Hebrews Chapter 3: Yeshua, Better than Moses

 “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 21^st 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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

 

 

Schaeffer on anti-Semitism

The Bible-believing Christian and the Jewish People
by Francis Schaeffer

   
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) was one of this century's most influential defenders of the Christian faith. He and his wife Edith founded the L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland in 1955 where, over many years, thousands of students found their questions answered, their doubts removed and their minds and spirits renewed through the gospel. Dr. Schaeffer's writings, notably The God Who is There, Escape from Reason and He is There and He is not Silent comprise a powerful critique of modern thought and a defence of biblical Christianity. The following article originally appeared in tract form and in the Autumn 1999 Herald and appears by the kind permission of Dr. Schaeffer's family. We live in an age in which anti-Semitism is a powerful force. In many lands it has resulted in the death of countless Jews. In our own land it shows itself in various guises from time to time, and even among those who call themselves fundamentalist Christians we find an occasional individual who spends a large portion of his time assailing the Jew.

Considering anti-Semitism, the first thing that fixes itself in my thinking is the fact that Christ was a Jew. When we open the New Testament to Matthew 1:1, we find the very first claim made concerning Christ is that he sprang from Abraham and was a descendant of David. The Bible does not say that Jesus just happened to be a Jew, but the Word of God emphasizes over and over again that he was a Jew.

Jesus was a Jew
When he was eight days old he was taken to the temple and circumcised, as was every Jewish male. Therefore, we must remember that Jesus bore in His body the physical mark of the Jewish people. At the age of twelve he was dedicated at the temple, again emphasizing that his Jewish identity and Jewish faith were not incidental to him but that from his early training they formed his vital human background. The Bible teaches that during his public ministry as an adult man, while repudiating purely human Jewish traditions, his life carefully conformed to Old Testament standards. In fact, he lived in such a way that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled fully in Him. He was the Jew of all Jews. In His public ministry we find him dealing almost exclusively with the Jews. Hardly ever did he touch a Gentile life. The twelve disciples were all Jews. The earliest church consisted completely of Jews. It was Peter the Jew who spoke to the proselyte, Cornelius. It was the believing Jews, scattered abroad by the persecution that followed the death of Stephen who took the Good News to Antioch in Syria where the first Gentile Christian Church was formed. The missionary who opened up the heathen Roman Empire to the preaching of the Gospel was the Jew, Paul. And if we ask why it was that the Jews received such an important place in the early Christian Church, we must realize that it was not an afterthought in the plan of God. For two thousand years God had been working in history to bring forth this very fact. He called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees as the first Jew when the earth had completely apostatized from the living God. He promised him that the land of Canaan would be his, that he would have numerous seed and, above all things, that all the world would be blessed through him. God called Abraham forth for this specific purpose; that through him the Messiah should come. In the providence of God, for two thousand years the Jewish nation was the cradle of the coming Redeemer.

Before the Messiah
As we examine the history of that two thousand years, we find God constantly reaffirming his promise of the coming Messiah to the Jews, so that not only was the promise made to Abraham but also to Isaac and Jacob, and then it was narrowed down to the tribe of Judah, and then to the royal family — the family of David. As the years passed, God promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, that he would suffer, and also that he should rule in Palestine on behalf of His people, the Jews. In those two thousand years in which the way was prepared for the coming of the Messiah, but for the light that shone in Israel, all the earth was in a state of spiritual darkness. While our ancestors worshiped we know not what — but certainly not the living God — the Jews were called God's chosen people. They were separated from all other peoples of the earth. They were beloved of God, a kingdom of priests. In order that the Anointed One should come, even in their times of sin God kept His hand upon them so that a faithful remnant should be His. Jesus was not a Jew by accident, nor was it an incidental thing in the plan of God. According to both the Old Testament and the New Testament, if Jesus had not been born a Jew he could not have been our Saviour. As for the present time in which we live, Romans 11:17-24 teaches that we Gentile believers should not boast against the Jews, "the natural branches" of his Olive Tree, for if God spared not the natural branches, we are warned to take heed lest he spare not us. How clearly it is emphasized that if we who were "wild branches" by nature were grafted "contrary to nature" into the good olive tree, much more shall the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree. And what does Ephesians 2:14 stress to us but that by Jesus' death "the middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile was broken down. Not that the Jew should be cast aside, but that Gentiles should have place with the Jews by faith. Abraham is now our father and, as we Gentiles have put our faith in Christ, we are now spiritual Jews.

The Future of the Jews
The Word of God is explicit still about the future. In Romans 11:25 it is made clear that the blindness which now in part is happened to Israel is not forever, but "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in". And then what is to come to pass? The 26th verse tells us that "all Israel" shall then be saved when the Deliverer "will turn away ungodliness from Jacob". The 29th verse is one that Christians love and use for ourselves, "For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." We may apply it to ourselves because God never breaks any promise but let us notice that the primary application in this place is to the Jew. God has promised great things for Israel as a nation, and the Word here tells us that he will bring them to pass. If he does not bring them to pass, then "the gifts and calling of God" are not "irrevocable". Clearly, again, in Zechariah 12:10 it is stated that the day will come when the Jews, "will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son." In the day when Israel shall be saved they shall look upon Jesus and know that in His first coming he was their true Messiah. Again, it is not only the Old Testament, which promises that the land of Palestine will once more belong to the Jews. In the New Testament, also, in Luke 21:24, we are told that, "Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled". The Word tells us that the day will come when "all Israel will be saved", that the Jews will "look upon" Jesus as their true Messiah and that the Promised Land will be theirs once more. It is not only for the past, not only for the present, but also for the future, that we who are now Christ's should love the Jew.

The Irrationality of Christian anti-Semitism
We cannot expect the Gentile, who merely uses the term "Christian" to designate the difference between Gentile and Jew and to love the Jew, but we who are Christians indeed, in that we have been saved through faith in Christ, should love his ancient people. Above all things in this regard we should keep constantly in our minds that our Lord Himself was a Jew — born a Jew, lived a Jew, and died a Jew. We should bear in mind also that the great majority of those heroes of the faith I long to see when I go to be with the Lord were Jews. I want to see Abraham, and he was a Jew. I want to see Isaac, and he was a Jew. I want to see Jacob, and he was a Jew. I want to see Joseph, and he was a Jew. I want to see Moses, and he was a Jew. I want to see Joshua, and he was a Jew. I want to see Gideon and the other judges; and they were Jews. I want to see the prophets — Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha and all the rest; and they were all Jews. I want to see Daniel and Ezra and Nehemiah; and they were Jews. I want to see John, and he was a Jew. I want to see James, and he was a Jew. I want to see Peter, and he was a Jew. I want to see Paul, and he was a Jew. Those are only some of those I long to meet who bear the name of Jew. How could I hate the Jewish people? And if this were not enough for those of us who are Bible-believing Christians, let us note the command of God in Romans 11:31. He tells us clearly what our attitude in this age should be to natural Israel. We should show mercy to them and, my friends, mercy and anti-Semitism — in any form — do not live in the same household. We cannot seek to win the Jewish people individually to the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour if in our hearts we despise them as a people. Not long ago an influential Jew in New York City, the Labor Editor of one of the New York papers, quoted to me a little poem which he said was widely repeated among the Jews of that city. As I have considered this rhyme, I have found it to be more than an interesting jingle. It speaks wisdom concerning the man who bears the name of Christian and yet is anti-Semitic in his thinking.

    How odd of God to choose the Jews.

    But not so odd as those who choose

    The Jewish God and hate the Jews.