mere carnal religion from which Christ would deliver. This second if is linked with Heb 3:6, and again we are reminded that continuance in the walk of faith is the proof of a genuine Christian confession. In the last five verses of this third chapter, the Spirit of God uses the case of Israel in the wilderness as a solemn warning to all who now have professedly gone on a pilgrimage. The people who fell in the desert of old were those who believed not. They never entered into Gods rest. Indeed, they could not do so because of their unbelief. That rest of course was Canaan, a type of the rest that remains for the people of God now.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Heb 3:1

The Study of Jesus.

I. The Person of Christ is the great miracle and mystery of the universe enshrined in the Christian faith; and that is the object which we are invited perpetually to contemplate. “Wherefore, holy brethren,” signifies the lifting of a veil from before an august Being, who has been already described in His two natures, though their union has not been described, but is taken for granted. Our Lord is the central object of our profession. He Himself tells us that the bond of perfectness in our religion is devotion to His own Person. After having brought into a new and most marked prominence the supremacy of the love of God, as occupying all the heart, and soul, and mind, and thought, He demands literally the same all for Himself. There is a specific Christian grace that has no name in the New Testament, which is derived from the impress of the Redeemer on the heart and life. Be sure you aspire to this, or, rather, think nothing of aspiring to it; look at Him much, and His image will steal irresistibly into your nature and form and life, II. The office of Christ is here dwelt upon. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. There is to us no person of Christ without His work; the personal Emmanuel is in the background; but the ministry of Jesus Christ fills up the whole visible horizon of thought. We are all in the school of Jesus, and, however busy we may be, like Martha, we must find time, like Mary, to sit and behold, and study the Master.

III. But the study of Christ is not yet exhausted; there remains the habitual consideration of the supreme faithfulness of our common Master. It inspires boundless trust in all the brethren of the Christian profession who keep their eyes fixed on Him who is its High Priest. Looking to Him, and considering His faithfulness, we at once see the perfect Example, and feel the Divine energy flowing from it into our souls.

W. B. Pope, Sermons and Charges, p. 101.

I. We have here one great comprehensive command: “Consider Christ.” Now that word “consider” implies in the original an earnest, fixed, prolonged attention of mind. Our gaze upon Christ is to be like that of a man who resolutely turns away his eyes from other things to fix them, with keen interest and eagerness, with protracted, steady look, on something which he is resolved to learn thoroughly. (1) The first remark that I would make, then, is the very simple and obvious one-that a Christian man’s thoughts should be occupied with his Saviour. (2) But, still further, our gaze on Him must be the look of eager interest; it must be intense as well as fixed. (3) Still, further, another requisite of this occupation of mind with Christ and His work may be suggested as included in the word. Our consideration must be resolute, eager, and also steady or continuous.

II. Notice the great aspects of Christ’s work which should fix our gaze. (1) He is the Apostle of our profession. He is sent forth from God, and brings God to us. He, and He alone, He, and He for ever, He, and He for all, is the sent of God. (2) Then we are to think of Him as our High Priest. “As Apostle,” it has been well said, “He pleads God’s cause with us; as High Priest He pleads our cause with God.” The Apostolate and the Priesthood of Christ are both included “in the one word-Mediator.” The idea of priesthood depends upon that of sacrifice, and the idea of sacrifice, as this epistle abundantly shows, is incomplete without that of expiation.

III. Notice, finally, the great reasons for this occupation of mind and heart with Christ our Mediator. (1) Our relation to Christ, and the benefit we derive from it, should impel us to loving meditation on Him. (2) The calling of which we are partakers, should impel us to loving meditation. (3) The avowal which we have made concerning Him should impel us to loving, steadfast contemplation.

A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester, p. 289.

Heb 3:1

Christ our Priest.

Christ our Victim is slain. His blood is poured out on the cross. The cross and the earth are sprinkled with that blood. He Himself, as our Priest, is baptized with it. And when that sacrifice was accomplished He, our High Priest, went up with the marks of the sacrifice upon Him, the same Jesus, into the presence of God, there to plead the merits of His blood for us. And we are waiting, as the people waited without on that day of atonement, for Him to come forth-to return again to bless us with the glorious effects of that His atonement, even everlasting salvation. Now in this, the principal work of Christ’s priestly office, there are several minor particulars, all of interest as further explaining and setting it forth.

I. Note the qualifications for the office, and His fulfilment of them. (1) All bodily freedom from blemish did but faintly set forth the purity and spotlessness of the Lord Jesus. (2) Our High Priest was harmless, undefiled. (3) He was separated from sinners. (4) He is a merciful High Priest, full of sympathy, knowing how to compassionate and to succour them that are tempted and led out of the way.

II. Note the efficacy and finality of the High Priesthood of Christ. In the poured out blood of Jesus we have all that we can want-pardon, acceptance, renewal unto righteousness. We have all we want, and we therefore want no more. His everlasting priesthood is enough for us. That He is in heaven, appearing for us, makes all human mediators vain and needless. That He has offered Himself for us makes all other sacrifices valueless. Every believer, however humble, is a priest unto God; a priest of the tabernacle which God built, and not man, to offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving, even his body, soul, and spirit, consecrated and devoted to God’s service.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 145.

References: Heb 3:1.-Homilist, 3rd series, vol. i., p. 103. Heb 3:1-4.-J. W. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 4.

Heb 3:1-6

Christ the Lord, and Moses the Servant.

I. To speak of Moses to the Jews was always a very difficult and delicate matter. It is hardly possible for Gentiles to realise or understand the veneration and affection with which the Jews regard Moses, the servant 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 to 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; and we cannot wonder at this profound, reverential affection which they feel for Moses.

II. After admitting fully the grandeur and excellence of Moses, the Apostle proceeds to show us the still greater glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The zeal of Moses was not free from earthborn elements, and had to be purified. But there was nothing in Jesus that was of the earth, earthy; no sinful weakness of the flesh was in Him who condescended to come in the weakness of sinful flesh. His love was always pure, His zeal holy, His aim single. Moses spake face to face with God, and was the mediator between God and Israel. The Lord Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King, in one Person; but He is perfectly and eternally the true Revealer, Reconciler, Ruler, and the Son of God. Moses was willing to die for the nation; the Lord Jesus actually died, and not for the nation only, but to gather all the children of God into one. Moses brought the law on tables of stone; the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, even the Holy Ghost, writes the law on our hearts.

A. Saphir, Expository Lectures on the Hebrews, vol. i., p. 167.

Reference: Heb 3:1-6.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 456.

Heb 3:1, etc

I. The High Priest was one taken out of the people, and bound to the people by ties of the closest and most intimate kind. It might have been otherwise. This important official might have been a stranger introduced into the nation from an alien source; or he might, although being a Jew, have occupied a position of such complete independence and isolation as should have placed him almost in antagonism to the rest of the community. Such was the case of the priestly caste in other countries. But with the Jews the Divine method of constructing the ecclesiastical system, secured the most perfect identification of the man who was at the head of it with the feelings and sympathies of the rest of the people. We observe, also, as another result of the Divine arrangement, that all the Israelites, drawn as they were towards a single person, were reckoned before God as being in the High Priest. The man who stands there in the sanctuary, arrayed in his gorgeous robes, is not to be regarded as a mere individual,-is not to be looked upon as merely one out of many, though one above the many, and distinguished from the many, by superior dignity and higher privileges; but he is the head, in whom the whole nation is included, and involved, and gathered, and summed up before God. It was, for instance, as including in himself the entire mass of the nation, that the High Priest on the day of atonement had to enter into the most holy place with the blood of sprinkling, and afterwards to confess the sins and iniquity of the people over the head of a living goat.

II. Now in all this we have a lively and striking portraiture of the position which the Lord Jesus Christ, the great antitype of the Jewish official, occupies with respect to the blessed company of faithful people. The Lord Jesus is the ideal man. If you turn to the Jewish high priest you find that he was what every Jew was intended to be. The Lord Jesus alone possesses complete perfection of human character. But He is very much more to us than the pattern man. He does much more than exhibit to us in His own person what a king and a priest unto God ought to be. He is also, if I may so express myself, the inclusive man; He is the great Head, in whom His people are gathered, and summed up, and presented before God. If St. Paul teaches us anything by his writings, he teaches us this, that the entire spiritual community, the whole body of the faithful in Christ Jesus, are reckoned by God as being gathered and summed up, involved, included, represented in Christ before the throne of God. And this, in its Christian form, is precisely what, in its Jewish form, the Israelite was taught by the existence of such a personage in the state of the Jewish high priest. The ordinary Israelite, if he were a spiritual and a thoughtful man, would look with longing desire upon the unbroken communion which the High Priest, by virtue of his office, maintained with God. So the Spirit of Christ maintained an unbroken communion with His Father in heaven. This characteristic of His earthly life is still more characteristic of His resurrection life, in which He is, in a special manner, the High Priest of our profession.

G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 495.

References: Heb 3:1-19.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 250. Heb 3:6-14.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 378. Heb 3:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1160; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 46.

Heb 3:7-19

Unbelief in the Wilderness.

I. The history of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness is most instructive. No Scripture is of private interpretation, but is Catholic and eternal. Israel’s history in the wilderness is typical throughout. (1) It is a marvellous history from beginning to end. (2) It was a history of solemn and glorious privileges. Is not this a picture of the Christian’s life? (3) It is a sad history, full of fearful judgments. Do you understand the parable?

II. Unbelief prevented Israel’s entering into the Promised Land. Then it follows that faith enters into the rest. “Believe with thy heart,” is the great lesson of the chapter. Only believe, only worship, only harden not your heart, when in the Scripture, and in the Spirit’s teaching, and in God’s daily dealings you hear God’s voice; and, though wild beasts, hunger and privation, weakness and temptation, beset you, you are safe, you are blessed. God is with you; who can be against you? Angels are around you, and you can give thanks, for you are more than conquerors, through Him that loved you and gave Himself for you.

III. Yesterday is the past of sin and misery. To-day is the present of Divine grace and man’s faith. To-morrow is eternity, full of joy and glory. To-day is the turning-point, the crisis, the seedtime. To whom can we go but unto Jesus Christ, with the past of our transgression, with the yesterday of the first Adam, with the today of our weakness and need, with the for ever of our endless destiny? He is Jehovah, the Saviour God, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Cleaving to Him, we rest in mercy, which is from everlasting to everlasting.

A. Saphir, Expository Lectures on the Hebrews, vol. i., p. 188.

References: Heb 3:7-19.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 457. Heb 3:12.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 281. Heb 3:13.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 249; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 620. Heb 3:14.-Ibid., vol, xviii., No. 1042; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 13.

Heb 3:16

The Warnings of Advent.

The true translation of these words is this: “For who were they, who, when they had heard, did provoke? Nay, were they not all who came out of Egypt with Moses?” So far from meaning that some and not all did provoke, He lays a stress on the universality of the evil.

I. There is something striking in the season of the natural year at which we celebrate the beginning of another Christian year. It is a true type of our condition, in which all the changes of our lives steal upon us, that Nature, at this moment, gives no outward signs of beginning; it is a period which does not manifest any striking change in the state of things around us. The Christian spring begins ere we have reached the half of the natural winter. Nature is not bursting into life, but rather preparing itself for a long season of death. And this is the type of a universal truth: that the signs and warnings which we must look to must come from within us, not from without; that neither sky nor earth will arouse us from our deadly slumber unless we are ourselves roused already, and more disposed to make warnings for ourselves than to find them.

II. If this be true of Nature, it is true also of all the efforts of man. As Nature will give no sign, so man cannot. There is no voice in Nature, no voice in man, that can really awaken the sleeping soul. It is the work of a far mightier power, to be sought for with most earnest prayers for ourselves and for each other; that the Holy Spirit of God would speak and would dispose our hearts to hear; that so being wakened from death, and our ears being truly opened, all things outward may now join in language which we can hear; and Nature and men, life and death, things present and things to come, may be but the manifold voices of the Spirit of God, all working for us together for good. Till this be so we speak in vain; our words neither reach our own hearts nor the hearts of our hearers; they are but recorded in God’s book of judgment, to be brought forward hereafter for the condemnation of us both.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 157.

Heb 3:18

The Hardening Influence of Sin.

I. Sin has distinctly this effect, that while it makes repeated sin more easy, it makes repentance more difficult. It makes sin, in a measure, the obvious beaten path where our own footsteps are stamped for a precedent. They lie there before our eyes; we repeat ourselves. We have less scruple in sinning today than we had yesterday; we find it easier to sin again than it was to sin once; we sin now with a relish where we sinned before with a pang. This is what Holy Scripture calls hardening the heart. This is the way in which the deceitfulness of sin works within us. It conveys, as it were, a bribe to the judgment, an opiate to the conscience; we have learned what it were better for us not to have known, viz., that a sinner may be let alone by God’s judgment to pursue his way unmolested. It is a fearful thing to be thus initiated into the mystery of ungodliness, ever working grosser deceit within.

II. As was the first step of man from purity to sin, so is, in a lower degree, every first step. True, we have no upright nature to debase, we have no untainted spirit within us to corrupt; yet the grace of God has done much for us, has set us on a pinnacle of vantage. Every time we resist a temptation we make that vantage more easy to keep. Every time we yield we forfeit a position which of itself was a preservative. You are members of Him from whom radiate and to whom rally all the pulses of the spiritual life. The will fixed on Him tends to fix itself yet more intently, to be set and rooted in Him. That was the best security you had. For He worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure. All this you may strengthen yet more by the entrenchments of habit. Then there will go on a process gradually building up a result, each day, each hour adding something; like the massive reefs of coral, which are the result of the deposits of a worm.

H. Hayman, Rugby Sermons, p. 199.

References: Heb 3:19.-H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 404; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 281. Heb 4:1.-E. D. Solomon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 195. Heb 4:1, Heb 4:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1177. Heb 4:1-13.-R. W. Dale, The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church, p. 81.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 3

1. As Son over the house of God, greater than Moses (Heb 3:1-6)

2. The danger of unbelief (Heb 3:7-13)

3. The need of faith (Heb 3:14-19)

Heb 3:1-6

He now addresses believing Hebrews as holy brethren and partakers of the heavenly calling, and exhorts them to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. Hebrews address each other as brethren (Act 2:29; Act 7:2; Act 22:1). Believing Hebrews are here addressed by the Spirit of God as holy brethren. Trusting in Christ they were sanctified and belonged to those whom He is not ashamed to call brethren. They are called partakers of the heavenly calling in contrast with their former earthly calling of Israel. The two titles of the Lord Jesus, Apostle and High Priest, correspond to the preceding opening chapters of the Epistle. As Apostle (a Sent One), the Son of God came from God to man. And then as Man who suffered and died, He has gone from man to God as High Priest, typified by Aaron. As the Lord Jesus Christ is in this Epistle called the Apostle, the Spirit of God may have, for this reason, kept the pen of the apostle, who wrote this document, from calling himself an apostle.

Then follows the contrast with Moses. Moses was faithful in all his house (the tabernacle) but only as a servant. Christ is over Gods house, which He has built, for He is God. And in this house He is not a servant, but a Son. Both the universe and the Church, as the House of God, are here blended together. The house in the wilderness, the tabernacle, was a type of the universe. And every house is built by some one, but He that built all things is God. Christ is the builder of the universe, the house, and the upholder of it and so He is counted worthy of greater honor than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath built it hath more honor than the house. The Apostle of our confession, the Sent one of God, the Son of God, is also the High Priest. After His finished work on the cross, having made propitiation for the sins of the people, He passed through the heavens into the Holiest not made with hands. (The three parts of the tabernacle, the outer court, the holy part, and the Holiest typify the first, the second and the third heaven.) Ultimately in virtue of redemption, all having been cleansed by the blood, God will dwell in the house. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev 21:3).

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. And those things have come and are given through Christ, who is Son over His house, whose house are we. This is His spiritual house, the house of God composed of living stones, the sanctified, the holy priesthood. The Son of God, the builder of all things, has now as High Priest, His own house, which are we if we hold fast the confidence (boldness) and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. It is a warning to those Hebrews who had confessed Christ, who were facing trials and many difficulties, not to give up the confidence and the rejoicing in the hope. They are urged to hold it fast and are solemnly warned against unbelief. They were in danger of forsaking Christianity, and turning back to Judaism. And these words of warning are also given to us, for they are needful for the exercise of the conscience. A true believer will continue in confidence firm to the end. Such a continuance is the proof of the reality of our confession.

(It is clearly not our standing which is in question; for this being wholly of God and in Christ is settled and sure and unchanging. There is no if either as to Christs work or as to the gospel of Gods grace. All there is unconditional grace to faith. The wilderness journey is before us (as the next verses show). Here it is that if has its necessary place, because it is our walk through the desert, where there are so many occasions of failure, and we need constant dependence in God.)

Heb 3:7-13

The danger and calamity of unbelief is next called to their remembrance. Psa 95:1-11 is quoted. The Holy Spirit saith Today if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts. Such was the word of warning addressed to Israel in the past, but it also has its application in the present. The word today expresses Gods wonderful patience and long suffering towards Israel as well as towards all during this age of grace. The today is now; the great morrow comes, when the today ends and the kingdom of power and glory with its attending judgments upon those who did not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ comes, and the once rejected King Messiah appears. The fathers of the Hebrews had tempted God in the wilderness. He was wroth with that generation and swore in His wrath they shall not enter into My rest. It was Gods solemn sentence of exclusion from His rest. They hardened their hearts, did not obey His voice and their unbelief shut them out from Gods rest.

Even so these Hebrews, professing Christianity were in the same danger. Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God. But while it was today, God still waited to be gracious and so they were to exhort each other daily, lest any of them be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Danger surrounded them on every side. The heart of unbelief which barred the land of Canaan from their natural fathers was yet within their flesh. Not only were the lusts of nature in their ordinary shape forever combating against the will of God, they were exposed also to a more specious, and therefore a more dangerous form of evil in the still existing rivalry which they who made their boast in their traditions were opposing to the cross of Christ. Of all the evils with which Satan can afflict the heart, atheism, religion without faith in God, is by very much the worst. For it lulls the conscience, while it weaves its web of unblessed, unsanctifying exercises about the hearts affections so as effectually to exclude the light of God. It was to this peace-corroding yet seductive evil that these Hebrew Christians stood practically exposed.

Now the remedy and safeguard of all evil is the truth of God. It is only by listening to the word of Him who speaks to us as children with a knowledge of our need, that believers can be kept in their true place. The possession of truth in the way of doctrine is not enough. God daily speaks and must be daily heard if we would really know Him (A. Pridham).

All this is true of Gods people at all times, for faith and obedience are the essential conditions of blessing and the tests of profession. God is faithful and will certainly not permit that any of His own perish. Faith reckons with this, but also heeds the warning, knowing and owning the tendency of the flesh to depart from God, and hence the need of His constant and never-failing grace is recognized and a walk in godly fear is the blessed result. There are teachers who claim that these solemn exhortations have no meaning for Christians today and even have made the statement that this epistle was not for the church at all. Such claims show a deplorable ignorance of the truth of God. All believers must heed the warning that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

(Sin separates us from God in our thoughts; we have no longer the same sense either of His love, His power, or His interest in us. Confidence is lost. Hope, and the value of unseen things, diminish; while the value of things that are seen proportionately increases. The conscience is bad; one is not at ease with God. The path is hard and difficult; the will strengthens itself against Him. We no longer live by faith; visible things come in between us and God, and take possession of the heart. Where there is life, God warns by His Spirit (as in this epistle), He chastises and restores. Where it was only an outward influence, a faith devoid of life, and the conscience not reached, it is abandoned J. N. Darby.)

Heb 3:14-19.

The need of faith, the holding fast of the beginning of our confidence unto the end, is now more fully presented. All Israelites came out of Egypt. But with whom was he wroth for forty years? it was with them that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Their sin was unbelief And those who believed not were kept out of His rest. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief What the rest of God is we shall follow in the annotations of the next paragraphs.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Consider Christ

This is the one standard by which we should endeavor in all things and at all times to govern our lives for the glory of God. This is the one thing which ought to motivate and inspire, encourage and strengthen us, as we endeavor to walk with God and serve our generation by the will of God. May God the Holy Spirit inscribe these words upon our hearts and make this the rule of our lives Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Consider Christ. Always, in all things, and above all things, consider Christ. Before you make any decision, before you do anything, before you go anywhere, consider Christ.

His Person

Always remember and give consideration to who he is. The Lord Jesus Christ is God, our Savior. He is our merciful and faithful High Priest. He always bears us upon his heart, making intercession for us in heaven. He does all things for us, rules all things for us, and disposes of all things for us. He never ceases to consider us, his people. Let us, therefore, consider him.

His Sacrifice

Ever consider what the Son of God has done for you. He has saved us by his grace. We are the objects of his electing love and immutable grace. He loved us when we hated him. He came to us when we would not and could not come to him. He wanted us when we did not want him. But, above all, child of God, ever hold this fact in sacred memory and consider it well: The Son of God loved us and gave himself for us. He laid down his life for us, bearing our sin in his body on the tree, that we might live forever with him, without sin!

Our Debt

Consider this, too: We owe him everything! All that we are, all that we have, all that we hope for is because of him. We have, in our baptism, acknowledged that we are his. Let us never fail to remember that fact. Considering Christ, let us unceasingly consecrate ourselves to him, and to him alone.

His Will

What is my Masters will? Nothing is more important to a faithful servant. Ever seek grace to know and do that which is the Saviors will. Consider Christ, and gladly surrender all things to him, to do his will.

His Glory

What is best for his glory, the interests of his kingdom, the service of the gospel, and the welfare of his people? It is impossible to separate the glory of Christ from the interests of his kingdom, the service of the gospel, and the welfare of his people. If the consideration of these things is the dominant concern of our hearts, we will not greatly err in our behavior.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

partakers

companions; the same word trans. “fellows” in Heb 1:9.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

holy: Col 1:22, Col 3:12, 1Th 5:27, 2Ti 1:9, 1Pe 2:9, 1Pe 3:5, 2Pe 1:3-10, Rev 18:20

partakers: Heb 3:14, Rom 11:17, Rom 15:27, 1Co 9:23, 1Co 10:17, 2Co 1:7, Eph 3:6, Col 1:12, 1Ti 6:2, 1Pe 5:1, 2Pe 1:4, 1Jo 1:3

the heavenly: Rom 1:6, Rom 1:7, Rom 8:28-30, Rom 9:24, 1Co 1:2, Eph 4:1, Eph 4:4, Phi 3:14, 1Th 2:12, 2Th 1:11, 2Th 2:14, 1Ti 6:12, 2Ti 1:9, 1Pe 5:10, 2Pe 1:10, Jud 1:1, Rev 17:14

consider: Isa 1:3, Isa 5:12, Isa 41:20, Eze 12:3, Eze 18:28, Hag 1:5, Hag 2:15, Joh 20:27, 2Ti 2:7

the apostle: Joh 20:21,*Gr: Rom 15:8

and: Heb 2:17, Heb 4:14, Heb 4:15, Heb 5:1-10, Heb 6:20, Heb 7:26, Heb 8:1-3, Heb 9:11, Heb 10:21, Psa 110:4

Reciprocal: Exo 38:1 – the altar Num 4:16 – the oversight Son 2:3 – my beloved Zec 6:13 – a priest Mat 3:10 – now Mat 10:2 – apostles Mat 17:3 – Moses Luk 6:13 – apostles Joh 14:28 – Father Act 2:39 – as many Rom 16:14 – and 1Co 1:9 – by Phi 1:7 – partakers of my Phi 2:25 – but Phm 1:16 – a brother Phm 1:17 – thou count Heb 9:15 – they which Heb 12:3 – consider Heb 13:22 – suffer 1Pe 2:25 – Bishop

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

ALPHA AND OMEGA

Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him.

Heb 3:1-2

Christ Himself shall be the Alpha and Omega of our message. Upon Him we fix our gaze.

I. The influence of Jesus Christ has ever been a personal one.The Church is His Body. He is its Head. Contact with Him is the guarantee of its vitality. All down the ages, What think ye of Christ? has been made the main test of orthodoxy. Deep into the mind of Christendom has been wrought the conviction that to reject the transcendent claims of the Son of Man is to leave in the system He founded nothing worth contending for.

II. It is in virtue of this Divine Personality in which it is centred that our creed becomes a power, a life. It is this, too, which raises our personal assent to that creed above the level of mere opinion. Christianity empowers while it enlightens; and it can do this because its Lord is the power of God as well as the wisdom of God.

III. How sacred becomes the whole of life in the thought of its consecration to the service of our High Priest.

IV. If we are to be men of power, we must make much of Christ: consider we Him our Apostle and High Priest; confess we Him; place we His Name above every other name. Ask we to-day for a strengthened realisation of the inexhaustible reserve of grace hidden in Him for our personal and ministerial needs.

V. A closing reflection is drawn from the kind of evidence St. Thomas demanded before accepting the truth of His risen Lords identity: Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails. Kindred evidence the worlds doubters have a right to demand. The visible stigmata in hands and feet of our crucifixion to the world, to self, and to sin. This is a reasonable demand, and alas for the Christian life when this demand is in no sense met. The voice is Jacobs voice; but the hands are the hands of Esau. Is it ever so with us? If so, God forgive us.

Bishop Alfred Pearson.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

THE FIRST CHAPTER has presented to us the Lord Jesus as the Apostle, that is, as the Sent One, who came forth from God to us, bringing us the Divine revelation. The second set Him before us as the High Priest, who has gone in from us to God, representing us and maintaining our cause in His presence. Now we are bidden to consider Him very thoroughly in both these characters. We are to set our minds to it as those who aim at discovering all that is involved.

These Hebrews had taken up a new profession, or, we had better say, they had entered upon the confession of the name of Jesus, who had been rejected by their nation. The national attitude towards Him was summed up in these words, We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence He is (Joh 9:29). The more these converted Hebrews considered JESUS and studied Him the more certainly would they know from whence He was: they would perceive that truly He was come from God, and went to God (Joh 13:3).

The Jews made their boast in Moses and in Aaron. God had indeed spoken to the one and made him His spokesman, and He had established the other in the priestly office; nevertheless both were dead. The Christian, and the Christian alone, has an Apostle and High Priest who lives, to be known and contemplated and loved: One who is God and yet Man endowed with all the attributes and glory enumerated in Heb 1:1-14 and Heb 2:1-18.

He is worthy of our eternal study. Let us consider Him well, for as we do so we shall the more clearly see how rich is the place we have as set in relation to Him, and how high is the calling in which we partake. Both these things are mentioned in the first verse. Do not pass them over lightly. They are worthy of serious attention.

We are addressed as holy brethren. This is tremendously significant. It does not merely mean that all Christians are brethren and all set apart for God. The expression must be understood in relation to its context, that is, in relation to what has gone before, and particularly to verses Heb 3:10-11 of Heb 2:1-18. In the latter of these two verses we have sanctifieth and sanctified, and in our verse holy. These are all different forms of the same word. We are holy inasmuch as we have come into the wonderful sanctification of being all of one with the great Captain of our salvation. For the same reason are we brethren, since He is not ashamed to call us that. In addressing us as holy brethren the Spirit of God is reminding us of the place of extraordinary nearness and honour in which we are set.

As holy brethren we partake in the heavenly calling. We all know how God called Israel out of Egypt and into the land which He had purposed for them. Theirs was an earthly calling, though by no means to be despised. We are not called to any particular place on the earth, but to a place in the heavens.

In the gospels we see how the Lord was preparing the minds of His disciples for this immense change. At one point in the midst of His ministry He bade them not rejoice so much in the possession of miraculous powers: but rather rejoice, He said, because your names are written in heaven (Luk 10:20). Our names are inscribed in the records of the cities to which we belong, and in these words the Lord indicated that they were entering upon a heavenly citizenship. Later, in His farewell discourse, He spoke to them of His Fathers true house which is in the heavens-that house of which the earthly temple was only the pattern and shadow-and

He said, I go to prepare a place for you (Joh 14:2). Our place is there. Our calling is heavenly in its character and it has heaven as its end.

If these early Hebrew converts really took in these mighty facts by faith, they would without doubt have realized how greatly they had been elevated. It was truly no mean thing to have been the people of Abraham and Moses, called to a land flowing with milk and honey; but all that shrinks into comparative insignificance besides such things as being among the many sons who are being brought to glory, owned as holy brethren by the Lord Jesus, and thus called to heaven. But again, if so great an elevation for them how much greater an elevation for us, who with neither part nor lot in Israels privileges were just sinners of the Gentiles? Only let us take time to ponder the matter and we shall find abundant cause to bend our hearts in worship of Him from whose heart of love such designs have proceeded.

Holiness and heavenliness characterize our calling, but the great thing for us is that we turn the eyes of our mind upon Jesus and earnestly consider Him. He is both Apostle and High Priest and in His greatness we may read the greatness of our calling. Verses Heb 3:2-6 give us a glimpse of His greatness as contrasted with Moses. When, as recorded in Num 12:1-16, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath He not spoken also by us? That is, they questioned his office as the prophet, or apostle, of that day. Then the Lord bore of him this remarkable testimony, My servant Moses… is faithful in all Mine house. In this he was a type of Christ, who is faithful to Him that appointed Him in a supreme degree.

Yet even so we find that the relation here between type and Antitype is contrast rather than comparison. First, Moses was faithful in Gods house as being part of the house himself; whereas Christ is the builder of the house. Second, the house in which Moses ministered was just Israel; he bore the burden of that nation but of that nation alone. The Lord Jesus acts on behalf of all things. He that built all things is God, and the Lord Jesus is He by whom God built them. Third, in the small and restricted sphere of Israel Moses ministered as a faithful servant; but in the vast sphere of all things Christ ministers to the glory of God. Let us meditate on these points and we shall begin to have large thoughts of Christ.

Still we must not lose ourselves in the immensity of Gods mighty universe, so we find that Christ has His own house over which He is Son, and we, the believers of today, are that house. We are His building, and He faithfully administers all that concerns us to Gods glory, as Apostle and High Priest.

But, as it says here, we are His house, IF… That if mightily disturbs a good many people. It is intended to disturb, not the true believer, but the mere professor of the Christian religion. And here let us draw an important distinction. When in Scripture we are viewed as those born of God, or indeed viewed in any way as the subjects of Gods work by His Spirit, then no if is introduced. How can there be?-for perfection marks all Gods work. On the other hand when we are viewed from the human standpoint as those who have taken upon us the profession of Christianity, then an if may be introduced-indeed it must be.

Here are some who professed conversion years ago, yet today they are far from being Christian in their behaviour. What can we say as to them? Well, we aim at being charitable in our thoughts, so we give them the benefit of the doubt and accept them as believers, until conclusively proved not to be so. Still there is a doubt: an if comes in. The Hebrews, to whom our epistle was written, were many as to numbers and very varied as to their spiritual state. Some of them made the writer of the epistle feel very anxious. The mass doubtless were really converted people of whom it could be said, But beloved we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation (Heb 6:9). Still in writing to them all indiscriminately what could be said except that all Christian privileges were theirs, if indeed they were real in their profession.

Now it is just this that the second part of verse Heb 3:6 says, for it is time that tests reality. There is no more certain guarantee of reality than continuance. The false sooner or later let things slip, and turn away; the true hold fast to the finish. But then if any do let slip and turn away the real root of the trouble with them is, in one word, unbelief.

You notice of course that a parenthesis stretches from the second word of verse Heb 3:7 to the end of verse Heb 3:11. To get the sense we read, Wherefore take heed, brethren, etc. It is an evil heart of unbelief, and not of coldness or indifference or worldliness, that we are warned against; bad as these things are for the spiritual health of believers. It was just unbelief that was the root of all the troubles of Israel in their wilderness journey, as the last verse of our chapter says. So the Israel of the days of Moses was in this a beacon of warning to the Hebrews of the Apostolic age.

In the parenthesis we have a quotation from Psa 95:1-11. It is introduced to our notice not as a saying of David but as a saying of the Holy Ghost, who inspired David in his utterance. In the last five verses of our chapter we have the Spirits comment upon His earlier utterance in the Psalm, and here we have made abundantly plain what we have just stated above. Caleb and Joshua entered the land of promise because they believed; the rest did not because they did not believe. Their carcases fell in the wilderness.

A further word of explanation is necessary at this point lest we become confused in our thoughts. The history of Israel may be looked at in two ways: firstly from a national standpoint, then from a standpoint more personal and individual. It has a typical value for us whichever way we look at it.

If we take the first standpoint then we consider them as nationally a redeemed people, and that nationally they entered into the land God purposed for them, with the exception of the two and a half tribes, who became typical of earthly-minded believers, who fail to enter into that which is Gods purposed blessing for them. From that point of view we do not concern ourselves with the fact that the individuals who actually entered into the land were, with two exceptions, entirely different from those that came out of Egypt. From the second standpoint we do concern ourselves with the actual state of the people and of individuals amongst them. Only two of those who left Egypt so believed as to actually enter Canaan. This latter point of view is the one taken in Hebrews, as also in 1Co 10:1-13, where we are told that they are also in all this types or ensamples to us. They warn us very clearly of the awful end that awaits those who, though by profession and to all outward appearance the people of God, are really without that true and vital faith which is the mainspring of all godliness.

We are warned therefore against an evil heart of unbelief which departs from the living God, and bidden to exhort one another daily for sin is very deceitful. If believers are to exhort one another daily it means that daily they seek one anothers company. This verse then takes for granted that, like the Apostles who, being let go… went to their own company (Acts

4: 23), we also find our society and companionships amongst the people of God. It also infers that we watch for one anothers souls and care for one anothers spiritual prosperity. But is this true of us all? The general spiritual health of Christians would be much better if it were. We are far more influenced by the company that we keep than many of us like to admit.

If however, any of us have professed the name of Christ without reality, then there is still in us the evil heart of unbelief, whatever we may have said with our lips; and the downward course that lies before us, except we be awakened to realities, is plainly set before us. The evil heart of unbelief is easily deceived by sin; and sin itself by reason of its deceitfulness hardens us, so that we become impervious to reproof. Then instead of holding the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end, we let go and give up. But only the real, who do remain stedfast unto the end, are made partakers, or companions of Christ.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Heb 3:1. Let the reader keep constantly in mind the leading thought in this book, namely, the superiority of the system of Christ over that of Moses. Holy brethren. Not that worshipers under Moses were not holy, for they were required to be so (Levit-icus 11:44, 45). But they did not become brethren by their holiness; they were born into that relationship regardless of their knowledge of God. (See 1Sa 3:7.) To be brethren of Christ requires a life of righteousness (Mat 12:50), hence Paul calls these people by the term italicized. Heavenly calling is used mainly as a mark of superiority for the service under Christ over the old one. The word apostle means one who is sent on a mission with authority to speak and act. Jesus was sent from Heaven to earth to carry out a mission of salvation. After shedding His blood in a supreme sacrifice, Jesus was qualified to reenter the court of eternal glory, there to act as the High Priest for the Christians on the merits of His shed blood, even as the high priests in the Mosaic system entered the second court of the tabernacle and temple with the blood of animals.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 3:1. Holy brethren. No mere complimentary title, but descriptive of the blessed brotherhood to which Christ and all who believe belong.

Partakers of, partners in a calling that comes from heaven and leads to it, besides giving the tastes and spirit appropriate to our destiny (Joh 3:31; Mat 3:2; Php 3:20), servants, therefore, and workers under a new and divine economy.

Christ Jesus. The true reading is Jesus simply, with special reference to His human nature and His connection with ourselves (see Heb 6:20, Heb 7:22, Heb 11:4; Exo 3:10-15). He was sent from God, as was Moses, and He was Priest also, with Aarons office and dignitya thought expanded later (Heb 4:14, Heb 10:22). This Apostle and Priest the Hebrews had acknowledged as their own (of our profession, or confession rather), and it became them to be faithful as confessors to Him they had in this double office accepted. It is probable that the expression, Apostle and Priest of our confession, means even more than sent by God and accepted by us. When the high priest went into the holy place on the day of Atonement, he was called the apostle, the messenger of the nation whom he represented, and for whom as priest he pleaded. So Christ has entered into the holy place as our accepted Messenger and Priest. To reject Him now is a double insult.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Section 3. (Heb 3:1-6.)

His glory as Son over the house of God.

The third section carries us from the scene of His humiliation to that of His glory. He is over the house of God as the Son of God; and as His being the Son of God is the foundation of His priesthood, and that is the direct connection here, we are still in the line of the Day of Atonement; although, as ever, the substance goes beyond the shadow. The high priest in Israel (though, of course, with well-known restrictions) was over the house of God; and in the tenth chapter here we have, in confirmation of this, the very thing expressed: “Having a great High Priest over the house of God” (Heb 10:21). This makes it evident that the comparison with Moses, which exists no longer here, is not the sole one; and to take it as such is to hinder a clear conception of what is before us. Moses is the apostle, rather, as Aaron the high priest; and we are exhorted to consider both “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” Moses and Aaron appear together thus, in the history, as the double type of the Lord; and as Moses was in a sense the builder of the tabernacle, receiving the pattern of it in the mount, so, having built it, he put it under the charge of Aaron. Moses and Aaron are thus together before us here.

The apostle addresses us here distinctly as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” He thus, therefore, even while addressing Hebrews, does not fail to remember that these are Christian Hebrews, and what is implied in that. Israel when fully blessed will never have this character; and if they had received the Lord, as in fact they rejected Him, still would not have had it. Those who believe, in the midst of the sorrow of national rejection, have the joy of higher privileges which the perfect grace of God has brought in in the lapse of the old earthly ones. It is in this way, then, that we are to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus,” one Person now, who fills the double type of Moses and of Aaron, one “who is faithful (this is not past, but present) to Him that hath appointed Him, as Moses also was in all the house of God.” This is, of course, the tabernacle. It is with reference to this, that the apostle is speaking; but he has before him One who is not a servant in the house as Moses was, but a Son over it. He does not belong properly, as the servant does, to the house Himself; His glory is above it all; even though the house represents, as doubtless the tabernacle represented as a whole, the universe of God.

The house itself included, in the general thought of it, the court around, as well as the actual building, and in that court stood the altar, the altar of burnt offering, as the cross of Christ and the offering upon it therefore were on earth. The house proper, the sanctuary, was typically heaven, as the apostle says that these things were the patterns of things in the heavens. By faith we enter into them here, but that does not, of course, alter their character; rather, their character as heavenly gives our entrance in its proper blessing. But thus the tabernacle, looked at as a whole, is the picture of the universe of God, which, in that sense, is the created house in which God dwells. The apostle refers to this here, where he says that while every house is established by some one, he that hath established all things is God. This establishment of all things he applies to Christ. And Christ, as we have seen, is the Creator and Upholder. “Without Him was not anything made that was made,” and He “upholdeth all things by the word of His power.” He is divine, therefore, in the fullest sense. But He is the Son of God, as we know. He is the One who has been pleased thus to come forward in representative character to make known the Father, and in all the work of His hands is doing this.

Thus the difference between Moses and the One whom he typically represented is vast indeed. Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a ministering servant, for a testimony to the things to be spoken afterwards. He has had his place in an important dispensation which had its purpose in the mind of God, but which was to be done away. Christ, on the other hand, is a Son over, not “His own” house, (that is not the meaning here,) but the house of God. He is the One to whom all things belong, for whom they are, as by whom they are; and this connects His work from the beginning with His work now for fallen man, and in view of all that sin has wrought in the creation of God.

Thus, then, although Aaron does not come into view in the chapter before us by any plain statement, yet in fact we find how we have to take him into account in order to reach the full truth of what is here. If the Son of God be in supreme charge over the universe of God, and now if sin come in as a breach upon its glorious order, then we can see that He is immediately concerned in this. He will not give up His place. Sin will not make Him renounce His office, but, on the contrary, only display the more His competence for it. In view of sin it is that the Son becomes the Priest, the Mediator and Reconciler; and the moment it is added, as in the passage before us, “whose house are we,” all becomes clear. Aaron is now before us. It is now the Priest in charge, assuredly, if we are His house.

It is simple to refer to the board structure of the tabernacle in typical explanation of how, in fact, the redeemed come in here, and a wonderful thing it is to realize the connection of this with that larger aspect of the tabernacle which we have been called to remember as the pattern of the universe at large. Here, at the heart of it, in the boards set up on the silver sockets made from the atonement-money (see Exo 26:1-37, notes), we find a “spiritual house,” of sinners redeemed and standing upon the basis of the work accomplished for them; and being the fruit of a mightier work than creation itself, we can understand, also, how this should be in fact the very sanctuary of God. Here is the display of His holiness, His grace, His manifold wisdom, as nowhere else. Here the very principalities and powers of heaven find their sweetest theme of praise.

But it does not seem as if the board structure is sufficient by itself to give us the thought of this house of God which we are. Here, as in so many other places, different types are needed, in order to give us the full thought of God. The house is a living house, nay, human; and thus not display alone, but living activities abide in it. That the Holy One would inhabit the praises of Israel is the Lord’s own answer, in the twenty-second psalm, to the question of the cross; and the connection with the Day of Atonement is obvious: for the main purpose of it is that the dwelling of the Lord in the midst may be continued among them. Here we are in direct connection with all this, though beyond it, as the substance is beyond the shadow. The house is a spiritual house, and the praises are those of a people brought near to Him, a priestly house, therefore. For these the largest offering of the Day of Atonement, the bullock, is offered; and for us the High Priest is One who could not offer for Himself; so that it is the priestly house alone for which, in fact, the bullock is offered. It is not strange, then, that they should appear here. It would be strange, rather, if they did not appear; and Peter joins thus together, also, what might seem at first too diverse to be identified in such a manner, the “living stones” built on the “Living Stone” with “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” “Whose house are we,” as it certainly shows the Son over the house to be now the “Great Priest over the house of God,” so does it identify, also, the tabernacle with the priestly worshipers. But we are the house of God, the apostle reminds us, if indeed we “hold fast the boldness and the boast of our hope firm unto the end.”

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

COMPARED WITH MOSES AND JOSHUA

The superiority of Christ to Moses is shown in chapter 3, the comparison in which case runs in two parallel lines of two members each:

1. Moses a servant over Gods house (Heb 3:5).

2. Christ a Son over His own house (Heb 3:6).

That is an interesting phrase, Whose house are we (Heb 3:6), suggesting a plan for a sermon. In what sense are believers Christs house?

He built them: without him was not anything made that was made. He bought them: Ye are not for your own, for ye are bought with a price. He occupies them: Ye in me and I in you.

As in the preceding instances we have a digression at this point in the nature of warning (Heb 3:7-19). In the first reading omit the parenthesis after wherefore (Heb 3:7) down to the close of Heb 3:11, which will simplify the thought. The idea is that because of the greater importance of the New Testament revelation over that of the Old Testament as evidenced in the superiority of the messenger, we should take heed lest through unbelief we fall away from God, as did Israel in the wilderness. They tempted God, and as a result, the males over twenty years of age were not permitted to enter into the rest of Canaan (Heb 3:16-18). The Holy Ghost used that sad episode in their early history as a warning to them at a later time, i.e., in Davids day (compare Heb 3:7 ff., with Psa 95:8-11), and it was just as applicable now to these Hebrew Christians. Therefore, they should exhort one another against the deceitfulness of sin and to steadfastness in the faith.

The allusion to the rest of Canaan naturally leads to a comparison of Christ with Joshua in chapter 4, which may be outlined thus: (1) Israel failed of Gods rest through unbelief (Heb 3:16-19); (2) We Christians may fail of Gods rest through unbelief (4:1-2); (3) This rest is not Canaan however (Heb 4:3-9); but (4) the rest of faith in God through Christ (Heb 4:10); and (5) it is to be diligently sought (Heb 4:11-13).

The proof that this rest is not Canaan is twofold: it was spoken of long before Canaan was revealed, even at the creation of the world (Heb 4:3-5); and it was spoken of long after Israel had entered Canaan as something still to be had. This last thought is brought out clearer in the Revised Version where Jesus of Heb 4:8 is translated Joshua, which has the same meaning.

It is important to understand what this rest is. In the first place, it is Gods rest and not our rest. And Gods rest does not mean cessation from work on His part, but rather his joy and delight in that work as good and perfect. In this sense He rested from creation on the seventh day, a rest which was marred by sin, but now the new rest of which he speaks is that of redemption, typified by Israels deliverance from Egypt and entrance into Canaan. As a matter of fact God rests in Christ as the Redeemer and Restorer of fallen man, and where He rests there only can we rest. It is not death that can be rest to us, but only Christ, and this because the secret of our unrest is sin and He only can take away sin in every aspect of it. Of course, the perfect enjoyment of this rest is still future. There remaineth a rest for the people of God. It is not a rest of inactivity, but of peace and harmony with all that is within and around us. Glory to God for this expectation! The sense in which we are diligently to seek it (Heb 4:11), is not that of self-righteous works on our part, but a carefulness not to fall into unbelief. The relation of the words that follow in this chapter (Heb 4:12-16) with those preceding, seems in general terms to be this: the Christian is to rest in faith, and labor to enter into the rest that remaineth, but this means that he must be guided and instructed by the Word of God, and upheld and encouraged by the sympathy and intercession of His Great High priest.

QUESTIONS

1. State the two parallel lines of comparison between Christ and Moses.

2. In what sense may it be said that we are Christs house?

3. Explain the warnings in Heb 3:7-19.

4. Give an outline of chapter 4.

5. What two facts prove that rest other than Canaan is intended?

6. How would you explain the rest?

7. When will this rest be perfectly entered upon by the Christian?

8. In what sense are we to seek it?

9. What relation do the concluding verses of chapter 4 bear to the preceding?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

These words are an exhortation to the believing Hebrews, to consider and ponder in their hearts the high dignity and excellency of Christ, as the great prophet and apostle of his church; and in them,

Observe 1. The title given to the Hebrews, unto whom the exhortation is directed; he styles them.

1. Holy brethren, so they were all by external profession, and many of them, no doubt, by internal sanctification.

Learn hence, That all the professors of the gospel are obliged to be holy, and such as are real professors of it, are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and made truly and really holy.

2. Partakers of the heavenly calling; that is of that calling from heaven which makes you heirs of heaven implying, that the only way to attain the saving knowledge of Christ in the gospel, is by means of an effectual heavenly calling.

Observe, 2. The duty exhorted to, and that is diligent consideration. Consider Christ Jesus; that is, rationally attend unto, and with great intention of mind ponder upon, the undertaking of the Son of God: for if you consider him in his person and offices, you will firmly adhere to him and his most holy and excellent religion, without entanglements unto Judaism.

Learn thence, That the spiritual and deep mysteries of the gospel, especially those which concern the person and offices of our Lord Jesus Christ, do require our deep and diligent, our most attentive and serious consideration.

Observe, 3. The title given to Jesus Christ, the object of this consideration: he is styled the Apostle and High-priest of our profession; that is, the first and chief apostle sent of God to be the prime preacher of the gospel, the first legate sent from heaven, and the great High-priest that mediates between God and man.

Here note, That the function of an apostle and high-priest were the greatest functions that ever God instituted in his church; none greater than an high-priest under the law, none greater than an apostle under the gospel, both of them never conjoined in one man but here.

Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ is all in all unto his church, the king, priest, prophet, and apostle of it, all in one: Consider the Apostle an High-priest of our profession, &c.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Christ’s Superiority Over Moses

Because of the things He has done, Christians should center their thoughts on Jesus, who is the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession” ( Heb 3:1 ). An apostle is one sent on a mission. Jesus, then, was certainly an apostle of God ( Joh 3:16-17 ; Mat 26:39 ; Mat 26:42 ; Joh 13:20 ; Joh 20:21 ; 1Jn 4:14 ). Heb 2:17-18 shows that Jesus is our high priest, in that, He, like that figure, made reconciliation for our sins. Remember that the high priest was the one who offered the sacrifice on the day of atonement. He was the only one who could enter the holy of holies and he took that blood sacrifice in to atone. The word translated “confession” actually includes two ideas. First, it is, as Milligan states, “a public avowal of one’s beliefs and sentiments.” Second, it is a way of life for the Christian ( Mat 10:32 ; Mat 16:13-20 ; Rom 10:9-10 ; 1Ti 6:12 ). So Jesus is the object of our confession because He was the one sent and the one who offered, and indeed was, the reconciliation for our sins. Paul tells us in Rom 10:9-10 , that confession of Christ leads to our salvation and Jesus, in Mat 10:32 , says that if we confess Him on earth, He will confess us in heaven.

Moses was trustworthy in carrying out the duties appointed to him in God’s house, as was Jesus ( 1Co 4:2 ). Moses was faithful in his duty, but Jesus is held in higher esteem. Moses was a part of the house of Israel, but Jesus was both the builder and furnisher of that house. Even today, the man who built a great building is considered greater than the building itself. The greatness of the builder can be seen as the writer goes on to say God is the builder. Clearly, these verses let the reader know the writer thought of Jesus as divine ( Heb 3:2-4 ).

Heb 3:5 goes on to extend the superiority of Christ over Moses. Moses was faithful in God’s household as a servant and his faithfulness testifies to the accuracy of the message he brought. However, Moses’ service was only a foreshadow of things that would come long after his life on earth was finished (see also Col 2:17 ; Heb 10:1 ). Christ, as Son, is more than a servant over the house. While Moses was a servant over God’s house, Jesus is the Son over a house which the author calls His “own.” As members of the church, Christians are considered members of God’s household ( 1Ti 3:15 .) This truly is Christ’s house, as He pointed out in Mat 16:18 . One can become a part of that church (as is recorded in Act 2:47 ), but, as the author points out, to remain a part of it he must speak boldly of it and hold fast to the hope of it to the end of life ( Heb 3:6 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Heb 3:1. The apostle, in the first chapter of this epistle, having affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth, by whom the gospel revelation was given to mankind, is Gods Son, in a peculiar sense; a sense in which no man or angel is his son; and having proved, from the Jewish Scriptures, that God had constituted this his Son the Heir or Lord of all things, because by him he made the worlds; and in the second chapter, having answered the objections which were, or might be, brought for invalidating the claim of Jesus to be Gods Son, and having thereby given full effect to the direct proofs which established his claim; he, in this third chapter, proceeds to show what is implied in Christs being the Heir or Lord of all things; which is the third fact on which the authority of the gospel revelation depends. A proper account of this matter was necessary; 1st, Because the title of Jesus to remove the Mosaic economy, and to substitute the gospel dispensation in its place, was founded on the power which he possessed as the Son of God and Heir of all things; 2d, Because many of the Jews, in the persuasion that the law of Moses was of perpetual obligation, and that its sacrifices were real atonements for sin, rejected Jesus as an impostor for pretending to abolish these institutions.

Wherefore Seeing the author of the gospel is so excellent a person, (Hebrews 1,) and so highly advanced above all others, men and angels, (Heb 2:7-8,) holy brethren By giving this appellation to those to whom he wrote, it is evident he addressed his epistle, not, as Macknight supposes, chiefly, if at all, to the unbelieving Hebrews, but principally, if not only, to such as had embraced the gospel, and were really made new creatures in Christ; partakers of the heavenly calling The calling of the gospel, which came from heaven, and is intended to bring men to heaven, including the preaching of the word, and the various means of grace, whereby men are brought to believe in Christ. Consider the Apostle The messenger of God, sent immediately from him to preach that gospel to you which you profess to believe; the highest office this in the New Testament; and High-Priest This was the highest function in the Old Testament church. As an Apostle, or Gods messenger, he pleads the cause of God with us; and as High-Priest, he pleads our cause with God. Both are contained in the one word Mediator. He compares Christ as an apostle, with Moses; as a priest, with Aaron. Both these offices, which Moses and Aaron severally bore, he bears together, and far more eminently; of our profession Of the religion we profess, of which Jesus is called the Apostle, because he was sent by God to reveal it; and the High-Priest, because we receive its blessings through his mediation. By thus calling upon them to consider Christ Jesus in these characters, the apostle seems to intimate that the believing Hebrews had not sufficiently adverted to the nature and quality of the person and offices of Christ, and for that reason were kept in the entanglements of Judaism; therefore he exhorts them to fix their minds attentively on the sublime subject.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hebrews Chapter 3

Thus the Lord is set before us as the Apostle and High Priest of believers from among the Jews, the true people. I say,from among the Jews, not that He is not our Priest, but that here the sacred writer places himself among the believing Jews, saying our; and, instead of speaking of himself as and apostle, he points out Jesus as the Apostle; which He was in Person among the Jews. In principle, it is true of all believers. That which He has said is the Lords word, and He is able to succour us when we are tempted. We are His house.

For we have here a third character of Christ. He is a Son over his house. Moses was faithful in all the house of God as a servant, in testimony to the things that were afterwards to be proclaimed. But Christ is over Gods house; but it is not as a servant but as a Son. He has built the house, He is God.

Moses identified himself with the house, faithful therein in all things. But Christ is more excellent; even as he who builds the house is more excellent than the house. He who builds all things is God. And this is what Christ did.For in fact the house (that is, the tabernacle in the wilderness) was a figure of the universe; and Christ passed through the heavens, as the high priest passed into the sanctuary. All was cleansed with blood, even as God will reconcile all thins by Christ in the heavens and on the earth. In a certain sense this universe is the house of God. He deigns to inhabit it. Christ created it all. But there is a house which is more properly His own. We are His house, taking it for granted that we persevere to the end.

The Hebrew Christians were in danger-being attracted by their former habits, and by a law and ceremonies which God Himself had established-of forsaking a Christianity, in which Christ was not visible, for things that were visible and palpable. The Christ of Christians, far from being a crown of glory to the people, was only an object of faith, so that, if faith failed, He was deprived of all importance to them. A religion that made itself seen (the old wine) naturally attracted those that had been accustomed to it.

But in fact Christ was much more excellent than Moses, as he who has built the house had more honour than the house, Now this house was the figure of all things, and He who had built them was God. The passage gives us this view of Christ and of the house, and also says, that we are this house. And Christ is not the servant here; He is the Son over Gods house.

We must always remember that which has been already remarked, namely, that in this epistle we have no the assembly as the body of Christ in union with Himself; nor even the Father either, except as a comparison in chapter 12. It is God, a heavenly Christ (who is the Son of God), and a people, the Messiah being a heavenly Mediator between the people and God. Therefore the proper privileges of the assembly are not found in this epistle-they flow from our union with Christ; and here Christ is a Person apart who is between us and God, on high while we are here.

There are still a few remarks which we may add here in order to throw light on this point, and to assist the reader in understanding the first two chapters, as well as the principle of the instructions throughout the epistle.

In chapter 1, Christ accomplishes by Himself as a part of His divine glory the purification of sins, and seats Himself at the right hand of God. This work, observe, is done by Himself. We have nothing to do with it, save to believe in and enjoy it. It is a divine work which this divine Person has accomplished by Himself; so that it has all the absolute perfection, all the force, of a work done by Him, without any mixture of our weakness, of our efforts, or of our experiences. He performed it by Himself, and it is accomplished. Thereupon He takes His seat. he is not placed there-He seats Himself upon the throne on high.

In chapter 2 we see another point which characterises the epistle-the present state of the glorified Man. He is crowned with glory and honour; but it is with a view to an order of things which is not yet accomplished. It is the Person of the Man Christ which is presented, not the assembly in union with Him, even when He is beheld as glorified in the heavens, This glory is viewed as a partial accomplishment of that which belongs to Him, according to the counsels of God, as the Son of man. hereafter this glory will be complete in all its parts by the subjugation of all things.

The present glory therefore of Christ makes us look forward to an order of things yet future, which will be full rest, full blessing. In a word, bedsides the perfection of His work, the epistle sets before us the sequel of that which belongs to Christ in Person, the Son of man, not the perfection of the assembly in Him. And this embraces the present time, the character of which, to the believer, depends on Christs being now glorified in heaven while waiting for a future state, in which all things will be subjected to Him.

In this chapter 2 we see also that He is crowned. He is not seen sitting there as in His original right, though He had that glory before the world was, but, having been made a little less than the angels, God crowns Him. We also plainly see that although the believing Hebrews are especially in view, and even all Christians are classed under the title of Abrahams seed on the earth, yet that Christ is viewed nevertheless as the Son of man, and not as the Son of David; and the question is put, What is man? The answer (the precious answer for us) is, Christ glorified, once dead on account of mans condition. In Him we see the mind of God with regard to man.

The fact that Christians themselves are viewed as the seed of Abraham plainly shews the way in which they are considered as forming part of the chain of the heirs of promise on earth (as in Rom 11:1-36), and not as the assembly united to Christ as His body in heaven.

The work is perfect; it is the work of God. He has by Himself made purification of sins. The full result of the counsels of God with regard to the Son of man is not yet come. Thus the earthly part can be brought in, as a thing foreseen , as well as the heavenly part, although the persons to whom the epistle is addressed had part in the heavenly glory-participated in the heavenly calling-in connection with the present position of the Son of man.

The remnant of the Jews, as we have said, are considered as continuing the chain of the people blessed on earth, whatever heavenly privileges they may also possess or whatever their especial state may be in connection with the Messiahs exaltation to heaven. We have been grafted into the good olive-tree, so that we share all the advantages here spoken of. Our highest position, and the privileges belonging to it, are not here in view. Accordingly, as writing to Hebrews and as one among them, he addresses them, that is to say, Christians and believing Israelites. This is the force of the word us in the epistle; we must bear it in mind, and that the Hebrew believers always form the word us of which the writer is also a part.

No one ought to harden his heart; but this word is especially addressed to Israel, and that until the day when Christ shall appear. In speaking of it, the author returns to the word that had formerly been addressed to Israel; not now in order to warn them of the danger they would incur by neglecting it. but of the consequences of departing from that which they had acknowledged to be true. Israel, when delivered out of Egypt, had provoked God in the wilderness (it was indeed the case also of Christians in this world), because they were not at once, and without difficulty, in Canaan.Those to whom he wrote were in danger of forsaking the living God in the same way; that is, the danger was there before their eyes. They should rather exhort each other, while it was still called to-day, in order that they might not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.This word to-day is the expression of the patient activity of Gods grace towards Israel even unto the end. The people were unbelieving; they have hardened their hearts; they have done so, and will alas! do so to the end, until judgment come in the Person of the Messiah-Jehovah, whom they have despise. But until then God loves to reiterate, Today, if ye will hear my voice. It may be that only a few will hearken; it may be that the nation is judicially hardened, in order to admit the Gentiles; but the word today still resounds for every one among them who has ears to hear, until the Lord shall appear in judgment. It is addressed to the people according to the long-suffering of God. For the remnant who had believed it was an especial warning not to walk in the ways of the hardened people who had refused to hearken-not to turn back to them, forsaking their own confidence in the word which had called them, as Israel did in the wilderness.

As long as the today of the call of grace should continue, they were to exhort one another, lest unbelief should glide into their hearts through the subtlety of sin. It is thus that the living God is forsaken. We speak thus practically, not with reference to the faithfulness of God, who certainly will not allow any of His own to perish, but with regard to practical danger, and to that which would draw us away-as to our responsibility-from God, and for ever, if God did not intervene, acting in the life which He has given us, and which never perishes.

Sin separates us from God in our thoughts; we have no longer the same sense either of His love, His power, or His interest in us. Confidence is lost, Hope, and the value of unseen things, diminish; while the value of things that are seen proportionately increases. The conscience is bad; one is not at ease with God. The path is hard and difficult; the will strengthens itself against Him. We no longer live by faith; visible things come in between us and God and take possession of the heart. Where there is life, God warns by His Spirit (as in this epistle), He chastises and restores. Where it was only an outward influence, a faith devoid of life, and the conscience not reached, it is abandoned.

It is the warning against so doing that arrests the living. The dead-they whose consciences are not engaged, who do not say, To whom shall we go? thou has the words of eternal life-despise the warning and perish. This was the case with Israel in the wilderness, and God sware unto them that they should not enter into His rest. (Num 14:21-23) And why? They had given up their confidence in Him. Their unbelief-when the beauty and excellence of the land had been reported to them-deprived them of the promised rest.

The position of the believers to whom this epistle is addressed was the same as this, although in connection with better promises. The beauty and excellence of the heavenly Canaan had been proclaimed to them. The had, by the Spirit, seen and tasted its fruits; they were in the wilderness; they had to persevere to maintain their confidence unto the end.

Observe her-for Satan and our own conscience when it has not been set free, often make use of this epistle-that doubting Christians are not here contemplated, or persons who have not yet gained entire confidence in God: to those who are in this condition its exhortations and warnings have no application. These exhortations are to preserve the Christian in a confidence which he has, and to preserve, not to tranquillise fears and doubts. This use of the epistle to sanction such doubts is but a device of the enemy. Only I would add here that, although the full knowledge of grace (which in such a case the soul has assuredly not yet attained) is the only thing that can deliver and set it free from its fears, yet it is very important in this case practically to maintain a good conscience, in order not to furnish the enemy with a special means of attack.

Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament

1. This verse holds up Jesus as the Apostle, High Priest and Paragon of all religious profession, the only infallible Exemplar, the universal Archetype of the Gospel dispensation, in contradistinction to Moses in bygone ages.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Heb 3:1-6. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, who, as the sons of God, are called to eternal glory, consider the Apostle and Highpriest of our profession, that he unites in his glorious person all the honours of Moses as a prophet, and all the honours of Aaron as a priest, and so far eclipses their glory as the celestial house surpasses the earthly. They were only shadows, he is the substance; they were but servants, he is the Lord, the Son and heir of all. Let us then hold fast our confidence and rejoicing in hope, firm to the end, for the fading tabernacle adumbrates the glory of the temple built of God, which shall remain for ever. Mount Zion above is the mother of us all.

Heb 3:7-11. Wherefore, consider what the Holy Ghost saith, when David had rest from his surrounding foes, how he called the Israelites to gratitude, and the gentiles to conversion, saying, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Repeat not the sins of your fathers, for by so doing you would sin against greater grace than they ever knew. David, transported by the Spirit, spake of Christ, and the glory that should follow, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. David foresaw that the jews in the Messiahs day would reject his ministry, and incur greater evils than those which befel their fathers. See then, he cries, that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for his voice which once shook the earth, shall ultimately shake the heavens also.

Heb 3:12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, with regard to the person of Christ, and the truth of the gospel. This caution must not be lightly passed over. Unbelief is the first sin that entered the heart; it hides itself lest it should be perceived. Satan said, ye shall not surely die. It excludes a God of retribution from his works. It is essential wickedness, or as the text says, an evil heart of unbelief. It places its happiness in concupiscence, and flatters itself with exemption from punishment. It hardens the heart to brave the bolt of justice, pleading every excuse for sin. It hurries men to apostasy, departing from the living God, and super-induces final destruction. It was unbelief that precipitated the Egyptians into the sea, that excluded the Israelites from Canaan, that finally burned Jerusalem, and scattered the jews over the face of the whole earth. Take heed, brethren, lest it also remove your candlestick, and destroy the unbelieving world.

The apostle prescribes the remedies: Let us fear, let us exhort one another daily. Let us strike at the root of indwelling corruption, and mortify the daring usurpations of pride. Let us converse daily with the glorious objects of our hope, that all the habitudes of piety and holiness may be formed in the heart.

Heb 3:14. We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end. This exhortation is built on our Saviours words: he that endureth to the end shall be saved. The faithful souls shall participate with Christ, as the members of the body participate with the head. If we do not hold fast the christian faith, if we cast away our confidence, and draw back, we have no promise of eternal life in Christ. On the contrary we are classed with those who fell short of the promised land.

REFLECTIONS.

This chapter is a continuation of inferential duties from the deity of Christ, and the truth and certainty of the christian religion. Paul was fully aware, that many of the believing jews, through incessant persecutions, drew back from the faith of the gospel. It was requisite therefore to stop them by a full display of the glory of Christ in his ever-subsisting temple. Moses saw his glory, and declared that whosoever would not hear that prophet should be cut off; which happened correctly when that nation was exscinded by the Roman sword. Moses received his revelations from Christ at the burning bush, and also in the tabernacle. Christ received the commandment of the Father, even the gospel law from the immediate fountain of deity. The temple which Christ has built with living stones is glorious; but the architect himself is more glorious than the temple. Oh Hebrew christians, if you leave this temple, you have no refuge; for your temple built with hands, the remains of Aarons altar, shall soon be in flames.

But the grand caution, a caution often repeated, is, to beware of the serpent fostered in our own bosom. The dangers of christians to-day is equal to those of Judea, warned in perilous times. We perceive not the snake in the grass, which changes colour, and assumes a thousand different shapes. It sheds discouragement on the soul, like the voice of the spies who said, we cannot take the land, let us go back into Egypt. But how awful is the character of that justice which the rebels despise. They murmur, they disbelieve, they rebel, till at length the years of patience and longsuffering expire, when God turns their language upon themselves, and swears in his wrath that they shall not enter into his rest. What example can be more terrific what error more instructive!

Oh Lord, according to all thy promises, take the stony heart all away, and give me a pure, and a believing heart; a new heart, inscribed with thy name, that I may delight in the law of God after the inward man. Yea, draw me with the cords of love, that my new heart may run after thee, as much as the unbelieving heart departed from thee.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:13. As Christ is higher than the angels, so He is greater than Moses, through whom the first covenant was established. The comparison with Moses, however, occupies only a few verses, and merges in a warning to avoid the fate of those Israelites whom Moses led.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” Let us keep in mind that this is addressed to Jewish believers. How great a contrast to that which their own religion had taught them! Earthly hopes now they must leave behind, and as “holy brethren,” set apart by virtue of identification with the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus, were to recognize themselves as partakers of the heavenly calling. Israel in rejecting their Messiah had forfeited all title to their longedfor earthly inheritance; but God had in grace provided a transcendently greater blessing for those who in their hearts received His beloved Son.

Now, in properly considering Him – the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, – the significance of this is more clearly seen. It will be observed that both the Deity and the Manhood of the Lord Jesus are vitally involved in what is now presented to us. Also, both Moses and Aaron are seen to be types of this blessed One: hence there are comparisons, while yet, these being noted, there is greater emphasis upon the contrasts in this great Person to the lesser glories of Moses and Aaron. Indeed angels have before been set aside in His favor, and certainly men ought to be.

“Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus” (N. Trans.). The official title “Christ” evidently had no place here in the original, for the insistence here is upon His Personal Name of moral grace and beauty, in both the lowliness and dignity of true Manhood. But as the Apostle, He is One sent of God, to maintain the sovereign rights of God in reference to the people. As the High Priest He is One come in grace to maintain the cause of the people in reference to God. In these Moses typifies the first, Aaron the second.

“Who is faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house.” This faithfulness to God is true of Him both as Apostle and High Priest, but He is compared here first to Moses, as He is later to Aaron (Ch. 5:4). Doubtless the house here referred to is the tabernacle, in which was represented God’s relationship with the people, and in which Moses was careful to conform to the pattern given him of God.

But if verse 2 is comparison, verse 3 is contrast. Moses had been faithful in God’s house; but Christ is the Builder of the house, worthy of greater honor than the house itself, and therefore than any servant in the house. “For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God” The force of the passage is simply that a house testifies to the fact that someone must have built it. Creation testifies also that it has a Builder greater than itself. “He that built all things is God.” Note that this again proves the Deity of the Lord Jesus, Whom verse 3 declares the Builder. It is not that all creation is the object in view in what is said here, but rather that, if He built all things, then He certainly built that of which the tabernacle is a type, “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Beautiful it is however to consider the faithful devotion of Moses as a servant in God’s house, a servant obeying the word of his Master, in order that the house (the tabernacle) should rightly represent the God who in grace dwelt there. The reader may profitably consider Exo 39:1-43; Exo 40:1-38 as to this matter, where it is evident that Moses was extremely diligent to see that every detail conformed to the commandment of the Lord. “According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and behold they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them” (Exo 39:42-43). Eight times in Ch. 40 the expression is repeated, “As the Lord commanded Moses.”

Moreover, our verse 5 continues, “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.” The tabernacle was a type of that which was to be revealed afterward (and has now been revealed). Thus the servant Moses has borne testimony to the truth of God even in that which was but a type of the church. And if so, does our God expect any less faithfulness to His Word in the church itself? Indeed, how diligent ought every servant of the Lord be that the Word of our God be faithfully followed in its entirety. Let the faithful testimony of Moses be taken to heart, and bear its proper fruit in encouraging the saints of God today.

“But Christ as a Son over His house.” The word “own” is not correctly inserted here, for he is speaking all through of God’s house, though of course that house has different character today, for it is the antitype rather than the type. But here is One who, because of equal dignity with the Father, is to be trusted utterly to order the house in perfect wisdom and truth. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath committed all things into His hand.” This is far above Moses, or any other servant.

“Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” The apostle here is certainly not seeking to unsettle faith, but to encourage it. But he would definitely unsettle anyone who rested upon anything but Christ. All false confidences would eventually leave souls bereft and hopeless. Profession must necessarily be tested, and its reality is proven only by continuance. Some of the Hebrews who had publicly embraced Christianity were giving it up, and returning to Judaism. Did they actually then have part in the house of God? No: their giving up proved they had never really been brought in faith to the Lord Jesus. Faith is not a mere cloak one may put on and later put off again. It is rather the vital gift of God (Eph 2:8-9), which purifies the heart, remaining as the settled attitude of its possessor; and it is proven only by holding fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end.

“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,) Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the wilderness.” One who has merely made a profession without reality may easily harden his heart. The wilderness history of Israel served to bring out what was actually in their hearts. Just so, if one is a mere rocky ground hearer, the seed might spring up quickly, then when persecution or tribulation arises because of the Word, the truth of the Word is as quickly renounced, the heart hardened against what the conscience had previously approved. Christ is given up because He was not actually in the heart.

“The day of provocation” refers to mans provoking God to anger. Their rebellion was occasioned by their circumstances of trial, but this was only the occasion, not the reason. If man excuses himself by protesting that he was provoked to rebel, let him think again that such rebellion is a reason for God’s being rightly provoked to judge him. They tempted God: He bore long with them. They proved Him: times unnumbered He proved faithful and gracious in spite of their selfwill. They saw His works of grace and power forty years. But all this, together with His patient forbearance they treated with contempt, and time thus proved their hearts false and ignorant of God’s ways.

This was the general condition of the people. They were all surrounded by and partook of the benefits of God’s goodness in publicly blessing the nation; yet proved themselves cold in heart toward the God Who fed them. Doubtless there were individuals who differed but he speaks generally. God was grieved with that generation.

“So I sware in My wrath, If they shall enter into My rest.” Both in the Psalm quoted (95) and here the verse is translated, “They shall not” etc., but the actual form is a question. Is the lesson not simply this, that since man dares to question the truth and faithfulness of God, by his proud rebellion, then does not God have a right to question man’s title to blessing? In other words, profession must be questioned, or tested, to ascertain its reality.

Such being the case, how urgent is the warning of verse 12: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God,” (or “in falling away from the living God”). He is not speaking of weakness of faith or of failure in details of conduct, but of an evil heart of unbelief, faith not being present at all. This is the cause of falling away, a fall into a state of cold rejection of One previously acknowledged as the Son of God. Only faith can maintain this position of firm confidence in the blessed Son of God; so that a mere lip profession that lacks this vital root of the matter, may very soon give place to a callous reaction of deliberate apostasy, from which there is no recovery: the living God is rejected, and the only alternative is the cold, cheerless state of death.

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you he hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” If in the case of those truly born again, this exhortation would stimulate and encourage their faith, it might also, in the case of any who lacked faith, be the means of awakening and bringing them in reality to the Lord Himself, and thus prevent so dreadful a fall. For sin will harden, however innocent its face may at first appear; and those deceived by it will choose eventually to mock at faith. The expression “while it is called today” insists that the present is the time of testing, which may abruptly end at any moment.

“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” Similarly to verse 6, the emphasis is on continuance as the proof of whether one has actually in his first profession been made a partaker of Christ. If an engrafted branch has really “struck” into a stock so as to partake of the sap of the tree, it will continue as a live, flourishing branch. If the “beginning” was not however a vital, real connection, the branch will wither and die.

Verse 15 refers again to “the provocation” in the wilderness, the limited time of testing; and the urgent entreaty here is evident: in the brief moment men are given to be proven, a false step may be eternally fatal. But if none in the wilderness had been exceptions to the general state of provocative unbelief, it might be cause for despair; but “not all that came out of Egypt with Moses” were guilty of this. “Some, when they heard, did provoke.” The Word of God was despised: how solemn a sign!

“But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?” Patience bore long during this testing time, but because they had despised the land of promise, they died in the wilderness. Solemn consideration for those who today lightly esteem the heavenly glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the heavenly calling of His saints. It is important to make clear however that the issue in the wilderness was that merely of an earthly inheritance and temporal blessings, not the heavenly inheritance and eternal blessings. Falling away from Christ today is immeasurably more dreadful evil than Israel’s despising the pleasant land: Israel’s rebellion called for temporal judgment; but rebellion against Christ eternal judgment.

Verses 18 and 19 expose to our view the root of this rebellion on the part of Israel: it was not mere passive lack of faith, but active unbelief. The testimony of God had been declared: they had heard it, and had seen public evidences of its trustworthiness; but through fear of present discomfort and opposition of the Canaanites, they chose to disbelieve God. He told them to enter the land: they refused: only unbelief kept them out.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 1

The writer now proceeds to compare Christ, as the executive head of the new dispensation, with Moses, as that of the old. An apostle is one sent to execute a commission. Christ was commissioned to carry into effect the gospel plan of salvation, as Moses was to establish and maintain the Jewish system of faith and service. Jesus is called the High Priest of the new dispensation, inasmuch as he offered its great sacrifice for sin, in giving up his own life a ransom for men.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3 The High Priest of our Profession

(Heb 3:1 – Heb 4:16)

The first two chapters unfold to us the glories of the Person of Christ, and thus prepare us for entering into the blessedness of His service as our great High Priest. In this fresh division of the Epistle we learn, firstly, the sphere in which the priestly service of Christ is exercised – the House of God (Heb 3:1-6); secondly, the wilderness circumstances which call for this priestly service (Heb 3:7-19); thirdly, we are told of the rest to which the wilderness leads (Heb 4:1-11); finally, we learn the gracious means God has provided to preserve us in the wilderness (Heb 4:12-16).

The Sphere of Christ’s Priestly Service

(Heb 3:1-6)

The latter part of Hebrews 2 has shown the gracious way the Lord has taken in order that He may exercise His priestly sympathy with His suffering people. In the opening verses of this chapter the House of God is introduced to show the sphere in which His priesthood is exercised.

(V. 1). In the introductory verse the Jewish believers are addressed as holy brethren and partakers of the heavenly calling. As Jews they had been accustomed to being called brethren and were partakers of the earthly calling. As Christians they are holy brethren and, in common with all other Christians, are the subjects of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus (Php 3:14).

The glories of Christ having been set before us in Hebrews 1 and 2, we are now exhorted to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus. The title Apostle is especially connected with the truth of the Son of God presented in the first chapter, in which the Son is seen coming to earth and speaking to men on behalf of God. The title High Priest is connected with the second chapter, in which the Son of Man is presented as going from earth to heaven to serve before God on behalf of men. The true end of all ministry is not simply to occupy hearers with the truth ministered, but to bring them into touch with the end of all ministry – to leave them considering Jesus.

It should be noticed that here it is Jesus, not Christ Jesus as in the Authorised Version. Every Jew would own the Messiah, but only the Christian would recognise that the Christ had come in the Person of Jesus.

(Vv. 2-6). The Spirit of God alludes to Moses and the tabernacle in the wilderness to show that Moses is surpassed by Christ, and that the tabernacle was only a testimony of things to be afterwards revealed. Moses was never a priest; his service was rather apostolic in character. He came to the people on behalf of God: Aaron, the priest, went to God on behalf of the people. Moses, under the direction of God, built the tabernacle in the wilderness. Jesus, the true Apostle, is the Builder of the whole universe, of which the tabernacle was a testimony. Moreover, if God dwells in the heaven of heavens, it is also true that He dwells in the midst of His people who today form His House. The House in its present spiritual form is one of the things of which the material tabernacle was a figure.

Moses was faithful in God’s house in the wilderness as a servant. Christ is over God’s House – composed of God’s people – as Son. Thus the introduction of the people of God as forming the House of God shows the sphere in which Christ exercises His priesthood; and therefore a little later we read that we have a great High Priest over the House of God (10: 21).

The Wilderness that calls for the Priestly Service of Christ

(Heb 3:7-19)

The allusion to Moses and the tabernacle very naturally leads to the wilderness journey of God’s people. If the tabernacle is a type of the people of God, the wilderness journey of Israel is typical of the journey of God’s people through this present world with all its dangers. This wilderness journey becomes the occasion that calls for this priestly grace.

Moreover, in the wilderness the reality of our profession is put to the test by the dangers we have to meet. These Hebrews had made a public profession of Christianity. With profession there is always the possibility of unreality, and hence the ifs come in. So the writer says that we are the House of God if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of hope firm to the end. This is not a warning against being too confident in Christ and the eternal security that obtains for the believer for, it has been truly said, There is no ‘if’ either as to Christ’s work or as to glad tidings of God’s grace. All there is, is unconditional grace to faith. The warning supposes that those addressed have this assurance, and they are warned against giving it up. That the true believer will hold fast, or rather that God will hold him fast through the priestly grace of Christ to the end, in spite of many a failure, is certain. The believer’s reality is proved by his enduring to the end. The wilderness that tests the true believer exposes the unreality of the mere professor.

(Vv. 7-11). To encourage us to hold fast we are reminded, by a quotation from Psa 95:7-11, of the warnings given by the Spirit of God to Israel in view of the coming of Christ into the world in glory and power to bring the nation into rest. Today is a day of grace and salvation in view of sharing the glory of Christ in the world to come. In such a day of blessing they are warned against acting as their fathers in the wilderness. Israel made the profession of leaving Egypt and following Jehovah through a wilderness scene which abounded with dangers, and in which confidence in God could alone support them to the end. For forty years they saw God’s works of power and mercy providing for their needs and preserving them from every danger. Yet, in spite of every token of His presence, they tempted and put God to the test by saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not? They thus proved the hardness of hearts untouched by God’s goodness. Seeking only their own lusts and ignorant of God’s ways, they clearly showed that whatever profession they had made, they had no real confidence in God. Of such God said, They shall not enter into My rest.

(Vv. 12, 13). In these verses the warnings of Psalm 95 are applied to professing Christians. We are to take heed lest, through an evil heart of unbelief, we turn away from the living God to put once again our confidence in dead forms, thus showing that, whatever profession may have been made, the soul has no confidence in Christ and the grace that, through His finished work, secures to the believer salvation and forgiveness. However, what is contemplated is hardly the adding of Jewish forms to the Christian life, bad as this is, but the giving up of Christ altogether and turning back to Judaism, which is apostasy.

Further, we are not only exhorted to take heed to ourselves but to exhort one another each day, while it is still a day of grace and salvation, lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of doing one’s own will. Here it is not the deceitfulness of committing sins, solemn as this is, for one sin leads to another: it is the principle of sin of which the writer speaks, which is lawlessness. We little think how we harden our hearts by doing our own will. We are thus to take heed to ourselves and care for one another. Love should not be indifferent to a brother slipping away by doing his own will.

(Vv. 14-19). Believers are not only the House of God; they are also the companions of Christ. Here again it is not the body of Christ, and the members of His body as united to the Head by the Holy Spirit, in which nothing unreal can come. Profession is still in view, assumed to be real, but leaving room for unreality. Therefore it is again said, … if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. This is not assurance founded on anything in ourselves, which would only be self-righteousness. The assurance insisted upon is grounded upon the Lord Jesus, His propitiatory sacrifice and the accepted efficacy of His work. Such assurance we are not blamed for having: on the contrary, we are exhorted to hold it fast.

Then referring again to Israel in the wilderness, the writer asks three searching questions to bring out the hardness, sin and unbelief of Israel. Firstly, who was it that, when they heard the Word of God speaking of a rest to come, did provoke? Was it only a few of the people? Alas! it was the great mass, all that came out of Egypt. Secondly, with whom was God grieved forty years? It was with those who, by reason of the hardness of their hearts, chose their own sins. Thirdly, to whom did God sware that they should not enter into His rest? It was to those who believed not. Thus we learn the root sin was unbelief . The unbelief left them exposed to their sins, and sins hardened their hearts.

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

3:1 Wherefore, {1} holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the {a} Apostle and High Priest of our {b} profession, Christ Jesus;

(1) Having laid the foundation that is to say, declared and proved both the natures of one Christ, he gives him three offices, that is, the office of a Prophet, King and Priest, and concerning the office of teaching, and governing, compares him with Moses and Joshua from Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:14 , and with Aaron concerning the priesthood. He proposes that which he intends to speak of, with a grave exhortation, that all our faith may be directed towards Christ, as the only everlasting teacher, governor, and High Priest.

(a) The ambassador or messenger, as in Rom 15:8 he is called the minister of circumcision.

(b) Of the doctrine of the gospel which we profess.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

II. THE HIGH PRIESTLY CHARACTER OF THE SON 3:1-5:10

The writer proceeded to take up the terms "merciful" and "faithful" from Heb 2:17 and to expound them in reverse order. He spoke of the faithfulness of Jesus (Heb 3:1-6, exposition) and the need for his hearers to remain faithful as well (Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:14, exhortation). He then encouraged his audience with a reminder of Jesus’ compassion as a merciful high priest in the service of God (Heb 4:15 to Heb 5:10, exposition).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

A. The Faithfulness of the SON 3:1-6

"The author steadily develops his argument that Jesus is supremely great. He is greater than the angels, the author of a great salvation, and great enough to become man to accomplish it. Now the author turns his attention to Moses, regarded by the Jews as the greatest of men. . . . The writer does nothing to belittle Moses. Nor does he criticize him. He accepts Moses’ greatness but shows that as great as he was, Jesus was greater by far." [Note: Morris, p. 31.]

It was important to convince the Jewish readers that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses because the entire Jewish religion came through Moses. Christianity came through Christ.

"Observing the grammatical markers supplied by the writer, we submit that the development of the author’s thought reflects the following scheme:

Heb 3:1-2    introduction of the comparison between Jesus and Moses;

Heb 3:3    assertion of Jesus’ superiority to Moses;

Heb 3:4-6 a    explanation for this assertion;

Heb 3:6 b    relevance for the congregation." [Note: Lane, p. 72.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

We should give careful attention to Jesus because of our solidarity as brothers and our holy calling as participants in His future reign and joy (Heb 2:10-12). Our calling as Christians is not just earthly but also heavenly.

Jesus Christ is the "Apostle" (lit. delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders) in that He is the One God sent to reveal the Father to humankind (cf. Heb 1:1-2; Joh 1:14; Joh 3:17; Joh 3:34; Joh 5:36; Joh 5:38; et al.). Furthermore He is the "High Priest" in that He is the One God anointed to represent human beings to Himself (Heb 2:17-18). Our confession is that for which we take a public stand in water baptism, namely, Christianity (cf. Heb 4:14; Heb 10:23).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER III.

FUNDAMENTAL ONENESS OF THE DISPENSATIONS.

Heb 3:1 – Heb 4:13 (R.V.).

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High-priest of our confession, even Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him as also was Moses in all his house. For He hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some one; but He that built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken; but Christ as a Son, over His house; Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end. Wherefore, even as the Holy Ghost saith,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the temptation in the wilderness, Wherewith your fathers tempted Me by proving Me, And saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was displeased with this generation, And said, They do always err in their heart: But they did not know My ways; As I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.

Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin: for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end: while it is said,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

For who, when they heard, did provoke? nay, did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses? And with whom was He displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that were disobedient? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with them that heard. For we which have believed do enter into that rest; even as He hath said,

As I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise,

And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;

and in this place again,

They shall not enter into My rest.

Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience, He again defineth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, To-day, as it hath been before said,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice, Harden not your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.”

The broad foundation of Christianity has now been laid in the person of the Son, God-Man. In the subsequent chapters of the Epistle this doctrine is made to throw light on the mutual relations of the two dispensations.

The first deduction is that the Mosaic dispensation was itself created by Christ; that the threats and promises of the Old Testament live on into the New; that the central idea of the Hebrew religion, the idea of the Sabbath rest, is realised in its inmost meaning in Christ only; that the word of God is ever full of living energy. Hereafter the Apostle will not be slow to expose the wide difference between the two dispensations. But it is equally true and not less important that the old covenant was the vesture of truths which remain when the garment has been changed.

At the outset the writer’s tone is influenced by this doctrine. He turns his treatise unconsciously into an epistle. He addresses his readers as brethren, holy indeed, but not holy after the pattern of their former exclusiveness; for their holiness is inseparably linked with their common brotherhood. They are partakers with the Gentile Churches in a heavenly call. Startling words! Hebrews holy in virtue of their sharing with Greeks and barbarians, bond and free, in a common call from high Heaven, which sees all earth as a level plain beneath! The middle wall of partition has been broken down to the ground. Yet soothing words, and full of encouragement! The Apostle and his leaders were standing near the end of the Apostolic age, when the Hebrew Christians were despondent, weak, and despised, both by reason of national calamities and because of their inferiority to their sister Churches among the Gentiles. The Apostle does not bluntly assure them of their equality, but gently addresses them as partakers of a heavenly call. His words are the reverse of St. Paul’s language to the Ephesians, who are reminded that the Gentiles are partakers in the privileges of Israel. Those who sometimes were far off have been made nigh; the strangers and sojourners are henceforth fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Here, on the contrary, Hebrew Christians are encouraged with the assurance that they partake in the privileges of all believers. If the wild olive tree has been grafted in among the branches and made partaker of the root, the branches, broken off that the wild olive might be grafted in, are themselves in consequence grafted into their own olive tree. Through God’s mercy to the Gentiles, Israel also has obtained mercy.

The Apostle addresses them with affection. But his behest is sharp and urgent: “Consider the Apostle and High-priest of our profession, Jesus.” Consider intently, or, to borrow a modern word that has sometimes been abused, Realise Jesus. Dwell not with abstractions and theories. Fear not imaginary dangers. Make Jesus Christ a reality before the eyes of your mind. To do this well will be more convincing than external evidences. To behold the glory of the temple, linger not to admire the strong buttresses without, but enter. Realisation of Christ may be said to be the gist of the whole Epistle.

This spiritual vision is not ecstasy. We realise Christ as Apostle and as High-priest. We behold Him when His words are a message to us from God, and when He carries our supplications to God. Revelation and prayer are the two opposite poles of communion with the Father. The dispensation of Moses rested on these two pillars,–apostleship and priesthood. But the fundamental conceptions of the Old Testament centre in Jesus. Though our author has distinguished between God’s revelation in the prophets and His revelation in a Son, he teaches also that even the prophets received their message through the Son. Though he contrasts in what follows of the Epistle the high-priesthood of Aaron with Christ’s, still he regards Aaron’s office as utterly meaningless apart from Christ. The words “Apostle and High-priest” pave the way, therefore, to the most prominent truth in this section of the Epistle: that whatever is best in the Old Testament has been assimilated and inspired with new energy by the Gospel.

1. To begin, we must understand the actual position of the founders of the two dispensations. Neither Moses nor Christ set about originating, designing, constructing, from his own impulse and for his own purposes. Both acted for God, and were consciously under His directing eye.[38] “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.”[39] They have but to obey, and leave the unity and harmony of the plan to another. To use an illustration, every house is built by some one or other.[40] The design has been conceived in the brain of the architect. He is the real builder, though he employs masons and joiners to put the materials together according to his plan. This applies to the subject in hand; for God is the Architect of all things. He realises His own ideas as well through the seeming originality of thinkers as through the willing obedience of workers. Now, the dispensation of the old covenant was one part of God’s design. To build this portion of the house He found a faithful servant in Moses. The dispensation of the new covenant is but another, though more excellent, part of the same design; and Jesus was not less faithful to finish the structure. The unity of the design was in the mind of God.

Moses was faithful when he refused the treasures of Egypt, and chose affliction with the people of God and the reproach of His Christ. He was faithful when he chided the people in the wilderness for their unbelief, and when he interceded for them again with God. Christ also was faithful to His God when He despised the shame and endured the Cross.

Yet we must acknowledge a difference. God has accounted Jesus worthy of greater honour than Moses, inasmuch as Moses was part of the house, and that part the pre-existent Christ erected. Moses was “made” all that he became by Christ, but Christ was “made”[41] all that He became–God-Man–by God. Moreover, though Moses was greater than all the other servants of God before Christ, because they were placed in subordinate positions, while he was faithful in the whole house, yet even he was but a servant, whereas Christ was Son. Moses was in the house, it is true; but the Son was placed over the house. The work which Moses had to do was to uphold the authority of the Son, to witness, that is, to the things which would afterwards be spoken unto us by God in His Son, Jesus Christ.[42]

The Apostle seems to delight in his illustration of the house, and continues to use it with a fresh meaning. This house, or, if you please, this household, are we Christians. We are the house in which Moses showed the utmost faithfulness as servant. We are the circumcision, we the true Israel of God. If, then, we turn away from Christ to Moses, that faithful servant himself will have none of us. That we may be God’s house, we must lay fast hold of our Christian confidence and the boasting of our hope out-and-out to the end.

2. Again, the threatenings of the Old Testament for disobedience to God apply with full force to apostasy from Christ. They are the authoritative voice of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle is reminded by the words which he has just used, “We are God’s house,” of the Psalmist’s joyful exclamation, “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”[43] Then follows in the Psalm a warning, which the Apostle considers it equally necessary to address to the Hebrew Christians: “To-day, if indeed you still hear His voice (for it is possible He may no longer speak), harden not your hearts, as you did in Meribah, rightly called,–the place of contention. Your fathers, far from trusting Me when I put them to the test, turned upon Me and put Me to the test, and that although they saw My works during forty years.” Forty years,–ominous number! The readers would at once call to mind that forty years within a little had now passed since their Lord had gone through the heavens to the right hand of the Father. What if, after all, the old belief proves true that He returns to judgment after waiting for precisely the same period for which He had patiently endured their fathers’ unbelief in the wilderness! God is still living, and He is the same God. He Who sware in His wrath that the fathers should not enter into the rest of Canaan is the same in His anger, the same in His mercy. Exhort one another. In the wilderness God dealt with individuals. He does so still. See that there be no evil heart, which is unbelief, in any one of you at any time while the call, “To-day!” is sounded in your ears. For sin weakens the sense of individual guilt, and thus deceives men by hardening their hearts.[44] All that came out of Egypt provoked God to anger. But they provoked Him, not in the mass, but one by one, and one by one, with palsied limbs,[45] they fell in the wilderness, as men fall exhausted on the march. Thus, for their persistent unbelief, God sware they should not enter into His rest–“His,” for He kept the key still in His own hand. But persistent unbelief made them incapable of entering. If God were still willing to cut off for them the waters of Jordan, they could not[46] enter in because of unbelief.

3. Similarly, the promises of God are still in force. Indeed, the steadfastness of the threatenings involves the continuance of the promises, and the rejection of the promises ensures the fulfilment of every threatening. As much as this is expressed in the opening words of Heb 4:1-16 : “A promise being left to us, let us therefore fear.”

To prove the identity of the promises under the two dispensations, the Apostle singles out one promise, which may be considered most significant of the national no less than the religious life of Israel. The Greek mind was ever on the alert for something new. Its character was movement. But the ideal of the Old Testament is rest. Christ came into touch with the people at once when He began His public ministry with an invitation to the weary and heavy-laden to come unto Him, and with the promise that He would give them rest. Near the close of His ministry He explained and fulfilled the promise by giving to His disciples peace. The object of our author, in the difficult chapter now under consideration, is to show that the idea most characteristic of the old covenant finds its true and highest realisation in Christ. After the manner of St. Paul, who, in more than one passage, teaches that through the fall of Israel salvation is come unto the Gentiles, the writer of this Epistle also argues that the promise of rest still remains, because it was not fulfilled under the Old Testament in consequence of Israel’s unbelief. The word of promise was a gospel[47] to them, as it is to us. But it did not profit them, because they did not assimilate[48] the promise by faith. Their history from the beginning consists of continued renewals of the promise on the part of God and persistent rejections on the part of Israel, ending in the hardening of their hearts. Every time the promise is renewed, it is presented in a higher and more spiritual form. Every rejection inevitably leads to grosser views and more hopeless unbelief. So entirely false is the fable of the Sibyl! God does not burn some of the leaves when His promises have been rejected, and come back with fewer offers at a higher price. His method is to offer more and better on the same conditions. But it is the nature of unbelief to cause the heart to wax gross, to blind the spiritual vision, until in the end the rich, spiritual promises of God and the earthly, dark unbelief of the sinner stand in extremest contrast.

At first the promise is presented in the negative form of rest from labour. Even the Creator condescended thus to rest. But what such rest can be to God it were vain for man to try to conceive. We know that, as soon as the foundations of the world were laid and the work of creation was ended, God ceased from this form of activity. But when this negative rest had been attained, it was far from realising God’s idea of rest either for Himself or for man. For, though these works of God, the material universe, were finished from the laying of the world’s foundations to the crowning of the edifice,[49] God still speaks of another rest, and threatens to shut some men out for their unbelief. Our Lord told the Pharisees, whose notion of the Sabbath was the negative one, that He desired His Sabbath rest to be like that of His Father, Who “worketh hitherto.” The Jewish Sabbath, it appears, therefore, is the most crude and elementary form of God’s promised rest.

The promise is next presented as the rest of Canaan.[50] This is a stage in advance in the development of the idea. It is not mere abstention from secular labour, and the consecration of inactivity. The rest now consists in the enjoyment of material prosperity, the proud consciousness of national power, the growth of a peculiar civilization, the rise of great men and eminent saints, and all this won by Israel under the leadership of their Jesus, who was in this respect a type of ours. But even in this second garden of Eden Israel did not attain unto God’s rest. Worldliness became their snare.

But God still called to them by the mouth of the Psalmist, long after they had entered on the possession of Canaan. This only proves that the true rest was still unattained, and God’s promise not yet fulfilled. The form which the rest of God now assumed is not expressly stated in our passage. But we have not far to go in search of it. The first Psalm, which is the introduction to all the Psalms, declares the blessedness of contemplation. The Sabbath is seldom mentioned by the Psalmist. Its place is taken by the sanctuary, in which rest of soul is found in meditating on God’s law and beholding the Lord’s beauty.[51] The call is at last urgent. “To-day!” It is the last invitation. It lingers in the ears in ever fainter voice of prophet after prophet, until the prophet’s face turns towards the east to announce the break of dawn and the coming of the perfect rest in Jesus Christ. God’s promise was never fulfilled to Israel, because of their unbelief. But shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God of none effect? God forbid. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. The promise that has failed of fulfilment in the lower form must find its accomplishment in the higher. Even a prayer is the more heard for every delay. God’s mill grinds slowly, but for that reason grinds small. What is the inference? Surely it is that the Sabbath rest still remains for the true people of God. This Sabbath rest St. Paul prayed that the true Israel, who glory, not in their circumcision, but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, might receive: “Peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”[52]

The faithfulness of God to fulfil His promise in its higher form is proved by His having accomplished it in its more elementary forms to every one that believed. “For he that entered into God’s rest did actually rest from his works”[53]–that is to say, received the blessings of the Sabbath–as truly as God rested from the work of creation. The Apostle’s practical inference is couched in language almost paradoxical: “Let us strive to enter into God’s rest”–not indeed into the rest of the Old Testament, but into the better rest which God now offers in His Son.

The oneness of the dispensations has been proved. They are one in their design, in their threatenings, in their promises. If we seek the fundamental ground of this threefold unity, we shall find it in the fact that both dispensations are parts of a Divine revelation. God has spoken, and the word of God does not pass away. “Think not,” said our Lord, “that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law till all things be accomplished.”[54] On another occasion He says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”[55] These passages teach us that the words of God through Moses and in the Son are equally immutable. Many features of the old covenant may be transient; but, if it is a word of God, it abides in its essential nature through all changes. For “the word of God is living,”[56] because He Who speaks the word is the living God. It acts with mighty energy,[57] like the silent laws of nature, which destroy or save alive according as men obey or disobey them. It cuts like a sword whetted on each side of the blade, piercing through to the place where the natural life of the soul divides[58] from, or passes into, the supernatural life of the spirit. For it is revelation that has made known to man his possession of the spiritual faculty. The word “spirit” is used by heathen writers. But in their books it means only the air we breathe. The very conception of the spiritual is enshrined in the bosom of God’s word. Revelation has separated between the life of heathenism and the life of the Church, between the natural man and the spiritual, between the darkness that comprehended it not and the children of the light who received it and thus became children of God. Further, the word of God pierces to the joints that connect the natural and the supernatural.[59] It does not ignore the former. On the contrary, it addresses itself to man’s reason and conscience, in order to erect the supernatural upon nature. Where reason stops short, the word of God appeals to the supernatural faculty of faith; and when conscience grows blunt, the word makes conscience, like itself, sharper than any two-edged sword. Once more, the word of God pierces to the marrow.[60] It reveals to man the innermost meaning of his own nature and of the supernatural planted within him. The truest morality and the highest spirituality are both the direct product of God’s revelation.

But all this is true in its practical application to every man individually. The power of the word of God to create distinct dispensations and yet maintain their fundamental unity, to distinguish between masses of men and yet cause all the separate threads of human history to converge and at last meet, is the same power which judges the inmost thoughts and inmost purposes of the heart. These it surveys with critical judgment.[61] If its eye is keen, its range of vision is also wide. No created thing but is seen and manifest. The surface is bared, and the depth within is opened up before it. As the upturned neck of the sacrificial beast lay bare to the eye of God,[62] so are we exposed to the eye of Him to Whom we have to give our account.[63]

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Heb 3:2.

[39] 1Co 4:2.

[40] Heb 3:4.

[41] poisanti.

[42] Heb 3:5.

[43] Psa 95:7, sqq.

[44] Heb 2:13.

[45] ta kla. Cf. Heb 12:12.

[46] ouk dynthsan (Heb 3:19).

[47] eungelismeno (Heb 4:2).

[48] Reading synkekerasmenos.

[49] Heb 4:3.

[50] Heb 4:8.

[51] Psa 27:4.

[52] Gal 6:16.

[53] Heb 4:10.

[54] Mat 5:17-18.

[55] Mat 24:35.

[56] Heb 4:12.

[57] energs.

[58] merismou.

[59] harmn.

[60] myeln.

[61] kritikos.

[62] tetrachlismena (Heb 4:13).

[63] ho logos.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary