New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
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So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe,
2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.
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faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful,
3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
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but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day.
4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
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Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God.
5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
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Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come.
6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
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Christ as Son is in charge of the house.
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
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That's why the Holy Spirit says, Today, please listen;
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
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don't turn a deaf ear as in "the bitter uprising," that time of wilderness testing!
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
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Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
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And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, "They'll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road."
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
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Exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest."
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
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So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
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For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes.
14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
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If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.
15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
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These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
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For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt?
17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
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And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
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And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear?
19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
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They never got there because they never listened, never believed.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.