Hebrews 3:1-11

1 My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess.

2 He was faithful to God, who chose him to do this work, just as Moses was faithful in his work in God's house. ¹

3 A man who builds a house receives more honor than the house itself. In the same way Jesus is worthy of much greater honor than Moses.

4 Every house, of course, is built by someone - and God is the one who has built all things.

5 Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, and he spoke of the things that God would say in the future.

6 But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

7 So then, as the Holy Spirit says, ² "If you hear God's voice today,

8 do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God, as they were that day in the desert when they put him to the test.

9 There they put me to the test and tried me, says God, although they had seen what I did for forty years.

10 And so I was angry with those people and said, "They are always disloyal and refuse to obey my commands.'

11 I was angry and made a solemn promise: "They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!' "

Hebrews 3:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 3

The apostle having discoursed, in the preceding chapters, concerning the dignity of Christ's person, and his wondrous grace in the assumption of human nature, and suffering in the room and stead of his people, exhorts the Hebrews in this to a serious consideration of him, attention to him, and faith in him, and constancy in it; the arguments he uses to engage them to these things are taken from the grace and benefit they themselves were partakers of through him, from the office in which he was, and his faithfulness to his Father in the discharge of it, Heb 3:1,2 which is illustrated in the case of Moses, who was faithful in the house of God, and whom Christ excelled, and therefore was worthy of more honour; partly, because he is the builder of the house; and partly, because he is a Son in it, when Moses was only a servant; which house is Christ's own, and consists of true and steadfast believers in him, Heb 3:2-6, wherefore the exhortation to regard him is renewed, enforced, and expressed in the words of the Holy Ghost, Heb 3:7-11 which are taken out of Ps 95:7-11 and applied to the present case: hence the apostle cautions against unbelief, as being a great evil in itself, and bad in its consequence, causing persons to depart from the living God, Heb 3:12, in order to prevent which he advises to a daily exhortation of each other to their duty, that so they might not be hardened in sin through the deceitfulness of it, Heb 3:13 and the rather it became them to be concerned to hold fast their faith in Christ to the end, since this is the grand evidence of being a partaker of him, Heb 3:14. And then the exhortation in the above passage of Scripture is recited, Heb 3:15 to show, that though not all the persons spoken of, yet some did provoke the Lord by their unbelief, and unbecoming carriage, Heb 3:16 wherefore, by the example of punishment being inflicted on such, of which instances are given in the forefathers of these people, such as their carcasses falling in the wilderness, and their not entering into the land of Canaan, which they could not, because God swore they should not, being grieved and provoked by them, and because of their unbelief, they are dissuaded from the same evils, lest they should be punished in like manner, Heb 3:17-19.

Cross References

• 1. 3.2Numbers 12.7.
• 2. 3.7-11Psalms 95.7-11 (LXX).