Christ Superior To Moses
CHRIST SUPERIOR TO MOSES
HEBREWS 3:1-6
Christ is greater than Moses, so our confidence can rest in Jesus because of all he has done and achieved for us. Do we have such a confidence?
Moses was revered throughout the Jewish nation as the really significant man in the history of the nation. It was he whom God had appointed to lead the nation out of its bondage in Egypt and bring it to the Promised Land. It was he through whom God had given the law to his people. The great miracle of the exodus, with the plagues in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, followed by the wanderings in the wilderness, with God’s providential care over his people, and Moses as the mediator of God’s commands and the leader of the nation, all combined to leave Moses with such an aura as set him apart from all the great men that followed. He was incomparable. There never could be another Moses.
To say that Jesus was superior to Moses, then, was to put him out of the class of ordinary people. If these words are indeed written to Jews, it is difficult to see how the point of Jesus’ excellence could have been made more strongly. This is brought out first by speaking of him as “the apostle [ie the sent one; God sent him for our salvation] and high priest of our confession” (3:1). This puts him in a unique place as regards the Christian way. Only one person could have such attributes assigned to him. And in fulfilling his task he was faithful. This is not unique, for people have been and are faithful in their generation (the degree of his faithfulness was unique, but that is not to the point here, so it is not mentioned).
Specifically, Moses was faithful. But here there is a difference. Moses was faithful as a servant is faithful, ie in a subordinate position. Jesus’ faithfulness was that of a Son (3:4f.). Moses’ faithfulness pointed beyond itself (“to testify to the things that were to be spoken later”). But this fuller meaning was realized in Christ. Moses was a faithful subordinate, but he was a subordinate. Christ was not. The point is further made with the illustration of the house (3:3f.). Moses was faithful in the house, but there is One with a higher glory than that. The illustration passes over to the builder as more worthy than what he builds. God, being the builder of all, is worthy of highest honor. Christ shares this honor, for he has already been associated with God in the work of creation (1:2). There is yet another shift in the house illustration when believers are spoken of as the house (3:6). This is a high privilege. But notice also the importance of perseverance.
Consider Consider Luke 16:10-12.