Daily Devotional Monday 19th February 2024
by William Moody
Hebrews 3
Jesus Greater Than Moses
3:1 Therefore, holy brothers,1 you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s2 house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.3
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Footnotes
[1] 3:1
Or brothers and sisters; also verse 12
[2] 3:2Greek his; also verses 5, 6
[3] 3:6Some manuscripts insert firm to the end (ESV)
Moses was revered in Jewish religious thought, but here the writer shows how Christ is greater (v1-6). Moses was faithful as a servant but Jesus served faithfully as a Son.
Initially as the writer speaks of serving in God’s house you think he is speaking of the tabernacle, but the twist is that the house Christ serves in is the church, the people of God (v6). Jesus serves to make us ready to bring glory to God the Father.
The writer then quotes from Psalm 95 (v7-11), encouraging believers not to be like the Israelites who hardened their hearts to God and His word and therefore did not enter the rest of the Promised Land. This is the greatest challenge to persevering, not the challenges from outside but sin within us.
The writer encourages believers to encourage each other to persevere (v12-15), being at the same time very aware of the danger of an ‘evil, unbelieving heart’. Those who rebelled and fell in the wilderness were those who had experienced the deliverance of God in bringing them out of Egypt (v16-19). We must be watchful and take our Christianity for granted.
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