Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 3

Verses 1-7

11 The destruction of the earth and the heavens is but a crisis in their change (12), for they are not to be made non-existent, but created anew. All things are in a state of flux until the consummation. Only the Son remains the same, and through Him all else attains permanence and perfection.

13 David's Son and David's Lord will, like David, subdue all His enemies ( 1Ch_22:18 ; Psa_110:1 ). It is the very essence of His glory that this is only "till". When the last enemy has been abolished, the Son subordinates Himself. All enmity being banished, His sovereignty ceases.

14 Nothing is said here of the great part which angels play in judgment, for judgment, in its last analysis, is but a prelude to salvation. Paul never mentions any such angelic ministry, because our nearness to God precludes the necessity of any intermediaries. The higher the revelation, the nearer we approach the consummation, the more intimate is the creatures' fellowship with God and the less need there is of any link until finally all these vanish when God becomes All in all.

1-4 Here the teaching of Hebrews is definitely linked to that of the Lord in the gospels and those who heard him, in the Acts. Paul's ministries are thus carefully excluded. The fact that these ministries had failed to eventuate in the kingdom, is the ground for this exhortation, for, doubtless many paid no further heed to the promises, now that they seem to have failed of fruition. That the kingdom is in view is shown in the next paragraph. A study of the contexts of the above quotations reveals the fact that they all deal with "the future inhabited earth whereof we speak".

5 Nowhere are messengers or angels accorded a place of rule. In the future, in the heavens, we shall judge them. On the earth the Circumcision saints will have dominion. Even now the sovereignties and authorities in the heavens are distinguished from the messengers ( Rev_5:8-12 ).

6 Man's inferiority to angels is only temporary. In the resurrection they will no longer be greater in strength and power ( 2Pe_2:11 ).

7 Even in the heavens the saints of this economy will be above them. This is only hinted at in Hebrews. 8 The immediate "all" refers only to the earth (Ps.8).

8 The resurrection and exaltation of the suffering Saviour is the promise and pledge that He will elevate all who are His during the eons into the place of dominion over the universe. Only the One Who has been lowest can claim the place supreme.

9 The words "in the grace of God" may, originally, have been "apart from God". This reading is supported by several early fathers and versions, as well as by the context.

1 It is not easy, in English, to distinguish between the celestial calling, here referred to, and the "calling above" ( Php_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 ( Heb_1:3 ), His seat ( Heb_1:20 ), our seat ( Heb_2:6 ), the sovereignties and authorities ( Heb_3:16 ), our conflict ( Heb_6:12 ). This is in the dative case, which gives us the place in which anything is found. It occurs once in Hebrews ( Heb_12:22 ). The genitive denotes source or character. The shadow of the divine service of the celestials ( Heb_8:5 ) was on earth. So the city sought by the faithful ( Heb_11:16 ) will descend to earth

( Rev_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 ( Rom_11:29 ), for God's glory ( 1Co_1:26 ), fraught with the highest expectations ( Eph_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 ( 2Ti_1:9 ), but this calling is conditional ( Heb_3:6-14 ) as in Peter, who exhorts his readers to confirm their calling through ideal acts ( 2Pe_1:10 ). The spiritual in Israel are God's house ( 1Pe_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.

Verses 8-19

7 The Hebrew of Psa_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 (Nu. 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 ( Exo_17:1-7 ; Num_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.

3 That the entrance into the land was only a typical suggestion of the reality is evident when the psalmist speaks of a future entrance. The word "rest" is not a correct rendering of the Hebrew "sabbath" or the Greek word here used. God was not tired when He first instituted the sabbath ( Gen_2:2 ). He stopped, not rested. So the unbeliever is not asked to rest from his works, to gather strength to resume them, but to stop because God has finished His work. Joshua (in Greek the same as Jesus) signifies Jehovah the Saviour. He brought them into the land. Hence, while Moses and Aaron are discussed at length, their ministry being in the wilderness, Joshua is barely mentioned. This shows how consistently this epistle clings to the wilderness experiences of Israel. It is not concerned with the entrance into the promises.

9 The sabbatism which remains for Israel is the millennial kingdom. Those who, like Caleb and Joshua, spy out the land, and have confidence that God will fulfill His promise, enjoy the sabbatism by faith. All the rest are strewn along the wilderness.

12 The soul has to do with the physical senses. It is usually confused with the spirit. The nation in the wilderness was soulish. They sighed for the flesh pots of Egypt. They were sensual. So too with the people in our Lord's day, who responded to the loaves and fishes, but could not digest His words. And this is the danger with these Hebrew believers. They sighed for the physical blessings of the kingdom. But when the signs which accompanied its proclamation in the Pentecostal era withdrew, they fell away. Only the word of God is able to judge whether an action is spiritual or soulish.

13 "Him to Whom we are accountable" is an impressive and suggestive description of God whose Word makes apparent every thought of the heart.

14 Priesthood is a standing symbol of distance and alienation. There was no priest in Eden. There is no temple in the new creation ( Rev_21:22 ). In the present economy of grace each one has unhindered access, by one spirit, to the Father ( Eph_2:18 ). The Aaronic priesthood arose out of Moses' inability to perform all the functions of a mediator. As Christ has no such disabilities He exercises all the duties pertaining to mediatorship, and thus becomes a Priest of a different order. From the time when no priest was needed, through Melchizedek, who was both priest and king, down to Aaron was a descent. The ascent is through Christ, Who is both Priest and King, to the last eon, when priesthood vanishes in reconciliation.