Deeper Commentary
CHAPTER 3
3:1 Therefore holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus- Chapter 2 has
emphasized that we are the "brothers" of the Lord Jesus. And yet the focus
now moves on to the greatness of that supreme "brother". The argument is
to counter the relatively low status assigned to the Messiah figure within
the Judaism which was beckoning the Christians. Even if they accepted
Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah, the view of Messiah was far too low, and was
not giving due respect to the high status and work of the Lord Jesus.
Judaism was at best an earthly calling; we are "partakers" in Christ (3:1;
2:14-18), and thereby of a calling from Heaven, i.e. of God. They were to
"consider"/ 'observe or perceive fully' (Gk.) the real nature and wonder
of the exalted Lord Jesus. He was a 'sent one', an Apostle, just as He
sent us into the world. As the Father sent Him, so He sends us to the
world in the great commission (Jn. 20:21). "Confession" means literally
that, and implies that faith involves a literal confession or profession
of faith to others. Paul uses it three times in Hebrews (also 4:14;
10:23).
Concentration on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is something which the
Hebrew writer so often encourages, in his efforts to encourage the Hebrew
believers. After perhaps 25 years of believing (they were probably
converted at Pentecost), they were starting to get bored with God's Truth;
the will to keep on keeping on was no longer what it was. But because of
the cross, because He paid dearly for you, because He is now
thereby our matchless mediator: hold on, hold fast, therefore (a
watchword of Hebrews) endure to the end (Heb. 3:1,6; 4:14; 10:21,23). For
that great salvation will surely be realized one day. So, concentrate
personally on the fact that He hung there for you, honour your solemn
duty to at least try to reconstruct the agony of His body and soul.
3:2 Who was faithful to Him that appointed him, as also was Moses in
all his house- "Appointed" is literally 'made'. The Lord was 'made'
High Priest for us at His resurrection (5:5; Acts 2:36). The tense of "was
faithful" implies that He was and still is. This High Priest can be
trusted; the Mosaic High Priests simply did a job and it was over to God
to grant forgiveness and acceptance. But our High priest has a role to
play in the granting of forgiveness and mediation of blessing. The
reference may be to how God 'made' or appointed Moses and Aaron (1 Sam.
12:6). Although Moses was not the High Priest, he effectively acted as
such due to Aaron's inadequacy; hence the Lord's High Priestly role is
contrasted to that of Moses, with the hint that the Aaronic High Priest
was never fully adequate. One like Moses, but greater than Moses, was
required; and that is how Messiah is defined in Dt. 18:15. The language of
Moses being faithful in God's house is quoted from Num. 12:7, where "My
servant Moses is not so. He is so faithful in all My house" is stated in
the context of Moses' superiority over Aaron the High Priest. The house or
family / people of Moses was Israel, but Messiah's house is universal in
scope.
3:3 For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in that he
that built the house has more honour than the house- Judaism
considered Moses worthy of higher glory than any Messiah figure. Again
Paul is attacking their concept of Messiah as inadequate. The "house" of
Messiah is different to that of Moses; Messiah built "his own house" (:6)
and was and is faithful over it. Moses did not build the house of Israel;
God did. Moses was placed over it. Messiah built His own house and was
faithful over it. "He that built the house" doesn't mean that Christ built
the house of Moses. It has a general reference to the fact that Messiah
built and rules over His house, whereas Moses built no house but
was simply placed over the house of Israel at the time. To build a house /
family means to have children and raise them. This is what the Lord Jesus
has done by having spiritual children of His own nature, as taught
previously in 2:13, where the Lord is likened to Isaiah building up his
faithful family, and we are as Isaiah's children of prophetic witness.
Judaism had so glorified Israel as a people that they were effectively
saying that they had as much glory as God who built them. They were
confusing the creator and the created, as Paul points out in Romans 1.
Effectively, Judaism was making Moses equal to God. The Rabbis argued that
by gematria the numerical value of “Moses our Rabbi” was 613, which is
also the value of the letters of “Lord God of Israel”. Paul is seeking to
refocus them upon the basics- that God is greater than Moses, and Messiah
likewise is, for He has built a greater house which He is Lord over.
3:4 Every house is built by someone; but He that built all things is
God- The Lord Jesus, Messiah, is the builder of the spiritual temple,
the house of God (Zech. 6:12). But it was God working through Him to build
it, in ultimate terms. Moses was not the builder of any house, and so Hod
was not in that sense manifested through Him in such work as He was
through Messiah.
3:5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a
testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken- Moses was
a servant over his house, whereas Messiah had God manifested through Him
in building His house over which He therefore was and is a true
Master over His house (:6), and not simply a servant within the
house. Moses is frequently called the "servant" (Josh. 1:1,2; 9:24 etc.).
But the builder of a house is more than a servant; as the Son of the
Divine Builder of all things, He is "over" His own house in a far superior
way to that in which Moses served as a servant within his house. The
faithfulness of Moses was a testimony towards someone far greater, Messiah
Jesus.
If Moses' God is to be ours in truth in the daily round of life, we must
rise up to the dedication of Moses; as he was a faithful steward,
thoroughly dedicated to God's ecclesia (Heb. 3:5), so we are invited
follow his example (1 Cor. 4:2; Mt. 24:45).
3:6 But Christ, as a Son over his own house- As explained above,
the Messiah was to "over" His own house / family because He, on God's
behalf, was the maker of it. Moses was a servant set over a household, but
the Lord's household was made by Himself with God's manifestation through
Him. We are that household.
Whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope, remaining firm to the end- Clearly enough, we must endure to the end to be saved (Mt. 10:22). We
can, by implication, leave the household of Christ. We need to assess any
exit from a church community in that light; for so often, disaffected
individuals leave a local community and go nowhere, to then fade away in
their faith. "Hold fast" is the same word used for the "good ground"
'keeping the word' in their hearts (Lk. 8:15). Without a written New
Testament, they would have needed to quite literally remember and mentally
keep hold of the word preached. They were to hold fast [s.w.] the
confidence they had at the beginning (:14), in those heady days when
thousands of Hebrews were baptized in Jerusalem. The same word for
"confidence / boldness" is used four times about the early believers
speaking "boldly" (Acts 2:29; 4:13,29,31). They were confident of
salvation; but with the passing of the years, that joy which came from
being confident of the outcome of the judgment seat had subsided. Whether
we are still joyfully confident of "the hope", the elpis, the firm
assurance, is what is finally the litmus test for our faith. We will be
confirmed as the Lord's "house" at "the end"; He shall eternally be the
master over the family which we have no joined, but which shall be
eternally solidified, as it were, at the last day.
3:7 Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit said- The understanding is
that the words of the Old Testament are God's Spirit speaking; for this is
the meaning of the Scriptures being Divinely inspired or in-spirited. The
argument begun by "therefore" is picked up again in :12- therefore, "take
heed".
Today, if you shall hear his voice- The Hebrew is an appeal: "Oh that today you would hear His voice". The
emphasis upon "today" is in the context of appealing for confidence in the
certain hope of salvation (:6). We should be able to say with confidence
that "today" if the Lord comes or if we die, we shall be saved. This is
the meaning of the emphasis upon "today"; Peter has the same idea when
writing of our rejoicing in "the present truth" (2 Pet. 1:12), the
ultimate truth that today at this moment we shall be saved if the Lord
returns or we die. In this sense "now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor.
6:2). "This day" we can be that confident- if we hear His voice.
And the simple message of that voice is that we really are saved; for
Hebrews begins by saying that God has spoken to us in His Son, the message
of sure salvation. At this moment we can seek and find the Lord, "while He may be
found" (Is. 55:6). The Lord repeats the same argument by saying that "If
any man hear My voice... I will come in to him" (Rev. 3:20). Hebrews
opened with the statement that the God who spoke by the prophets has
spoken to us in His Son; and it is directly from Him that we are appealed
to. Hearing the Lord's voice may well allude to the Lord's statement that
His sheep hear His voice; and the context of the Psalm 95 quotation is
that “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep
of his hand” (Ps. 95:7 ASV). The voice of God is therefore mediated to us
through the shepherd voice of the Lord Jesus. The simple message
we are to believe is that indeed, we are His sheep. We are His household,
in the context of the argument here. We are His flock, being led to
salvation. And we are to encourage each other in this, whilst
['insofar as now'] it is called "today", because we are in that "today" of
salvation (:13).
3:8 Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like the time of
testing in the wilderness- We note that it was the Jews who hardened
their hearts when Paul preached to them (Acts 19:9). The entire period of
wilderness wanderings was characterized by Israel putting God to the test;
they were not confident of their final salvation, and were ever looking
for evidence from Him. He had brought them out of Egypt through the blood
of the Passover lamb; and there were daily miracles of provision in the
bread and water which pointed forward to the Lord Jesus. This desire for
yet further proof is seen in various guises today; from the phlegmatic,
wavering believer who wants more 'scientific proof' of God to those in the
Pentecostal movement ever seeking visible evidence that the Lord is
amongst them. The word of promise regarding salvation is to be believed
and that faith and joy held on to (:6).
3:9 Where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty
years- See on :8. They continually tested God even though they saw His
works daily; the manna, water from the rock, shekinah glory over the
tabernacle, the cloud by day and the fire by night. But still they tested
Him. As noted on :8, this is our warning against ever seeking 'hard
proof'. Even if we were to be daily given it, this would not take away the
desire to test God. It is total faith in the word of promise which is
required (:6), and the confirmation is not in petty experimentation day by
day which 'prooves' God, but rather has it already been provided in the
Lord's death and resurrection.
3:10 Therefore I was displeased with this generation, and said: They do
always err in their heart. They did not know My ways- This
'displeasure' or 'grief' lasted 40 years (:17 s.w.); it was a daily grief
that they did not trust Him. To believe in God is to trust Him. In Hebrew,
belief is trust. And no amount of petty testing of God will give us that
trust. Psalm 95 gives us a unique insight into God's internal thought
processes. He "said" within Himself that they problem was in Israel's
hearts. They had seen "His way in the [Red] Sea" (Ps. 77:19), He had "made
known His ways to Israel" (Ps. 103:17), but their heart was far from Him.
But "My ways" refers so often to God's commandments; israel were
repeatedly asked to "walk in His ways" as they walked through the
wilderness (Dt. 10:12; 11:22; 26:17 etc.). He sought not so much total
legalistic obedience to His ways / commandments as to "know" them, to
appreciate them, to perceive them in their hearts. The Hebrew word
translated "err" is that used for Israel's "wandering" in the wilderness
for 40 years (Ps. 107:4). They wandered in their minds, just as humanity
does today- from this passing passion to that, toying with that principle
or fantasy and then with this... and that mental lack of stability was
reflected in how they literally wandered. This aimless wandering through
life is the parade characteristic of the unbelieving world. Only a firm
hope in Christ and our future salvation can give us this mental and
emotional stability which is the work of the Holy Spirit.
3:11 As I swore in My anger: They shall not enter into My rest- God
has emotion. The generation that were promised the rest, permanence and
stability of the promised land were not given it, because in their hearts
they wandered. And this, as noted on :10, was reflected in their wandering
in the wilderness. This implies that God changed His mind about letting
Israel enter the land; for He had promised that generation "rest" in that
He promised them the land (Josh. 1:15). Or as Num. 14:34 (A. V. mg. )
says: "Ye shall bear your iniquity, even forty years, and ye shall know
the altering of My purpose". These were the words of the Angel to Moses.
The apparent change of plans could be seen as more appropriate if it
concerned the Angel which led them; and yet the Angel all the same was
manifesting God. This oath they would not "enter into My rest" was solely
because they did not believe (:18). The immorality, idolatry etc. were
relatively incidental to the essential issue- that they did not believe He
would give them rest in the promised land. And therefore He did not give
it to them. The context of all this is Paul's appeal for confident hope in
our future salvation (:6). It is unbelief and a constant demand for
'proof' which was their problem which cost them salvation.
3:12 Brothers, take care, lest there be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart, causing you to depart from the living God- The
problem was in their hearts (:10), their unbelief (:18). The appeal to
"take care" was not just to the Hebrew believers as individuals, but to
them as "brothers" to ensure that not only in themselves personally but
amongst none of them there should be this heart of unbelief. The immediate
issue was of not believing in the Lord Jesus. This was the reason why they
were no longer confident of salvation; because Judaism had eroded their
faith in the saviour, their real confidence in salvation was waning, and
likewise their joy (:6). It was this heart of unbelief in Messiah as
Saviour which would cause them to depart from God, the God who is alive in
His risen Son. This was the great tragedy- that Judaism which so prided
itself in theism was actually turning people away from real faith in God.
Because faith in Him is predicated upon faith in His Son.
The unbelief in view is not atheism, but rather disbelief in God's offer of salvation (:18). To disbelieve it is not simply a polite refusal of a proferred gift; it is described here as "evil". They are departing from the living God, from the God who is so alive in His grace to save; and so that will be confirmed by being told to "Depart from me" (s.w. Lk. 13:27). Rejection is simply confirming people in the way they have chosen. By turning away from total confidence in salvation, people are turning away from God. Even if they remain church attenders and professing acceptance of a set of doctrines about Him.
3:13- see on 1 Cor. 10:21.
But encourage one another day by day, so long as it is called today, lest
any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin- See on :7 for the
significance of "today"; "so long as..." has the idea of 'insofar
as now...'. Because we are in the today of salvation, confident of
acceptance if the Lord comes now, we should encourage each other in the
certainty of our salvation. As noted on :12, the Hebrews were to not only
worry about their own salvation but that of others. They were to enourage
one another daily, which suggests the audience were daily with each other.
This would fit the situation in the Jerusalem church, where it seems they
daily encountered each other (Acts 2:46). It was the deceitful nature of
sin which could harden their heart; but the 'heart' problem was a
disbelief in the sure salvation available in Jesus. But ultimately it was
sin which was deceiving them, albeit under the guise of claiming to be
more rigorously legally obedient to Judaism. The final issue is between
sin and righteousness; the kingdom of this world or the eternal Kingdom of
God and His Son; the life of the flesh or the Spirit. It was sin which was
attractive to them, and we can infer that this was the fundamental reason
they were shying away from confident faith in their salvation. For if we
are sure we are to live eternally in God's Kingdom in the spiritual life,
we can hardly be enthusiastic for the way of the flesh in this life. So it
is the desire to sin which militates against total confidence in
salvation.
3:14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast to our
original confidence, remaining firm to the end- The word for
"partakers" is used of how we are His "fellows" or co-partakers (1:9); we
partake in the heavenly calling (:1) and in the Holy Spirit (6:4). We are
saved, and yet not finally; we are partakers, but only completely so at
the last day, after we have held firm unto the end. The "original
confidence" implies they were totally confident of their salvation when
they were first baptized; "he that believes and is baptized shall be
saved" (Mk. 16:16) rang so simply true to them. Salvation is on account of
being "in Christ", but we must abide in Him to the end of our lives. It is
then that we are "partakers of Christ". Paul envisaged the Lord's return
in the lifetime of believers, and so uses "the end" as a reference to both
the end of a believer's life and also to the Lord's coming. The Lord
Himself several times defined "the end" as the day of His return (Mt.
24:6,13,14). Paul asks us to hold our faith unto "the end" (6:11), which
seeing death is unconsciousness means that he intended us to hold the
faith until "the end" of our lives. And yet in effect, our death is His
return, for the next conscious moment for us will be His return.
3:15 It is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts, as in the rebellion- The idea of "today" as expounded on :7 is
that if we right now hear the Lord's voice, we can rejoice that if today
is our "end", then we shall be saved. We have heard in essence the same
voice as Israel heard in that the Gospel was preached to them as well as
to us (4:2). "The rebellion" is a phrase used only elsewhere in :8, where
it refers to the whole period of Israel's testing of God in the desert,
rather than some particular moment of rebellion. But the quotation from
Ps. 95:8 specifically uses the Hebrew word meribah for "the
rebellion" or "provocation". Their provocation at Meribah was that they
had specifically challenged God to prove He was amongst them, despite
having been given so many signs that He was; and they did this at a place
called Meribah twice, at the beginning (Ex. 17:7) and at the end of the
forty year wanderings (Num. 20:2-13). The observation is made in Ps.
78:18,41 that this latter testing of God was done "in their heart", and it
is the heart which is Paul's concern in this section. The hardening of
hearts was therefore in refusing to perceive all the evidence which God
had already given in Christ and indeed in the miraculous signs which had
been witnessed by the Hebrew Christians. Perhaps Paul felt that the 40
year period from the Lord's death was coming to a close, and the Hebrew
Christians likewise at the end of a similar period were testing God and
desiring to return to Egypt, which is what happened at Meribah (Num.
20:2-13). But the element of 'return' was in that they were returning to
Judaism, which Paul sees as 'Egypt'. Stephen made the same connection in
his speech (see on 1:1).
3:16 For who, having heard, still rebelled? Was it not all those who
followed Moses out of Egypt?- The implication could be that having
heard the message of salvation, they should not have rebelled. The
argument and rhetoric is typical of one which would be used in a verbal
address (see on 13:22); as if to say 'And let's remind ourselves, folks,
who are we talking about? Who are these rebels who heard the good news but
still rebelled? Was it not all those who followed Moses out of Egypt?'.
The implication was that it was Christians who had followed Christ out of
the world and through the waters of baptism towards salvation (1 Cor.
10:1,2)- who were now turning back to where they had come from. The total
failure of that generation is cited as a sober example of a mass collapse
of faith; "your whole number" were to perish as described in :17 (Num.
14:29 "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were
numbered of you, according to your whole number"). Paul in 2 Thess. 2
envisaged a great collapse of faith just before the Lord returned. And
here he seems to hint at the same thing by suggesting that the Hebrews
were at the point Israel were at in Meribah, at the end of their journey /
40 years, where they turned away and wished to return to Egypt.
3:17 And with whom was He displeased for forty years? Was it not with
those that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?- The sustained
series of rhetorical questions is appropriate to a verbal address- see on
13:22. The displeasure for forty years could suggest that the incident of
Meribah, "rebellion" / "provocation", was the one at the start of the
forty years; see on :15. Heb. 3:17 RVmg speaks of their “limbs [which]
fell in the wilderness”- the picture is of condemned men staggering on
through the desert, discarded limbs wasted by some terrible and
progressive disease. This is the picture of the condemned. Israel
wandering in the wilderness until their carcasses lay strewn over the
scrubland of Sinai connects with Cain also being a wanderer after his
rejection. He was made a "fugitive", from a Hebrew root meaning to shake,
to totter, to reel. He was to wander, shaking with fear, reeling. The word
is also rendered 'to bemoan'. It's an awful scene: bemoaning his lot,
shaking, wandering, reeling, nowhere. The same image is found in Prov.
14:32: “The wicked is driven away [Heb. to totter, be chased] in his
wickedness”.
God grieved over the carcasses of those wretched men whom He slew in the
wilderness for their thankless rebellions against Him their saviour. The
apostle makes the point: “With whom was He grieved?". Answer: with
the wicked whom He slew! A human God or a proud God would never grieve
over His victory over His enemies. Even in the fickleness of Israel's
repentance, knowing their future, knowing what they would subject His Son
to, "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel" (Jud. 10:16). He
delays the second coming because He waits and hopes for repentance and
spiritual growth from us. But He praises the faithful for patiently
waiting for Him (Is. 30:18; Ps. 37:7). Here we see the humility of God's
grace.
3:18 And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but
to those that were disobedient?- Disobedience is paralleled here with
"unbelief" (:19) in that faith and works are related. Faith without works
is dead. If we really believe that we shall be saved, and can say at this
moment of time that in this "today" I shall be saved... then we will
naturally seek to be obedient. But what was Israel's particular act of
disobedience in the wilderness which led to their being excluded from
entering the land? I suggest the reference is to Dt. 1:26: "Yet you
wouldn’t go up [AV "refused to go up"], but rebelled against the
commandment of Yahweh your God". They were told to enter the land but
refused. Refusal to accept the Kingdom of God is tantamount to disbelief
we shall enter it (:19). This is where it is critical to understand
"faith" as not simply belief in the rightness and logical correctness of a
set of theological propositions. Faith is trust / confidence that we shall
be saved. It is to say "Yes!" to the command to enter the Kingdom. If we
cease believing this, then we are in that sense disobedient to the command
to enter the Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. We
thereby judge ourselves as those who shall be rejected from the Kingdom,
in that we did not wish to be there ourselves.
3:19- see on Jn. 3:3.
So we see that they were not able to enter in because of their unbelief- See on :18. The
essential problem with Israel was not their moral failure but their
disbelief that really they would be saved. They did not enter in because
they chose themselves not to. But once rejected, they then did attempt to
enter the land, not by faith but in their own strength; and they were not
able to enter (Num. 14:40-45). This again was a pertinent challenge to the
Hebrew Christians returning to Judaism. Entry to the Kingdom of God can
only be by faith that we shall do so; any attempt to enter in our own
strength will leave us realizing all too late that we "were not able to
enter in" because we lacked faith, even if we had belated desire and human
effort. The dunamis ('ability') to enter the Kingdom is the
dunamis of the Spirit gift, which is predicated upon faith alone (Eph.
3:16-20); the idea is parallel with not being able to see the Kingdom [cp.
Moses seeing the promised land] unless we receive the birth of the Spirit
(Jn. 3:3,5). "Cannot enter into" in Jn. 3:5 translates the very Greek
phrase found here ["not able to enter in"].
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