1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling… ”(1) Holy brethren because they are “partakers of a calling that is heavenly…” (Trapp), which “made thus a Christian fraternity by the heavenly calling of them out of the world by the Gospel; when by His Spirit He enlightened their minds, and renewed their wills, and made them obedient to it, so as for the temper of their souls they are made holy, and for their condition happy; the work of God’s power and mercy eminently appearing in it: God therein preventing man, so as He influenceth him to hear Him from heaven, walk worthy of heaven, and at last to rest in heaven for ever.” (Poole)
These are partakers of the heavenly calling, just as the the faithful remanent of the old dispensation had been. Believers in Jesus are partakers of that heavenly calling with the patriarchs and the prophets, as well as all true children of Israel of these past ages. “The word ‘partakers’ signifies ‘sharers of.’ The calling wherewith the Christian is called (Eph. 4:1) is heavenly, because of its origin—it proceeds from Heaven; because of the means used—the Spirit and the Word, which have come from Heaven; because of the sphere of our citizenship (Phil. 3:20); because of the end to which we are called—an eternal Heaven.” (A. W. Pink)
“Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus …” (1b) “behold Him, not simply by a passing glance or giving to Him an occasional thought, but by the heart being fully occupied with Him. ‘Set Me as a seal upon your heart’ (Song 8:6), is His call to us. And it is our failure at this point which explains why we know so little about Him, why we love Him so feebly, why we trust Him so imperfectly.” (Pink) The Apostle and High Priest "of our Confession" "relates to believers ‘confession’ to Christ as their [Apostle and] High Priest.” (Wycliffe)
"Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was in all His house.” (2) God testified, "My servant Moses is faithful in all My house’ and to this testimony the apostle alludes.” (Numbers 12:7) He was “faithful in the discharge of his responsibilities concerning the earthly family over which Jehovah placed him… He never withheld a word which the Lord had given him, either from Pharaoh or from Israel. In erecting the tabernacle all things were made ‘according to’ the pattern which he had received in the mount.’ When he came down from Sinai and beheld the people worshipping the golden calf, he did not spare, but called for the sword to smite them (Exo 32:27- 28). In all things he conformed to the instructions which he had received from Jehovah (Exo 40:16)… Yet Moses was not without sin. See Numbers 20:11. And for this reason he never received the earthly inheritance—the land of Canaan. No, he never set his foot therein. But concerning the Apostle of our faith— Christ was ever faithful to the One who sent Him. This was His chief care from beginning to end. As a boy, ‘I must be about My Father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). In the midst of His ministry, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent Me’ (John 9:4). At the finish, ‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt’ (Matt 26:39).” (A. W. Pink)
“For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.” (3) “Moses was not the founder of the Israelitish family, but simply a member of it. With the Apostle of our confession it is far otherwise. He is not only at the head of God’s family (Heb 2:10, 13—His ‘sons,’ His ‘children’), but He is also the Builder or the Founder of it…. Moses did not make men children of God; Christ does. Moses came to a people who were already the Lord’s by covenant relationship; whereas Christ takes up those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and creates them anew. Thus as the founder of the family is entitled to the highest honor from the family, so Christ is worthy of more glory than Moses.” (A. W. Pink)
‘…for every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.’ (4) “Christ has not only built ‘the house,’ but ‘all things.’... Therefore Christ made Moses, as well as the whole family of Israel… Therefore should all ‘honor the Son even as they honor the Father’ (John 5:23)… The Puritan Owen quaintly wrote, ‘Here the apostle takes leave of Moses; he treats not about him anymore; and therefore he gives him, as it were, an honorable burial. He puts this glorious epitaph on his grave: 'Moses, a faithful servant of the Lord in His whole house.’” ( A. W. Pink)
“And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house…’ (5-6a) “This was a word much needed by the Jews. So far from the revelation of Christianity clashing with the Pentateuch, much there was an anticipation of it. Moses ordered all things in the typical worship of the house so that they might be both a witness and pledge of that which should afterwards be more fully exhibited through the Gospel. Therefore did Christ say, ‘For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me’ (John 5:46).— ’whose house we are.’ (6b) the ‘house’ [in the christian era] is a spiritual house, made up of believers in Christ. Not only are the ‘brethren’ of verse 1, partakers of the heavenly calling, but they are members of the spiritual family of God, for in them He dwells. How well calculated to comfort and encourage the sorely-tried Hebrews were these words ‘whose house are we!’ What compensation was this for the loss of their standing among the unbelieving Jews!” (A. W. Pink)
Hold fast the confidence and rejoicing to the end. (6c) “There were great difficulties, circumstances calculated especially to effect the Jew, who, after receiving the truth with joy might be exposed to great trial, and so in danger of giving up his hope. It was, besides, particularly hard for a Jew at first to put these two facts together: Messiah came and entered into glory; and the people who belonged to the Messiah [were] left in sorrow, and shame, and suffering here below.”(W. Kelly). But our confidence and rejoicing of hope is that “blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13), “namely, the return of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, when He shall come to take us unto Himself, to make us like Himself, to have us forever with Himself; when all God’s promises concerning us shall be made good.” (A. W. Pink)
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath,‘They shall not enter My rest.’” [Psalm 95:7–11]
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says…" (7a) “Whatever was given by inspiration from the Holy Ghost, and is recorded in the Scripture for the use of the Church...’’ (Dr J. Owen)
"Today"—(7b) “‘Today’ signifies the time present, yet so as to include a continuance of it. It is not to be limited to twenty-four hours, instead, this term sometimes covers a present interval which consists of many days, yea years… As that present time wherein David lived was to him and those then alive ‘today’, so that present time in which the apostle and the Hebrews lived was to them ‘today,’ and the time wherein we now live, is to us ‘today.’ It covers that interval while men are alive on earth, while God’s grace and blessing are available to them.” (A. W. Pink) “…if you will hear His voice..." (7c)— A preacher once said he once thought that God no longer speaks to people; "but then," he explained, “He spoke to me.” “To ‘hear’ God’s voice signifies to attend reverently to what He says, to diligently ponder, to readily receive, and to heed or obey it… It is to the heart God’s Word is addressed, that moral center of our beings out of which are the issues of life (Pro. 4:23). There may be conviction of the conscience, the assent of the intellect, the admiration of understanding, but unless the heart is moved there is no response.” (Dr. J. Owen)
“… do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness,” (8) No man was born a Christian. There is a time of provocation for us all; some are still in it. The reference is to Exodus 17. “There we are told that the congregation of Israel journeyed to Rephidim, where there was ‘no water for the people to drink.’ Instead of them counting on Jehovah to supply their need, as He had at Marah (Exo. 15:25) and in the wilderness of Sin…, they ‘did chide with Moses’… [saying] ‘Wherefore is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?’ (Exo. 16:3-4). Though Moses cried unto the Lord and the Lord graciously responded by bringing water out of the rock for them, yet God’s servant was greatly displeased, for in verse 7 we are told, ‘And he called the name of the place Massah (Temptation) and Meribah (Strife), because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not’…It is not only true that the difficulties and trials of the way test us, but these testings reveal the state of our hearts—a crisis neither makes nor mars a man, but it does manifest him. While all is smooth sailing we appear to be getting along nicely. But are we? Are our minds stayed upon the Lord, or are we, instead, complacently resting in His temporal mercies? When the storm breaks, it is not so much that we fail under it, as that our habitual lack of leaning upon God, of daily walking in dependency upon Him, is made evident. Circumstances do not change us, but they do expose us. Paul rejoiced in the Lord when circumstances were congenial. Yes, and he also sang praises to Him when his back was bleeding in the Philippian dungeon. The fact is, that if we sing only when circumstances are pleasing to us, then our singing is worth nothing…” (A. W. Pink)
“where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.” (9) “The history of the Israelites is a history of continued provocation. In the wilderness of Sin they murmured for the want of bread, and God gave them manna. At Rephidim they murmured for the want of water, and questioned whether Jehovah was with them and He gave them water from the rock. In the wilderness of Sinai, soon after receiving the Law, they made and worshipped a golden image. At Taberah they murmured for want of flesh and the quails were sent, followed by a dreadful plague. At Kadesh-barnea they refused to go up and take possession of the land of promise, which brought down on them the awful sentence referred to in the Psalm; and after that sentence was pronounced, they presumptuously attempted to do what they had formerly refused to do. All these things took place in little more than two years after they left Egypt. Thirty-seven years after this, we find them at Kadesh again, murmuring for want of water and other things. Soon after this, they complained of the want of bread, though they had manna in abundance, and were punished by the plague of fiery flying serpents. And at Shittim, their last station, they provoked the Lord by mingling in the impure idolatry of the Moabites. So strikingly true is Moses’ declaration: ‘Remember, and forget not, how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you did depart out of the land of Egypt, until you came unto this place you have been rebellious against the Lord’, Deut 9:7.” (Dr. J. Brown)
"Therefore I was angry"— wroth or displeased —"with that generation...,” (10a) "and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.'” (Psalm 95:10) (10b) “Their misconduct was due to a heart or mind filled with error. As a result of such an attitude toward God, they failed to become acquainted with His ways or the ways the Lord wished the people to follow.” “So I swore in My wrath,‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalm 95:11) (11) “God swore or made a solemn decision against the disobedient people. This was caused by His wrath or grief as mentioned in verse 10. The decision was that they should not be permitted to enter into 'My rest'…- the promised land, which the Lord had designed should come to His people after the weariness of the wandering. God calls it His rest because He designed it to be an antitype of the rest on the seventh day from His works of creation.” (E.M. Zerr's Commentary)
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”[Ps 95:7-8]
"Beware" holy "brethren"- “A still more wonderful and glorious manifestation has God now made of Himself than any which Israel ever enjoyed…. What more can He say, than to us He has said!” (A. W. Pink) — Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion— “God’s voice is to soften the heart. This is the purpose of the Divine Word—to make our hearts tender. Alas, by nature we are hard-hearted: and what we call good and soft-hearted is not so in reality and in God’s sight. When we receive God’s word in the heart, when we acknowledge our sin, when we adore God’s mercy, when we desire God’s fellowship, when we see Jesus, who came to save us, to wash our feet and shed His blood, for our salvation, the heart becomes soft and tender. For repentance, faith, prayer, patience, hope of heaven, all these things make the heart tender: tender towards God, tender towards our fellow-men.” (Adolph Saphir) “How great is our responsibility; how immeasureably greater than Israel’s is our sin and guilt, if we despise Him who speaks to us!” ( A W. Pink)— if we hear not His voice and turn not our eyes and fix not out hearts on Jesus. If we die in disbelief, we will experience the wrath of God in “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” (2 Thess 1:9) We will not enter Heaven.
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
God told Moses to send the heads of the tribes to spy Canaan before entering. Upon their return, Caleb of Judah spoke saying, “‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.’
But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.’” (Num 13:30-31)
Hoshea son of Nun was the head of one the tribes- Ephraim- and was a faithful man and Moses gave him the name Joshua (Numbers 13:16b)- basically the same name as Yeshua. The others should have said with the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, “if Yahweh be with us, who can be against us!”
Let us not leave out the people’s ratification of the rebellion.
“They accepted the majority report brought in by the ten unfaithful spies. The multitude of Israel looked at the ten instead of the two, blindly following the majority, feeling that wisdom was in that course, and unaware until too late that ignorance, defeat, folly and death lay with the majority. People of the present day are confronted with exactly the same danger. What do the majority say about [doctrine, about] God, Christ, the church, baptism, the Lord's Supper, Christian living, sobriety, virtue, prayer, and piety? Concerning majorities, people should have the courage of Caleb and Joshua. They should have the grace to accept the sentiments of an old motto once said to be over the gates of the University of Glasgow; ‘What do they say? Who are they? Who cares?’” (Burton Coffman)
What does God say? What does the Word of God teach?
Moses and Aaron interceded for them before God, but His verdict was death in the wilderness. “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.'” (Num 14:26-32)
"For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not ‘all’ who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?" (16) The majority of the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah. Here in the history of Israel “is a solemn warning against trusting in a majority or what is popular.” (Burton Coffman) "The unspeakably solemn fact to which He here refers is that out of six hundred thousand men who left Egypt, but two of them were cut off in the wilderness, Caleb and Joshua.” (A. W. Pink)
Because of disbelief, the others- including the people- could not enter into the land. “The statement that 'all they' rebelled is hyperbole, exaggeration for the sake of emphasis; and, while it is true that Caleb and Joshua refused to be with the majority and survived to enter Canaan, the exception was so small that the apostle had no scruple in saying that they all provoked God by their disobedience as Barnes put it: ‘… the names of only two have come down through history as repudiating the majority.
The tragic case of that lost generation in the wilderness is of epic proportions.” (Burton Coffman) Moreover, "We are not to suppose that all of those who thus died were excluded from heaven. Moses and Aaron were among the number of those who were not permitted to enter the promised land, but of their piety there can be no doubt; beyond all question, also, there were many others of that generation who were truly pious. But at different times they seem all to have partaken of the prevalent feelings of discontent, and were all involved in the sweeping condemnation that they should die in the wilderness." (Barnes Notes)
"Now with whom was He angry forty years?" (17a) "This being put in the form of a question was designed to stir up the conscience of the reader, cf. Matthew 21:28, James 4:5, etc…” (A W. Pink)
“Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?" (17b)— “He does not say ‘they died,’ but their ‘carcasses fell,’ which intimates contempt and indignation. God sometimes will make men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, righteously exemplary in their punishment. To what end is this reported? It is that we may take heed that we ‘fall not after the same example of unbelief’ (Heb. 4:11).” (John Owen)
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Faith brings us into His rest. The disobedient unbelievers "could not enter in; to the rest of Canaan, typifying the rest of heaven. The great and destructive sin which cuts off the hope of heaven and makes perdition certain, is unbelief." (Justin Edwards) They ignore the prodings of the Holy Spirit- the heavenly, as well as the earthly witnesses. "The heart is purified by faith; the heart is hardened by unbelief. Faith brings us nigh to God; unbelief is departure from God.” (Adolph Saphir)
“Twice over the apostle reminded them (verses 9, 17) that the unbelief of their fathers had been continued for ‘forty years.’ Almost that very interval had now elapsed since the Son had died, risen again, and ascended to heaven. In Scripture, forty is the number of probation. The season of Israel’s testing was almost over; in A.D. 70 their final dispersion would occur. And God changes not. He who had been provoked of old by Israel’s hardness of heart, would destroy again those who persisted in their unbelief. Then let them beware, and heed the solemn warning, ‘Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.’ May God grant us hearts to heed the same admonitory warning.” (A. W. Pink) "Oh that we could make that use of their disaster, that Waldus the French merchant (father and founder of the Waldenses) did of that sad sight that befell him. For walking in the streets, and seeing one fall suddenly dead, he went home and repented of his Popish errors and profane courses." (John Trapp)