Hebrews 3:1–6

3:1 “Therefore” signals that the obligation to “consider Jesus” follows from the good news that he is a “merciful and faithful high priest” who can help those undergoing temptation (2:17–18). Having affirmed that believers are “brothers” of the Son who sanctifies them (2:10–13), our preacher addresses them as “holy brothers.” Christians are addressed as “brothers” often in NT epistles, including later in this sermon-letter (3:12; 10:19; 13:22), but only here, soon after reference to the sanctification of God’s sons (2:11) through propitiation of their sins (2:17), does the combination “holy brothers” occur. They “share in a heavenly calling” as the heirs of salvation (1:14), destined for dominion in the world to come (2:5–8) and anticipating a heavenly homeland (11:14–16). Their worship on earth already participates in the celebration in the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22–24). They “share” in this glorious calling because the Son came to “share” their fragile flesh and blood (2:14), and thus they are “companions” of the Anointed One (1:8–9; cf. 3:14). The verb “share” (metechō) and the noun “companions” (metochoi) are Greek cognates.

To “consider” (katanoeō) Jesus is to focus one’s vision and attention on him, since the verb not only refers to mental reflection (Heb. 10:24) but also can have visual overtones (Matt. 7:3; Luke 12:24, 27; Acts 7:31–32; 11:6; 27:39; James 1:23–24). This exhortation reappears in other words in Hebrews 12:2, where believers are to be “looking [aphoraō] to Jesus.” The point of fixing one’s mind’s eye (as it were) on Jesus is not merely to imitate his faithfulness but also to rest one’s trust in his ministry as “the apostle and high priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1). Perseverance in the Christian pilgrimage results from holding fast in confidence to the hope secured for us by Christ. Jesus spoke frequently of the Father’s “sending” (both apostellō and pempō) him on his mission of revelation and redemption (John 3:17, 34; 8:42; etc.), but only here in the NT is Jesus called an “apostle.” This term probably highlights his revelatory role, which excels and supersedes that of the OT prophets (Heb. 1:1–2), including Moses.

3:2 God “appointed” Jesus as “apostle and high priest,” just as he appointed Moses to his mediatorial role for Israel and appointed Aaron to his high priesthood (5:4–6). The privilege of intervening between God and mankind is assigned by God, not seized by the human servant. Both Jesus and Moses proved faithful to their respective assignments for “all God’s house,” that is, God’s people. In Numbers 12:6–8 the Lord defended Moses against critiques from his siblings, Miriam and Aaron, who also were prophets. In that passage, listing some of the “many ways” that he spoke through other prophets (cf. Heb. 1:1), the Lord distinguished “my servant Moses,” who “is faithful in all my house,” as the unique prophet with whom he spoke “mouth to mouth.”

3:3–4 Although Jesus and Moses alike were faithful, they differed in their worthiness to receive glory. God is the implied agent of the passive verb “has been counted worthy,” for he is the one who “crowned” Jesus “with glory and honor” (2:9). The Lord honored Moses above other prophets, but he has honored the Son above Moses, the greatest of the OT prophets, as our preacher is about to show explicitly (3:5–6).

Our author exploits the fact that both Hebrew (bayit) and Greek (oikos) use “house” to refer both to a habitable structure (e.g., Gen. 12:15) and to the people who inhabit it (Gen. 12:17), even across generations (Gen. 50:22). The superior glory of Jesus to that of Moses is supported by the analogy that a house’s builder deserves greater glory than the house he built, since (it is implied) the house owes its existence to its builder’s effort. What is true of human builders is all the more true of the Creator, who is the “builder of all things” (cf. Isa. 40:28; 45:7). The Son’s role in creation invites readers to perceive the divine glory of Jesus, through whom God “created the world” (Heb. 1:2) and who in the beginning laid earth’s foundation and fashioned the heavens (1:10). Moreover, the Son is here honored as the “builder” of the covenant people of God, both the source of their existence and identity as a community and also the sovereign over them.

3:5–6a The language describing Moses in Numbers 12:7 as the Lord’s “servant” “in all God’s house” signals his inferiority to Christ, who “is faithful over God’s house as a son.” Both the titles (“servant” vs. “son”) and the prepositions (“in” vs. “over”) show the superiority of Christ. The Greek term rendered “servant” (therapōn; from Num. 12:7 LXX) appears only here in the NT, but the point is the same as that made earlier with respect to angels, who are “ministers” (leitourgous; Heb. 1:7, 14), in contrast to the Son, who is the enthroned “God” and “Lord” (1:8, 10).

Moses’ mission as servant was to “testify to things that were to be spoken later.” Moses had many roles, priestly and royal as well as prophetic, but here the author focuses attention on his prophetic role as one through whom “long ago . . . God spoke” (1:1). The contrast between the earlier prophetic era of revelation and the “last days” era of revelation in the Son (1:1–2) reappears here: Moses’ testimony was forward-looking, attesting in advance to what God would speak later in history, the message of salvation to be “declared . . . by the Lord” Jesus and then by those who heard him (2:3). Jesus affirmed that Moses wrote about his sufferings and subsequent glories (John 5:44–47; Luke 24:25–27, 44–49). Hebrews will teach that regulations pertaining to the tabernacle and its sacrifices, received by Moses in the law, foreshadowed a new and better covenant and worship in a “time of reformation” (Heb. 9:6–10; 10:1), which has now come “at the end of the ages” through Christ (9:11–15, 26).

3:6b Christ’s superiority to Moses leads to a conclusion that is both comforting and challenging. It is comforting to learn that now “we are his [Christ’s] house” in the sense of being his family, the brothers and sisters for whose liberation he assumed our human nature. His dominion secures the safety of those in his house. The challenge arises from the contingency: “if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” As the following analysis of Israel’s wilderness experience through the lens of Psalm 95 will show, people can belong to a community that experiences God’s acts of power and mercy and yet fail to respond in persevering faith (Heb. 3:7–4:11). The author will later repeat the summons to hold fast our confidence (3:14) and our confession (10:23). Here he stresses that this enduring commitment is not mere dogged, teeth-gritted survival but rather a persistence that radiates bold assurance and hope (cf. 10:19). It is only by focusing attention on Jesus, our faithful apostle and high priest, that we can sustain such lifelong and hopeful tenacity throughout life’s journey.