Hebrews 3

Hebrews 3 is the third of the thirteen chapters of Hebrews. It builds on chapter 2, which states that Jesus was made like His brethren so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest. This chapter compares Jesus with Moses and, using the wilderness generation as a warning example, exhorts readers to hold fast to their faith to the end.

Outline

• Verses 1–6: The brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, are urged to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest. Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, while Christ was faithful as a Son over that house. Just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself, so Christ is counted worthy of more glory than Moses. The passage declares, "whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
• Verses 7–11: Introducing it as the words of the Holy Spirit, the author quotes Psalm 95: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." The fathers saw God's works for forty years and still tempted Him, so God swore that they would not enter into His rest.
• Verses 12–15: Readers are warned to take heed lest an evil heart of unbelief cause them to depart from the living God. They are to exhort one another daily while it is called "To day," and the passage states that they are made partakers of Christ if they hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end.
• Verses 16–19: Those who provoked God were the very people who came out of Egypt under Moses, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness. The chapter concludes that they could not enter into His rest because of disobedience and unbelief.

Key Verses

• Hebrews 3:1 "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" — known as the only verse in the New Testament that calls Jesus an "apostle."
• Hebrews 3:6 "But Christ as a son over his own house" — summarizes Jesus' superiority to Moses through the contrast between servant and son.
• Hebrews 3:13 "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day" — frequently cited as a call to mutual exhortation within the community of faith.

People and Places

• Jesus Christ — presented as the Apostle and High Priest and as the Son over God's house.
• Moses — the servant who was faithful in all God's house. Verses 2 and 5 echo the language of Numbers 12:7.
• The fathers (the wilderness generation) — the generation of Israel that came out of Egypt and tempted God in the wilderness. For details, see The Forty Years in the Wilderness.
• Egypt — the land from which Israel came out under Moses.

Points for Reflection

• Warning and perseverance: The phrase "in departing" in verse 12 and "hold … stedfast unto the end" in verse 14 are frequently discussed in debates over whether those who are saved can fall away.
• The Reformed tradition, including Presbyterians, reads these verses in light of the perseverance of the saints (the doctrine that true believers will keep the faith to the end). In this view, the warning is a means by which God preserves His elect to the end, and those who fall away show that their faith was never genuine from the beginning.
• The Wesleyan and Arminian traditions, including Methodists and Holiness churches, read these verses as a real warning that even true believers can fall from grace if they abandon their faith.
• A similar discussion continues in Hebrews 10:26–31.
• The meaning of rest: The rest in Psalm 95 originally refers to entering and settling in the land of Canaan. In Hebrews 4, the author broadens this to mean God's own rest.
• The quoted text: The quotation in verses 7–11 is known to be closer in form to the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) than to the Hebrew text. The place names Meribah and Massah in the Hebrew text are rendered in the Septuagint by the words "provocation" and "temptation."
• Connections to the wilderness events: The temptation in verse 8 is linked to the incident at Meribah and Massah in Exodus 17. The generation whose carcasses fell in the wilderness in verses 17–19 is linked to the unbelief that followed the spies' report in Numbers 14.