Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 3

Verses 1-6

Heb 3:1-6

Hebrews 3:1-6

Near the close of the last section (Hebrews 2:17), the Apostle, while dis­cussing the question of Christ’s humanity, refers for the first time to his priesthood. And hence we might reasonably expect that this would be made the next topic of discussion. But connected with this, and naturally and historically antecedent to it, is the apostle- ship of Christ. Moses preceded Aaron in the economy of the Old Testament; and Christ appeared as the Leader of God’s people, be­fore he entered on the duties of his priesthood. And hence while our author blends together in some measure the discussion of these two functions of Christ’s mediatorial office, he devotes the next section mainly to the consideration of his apostleship and such other matters as depend essentially on it. The following are the main points which he makes in the discussion and development of this part of his subject:

I. He shows the great superiority of Christ over Moses, as the Apostle of God. (Hebrews 3:1-6.)

1. In making this comparison between Christ and Moses, our author shows no disposition to disparage the latter in any way. He concedes that Moses was faithful to God in all his house (Hebrews 3:2). . .

2. But then he argues that according to the Divine arrange­ment, Christ is as much superior to Moses as he who builds a house is superior to the house itself (verse 3). This argument may be briefly stated as follows: God built all things, including, of course, both the Jewish house and the Christian house. But Christ is God, one with the Father (Hebrews 1:8.) And hence it follows, that Christ is as much superior to the Jewish or Old Testament house of God, including Moses himself and every other member of the

3. Theocracy, as he who builds a house is superior to it (Hebrews 3:4-5).

4. Furthermore, Moses was but a servant in the symbolical house of God; but Christ as a Son presides over the real house of God; which is to the symbolical house of the Old Testament econ­omy, as the substance is to the shadow (Hebrews 3:6).

II. From this subject, the transition to the pilgrimage of the Is­raelites under Moses and ours under Christ, is easy and natural (Hebrews 3:7-19).
1. According to Moses (Numbers 2:32-33), about six hundred thousand (603,550) Israelites, besides the Levites and the women and children, left Egypt with the fairest and
most encouraging prospects of entering Canaan.

2. But, nevertheless, very few of them ever reached the Prom­ised Land. They provoked God in the wilderness, till he finally swore in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest. (Numbers 14:22-30.)

3. From this chapter of sacred history, the Apostle therefore solemnly warns his Hebrew brethren, and through them also all the followers of Christ, of their many dangers, and of the necessity of their giving all diligence in order to make their calling and elec­tion sure during their earthly pilgrimage (Hebrews 3:12-18).

4. It is true that our advantages and privileges are now, in many respects, greatly superior to those of the ancient Israelites. But human nature is still the same; our greatest enemies are still the same; the deceitfulness of sin is the same; many of our trials and temptations are the same; and hence what was “written afore­time was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” It becomes all Chris­tians, therefore, to exhort and admonish one another daily Hebrews 3:13).

I. From the pilgrimage of the Jews under Moses and ours under Christ, the Apostle is next led to consider the rest which re­mains for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:1-10.)

1. The idea of rest was a very pleasant and consoling thought to the Israelites. They had long been accustomed to reflect on the many pleasures and advantages of a sanctified rest.

(1.) From the regular observance of the weekly Sabbath.

(2.) From the habit of sanctifying many other days to the Lord; as, for example, the first day of every month; the first and last day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, etc.

(3.) From celebrating the Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee.

(4.) From the ease and repose which they enjoyed in Canaan, compared with the many toils and trials which their fathers had endured in the wilderness. From all of which it is manifest, that in an argument designed for the encouragement of the Hebrew brethren, it was particularly necessary to dwell on this element of the Christian religion, and to show that there is a rest remaining for the people of God, that far transcends in importance any earthly rest that was ever enjoyed by the seed of Abraham accord­ing to the flesh.

2. But just here the Apostle seems to have anticipated an objec­tion which might peradventure be urged by the judaizing party. That most of the Old Testament references to the heavenly rest were made through types and shadows there can be no doubt. And with some it might, therefore, be a question, whether in such portions of Scripture there is really anything more intended or implied than the mere temporal rest to which the ancient Prophets primarily referred.

3. To this question he makes the following reply:

(1.) He refers to Psalms 95:7, from which he proves that God in his wrath had sworn to the Israelites under Moses, that they should not enter into his rest. And hence he argues that this could not be the Sabbatical rest, because it was instituted in the begin­ning when God finished the work of creation (Genesis 2:2), and had been enjoyed by the Israelites throughout all their journeyings (Exodus 16:22-31). And hence it follows that there must be another rest for the people of God: a rest into which the rebellious Israel­ites under Moses never entered (verses 3-6).

(2.) But lest it might be supposed that the promise of God guaranteeing rest to his people, was fulfilled in its fullest and ulti­mate sense when the Israelites under Joshua entered Canaan, the Apostle refers again to the ninety-fifth Psalm, and proves from it that even in the time of David, after the children of Israel had pos­sessed the land of Canaan for nearly five hundred years—even then there was danger that the living generation would, like their fa­thers, be excluded from the promised rest. From all of which, it clearly follows that there is still a rest remaining for the people of God. For as our author says, if Joshua had given the people rest in the land of Canaan, then most assuredly God would not after­ward have spoken of another rest by the mouth of his servant David (verses 7-9).

II. The section closes with a renewed exhortation to labor ear­nestly to enter into the rest of God, especially in view of the heart-searching character of his word by which we are all to be judged at the last day (Hebrews 3:11-13)

1. Here we may often deceive one another; and sometimes we may even deceive ourselves; but nothing can escape the eye of God and the all-permeating power of his word.

2. And hence the necessity of the most careful and constant self-examination, lest, like the Israelites, we too fall short of the promised rest.

Under this section, we have therefore the four following para­graphs :

I. Hebrews 3:1-6. Christ superior to Moses.

II. Hebrews 3:7-19. Exhortations and warnings drawn from the exam­ple of the Israelites under Moses.

III. Hebrews 4:1-10. Concerning the rest which remains for the people of God.

IV. Hebrews 4:11-13. Renewed exhortation to strive earnestly to enter into God’s rest, in view especially of the all-penetrating and heart­searching character of God’s word.

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES
Hebrews 3:1-6

Hebrews 3:1 ---Wherefore,—We have here a very beautiful illustration of the easy and natural manner in which our author passes from one sub­ject to another. The word “wherefore” (hothen) is illative, and shows the very close and intimate connection of what follows in this verse, with what has been said of Christ in the two preceding chapters; and especially in the last paragraph of the second chap­ter. But what is here introduced as a consequence from premises considered, is made also a ground of transition to another subject.

Hebrews 3:1 ---holy brethren,—These were the Hebrew Christians. They are addressed here by the Apostle, not as Jews, nor as brethren of Christ, but as his own brethren in Christ. And they are called holy brethren, not because they were all in possession of that holi­ness of heart which the Gospel requires, but because they had all professed to believe in Christ, to put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), and to be separated from the world as the peculiar people of God. In this sense, the Corinthian brethren are all called saints (agioi, 1 Corinthians 1:2); though we are assured by Paul in both his letters to the Corinthian Church, that some of them were very impure men. See references, and notes on Hebrews 2:11.

Hebrews 3:1 ---partakers of the heavenly calling,—The word rendered calling (kleesis), means properly a call, a summons, an invitation; and hence by metonymy it means also the state or condition into which anyone is called. In 1 Corinthians 7:17-20, for example, Paul says to the Corinthian brethren, “As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk; and so I ordain in all the churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not be uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” In this passage, the word calling evi­dently refers to the social rank and secular condition of each indi­vidual when he was called of God to partake of the “heavenly call­ing” ; some were Jews and some were Gentiles, some were slaves and some were freemen. The “heavenly calling,” according to Paul, is not designed to nullify and set aside arbitrarily and uncon­ditionally all such distinctions. The Jew, though converted to Christ, might nevertheless consistently remain in circumcision; and the Gentile, in uncircumcision. In this metonymical sense the word calling is used in our text to denote, not merely God’s gra­cious invitation to sinners, but also and more particularly the bene­fits of this invitation; having special reference to the present state and condition of those who, in obedience to God’s call, have put on Christ as he is offered to us in the Gospel. It is the high and holy calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14), to which our author here refers. And this is denominated a heavenly calling because it comes from Heaven, leads to Heaven, and fills with heavenly joys the hearts of all who are made partakers of it.

Hebrews 3:1 ---consider the apostle and high priest—Meditate carefully and profoundly (katanoeesate) on the nature and character of Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Our author makes here an earnest appeal to his Hebrew brethren to consider well all that he had said, and all that he was about to say, concerning Christ; to think of his Divinity, his humanity, his sufferings, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his glorification, his universal dominion, his love, his sympathies, and every other attribute and perfection of his character. And this he does for the purpose of confirming and strengthening their faith, increasing their love, and guarding them against the sin of apostasy.

The word apostle (apostelos) means one who is sent: a messen­ger of any kind. In this sense it is here applied to Christ, as the one sent by God for the redemption of mankind. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14.) Christ is then the Apostle of God under the New Economy as Moses was his Apostle under the Old Economy. True, indeed, Moses is nowhere called the Apostle of God in the Holy Scrip­tures; but words equivalent to these occur frequently in the Old Testament. In Exodus 3:10, for example, God says to Moses, “Come, now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou may- est bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” And in the twelfth verse of the same chapter he says, “And this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee.” See also Exodus 3:13-15 Exodus 4:28 Exodus 5:22 Exodus 7:16, etc. It is evident, therefore, that our author here applies this term to Christ as the Apostle, or Messen­ger, of the New Covenant (Mai. 3: 1), for the purpose of compar­ing him in this capacity with Moses the renowned and honored Apostle of the Old Covenant. They were both sent by God; and were therefore the Apostles of God. But the ministry of Christ, as Paul now proceeds to show, was far superior to that of Moses. In the fourth, sixth, and eighth sections of the Epistle, the priesthood of Christ is compared with that of Aaron, and shown to be supe­rior to it in every respect.

Hebrews 3:1 ---of our profession,—The Greek word here rendered profession (homologia) means (1) an agreement or compact; and (2) an ad­mission, acknowledgment, or confession. It is God’s prerogative to speak (legein), and it is man’s duty and privilege to acknowl­edge (homologein) the justice and propriety of what he says. Thus God spoke the words of the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai (Exodus 20-23), and the people then acknowledged his words, and consented to observe and do all that he had commanded (Exodus 24 :3)

In like manner God has made known to us all the terms and stipulations of the New Covenant; and to these he requires us to give a hearty and unreserved assent and acknowledgment. But as Christ is himself the central truth, the Alpha and the Omega, of the New Covenant, it follows of course that all things pertaining to it are briefly summed up in the confession that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16.) “On this rock,” says Christ, “I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:17.) This soon became publicly known as “The Confession” of the primitive Christians; and hence it is that the Greek article is always prefixed to the noun which is used to express it. In Paul’s first Epistle to Timothy, for exam­ple, he says to him, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eter­nal life to which thou wast called, and didst confess the good con­fession (teen kaleen homologian) before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12.) And in the next verse he says, “I charge thee in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot and without reproach until the appear­ing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” See also Hebrews 4:14 Hebrews 10:23; 2 Corinthians 9:13. In all these passages the Greek article is used before the noun (homologia), as in 1 Timothy 6:12, to denote that the con­fession made by Christ and Timothy was the common and well- known confession that was then required of all, as a condition of church-membership. For as Paul says to the Roman brethren, “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). And Christ says, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 10:32.)

When the confession is made publicly in the presence of wit­nesses, it may also be called, as in our text, a profession (profes- sio); which means simply a public avowal of one’s belief and senti­ments. But the word confession or acknowledgment better ex­presses the meaning of the Apostle, and is also more in harmony with Greek usage.

Hebrews 3:2 ---Who was faithful to him that appointed him,—More liter­ally, as being faithful to him that made him. The present participie being (onta) indicates that fidelity to God is an abiding and perpetual characteristic of Christ in his whole sphere of labor. He came to do the will of him that sent him. (John 4:34.) This he did while he tabernacled with us here on Earth; and this he is now doing in the discharge of the higher functions of his mediatorial reign. In his hands, the government of God and the interests of mankind are alike perfectly secure. Sooner will Heaven and Earth pass away, than even one jot or one tittle of the Divine law fail in his hands.

He that appointed or made (to poieesanti) him, is, of course, God the Father. The reference here is not, as some think, to Christ’s being eternally begotten of the Father (Bleek, Liine- mann); nor is it, as others allege, to his incarnation (Athanasius, Ambrose); but it is simply to his being officially appointed by the Father (De Wette, Delijzsch, etc.) ; to his being made the Apostle and High Priest of ou£ confession. “It is the Lord,” says Samuel, “that advanced Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.” (1 Samuel 12:6.) Here the Hebrew word rendered advanced means, literally, made, and it is so rendered in the Septuagint. (ho poieesan ton Mouseen kai ton Aaron.) It is, however, quite manifest that Samuel refers here, not to the crea­tion of Moses and Aaron as men, but to their official appointment as the Apostle and High Priest of the Old Covenant. See Mark 3:14. And so also the word (poieo) is used in our text. God has made Jesus both the Apostle and High Priest of our confes­sion ; and in the discharge of all the duties appertaining to these sacred functions, he (Jesus) has always been faithful.

Hebrews 3:2 ---as also Moses was faithful in all his house.—That Moses was faithful in the discharge of all the duties of his office, God has him­self borne witness. “If,” says he in his admonition to Aaron and Miriam, “there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make my­self known to him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.” (Numbers 12:6-8.)

This much, then, is evident, that Moses was faithful to him that appointed him, in the discharge of all his official duties. But what is the meaning of the word house (oikos) in this connection? and to whom does the pronoun his (autou) refer?

A house is a dwelling-place; and the word is manifestly used here to designate the Church of the Israelites, as God’s ancient dwelling place. This is obvious (1) from the context. We learn from the sixth verse of this chapter, that the house over which Christ now presides and in which he officiates, is the Christian Church; which, as Paul says in his Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:20-22), is a holy temple, fitly framed together, and designed as a habitation or dwelling-place of God through the Spirit. See also 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5, etc.

The same thing is made evident also from the consideration of sundry other parallel passages, in which God is represented as ac­tually dwelling among the ancient Israelites. In Exodus 25:8, for ex­ample, God says to Moses, “Let them [the Israelites] make me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” And in Exodus 29:45, he says, “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God.” See also Leviticus 26:12; 1 Kings 6:11-13, etc. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the house in which Moses was faithful as the steward of God, was the house of Israel; the same as the Church of God in the wilderness. (Acts 7:38.)

Let us, then, next inquire for the proper antecedent of the pro­noun his (autou) in this connection. What is it? Some think that the word his is used here to represent Christ; and that the Apostle means to say that Moses was faithful in the house of Christ. This is Bleek’s opinion; but it is forced and unnatural, and scarcely de­serves to be mentioned. Others make the pronoun refer to Moses, regarding it, not as a genitive of possession, but of locality. According to this construction the meaning of the Apostle is sim­ply this: that Moses was faithful in the house to which he belonged and in which he served. This opinion, supported by Ebrard and others, is thought to be plausible and in no way inconsistent with the context. But others again, as Delitzsch and Alford, maintain with more probability that this pronoun refers to God as its proper antecedent; to him who appointed both Moses and Christ to their official positions; the one as a servant in the Old Testament house, and the other as a Son over the house of the New Testament. This construction is favored by the reference which our author makes to Num. 12: 7, where God says as above, “My servant Moses ... is faithful in all mine house." This view is also most in harmony with New Testament usage. See references.

Whatever may be thought of these minor points of grammatical construction, the general scope of this verse is very plain and obvi­ous. Our author, wishing to compare Christ with Moses, refers first with great delicacy and propriety to one point in which they may within certain limits be regarded as equal. They were both faithful to him who appointed them, in their proper spheres of labor. But having conceded so much, the Apostle now proceeds to show that the difference between them is really infinite.

Hebrews 3:3 ---For this man, etc.—This verse in connection with the three following, has long been a stumbling-block in the way of many commentators. And it must be confessed that the passage is very elliptical, and that the construction is therefore somewhat obscure. But the argument of the Apostle manifestly implies that Christ sustains to Moses the same relation that the person who builds and furnishes a house sustains to the house itself. Consider well, he says, Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; for though he and Moses were both faithful to him who appointed them, he has nevertheless been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in proportion as he who has builded and furnished a house has more honor than the house. Why so? Manifestly, because Christ is here regarded as the builder and furnisher of the whole house of Israel, of which Moses himself was but a member.

But how, it is asked, could this be, since Jesus was not born for fifteen hundred years after the birth of Moses ? And how, we may ask in reply and with equal propriety, could God by his Son make the worlds many ages before the Logos became his Son ? See note on 1:2. How could Paul say to the Colossians (Colossians 1:16-18), “By him [God’s dear Son] were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist; and he is the head of the body, the Church; that in all things he might have the preeminence” ? And how could the beloved John say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made”? How could the Word be God and be also with God ? The truth is, we often confound ourselves and our readers by endeavoring to comprehend and explain, not indeed what is contrary to our rea­son, but what is infinitely above it. The sublime truth is, however, clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures, and in no part of them more clearly than in the first chapter of our Epistle, that the Father and the Son are both God; both included in the Eloheem Jehovah of the Old Testament, and the Lord God Omnipotent of the New; and that each of them, as well as the Holy Spirit, has an agency in all that pertains to the redemption of mankind. Jesus, as our au­thor avers in 12: 2, is both “the Author and the Finisher of the faith.” The laws and ordinances of the Patriarchal and the Jewish age, as well as those of the Christian age, are all the product of his wisdom and benevolence, as well as of the wisdom and benevolence of the Father. And hence it may be truthfully said, that he, as God, was the builder and furnisher (ho kataskeuasas) of the whole house of Israel, including Moses and everything else that per­tained to it.

Hebrews 3:4 ---For every house is builded by some man;—This is a sort of axiomatic expression which the Apostle throws in here for the purpose of connecting more clearly and distinctly the more remote links on his chain of argument. The nation of Israel under the Theocracy was a house, a dwelling-place of the Most High. And as such it must of course have had a builder and furnisher: “for every house is builded by some one.” A design always implies a designer; and the building of every house implies a chief architect. Under him there may of course be many subordinates; but in order to secure unity of design there must of necessity be a chief designer. And just so it was with the house of Israel. It was built, and its affairs were administered through the agency of both men and angels. But still, God himself (including the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) was the Supreme Architect in building the house of Israel, as well as in building the universe. And hence it follows, as before stated, that Jesus in his entire personality, in­cluding his Divine as well as his human nature, is as much supe­rior to Moses, as the builder of a house is to the house itself.

I am aware that their is in the human mind a tendency to think of Christ merely as a man; and so to bring him down in our con­ceptions to an equality with creatures of high and exalted intelli­gence. And I am also aware that with such opinions concerning him, no one can understand the reasoning of Paul in this connec­tion. No Socinian or Arian can ever give us a fair and consistent explanation of this short paragraph. But surely the Apostle never intended to call on his Hebrew brethren or any one else to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, merely as a man. For if so, then why does he present to us so fully the evi­dence of his Divinity in the first chapter of this Epistle? To my mind it is quite evident that he purposely discusses the leading questions relating to both the Divinity and the humanity of Christ, before he attempts to compare him with Moses, the Apostle of the Old Covenant. And then he calls on us to consider him as the Creator and Founder of all things, including the Jewish Theocracy as well as the Christian Church. In this view of the matter, all is plain and simple.

Hebrews 3:5 ---And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a ser­vant,—In this and the following verse, the Apostle proceeds to state two other points in which Moses was inferior to Christ: (1) Moses was but a servant (therapon) a waiting-man in the house of God; but Christ as a Son presides over the house of his Father. (2) The house in which Moses served was far inferior to that over which Christ presides. True, indeed, each of them is called the house of God; but the former was to the latter as the type is to the antitype, or as the shadow is to the subsance. (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1.) The Law was given through Moses on account of trans­gression, till the Seed should come (Galatians 3:19) ; and it was de­signed to serve (a) as a code of rules and regulations for the polit­ical government of the Israelites (1 Timothy 1:9). (b) It was given to convict men of sin; and thus to make them feel the necessity of a better covenant established on better promises. (Rom. 7:7.) (c) It was designed to restrain transgression, and so to prevent the uni­versal spread of idolatry previous to the coming of the Messiah. (Dan. 9:24.) But (d) the main design of the Sinaitic Covenant in its fullest and widest sense, embracing its subjects, ordinances, rites, and services, was to furnish to the world clear and unmistak­able evidence as to the Divine origin of the Church of Christ and all that pertains to it. The ministry of Moses was therefore intended to be “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after,” concerning Christ and his Church. (John 5:45-47.) And hence the particularity with which Moses was instructed to make the “Tabernacle of witness” and all that belonged to it. “See,” said God to him, “that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” (8:5.) Had Moses possessed the spirit of Cain or of some modern Rationalist, he might have so far departed from his received instructions, that there would really be now but little, if any, resemblance between the ordinances of the Old and the New Economy. But not so. He was faithful to the trust committed to him. He made “all things according to the pat­tern showed to him in the mount”; and so the intended harmony between the Old and New Institutions has been fully preserved. Anyone may now easily perceive not only that there are many ex­isting analogies between the Church of God under the Old Cove­nant and the Church of Christ under the New, but if he carefully examine the evidence submitted he will see further that these anal­ogies were all designed and preordained by him who sees the end from the beginning, and who does all things according to the coun­sel of his own will. And hence no amount of sophistry can now fairly set aside the evidence given through the writings of Moses that the same all-wise and benevolent Being who anciently spoke unto the Fathers by the Prophets, has also in these last days spo­ken unto us by his Son and his Apostles.

Hebrews 3:6 ---But Christ as a Son over his own house, etc.—Or rather, But Christ as a Son is faithful over his [God’s] house. Moses was faithful in the Old Testament house of God, as a servant; but Christ is faithful over the New Testament house of God, as a Son. There is no authority whatever for the use of the word “own” in this connection. The Greek pronoun rendered his (autou) is of the same form and import in the second, fifth, and sixth verses, refer­ring, no doubt, to God in every case. See note on verse 2. And ac­cordingly in Hebrews 10:21-22, our author says in the conclusion of his argument on the priesthood, “Having [then] a High Priest [Jesus Christ] over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Th expres­sion, house of Christ, does not occur in the Bible; but the phrase, “house of God,” is of frequent occurrence. See references.

Hebrews 3:6 ---whose house are we,—The Apostle here evidently intends to make a distinction between the Old Testament house of God in which Moses officiated as a servant, and the New Testament house of God over which Christ presides as a Son and High Priest. The former was composed of Israelites according to the flesh; but the latter is composed of Christians, or Israelites according to the Spirit. The former was an earthly, transitory, and typical house; but the latter is a heavenly, imperishable, and spiritual house. The former was the shadow, and the latter is the substance. The former was constructed and its services were performed for a testimony of the good things which were to be spoken afterward; but the latter is the sublime and glorious reality itself, concerning which Moses and all the other Prophets have borne witness.

Hebrews 3:6 ---if we hold fast the confidence, etc.—The present tense in the first member of this clause, “whose house are (esmen) we," is used for both the present and the future. As if the Apostle had said, We are now of the spiritual house of God, and we will ever belong to it, if we hold fast the confidence and the boasting of hope firm to the end of life. This use of the present tense for both the present and future, and indeed for all time, is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament. In John 12:26, for example, Jesus says to his disciples, “If any man serve me let him follow me; and where I am (eimi) there shall also my servant be." And in John 14:3, he says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am (einii) there ye may be also.” See Winer’s Gram. Section 40, 2, a.

The Greek word rendered confidence (parreesia) means (1) freeness and boldness of speech, and (2) that confidence which prompts any one to the use of such freedom of speech. In the Gospels and Acts, it is generally used in the former sense; but in the Epistles, it always means an inward state of full and undis­turbed confidence. See, for example, 6: 11; 10: 19, 35. The word rendered rejoicing (kaucheema) means properly boasting, or a matter of boasting. And hope (elpis) is used here, not to de­note an affection of the mind, but rather the object of our hope, as in Romans 8:24.

The object of the Apostle, then, in the use of this clause, is sim­ply to encourage his Hebrew brethren to hold fast their confession, by assuring them that as they were then members of the house of God, so also they would ever continue to be members of it on con­dition that they would be faithful to the end of life. In that event, as he assures his Roman brethren, God would make all things work together for their good, so that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature” would be able to separate them “from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 8:28-39.)

Hebrews 3:6 ---firm unto the end:—That is, to the end of life; at which time ends also our state of probation. These words are supposed by some to be an interpolation from the fourteenth verse of this chap­ter, and as such are rejected by Tischendorf, Green, and Alford, on the authority of the Vatican Manuscript, the Aethiopic Version, and certain citations made by Ambrose and Lucifer. But as they are found in manuscripts A, C, D, K, L, M, and also in the Latin Vulgate, it is not surprising that they should be retained and de­fended as genuine by Tholuck, Liinemann, and others.

Commentary on Hebrews 3:1-6 by Don E. Boatman

Hebrews 3:1 --Wherefore holy brethren

They are brethren, not by race or nationality, but by belief.

a. It is impossible to have brotherhood when the fundamentals of faith are denied.

b. International brotherhood will not be attained until men are brothers in Christ.

The verse speaks of “holy” brethren.

a. In what way are we holy?

1. We are made holy by sanctification at our baptism when we bury the old man of sin and rise to walk in newness of life.

2. We are holy if we walk in holiness.

b. None will see God unless holiness is present. cf. Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 12:14.

c. Church people need to live up to the name, “holy brethren”.

Hebrews 3:1 --partakers of a heavenly calling

God’s heavenly, or holy, calling comes through the Word:

a. Heavenly agencies sometimes are used to bring preacher and convert together, but the call comes through preaching.

1. Peter and the household of Cornelius were brought together, but the Word called Cornelius and his household to salvation.

2. Paul was brought to the preacher by a heavenly instrumentality, but he was told what to do to be saved. Acts 9:6.

b. This call is to a unique life:

1. 1 Corinthians 1:2 : “—called to be saints.”

2. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 : “—called . . . to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

3. Galatians 5:13 : “—called for freedom.”

4. Romans 1:6 : “—called to be Jesus Christ’s.”

Hebrews 3:1 --consider the Apostle

Singular attention is now to be given to Jesus Christ for several reasons:

a. He was faithful. Hebrews 3:2.

b. He was appointed. Hebrews 3:2.

c. He was counted of more glory than Moses. Hebrews 3:3.

d. He was a Son over His house. Hebrews 3:6.

Consider the apostleship of Jesus:

a. The word, “apostle” means, “one sent”. Jesus claimed to have been sent:

1. Luke 4:43 : “I must preach. . . . for therefore was I sent.”

2. Luke 20:9-16 : He was the Son in the parable of the husbandman.

b. To whom was He sent?

1. Strictly speaking, to the Jews:

a) Matthew 15:24 : “—unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

b) John 1:11 : “He came unto His own.”

2. Purposefully speaking, to all men:

a) 1 John 4:14 : “—to be the Saviour of the world.”

b) John 3:16 : “—the world.”

Hebrews 3:1 --and High Priest

The priestly system is more easily understood by some than by others:

a. The Jews had a priestly system. See Leviticus 16.

b. Most heathen groups have a priestly system, although it is a very corrupt one.

The Christian’s High Priest is Christ, Who is perfect, without sin and at the right hand of God.

Hebrews 3:1 --of our confession

The word “confession” is translated “profession” in the King James version:

a. It is the Greek word, homologia, used in several other places:

1. 1 Timothy 6:12 : “Profession” in K.J.; “confession” in A.S.

2. 2 Corinthians 9:13 : “Profession” in K.J.; “confession” in A.S.

3. Hebrews 4:14 : “Profession” in K.J.; “confession” in A.S.

4. Hebrews 10:23 : “Profession” in K.J.; “confession” in A.S.

b. We do confess our faith in a person:

1. Matthew 10:32.

2. Romans 10:9-10.

c. The confession of our faith is a profession; we confess faith, which obligates us to a way of life:

The idea of profession is challenged by Newell. (p. 80)

a. He seeks to emphasize that it is a confession in a person, and not a way of life.

b. In reality, he is correct. We do confess faith, but the idea of profession is too often left out, so people are baptized and come out “wet sinners.”

Hebrews 3:1 --even Jesus

What are we to confess about Jesus?

a. Matthew 16:13-18 : “The Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

b. 1 John 4:15 : “Jesus is the Son of God.”

Some confess Him to be only a good, moral martyr.

What about those who will not confess the truth?

a. 2 John 1:7 : They are deceivers, and the anti-Christ.

b. 1 John 2:22 : They are liars.

Hebrews 3:2 --who was faithful

The faithfulness of Jesus stands out:

a. He was faithful to God in temptation.

b. He was faithful to God in the miracles, giving God the glory.

c. He was faithful in God’s work, His Father’s business.

Luke 2:49; Hebrews 3:2.

d. He was faithful even in death, Matthew 26:42; John 17:4; John 19:30, We may believe that He is now faithful in being our High Priest.

Hebrews 3:2 --to Him that appointed Him

This word, “appointed”, is also translated “advanced” or “made”;

a. Milligan suggests that the word refers not to origin, nor to begetting, but to task.

1. His example is 1 Samuel 12:6 : “The Lord advanced Moses and Aaron.”

2. Christ was appointed to a task. John 9:4; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 3:2.

3. It was a timely appointment.

4. Jesus came willingly to His appointment.

There are some appointments that should concern men:

a. A day to repent, Acts 17:30-31.

b. A day to die, Hebrews 9:27.

Hebrews 3:2 --as also was Moses in his house

Moses was a faithful person:

a. Hebrews 11:25 : He chose ill treatment with the people of God.

b. Exodus is a picture of wayward, whimpering Israel and faithful Moses:

1. They murmured, but Moses prayed.

2. They worshipped the golden calf, but Moses worshipped God.

c. Numbers 12:7 is a commendation of the faithful one. Israel was the house of God, not the house of Moses:

1. Exodus 25:8 : “Let them make me a sanctuary.”

2. Exodus 29:45 : “I will dwell among the children of Israel.”

Hebrews 3:3 --more glory than Moses in all his house

Moses was a glorious person:

a. He represents one division of the Old Testament. Luke 24:44.

b. He was selected to be transfigured with Jesus. Matthew 17.

c. Moses’ glory vanished. Matthew 17:5-6.

What is meant by “glory”?

a. It means fame, honor, brightness, splendor, praise.

b. Jesus is the most famous person in the world. Washington and Lincoln, are national heroes, but Jesus is international.

What can be said about Jesus’ glory, pertaining to time?

a. He had some glory on earth:

1. John 17:4 : “I have glorified Thee.”

2. John 7:37-39 : “Jesus was not yet glorified.”

b. He received glory after His earthly mission:

1. Acts 2:36 : “God hath made Him both Lord and Christ.”

2. 1 Peter 1:21 : “God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.”

c. The church is now glorifying Him: Ephesians 3:21.

d. His glory is yet to come:

1. Matthew 16:27 : He came in the glory of His Father.

2. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Hebrews 3:3 --more honor than the house:

Does this imply that Jesus built the house of Israel?

a. “Yes,” says Milligan. (p. 115)

b. Christ may be regarded as the Builder and Furnisher of the whole house of Israel, of which Moses himself was a member. Christ is eternal; He was the rock from which Israel drank, so this figure is reasonable.

Hebrews 3:4 --He that buildeth all things is God

The purpose of this verse is to establish the deity of Jesus.

Everything that is done should be ascribed to God.

1 Corinthians 3:6 : “Apollos watered, but God giveth the increase.”

Hebrews 3:5 --Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant

Several verses establish Moses’ faithfulness:

a. It is established in Hebrews 11:24-30.

b. He was faithful in building the Tabernacle according to the pattern, Exodus 25:40.

c. Numbers 12:7 : “—faithful in all my house.”

God’s house is referred to: cf. Numbers 12:7, “He is faithful in all my house.”

Moses was a servant: Numbers 12:8.

Hebrews 3:5 --afterward to be spoken

In this sense, Moses was speaking as a prophet and giving an example of faithfulness:

a. He was a herald of a doctrine to be published later.

b. He was a forerunner of a coming prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15.

c. His example is for all: 1 Corinthians 10:11; “These things happened . . . by way of example.”

Hebrews 3:6 --but Christ as a Son over his house

Moses was a servant, but Christ was a Son in God’s house:

a. This is only one of the many figures applied to Jesus:

1. Matthew 16:13-18 : He is the Builder.

2. 1 Peter 2:4-6 : He is Cornerstone.

3. Hebrews 3:6 : Son in the house.

4. Hebrews 10:21 : High priest over the house of God.

b. The word “own” appears in the King James version: “. . . over His own house.”

1. Milligan challenges this translation. “In this figure it is not His own house, but the house of God.”

2. The expression “house of Christ” never appears, but always the “house of God.”

a. Ephesians 2:19 : “Household of God.”

b. 1 Timothy 3:15 : “—in the house of God.”

c. Hebrews 10:21 : “—over the house of God.”

d. 1 Peter 4:17 : “—judgment begins at the house of God.”

e. Ephesians 2:22 : “—in whom ye are builders together.”

f. 1 Peter 2:7 : “—head of the corner.”

Hebrews 3:6 --Whose house are we

The former house was presided over by the High Priest and by Moses:

a. It was transitory and typical, a shadow of something better to come.

b. Now we are the glorious eternal house of God.

It is a joy to be a part of a house that cannot be destroyed:

a. Matthew 16:13-18 : The gates of Hades cannot prevail against it.

b. Matthew 7:24-27 : Storms of life will not destroy it.

Hebrews 3:6 --if we hold fast our boldness

Faithfulness is an absolute essential to salvation, for the book of Hebrews eliminates the doctrine of “once in grace, always in grace.”

a. We are of the household if we “hold fast”.

b. The implication is that when we turn loose, we are no longer in the house of God.

c. Many scriptures speak similarly:

1. Matthew 10:22 : “—endureth.”

2. Luke 9:62 : “—putteth his hand to the plow.”

3. Revelation 2:10 : “—faithful unto death.”

4. Hebrews 3:14 : “—if we hold fast.”

5. Hebrews 6:5-6 : “—fall away.”

The word “boldness” is also translated “confidence”:

a. It has the idea of freeness and boldness of speech.

b. “It means an inward state of full and undisturbed confidence.” (Milligan.)

Hebrews 3:6 --and the glorying of our hope

It is also translated, “the rejoicing of hope”:

a. This is a contrast to crying, complaining Israel.

b. Hope refers to the object of our faith.

1. It is in the realm of the unseen.

Romans 8:24 : “Hope that is seen is not hope.”

2. We hope for the glorious body, the new heaven and the new earth.

Hebrews 3:6 --firm unto the end

Our task is to complete a course that we have started:

a. God will save us because of our effort, not in spite of it.

b. A person cannot become a willful weakling and expect God to save him.

Study Questions

327. What is the great theme of Chapter Three?

328. What is it that makes men brethren?

329. Can we be called brothers to those who deny the fundamentals of brotherhood?

330. In what way are we made holy?

331. What is the descriptive word used concerning brethren? Is it important? cf. Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 12:14.

332. Do we live up to the term?

333. Of what are we partakers?

334. How is it a “heavenly” calling?

335. What heavenly agencies are used?

336. What agencies were used in the life of Peter? Paul?

337. Name some things related to our call concerning our character, relationship, etc.

338. Who is the apostle to be considered?

339. How can He be called an apostle? cf. Luke 4:43.

340. Name the various things said about Jesus in this verse.

341. To whom was Jesus sent primarily?

342. Did He claim to be sent to all men? cf. 1 John 4:14.

343. Does the Christian have a priest?

344. Is the idea developed in this verse? In the book of Hebrews?

345. How is Jesus our High Priest?

346. How often does He sacrifice?

347. What can be said about His sympathy?

348. What can be said about His character?

349. What is meant by the expression, “of our confession”?

350. What is the alternate word used for “confession” in the King James version?

351. Is our confession of faith in Christ also a pledge of profession?

352. What do we confess?

353. What do we confess about Him?

354. What does the scripture declare concerning those who will not confess that He is the Christ? cf. 2 John 1:7; 1 John 2:22.

355. Discuss the faithfulness of Christ throughout His life on earth. cf. Luke 2:49; Hebrews 12:2.

356. If Christ was faithful on earth, what may we suppose about Him now?

357. To whom was He faithful?

358. What does the word “appointed” mean?

359. Is the word “advanced” a good translation?

360. Does the word “made” carry the idea?

361. What appointment is referred to in Hebrews 3:2?

362. Who appointed who? To what was He appointed?

363. Did Jesus approach the appointment gladly?

364. What appointments has God made for the sinner?

365. Does the Christian have any appointments?

366. Discuss Jesus’ faithfulness on the cross. Matthew 26:42.

367. Discuss Moses’ faithfulness in the building of the Tabernacle.

368. Compare the waywardness of Israel with the faithfulness of Moses.

369. Discuss the house referred to here.

370. Is it God’s house or Moses’ house?

371. Was the Tabernacle, or sanctuary, ever spoken of as belonging to Moses?

372. Does the name of God appear in the original manuscript, as the new version would lead you to believe?

373. Tell of the glory of Moses in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

374. What does “glory” mean?

375. What glory had Jesus on earth?

376. What glory is ascribed to Christ in Acts; in the Epistles; in Revelation?

377. Should the church glorify Christ? cf. Ephesians 3:21.

378. Does Hebrews 3:5 infer that Moses did not build the house?

379. Does Hebrews 3:6 infer that Jesus built the house of Israel?

380. What scriptures teach Christ’s presence during the wilderness journey?

381. Should everything be ascribed to God?

382. Does everything that is made necessitate a builder?

383. Is there room for evolution in this verse?

384. Check different versions. Do they translate it (Hebrews 3:1-6) “His house”, or “God’s house”?

385. Consult verses that speak of Moses’ faithfulness. cf. Exodus 25:40; Numbers 12:7-8.

386. Whose house is spoken of in Numbers 12:8?

387. What relationship did Moses have to the house?

388. What is meant by “afterward to be spoken”?

389. Was Moses speaking a prophecy through his life or by an oral message?

390. Were these Old Testament experiences an example to us? cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11.

391. If Moses was a servant, what was Christ in God’s house?

392. Was Christ in the house or over it?

393. Is the idea of the faithfulness of Christ inferred here?

394. Is the word “own” that appears in the King James version a problem of exegesis? Whose house would it be if the word “own” is allowed?

395. Do we have the expression, “house of Christ”, in the New Testament?

396. Compare the verses that speak of the house of God, Ephesians 2:19; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 10:21; 1 Peter 4:17.

397. Who is in the house of God? Do Christians comprise it?

398. What qualification is made in this verse?

399. If we turn loose of our boldness, can we be of the house of God?

400. Is this true, “once in grace, always in grace”?

401. What are we to hold to?

402. What will keep us in God’s house?

403. Name some other scriptures which speak of man’s need for faithfulness.

404. What is “boldness”? What other word could be used.

405. How do we hold fast to our boldness?

406. What does the word “glorying” mean?

407. How do we glory in hope?

408. Is there room for complaint when our hope is alive?

409. What is a firm hope? How does hope differ from faith?

410. How long is our hope to be firm?

411. What “end” is meant?

Commentary on Hebrews 3:1-6 by Burton Coffman

CHRIST IS BETTER THAN MOSES;

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES;

BOTH CHRIST AND MOSES ARE FAITHFUL;

CHRIST TO RECEIVE GREATER GLORY;

EXHORTATION AGAINST APOSTASY;

WARNING FROM THE FATE OF ISRAEL

Hebrews 3:1 --Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus. (Hebrews 3:1)

Holy brethren is the third term of endearment already used in this epistle to describe God’s people, the other two being "sanctified" and "sons" (Hebrews 2:11-13). That mortal man should be considered holy is due to the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and to their having received the gift of the Holy Spirit subsequent to their being baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38). Thus their holiness was not in any sense a consequence of their being born of Jewish parents, a preponderantly Gentile congregation receiving the same designation (1 Thessalonians 5:26, margin).

Partakers of a heavenly calling is a reference to the universal and eternal dimensions of the Christian vocation, which is a heaven-centered faith, its emphasis being emphatically upon the things in heaven, rather than upon the things of earth. This concept pervades the whole book of Hebrews and makes even the most sacred things on earth the mere copies of things in heaven. The heavenly nature of this calling is not seen merely in the fact that it came from heaven, for the Jewish system did also. Rather, here is a reference to the spiritual and eternal inheritance of Christians, as contrasted with the mortal and earthly goals of Judaism.

Consider is a common word in English, but it has a rich etymological significance, being formed from two Latin words, "con" (with) plus "sideris" (stars or constellation), thus having a literal meaning related to observing the stars. One who takes the time to behold the beauty and majesty of the night sky is literally WITH THE STARS in his thoughts and emotions and cannot fail to receive deep impressions of awe, wonder, and appreciation. It is with this very attitude that people are invited to consider Christ.

The Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus. Nowhere else in scripture is the title of "Apostle" applied to Christ, but it certainly fits the office of our Lord as the official messenger from heaven, since the primary meaning of the word is "one sent or commissioned for some important communication"; and although the word "apostle" is not in other places used of Christ, the meaning of it surely is. The Old Testament prophecy named him "the messenger of the covenant" (Malachi 3:1), and Jesus referred to this phase of his work as follows, "The Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12:49). An additional implication in the meaning of the word "apostle" is that the person sending is greater in dignity than the one sent; and to make clear just what is meant by its reference to Jesus, the author of Hebrews uses the term "Jesus," that being the usual scriptural word where the human nature of our Lord is meant. It was only in his human nature that the lesser dignity of "Apostle" could be imputed to Christ; because, in his eternal nature, he was equal to God (Philippians 2:6).

Christ’s representation here as High Priest is a part of the argument for his superiority over Moses, who was not a high priest. Moses was prophet, mediator, and king (in a sense); but the office of high priest pertained only to Aaron. Christ was all that Moses was, and more; he was also High Priest.

Our confession is not reference to some formal subscription to any such thing as a creed but is used here to mean the holy religion of Christ.

Hebrews 3:2 --Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.

In Hebrews 2:17, Jesus had already been mentioned as a merciful and faithful high priest, and it is his "faithfulness" that needed stress here. Note how delicately the inspired writer defers to the deserved honor of Moses, whom he did not belittle or diminish in any way. Both Moses and Jesus were faithful to deliver God’s message to people, each in his own way, and each in his own capacity. A more detailed study of Moses the type and Jesus the antitype reveals both the similarities and the contrasts.

MOSES AND JESUS

Similarities:

In their birth, both became sons of virgin princesses, Moses through adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, Christ by means of the incarnation, and his birth by miracle, of the virgin Mary.

Both were Israelites, it being specifically prophesied that the Messiah would be raised up from amidst "the brethren" (Deuteronomy 18:15).

Both were sent to the children of Israel, Moses from Midian, and Christ from heaven.

Both forsook the high status of their lives to perform a mission of rescue, Moses leaving the court of Pharaoh, and Christ leaving heaven.

Both were rejected. The Jews said to Moses, "Who made thee a ruler and judge over us" (Exodus 2:14). Christ was rejected and crucified.

Both accomplished their missions. Moses delivered Israel from Egypt; Christ delivers from sin all who follow him.

Both wrought many miracles, signs and wonders.

The first miracle of each had a startling resemblance. Moses changed the water into blood; Christ changed the water into wine.

The inauguration of the Law of Moses and that of Christ had this in common: that three thousand souls were involved in each case, three thousand being lost at Sinai, three thousand being saved at Pentecost (Exodus 32:38; Acts 2:38 ff).

Both were transfigured, Moses on Sinai (Exodus 34:29-30), Jesus on Mount Hermon (Matthew 17:2).

Both delivered God’s law to people.

Both offered themselves to die for Israel (Exodus 32:32; John 10:17).

Both made a marriage with the Gentiles, Moses literally, Christ in a figure, the Gentiles becoming a part of his bride (Numbers 12:1; Ephesians 5:25 ff).

Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; Christ lifted himself upon the cross (John 3:14).

Israel was baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2); spiritual Israel are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27).

Moses gave to the people bread from heaven (Exodus 16:15); Christ gave the people loaves and fishes in the wilderness, a figure of him who is the Bread of Life (John 6:31; John 6:49 ff).

Both were the subjects of a special interposition on the part of God when they died, Moses being buried by God (Deuteronomy 34:6), and Christ being raised from the dead (Mark 16:6).

There are also many similarities between the lives of Moses the great Lawgiver of Israel and Jesus Christ the great Lawgiver of all mankind; but the above are far more than enough to establish the truth that Christ was indeed "the Prophet" like unto Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15).

Contrasts:

Moses was faithful as a servant, Christ as a Son, over God’s house.

Moses labored in a house he did not build, Christ in the house he built, his own house.

Moses did not lead the people into the promised land; Christ does lead the people into glory.

Moses was sinful, Christ is sinless (Deuteronomy 32:51-52; Hebrews 4:15).

Moses brought only the patterns of things to come, Christ the realities.

Moses’ miracles were inferior to those of Christ, as in the changing of the water already noted, and because Christ raised the dead.

Moses delivered from physical bondage, Christ from the spiritual bondage of sin.

Moses gave bread from heaven to sustain physical life, Christ bread from heaven that gives and sustains eternal life.

Moses appeared with Christ on the mount of transfiguration but was caught away, so that people saw "Jesus only" (Matthew 17:8).

Moses’ mission pertained only to Israel, Christ’s, ultimately, to the "whole creation" (Mark 16:15).

Moses was only a man; Christ was and is both God and man.

Moses’ body was buried and saw corruption; Christ’s was spared that by means of the resurrection.

Moses was not a high priest; Christ is the eternal High Priest.

It would be nearly impossible to note all of the contrasts which proved the absolute supremacy and superiority of Christ over Moses, but enough are listed to give some indication of it.

Hebrews 3:3 --For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that hath built the house hath more honor than the house.

This singles out the principal superiority of Christ over Moses and affords another glimpse of the deity and Godhead of Christ, making Christ to be the builder of the house in which Moses served. This is then a reiteration of those immense claims on behalf of Jesus Christ which were outlined in the first paragraph of the epistle. It was long centuries after God had built or established that house in which Moses served, that Jesus was born in Bethlehem; and the identification of Jesus in this verse as the builder of that house places him upon an equality with God. (See under Hebrews 1:8).

One cannot pass this verse without regarding the essential unity of God’s children in all ages. The Jewish system, no less than the Christian, was divine in its origin; and many New Testament passages emphasize the connection of Old Testament references with that new Israel which supplanted the old (1 Corinthians 10:6; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Romans 15:4; John 5:39; Acts 17:2-3). It was in view of this unity that Jesus said,

And ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without. And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:28-29).

This basic unity of God’s heavenly establishment, changed though the covenant was, is attested by the deliberate judgment of mankind in binding both the Old and New Testaments into a single volume to form the Bible. Respect to such a unity does not contradict the fact of progression in the will of God as he moved to abolish the old covenant and establish the new.

Hebrews 3:4 --For every house is builded by some one; but he that built all things is God.

This verse is engraved in letters of stone over the principal portal of the Central Church of Christ, Houston, Texas. The thought expressed is a teleological thunderbolt; it is the ancient and indestructible argument from design, bluntly and unequivocally stated, first in the truism that every house has a builder, and secondly in the deduction that the far greater house of the whole universe likewise has its builder who can be none other than God. A noted research chemist, Thomas David Parks, said:

I see order and design all about me in the inorganic world. I cannot believe that they are there by the haphazard, fortunate coming together of atoms. For me this design demands an intelligence; and this intelligence I call God.^[1]

Christians ought not to be ashamed of the argument from design; for here it is in the word of God itself, commending itself to the unbiased mind, and standing absolutely uncontradicted by any vaunted achievements of science. The most determined atheist, in his tenderest and most thoughtful hours, cannot escape the persuasive eloquence of that argument from design which demands a Designer. An excellent instance of this is documented in the experience of Whitaker Chambers, who for a while was a militant atheist, but who yielded to the tender whispers of this argument when God spoke to him through the fantastic beauty and loveliness of his little daughter’s ear. Chambers was a dedicated Communist; but after he was enlightened, he gave a touching account of how that first ray of light penetrated his soul. Here are his words:

My daughter was in her high chair. I was watching her eat. She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life. I liked to watch her even when she smeared porridge on her face or dropped it meditatively on the floor. My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear - those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: "No, these ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature (the Communist view). They could have been created only by immense design." The thought was involuntary and unwanted, I crowded it out of my mind. But I never wholly forgot it or the occasion. I had to crowd it out of my mind. If I had completed it I should have had to say: Design presupposes God. I did not then know that, at that moment, the finger of God was laid upon my forehead.^[2]

The interrelation between design and the Designer is a fact observable alike by a little child or the wisest man who ever lived. A three-year-old will ask, "Mommy, who made the cow?" And the simple question simply means that intelligence that has not been corrupted accepts the argument from design as truth; and the axiomatic nature of that truth was affirmed twice in the word of God: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalms 14:1; Psalms 53:1). "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalms 19:1).

^[1] Thomas David Parks, The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1958), p. 74.

^[2] Whittaker Chambers, Witness (New York: Random House, 1952), p. 16.

Hebrews 3:5 --And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, as a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken.

This designation of Moses as a servant is founded on the word of God himself (Numbers 12:7); and this entitled the author of Hebrews to conclude that Moses was not the great lawgiver through any power and ability of himself alone, but that it was his capacity as God’s representative and as a vessel for the conveyance of God’s message that his noble work was achieved. Furthermore, Moses delivered the Christian system embryonically, as well as the Judaic. In the prophecies about Christ, in the minute details of the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and in the definite instructions for all the feasts, sacrifices, and ceremonies of the Judaic system, all so faithfully delivered by Moses, the entire body of truth delivered by Moses foretold and eventually proved the redemptive ministry of Christ. The Christian system is contained prophetically in the old. Moses did not merely deliver the Judaic system of religion; but, in the sense that the flower is contained in the bud, he delivered the Christian system also, identified in this verse as "those things afterward to be spoken." Westcott stated it thus:

The position of Moses and of the Mosaic dispensation was provisional. Moses not only witnessed to the truths which his legislation plainly declared, but also to the truths which were to be made plain afterward.^[3]

ENDNOTE:

^[3] Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 77.

Hebrews 3:6 --But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.

Reiterating the supremacy of Christ, the author, on the basis of a bold deduction, names Christians themselves as components of God’s house, "whose house we are"! The old Israel is no more. The Son having been revealed, men are no longer under a servant, even so true and faithful a servant as Moses (Romans 2:28; Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 6:15; John 8:39). Think of the house of God. He laid the foundations of it, even before the world was (1 Corinthians 2:7), provided the blue prints of it in the dispensation of Moses, and extended it upward and outward to include all the families of man in the church of Christ; and, finally, he shall present all to himself in that glorious fulfillment of the everlasting kingdom at the last day (2 Peter 1:11).

If we hold fast our boldness emphasizes the necessity of perseverance in the Christian life, if one is to win the crown. Bruce wrote:

The conditional sentences of this epistle are of special attention (Hebrews 3:14; Hebrews 10:26). Nowhere in the New Testament more than here do we find such repeated insistence of the fact that continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality.^[4]

Bruce might have meant by that comment that a failure to continue means there was no reality to begin with, such being the thesis of Calvinism; but continuity must be viewed as a divinely imposed condition of salvation, upon the fulfillment of which destiny depends. Roddy put it squarely thus,

There is no shallow "once saved always saved" here. No superficial being saved and lost, in and out, experience either. But a realization that the evidence of the reality of the grace of God in the life is a constant and living faith regardless of circumstances and inward questions.^[5]

The climate for the proper maintenance of faith is not exclusively produced by, nor does it depend solely upon, external conditions. On the other hand, it must be aided by and controlled by the attitude of the believer himself, who has the power to further and strengthen his own faith by a constant, bold, and optimistic proclamation of it. Thomas was aware of this when he wrote:

Weakness is a spiritual peril; and this emphasis on boldness and glorying is a significant reminder that only as we continue courageous and confident can we expect to be firm unto the end. There is an old saying about "whistling to keep up the courage"; and there is no doubt that in things spiritual the secret of courageous and steadfast living is to be bold and to glory constantly in our Christian hope.^[6]

Thus there devolves upon the believer himself a frightful responsibility for the preservation and development of his own faith; and this coincides with the fact that faith, rather than being exclusively intellectual, also rests upon and flows out of moral considerations of the highest order (John 3:19).

^[4] F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 59.

^[5] Clarence S. Roddy, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1962), p. 41.

^[6] W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 41.

Verses 7-19

Heb 3:7-19

EXHORTATIONS AND WARNINGS DRAWN FROM

THE EXAMPLE OF THE ISRAELITES UNDER MOSES

Hebrews 3:7-19

Hebrews 3:7 ---Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith,—The Apostle now pro­ceeds to make a personal application of the important truths elicited in the course of the preceding paragraph; and to warn his Hebrew brethren against the dangers of apostasy, by referring to God’s dealings with their fathers. His words may be briefly para­phrased as follows: Since it is true, he says in substance, that Jesus as the Apostle of God is so much superior to Moses; and since it is also true, that your belonging to the house of God under him, and your enjoying the blessings of the New Covenant through him, depend on your holding fast the confidence and the boasting of your hope even to the end of life, you should now take as a warning to yourselves the following solemn admonition made by God to your fathers; and beware lest there be also in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. The quotation is made from the ninety-fifth Psalm, in which David earnestly invites his brethren to worship Jehovah (verses 1, 2) ; (1) on the ground that he is above all gods, the Creator of all things, and the good Shepherd of Israel (verses 3-7) ; and (2) on the ground that the neglect of God’s word and his ordinances had cost a whole generation of their fa­thers the loss of Canaan (verses 8-11). This last portion of the Psalm, our author here quotes and applies as a part of his own ex­hortations and warnings. Observe that these words of David are ascribed to the Holy Spirit; for “holy men of God spake [in an­cient times] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21.) See also 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Hebrews 3:7 ---To-day, if ye will hear his voice,—Or rather, if ye hear his voice. Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. God never says to anyone, Hearken to my voice and obey my pre­cepts tomorrow. His command is, Do it now; at the very moment that you hear his voice and know his will. And hence the order of the primitive Church was (1) to preach the Gospel to sinners; (2) to receive the confession of such as became penitent believers; and (3)to baptize them on the same day, or even at the same hour of the night. See Acts 2:41 Acts 16:33 Acts 18:8, etc. And after their baptism the converts continued steadfast in the Apostle’s teachings, giving all diligence to make their calling and their election sure. But now, how very different is the practice of the Church. It is amazing how both saints and sinners now procrastinate and trifle with the word and the ordinances of God.

Hebrews 3:8 ---Harden not your hearts,—To harden the heart, is to render it insensible in any way. Here, the admonition of the Apostle to his Hebrew brethren is, not to harden their hearts by neglecting even for a day the voice of Jehovah, however expressed. His com­mands have all respect to the present; and any unnecessary delay in obeying them has always of necessity a hardening influence on the heart. Men who hear the Gospel in their youth or early man­hood, and do not then obey it, seldom do so afterward. It is to all who hear it a savor either of life unto life or of death unto death. (2 Corinthians 2:16.) Under its influence, no man can long remain sta­tionary in the Divine life. He must by the laws and impulses of his own nature become either better or worse, as the current of life flows onward. If he does not soften and purify his heart by obey­ing the truth, he will of necessity harden it by his disobedience. And hence the great concern of the Apostle that all who hear the voice of God should obey it promptly and heartily, even while it is called To-day, lest any should be hardened through the deceitful­ness of sin.

Hebrews 3:8 ---as in the provocation, etc.—The Hebrew rendered literally is as follows: Harden not your heart; like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the wilderness. That is, harden not your hearts, as your fathers did at Meribah; as they did on the day of Massah in the wilderness. These names were both given to a place near Mount Horeb, where the children of Israel murmured for water. (Exodus 17:1-7.) And when Moses had supplied their wants, “he called the name of the place Massah [temptation] and Meribah [strife], because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?” The name Meribah was given also to Kadesh (most likely the same as Kadesh Barnea) in the wilderness of Zin (Numbers 27:3); “because [there] the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them.” See Numbers 20:1-13. Whether David, in Psalms 95:8, refers to one or both of these places is a question on which expositors are not wholly agreed. It seems most likely, however, that he has in view only the place of strife and temptation near Mount Horeb; as the strife at Kadesh did not occur until about thirty-seven years after that God had sworn in his wrath that the rebellious generation which came out of Egypt under Moses should never enter into his rest. (Numbers 14:20-35.) This view is corroborated by the Greek translation of our author, which is identical with that of the Septuagint, and may be literally rendered into English as follows: Harden not your hearts as in the bitterness, on the day of temptation in the wilderness. It seems, therefore, that the excessive provocation of the people, here ele­gantly rendered bitterness by the Apostle, occurred on the day of temptation; and of course at the same place, near Mount Horeb.

Hebrews 3:9 ---When your fathers tempted me—The Hebrew of this verse is literally rendered into English as follows: Where [expressive of either the place where or the time when] your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. The Textus Receptus of Elzevir runs thus: Where [hou, where or when] your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. This differs from the Hebrew only in the two following unimportant particulars: (1) in the Hebrew, the noun work is singular; but in the Greek, the cor­responding word is plural; (2) in the Hebrew, the expression, forty years, is, according to the Masoretic pointing, connected with what follows, as in the seventeenth verse of this chapter; but in the Greek, it qualifies the preceding verb saw. These slight differ­ences do not, however, in any way affect the sense of the passage, the meaning being obviously the same in both the Hebrew and the Greek. Nor does the reading of Bagster as given in our best manuscripts differ in meaning from the Hebrew text. Literally ren­dered it stands thus: Where your fathers made trial by proof, and saw my works forty years. See critical notes on this verse.

Hebrews 3:10 ---Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,—That is to say, Because your fathers so often provoked and tempted me in the wilderness, I was sorely grieved and vexed with them. The word rendered, grieved (prosochizo) is Hellenistic, and like the corresponding Hebrew word means properly to feel a loathing; to be disgusted with any person or thing. The meaning is, that the generation of the children of Israel contemporary with Moses and Aaron, had by their multiplied transgressions become loathsome to God; and, speaking after the manner of men, he was disgusted with them. Many manuscripts have this (toutee) instead of that (ekeinee) generation. In the Hebrew, the word answering to gen­eration has no qualifying epithet. It is, however, sufficiently de­fined by the context; and evidently means the generation which came out of Egypt under Moses, whose carcasses fell in the wilder­ness.

Hebrews 3:10 ---and said, They do always err in their heart;—The Greek word rendered err (planao), as well as the corresponding Hebrew word means to wander, to go astray. There is perhaps in the use of this word an allusion to the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert; but it is of their heart-wanderings that Jehovah here com­plains. These, he says, were constant. They do always (aei) wander in heart. The word heart (kardia) means properly the central organ of the blood-vessels, situated in the thorax, and sup­posed to be the seat of animal life. But figuratively it means the seat of the affections, comprehending also not unfrequently the seat of the will and the understanding; as when we speak of a will­ing heart, an understanding heart, an obedient heart, etc. But in all such cases, the reference is primarily and chiefly to man’s moral and emotional nature. As, for instance, when the fool says in his heart, “No God,” he expresses a sentiment of his depraved heart, rather than a judgment of his darkened and perverted understand­ing ; though both his heart and his intellect are involved and implicated in the enormous falsehood. Blinded and hardened by the love of sin, he first wishes there were no God; and then, per­chance, he is led to believe what he so ardently desires. See Romans 1:28, and 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.

Hebrews 3:10 ---and they have not known my ways.—The children of Israel were quite as ignorant of the ways of God, as they were of the me­andering paths of the desert. Like benighted wanderers, they were lost in the mazes of their own follies; and had as yet learned but little of the gracious designs of God in his dealings with them. They were still extremely sensuous; and their hearts were set on worldly pleasures and enjoyments. When they failed to reach Ca­naan as soon as they expected, they then turned back in their affec­tions, and began to long for the leeks, onions, and flesh-pots of Egypt. They seemed willing to endure Egyptian servitude, or al­most anything else, rather than submit to that Divine discipline which was necessary to qualify them for the promised rest.

Hebrews 3:11 ---So I sware in my wrath,—This is of course a figurative ex­pression, and means simply that when the Israelites murmured and rebelled against God at Kadesh Barnea, he then resolved that they should never enter into his rest. Previous to this they had often provoked and dishonored him by their murmurings against him and his servant Moses. This they did before they crossed the Red Sea, when they were closely pursued by Pharaoh and his hosts. (Exodus 14:10-12.) Another like provocation occurred at Marah in the wilderness of Shur (Exodus 15:22-26) ; another in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:1-3) ; another, at Massah and Meribah near Reph- adim (Exodus 17:1-7) ; another, at Sinai, where they made and worshiped the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-29) ; another, at Taberah in the wilderness (Numbers 11:1-3); another at Kibroth-Hattaavah (Numbers 11:4-34) ; and still another, at Kadesh Barnea, where the people believed the evil report of the ten spies, and refused to go up at the command of God and take possession of the land of Ca­naan (Numbers 14:1-4). On this last occasion, that wicked and per­verse generation filled up the cup of their iniquity; and the Lord said, “Because all these men who have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. ... I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears so will I do unto you; your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness; and all that are numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you all dwell therein, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun." (Numbers 14:22-30.) After this they wandered through the desert in un­known paths, for about thirty-seven years; at the close of which we find them again at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, murmuring for water; in consequence of which the place was called Meribah Kadesh. (Numbers 20:1-13.) These places can be traced on any good map of the exodus and wanderings of the Israelites.

Hebrews 3:11 ---They shall not enter into my rest.—This clause is best ex­plained by referring to the passage just cited from Numbers 14. Up to this time, for about eighteen months after their departure from Egypt, the Lord had borne with the people. But this last act of rebellion was intolerable; and God therefore now swore in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest. The word rest (katapausis) has in this connection a double reference, as will appear in our exegesis of the next chapter. Primarily, it means the rest of Canaan; and secondarily, it means the heavenly rest, of which the rest in Canaan was but a type. See note on 1: 5. From this rest, in its twofold sense, it seems that most of that wicked and perverse generation were excluded. That there were some excep­tions in each case, must of course be conceded. Of this we have the most clear and reliable evidence given in the Old Testament. Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan and enjoyed God’s rest in its typical sense; and Moses and Aaron, with doubtless some others, though excluded from Canaan, entered into the heavenly rest. But it is not in harmony with the design of the Apostle to notice these exceptions. He purposely leaves all such out of view, and affirms simply what was true of the masses. They, it would seem, were excluded from God’s rest in its twofold significance. See notes on Hebrews 4:3 Hebrews 4:6.

Hebrews 3:12 ---Take heed, brethren, etc.—As if he had said, Beware, brethren, of an evil unbelieving heart such as the Israelites had in the wilderness, lest like them you too apostatize from the living God, and perish on your way to the Promised Land. Three things are clearly implied in the words of our text: viz. (1) that the He­brew Christians were in great danger of apostatizing from the liv­ing God, as their fathers had done. And if so, then it follows that a Christian may fall from grace; for to apostatize from God is sim­ply equivalent to falling away finally and forever from the grace of God. See notes on Hebrews 6:4-6. (2) That this danger arises wholly from “an evil heart of unbelief.” So long as we have an unwaver­ing trust in God and in his word, all is well. Nothing can, under such circumstances, separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 8:39.) But let the heart at once become evil and distrustful, and then his condition becomes at once awfully alarming. (3) It is further implied in the words of our au­thor, that every Christian may, through the grace of God, avoid the dangers of apostasy, by keeping his heart with all diligence. (Proverbs 4:23.) It is true that without the grace of God we can do nothing by way of saving ourselves or anyone else (John 15:5); and it is also true, that even with this promised grace we can ac­complish comparatively but little (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). The work is of God and not of us. Nevertheless, it has pleased God in the exer­cise of his wisdom and love to give to every man an agency in the work of redemption commensurate with his capacity and means of doing good. And, consequently, the man who “looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forget­ful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:25.) And hence the following earnest exhorta­tions to constant watchfulness and perseverance in the Divine life.

Hebrews 3:13 ---But exhort one another daily,—This admonition is not ad­dressed merely to the Elders of the Church, but to every member of it. All are required to exhort and admonish one another daily as members of the family of God, and “as joint heirs of the grace of life.” And yet, how very generally is this duty neglected. “How often,” says Mr. Barnes, “do church-members see a fellow- member go astray without any exhortation or admonition. How often do they hear reports of the inconsistent lives of other mem­bers, and perhaps contribute to the circulation of these reports themselves, without any pains taken to inquire whether they are true. How often do the poor fear the rich members of the Church, or the rich despise the poor, and see one another live in sin, with­out any attempt to entreat and save them. I would not have the courtesies of life violated. I would not have any assume a dog­matic or dictatorial air. I would have no one step out of his proper sphere of life. But the principle which I would lay down is this: that the fact of church membership should inspire such confidence as to make it proper for one member to exhort another whom he sees going astray. Belonging to the same family; having the same interests in religion; an

Hebrews 3:13 ---while it is called To-day;—Do not procrastinate, or put off till tomorrow what should be done today. Much may depend in such cases on prompt and proper action; and it is to be feared that thousands are eternally lost through the neglect of it. If the mem­bers of every congregation of disciples, would all watch over one another, not as censors, but as members of the body of Christ, how many errors might be corrected in their incipiency. But as it is, how very different are the results. How many delinquent Chris­tians are allowed to become hardened in sin, before even the Elders of the Church call on them and admonish them! How very unlike these Elders are to the Good Shepherd that careth for the sheep.

Hebrews 3:13 ---through the deceitfulness of sin.—That sin (hamartia) is very deceptive is well known to everyone who has examined carefully the workings and operations of his own heart. It has by the fall of man been implanted as a principle in human nature; so that it is now natural for man to follow after its “deceitful lust.” (Ephesians 4:22.) “For to will,” says Paul, speaking as a representative of those under law without the helps and consolations of the Gospel, “is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but Sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of Sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:18-23.) True, indeed, in and through the process of regeneration the body of Sin is destroyed (Romans 6:6); so that we Christians are not now, as formerly, its slaves; its has no longer dominion over us (Romans 6:14 Romans 6:17-18) ; for we are not now under law but under grace. But though the body of Sin has been destroyed, its animus still remains as a thorn in the flesh of every Christian; so that unless we are constantly on our guard, and, like Paul, keep our bodies in subjection (1 Corinthians 9:27), we are ever liable, as were the ancient Israelites, to be misled by the deceitfulness of Sin which is in our members. Its promises to us are all pleasure and happiness, but its rewards are misery and death. (Romans 6:23.) And hence the necessity of exhorting one another daily, even while it is called To-day, lest any of us “be hardened through the deceit­fulness of sin.”

Hebrews 3:14 ---For we are made partakers of Christ, etc.—The Apostle assigns here as another reason for constant perseverance and watchfulness, that our being finally partakers of Christ and his benefits, will depend on our holding fast to the end of life the beginning of our confidence in him. We have not yet reached the end of our course. We are still in a state of trial; and we are therefore ever liable to lose through our neglect or disobedience that of which we have already to a certain extent become par­takers; but which, for the present, we hold on certain conditions. “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.” (Matthew 8:12.) See note on verse 6.

The word rendered confidence (hupostasis) is of different ety­mology from that which is so rendered (parreesia) in the sixth verse. The former looks rather to the ground of our confidence in Christ; and the latter to our free and open confession of it. They are, however, used here by our author as synonymous terms, to de­note simply that firm and well-grounded confidence in Christ, which if held fast to the end of life, will secure for us an abundant entrance into his everlasting Kingdom. Of this confidence the He­brews were then partakers; they were then in possession of that faith which purifies the heart. And hence the Apostle requires of them simply that they continue to hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm even to the end of life. “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Revelation 3:11.)

Hebrews 3:15 ---While it is said, Today, etc.—The proper grammatical connection of this verse is still a matter of dispute among the crit­ics. Some of them, as Ebrard and Alford, maintain that it stands properly connected with what immediately precedes; and that the object of our author in the use of this clause is simply to give strength to the affirmation made in the fourteenth verse, that our being made partakers of Christ is conditioned on our holding fast “the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” As if he had said, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the be­ginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; [as is clearly implied] in the saying, To-day if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Others, as Tholuck and Delitzsch, make it the beginning of a sentence, and so connect it with the six­teenth verse as follows: “In the saying, Today if ye hear his voice harden not your hearts, as in the provocation [it is implied that the provokers to whom the Psalmist refers, were themselves re­deemed of the Lord, and yet fell under his wrath, and came short of the promised rest]. For who were they that having heard gave provocation? Was it not indeed all who under Moses’ leadership came out of Egypt?” Others, as Bengal and Michaelis, connect the fifteenth verse with the thirteenth, and include the fourteenth in parentheses. And others again, as Chrysostom and Erasmus, connect it with the beginning of the fourth chapter, making verses 16-19 parenthetical.

On the whole, I think it best to combine the first two., hy­potheses. It seems to me that the fifteenth verse is logically con­nected with both what precedes and what follows: though it does not, as Delitzsch supposes, form the beginning of a sentence. I would therefore render verses 14-19 as follows: For we have been made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confi­dence steadfast unto the end; [as implied] in its being said, To-day if ye hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provo­cation. [As if the Apostle had said, It is not enough that you have been redeemed, and that you have commenced your march for the heavenly rest: you must persevere in your begun course to the end of life, or otherwise you will all fall short of the promised rest, as did your fathers in the wilderness.] For who were they that having heard did provoke ? Was it not indeed all who came out of Egypt by means of Moses? And with whom was he displeased forty years? Was it not with those that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he sware that they should not enter into his rest, but to the disobedient? So we see that they could not enter, on account of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:16 ---For some, when they had heard, did provoke:—The origi­nal manuscripts of the New Testament were written without any accents and also without any marks of punctuation. As early as 240 B.C. Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced into the School of Alexandria an imperfect system of both accents and punctuation; chiefly, it would seem, for the benefit of teachers and scholars of rhetoric. But accents were not generally used by Christian writers till after the middle of the fifth century; and it was not till about the beginning of the tenth century that the custom of using them became universal. And so also of the system of Greek punctua­tion. It too was gradually introduced with sundry changes and modifications. About the middle of the fifth century, Euthalius, a Deacon of Alexandria, divided the New Testament into lines (sti- choi), each line containing as many words as were to be read with­out any pause or interruption of the voice. In the eighth century, the comma (,) was invented; and the Greek note of interrogation ( ;) in the ninth. But it was not till after the invention of the art of printing, about the middle of the fifteenth century, that the pres­ent system of Greek punctuation was universally adoped by Greek scholars.

It is obvious, therefore, that no authority is to be attached to these marks of accent and punctuation, except so far as they are supported by the conditions of the context and the well-known laws and principles of the Greek language. And it may therefore be still a question whether the word tines (tines) in our text should be accented on the first or on the second syllable. If on the first (tines), then it is equivalent to the interrogative pronoun who, and requires a mark of interrogation at the close of the sentence in which it stands. But if on the second (tines), it is an indefinite pronoun equivalent to some, as in our English Version, and re­quires that the sentence shall close with a period.

What, then, is the proper meaning of this word? Is it an inter­rogative or an indefinite pronoun? Is it equivalent to who or to some ? That it should be rendered who in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses, is conceded by all: for here, indeed, the context will admit of nothing else. But is it not almost, if not quite, as ob­vious, from the scope of the author’s argument, that it must have the same meaning in the sixteenth verse? Having, in the verses immediately preceding, solemnly warned his brethren against the dangers of apostasy from Christ, and having illustrated the whole matter by a general reference to the fortunes of their fathers in the wilderness, and also by God’s subsequent warnings and admoni­tions through David, our author now makes a more sweeping and definite application of Old Testament history. Lest any should at­tempt to avoid the force of his general argument, on the ground of its seeming indefiniteness; and should be disposed to take refuge in the vain hope that though some of the less enlightened of their brethren might fall, they themselves yrould nevertheless escapefearing this, the Apostle makes another more definite and heart­searching appeal to the well known facts of Old Testament history. He reminds his readers by an appeal to their own knowledge of the facts, that it was not merely a few of the most ignorant and super­stitious of their fathers that fell in the wilderness on account of their disobedience; but that it was in fact the whole redeemed na­tion who came out of Egypt under Moses. The few exceptions, consisting of Joshua, Caleb, Eliezer, and perhaps a few more of the Levites, are purposely and with strict rhetorical propriety kept in the background; and the great mass of the people who had been once enlightened and consecrated to God, are brought forward as persons doomed to destruction, in order to make a more vivid and lasting impression on the minds and hearts of the Hebrew breth­ren. For who, says the author, were they that having heard did provoke? Were they the children and servants of your fathers? Or were they a few of the most ignorant and depraved of that gen­eration? Nay indeed, were they not all of the six hundred thou­sand who came out of Egypt by Moses? The force of this appeal could not be avoided; and it must have made a very deep impres­sion on the mind and heart of every Hebrew Christian who read this Epistle.

Hebrews 3:17 ---But with whom was he grieved forty years?—With what sort of persons was God displeased for the space of forty years? Was it with babes and slaves and such other persons as were igno­rant of God’s will? Nay indeed; was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? They were persons who knew God’s will and transgressed his law. They were all sinners. And their sin so provoked God that he caused their members (chola), such as their arms, legs, etc., to be scattered as fragments through the wilderness; leaving them there as a monument of his righteous displeasure, and as a warning to all subsequent genera­tions. See Numbers 26:64-65.

Hebrews 3:18 --And to whom did he sware, etc?—The history of Israel’s provocations and of God’s dealings with them, was so fully re­corded in the Old Testament and so generally believed by the He­brew Christians, that any formal presentation of evidence in the case was wholly unnecessary; and our author therefore again, with great rhetorical effect, employs the interrogative style of address. By means of a series of questions addressed to their understanding, he brings home with great power to their hearts and consciences what they were all forced to concede, that the six hundred thou­sand full-grown men who came out of Egypt under Moses, per­ished in the wilderness through their unbelief. They once believed in God and confided in his servant Moses: for how indeed could they do otherwise? They had seen God’s judgments on Pharaoh and on his hosts in Egypt and in the Red Sea; they had seen the manna rained down from heaven, and they had beheld the waters flowing from the rock at the command of God; they had heard his voice from the top of Sinai, and they had witnessed many other manifestations of his power and Divinity, for the space of eighteen months, before they came to the plains of Kadesh. But after all this, through an evil heart of unbelief, they there rebelled against him, and so provoked him on the very borders of Canaan, that he was constrained to swear in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest. See Num. 14: 20-35. All this the Hebrews well un­derstood and readily conceded. And hence without further argu­ment, Paul simply concludes in harmony with their own convic­tions, that owing to practical infidelity a whole generation of God’s chosen people were excluded from the promised rest.

Hebrews 3:19 ---So we see, etc.—In this verse, the Apostle states the result of the whole matter. It was not owing to any unforeseen or for­tuitous circumstances, nor to the superior strength of their ene­mies, that the Israelites were unable to enter the land of Canaan; but it was owing simply to their own infidelity and disobedience. And this is given as a warning to all Christians to beware, lest they too fall after the same example of unbelief.

Commentary on Hebrews 3:7-19 by Donald E. Boatman

Hebrews 3:7 --Wherefore even as the Holy Spirit saith

This is a quotation from Psalms 95:7.

a. He attributes these words to the Holy Spirit, thus establishing the inspiration of the scriptures.

b. Men who question the inspiration of the Bible have hundreds of such verses of which to dispose.

Hebrews 3:7 --Harden not your hearts

This suggests immediate action in favor of God, not against Him.

a. This subject is emphasized all through the New Testament:

1. John 9:4 : “—while it is day.”

2. Acts 22:16 : “Now why tamest thou?”

3. Romans 13:11 : “—awake out of sleep.”

4. Acts 16:33 : “—same hour”

Man is able to receive the word, but has the choice of hardening his heart.

Hebrews 3:8 --as in the day of provocation

There were two reasons why the Jews needed to be reminded:

a. They were foolishly inflated on account of the glory of their race:

1. They needed to be reminded of their own sinfulness.

2. Their feeling of superiority blinded them to the reality of their condition.

b. They needed to know that falling away was dangerous.

To what does the provocation refer?

a. Two possibilities:

1. Numbers, chapters thirteen and fourteen: Spies bring back a report: “We are as grasshoppers.” (Numbers 13:33)

“And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in the wilderness.” (Numbers 14:2)

2. Exodus 17 may be referred to:

a) Here the Israelites cried against Moses and complained. (See Numbers 17:1-7)

b) Moses gave the places names. (Numbers 17:7)

1. Massah—proving—tempting.

2. Meribah—chiding—strife.

b. We do not know to which of the two places David referred.

Hebrews 3:8 --Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness

The term “wilderness” refers to any waste land, and this was the type of country in which the Jews traveled. They were led through the wilderness because:

a. It was less likely to lead to war.

b. It gave God a chance to prove His power and love.

Hebrews 3:9 --where your fathers tried Me by proving Me

God brought them gifts—water, manna and quails for food, the cloud and the pillar of fire for guidance and protection—yet they asked, “Where is His power?” It increased their guilt, when in spite of so many evidences of His power they made so little progress.

Trying by proving illustrated:

a. Newell—A boy says, “Father has forbidden me to do this and says I will be punished. I do not believe it. I will do what he said not to do and see if he will.”

b. The action of Israel was a trying thing upon the patience of God; yet it also proved that He meant every word spoken.

Hebrews 3:9 --and saw My works forty years

Not once or for a short time—but for forty years.

History of their waywardness:

a. First, in the wilderness of sin—when they murmured for bread and God gave them manna. Exodus 16:4.

b. Second—they murmured because of lack of water. Exodus 17:2-9. This place is called Massah and Meribah.

c. Third—During the third year after their departure from Egypt, they provoked God at Sinai by making the golden calf. Exodus 32:10.

d. Fourth—At Taberah (Numbers 11:3) they murmured for want of flesh, and were smitten with a plague, Numbers 11:33. Many were buried here. Numbers 11:34.

e. Kadesh—Caleb and Joshua as spies are rejected.

1. Numbers 14:30 : God says all shall die but Caleb and Joshua.

2. Deuteronomy 1:34-35 : God ordered them to turn into the wilderness, where they wandered 38 years. Deuteronomy 2:14.

f. Wilderness near Mt. Hor. Numbers 21:4-5. No bread or water. God sent serpents, and finally a brazen serpent was erected to save them.

g. Newell says it refers to the eleven-day journey from Horeb by way of Mt. Sinai unto Kadesh Barnea that because of unfaithfulness took forty years.

Hebrews 3:10 --Wherefore I was displeased with this generation

“Generation” means race, or men of one age.

Here was God, their Father, grieved at their refusal to follow His leading.

Hebrews 3:10 --and said, They do always err in their heart

“Err” means to wander, go astray. Their consistent errors must have brought the longsuffering Father to the breaking point.

Hebrews 3:10 --but they did know My ways

They were as ignorant of God as they were of the paths of the desert.

They seemed senseless, unable to understand the ways of God.

a. This was not an excuse, but an accusation.

b. This condition did not save them, but destroyed them.

Hebrews 3:11 --as I sware in my wrath

“Sware” refers to what God spoke.

Numbers 14:30-35 : God here stated they shall not enter, because they listened to the report of the ten spies.

“Wrath” refers to His condemnation;

a. God has a right to be wrathful.

1. A lack of anger is a weakness.

2. Tolerance is to be desired above intolerance, but it can also become a vice rather than a virtue.

b. God has wrath when His longsuffering comes to an end.

c. It is not good for man to reap and not sow.

1. It is not good for man to sow wickedness, and not reap the same.

2. God has made a consistent world for us.

d. God used them as an example unto us.

1. 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 : “—happened by way of example.”

Hebrews 3:11 --They shall not enter into My rest

Numbers 14:20 is the place where God reached this decision.

The generation that showed a lack of faith was not given the privilege to enter Canaan.

Study Questions

412. Where is the quotation from the Holy Spirit found?

413. Does this establish the inspiration of the scriptures?

414. Who can harden or soften hearts in this verse?

415. Can you name other scriptures that place the responsibility upon man? cf. Romans 13:11.

416. What day of provocation is referred to, Pharaoh’s or Israel’s?

417. Is it a certain time, or the whole exodus?

418. Name some instances of provocation. cf. Numbers 13:32; Exodus 17:1-7.

419. Could it be at Massah and Meribah alone?

420. What is meant by “trial in the wilderness”?

421. What is a “wilderness” in the scriptures?

422. Why did the Israelites go into the wilderness?

423. Who are the “fathers” referred to here?

424. How did they try God?

425. What is meant by “try”?

426. What did the trial prove concerning God?

427. How long did they try God?

428. What is meant by “works”?

429. Tell of the Israelites’ provocation of God that brought about works of God.

430. What is meant by “generation”?

431. What did God declare concerning that generation?

432. What is meant by “err”?

433. Where was the seat of their trouble?

434. Why didn’t they know God’s ways?

435. Is ignorance a sufficient excuse for disobedience?

436. What is meant by “swear”?

437. What is the wrath of God—anger, or condemnation?

438. Is wrath a good quality or a bad one?

439. Would it be good for man if God were a weakling?

440. Would it be good for man not to reap what he sows?

441. Where and when did this swearing take place? cf. Numbers 14:23.

Hebrews 3:12 --Take heed, brethren

“Profit by their mistake,” the author is saying. Society makes a fool of itself every generation:

a. One generation seemingly has to try everything for itself rather than to be warned.

b. Foolish is the man who will not learn from others.

Hebrews 3:12 --lest haply

“Perhaps”, or “lest there be”, is the meaning of this expression.

There is a likelihood of falling away unless a person is careful.

Hebrews 3:12 --there shall be in any one of you

This is personal—“any one of you”.

We need warning, and we have it.

a. 1 Corinthians 10:12 : “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

b. 1 Corinthians 9:27 : “—I buffet my body.”

c. 1 Corinthians 10:5; 1 Corinthians 10:10.

d. 2 Peter 2:4.

e. 2 Peter 2:7.

f. Judges 1:5 : “Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.”

Hebrews 3:12 --an evil heart of unbelief

Sin will cause people to disbelieve.

The so-called “good moral man” does not exist:

a. Unbelief is evil—sufficient to keep one out of God’s rest.

b. Mark 16:16 : “He that disbelieveth shall be condemned.” The devil seems to sow doubt.

a. To Eve, Genesis 3:4-5 : “Ye shall not surely die—ye shall be as God.”

b. To Jesus. “If,” Matthew 4.

1. Matthew 4:3 : “If thou art the Son of God command that these stones become bread.”

2. Matthew 4:5-6 : On pinnacle of temple: “If thou are the Son of God, cast Thyself down.”

Hebrews 3:12 --in falling away from the Living God

You can not fall away unless you were there.

Some say: “You never had it if you lost it.”

The Jews fell away after believing and being saved.

This falling away is falling from fellowship, and results in falling into the hands of God.

Hebrews 10:31 : “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living. God.”

Hebrews 3:13 --but exhort

To “exhort” is to give a pep talk:

a. We should not let another’s spiritual enthusiasm freeze up.

b. This young Timothy was told to do.

1 Timothy 6:2; “These things teach and exhort.”

c. Be careful lest you get into a rut of browbeating, People need feeding as well as rebuking. “Exhort” means to encourage.

Hebrews 3:13 --one another day by day

We have a responsibility to one another daily:

a. We should have a constant interest in our brethren.

b. A day missed in encouragement may result in an eternity lost.

Hebrews 3:13 --so long as it is called To-day

It includes every time that God addresses us.

Every time that God’s sacred mouth speaks, remember, “Today if ye shall hear His voice.”

Jesus warned about the passing of the day:

a. John 12:35 : “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.”

b. John 9:4 : “The night cometh when no man can work.”

A seasonable time will not always last.

Hebrews 3:13 --lest any one of you

This makes it broad enough to include all:

a. 1 Corinthians 10:12 : “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

b. Overconfidence in any endeavor is dangerous.

Hebrews 3:13 --be hardened

He is talking to Christian people, yet some say, “once saved, always saved.”

Sin makes one tough, calloused:

a. Saul, a wonderful specimen of mankind, became hardened against David.

b. Judas was trained among the other disciples, yet his heart was hardened against Jesus.

Hebrews 3:13 --by the deceitfulness of sin

Sin is seductive:

a. Colossians 2:8 : “—maketh spoil of you through . . . vain deceit.”

b. Matthew 13:22 : “—deceitfulness of riches.”

The sin here of primary concern is apostasy.

Ways to be deceived:

a. Deceive self. 1 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 6:3; 1 John 1:8; James 1:22.

b. Fair speeches deceive the simple. Romans 16:18.

c. Deceitfulness of riches. Matthew 13:22.

d. False teachers. Matthew 24:24 : “—lead astray . . . the elect.”

e. Deceived by the devil. Revelation 12:9 : “Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.”

Hebrews 3:14 --for we are become partakers

It is also translated, “made partakers”.

a. We become partakers in faithfulness to our call.

b. We cannot expect a faithful Christ to save an unfaithful person.

Hebrews 3:14 --partakers of Christ

Christ partook of man’s flesh that man might partake of Him.

Being a partaker entitles one to the benefits:

a. It has the idea of sharing in, participating with.

b. The true calling of all true believers is meant here.

Hebrews 3:14 --firm unto the end

“As long as life shall last” must be the determination of the child of God:

a. There is no time for relaxation, compromise, or half-heartedness.

b. “Hold fast” is the exhortation in Revelation 3:11.

We do not know when the “end” will be, so we must be firm always.

Hebrews 3:15 --Today if ye shall hear His voice

The warning from Psalms 95:7 is quoted:

a. It suggests the urgency of action, the very day one hears.

b. We have only one chance, Hebrews 9:27.

No purgatory, or second chance, is taught in this book.

Hebrews 3:16 --For who when they heard did provoke?

This passage is translated differently:

a. The King James version says: “For some, when they had heard

b. It also is translated: “Who were those hearers who did bitterly provoke.”

How does the difference arise?

a. The early manuscripts did not have punctuation or accent marks.

b. In 240 B.C., Aristophanes introduced an imperfect system for the benefit of scholars and teachers.

c. In the fifth century, Christian writers began to use accents.

d. Not until the tenth century did accents have a universal usage.

e. The problem arises in the word “who”. Either:

1. “Who” is an interrogative and requires a question mark at the end of the sentence, Or.

2. “Who” is an inadequate pronoun equivalent to “some” and requires a period at the end of the sentence.

The word “some” suggests that some did not provoke, but this group was very small:

a. Joshua and Caleb were two of the hundreds of thousands, so even the word “all” in this verse is justified.

b. The lesson to be gained is to avoid being like the Israelites.

Hebrews 3:16 --nay did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses

The King James version translation may give room for some exceptions:

“Howbeit not all that came out . . .”

a. Joshua and Caleb are exceptions.

b. Clarke suggests: “. . . all the priests and whole tribe of Levi, for they were not of the ones to fight.”

1. Numbers 26:63-65 seems to eliminate this.

2. Some may have lived, however, for Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was one who did take possession:

a) See Numbers 26:60 : “—Eleazar son of Aaron.”

b) Sec Numbers 34:17 and Joshua 24:33.

Hebrews 3:17 --And with whom was He displeased forty years

The King James version states, “But with many of them God was not well pleased.”

Disbelief or doubt displeases God, as it breaks fellowship, or is a barrier to fellowship:

a. Disbelief drove Adam and Eve out of the garden.

b. Disbelief drove Israel into the wilderness.

c. Disbelief keeps men away from God. Hebrews 11:6.

Hebrews 3:17 --was it not with them that sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Individuals are not discussed, but a disbelieving nation is.

a. Joshua and Caleb were the exceptions.

b. Moses and Aaron did not enter Canaan.

c. 1 Corinthians 10:5-13 suggests that not all perished, so we must conclude that those innocent ones who were too young to disbelieve did not perish.

d. Numbers 14:29 says that all who were twenty years old or under should enter.

Funerals must have been often and sad, as a generation perished in the wilderness because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:18 --and to whom sware He that they should not

This refers to God’s condemnation and punishment. This is pronounced in Numbers 14:20-38. Numbers 14:22 says that they tempted God ten times.

Hebrews 3:18 --not enter into His rest

It was a land of rest as God planned it:

a. No more bondage and oppression.

b. Cisterns, cities, farms, etc., were to be taken over. Deuteronomy 6:10-11.

Those who did enter were disobedient like their parents, hence Canaan really never did become a place of rest.

Hebrews 3:18 --but to them that were disobedient?

King James version: “But to them that believed not.”

a. Mark 16:16 expresses the awfulness of disbelief:

1. You do not have to be a great worker of evil, only a disbeliever.

2. Disbelief in the love, providence and gift of Jesus Christ is sufficient to condemn a man.

Disbelief is equivalent to disobedience.

Hebrews 3:19 --And we see

God’s word is for us to study so as to find out how God deals with man:

a. 1 Corinthians 10:11 : “Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.”

b. Wise men profit by others’ mistakes; fools never learn.

Hebrews 3:19 --they were not able to enter in

This then is a warning to all Christians.

If every word spoken by angels was stedfast, Hebrews 2:2, then this word must be heeded.

Reward goes only to the faithful:

a. Revelation 2:10.

b. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.

c. Matthew 10:22.

Hebrews 3:19 --because of unbelief

They were believers who became unbelievers:

a. This is a lesson against backsliding, trifling.

b. Is this unbelief the same as infidelity?

1. No—it is not believing God.

2. There is a difference in believing God and believing in God.

3. Paul believed God. Acts 27:25 : “For I believe God, that it shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto me.”

This was backsliding for Israel:

a. Hosea describes Israel as a “backsliding heifer”. See Hosea 4:16.

b. Revised Version: “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer. Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly like a stubborn heifer.” If you have worked on a farm you can understand this. Some say it is impossible for men to fall away and be lost. If you point out a backslider, they say he was not saved in the first place. It amounts to, “If you get it, you can’t lose it; if you lose it, you never had it.” It is a dangerous doctrine, “If you can’t be lost—.” People can take all kinds of advantages of God, yet be saved.

c. Let us study the Scriptures on the subject:

1. Notice the many names given to backsliders.

a) Proverbs 14:14 : “—shall be filled with his own ways—”

Hosea 11:7 : “People who are bent to backsliding—”

b) “Shrinking back”: Hebrews 10:38 : “—righteous shall live by faith.”

Some people shrink back. They lack courage. Some are like a horse with a collar sore; they never get in and pull.

c) Falling away: Hebrews 3:12 : “—evil heart of unbelief in falling””

Luke 8:13 : “—and in time of temptation fall away.”

Hebrews 10:26-31 : “—sin wilfully.”

Hebrews 6:4-6 : “For as touching those who—fell away.”

d) Falling from grace: Galatians 5:4 : “—ye are fallen away from grace.” How can man promote the doctrine that man can’t fall away from grace?

e) Being hindered: Galatians 5:7 : “Ye were running well, Who hindered you . . .”?

f) Removed from the faith: Galatians 1:6 : “—ye are quickly removing from him that—”

g) Again entangled therein: 2 Peter 2:20 : “—they are again entangled . . . the last state is become worse with them than the first.” cf. 2 Peter 2:21-22.

2. Some examples of backsliding:

a) Israel: Hosea 4:16 : “Israel slideth back.” Exodus 32 records Moses on the Mount and Israel making a golden calf.

b) Solomon: 1 Kings 11:4 : “When Solomon when he was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods.” cf. Hebrews 3:9.

c) Simon Peter: Matthew 26:69-75 : cursing, “I know not the man.”

d) The Galatians: Galatians 1:6 : “I marvel that ye are so quickly removed.”

e) Simon the Sorcerer: Acts 8:13 : “He believed and was baptized.”

Acts 8:23 : “Thou art in the gall of bitterness—”

f) Judas: Matthew 26:48.

g) Ananias and Saphira: Acts 5:1-11.

3. Some practical thoughts in relationship to backsliding:

a) Our duty to one who errs.

Matthew 18:15-17 : “If thy brother sin against thee, go to him.”

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 : “Deliver such a one to Satan.”

Galatians 6:1 : “Restore such a one.”

b) Some things that will keep one from backsliding:

1) Lord’s Supper rightly observed:

1 Corinthians 11:30 : “—for this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.”

2) Christian fellowship that exhorts:

Hebrews 10:25 : “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together—”

3) Guarding one’s life with doctrine:

1 Timothy 6:20 : “Guard that which was committed unto thee.”

1 Corinthians 11:2 : “Hold fast the traditions even as I delivered them unto you.”

4) Prayer and meditation: Matthew 26:41.

c) A realization that we need not fail, but that we can escape backsliding: 1 Corinthians 10:13.

d) The backslider is not fit for the kingdom: Luke 9:62.

e) The way back to God for the backslider: Acts 8:22 : “Repent and pray.”

4. A warning on backsliding. For the willful sinner there is no way back. Hebrews 4-6 :

a. Simon Peter’s fall was a spur-of-the-moment sin not planned at all; he was sorry, and so he repented.

b. Ananias and Sapphira, and Judas each planned their sin; it was willful, and there was no repentance.

Study Questions

442. Does God feel that one generation should learn from another?

443. Define “lest haply”.

444. Does He make the application personal?

445. Give some warnings to man in the New Testament. cf. 1 Corinthians 10:12; 1 Corinthians 9:26; 1 Corinthians 10:5; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Judges 1:5; Judges 1:7.

446. What is the significance of “take heed”?

447. Is unbelief a serious matter according to Hebrews 3:12?

448. Can a moral man who is an unbeliever be rightly spoken of as a good moral man”?

449. How serious is unbelief in the category mentioned in Revelation?

450. What did unbelief do to Adam and Eve?

451. What did it do to Israel after the Egyptian bondage?

452. Did the devil try to work on Christ in this realm?

453. What is implied in the expression, “falling away from God”?

454. Were, they once with God?

455. Can you fall from a building without first being in it or on it?

456. Does this verse give encouragement to the doctrine of man that “if you had it, you can’t lose it; if you lose it, you never had it?”

457. What is our estate if we fall? cf. Hebrews 10:31.

458. Define the word “exhort”.

459. How are we to exhort? cf. 1 Timothy 6:2.

460. How frequently should we exhort?

461. What is meant by, “so long as it is called today”? cf. John 9:4.

462. Does “any one of you” include you?

463. Is Hebrews 3:12 a warning against overconfidence? cf. 1 Corinthians 10:12.

464. What will harden man?

465. How does sin harden?

466. Give example of hardened hearts in the word of God.

467. What docs sin do to people, according to Hebrews 3:13? Discuss deceit.

468. What is the kind of sin that is involved here?

469. Can you name some verses that speak of various kinds of deceit?

470. Who is deceived in 1 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 6:9; 1 John 1:8?

471. What method is used in Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2:18?

472. What deceives, according to Matthew 13:22?

473. Who deceives in Matthew 25:24?

474. Who deceives in Revelation 12:9?

475. Define “partakers”.

476. Why should we be partakers of Christ? Does it entitle us to anything?

477. What qualifies us to be a partaker of Christ?

478. How many evil situations could be avoided “if”? Hebrews 3:14.

479. Explain “hold fast”.

480. What is meant by, “beginning of our confidence”?

481. “Firm unto the end”—end of what?

482. What is the value of the uncertainty of the time of the end?

483. What is the significance of “today if ye shall hear His voice”?

484. Whose voice is referred to?

485. What Psalm is quoted?

486. If God has spoken, has man a right to expect more?

487. What did the Jews want from Jesus?

488. What was a “sign”? What did Jesus answer?

489. “Harden not your hearts” puts the responsibility upon whom?

490. How did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Was God to blame?

491. “As in the provocation”: would this refer to the day when the Jews provoked Jesus?

492. What “day” is referred to?

493. Does “day” always mean 24 hours?

494. “For who, when they heard” refers to whom?

495. Is the word “who” always translated “who”?

496. What is implied by the word “provoke”?

497. Is it an accurate literal translation to say that all who came out of Egypt did provoke God?

498. Who were some exceptions?

499. Who does Clarke think may have been exceptions?

500. Cf. Numbers 26:63-65 to see if Clarke’s view can be substantiated.

501. Did any live besides Joshua and Caleb? Cf. Numbers 26:65.

502. How long was God displeased?

503. Show other instances in the life of people when God was displeased.

504. What happened to those with whom God was displeased?

505. If their bodies did not fall, was it an inference that God was not displeased with them?

506. What was the age of those who did get to enter? Cf. Numbers 14:29.

507. How many funerals a day did it require?

508. To whom did God swear?

509. What did He pronounce at this time? Cf. Numbers 14:20-28.

510. What number of times did they provoke God? See Numbers 14:22.

511. In what way was Canaan to be a place of rest? Cf. Deuteronomy 6:10-11.

512. The author has talked about disbelief all the way through, but now he uses the word “disobedient”. Why?

513. Are “disbelief” and “disobedience” the same?

514. “And we see” has what significance?

515. “They were not able” carries what warning to us?

516. “Because of unbelief”—were they ever believers?

517. If so, what warning do we have?

518. Were they rank infidels?

519. Is there a difference in believing God and believing in God? Cf. Acts 27:25.

520. Was disbelief equivalent to backsliding?

521. What terms or synonyms are used for this condition of disbelief?

522. What are some examples of backsliding?

523. What should we do to the backslider?

524. What would you suggest doing to keep people from backsliding?

525. What is the way back to God for the backslider?

526. Is there a way for all backsliders to repent?

527. Why could Simon repent, but Ananias and Sapphira couldn’t?

Commentary on Hebrews 3:7-19 by Burton Coffman

Hebrews 3:7-11 --Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today, if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried me by proving me, And saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was displeased with this generation, And said, They do always err in their heart: But they did not know my ways; As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

THE SECOND EXHORTATION

The quotation here is from Psalms 95:7 ff and introduces the second of a series of exhortations designed to bolster the lagging faith of the Hebrew Christians and to warn them against apostasy, the warning being strongly reinforced by the appeal to the analogous falling away which took place in that generation which entered the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt but were cut off from entering the promised land. Note the attribution of this Psalm of the Holy Spirit. David, as the human instrument through whom the words came, is not mentioned; and thus the author of this epistle takes his place alongside other New Testament writers in making God the author of the Old Testament (2 Peter 1:21).

The experience of Israel in the wilderness of wanderings was indelibly engraved upon the conscience of all the Jews, especially regarding the failure to enter the promised land, the shameful record of which was outlined expressly in their scriptures (Exodus 17; Numbers 13-14; Deuteronomy 9:10). Thus the warning in this place is dramatically intensified by an appeal to the historic disaster that prevented a whole generation from entering Canaan.

Today, if ye shall hear his voice is an appeal for action NOW. The consequences of failure are so supremely tragic, and the tendency to procrastination so universal, that action is demanded now, today. One steals who presumes upon tomorrow; tomorrow belongs to God; "Behold now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). The statement of Paul underlines the fact that life does not come to people a day at a time, but a moment at a time; hence, NOW is the day of salvation. And why today? (1) People have waited long enough already. (2) There may never be a tomorrow for any man. (3) The difficulty of obedience is only multiplied and compounded by delay. (4) God has commanded obedience NOW. (5) The impulse to respond or obey may diminish or disappear. (6) Subsequent obedience (even if it comes) may not be as effectual and fruitful. (7) There is no better time than NOW to do the Father’s will.

If you hear his voice raises the question of how God’s voice may be heard today; and following are some suggested answers: (1) the voice of God through the holy scriptures as read or preached; (2) the admonitions of faithful loved ones and friends; (3) through conscience which, however depraved, must inevitably retain some vestiges of regard for duty toward God; (4) through the message of God as revealed by consideration of the creation in the light of reason; (5) through God’s providential blessings upon every man; and (6) through the spiritual hunger that rises in every heart and which instinctively reaches for a knowledge of God and longs for his approval.

Harden not your hearts is another admonition that affixes the responsibility and blame for hardness of heart upon the hardened himself. Only in the sense of his permitting it, is it ever correct to believe that God hardens hearts. True, the Old Testament states that God "hardened Pharaoh’s heart" (Exodus 7:13); but the next verse declares that Pharaoh was STUBBORN. The same sunshine melts butter and hardens concrete; and the same gospel saves some and destroys others (2 Corinthians 2:12). People’s hearts are hardened by continuing in sin, procrastination, and by the gradual atrophy of spiritual perception brought on by the practice of disobedience. People may go a little at a time, further and further into sin, until finally they become hardened and confirmed in their rebellion against God. Even in such a state, one may, if he will permit it, be softened and healed by the word of God. How may the stony heart be broken? "Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29).

Hebrews 3:8 has been an interesting example of a couple of Hebrew proper names being translated as common nouns, Meribah and Massah, being rendered "provocation and temptation." This is due to the fact that the proper names given by Moses to the places where those sad episodes took place came, in time, to have a broader meaning (Exodus 1:7). There are many examples in all languages where such has occurred. For example, Quisling is the name of a Norwegian collaborator with the Nazi invaders which came to signify "traitor."^[7]

Forty years, as mentioned in Hebrews 3:9 and Hebrews 3:17, would seem to be a delicate hint of the fact that when this author wrote, just about the same length of time, that is, forty years, had passed since the resurrection of Christ, and suggesting that the ancient defection of that generation of Israelites might be typical of what was threatening among the generation addressed in Hebrews. The word "works" in this place should be rendered in the singular, according to Westcott who observed that

The Hebrew is singular. The many works of God in the wilderness were all one work, one in essence and aim, whether they were works of deliverance or chastisement. Under this aspect acts of righteous judgment and of mercy were parts of the same counsel of loving discipline.^[8]

The "generation" mentioned in Hebrews 3:10 is that of the Israelites who provoked God and were prohibited from entering the promised land. The question rises as to how their defection was applicable to the situation confronting the Christians to whom Hebrews was addressed. To be sure, all the things that happened to ancient Israel were ensamples for them that believe (1 Corinthians 10:1-11); but even more is apparently intended here. The whole typical structure of Israel corresponds to many facts and events in Christianity. The death of Christ is called "an exodus" (founded on Luke 9:31); Christ is the true Passover sacrifice for his people (1 Corinthians 5:7); he is the lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19); Christians during their probation are said to be, like Israel of old, "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38); and, as Bruce pointed out:

Their (the Christians’) baptism is the antitype of Israel’s passage through the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:1 ff); their sacrificial feeding on him (Christ) by faith is the antitype of Israel’s nourishment with manna and the water from the rock (1 Corinthians 10:3 ff); Christ, the living Rock, is their guide through the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4); the heavenly rest that lies before them is the counterpart to the earthly Canaan which was the goal of the Israelites.^[9]

They do always err in their hearts; but they did not know my ways. These two statements seem, at first, not to belong together; but the reason of their being connected was clearly explained by T. Brooks who wrote:

The proper remedy for crime is, therefore, the knowledge of God’s ways. But we must not fall into the mistake of supposing that the knowledge of the ways of God signifies the being informed as to the purport of those laws. Here, as in many other parts of scripture, the word denotes approval by experience, as well as knowledge in the ordinary sense.^[10]

The physical death which overtook the lost generation in the wilderness was but a physical penalty for their rebellion against God; and, although they were never allowed to reacquire the lost advantage in the physical sense of entering Canaan, it may rightfully be supposed that all of them who repented and brought themselves into harmony with God’s purpose still retained the hope of eternal life, Moses himself being a prime example of this. Far more dreadful, therefore, was the danger threatening the Hebrew Christians who, if they fell away, stood to suffer the loss of even "all spiritual blessings" that are in Christ.

I sware in my wrath calls attention to God’s making an oath; and although mentioned elsewhere by Zacharias (Luke 1:73), Peter (Acts 2:30), and Stephen (Acts 7:17), it is in Hebrews that this fact receives the greatest attention, there being no less than six references to it, the others being Hebrews 3:18; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 6:13; Hebrews 6:16; Hebrews 7:21. Swearing on the part of God should be thought of in an accommodative sense; and such a concept is introduced here for the sake of emphasizing the absolutely eternal and irrevocable nature of God’s judgments; and yet it cannot be accepted that God’s oath is any stronger than his word, the thought being altogether anthropomorphic, since in the case of man, their swearing is said to increase the respect due their words.

They shall not enter into my rest refers to the prohibition by which God refused admittance of Israel to Canaan and immediately loomed in the author’s mind as a type of that rest the Hebrew Christians were in danger of forfeiting, a thought that he at once developed and made the basis of the remainder of this second admonition. The Greek margin (English Revised Version (1885)) shows these words to be literally, "if they shall enter into my rest"; but the context demands a translation of such an idiomatic phrase in words that cannot be mistaken. The common versions are therefore correct.

^[7] Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961Edition, Vol. 18, p. 885.

^[8] Brooke Foss Westcott, op. cit., p. 81.

^[9] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 62.

^[10] T. Brooks, The Biblical Illustrator (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1967), Hebrews, Vol. I, p. 245.

Hebrews 3:12 --Take heed, brethren, lest haply there should be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God.

Five definite facts emerge from this verse: (1) that it is possible for Christians to fall away from the living God; (2) that such a disaster is due to an unbelieving heart; (3) that an unbelieving heart is evil (not merely `smart’); (4) that God is not a mere influence but a living person; and (5) that there are adequate grounds upon which a Christian may avoid falling away. The tenderness of the author appears in his use of "haply." Not wishing to write flatly that they were in mortal danger of being lost, he proposes such an awesome possibility as something that just might "haply" befall them. These words take up and illustrate the lesson of Psalms 95 which had just been quoted at length. The Psalm is divided into two parts, the first (Psalms 95:1-7) being a warning against the disobedience; and it is the second portion of the Psalm which the author quoted. The message of the entire Psalm is that people should worship God, but that mere worship, unaccompanied by obedience, will not avail. Regarding the possibility of apostasy so forcibly mentioned here, it should be noted that the Bible nowhere authorizes any confidence to the contrary. Apostasy comes under consideration again in Hebrews 6:1-8, where from its treatment there, it cannot possibly be doubted that the author is warning his readers against a present real, and impending danger, a threat to any Christian who might allow an evil heart of unbelief to develop within him. Indeed, if there is no such thing as the possibility that a true child of God might fall away and be lost, how could the author of this epistle have introduced such a subject, and how could he have warned them to "take heed" against a non-existent danger?

An evil heart of unbelief contains another intimation of the moral basis of faith. Unbelief does not exist apart from antecedent evil in people’s hearts. Christ said, "And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil" (John 3:19). People who have accepted the truth and are actually in the faith of Christ, if they do not live up to the moral requirements of that faith, become alienated from it, grow to despise and hate it, and at last find themselves in rebellion against God.

The living God identifies the God of the Christians as the creator, upholder, and governor of all the universe; and this expression is used several times in the New Testament. It featured Peter’s noble confession (Matthew 16:16); Caiaphas used it when he administered an oath to Jesus (Matthew 26:63); it was frequently in the writings of Paul (Romans 9:26; 2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:15; etc.); and the apostle John saw an angel "having the seal of the living God" (Revelation 7:2). It is extremely appropriate that the Being within whom the life principle is self-contained, and whose existence is eternally in the present tense ("I AM that I AM" - Exodus 3:14), should be called the living God.

Hebrews 3:13 --But exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The Greek pronoun rendered here "one another" is variously translated in the New Testament, as in "be at peace AMONG YOURSELVES" (1 Thessalonians 5:14); "Fervent in your love AMONG YOURSELVES" (1 Peter 4:8); "And be ye kind ONE TO ANOTHER" (Ephesians 4:32); and "Forbearing ONE ANOTHER and forgiving EACH OTHER" (Colossians 3:13). Thus the persons so strongly commanded in this place to "exhort" and the persons to be exhorted can be none other than the Christian membership itself, and that as manifested in their most intimate personal relationships, such as families, congregations, fellow-workers, and close associates of every kind.

Is this commandment heeded today? It is strongly to be feared that it is forsaken. How many families must there be where there is no daily exhortation to faithfulness in Christ! How many people work side by side without ever knowing if a fellow-worker is even a Christian or not and who for months or years never mention either God or religion, except, perhaps, profanely! When this writer was once minister of Central Church of Christ, Houston, Texas, a brother placed his membership with that church one Sunday; and, for the first time, another brother in that same church learned that he had daily worked side by side with that other man for two years in a synthetic rubber plant. These people attended different congregations until the time mentioned; and neither of them had the slightest idea that the other was a Christian!

Why do not Christians exhort one another daily, as commanded? (1) Some perhaps fail through natural timidity, but that is a weakness that should not be allowed to stand. Let people overcome their timidity and exhort their fellow-workers. (2) Some are ashamed of Christ. Why those long weeks of deathly silence, wherein even some parents speak no loving words of exhortation? No wonder children grow up asking in their hearts, "Do they really believe it?" Such a reticence can be attributed to one’s being ashamed of Christ. (3) Still others have accepted a notion that it is impolite to speak of Christ, or faith, or religion; and, although it is possible that there are occasions or circumstances in which true politeness might omit the type of exhortation commanded here, yet this commandment is directed squarely at members of the family of God, Christians, and is applicable to all of them in the every day associations of life, like those in the family, in business, and in recreation. (4) Broken or mixed families, in a religious sense, are another deterrent. When unbelieving partners are linked with Christians, the daily exhortations are infinitely more difficult, if not impossible; and the loss of the spiritual benefit that would normally accrue from them is tragic, first in the life of the Christian partner, and secondly in the lives of the children.

The overwhelming power of the admonition delivered by the Holy Spirit in this paragraph is seen in the rules, or techniques laid down, by which a truly successful Christian life may be achieved and strengthened. Strangely enough, both of these directives lean heavily toward self-help! First, the man who would wish to continue as a Christian should boldly speak of his faith, glorying in it every day, and seizing every possible chance to extol his love and appreciation of God, the sweetness of service in Christ, and every other joy and benefit of salvation (Hebrews 3:6). The second of these rules is in Hebrews 3:13; and it commands the entire Christian community, whether in the family, the congregation, or in other close and intimate contact, to "exhort one another day by day."

Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin ... The hardening of the heart through sin’s deceit is a danger enhanced by the fact that "The heart is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9). Charles Spurgeon, as quoted in Biblical Illustrator, noted that "When these two deceitful ones lay their heads together to make up a case, there is no wonder if man, like a silly dove, is taken in their net."^[11] The deceit of sin and also the deceit of the heart combine to visit ruin in people’s lives. People’s deceitful hearts subconsciously desire to be deceived, thus making the deception far easier and more extensive than otherwise. The deceitfulness of sin extends to every conceivable phase of it. Sin promises the transgressors happiness, only to plunge him in sorrow. It promises joy, but delivers wretchedness, shame, misery, and remorse. It promises liberty, but binds the sinner with the most disgusting chains of slavery. It promises light, but submerges the soul in outer darkness. It promises knowledge, as in the case of Adam and Eve, but provides with that knowledge a devastating sense of shame, guilt, and bitterness. Yes, sin deceives. It promises to be nothing serious. It mocks the ship of Alexandria with the gentle zephyrs of the south wind (Acts 27:13), only to smite with the full fury of Euraquilo when the unwary ship has ventured out of its haven. It feints with the right and devastates with the left.

ENDNOTE:

^[11] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Biblical Illustrator (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1967), p. 264.

Hebrews 3:14 --For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.

On this verse, Albert Barnes inquired:

What else can be said so honorable of a man as that he "is a partaker of Christ," that he shares his feelings here, and that he is to share his honors in a brighter world? Compared with this, what is it to participate with the rich and the gay in their pleasures; what would it be to share in the honors of kings and conquerors?^[12]

The union of Christ and his members provides the entire foundation of their hope. Those who believe and obey Christ partake of his righteousness, by imputation; receive the judicial discharge from their sins, by means of his sacrifice; and look forward to entering heaven itself by having become members of his spiritual body the church.

Here again, as in Hebrews 3:6, is given the necessity for believers to continue faithfully and enthusiastically "to the end"; what end? Any end whatsoever! Perhaps the words "to the end" are unspecific on purpose in order to cover a range of meanings such as: (1) the end of a particular period of temptation; (2) the end of life; (3) the end of the world; and (4) perhaps even "the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:9). Such expressions as this, seeming at first to be indefinite, are often far richer in meaning than a more specific statement would have been.

Regarding the word "confidence," its rather broad meaning accentuates the unity of this verse with the statement in Hebrews 3:6, "glorying of our hope." In fact, "confidence" contains the thought of "glorying"; and this is indicated by the translation "in this confidence of glorying" (2 Corinthians 11:17). Westcott said, "It is used by the Greek writers for firmness under torture; and generally for courageous firmness of character."^[13]

^[12] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1963), Vol. Hebrews, p. 88.

^[13] Brooke Foss Westcott, op. cit., p. 85.

Hebrews 3:15 --While it is said, Today if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

While it is said, Today means persevere as long as life lasts, or as long as there is any today. Since this is a quotation from Psalms 95:7, it is possible the author means, "As long as the Bible says Today." The rest of this verse is parallel to Hebrews 3:8 to which the reader is referred for notes.

Hebrews 3:16 --For who, when they heard, did provoke? nay, did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses?

Here is a solemn warning against trusting in a majority or what is popular. The author pointedly reminds his readers that the wilderness failure of Israel was on a national scale, supported by the overwhelming majority, and popularly led and advocated by the great princes of Israel (Numbers 13:3-16). The statement that "all they" rebelled is hyperbole, exaggeration for the sake of emphasis; and, while it is true that Caleb and Joshua refused to be with the majority and survived to enter Canaan, "The exception was so small that the apostle had no scruple in saying that they all provoked God by their disobedience," as Barnes put it.^[14] The exception was so small that the names of only two have come down through history as repudiating the majority.

THE LOST GENERATION

The tragic case of that lost generation in the wilderness is of epic proportions. They had begun so gloriously, led of God himself, seeing their enemies humbled by a series of shocking plagues, crossing the Red Sea on dry land, arming themselves from the wreckage of Pharaoh’s drowned army, engaging in the most dramatic instantaneous exodus of all time, overcoming all obstacles, and singing the songs of triumph and victory; how could they have failed after all that? If so fantastic a beginning could be nullified by ultimate defeat, surely the apparent reasons for it should be of the most definite concern for believers in all ages. And what are those reasons? (1) They had a morbid fear of hunger and other looming dangers. The relative security of their lives as slaves seemed preferable to the unknown dangers ahead. People have always counted it a privilege to fight and die for liberty, if need be; but here was a generation that simply could not bring themselves to do it. (2) They exaggerated the dangers that confronted them, saying, "The land eateth up the inhabitants thereof" (Numbers 13:32). (3) They failed to manifest that essential self-respect which is an ingredient of all success, saying, "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:33). One might call that "the grasshopper complex" and find a great many examples of it today. (4) They accepted the majority report brought in by the ten unfaithful spies. The multitude of Israel looked at the ten instead of the two, blindly following the majority, feeling that wisdom was in that course, and unaware until too late that ignorance, defeat, folly and death lay with the majority. People of the present day are confronted with exactly the same danger. What do the majority say about God, Christ, the church, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Christian living, sobriety, virtue, prayer, and piety? Concerning majorities, people should have the courage of Caleb and Joshua. They should have the grace to accept the sentiments of an old motto once said to be over the gates of the University of Glasgow; "What do they say? Who are they? Who cares?" (5) The most important and all-encompassing reason for their failure was their unbelief, a condition bluntly noted in Hebrews 3:19 and Hebrews 4:2, below. Instead of glorying in their faith and exhorting one another daily to maintain it, they permitted themselves to drift away from it, until in an evil hour they found themselves in a state of rebellion against God.

ENDNOTE:

^[14] Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 91.

Hebrews 3:17 --And with whom was he displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

The writer continues to focus upon the overwhelming disaster that befell Israel in the wanderings, again mentioning the forty-year duration of the offense, as in Hebrews 3:9, and stressing the summary judgment of death upon an entire generation. The holy antagonism of God toward all sin is seen in the fact that so extensive and final a penalty was invoked; but also the heavenly mercy and forbearance of God are observed, not only in that forty-year period of his sublime patience with Israel, but in his waiting until they all died of natural causes rather than directly by divine flat. That Israel deserved to die instantly for their sin appears in the fact that God was ready thus to punish them but yielded to the intercession of Moses (Exodus 32:32). It has already been noted that this physical judgment against them did not compromise their right of eternal salvation, based upon their faith, repentance and obedience subsequent to their apostasy. (See under Hebrews 3:8). Also, in contrast, the Hebrew Christians, by their apostasy, would incur an even more terrible penalty in that they stood to forfeit heaven itself.

Hebrews 3:18 --And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that were disobedient?

The Book of Hebrews makes a great thing of obedience, affirming that even Christ was made perfect by it (Hebrews 5:8-9) and that the salvation he authored is "unto all them that obey him"; and also marking especially the obedience of so illustrious a person as Abraham (Hebrews 11:8). In this verse, disobedience is made the basis of God’s denying Israel the right to enter Canaan, the "rest" spoken of being a reference to their dwelling in that good land, rather than a mention of the sabbath day, the sabbath day, of course, being a rest that they did actually receive and enjoy throughout their whole history. In spite of the fact that the KJV translates this verse "believed not" instead of "disobedient," the English Revised Version (1885) is far preferable. Unbelief is indeed a sin, damning and destructive enough; but it is followed by overt and willful actions against the laws of God, such actions being of themselves fatal to the receiving of God’s approval, no matter if founded in unbelief, as Israel’s were, or not. One of the great heresies of the Reformation appeared in the doctrine of salvation by "faith alone" and the attendant notion that the only sin, actually, is unbelief. See more on this under Hebrews 11:6.

Hebrews 3:19 --And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

And we see is a transitional phrase which means, "We see in the familiar record of the Pentateuch," or "We see in the details just mentioned." This passage shows that the exclusion of Israel grew out of moral necessity, their unbelief having betrayed them into outright rebellion against God. The application, of course, is that, if God spared not them, neither will he spare Christians guilty of the same conduct.

That lost generation of the Israelites suffered incredible hardships in the wilderness, being subject to the incursions of armed enemies, enduring hunger and thirst and wretchedness, being exposed to the sickening agonies inflicted by poisonous serpents, finding no certain habitation, marching every day of their lives in step with frustration, disease and death. And yet it all could have been different. God gave them the right to enter Canaan immediately upon their coming out of Egypt, but through unbelief and disobedience they failed to enter, Never, perhaps, in human history is there so clearly outlined a case in which the religious and spiritual failures of a people issued so promptly and irrevocably in their temporal and physical poverty as well, leaving the lesson for all to see. Moffatt commented on this in these words,

The world at large may ridicule the idea that a man’s spiritual standing can have the remotest connection with the success or failure which may attend his pursuit of temporal objects: and we are far enough from alleging that the maintenance of religious principle will necessarily insure the prosperous issue of every enterprise; but its absence may, at any time, throw obstacles in the way which might not, under other circumstances, require to be encountered; and when we find that unbelief and nothing else was the cause of the exclusion of so many Israelite wanderers from the choice and productive land of Canaan, we seem to read, in characters so plain that only willful error can mistake their meaning, the great truth that the earthly prospects of all may be materially and even vitally affected by the possession or the want of faith.^[15]

ENDNOTE:

^[15] H. B. Moffatt, The Biblical Illustrator (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1967), p. 287.