Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
March 21, 2012
Hebrews 3:1-11
I. The second major argument of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is superior to Moses. The author stated that case in Hebrews 3:1-6, specifically in verse 3. Verses 5-6 made the case that since Moses was a servant in the house of God and Jesus was a son, Jesus was worthy of more honor. Moses was revered by the Israelites because God gave him the Law and he led the Israelites out of Egypt. But the writer in Hebrews argues that Moses was just a servant and a messenger. Moses was limited. Moses could get the people out, but Moses could not carry the people in. Moses could give the Law, but Moses was not the Law. Jesus on the other hand is better than Moses. Jesus can get you out and bring you in. Jesus was not given the law Jesus is the law of God walking in the flesh. Jesus is better than Moses. If the people listened to Moses they should listen to Jesus.
II. In a similar fashion Hebrews 3:7-11 contains an extended quotation from the Old Testament to support the argument that Christ is better than Moses. Almost all of Hebrews 3:7-11 is a quotation from Psalm 95:7b-11.But the words of introduction in Hebrews 3:7a show how the author intended the Old Testament passage to function in his own message. The first word is "therefore." It is designed to connect the conditional statement in verse 6 with the command in verse 8. Verse 6 had proclaimed that we are the household of Christ if we hold fast to the confidence and pride of our hope. The word "if" raises the question of whether the readers of Hebrews (and we) will be faithful to Christ in the midst of pressure being faced. Because there is some question about that faithfulness - therefore - the scripture from Psalm 95 is quoted to warn and exhort the readers (and us) of the importance of trusting obedience of God. The quotation formula used by the author reflects his high view of Scripture. "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says" Says is the present tense of the verb says. The Holy Spirit also speaks now and continues to speak through the Scripture, The author of Hebrews was convinced that what the psalmist sang about the Israelites in the wilderness (centuries earlier) had relevance and meaning for the community of faith in its time of pressure in the first century. One of the chief evidences of inspiration is the Holy Spirit's ability to take words written to and about people centuries ago and make those words speak with the power of God to a new generation.
a.
Psalm 95 has two major sections. Verses 1-7a, of the
Psalm, were a call to worship God. Verses 7b-11, quoted by our author, were
a warning against disobeying God by referring back to a painful time in
Israel's history. Psalm 95 has been used in synagogue worship from ancient
times to the present as a prelude to the Friday evening and Sabbath morning
synagogue worship. No doubt the original readers of the book of Hebrews
would have been familiar with the psalm from their own experiences of
synagogue worship. There is evidence the psalm was sung as part of the
temple service in Jerusalem on Sabbath mornings. It is important that the
two parts of Psalm 95 be kept together. The worship of God called for in the
first part of the psalm is important and necessary. But that worship must
come from sincere and obedient hearts. We separate the psalm into two parts
- the call to worship and the warning against hardness of heart. But in
reality, the psalm was one call to worship. The second part demanded
searching self-examination of one's heart as part of the process of coming
into the presence of God.
b.
Verse 7. “Today, if you would hear his voice, do
not harden your hearts.” The call to hear his voice can be easily
misunderstood by modern readers. We tend to think simply in terms of a sound
being heard. The Hebrew word for hear and obey is the same word. Thus the
psalmist was not just appealing for Israel to hear (listen to) the word of
God, but also for them to obey that word. Hebrew poetry was written with
what is called parallelism. In this case hear his voice is a parallel
thought or antithetical or the opposite of not harden your hearts.
That is, hearing the voice of God means having hearts that are open and
responsive to him rather than hard and closed. The words of the psalm are
directly applicable to the readers of the book of Hebrews. Those readers
were under pressure for their faith in Christ; they were being tempted to
give up their faith. But to give up the faith means turning their backs to
and closing both their ears and hearts to the entreaties of God. The words
of the psalm say exactly what the writer of Hebrews wanted to say, "don't
harden your heart" against God's effort to strengthen and encourage you.
Don't resist God's efforts to help you in the midst of your pressure and
trouble. To give up the faith in the face of persecution was the moral
equivalent of the rebellion against God that took place in Israel's history
during the wilderness wanderings. The author of Hebrews continued to quote
the Old Testament in verse 8. Do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness. The literal
translations of the Hebrew text of Psalm 95:8 read, "Do not harden your
hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness."
c.
The references to Meribah and Massah connect the
psalm to Exodus 17:1-7 and several passages in Numbers (14:20-23, 28-35 and
20:1-13). At that time Israel had bitterly complained against God (and
falsely accused him of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them) at a time
when the people had run out of water. Exodus 17:7 states that Moses named
the place Massah and Meribah - Hebrew words meaning "testing" and
"quarreling." Massah and Meribah became code words for a testing, testy,
cantankerous spirit that was never satisfied with what God provided. It was
a quarreling, complaining, bitter attitude. That Israel could have fallen
into such an attitude so soon after God had brought them out of Egypt should
be a reason for humility rather than criticism.
d.
The spiritual issue at stake here is trusting God.
Surely, after God had brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, he
could supply water for them in the desert. How could they fail to trust him?
After God had sent Christ and revealed him to be the Messiah to the first
readers of Hebrews, surely they could trust him to preserve them through
persecution, couldn't they? After all that God has done for us, how could we
not trust him in any and every circumstance of our lives? But we don't!
Sometimes after God has performed the greatest miracle of helping us out, we
stew and fret and worry that we just can survive the next problem coming
down the line. The issue for Israel, for the first readers of Hebrews, and
for us, is trust. Will we believe that He can and will safely carry us home?
Or will we begin to scheme and connive to solve our problems and relieve the
pressures upon us in our own strength with our own wisdom?
e.
Verse 9-11 describes Meribah and Massah as the place
where the Israelite fathers tested God by trying to make him prove himself.
The demand that God prove himself is the opposite of trust. It is the
opposite of obedience. And the response of God according to verse 10 is
anger. They always are deceived in their hearts and they did not know my
ways. The idea of being deceived in their hearts is a powerful
word image. The word deceived speaks of wandering off track so that
person, animal, or thing is not where the observer expects it to be.
Tempting God to prove himself is thus described as being off track and
deceived. The Hebrew parallelism suggests that being off track also means
not recognizing God's ways. God uses the difficult times of life - whether
it be the desert, persecution, or the pressures we face in life - to test
our trust and obedience. To try to turn the tables on God and test him in
those times is to usurp the role and way of God. That is sin. As a result
God swore that the Israelites would not enter my rest. In the context
of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings not entering God's rest meant not
entering the Promised Land. But the use of the word rest immediately
draws Genesis 2:2-3 to mind where God rests at the end of the process of
Creation. To refuse to trust God, to usurp God's own role in testing, and to
harden one's heart is to get stuck in the creation process. It is to not
reach the goal of God's work in one's life. It is to be incomplete,
immature, and unfulfilled. It is to say, "Not only is God not finished with
me yet, he's not going to finish with me."
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