ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, that because Christ lives and reigns, in him, eternal life is mine.
Read HEBREWS 3
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Jesus Greater Than Moses
3 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. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 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. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,”[a] bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 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.
Warning Against Unbelief
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
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.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”[b]
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away 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. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[c]
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those 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? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 3:5 Num. 12:7
- Hebrews 3:11 Psalm 95:7-11
- Hebrews 3:15 Psalm 95:7,8
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Ask the Holy Spirit to speak into your life today as you read the Scriptures.
Think Further
This chapter has two parts: a comparison between Jesus and Moses, and a warning from the example of the wilderness generation. There are also two unusual conditional sentences, where our status in the present will be disclosed in the future. The first is in verse 6, concluding six verses containing the word ‘house’ six times. The word is ambiguous and only at the end do we discover that ‘house’ means ‘household’: we are God’s household now if we persevere into the future, firmly holding our confidence and hope.
In chapters 1 and 2 we overheard God and Jesus speaking to one another in the Scriptures. Now, the Holy Spirit speaks, addressing God’s people. The Spirit quotes Psalm 95:7–11, where God warned the people worshipping1 not to be like the faithless wilderness generation who were excluded from the resting place God had prepared for them in the Promised Land.2 They were unable to enter because of unbelief, and the writer of Hebrews emphasizes that readers of the epistle need to persevere in faith to the very end, demonstrating that they truly have come to share in Christ (the other conditional sentence, v. 14).
The Spirit applied words that were first spoken to the temple worshipers, to the readers of Hebrews, and, since it is still ‘Today’ (v. 15), the Spirit now applies them to us. In verses 12 and 13 we hear the Spirit calling us, not so much to look out for ourselves but to look out for others. We are to encourage one another so that no member of our believing communities is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and so excluded from God’s ultimate rest, the glory to which God is bringing us.3
Apply
Verses 12 and 13 are a warning against temptation. As you gather with others, be on the watch for a sister or brother who needs your help to persevere.
Closing prayer
Light of the World, help me see clearly the path you set before me. Help me to never stray from those convictions of faith that called me to follow you.
1 See Ps 95:1–7 2 See Deut 12:9 for this imagery 3 Heb 2:10
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