Useful Bible Studies > Hebrews Commentary > chapter 3
Moses was God’s servant, but Christ is God’s Son. A servant may receive great honour. But the master’s son deserves much greater honour than any servant does. Abraham’s servant Eliezer would have become head of the house if Abraham had died without a son (Genesis 15:2-3). But that all changed when Abraham’s son was born. The master has decided that the son will receive everything (Hebrews 1:2)!
It is hard for Christians today to realise how important Moses is for the Jews. The Jews are the people who come from the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses led them for 40 years when they were a nation without any land of their own. Moses showed them how to serve God. Moses taught them God’s law. Moses prayed on their behalf; Moses spoke God’s word to them. Moses wrote the first 5 books in the Bible. Together, those books are almost as long as the entire New Testament (the books that the first Christians wrote).
Through all those difficult tasks, Moses remained completely loyal to God. He carried out all his responsibilities as God’s servant. We only read about one occasion when he did not obey God perfectly (Numbers 20:1-12). Moses was a great servant of God. But he was not God’s Son, the Christ.
Christ is the Son who was completely loyal to God. The author of Hebrews says that Christ never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). That is, he never did anything wrong against God.
Peter and John knew Christ on this earth as well as anyone else did. Peter declared that Christ was perfect (1 Peter 1:19). And John declared that Christ is God’s Son (1 John 1:1-3).
Christ is the Son whom God has appointed to rule over God’s house (Hebrews 1:2). The author of Hebrews explains who has a place in that house.
The members of that house are the people who trust God’s promise. They have hope, and they are confident about it.
Of course, many people hope for things that will never happen. Such people trust something or someone that will disappoint them. But God never disappoints anyone who trusts his promises (Hebrews 6:19). God always does the things that he promises to do (Hebrews 11:13-16).
When we trust God, we are confident. We boldly speak about things that we have not seen yet. We are sure about things that have not happened yet (Hebrews 11:1-3). That is what ‘faith’ means.
But faith is only worthwhile when we trust God. He has spoken his word, and his word is certain (Hebrews 4:12). We can always trust him. But we must not trust our imagination, our desires or our feelings. Faith in such things is certain to fail.
We must trust God. We must have a proper relationship with him. And that is only possible because of Christ. He died so that God could forgive our sins (evil deeds) – Hebrews 9:28. We must confess our sins to God; and we must invite him into our lives (Hebrews 6:1). In other words, we must listen to what God has said (Hebrews 3:7-8). And we must believe and obey him (Hebrews 3:12-14).
Next part: As the Holy Spirit says (Hebrews 3:7)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.