For Our Example
"Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself." Hebrews 3:4
Main Readings: Numbers 12 & Hebrews 3:1–6
Supporting Readings: 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 & Psalm 95
In 1 Corinthians we learn, from the Apostle Paul, that when the Israelites were disobedient in the wilderness, before entering the promised land, a whole generation died out there.
He then says that these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warning to us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
And he rounds off saying, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
It sounds like you and I have been given a rich and deep resource – inthe history of Israel – from which we can learn.
That’s very much the way the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers – and indeed us. By using the Old Testament to shape our attitudes.
He’s already exhorted us once to pay the most careful attention to Jesus so that we don’t drift from him.
Then for 13 solid verses, in chapter 2, he has shown us exactly why we would never want to drift from Jesus.
Namely, because Jesus has subjected a future glory – a future world - to us.
And he has subjected it to us by bringing us into God’s family by his suffering. By defeating death through his own suffering. And by atoning for our sins by his own suffering.
And those realities, we have seen, are designed to serve us in the here and now, when, under fear or temptation, or doubt we might be tempted to drift away from Jesus.
The truth that Jesus has come in the flesh, has suffered in the flesh, has been tempted in the flesh, serves to give us confidence that he can help us in our flesh.
And the purpose of that help is that we might not abandon the message of faith that we have come to believe in.
Not now – not never! And somehow wind-up at the end of this journey of life cleaving to Jesus and being brought into the glory he has secured for us.
It's because of all of this, that the author – we could say preacher – has drawn our attention to, that he can now begin chapter 3 with the word ‘therefore’.
And effectively say, ‘in light of everything we’ve just seen holy brothers and sisters, who participate in the heavenly calling, fix your attention on Jesus’.
Just like we heard back at the beginning of chapter 2!
There it was ‘pay careful attention’. Here, it is ‘fix your attention’. And in both cases the object of our attention must be Jesus.
Just like the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, there is an exampleto help us understand how important this is, sketched out for us in the Old Testament people of God.
Here the author quotes, in verse 5, from Numbers chapter 12.
Let’s be clear, then, what happened at that time, with the people of Israel, so that we might grasp the purpose of drawing our attention to this particular passage.
Essentially chapter 11 is Israel complaining against God because, having already supplied their needs with manna from heaven, they were now wishing they could be back in Egypt where there were cucumbers; melons; leeks; and onions.
But of course - and thing they were ignoring - what went with the onions, melons and leeks was slave labour.
Slave labour they had cried out to God to rescue them from. Slave labour, God had come and rescued them from by parting the red sea and leading them out on dry land.
Chapter 13, on the other side of the quotation from chapter 12, is God sending the spies into the promised land to check it out and them reporting back what is akin to a no-confidence vote in God.
And anybody who knows what happened after that, knows that the whole generation that God rescued from Egypt died in the wilderness because of unbelief. Only Joshua and Caleb made it into the promised land – and that because of their faith.
So, this is the context for the historical example that the author is using as the backdrop for verses 1-6 of chapter 3.
The people of Israel had an identity – they were the chosen people of God. They had a focus – God himself. They had a reason to be confident in God – namely his superior power. And they should have trusted him to fulfil what he had promised.
Then they would have come into the promised land. Alas, they died in the wilderness because their hearts returned to Egypt over and against trusting in God.
The reason I’m giving you this background is because, his hearers knew this background intimately and therefore he assumes it.
We perhaps don’t, and so I’m going to state it, so we all understand his point.
I just gave you four things about Israel – identity, focus, reason and faith. And so, I want us to trace these four things in the exhortation he now gives us in these verses also.
Identity first. There are three aspects the author draws out for us about our identity.
The first is - and we drew this out in depth last week - we are Jesus’ holy family.
Verse 11 last week, of chapter 2, showed us that Jesus who is holy, and us, who are made holy by him, are of the same family. Holiness unites us to Christ Jesus.
We saw how Jesus’ suffering atoned for our sins and gave us a spotless righteousness we didn’t naturally possess.
Like Israel of old, we were held our whole lives in slavery to our fear of death. But when we cried out to Jesus he came and saved us. Not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
He rescued us from our sins and brought us out into a spacious place. He gave us holiness not our own – but his own.
And the result of that work was a new identity. A family identity. Verse 11 said, ‘he is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters’.
So, that’s who we are: a rescued people who have taken hold of Jesus by faith and been united to him in his holiness, so that we are called the ‘children God has given him’.
That’s why, in verse 1 of chapter 3 now, we are ‘holy brothers and sisters’. That’s our family status.
Secondly, we ‘share in a heavenly calling’, verse 1.
Back in chapter 2, in both verses 5 & 10 we got told that the world to come has been subjected to us!
And that, God is bringing us, sons and daughter, to his glory.
These are off-the-scale benefits that are ours because we belong to God’s own family. Nobody else has these kind of promises now, and privileges lined up for them, as we do.
And again, it reminds us of the fact that God had promised the people who he brought out of captivity, a land flowing with milk and honey. The wilderness wasn’t it. The wilderness sat between the rescue and riches.
We live, right now between the rescue of Jesus and the riches of Jesus which are promised to us.
Thirdly, our identity is established in the confession we have made – Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
We confess two things about Jesus. That he has come from God to summons us to God – that is his role as apostle. With God’s authority, he tells us we must come to God.
And, we also confess that he has come to represent us before God – that is his role as high priest.
With God’s perfect blessing, he has presented himself on our behalf to God.
That is the confession of our identity. God has reached out to us in Jesus. And Jesus has brought is nigh unto God.
There was no doubt who the people of Israel belonged to – they belonged to God.
And in that day, Moses was the one God used to speak for him to the people and represent the people to himself. Moses was THE key person in that arrangement.
Which is why, in verse 2, the author introduces Moses.
At this point, he wants to focus our attention on Jesus because he’sthe one he’s exhorting us to fix our thoughts on. And Moses is usefulfor that purpose.
What is Jesus like? Verse 2 is telling us that he is faithful. The author says, ‘He [that is Jesus] was faithful to the one [that is God] who appointed him’.
We’re having our attention drawn to Jesus’ entry into the world, his obedience in the face of suffering, his endurance on the cross, and his victory in death.
All of that took faithfulness on the part of Jesus. He could have walked away at any moment, but he didn’t. He was faithful unto death.
In other words, we’re being shown that Jesus’ work proves that he is faithful.
His faithfulness gives us every reason to trust him to bring his saving work to completion. The passage calls us to respond to that faithfulness by persevering.
The key thing is that we must see him like that – as faithful. And continue to see him like that.
Moses was faithful in God’s household we’re told. We are the household of God – we are his children we just heard. And Jesus is faithful in the same manner that Moses was faithful.
In Numbers 12:7, God called Moses ‘faithful in all his house’.
And I think, what the author is trying to press upon us is that the faithfulness of Moses back then and the faithfulness of Jesus now, are testimonies to God’s faithfulness.
Why is that important? Well, because in this wilderness period between rescue and riches, weariness is a real problem.
The people became weary of manna from heaven, and they grumbled, forgetting that God is faithful. Moses showed them he was faithful – they should have known.
And we could grow weary between our rescue and our riches too, if we fail to see that God is faithful. Jesus shows us that God is faithful, by his own faithfulness.
All the promises God has made are yes and amen in faithful Jesus, because like faithful Jesus, God is faithful.
So, when it all feels like it’s taking too long and the road is too hard, and the manna is too boring, the message is God is faithful – he will bring us into his promised glory. We need to be patient. We learn this from fixing our eyes on faithful Jesus.
But that’s not all, because, whilst Jesus is faithful like Moses was, Jesus is also so much more than Moses was.
God loved Moses for sure. And we should want to emulate his example – because boy, did he have a close relationship with God!
But ‘Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses’. Moses is worthy of honour; but Jesus of greater honour, verse 3 says.
Think of it, the author says, a bit like a house: which has the greater honour? The house or the builder of the house.
I work closely with houses.
I don’t ever hear people saying to their house, ‘Oh house how great you are – how worthy of praise, with your beautiful arches and clean lines’. That’s not how it goes. I hear people praising the builders of their houses all the time.
Moses belonged to the house – in some sense he represented the house before God. He wasn’t the builder of the house. God was the one who rescued the people from Egypt. God was the one who covenanted with them at Mount Sinai. God built the house.
We’re being told why our confidence in Jesus shouldn’t merely match, but should exceed the confidence of those who turned their backs on Moses in the wilderness.
It’s because Jesus is worthy of greater honour than Moses as the builder of the house.
We are God’s household remember, because Jesus shed his blood and died for us to bring us into his family.
Jesus built the house we belong to, and he is exceedingly worthy of honour over and against Moses. Therefore, we must not turn our backs on Jesus.
We need to go deeper still though – so that we are even morecompelled not wander from Jesus.
Verse 4 expands the idea for us, so that we are more incentivised to fix our thoughts on Jesus.
Just think how great this builder, Jesus really is!
All the houses are built by someone, but God is supreme because he built everything, right?!
Some of the builders I work with may have built a couple hundred houses in their careers by the time they’re done. God is the builder of everything – the whole cosmos.
Which happens to be the designation attributed to Jesus twice in chapter 1. God made the universe through Jesus, verse 2 said. And in verse 10, it was Jesus who laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of his hands.
I think the point being made to us is: when God parted the red sea and brought the people through, and then went on to make them his people, and promise them a land flowing with milk and honey, they had no reason, whatsoever, to reject his representative Moses. But they did!
And since Jesus, made the universe and now comes into the world and, does himself, build God’s household, promising to bring us into his glory, we have infinitely more reason not doubt Jesus, or turn our backs on him.
So, Jesus is the builder of the house in contrast with the way Moses belonged to the house. But also, he is not a builder with a little ‘b’. He is a capital ‘B’ builder, therefore have confidence in him.
And at that you might think he’s done.
Well, he’s not.
We need more reasons to continue confidence in Jesus.
There are another two contrasts between Moses and Jesus that serve his purposes to convince us.
It’s a ‘servant’ verses a ‘Son’ contrast. And it’s a position ‘in’ verses ‘over’ contrast.
Moses was a faithful servant in all God’s house as God said in Numbers 12. But Jesus is a faithful Son over God’s house.
Jesus was certainly a servant, but chapter 1 pointed up how his completed work, which brought him into the presence of God and sathim at God’s right hand - publicly installed as the Son of God.
Verse 8 of that chapter also demonstrated that God designated his Son, Jesus Christ, as king forever and ever.
‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God your God, has set you above your companions’.
Moses was servant and he remained a servant. Jesus came as a servant and was exalted as the Son.
That is a qualitative difference between Jesus and Moses.
And if God was so valiant for Moses when the people turned on him, how valiant will God be for his Son if we turn on him?
Not only that, but God has set Jesus above his companions. Jesus is reigning over God’s house.
So, we want to see Jesus as the builder of the house we belong to, the maker of heaven and earth, the installed Son at God’s right hand, and the sovereign ruler over God’s house.
Moses was worthy of being listened to, and when they rejected him, God was not pleased.
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour – so much greater honour than Moses!
How worthy is he, then, of our continued confidence? Inestimately worthy!
If we fix our thoughts on Jesus, and we see him arrayed in his splendour, his position, his works; the message we are hearing is, ‘it won’t be possible to wander away from him!’ That’s why we must fix our thoughts on Jesus.
And in fact, just to drive that idea well and truly home, Moses himself had his thoughts fixed on Jesus in a manner of speaking.
Verse 5 says, ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future’.
There’s a way in which Moses’ faithfulness - in the face of great opposition - testified to the ministry of Jesus in the very capacity we are seeing unfolding before our eyes this morning.
Whatever God told Moses to do he did faithfully, trusting God. Hebrews 11 says, ‘he chose to be mistreated…rather than to enjoy the fleating pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than the treasures of Egypt’.
And so, he bore witness to the faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ.
And, this is surely one of the reasons we are here in this world – one of the reasons we are in this wilderness. By our faithfulness we too are meant to bear witness to the faithfulness of God.
If we are not faithful in the face of wilderness opposition, how can we commend to a lost world the faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus?
This is God’s good purpose, here below, for our ongoing confidence in Jesus – that we tell the truth about God’s faithfulness to save, in Jesus Christ.
If we are unfaithful, they will not get that message!
Finally, verse 6 tells us that we are Jesus’ house. That means Jesus is faithful to us; it means he built us; and it means he is rules over us. It means ultimately, we belong to him. He will never leave us for forsake us. He has charge of us, and his aim is to bring us into his glory.
Nothing can prevail against him in that respect. Not sin, not death, not Satan. And therefore, nothing can prevail against us either.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to be a comfortable ride. It just means it’s a totally secure ride.
There’s no place for swapping rides mid-journey because this one is uncomfortable.
Every other ride will fall apart before the journey’s end. And so, there’s only one ride you can be confident in and that’s the uncomfortable, the uneasy, ride that is in Jesus.
That’s why he talks the way he does in verse 6.
The way the NIV presents the sentence is like this: ‘And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory’.
This could be saying two slightly different things. I don’t think it matters, too much, which you go for. Because ultimately the emphasis lands in the same place.
It could be saying, ‘we are his house, if the evidence that we are his house is there to the end’ – namely, the evidence of confidence in him now and hope in him for the future.
That would be a little like saying, we can be sure this foundation is a foundation when we’ve loaded the whole house onto it, and the house doesn’t fall down.
That could be one way it is speaking. It could be saying, ‘you say you belong to the house, but the proof will be in the eating’.
Verse 14 of chapter 3 speaks a lot like this: ‘We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first’.
‘If you don’t continue to boast in Jesus as your confidence and your future hope – right to the end – then you’ll prove you were not what you said you were. So, carry on boasting in Jesus as your confidence now and your future hope’.
But, it could also be saying that we will continue to be the house byholding fast our confidence in Jesus – only if we hold fast our confidence in Jesus.
And certainly, Hebrews contains other warnings that unmistakably talk this way too.
Like I said, I don’t think it makes much difference in practice. Either way, we are being exhorted to continue steadfast in Jesus.
But let’s remember that the Old Testament people were indeed God’s chosen people. They were his household. And that generation did notenter the rest on account of unbelief - on account of not holding their confidence in God’s faithfulness firm to the end. On account of hungering and thirsting after a more comfortable life – even if a life that would take them back to slavery!
On that reading, verse 6 would much more likely mean that we continue to be God’s house so long as we hold our confidence firm to the end.
Joshua held it firm to the end, and he did enter in. Caleb held it firm to the end, and he did enter in.
We must hold it firm to the end if we will enter in.
Perseverance, so far as we’re being exhorted, is not passive, it is active. And it is not works, it is grace.
Every inch of striving to the very end will be fueled by nothing except the high-octane grace of Jesus. That’s why our thoughts must be fixed on Jesus!
In chapter 2, verse 1, paying closer attention to Jesus was the meansof not drifting from him. Here, fixing our thoughts on Jesus is the means of holding firmly our confidence and hope to the end.
Today, with eyes fixed on Jesus, you can boast – I think that’s what the phrase ‘in which we glory’ means; boast – with thoughts fixed on Jesus we can boast in our current confidence in Jesus for our belonging to God’s household. And we can boast in our future hope of entering into the glory of God.
Glorying in our identity and our future in Jesus Christ, implies to me a life characterised by excitement, by joy, by testimony, by effervescence! In our hearts at the very least.
I don’t think it implies a life characterised by grumbling, complaining, pining after former things, or hiding our light under a bushel.
Jesus suffered, we’re going to suffer in this wilderness, that’s why we’ve got to have our thoughts fixed on him.
So that we can see him as faithful; builder; creator; intercessor and overseer of our souls. Which he is.
This seeing Jesus is a seeing that is by faith.
By faith we believe he is installed at God’s right hand and will intercede for us continually - keeping us in God’s household continually.
By faith we believe he will return to bring us into his glory.
The character of faith is not to doubt Jesus – it is to have confidencein Jesus.
The people doubted the promises of God. When things were tough, they reverted to what was tangible – onions and leeks, and the like.
Faith doesn’t revert to the tangible - seen - things of this world that we have all around about us. Faith cleaves to the unseen things – Jesusinstalled for us, and Jesus returning for us.
Faith has ongoing confidence in Jesus, even though the wilderness is so tough to live in.
Jesus knows that, and last time he promised to help those being tempted.
All the more reason then, to fix our thoughts on Jesus continuously.
For we are his household if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
