Jesus and Moses
A sermon from Hebrews 3:1-6.
Our next installment in Hebrews takes of to chapter 3, verses 1-6.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 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. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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.
There are four questions I want to considerr:
Why is Moses such a big deal?
How are Moses and Jesus alike?
How is Jesus greater than Moses?
So what?
That fourth question is there because I know there’s a tendency for us to think, “this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my life.” But I assure you that it does have something to do with your life, so don’t check out on me, OK?
Why Is Moses Such A Big Deal?
If you’ve been with us for the first two chapters of Hebrews, then you may remember that much of the first 2 chapters was spent making the case that Jesus is greater than the angels. Now, the point of comparison changes from angels to a man, Moses. And you may be thinking that this new comparison is a bit anticlimactic - I mean, if Jesus is greater than the angels, then of course he’s greater when a mere man, right?
But remember that to someone who grew up as a Jew in the first century, which was the case for most of the original audience of the book of Hebrews, Moses was not just a mere man. He was the most exalted figure in the entire Old Testament other than God himself! Let’s take a minute to refamiliarize ourselveswith Moses’ life.
Moses was born when the Israelites - the Jews - were living as slaves in Egypt. Because the Pharoah, the king of Egypt, was afraid that the Israelites were growing in number and would eventually revolt against their slavemasters, he ordered that all Jewish baby boys must be killed. When Moses was born, his parents hid him at first, then crafted a makeshift boat out of rushes and set the baby adrift on the Nile at a place where he would be seen by the Egyptian women, thinking that perhaps one of them would show pity on the baby and raise him as her own.
But, as the providence of God would have it, the baby was discovered by the daughter of Pharoah himself, and she took the baby and raised him as her own, and so Moses grew up in the luxury of the king’s house.
When he was an adult, he killed an Egyptian guard who was beating a Jewish slave, and had to flee from Egypt as a result. He became a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian, got married, and everything was going swimmingly for Moses. Until God showed up.
God appeared to him as a bush that was burning but not consumed, and God told Moses to go to Pharoah and tell him to release the Jewish captives. It took some convincing - 10 plagues worth, splitting the Red Sea in half, drowning the armies of Egypt when the split Red Sea suddenly became unsplit, and so on - but Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery.
They went to Mount Sinai (in modern day Saudi Arabia), and Moses went up on the mountain and met with God, and received from God the Law - the set of rules that showed the people what God expected of them and how to be made right with God when they broke his Law and did not live up to the expectations he had for them.
The next stop after Sinai: the Promised Land, where their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had lived a couple hundred years earlier. However, because of their unbelief, God made them live in the wilderness for forty years. Moses led them to the very edge of the promised land, and even saw it from the top of a nearby mountain, because God had told Moses that he would not be permitted to enter. And it was there that Moses died.
So why is Moses such a big deal? Moses was the great leader, the one who led the Jews out of slavery, the one who gave them God’s law, the one who spoke to God for their behalf and the one who spoke to them on God’s behalf. So Moses wasn’t just a messenger, but an intercessor between God and man. So it’s not a step down for the author of Hebrews to go from saying “Jesus is greater than angels” to “Jesus is greater than Moses” - in the mind of the first century Jew, Moses held a greater prominence than the angels. That’s why Moses is such a big deal in this passage.
How Are Moses and Jesus Alike?
This passage is obviously making a direct comparison between Moses and Jesus, but before we look at the ways in which Hebrews tells us that Jesus is greater to Moses, let’s look at the question, “how are Moses and Jesus alike?” Because there are a lot of similarities between the two of them that are instructive for us.
First of all, do you remember what I said a moment ago about how Moses was the one who spoke to God on behalf of the people and the one who spoke to the people on behalf of God? He was the man in the middle, as it were. Verse 1 tells us something very similar about Jesus.
“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession”
Jesus is called apostle and high priest. We’re used to hearing the word “apostle” in connection with the 12 men that Jesus selected to assist him in his earthly ministry and to carry it on after he returned to heaven. But the word has a broader meaning as well. The word “apostle” literally means “one who is sent”, and before the New Testament, it usually meant one who was sent out as a messenger of the king, tasked with delivering the king’s message to the people.
And the high priest was the one who made sacrifices on behalf of the people, to make atonement to God for the sins of the people.
Jesus is called “apostle” and “high priest” because, like Moses, he is the man in the middle. He spoke to the people on the behalf of God. And he intercedes on the behalf of the people.
But there’s another significant way that Jesus and Moses are alike, and it has to do with what we see in verse 2: “who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.” Both Jesus and Moses were faithful in all God’s house. That phrase “faithful in all God’s house” is actually a quote from Numbers chapter 12. Turn with me there and let’s see what the context was of this statement:
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.
(Numbers 12:1-9 ESV)
The point is that God had a relationship with Moses that was unique. God didn’t communicate with him in dreams and visions, but mouth-to-mouth, as the text says - direct conversation, the way you would talk to a friend. More awesome still, “he beholds the form of the LORD”. When God appeared to Aaron and Miriam to “take them out to the woodshed”, he appeared as a pillar of cloud. Even Moses himself couldn’t see God’s face (Exodus 33), but he was permitted to view the backside of the LORD’s glory - a great privilege which was not granted to any other living man.
That expression “He is faithful in all my house” is the expression you might use in ancient days if you owned a large household with many servants, and you had one trusted servant who managed the entire household on your behalf. You would say that that particular service was “faithful in all your house” - they had charge over the entire household and executed their duties faithfully. That’s what Moses was - a faithful servant placed over all “God’s house” - over all of God’s people.
And Hebrews 3 tells us that Jesus was faithful, just as Moses was. He was entrusted with the care of God’s people. He communicated directly with the Father.
In fact, Moses actually told the people that one day that God would send them a prophet like himself. Listen to Deuteronomy 18, beginning in verse 15:
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19 ESV)
If you read Peter’s sermon in Acts 3, it’s very clear that Jesus himself is the prophet that Moses promised.
How Is Jesus Greater Than Moses?
And that leads us to the third question, “how is Jesus greater than Moses?”
Because the text makes it clear that Jesus is in fact greater than Moses. Look at verse 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. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
Remember, this book was written to Jewish Christians in the first century AD - a mere 30 years or so after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those Jewish believers were under threat of persecution and death because of their faith in Jesus, because Christianity was an illegal religion in the Roman Empire at that time. But because Judiasm was a legal religion, many of these Jewish Christians were considering turning away from worshipping Jesus and returning to their old Jewish ways, thereby escaping the wrath of Rome.
And the author of Hebrews is reminding them here, “if you turn away from Jesus to go back to your old Jewish religion, it’s not like you’re exchanging one religious teacher for another. Jesus is greater than Moses - he’s worthy of greater glory than the greatest figure in all of the Jewish religion.”
This is really important for us to understand in our day and age. We have infinite choices offered to us. When I was growing up in the 70’s, we had choices in what flavor of ice cream we bought, but it was pretty much limited to chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and something called “Neapolitan”, which wasn’t a flavor at all, but merely a fancy way of giving you all three flavors in one box. If you wanted to pay the big bucks, you might be able to get Rocky Road or Butter Pecan. But that was pretty much it.
You go into a supermarket today and go down the ice cream aisle, and it takes up the whole aisle! Hundreds of flavors! Cookie dough. Moose tracks. Brownie bits. Coffee (which is just awesome!). I remember some years back my wife texting me to ask me what kind of ice cream I wanted for my birthday, and I didn’t know what to tell her - there are just so many options! She ended up buying this flavor called “Fleur de Sel” which was basically vanilla with swirls of salted caramel in it. Good choice, but I’m glad I didn’t have to make it - too many options!
And the same is true of anything else in the grocery store. Bell peppers used to be one color. Soup used to come in chicken noodle, clam chowder, and tomato, and you could tell them apart because they were all different colors! Now, I’m waiting for the arrival of 1.5% milk. We are just inundated with choices, everywhere we go. About two decades ago, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called “57 Channels and Nothing On”. If he were writing that song today, it would have to be “570 Channels!” And still, most of it not worth watching! (And that’s not counting all the streaming options.)
There’s nothing wrong with choice in general, but it doesn’t work when it comes to religion. “Who you are going to worship” is not the same kind of choice as “what kind of soup you are going to buy”. You can’t take a little bit of Jesus and mix him in with all your other beliefs. Jesus demands your exclusive allegiance. You can’t be a Christian and a Muslim. You can’t be a Christian and a Buddhist. You can’t be a Christian and a nature-worshipper. Christianity does not play well with others.
That’s what Hebrews is telling those first century Christians, who were tempted to escape persecution by slipping back into Judaism. That’s what Hebrews is telling our Christian brothers in Iran and other places in the Middle East, who are tempted to be released from a death sentence by turning from Jesus and embracing Islam. That’s what Hebrews is telling us today, who are tempted to turn away from Jesus, to water down his claims of exclusivity so that we “fit in” a bit better. He’s telling us all “Don’t do it! Jesus is worthy of greater glory than all of those other systems of belief! He’s worthy of greater glory than all those false religious teachers. He’s even greater than Moses, who was a true teacher.”
Look at verses 5-6 with me:
Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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.
That’s the difference between Moses and Jesus. Moses was a servant in the household, and he was a faithful servant. Jesus is not faithful in the house, he is the son - he faithful over the house. The son has more authority in the house than the servant does. The servant serves. The son rules.
Do you see the different prepositions used here? Moses is faithful in the house, but Christ is faithful over the house. Don’t overlook the prepositions! The little words matter, so read the Scriptures carefully!
Jesus is greater than Moses because Jesus is the son who is faithful over the house. And by the way, if you hold fast to him, if you don’t fall away, then you are part of that household. That’s was the end of verse 6 tells us.
So What?
So what difference does it make to us today, that Jesus is greater than Moses? What can we take from this text and apply to our lives this week? I want to suggest three things.
Faithful spiritual leaders are worthy of honor.
Notice that the text says that Jesus is worthy of a greater glory (and in the context here, the word “glory” is used in the sense of honor, rank or position) than Moses. It didn’t say that Jesus was worthy of glory, but Moses wasn’t. Remember that Aaron and Miriam were rebuked by God himself because they didn’t show proper honor toward Moses.
This is true for those who are faithful servants in God’s house today as well. I Timothy 5:17 says “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Now you may think that that’s a very self-serving thing for an elder and preacher to say, but I didn’t say it. The Word of God says it, and I would be an unfaithful servant if I didn’t teach the whole counsel of God.
In a similar vein, Hebrews 13:17 tells us to “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
So ask yourself this morning, what is your attitude toward those who are in positions of spiritual authority? Is it one of honor, or one of resentment?
Spiritual leaders and teachers are worthy of LESSER honor.
This is the flip side of the first point. Yes, you are to honor faithful servants. But you don’t put them on a pedistal that reserved for Jesus alone. Because Jesus alone deserves our worship, our devotion, and our unqualified support. Even Moses made mistakes. God told him to speak to a rock to get water from it in the desert, and in his anger, he struck the rock with his staff instead. And because of that, God wouldn’t let him enter the Promised Land.
Any leader will fail you. Any teacher will fail you. Don’t trust anyone infallibly. As we talked about last week, test everything. Only Jesus is worthy of your absolute trust.
Consider Jesus, the greater Moses.
Moses was sent by God to deliver his people from slavery, and as a faithful servant in all God’s house, Moses did exactly that. But Jesus was sent by God to deliver us from a slavery that was much greater than that of Egypt. Because we were in bondage to sin, and we could not escape its clutches. But Jesus died on the cross to pay the payment for your sins, and God raised Jesus from the dead three days later to show the world that the payment was accepted, so death no longer had any claim on him. And because that payment has been made, Jesus offers a way out of sin’s bondage for everyone who comes to him in faith.
If that’s you, dear reader, trapped in the bondage of sin, Jesus says to you, “you too can be released from your chains. You can be set free.” Turn away from your sins and trust in him to save you. Romans 10:9 tells us that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”