April 23rd 2019 – Hebrews 3:1-6

"1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."

Hebrews 3:1-6

The 'wherefore' in 1 links the exhortation the Apostle is about to give to what he has just said in ch 2. In view of Christ's atoning and reconciling work, he says, consider Him, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession (not profession). And, having compared Christ with angels, he now proceeds to compare Him with Moses. The next three chapters deal with this comparison; here, however, our attention is focused on the idea of Christ's Apostleship, and His Priesthood is taken up in 4:14-5:10. In what sense, then, is it said that Christ is the Apostle of our confession? Well, the comparison here is between Christ and Moses, and the writer is concerned to demonstrate the superiority of Christ over Moses, and we will best understand this word ' the Apostle of our confession' in terms of Moses' apostleship. Moses was an apostle in the sense that he was sent by God to be the deliverer of His people ('apostle' literally meaning 'One who is sent'), and it is in this sense that Christ is compared with him. It is not Christ's prophetic office that is under consideration so much as His redemptive office. As Moses was sent to lead Israel out of Egypt, so Jesus was sent from God to be the world's Redeemer, to lead men into the land of life of rest. Later in the chapter we read of Israel's experiences in their wilderness journeyings and this is surely the key to the understanding of this word. Christ our Apostle is counted worthy of more glory than Moses and that for two reasons: (i) Moses was a servant in the house of God, Christ is the Son; (ii) Moses' faithfulness was a type of something to come, and foreshadowed the greater faithfulness of Christ in a greater deliverance. The transient, passing nature of Moses' apostleship is therefore stressed, in contrast to the abiding and eternal nature of Christ's.