Hebrews 3 compares Jesus with Moses, the greatest figure in Israel’s history, and finds Him greater still: Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, but Christ is the Son over it. Then the chapter turns to a warning drawn from Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. A whole generation that had seen God’s mighty works never entered Canaan. Why? “They could not enter in because of unbelief.” “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
A study in Hebrews 3 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 16 min read
Consider The Apostle And High Priest
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.”
Hebrews 3:1-2
“Holy brethren” — the believers are the very “brethren” whom Jesus is not ashamed to call His own (2:11). They are “partakers of the heavenly calling”: God has called them, not to an earthly land like Canaan, but to heaven itself.
“Consider” means to fix your mind on, to look at closely and think it through. And what we are to consider is Jesus Himself, “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” An apostle is one sent from God to men; a high priest represents men before God. Jesus is both. He came from God to us, and He goes before God for us. Moses was God’s messenger to Israel, and Aaron was Israel’s high priest. Jesus fills both roles at once.
As A Son Over His Own House
“For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Hebrews 3:3-6
To Jewish readers, no human being was greater than Moses. God spoke to him “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11). The writer does not belittle Moses. He calls him “faithful in all his house,” borrowing God’s own words (Numbers 12:7). But Jesus is greater, just as a builder is greater than the house he builds. And the One who “built all things is God.” Once again, as in chapter 1, Jesus stands on the Creator’s side of the line.
Moses was faithful “as a servant,” and his whole ministry was “a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after”: the tabernacle, the priesthood and the sacrifices all pointed forward to Christ. But Christ is faithful “as a son over his own house.” A servant works in the house; the son owns it.
“The Israel of God, journeying to the heavenly Canaan, have a Captain who needed no human teaching to prepare Him for His mission as a divine leader; yet He was made perfect through sufferings; and ‘in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.’ Hebrews 2:10, 18. Our Redeemer manifested no human weakness or imperfection; yet He died to obtain for us an entrance into the Promised Land.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 480
“Whose house are we.” The house is not a building; it is God’s people. And then comes the condition that runs all through Hebrews: “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Belonging to God’s house is not a ticket bought once and then forgotten. It is a living faith that holds on to the end.
To Day If Ye Will Hear His Voice
“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)”
Hebrews 3:7-11
The writer quotes Psalm 95:7-11 and introduces it with the words, “as the Holy Ghost saith.” David wrote the psalm (4:7), but the writer says the Holy Spirit is the One speaking it — and speaking it in the present tense. The Spirit who inspired the psalm is still speaking it, to us, today.
“The provocation” and “the day of temptation” recall Israel’s rebellions in the wilderness: at Massah and Meribah, where they quarrelled over water (Exodus 17:7), and above all at Kadesh, where they believed the ten spies instead of God and refused to enter Canaan (Numbers 14). They had seen the plagues, the Red Sea, the manna and the cloud. They “saw my works forty years.” Yet “they do alway err in their heart.” Seeing miracles is not the same as trusting God.
The key word of the psalm is “To day.” God’s invitation is always present tense. We cannot hear His voice yesterday, and we are not promised tomorrow.
“Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will; and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ ‘Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’ 2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7, 8.”
Ellen G. White · Steps to Christ, p. 34
Exhort One Another Daily
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”
Hebrews 3:12-14
“An evil heart of unbelief.” Notice how Scripture connects the two. Unbelief is not simply an intellectual doubt. It is a heart that turns away “from the living God.”
“Says the apostle Paul, ‘Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.’ Hebrews 3:12. In view of all that God has wrought for us, our faith should be strong, active, and enduring.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 294
And the remedy is simple: “exhort one another daily.” The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. We need each other’s encouragement every day, because sin is deceitful. It never announces itself as hardness of heart. It creeps in a little at a time, and each small refusal to listen makes the next one easier.
“Like the hard-beaten path, trodden down by the feet of men and beasts, is the heart that becomes a highway for the world’s traffic, its pleasures and sins. Absorbed in selfish aims and sinful indulgences, the soul is ‘hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.’ Hebrews 3:13. The spiritual faculties are paralyzed.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 44
They Could Not Enter In Because Of Unbelief
“While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:15-19
The writer drives the point home with a series of questions. Who heard God’s voice and rebelled anyway? The very people Moses led out of Egypt. With whom was God grieved? With those who sinned and died in the desert. Whom did He shut out of His rest? Those who “believed not.” Only Caleb and Joshua, who trusted God’s promise, went in (Numbers 14:30).
“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” God had brought them to the border of the Promised Land in about two years. It was never His will that they wander for forty. Ellen White saw a solemn parallel in the long delay of Christ’s second coming:
“It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness; He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan and establish them there, a holy, happy people. But ‘they could not enter in because of unbelief.’ Hebrews 3:19. … In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 458
The same danger faces every generation. God’s people today are also journeying toward a promised land, the heavenly Canaan. We too have seen His works. The question is whether we will trust Him. And the next chapter will show that the “rest” Israel missed is still open: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
