Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 3

Verses 1-19

1 It is not easy, in English, to distinguish between the celestial calling, here referred to, and the "calling above" (Philippians 3:14) of Paul's latest revelation. That which is celestial as to location is often spoken of in Ephesians, as our blessing among the celestials (Hebrews 1:3), His seat (Hebrews 1:13), our seat (Hebrews 2:6), the sovereignties and authorities (Hebrews 3:16), our conflict (Hebrews 6:12). This is in the dative case, which gives us the place in which anything is found. It occurs once in Hebrews (Hebrews 12:22). The genitive denotes source or character. The shadow of the divine service of the celestials (Hebrews 8:5) was on earth. So the city sought by the faithful (Hebrews 11:16) will descend to earth

(Revelation 21:10), and the celestial calling is from the ascended Christ, not to heaven, but from heaven. We are called to heaven, the Hebrews are addressed from heaven. They have no part in the calling above. Their blessings, though celestial in character, are on earth. Our calling is gracious (Romans 11:29), for God's glory (1 Corinthians 1:26), fraught with the highest expectations (Ephesians 1:18), not in accord with our acts, but in accord with His own purpose and the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before eonian times (2 Timothy 1:9), but this calling is conditional (Hebrews 3:6-14) as in Peter, who exhorts his readers to confirm their calling through ideal acts (2 Peter 1:10). The spiritual in Israel are God's house (1 Peter 2:5). Just as, at the exodus, Moses was over the nation, so now, God's Son is their Mediator. And as Moses combined the office of apostle with that of priest, so Christ is commissioned by God to the people and stands before God for the people.

7 The Pentecostal period is the antitype of the wilderness experiences. As Israel wandered forty years in the desert, so now they wander a like period in the wastes of unbelief. The kingdom does not come.

7 The Hebrew of Psalms 95:7-11 reads ''as at Meribah" and "the day of Massah", and the passage refers to the twentieth of Numbers. The quotation substitutes their meanings. Meribah is "contention," or "bitterness," Massah is "trial." Thus he brings before us the two great occasions which exhibited the unbelief of the people. They followed the report of the ten spies, and refused to go into the land (Numbers 13, 14). Jehovah proposed to wipe them out and make a greater nation of Moses. But He relented, yet doomed them all, but Caleb and Joshua, to die in the wilderness. At Meribah or Massah the people had no water and they murmured against Moses and Jehovah (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13). All those in the wilderness had been redeemed out of Egypt, yet they failed to enter the land because of unbelief. The Pentecostal believers who are addressed here find themselves in precisely the same predicament. The Lord had come, offering the kingdom, but they had refused to enter in. Now again the kingdom had been proclaimed, and now those who had been redeemed murmur because the kingdom is not set up. This epistle is meant for those at Meribah. This quotation is the keynote of the warnings of this epistle. Despite them the bulk of the nation drew back, and we witness its wanderings to this day. Abraham was not an Israelite, nor a Jew, but his descendants who imitated his faith in obedience to the exhortations of this epistle are Hebrews indeed.