Hebrews 3:2-12

2 For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.
3 But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself.
4 For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.
5 Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.
6 But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
7 That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice,
8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.

Hebrews 3:2-12 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.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Some manuscripts do not include entire.
  • [b]. Some manuscripts add faithful to the end.
  • [c]. Ps 95:7-11 .
  • [d]. Greek brothers.
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