A Commentary in Simple English on the letter to Jewish Christians

CHAPTER 3

Verses 1 - 6: Jesus greater than Moses

Moses had been a great man of God. He had died about 1200 years before this letter was written, but the Jews still thought very highly of him. So our writer tells his readers to 'fix their thoughts on Jesus' and not to let them wander to Moses. Notice that in verse 5, the writer calls Moses a servant, who worked in God's house, whereas Christ is a Son with authority over it. (verse 6). Christ is much greater than Moses is. (See 2 Corinthians 3: 7-11.)

That is the main argument of these verses, but there is much more than that in them. In verse 1 the writer kindly calls the readers 'brothers'. They are also 'holy' which here probably means separate from the world; they have given themselves to God. This is because God has called to them from heaven to follow Jesus, and they have heard and trusted in the Good News. This is the work the Holy Spirit from heaven does in us. The call of God is also a call to us to go to glory. Jesus is 'the apostle', the One Who was sent by God from heaven into this world, but He is also our 'High Priest' Who has gone from this world into God's presence for our sake. When the readers had called themselves Christians, they had said openly that they believed in this Jesus.

The Jewish Christians have to see that all Christians whether Jews or not share in God's call.

In verses 2-6, the word 'house' does not just mean 'a building'. God's real home, of course, is heaven. 'Home' would be closer to the meaning but 'family' is also close. God's 'house' in the time of Moses was the people of Israel, with the way of worship that God gave to them through Moses. We are now 'God's house', as verse 6 says, if we are real Christian believers. God in His love wants to have a 'home' among men. Jesus as a Son in charge of God's house has greater honour than Moses, who was a servant in God's house. Both Jesus and Moses did their work for God well: they were 'faithful'. The writer adds this in case his readers should feel that he is not being fair to Moses, their great leader. (See Numbers 12:7). Moses also (verse 5) pointed forward in what he said to the Good News - 'what would be said in the future'.

The work of Moses had two great parts. First, he brought the people out of Egypt; He led them for forty years through the desert, and brought them almost to the land God had promised to give them. Second, he gave them God's law, set up the worship of God and made some of the people priests. The letter will deal with these two branches of the work of Moses.

But first we must remember that it will do us no good just to hear God's Word. We must hear it and also do it. (See John 13:17; James 1:22 - 25; Luke 11:28.) So now we learn what we must do. (verse 6) The writer has already told us to fix our thoughts on Jesus, because our minds so easily go off on to other things. Now he tells us not to let go but to hold tightly on to two things. The first is confidence, which means to be free from fear. We feel free to go to God with our prayers in the name of Jesus; 'the hope in which we find our glory' (Cassirer). (See 6:11.) Jesus is faithful to us: so let us be faithful to Him. He lived and died for us; let us live and die for Him. Then second we are to be brave when we follow Jesus. [3.1].

The last words of verse 6 point us forward to what the writer will say next.

Verses 7 - 19: The Second Warning: Jesus and Moses

These verses begin by using the second part of Psalm 95 as another warning to the readers. Israel with Moses as their leader had come out of Egypt where they had been slaves. Pharaoh's army chased them, and this frightened them. But God made a way for Israel to go through the Sea and when Pharaoh's army tried to follow them the Sea killed them (Exodus 14). So in Exodus 15 Israel sang praise to God. This is how Psalm 95 begins. Israel praises God. They are free now. They have high hopes of going to the land that God had promised to give to them. Their enemies could not hurt them now. Ahead they would see the mountains in the desert (Psalm 95:4.) Behind them was the sea through which they had passed (verse 5). They were like a flock of sheep; God was their shepherd. He counted them to make sure none of them were missing or lost. He guided them. He kept them safe. (verse 7).

Israel had warm feelings of love to God for His goodness to them. So do Christians when they first come to know Jesus, which is just what the last part of Hebrews 3:6 says. But Israel soon lost those feelings and this is what the second part of Psalm 95 says. The people found themselves in the desert. The sun was hot; there was no shade. They became thirsty: the water they found was so bad that they could not drink it. So instead of praising God, they complained. We are to make sure that none of us loses our first warm feelings of love for God (Revelation 2:4). We are to hold on to them. Then we shall prove that we really are a part of 'God's house'.

Notice in verse 7 the word 'today'. 'You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late'. (Andrew Fuller). The problem was in the hearts of the people of Israel. (See also verse 10.) It is not just what we do that God watches. It is why we do it, the reasons in our hearts. If we hear God's word in the right way, our hearts will not become hard. (Revelation 3: 20). We tempt God (verse 9) when we say that if only He will do something for us - a sign - then we will trust and follow Him. But when He does what we ask of Him, we make excuses, as though He does not seriously want us to follow; or we ask for another sign. In verse 10, God says that He did not like the behaviour of the people at all. (Revelation 3:16). This went on for forty years. I think it was about forty years from the death of Jesus to the time when this letter was written.

In verse 7, God spoke. Now, God swears. When God speaks, we should listen. When He swears in His anger, we should take much more notice! We read again that God swears in 6:13-18. There it is in grace and love to us, not in anger.

In 7:20-22, God swears to Christ. God swore in verse 11 that the Israelites who had come out of Egypt would not go into the Promised Land. (See Numbers 14:20-32.) In fact, they all died in the desert. It was Joshua who led their children over the River Jordan and into the Promised Land. 'To enter' means here 'to begin to enjoy'. God's rest is not just 'the rest which He gives'. It is sharing in the rest that He enjoys. Remember the words of Jesus: 'I will give you rest' (Matt 11:29-30). He gives us rest from the need to work in hope of pleasing God. He gives us rest from feelings of guilt because of our sins. He gives rest from worry and from the feeling that we fail to do what we should do. And we shall rest with Him at last in glory.

So we know already that the rest Jesus gives is a better rest than the one which Israel did not reach. Why then should the Jewish Christians go back to Jewish ways? We would be foolish, too, if we went back to the way of life we had before we put our faith in Jesus.

In verses 12-19, the writer goes over the verses from Psalm 95 to make his point, so we shall only speak of one or two things in these verses.

The best of Christians needs to be warned against the worst things that may happen (verse 12). We should be busy. We should talk to each other every day to help one another in the Christian life. (See 10:24.) If sin was open and honest, we could deal with it more easily. It is not straight; it is twisted. (verse 13). In verse 16, we remember that in Numbers 13:30 Caleb spoke to Israel. He told the people of Israel how good the land that God had promised to them was. The ten men who did not believe shouted him down! (verse 31). So in Numbers 14:1-4, they thought of the land which God promised to give to them as only a place where they would get into still more trouble. They did not obey God because they did not believe that He could do what He had promised. So (verse 19) their lack of faith kept them from going into the Land of promise. God grant that we may hold on to our faith and follow Jesus all our days. He will keep all His promises to us.

Verses 16-18 may seem a little difficult because there are five questions there. Where are the answers? We can find the answer in the next question as follows: -

(a) Who are they (verse 16) who heard God's Word and yet turned against Him?

(b) The answer is really the second question. It was all those people that Moses led out of Egypt. He did not succeed in bringing them in to the Promised Land. Jesus does succeed in bringing us to glory.

(c) Who was God angry with (verse 17) for forty years? Forty years is a very long time.

(d) The answer to that question is in the second part of verse 17. God was angry with the Jews because of their sins.

(e) The question in verse 18 really answers itself. But the verse does tell us that when God 'swore in His anger' He only spoke to the Jewish people at that time. (See Numbers 14: 22-24).