Hebrews 3:1-6--Jesus Greater Than Moses

Hebrews 3:1-6 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.3.1-Heb.3.6
Jesus Greater Than Moses
1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 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.

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Remember that the book of Hebrews is being written to Christians who are ethnically Jewish and have come out of Judaism.  The are what some would refer to as Messianic Jews or Completed Jews because they believe that the Messiah has come in the person of Jesus Christ and that He came to complete and fulfill the requirements of the Old Testament--Recall in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.." (Matthew 5:17).

Moses was equivalent to the Law and the Old Covenant (the Mosaic Covenant) for the Jews, so this passage is not just saying that Jesus is greater than the person of Moses--we already know that because Jesus is God in the flesh--but that the covenant that Jesus brought is superior to the Old Covenant brought through Moses.  Like Moses, Christ had come to tell people what God had to say (a prophet), intercede to God on behalf of the people and make atonement for sin (a priest) and to lead his people as their king (though this won't be fully fulfilled until the second coming of Christ).

The author to the Hebrews reminds us that while Moses may have been responsible for having the Tabernacle there, the Tabernacle was great because of the presence of God that lived in it....not because of the hands that built it or the people that served in it and that Christ is the creator of all things which makes Him more excellent than Moses.   The Tabernacle was only a representation of what heaven was like and the ministry of the priests was only an image of the ministry of Christ that He was already performing at that time and that He still does for us today.  It is Christ who is the guilt offering, the fellowship offering, the offering of firstfuits, the Bread of Life that the Showbread symbolized the fragrant incense that is pleasing to the Lord, and the Ark of the Covenant in whom the Law, our daily bread and the power to make something living out of something dead (like the budding rod of Aaron) indwells.  He is the high priest who is the one mediator between God and man.  He is the Tabranacle Himself who took on flesh (like the outer coating of the temple) to hide His glory and make His dwelling (the word there is "tabernacled") among us (see John 1).

Moses built a temporary house for God to live in among His people, but Jesus did more--Jesus has made a new people of God all which are living temples of the Spirit of God and God tabernacles among all of us and is with us wherever we go.  Let's pull a few verses from the Bible that speak to this point.

1 Corinthians 3:16 English Standard Version (ESV)16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

2 Timothy 1:14 English Standard Version (ESV)14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Ephesians 2:22 English Standard Version (ESV)22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:17 English Standard Version (ESV)17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Colossians 1:27 English Standard Version (ESV)27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

John 14:23 English Standard Version (ESV)23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

​Hebrews 3:6 English Standard Version (ESV)6 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.