Reflections on Hebrews 3

Hebrews 03 (Contemporary English Version)


1. My friends, God has chosen you to be his holy people. So think about Jesus, the one we call our apostle and high priest!
2. Jesus was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in serving all of God's people.
3. But Jesus deserves more honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves more honor than the house.
4. Of course, every house is built by someone, and God is really the one who built everything.
5. Moses was a faithful servant and told God's people what would be said in the future.
6. But Christ is the Son in charge of God's people. And we are those people, if we keep on being brave and don't lose hope.
7. It is just as the Holy Spirit says, "If you hear God's voice today,
8. don't be stubborn! Don't rebel like those people who were tested in the desert. *
9. For forty years your ancestors tested God and saw the things he did.
10. "Then God got tired of them and said, 'You people never show good sense, and you don't understand what I want you to do.'
11. God became angry and told the people, 'You will never enter my place of rest!' "
12. My friends, watch out! Don't let evil thoughts or doubts make any of you turn from the living God.
13. You must encourage one another each day. And you must keep on while there is still a time that can be called "today." If you don't, then sin may fool some of you and make you stubborn.
14. We were sure about Christ when we first became his people. So let's hold tightly to our faith until the end.
15. The Scriptures say, "If you hear his voice today, don't be stubborn like those who rebelled."
16. Who were those people that heard God's voice and rebelled? Weren't they the same ones that came out of Egypt with Moses?
17. Who were the people that made God angry for forty years? Weren't they the ones that sinned and died in the desert?
18. And who did God say would never enter his place of rest? Weren't they the ones that disobeyed him?
19. We see that those people did not enter the place of rest because they did not have faith.
    
    

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    Chapter 3 consists of a warning which comes to its point in verse 14: "For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start." (3:14) The writer here is referring to the true test of faith - perseverence. Faith that remains as firm at the end as it was in the beginning is a true faith. For whomever this proves to be the case, that person proves to be a companion, or partner, of the Messiah. Many see this as a reference to losing one's salvation. But it instead refers to a faith that validates our salvation. A faith that does not "hold firmly until the end" was not a true faith in the beginning.
    
    Moses is used early in the chapter as an example of faithfulness "as a servant in all God's household." But greater than Moses is Christ who was "faithful as a Son over His household, whose household we are if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope." It is in this role as faithful sons over Christ's household that we share with Him as His partners. The readers, then and now, are warned not to "harden your hearts as in the rebellion," referring to Israel's rebellion in the wilderness. (3:15) Those that Moses led out of Egypt toward the Promised Land saw God's works for 40 years but still rebelled, revoking their privilege