3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Christ is the builder of the house of faith; Moses is simply part of the house itself: Christ the creator; Moses one of the creation. Christ the Lord; Moses the servant. Christ over the house; Moses within the house. Christ the fulfillment; Moses only a preliminary message. And in Christ, the message is complete. There is no more revelation from God; there will be no additional testaments. The claims of the Mormons and others that they have “another testament of Jesus Christ” or some other divinely revealed document are silenced by words like these, but especially by the opening words of Hebrews: “In the past…God spoke” (the action of the past is completed and finished; the Greek tense indicates a fact completed in the past—the Old Testament scriptures) “and in these last days…he has spoken” (the action of the recent past—the ministry of Christ, completing the Divine message of forgiveness through faith in Christ alone—is now completed as well). Revelation is final. The words of Paul to Timothy also tell us that everything that we have in Scripture is adequate, complete, and final: we need nothing more (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
Moses, one of the authors of the Scriptures through the Holy Spirit, is not greater than the supreme Author, not only of Scripture but also the author of our Salvation. Jesus stands alone, and Jesus reigns forever and ever.
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9 where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (cf. Psalm 95:7b-11, NIV)
In these verses, the author turns to Psalm 95, a poetic commentary of Exodus 17:1-17 and the rebellion at Rephidim. It is a warning against hardening the heart against God. Despite everything God did for them, forty years (a lifetime) of miracles and constant reminders in the wilderness, they still did not know God’s ways.
Greek has two basic words for “knowing” a thing. One is oida, to know something in your head, like knowing a mathematical fact. It’s book learning. The other is ginōskō (our word know is a descendant of this word), to know something because you’ve lived it or experienced it. That’s the word here in verse 10, “they have not known my ways.” Even though they had lived through God’s grace and lived under his mercy for a lifetime, they didn’t get it. How is that possible? I wonder that until I look in the mirror, and then I think of the mercy and patience God has shown with me—and of the rebellion of sin that’s still there. But God shows us patience, and God shows us even more grace.
That grace and mercy of God urges us to sing his praises. The writer to the Hebrews already quoted the end of Psalm 95. For many of us, music will appear in our heads and our hearts if I just quote the first half of the psalm. In worship, we call this the Venite, the “O Come” song:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving,
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great king above all gods.
The deep places of the earth are in his hands:
the heights of the hills are also his.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hand formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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