Jesus is everything better! That is the message that Paul wanted to share with the Judean Christians, so they would avoid relapsing and reverting to their Judaic religion of old. Jesus is the better revelation of God (1:1­2:4). Jesus is better than the prophets (1:1-3). Jesus is better than the angels (1:4-14). Jesus is the better Man for man (2:5-18). But Paul was very aware that those of Jewish heritage had a high esteem that verged on veneration for Moses, who was the instrument for receiving the tablets of the Law on Mt. Sinai. Paul continues his thesis, then, to explain that Jesus is better than Moses.

Moses was one of the most elevated figures in Jewish history. Although the Hebrew peoples knew that Moses was a man, he was often not perceived as "lower than the angels" (Ps. 8:5) like other men, but as having a status higher than the angels because the angels served him in delivering the tablets of the Law (cf. Acts 7:38, 53; Heb. 2:2) on Sinai. While the angels were intermediary messengers, Moses was regarded as the mediatorial agent of the Law. To the Galatians, Paul explained that "the Law...was...ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator," i.e. Moses (Gal. 2:19), preparatory to the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham in Jesus Christ. Moses was the great Deliverer of the Jewish people as he "delivered the Israelites from the power of Egypt" (Exod. 3:8,10) in the Exodus. "The Law was given through Moses," John explained, but went on to write that "grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Moses was esteemed as a prophet, and Jewish Messianic expectations anticipated "a prophet like him" (cf. Exod. 18:15,18) who would dispossess the nations. Moses was regarded as a priest of God, along with Aaron (Ps. 99:6), having performed priestly functions (cf. Exod. 24:6). In fact, Moses was revered among the Jews as next to God Himself, and sometimes referred to "as God" (cf. Exod. 4:16; 7:1) or as "a god" in rabbinic literature.

The Jewish leaders of the first century considered themselves as "disciples of Moses," confident that "God had spoken to Moses" (cf. John 9:28,29), but were skeptical and antagonistic of Jesus and those who followed Him. So, for Paul to declare that Jesus was "better than Moses" was a bold declaration to make to Jewish people steeped in the Law. While the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem had accepted Jesus as Messiah, they still had high regard for Moses and the Law (cf. Gal. 1:6-10; 2:16-21).

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul had explained the glory of Moses' ministry, but noted that "the ministry of the Spirit (of Christ) would have even more glory" (II Cor. 3:8). Later in this epistle to the Hebrews, Paul wrote that the ministry of Moses was but "a copy and shadow of heavenly things," whereas Jesus Christ "has obtained a more excellent ministry, as He is the mediator of a better covenant" (Heb. 8:5,6). Paul's assertion is that Jesus served as a better mediator of a better covenant, a better deliverer or Savior of God's people, a better prophet-spokesman, and a better priest-representative. That because Jesus was not only "as God" (Exod. 7:1), but was actually the God-man, the self-revelation of God Himself, functioning in His redemptive mission as a man faithfully receptive to God through temptation and death.

Though Moses was faithful in the roles that he played, in the ministry that he performed, in the service that he rendered in the old covenant preparatory period, there was not a sufficient ground of faithfulness for the Hebrew people. There was no grace-provision for the keeping of the Law, which led to the inevitable failure of self-effort and the faithlessness of sinful disobedience. The Israelite people who followed Moses were indeed responsible for their unbelief and faithlessness, repetitively refusing to be receptive to God's supernatural action on their behalf, and suffering the consequences of their "transgression and disobedience" (2:2). But Paul wanted to explain to the Jerusalem Christians that Jesus was "the merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God" (2:17), better than Moses, "counted worthy of more glory than Moses" (3:3), because "grace and truth are realized in Jesus Christ" (John 1:17), allowing for a "better ground of faithfulness," so that the new covenant People of God need not and should not repeat the pattern of unfaithfulness and disobedience exhibited by the old covenant People of God. By the dynamic of Christ's life Christians are able to "enter into the rest of God" (3:11,18,19), functioning by God's grace rather than self-effort. It was that faithful grace-rest that Paul wanted the Judean Christians to understand and function by in the midst of the difficult situation they were encountering.

3:1    "Therefore," Paul writes ­ basing his forthcoming admonition on Jesus' ability to identify and intercede (2:18) for the faithfulness of Christians as He serves as "a merciful and faithful high priest" (2:17). He identifies the Jerusalem Christians as "holy brethren." Being "the sanctified" (Heb. 2:11; 10:14; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11), united with the Sanctifier (2:11), Jesus Christ, the "Holy One" (Mk. 1:24; Acts 3:14; 4:27) who lives within them as Christians creating their identity as "holy ones" (Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22; 3:12), "saints" (Rom. 1:7; 8:27; Eph. 1:18; 4:12), they are set apart to function by allowing the holy character of God to be manifested in their behavior, to the glory of God. Thus united with Christ, they are "brethren" (2:11,12,17) with Christ in the family of God.

They are also "partakers of a heavenly calling." All Christians are spiritually united (cf. I Cor. 6:17) with the living Lord Jesus, and are "partakers of Christ" (Heb. 3:14), "partakers of the Holy Spirit" (Heb. 6:4), and "partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). To be "partakers of a heavenly calling" does not mean that Christians are just "anticipators of a future calling to go to heaven," but implies that Christians participate presently in the heavenly realities that are "in Christ Jesus." Christians are "seated with Christ in the heavenlies" (Eph. 2;6), participating in the "heavenly things" (9:23), the "heavenly gift" (6:4) of Christ Himself in the realized "heavenly Jerusalem" (12:22) of the better "heavenly country" (11:16) of which they are "citizens" (Phil. 3:20). This "heavenly calling" gives Christians the privileged access (10:19) to enjoy God's presence, peace and rest presently, despite the turmoil of their surroundings. The Christians in Jerusalem were being pressured to align themselves with an "earthly calling," a cause celebre to join the Palestinian revolt against Rome, which was not destined to bring peace and rest, but destruction and death.

"Consider Jesus," Paul implores his Christian kinsmen. This admonition served as a primary motive for Paul's writing this epistle. It is an imperative exhortation to "pay close attention to" (2:1); to direct their thoughts attentively to the better spiritual realities that are in Jesus Christ. "Fix your eyes on Jesus" (12:2) and "consider Him" (12:3), Paul insists.

Jesus is "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession," Paul explains. "God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4; John 17:18), "that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17). The means of that salvation was Jesus serving as the High Priest representative (2:17; 4:14; 10:21) of man before God, a theme that will receive amplification throughout this epistle. Jesus was sent as the Apostle of God and serves as the High Priest of God that we might agree and concur with God in confessing that Jesus is the Son of God (4:14), the only Lord and Savior of mankind, to Whom we should "hold fast in our confession, for He Who promised is faithful" (10:23).

3:2    "He" (Jesus the Son) was faithful to Him (God the Father) who appointed Him,..." Not only was Jesus faithful to His Father in His historical, physical, redemptive mission, but Jesus continues to be (present participle - "being") faithful in His divinely appointed and ordained function as mediator (I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6; 12:24) of the new covenant and intercessor (Heb. 2:18; 7:25; 9:24) for those who are Christians.

The similitude of faithfulness between Jesus and Moses in their respective covenantal arrangements is made in the statement, "as Moses also (was faithful) in all His house." The faithfulness of Moses is not questioned, minimized or criticized, even though his double-striking of the rock at Kadesh could have been cited (cf. Numbers 20:1-13; Deut. 32:50-52). The point Paul wanted to make was that Moses was faithful in the implementation of God's provisional plan of the old covenant, as God pictorially prefigured His Christological intents through His household, the People of Israel, in the Old Testament. The faithfulness of Moses in God's House appears to be an allusion to Numbers 12:7 where God declares (after Aaron and Miriam had faulted Moses), "My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My household." Moses was faithful as the mediator (Gal. 3:19,20) of the covenant based on the Law, even though the Israelite people who followed him were unfaithful. Jesus, on the other hand, was faithful as the "one mediator between God and man" (I Tim. 2:5) to establish the new covenant of grace, and His faithfulness was exhibited in His being "obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8), allowing for a "better ground of faithfulness" for Christians living by the dynamic of His resurrection-life.

3:3    Despite the similarity of faithfulness between Moses and Christ, the redemptive and restorative efficacy of Christ's faithfulness is the reason that Paul encourages the Palestinian Christians to "consider Jesus" (3:1). "For He (Jesus) has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses." Moses had seen the glory of God on Mt. Sinai, and the Jewish people considered Moses worthy of much honor and glory. Some rabbinic literature indicated that Moses had more glory than the angels. Even Joshua explained that "no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses" (Exod. 34:10). But Paul had written earlier to the Corinthians explaining that the glory of Moses and the old covenant that he administered was a fading glory (II Cor. 3:7,11), whereas the glory of Jesus Christ and the new covenant has "even more glory" (II Cor. 3:8) for "the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory" (II Cor. 3:9). "For indeed what had glory (Moses and the old covenant), in this case has no glory on account of the glory (Jesus and His work) that surpasses it," (II Cor. 3:10). The superiority of the glory of Christ is based on the fact that while Moses' glory was merely reflective of the presence of God, Jesus is the essential reality of the presence of God, the self-revelation of the all-glorious character of God, and the self-generating source of God's glory. The glory of Jesus is that "which He had with the Father before the world was" (John 17:5), and was "beheld" in the incarnate Word (John 1:14). He is also "counted worthy of more glory than Moses" because He conveys and imparts His glory to those united with Himself as Christ-ones, those who have "Christ in them, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27), and are thus being "crowned with glory and honor" (2:7).

Employing a truism or general principle of the construction trade, Paul wrote that Jesus is "worthy of more glory than Moses, by just as much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house." The analogy of a "house" merges the concepts of a material building structure and an interpersonal community of a "household," allowing for a double entendre of meaning. It is difficult to understand precisely what Paul meant by this analogy. Since the contrast has been made between the superior glory of Christ and the lesser glory of Moses, how is Jesus to be identified as "the builder of the house" and Moses with "the house"? The analogy necessitates an interpretation that transitions from the original material meaning to a figurative meaning of "house." If "the builder of the house" is the Divine builder (looking ahead to the next verse), then God certainly has more honor than the physical universe that He created (otherwise we have monistic pantheism), and more honor than the community of His people identified with Him (who are what they are only because they are related to Him). Jesus, as "the builder of the house," is the Divine builder, creatively active in constructing the universe as well as God's arrangements for the restoration of fallen mankind. Jesus was instrumental in the development of the provisional House of Israel which is connected with Moses, therefore has more honor as the Divine builder than the Judaic "house."

3:4    To further explain the analogy he was using, Paul wrote (perhaps parenthetically), "For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." Again, we have the double entendre of a general truism: "For every house (whether a material structure or a figurative community of people) is built by someone." Houses do not just self-germinate, sprout and grow. They are the result and product of a personal builder. The personal builder that Paul is thinking of is God, who is "the builder of all things" through the creative agency of His Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1:2). God in Christ (any reference to the deity of Christ here is implicit rather than explicit) has created and constructed "all things" (cf. John 1:3), including the physical construct of the universe as well as the figurative households of the People of God in both the old covenant and the new covenant. God, the Divine builder, was at work in the construction of both "households," the old covenant People of God and the new covenant People of God, but the one in which Moses played a part was but the prototypical blueprint, the preliminary prefiguring, the provisional preparation for the new covenant household enacted by the saving work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in what He was appointed to do (3:2) is "counted worthy of more glory" (3:3) than the faithfulness of Moses in what he was appointed by God to do, for Christ's work serves as a "better ground of faithfulness" by which Christian people function as God intended, individually and collectively.

3:5    Continuing to explain the contrast, Paul writes, "Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant,..." Moses is not to be denigrated or depreciated. He was a faithful servant (cf. Numbers 12:7) in the "house" that God built among the Hebrew peoples. The "house of Israel," the household of the People of God in old covenant Judaism, was purposed by God, built by God, and is referred to as "His house" (3:2,5,6). Though not a servile slave (doulos), Moses freely, willingly and voluntarily rendered his service to the Divine superior as commanded (cf. Exod. 7:6; 16:16; 34:4) in order to build the household of Israel; and he thus ministered with faithfulness, honor and dignity.

But the old covenant "house of God" was preparatory "for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later." Moses' ministry in Israel was a provisional witness of "those things", the "last things" (1:2) of God's last Word for man in the "last Adam" (I Cor. 15:45), Jesus Christ. Every detail of the old covenant which is identified with Moses and the Law was a figure, a type (cf. I Cor. 10:6,11; Heb. 8:5), a symbolic representation of the "better things" that God would do to redeem and restore mankind in Jesus Christ. The Jewish people of the old covenant household had great difficulty in accepting that they were but the preliminary picture-people of God's eternal plan. They considered themselves to be racially, religiously, and nationally "God's chosen people," an end in themselves. That is why Jesus had to explain to the Jewish leaders of the first century, "...if you believed Moses you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me" (cf. John 5:45,46). The Mosaic writings of the Torah dealt with the prototypical prefigurings of the spiritual realities of Jesus Christ. The "testimony of those things which were to be spoken later" refers to the new covenant wherein "in these last days God has spoken in His Son" (1:2), in the full self-revelation of Himself and His intent for mankind.

3:6    "But," in contrast to Moses who was faithful in God's old covenant household as a servant, "Christ" is faithful "as a Son over His house whose house we are,..." Jesus Christ, the Son, supersedes Moses, the servant, and is thus "better than Moses" ­ a similar argument to the Son (1:5,8) superseding the ministering service (1:7,14) of the angels. Whereas Moses was faithful "in" God's household of Israel as a servant, Jesus is faithful "over" God's household of the Church as the Son of God, implying His authoritative supremacy as Divine Lord over Christian people. The Son has been "appointed heir of all things" (1:2), to sit on the eternal throne of God (1:8,13), whereas Moses simply performed his service in the temporary preparation period of the old covenant. But let it be noted that both covenantal arrangements were "His house," God's covenantal relation with His People. There is both a continuity and discontinuity of God's house. The continuity is in the recognition that both the people of the old and new covenants were God's People, and there was no intent or need for them to be antagonistic one with the other. The discontinuity is to be recognized in the provisional nature of the Mosaic covenant and the completed fulfillment of all God's promises (cf. II Cor. 1:20) in Jesus Christ, evidencing the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant, and the necessary distinction between the nation of Israel and the Church of Jesus Christ.

Paul explained to the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem that they (along with all other Christians in every age) constituted the new covenant "house" over which the living Lord Jesus reigns ­ "whose house we are." It is now made quite evident that "house" is being used figuratively as a community of people. The "house of God," "the temple of God," and "the people of God" can be used synonymously in the spiritual context of the new covenant. Christians are "being built up as a spiritual house" (I Peter 2:5), the "household of God" (I Tim. 3:15; I Peter 4:17), "which is the church of the living God" (I Tim. 3:15). The Gentiles along with the Jews are "fellow-citizens...of God's household" (Eph. 2:19). "We are the temple of the living God" (II Cor. 6:16; I Cor. 3:16), and "the people of God" (I Peter 2:9,10; Titus 2:14). In this case a house, a temple and people are all figures that represent receptacles of the personal presence and residence of God within them.

This was likely a difficult concept to assimilate for the Jewish Christians to whom Paul wrote. As ethnic Jews they were part of the household of Israel which regarded their physical race as Hebrews to be the primary criteria for being "the people of God," and considered the "house of God" and the "temple of God" to be primarily a physical structure in Jerusalem. As Christians who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, they were now of the "household of faith", the Church of Jesus Christ, and were the "People of God" based on a spiritual identification and relationship with Jesus Christ whereby they were "holy brethren" (3:1), "sons" (2:10) and "children" (2:13,14) of God. The "temple of God" and the "house of God" were now to be spiritually understood as the abiding presence of Christ within them. This required a radical transformation of perspective, and Paul wanted his kinsmen in the faith to understand that they were now in the "better household" of God's People which was more glorious than that associated with Moses. These people were being sorely tempted to focus on the physical elements of Palestine, to fight for the physical preservation of the Jewish nation, and to fall back in reversion to the religious practices in the physical structure of the temple in Jerusalem where they lived. It would have been most difficult for the Jewish recipients of this letter to choose the unseen spiritual realities of Christ over the visible physical phenomena of Judaic religion.

With that in mind, Paul explains the conditional contingency of remaining a part of the household of faith: "if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of hope until the end." The Christian relationship with Christ is based on the dynamic function of His life. It is not a statically fixed connection enacted by a static mental assent. There was the possibility that the Jerusalem Christians might lapse and revert back to the Mosaic Law system and the Levitical priesthood still practiced in the temple there in Jerusalem. Paul was encouraging them to "hold fast," to persevere and endure, to accept "the better ground of faithfulness" in Jesus Christ and to live by the reality of the grace of God (cf. John 1:17), expressed in the faithful manifestation of the life of the indwelling Lord Jesus. This was not something that had to be generated out of their own resources and resolve, however. The grace-dynamic of Christ provides everything necessary for faithfulness, for as Paul explained to the Galatians, faithfulness is part of the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23). But, at the same time, these Christians were responsible to make the choice of faith whereby they would be receptive to God's activity of grace unto faithfulness. Only thus could they "hold fast their confidence," by "drawing near with confidence to the throne of grace, that they might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (4:16). In a similar conditional statement that serves almost as a parallel to this phrase, Paul writes later in this section telling the Jerusalem Christians that they "have become partakers of Christ, if they hold fast the beginning of their assurance (a synonym for confidence) firm until the end" (3:14). "Do not throw away your confidence...for you have need of endurance" (10:35), Paul adds later in the epistle.

Paul encourages the Christians of Judea to hold fast to their confident assertions of faith in Christ and to their "boast of hope." Both of these are verbal expressions of their faith in Jesus Christ. "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope" (10:23), Paul writes later, for "we have laid hold of the hope set before us, and this hope we have as an anchor of the soul" (6:18,19). "Christ Jesus is our hope" (I Tim. 1:1), and Christians should "always be ready to make a defense...to give an account for the hope that is in them" (I Peter 3:15).

Despite the difficulties and lack of visible assurance in the "enigma of the interim" between Jesus' cry of victory (cf. John 19:30) and the final consummation of that victory, Christians confidently expect that the sovereign faithfulness of God in Christ will prevail. Such divine faithfulness is the basis for consistent Christian faithfulness which remains "firm until the end", whether that "end" be the end of our lives, the end of time, the end of the world, or the end of the "last days" (1:2) in Christ. The Jewish Christians to whom Paul wrote did not know how it would "end" for them, but Paul encourages them to persevere in the expression of faithfulness whatever might happen.

This conditional clause serves as the transition in Paul's argument from Christ's faithfulness to the necessary faithfulness of the Christian people to whom Paul wrote. The remaining verses of this section emphasize the need for the readers to evidence a better faithfulness than that exhibited by the followers of Moses, having the "better ground of faithfulness" in Christ Jesus.

3:7    "Therefore," to relate the faithfulness of Moses and Christ to the needed faithfulness of the readers, Paul leads into an extended quotation of Psalm 95:7-11 by writing, "just as the Holy Spirit says,..." Attributing Scripture to the Holy Spirit (cf. 10:15), though the psalm was penned by David, Paul evidences his belief that the Old Testament Scriptures were divinely inspired (cf. II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:20,21), divinely authoritative, and continuously contemporarily applicable.

This quotation of Psalm 95:7-11 is again from the Greek translation of the Septuagint (LXX). The importance of the words of this quotation for application in the lives of the Jerusalem saints is evident in Paul's repeated quoting of the text (3:13,15; 4:3,5,7) and the fact that it serves as the foundation of his argument all the way through the next section (4:1-13).

The psalmist, David, was encouraging his own generation to faithfulness by referring to a previous historical occasion when the Israelite people led by Moses in the wilderness failed to be receptive to God's direction and action. "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE," David wrote, you should learn from the negative example (cf. I Cor. 10:6,11) of your forefathers. When God's people hear God's voice, however expressed, they should be receptive to what God wants to do. That was David's emphasis to his generation, and that was Paul's application of this text for the first-century Christians of Jerusalem.

3:8    "DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,..." David and Paul wanted their kinsmen to have open hearts that were receptive to God's action in their lives, individually and collectively. They were not to "turn a deaf ear," refuse to hear God's direction, and develop a fixed attitude of rebellious disobedience, "as when they (previous Israelites) provoked" God. Who are the "they" that David referred to in this psalm, and what is the particular occasion to which he referred? Was he referring to Moses and Aaron and the provocation when Moses struck the rock twice at Meribah toward the end of the forty year wilderness wandering and Moses and Aaron were disallowed from entering Canaan (Numbers 20:1-13)? Or was David referring to "they," the Israelite people, and their rebellious quarrel with God about the need for water early in the wilderness journey prior to the giving of the ten commandments (Exodus 17:1-7)? Or does "they" refer to the people of Israel in the incident of their rebellion against God when ten of the twelve spies who surveyed Canaan gave a negative report of their likely success, and God responded by declaring that they would spend forty years wandering in the wilderness during which time the entire generation would die and only Caleb and Joshua would enter the land (Numbers 13:1 ­ 14:45)?

The traditional rabbinic interpretation of the Hebrew text of Psalm 95:7-11 understood David's words to refer to the historical occasion in Exodus 17:1-7 when the people of Israel demanded water, and in obedience to God Moses struck the rock to produce water, but Moses named the place Meribah (Hebrew for "quarrel") and Massah (Hebrew for "test"). The Hebrew text of Psalm 95:8 is usually translated, "Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness." The Greek translation of the Old Testament (translated in the third century B.C. by 70 (LXX) Jewish elders in Alexandria, Egypt), however, translated these words with their generic meanings, rather than as place names, and it is the Septuagint that is quoted in this epistle to the Hebrews. Utilizing the Greek text of this epistle that has been preserved, it seems preferable to allow the words of this quotation to refer to the narrative recorded in Numbers 13 and 14. If this be the case, then we can observe the logical progression of Paul's thought from the allusion to Numbers 12:7 in 3:3,5 to Numbers 13 and 14 in the remainder of the chapter.

The Israelites who followed Moses in the exodus from Egypt "hardened their hearts," rebelling against the Lord (Numb. 14:9) and blaming God for their plight (Numb. 14:3,27). They "provoked God" by their grumbling and complaining (Numb. 14:27) and by their spurning of Him (Numb. 14:11). They put Him to the test at least ten times (Numb. 14:22), refusing to "listen to His voice" (3:8; Numb. 14:22).

3:9    The Psalmist explains that it was there in the wilderness (Numb. 14:2,32,33,35), "WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED (ME) BY TESTING (ME),..." Their forefathers of a previous generation (1:1) repeatedly tried and tested God's patience (Numb. 14:22), "AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS." As a consequence of their testing God, they observed God's works for the next forty years in the wilderness (Numb. 14:33,34). The Hebrew text, on the other hand, seems to connect the "forty years" with God's anger in the following phrase, as Paul does later in 3:17.

3:10    "THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION,..." God, who is "slow to anger" (Numb. 14:18) was angry and provoked (Numb. 14:12,28-35) with that "evil generation" (Numb. 14:27,35) of Israelites, "AND SAID, 'THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART; AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS';..." That particular generation of Hebrew people rebelled (Numb. 14:9) against God in unfaithfulness (Numb. 14:33), iniquity (Numb 14:19) and sin (Numb. 14:40). They did not believe that God would be faithful to His promises (Numb. 14:3,16), and they did not know His ways. Though "our ways are not His ways" (Isa. 55:8) and His ways are unfathomable (Rom. 11:33) to finite thinking, "His ways are always right" (Hosea 14:9) in accord with His Divine logic wherein suffering facilitates sanctification, humiliation leads to exaltation, and tragedy is often the way to triumph.

3:11    God's response to the sinful waywardness of the people of the exodus was "AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST." God's character of lovingkindness and forgiveness (Numb 14:18) must, of necessity, be balanced by an intolerance for sin and iniquity (Numb. 14:18,19,40) which is contrary to His character. The Divine "Yes" must have its opposite Divine "No!" The anger and wrath of God are not inconsistent with His character but are demanded by the absoluteness of His character, or else God becomes a sloppy sentimental sop. God was angry (Numb. 14:12, 28-35) with the recalcitrant Hebrews who found Him faithful enough to get them out of Egypt, but would not trust Him to get them into Canaan. God determined that the consequences of their unbelief and unfaithfulness would be that they would not enter into the promised land (Numb. 14:23) of "milk and honey" (Numb. 13:27; 14:8), the land of Canaan, the place of rest (cf. Deut. 3:20;12:9,10). The entire generation of Jewish people, those twenty years of age and older, would perish in the wilderness (Numb 14:29-35) during forty years of wandering (Numb. 14:33,34), with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who believed that God would keep His promises (Numb. 14:24,38).

3:12    Paul now commences the application of these quoted verses to his readers in Jerusalem. "Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart,..." "Look out" and "see to it" that you, the "brethren" of Christ (2:7,9; 3:1), do not fall into the same pattern of unfaithful response that was exhibited by your forefathers of the exodus. A similar warning to avoid the unfaithfulness of the ancient Hebrews, and to allow their actions to serve as an example, was written by Paul to the Corinthians (cf. I Cor. 10:1-13). The possibility obviously existed that the Jerusalem Christians could develop "an evil, unbelieving heart," or there would have been no reason for Paul to warn against such. Given their adverse circumstances, there was always the temptation to revert to the religion of their past, to refuse to believe God's promises in Christ, to rebel against God's apparent inaction, to repudiate God's victory in Christ, and to reject Jesus as God's singular self-revelation of life and restoration. Their faith could turn to "no faith" (the Greek word for "unbelieving" is apistias meaning "no faith"), unreceptive to God's continuing grace actions, with a loss of hope that God would follow through on all that was promised in Christ. No one was immune from such temptation, as it was possible that this "could be in any one of you," or even "all" of them as was the case with the wilderness generation (3:16) in their unbelieving disobedience.

Such a "going astray in their heart" (cf. 3:10) by developing "an evil, unbelieving heart" is further explained as "falling away from the living God." The "drift away" (2:1) from a dynamic relationship of receptivity to the "living God" could result in apostasy (the Greek word for "falling away" is apostenai), a "standing away from" Jesus Christ in rejection. To thus desert, defect and depart from a vital relationship with Jesus Christ would have dire consequences, for "it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31).

3:13    This need not happen if the Jerusalem Christians would "But encourage one another day after day..." There was a mutual and collective responsibility among the Christians of the Jerusalem community to "encourage one another" in their faithful expectation of Christ's continuing work. The word for "encourage" (the Greek word parakaleite) means "to call alongside in order to comfort, help, counsel, assist, strengthen, encourage, etc." It is the same root word used of the Holy Spirit being the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Helper, the Counselor etc. (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7). As the Holy Spirit functions in Christians as the Encourager, we recognize that "we are one body, individually members of one another" (Rom. 12:5), and being "in Christ" together we have a responsibility to "encourage one another, and build one another up" (I Thess. 5:11). This mutual encouragement is one of the primary functions of the gathering together of Christian people, as Paul will explain later in this epistle: "Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together,...but encouraging one another" (Heb. 10:24,25).

Paul's encouragement to "encourage one another day after day" has prompted some to question whether the Jerusalem Christians were still meeting daily as they had in the earliest days of the church (cf. Acts 2:46; 5:42). On the other hand, the phrase may simply indicate the necessity of continuous and repetitive encouragement, "as long as it is called 'Today,'..." Apparently emphasizing the word "today" from the quotation made previously from Psalm 95:7 (cf. 3:7,15), Paul wanted the Christians of Jerusalem to recognize the present tense imperative of encouraging one another. "Now is the day of salvation," Paul wrote to the Corinthians (II Cor. 6:2). Christians need to encourage one another continuously throughout the Christian era from the first advent of Jesus Christ to the second advent of Jesus Christ, as long as the "day of salvation" remains "Today." The Jerusalem Christians needed to be reminded of this present perspective of Christ's saving life, for they were being tempted to seek a false utopia in the future through the zealotism of insurrection against Roman authority.

The necessity and purpose of present encouragement of Christians one to another was "lest any one of you should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." The possibility existed for "any one of them" to succumb to the forces that were being brought to bear against them ­ none were exempt. The passive voice, "should be hardened," indicated that the Christians were being acted upon by another who was attempting to solidify them in the deceitfulness of sin. Who would that be other than the diabolic deceiver who continually tempts Christians to behave contrary to who they have become in Christ Jesus? Similar to what he had written to the Corinthians, Paul is in essence saying to the Jewish Christians, "I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve (cf. Gen. 3:13) by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of Christ" (II Cor. 11:3), and this often happens as religious agents "disguise themselves as instruments of righteousness" (II Cor. 11:15). There was surely a solicitory pressure being placed upon the Jerusalem Christians to join the religious cause of nationalistic sentiment in Palestine ­ to refuse to be receptive to God's promised victory in Christ. Such unbelief was sin, for "whatever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). The sin of unbelief or unfaithfulness is inevitably evidenced in the self-concerns of self-aspiration and self-indulgence, and it might be (as some have suggested) that Paul had received word of the Christians in Jerusalem engaged in misrepresentative sinful behavior.

3:14    The only basis of avoiding such a fall into sin and away from God was by recognizing that "we have becomes partakers of Christ,..." Every Christian person has become a partaker, a participator, a partner of the living Lord Jesus ­ a "partaker of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4), a "partaker of the Holy Spirit" (Heb. 6:4), a "partaker of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1). We are united with Christ (I Cor. 6:17), indwelt by the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9,16), and are "joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). As "partakers of Christ" every Christian has taken Christ into himself so as to be identified by His name because He is the essence of their life. "In Christ" every Christian has the sufficient grace-dynamic of divine strength and activity to overcome all temptation (Heb. 2:18; II Peter 2:9) and all trials (I Cor. 10:13; James 1:2-4).

The conditional contingency of our responsibility (cf. 3:6) of continued faith-receptivity is expressed in Paul's words, "...if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." That which we have in Christ is not a static possession of a spiritual commodity, but a dynamic relationship with the living Lord Jesus. Such a dynamic relationship requires a constancy and consistency of faith from "the beginning" of our initial receptivity of Jesus Christ "until the end" of fully realized and unhindered receptivity of all things in Christ. That is why Paul wrote to the Colossians, "As you received Christ Jesus (by faith), so walk in Him (by faith)" (Col. 2:6). There is the ever-continuing necessity of our receptivity of the dynamic of His life. That is why Paul is encouraging the Jerusalem Christians to continue and persevere in the faithful receptivity of God's activity, "diligent to realize the full assurance of hope until the end" (6:11). Continued faithfulness of receptivity allows for a firmness of substantial assurance (cf. 11:1) that we remain in the dynamic union with Christ "until the end" of time, the end of the world, the end of the Messianic age, the end of our lives, or the end objective of all that Christ desires to be and do in us.

3:15    To reiterate the necessity of faithful receptivity, Paul repeats a portion of the quotation from Psalm 95:7,8. The then-present situation of the Palestinian Christians required a renewed emphasis on the ever-present need of faithfulness, "while is is said" (in the Scriptural record of Psalm 95:7,8), "TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME." Paul's point seems to be that , "Today," right now, is the time to listen to God's voice as He reveals (cf. Phil. 3:15) His attitude and will, that "the eyes of your heart might be enlightened to know what is the hope of His calling" (Eph. 1:18), and that you might respond in the "obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5; 16:26), listening under God's instruction in order to be receptive to what He is doing. Jesus explained that those who follow Him are like sheep who know and hear the Shepherd's voice (John 10:1-15). The Christians of Jerusalem needed to keep listening to the revelatory voice of Jesus, being open and receptive to His grace guidance and direction, rather than being solidified, settled and fixed in an attitude of unbelieving disobedience. Paul did not want the brethren in Jerusalem to respond like their Jewish forefathers in the nation of Israel who turned against God in unbelief, blamed God for their problems, and provoked God in their disobedience.

3:16    Paul commences a series of rhetorical questions directed to the Christians in Judea. The first question (16a) is answered by another question (16b). The second question (17a) is likewise answered by an interrogative response (17b). The third question (18a) contains the answer within an attached phrase (18b) that is part of the question.

Based on the text of Psalm 95:7-11 which was quoted earlier (3:7-11,15), and still seeking to apply these words to the Jerusalem Christians, Paul asks "For who provoked (Him) when they heard?" The identity of those who provoked God does not seem to be the issue in Paul's question. Although some have suggested that Psalm 95:7-11 referred to Moses and Aaron and the incident in Numbers 20:1-13, it is generally conceded that it has reference to the Israelite people in general, and Paul's interrogative answer certainly reveals that to be his understanding. But the real question has to do with the extent of the Hebrew peoples who provoked God. The subject of the sentence in the Greek text can have two different meanings depending on where the emphasis is placed in the word: tínes means "who", whereas tinés means "some", but there were no inflection marks in the original manuscripts. The predominant interpretation from the early church until the eighteenth century was to make the first question a statement indicating that "some" of the followers of Moses provoked God, but not all of them (cf. KJV). Biblical interpretation in the past three centuries has recognized the series of rhetorical questions being posed by Paul, with the first question asking, "Who provoked God?"

The answer in the form of a question is, "Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt through Moses?" The extent of those guilty of rebelling against God was inclusive of an entire generation (Numb. 14:27,35) of the Jewish peoples. They rejected God en masse. There was an almost universal apostasy, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who believed God (Numb. 14:26,30,38) and Moses and Aaron who provoked God in a later incident (Numb. 20:1-13) and were disallowed to enter the promised land. These people of the exodus were a privileged people, delivered out of the slavery of Egypt, having observed the supernatural works of God on their behalf, and yet they "all" (Numb. 14:1,2,10,22,35,36) acted together in unbelief to provoke God. Was Paul concerned that the entire community of Christians in Jerusalem would collectively reject the hope that was theirs in Jesus Christ? He had already implied that no one was exempt or immune from such temptation (3:12,13), and that they all needed to encourage one another.

3:17    The second rhetorical question is: "And with whom was He (God) angry for forty years?" Again, the question does not pertain so much to the identity of those with whom God was angry and provoked (cf. Numb. 14:12, 28-35) as with the extent of the Hebrew population affected, and the duration of the consequences of having to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Numb. 14:33,34) until every person over twenty years of age (Numb. 14:29) had died.

Formulating the answer in the form of another question, Paul asks, "Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?" The overwhelming majority of the People of Israel, almost everyone (with but a few exceptions), had sinned (Numb. 14:18,19,40) against God through unbelief (Numb. 14:11) and unfaithfulness (Numb. 14:33). In accord with God's decree their corpses fell in the wilderness (Numb. 14:23,29,32) as they were forced to wander for forty years. Jude confirms this when he writes, "The Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe" (Jude 5).

3:18    In Paul's third rhetorical question the answer is contained in the question. "And to whom did He (God) swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?" Again, it was all of the people of Israel who were disobedient (Numb. 14:22,43), failing to believe that God could or would do as He promised. God declared that the whole lot of them would be excluded from "entering His rest," which for them meant the promised land (Numb. 14:30,40) of Canaan or Palestine where they could rest from their imposed slavery in Egypt and cease from the exodus wanderings.

These questions were all asked of the readers, the Jerusalem Christians, to allow them to understand the analogical application that Paul was making from their forebears, and the incidents recorded in Psalm 95:7-11 and Numbers 13:1­14:45. Paul wanted the Jerusalem Christians to avoid the unfaithfulness and the dire consequences incurred from such. He wanted them to learn from the Israelite's negative example (I Cor. 10:6,10), and to refrain from following the same course of action in disobedience. Paul wanted them to know that God's "rest" was not going to be found in a restoration of nationalist governance in Palestine, but could only be found as a spiritual reality in Jesus Christ (which he would further explain as the theme of the next section of the epistle in 4:1-11).

3:19    "Learn from their mistakes," Paul seems to be saying. "And we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief." We can observe the obvious," Paul explains. "They (all of them) were not able to enter into God's purposed intent for them because of unbelief." There are consequences for unfaithfulness, for as Paul had written earlier, "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense" (2:2). The offending Israelites were excluded from the land of promise they sought, and that despite their best efforts to overcome God's decree and enter the land (Numb. 14:39-45), which only resulted in the immediate destruction of many of them. They could not reverse their course after apostasy. Was Paul warning the Christians of Jerusalem that if they responded in unbelief, deserted Christ, and reverted to Judaism, that they, too, would find the consequences to be final, fatal and fixed (cf. Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26-31; 12:16,17), with no possibility of reversal?

Concluding Remarks

Failing to learn the lessons of history, people often unnecessarily repeat their failures. Paul's concern was that the brethren who were his Jewish kinsmen in Jerusalem would learn from the negative example of a previous generation of their own people. In his previous letter to the Corinthians Paul had written,

"For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, 'THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.' Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." (I Corinthians 10:1-12)

The pilgrimage of living in faithful relationship with God is seldom easy. It was not easy for the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. It was not easy for the Judean Christians in the middle of the seventh decade of the first century. It is not easy for Christians in their varied circumstances in the twenty-first century. Engaged in the daily routine of living, it is often difficult to see what God is doing. All of the "appearances" around us may point to a reasonable human course of action, a logical alternative to faith. There is always the peril of losing sight of and disregarding the promises of God to act on our behalf. As Christians, living in the "enigma of the interim" between Christ's declared victory (cf. John 19:30) and the promised consummation of that victory, there is always the need to "hear His voice" (3:7,15) of revelation and "listen under" (the Greek word for obedience is hupakouo, meaning "to listen under") in the "obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5; 16:26), persevering and enduring in continued receptivity of the promised activity of God in Christ.

Our dynamic relationship of deriving life from Christ is conditioned by the contingency of our continued faith and pattern of faithfulness. That is why Paul explains that we are part of the household of faith "if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end" (3:6). We are partakers of Christ, "if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end" (3:14). His warnings against doing otherwise are "lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God" (3:12), and "lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (3:13). F. F. Bruce remarks on these conditional clauses:

"Nowhere in the New Testament more than here (Hebrews) do we find such repeated insistence that continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality. The doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints has as its corollary the salutary teaching that the saints are people who persevere to the end."1

The condition of persevering faith should not be viewed as "works" of performance that merit God's action or require God to act in certain ways. God's actions are not contingent on what man does. The only condition of responsibility that man has is to exercise the freedom of choice that God created us with, choosing and deciding to be receptive to God's activity in faith. God does not impose Himself upon us. A faith-love relationship with God cannot (by definition) be coerced. Christians, having initially been receptive in faith to Christ's performance on their behalf, and having experienced the blessing of Christ's presence and activity, still have freedom of choice and the responsibility to exercise such in receptivity to Christ's activity. "As you received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him" (Col. 2:6) ­ in faith and continued faithfulness. The failure and refusal to continue to be receptive to God's activity in faith puts us in jeopardy of final, fixed and fatal consequences of "standing against" God in apostasy.

The avoidance of such consequences, as were previewed in God's actions against the People of Israel in the wilderness, is what Paul was cautioning his readers about. The way to avoid such consequences is to avoid the Israelites' pattern of faithlessness. The means by which Christians can do so is to recognize and rely on the "better ground of faithfulness" in Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of Jesus (3:2,6) in accomplishing all that God wanted to do through Him in establishing the new covenant, being faithfully "obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8), allowed for a more glorious (cf. 3:3) reality than was ever available through Moses. By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead the grace-dynamic of God's divine activity is available to those who are receptive to Him. Christians, who are "partakers of Christ" (3:14) and "partakers of the heavenly calling" (3:1), have "all things pertaining to life and godliness" as "partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:3,4), and thus have the "better ground of faithfulness" in God's dynamic provision of grace, as they remain receptive to such in faith.

FOOTNOTE

1    Bruce, F.F., The Epistle to the Hebrews. Series: The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1964. pg. 59.