“Listen up: this is better” -- A study on the Bible book of Hebrews
A 13-week series given in 2020
By Bob Mendelsohn
Jews for Jesus, Sydney
Given 14 August 2020
bob@jewsforjesus.org.au
Lesson Three: Yeshua is better than Moses
To watch this on video click here: https://youtu.be/JKCJ_Nq4R0U
Once again, I’d like to welcome each of you today as we study and learn together again from the letter to messianic Jews written before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Today we study chapter 3, and if you haven’t yet read it, please, those of you on YouTube, pause the playback, read the chapter, and then press play again to re-join us. Thanks.
Welcome back.
The author will use this section of the letter to highlight Yeshua, as we would expect, and in this case contrasting him with the greatest, Moshe Rabeinu. If you ask most Jewish people today who the greatest Jew is, after naming Jerry Seinfeld or Albert Einstein, with some mention of Harry Triguboff or King David, the name Moses would certainly rise to the top. Among religious Jews, Moses is certainly the man!
If this letter’s purpose continues to be a series of warnings about falling back into messiah-less Judaism, then a contrast needs to ensue. It’s almost as if the author is setting up a debate. Who will win: Yeshua or Moses?
Let’s unpack the chapter’s 18 verses line by line and see what it has to say to us as 21st Century people. If you are new to this form of Bible reading, we welcome you especially.
1. Consider Yeshua, and believe
The notion of Yeshua as being better than the servant of God, Moses, is important to prove that following Yeshua together with other saints is the way forward. There is a battle between the communities, much like I hear between say, Parramatta Eels supporters and Manly Sea Eagles folks. It would be impossible to wear both the blue and gold and the maroon and white. Allegiances might be historic, but in the end, a choice has to be made. That’s in the mind of the author.
That example is wider than an individual wearing the right team colours. It has to do with community. The author starts chapter 3 with a therefore. Remember, when you see a ‘therefore’ in the Bible, read a few verses before it and see what it’s there for. The author has been highlighting at the end of chapter two that Yeshua is our brother, that he was made like us, and was tempted in all things like we are. His relationship to the Jewish believers is thick as thieves and thus we are going to hear the 2nd warning in today’s reading, about heeding his voice again. Not as individuals only, but as members of one another.
Verse one, we are called ‘holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling.” Those are terms for saints, to remind us of our being and our being forgiven. Who we are is related to whose we are.
Remember the ancient Hebrews who were called to Mt Sinai to partake in relationship and communion with the Lord and in Exodus 19 and 20, they are invited, but decline the invitation, basically saying “Moses, you go up and hear…” The people “stood at a distance” (20.18). To partake of the heavenly calling, we have to approach, to draw near, to listen for ourselves and to be together with the people. That will come clearer through the reading of the letter.
The author says, ‘consider Jesus.’ That means, stop and ponder again who he is. What he has done. What he means to you. I like that. Do you ever do that? Quiet times, lonely times, by-the-seashore times? Turn off the tv and listen to silence and reflect on Yeshua.
Verse 1 continues: Yeshua is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Apostle is a Greek word which means ‘one sent forth.’ Obviously on a mission. He was sent. The Father sent him (John 17.. HE is the rep of God to humanity, and he is the High Priest, meaning he’s the rep of humanity to God. The perfect mediator. We’ll see that again later in the book. Although ‘apostle’ is only used of Yeshua here in the Newer Testament, it’s clear his ‘being sent’ is appropriate. I guess like an emissary or ambassador. If Moses was the ambassador to Pharaoh, Yeshua is to the whole planet. And when the author uses “high priest” it will bring to mind for us Jewish people the role of the special one on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. Much more about that later.
Yeshua is like Moses as verse 2 says, “He was faithful.” Faithful never did, nor does it yet, mean perfect. Yeshua is perfect and we will see that later as well, but faithfulness—both of these men were faithful. And don’t miss this, so should WE BE FAITHFUL. The author is not demeaning Moses; he’s saying follow him in the same way of being faithful to the Lord. That’s a good lesson for me. I think the contrast is with Aaron and Miriam, the siblings of Moses. They grumbled against their brother (Numbers 12.1-8) and God chided them, “Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant?” This after God said of him that Moses “was faithful in all my household.” (v. 7) Keep the faith seems to be what God is saying to me in this.
Back to Hebrews 3. The contrast here is between Moses and Yeshua. Moses was faithful, as a servant. Yeshua was faithful as a Son! Moses in the house (v. 5); Yeshua over the house (.6). Which is better? We should say, ‘which is superior?’ And the rhetoric is clear. It’s Yeshua, hands down.
But what does the author say about that house? It’s WE who are the house, if we hold fast our confession and stay ‘until the end.’ The hint of the warning from chapter two is that we don’t drift. The Greek word “bebaios” translated ‘firm’ is just like the anchor imagery from last week, where we don’t drift. It will be used throughout this letter to remind the reader/hearer that duration matters more than a quick jump-in. It’s the fourth soil (Matt. 13) that produced 100-fold rather than the quick start-up that doesn’t finish that is in view THROUGHOUT this letter. Hold firm, to the end.
2. The 2nd Therefore
In light of the supremacy of Yeshua not only over angels, but now clearly over the greatest Jew who ever lived, Moshe Rabeinu, therefore Psalm 95 is in view. Look, this was read daily in synagogue, and certainly among the less observant, at least weekly. L’chu n’ranena, come on, let’s go up, let’s sing and make a noise of praise, it’s a marching hymn up to the Tabernacle, later to the Temple. Why? Because God is the Creator (v. 5) and the Creator of Israel (v. 6-7).
What makes the author think of this at this point in the letter? If Yeshua is the Son over the house, and in fact, the designer/ builder of the house, then he is the Creator. The author now thinks about God as Creator and the relationship he wants to have with his people. Psalm 95 adjures us to come and worship, and NOT TO BE LIKE a certain group of Jewish people back in Moses’ day. Who were those folks? Those who grumbled when they heard the spies’ reports. They doubted God. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to dump Moses and definitely didn’t want to go into the alleged “Promised” Land since it was overrun with problems and giants and nothing but tsuris. (This is recorded in Numbers chapter 14). They wanted to split the people of God and lead themselves away from trouble. Note the words that changed from the Hebrew to the Greek in the LXX. Meribah and Massah are gone from the Psalm. They are replaced by provoke (the rebellion) and trial (the testing). The troubles of the wilderness people in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 (no water either time) are gone, and it’s all summarized in the belief in the majority report at the time of the spies.
3. The Second Warning
"Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called 'Today,' lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (v. 12)
The context of the passage is the author’s explanation of Psalm 95 and the Wilderness Generation being lost before they ever got to the Promised Land. God says He was "angry" with this generation and swore that they would not enter His rest. What caused this? From Numbers chapter 14. It was the spies who brought back two different reports and it was the people who chose to follow the majority report. 10 surveyors came back with what the Bible calls an evil report. Hebrew “ra”. They said the land was too tough, the inhabitants too big, the territory beyond our capacity to conquer. Here’s the problem: their unbelief about the Land of Promise reflected their relationship with the Promising One and they were killed off before Joshua could take their children in.
The author is saying that faith is what will overcome the lostness of the wandering we are currently experiencing. Yes, there are difficulties, but if we will "take heed" we will make it to the New Promises of God. The Greek word is blepete and means to "simply observe" almost as voluntary observation as Strong's records. The obviousness of the situation deserves our watchfulness. Yeshua warned us to watch with Him and the Older Testament uses the term "watchman" for a commendable post. The watchman (Tsafah) had to lean forward to notice what was going on.
The same hardening of heart that leveled the Wilderness Generation could happen to the New Generation, and so to prevent that, the watchfulness of the saints is required.
What is the warning? Watch. Don’t let your heart be evil. Nor unbelieving. Don’t miss the linkage. The author makes clear that FAITH is God’s answer to life’s tsuris and without faith it’s impossible to please God. Hence the heart is considered to be ‘evil.’ The result of unbelief is separation from what God wants to give each of us, which is titled ‘rest.’ (Ps. 95.11, Heb 3.11) More on that next week.
Rather than unbelief and an evil heart, the author’s replacement answer is five-fold:
1) Hear his voice today
2) Do not harden your heart (don’t knock the word. Welcome it)
3) Encourage (parakaleo) one another (v. 13). Community strength and hope.
4) Hold fast assurance (hupostasis, a firm thing) to end. (Strengthen the hands that are weak and the legs that hang down)
5) Believe (converse of v. 19). Personal and deliberate.
That’s chapter 3.
Dear friends on Zoom, or on YouTube, if you don’t yet know Messiah Yeshua, please I appeal to you today, surrender your life to him. Admit your need of him. Trust him who came from heaven to earth to show the way. And to set you free. That’s faith. That’s the opposite of unbelief, and do it today, the author says. Even now.
If you want to talk more about that, start with prayer. Talk to the Almighty. He loves to listen to your faintest whisper. And if you want to ask me a question, just use the email here on the screen. I’ll give it a go to try to answer you.
Until next week, when we will meet again to share about chapter 4 and the real Sabbath and more on faith. Until then,
Shabbat shalom.
Actual text:
Heb. 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of ourconfession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honour than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house — whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
Heb. 3:7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS 1WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. 10 THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; 11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart 1that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
15 while it is said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”
16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
Bibliography
Ladd, George E., A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1974. (Pages 571 – 587)
Lane, William L, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Hebrews.
Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Revell, Old Tappan, NJ, 1966.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Confident. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1982.
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D-Groups for this week
1) Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse
2) Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn
3) Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White
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