Hebrews 3

Heb 3:1-19.

THE

SON OF

GOD

GREATER THAN

MOSES,

WHEREFORE

UNBELIEF TOWARDS

HIM

WILL

INCUR A

HEAVIER

PUNISHMENT THAN

BEFELL

UNBELIEVING

ISRAEL IN THE

WILDERNESS.

As Moses especially was the prophet by whom "God in times past spake to

the fathers," being the mediator of the law, Paul deems it necessary

now to show that, great as was Moses, the Son of God is greater.

EBRARD in ALFORD remarks, The

angel of the covenant came in the name of God before Israel; Moses in

the name of Israel before God; whereas the high priest came both

in the name of God (bearing the name JEHOVAH on

his forehead) before Israel, and in the name of Israel (bearing the

names of the twelve tribes on his breast) before God

(Ex 28:9-29, 36, 38).

Now Christ is above the angels, according to the first and second

chapters because (1) as Son of God He is higher; and (2) because

manhood, though originally lower than angels, is in Him exalted above

them to the lordship of "the world to come," inasmuch as He is at once

Messenger of God to men, and also atoning Priest-Representative of men

before God

(Heb 2:17, 18).

Parallel with this line of argument as to His superiority to angels

(Heb 1:4)

runs that which here follows as to His superiority to Moses

(Heb 3:3):

(1) because as Son over the house; He is above the

servant in the house

(Heb 3:5, 6),

just as the angels were shown to be but ministering

(serving) spirits

(Heb 1:14),

whereas He is the Son

(Heb 3:7, 8);

(2) because the bringing of Israel into the promised rest, which was

not finished by Moses, is accomplished by Him

(Heb 4:1-11),

through His being not merely a leader and lawgiver as Moses, but also a

propitiatory High Priest

(Heb 4:14; 5:10).

1. Wherefore--Greek, "Whence," that is, seeing we have

such a sympathizing Helper you ought to "consider attentively,"

"contemplate"; fix your eyes and mind on Him with a view to profiting

(Heb 12:2).

The Greek word is often used by Luke, Paul's companion

(Lu 12:24, 27).

brethren--in Christ, the common bond of union.

partakers--"of the Holy Ghost."

heavenly calling--coming to us from heaven, and leading us to

heaven whence it comes.

Php 3:14,

"the high calling"; Greek "the calling above," that is,

heavenly.

the Apostle and High Priest of our profession--There is but one

Greek article to both nouns, "Him who is at once Apostle and

High Priest"--Apostle, as Ambassador (a higher designation than

"angel"-messenger) sent by the Father

(Joh 20:21),

pleading the cause of God with us; High Priest, as pleading

our cause with God. Both His Apostleship and High

Priesthood are comprehended in the one title, Mediator

[BENGEL]. Though the title "Apostle" is nowhere

else applied to Christ, it is appropriate here in addressing Hebrews,

who used the term of the delegates sent by the high priest to collect

the temple tribute from Jews resident in foreign countries, even as

Christ was Delegate of the Father to this world far off from Him

(Mt 21:37).

Hence as what applies to Him, applies also to His people, the Twelve

are designated His apostles, even as He is the Father's

(Joh 20:21).

It was desirable to avoid designating Him here "angel," in order to

distinguish His nature from that of angels mentioned before, though he

is "the Angel of the Covenant." The "legate of the Church" (Sheliach

Tsibbur) offered up the prayers in the synagogue in the name of

all, and for all. So Jesus, "the Apostle of our profession," is

delegated to intercede for the Church before the Father. The

words "of our profession," mark that it is not of the legal ritual, but

of our Christian faith, that He is the High Priest. Paul compares Him

as an Apostle to Moses; as High Priest to Aaron. He alone holds

both offices combined, and in a more eminent degree than either, which

those two brothers held apart.

profession--"confession," corresponds to God having

spoken to us by His Son, sent as Apostle and High Priest. What

God proclaims we confess.

2. He first notes the feature of resemblance between

Moses and Christ, in order to conciliate the Hebrew Christians whom He

addressed, and who still entertained a very high opinion of Moses; he

afterwards brings forward Christ's superiority to Moses.

Who was faithful--The Greek implies also that He still is

faithful, namely, as our mediating High Priest, faithful to the trust

God has assigned Him

(Heb 2:17).

So Moses in God's house

(Nu 12:7).

appointed him--"made Him" HIGH

PRIEST; to be supplied from the preceding context.

Greek, "made"; so in

Heb 5:5;

1Sa 12:6,

Margin;

Ac 2:36;

so the Greek fathers. Not as ALFORD, with

AMBROSE and the Latins, "created Him," that

is, as man, in His incarnation. The likeness of Moses to Messiah was

foretold by Moses himself

(De 18:15).

Other prophets only explained Moses, who was in this respect

superior to them; but Christ was like Moses, yet superior.

3. For--assigning the reason why they should "consider"

attentively "Christ"

(Heb 3:1),

highly as they regard Moses who resembled Him in faithfulness

(Heb 3:2).

was--Greek, "has been."

counted worthy of more glory--by God, when He exalted Him to His

own right hand. The Hebrew Christians admitted the fact

(Heb 1:13).

builded the house--Greek, "inasmuch as He hath more honor

than the house, who prepared it," or "established it"

[ALFORD]. The Greek verb is used purposely

instead of "builded," in order to mark that the building meant is not a

literal, but a spiritual house: the Church both of the Old Testament

and New Testament; and that the building of such a house includes all

the preparations of providence and grace needed to furnish it

with "living stones" and fitting "servants." Thus, as Christ the

Founder and Establisher (in Old Testament as well as the New Testament)

is greater than the house so established, including the servants, He is

greater also than Moses, who was but a "servant." Moses, as a servant,

is a portion of the house, and less than the house; Christ, as the

Instrumental Creator of all things, must be God, and so greater than

the house of which Moses was but a part. Glory is the result of

honor.

4. Someone must be the establisher of every house; Moses was not

the establisher of the house, but a portion of it (but He who

established all things, and therefore the spiritual house in

question, is God). Christ, as being instrumentally the Establisher of

all things, must be the Establisher of the house, and so greater than

Moses.

5. faithful in all his house--that is in all

GOD'S house

(Heb 3:4).

servant--not here the Greek for "slave," but "a

ministering attendant"; marking the high office of Moses towards God,

though inferior to Christ, a kind of steward.

for a testimony of, &c.--in order that he might in his typical

institutions give "testimony" to Israel "of the things" of the Gospel

"which were to be spoken afterwards" by Christ

(Heb 8:5; 9:8, 23; 10:1).

6. But Christ--was and is faithful

(Heb 3:2).

as a son over his own house--rather, "over His

(GOD'S,

Heb 3:4)

house"; and therefore, as the inference from His being one with

God, over His own house. So

Heb 10:21,

"having an High Priest over the house of God." Christ enters His

Father's house as the Master [OVER it], but Moses

as a servant [IN it,

Heb 3:2, 5]

[CHRYSOSTOM]. An ambassador in the absence of the

king is very distinguished--in the presence of the king he falls back

into the multitude [BENGEL].

whose house are we--Paul and his Hebrew readers. One old

manuscript, with Vulgate and LUCIFER,

reads, "which house"; but the weightiest manuscripts support

English Version reading.

the rejoicing--rather, "the matter of rejoicing."

of the hope--"of our hope." Since all our good things lie

in hopes, we ought so to hold fast our hopes as already to rejoice, as

though our hopes were realized [CHRYSOSTOM].

firm unto the end--omitted in LUCIFER and

AMBROSE, and in one oldest

manuscript, but supported by most oldest manuscripts.

7-11. Exhortation from

Ps 95:7-11,

not through unbelief to lose participation in the spiritual house.

Seeing that we are the house of God if we hold fast our confidence

(Heb 3:6).

Jesus is "faithful," be not ye unfaithful

(Heb 3:2, 12).

The sentence beginning with "wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis

confirming the argument from

Ps 95:7-11,

is completed at

Heb 3:12,

"Take heed," &c.

Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired Psalmist; so that the words of

the latter are the words of God Himself.

To-day--at length; in David's day, as contrasted with the days

of Moses in the wilderness, and the whole time since then, during which

they had been rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the

wilderness

(Heb 3:8).

The Psalm, each fresh time when used in public worship, by "to-day,"

will mean the particular day when it was, or is, used.

hear--obediently.

his voice--of grace.

8. Harden not your hearts--This phrase here only is used of

man's own act; usually of God's act

(Ro 9:18).

When man is spoken of as the agent in hardening, the phrase usually is,

"harden his neck," or "back"

(Ne 9:17).

provocation . . . temptation--"Massah-meribah,"

translated in Margin "tentation . . . chiding," or

"strife"

(Ex 17:1-7).

Both names seem to refer to that one event, the murmuring of the people

against the Lord at Rephidim for want of water. The first offense

especially ought to be guarded against, and is the most severely

reproved, as it is apt to produce many more.

Nu 20:1-13

and De 33:8

mention a second similar occasion in the wilderness of Sin, near

Kadesh, also called Meribah.

in the day--Greek, "according to the day of."

9. When--rather, "Where," namely, in the wilderness.

your fathers--The authority of the ancients is not

conclusive [BENGEL].

tempted me, proved me--The oldest manuscripts read, "tempted

(Me) in the way of testing," that is, putting (Me) to the proof

whether I was able and willing to relieve them, not believing that I am

so.

saw my works forty years--They saw, without being led thereby to

repentance, My works of power partly in affording miraculous help,

partly in executing vengeance, forty years. The "forty years" joined in

the Hebrew and Septuagint, and below,

Heb 3:17,

with "I was grieved," is here joined with "they saw." Both are true;

for, during the same forty years that they were tempting God by

unbelief, notwithstanding their seeing God's miraculous works, God was

being grieved. The lesson intended to be hinted to the Hebrew

Christians is, their "to-day" is to last only between the first

preaching of the Gospel and Jerusalem's impending overthrow, namely,

FORTY YEARS; exactly the number of years of

Israel's sojourn in the wilderness, until the full measure of their

guilt having been filled up all the rebels were overthrown.

10. grieved--displeased. Compare "walk contrary,"

Le 26:24, 28.

that generation--"that" implies alienation and

estrangement. But the oldest manuscripts read, "this."

said--"grieved," or "displeased," at their first offense.

Subsequently when they hardened their heart in unbelief still more, He

sware in His wrath

(Heb 3:11);

an ascending gradation (compare

Heb 3:17, 18).

and they have not known--Greek, "But these very persons,"

&c. They perceived I was displeased with them, yet they, the same

persons, did not a whit the more wish to know my ways [BENGEL]; compare "but they,"

Ps 106:43.

not known my ways--not known practically and believingly the

ways in which I would have had them go, so as to reach My rest

(Ex 18:20).

11. So--literally, "as."

I sware--BENGEL remarks the oath of God

preceded the forty years.

not--literally, "If they shall enter . . . (God do so

to me and more also),"

2Sa 3:35.

The Greek is the same,

Mr 8:12.

my rest--Canaan, primarily, their rest after wandering in the

wilderness: still, even when in it, they never fully enjoyed

rest; whence it followed that the threat extended farther than the

exclusion of the unbelieving from the literal land of rest, and that

the rest promised to the believing in its full blessedness was, and is,

yet future:

Ps 25:13; 37:9, 11, 22, 29,

and Christ's own beatitude

(Mt 5:5)

all accord with this,

Heb 3:9.

12. Take heed--to be joined with "wherefore,"

Heb 3:7.

lest there be--Greek (indicative), "lest there

shall be"; lest there be, as I fear there is; implying that it

is not merely a possible contingency, but that there is ground

for thinking it will be so.

in any--"in any one of you." Not merely ought all in general be

on their guard, but they ought to be so concerned for the safety of

each one member, as not to suffer any one to perish through

their negligence [CALVIN].

heart--The heart is not to be trusted. Compare

Heb 3:10,

"They do always err in their heart."

unbelief--faithlessness. Christ is faithful;

therefore, saith Paul to the Hebrews, we ought not to be

faithless as our fathers were under Moses.

departing--apostatizing. The opposite of "come unto" Him

(Heb 4:16).

God punishes such apostates in kind. He departs from them--the worst of

woes.

the living God--real: the distinctive characteristic of the God

of Israel, not like the lifeless gods of the heathen; therefore One

whose threats are awful realities. To apostatize from Christ is to

apostatize from the living God

(Heb 2:3).

13. one another--Greek, "yourselves"; let each exhort

himself and his neighbor.

daily--Greek, "on each day," or "day by day."

while it is called To-day--while the "to-day" lasts (the day of

grace,

Lu 4:21,

before the coming of the day of glory and judgment at Christ's coming,

Heb 10:25, 37).

To-morrow is the day when idle men work, and fools repent. To-morrow is

Satan's to-day; he cares not what good resolutions you form, if only

you fix them for to-morrow.

lest . . . of you--The "you" is emphatic, as

distinguished from "your fathers"

(Heb 3:9).

"That from among you no one (so the Greek order is in some of

the oldest manuscripts) be hardened"

(Heb 3:8).

deceitfulness--causing you to "err in your heart."

sin--unbelief.

14. For, &c.--enforcing the warning,

Heb 3:12.

partakers of Christ--(Compare

Heb 3:1, 6).

So "partakers of the Holy Ghost"

(Heb 6:4).

hold--Greek, "hold fast."

the beginning of our confidence--that is, the confidence

(literally, substantial, solid confidence) of faith which we

have begun

(Heb 6:11; 12:2).

A Christian so long as he is not made perfect, considers himself

as a beginner [BENGEL].

unto the end--unto the coming of Christ

(Heb 12:2).

15. While it is said--connected with

Heb 3:13,

"exhort one another . . . while it is said, To-day":

Heb 3:14,

"for we are made partakers," &c., being a parenthesis. "It entirely

depends on yourselves that the invitation of the ninety-fifth Psalm be

not a mere invitation, but also an actual enjoyment." ALFORD translates, "Since (that is, 'for') it is said,"

&c., regarding

Heb 3:15

as a proof that we must "hold . . . confidence

. . . unto the end," in order to be "partakers of

Christ."

16. For some--rather interrogatively, "For

WHO was it that, when they had heard (referring to

'if ye will hear,'

Heb 3:15),

did provoke (God)?" The "For" implies, Ye need to take heed against

unbelief: for, was it not because of unbelief that all our fathers were

excluded

(Eze 2:3)?

"Some," and "not all," would be a faint way of putting his argument,

when his object is to show the universality of the evil. Not

merely some, but all the Israelites, for the solitary

exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, are hardly to be taken into account in so

general a statement. So

Heb 3:17, 18,

are interrogative: (1) the beginning of the provocation, soon after the

departure from Egypt, is marked in

Heb 3:16;

(2) the forty years of it in the wilderness,

Heb 3:17;

(3) the denial of entrance into the land of rest,

Heb 3:18.

Compare Note, see on

1Co 10:5,

"with the majority of them God was displeased."

howbeit--"Nay (why need I put the question?), was it not all

that came out of Egypt?"

(Ex 17:1, 2).

17. But--Translate, "Moreover," as it is not in contrast to

Heb 3:16,

but carrying out the same thought.

corpses--literally, "limbs," implying that their bodies fell

limb from limb.

18. to them that believed not--rather as Greek, "to them

that disobeyed." Practical unbelief

(De 1:26).

19. they could not enter--though desiring it.