HEBREWS CHAPTERS 3:1 – 4:12 

Paul continues the argument to the wavering Christian in Hebrews 3:1-4:12, which was written to the Hebrew Messianic of his day. He takes up the subject of the New Covenant heavenly Kingdom calling and contrasts God’s two Mediators, their 2 “houses” and God’s 2 different “rests”. These are truths rooted in revelation from the Law or Torah (instruction, doctrine) in the word of God. Let us begin by reading the first 6 verses of chapter 3, with comments then to follow. 

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. [Hebrews 3:1-6] 

“WHEREFORE, holy brethren… (Having been regenerated by God, now the sanctifying work of holiness (wholeness) by Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit equips us that we may be fit. See 1st Corinthians 3:16–17, Hebrews 6:4, Ephesians 1:13–14) 

…partakers of the heavenly calling… (Those who have accepted this call by faith and baptism in Jesus Christ, in the greater brotherhood and redemption; as contrasted with Israel’s earthly kingdom calling.) 

 …consider… (by contrast or comparing) 

…the Apostle… (Paul is comparing Christ with Moses, their sent one, to deliver them out of Egypt and bring them into that Promised Land.) 

…and High Priest… (He’s comparing with Aaron; their high priest)  

…of our profession… (with that confession) 

…Christ Jesus; Who was… (“was” is added by translators, but it should be: IS, in that His work is not yet complete 2:17, for He is yet to lead sons unto glory)  

…faithful to him (God) that (has) appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his (God’s) house… (house here meaning: Israel, tabernacle, priesthood…Read Numbers 12:1-7.)  

…For this (Son of) man (Jesus) was counted… (judged and rewarded according to His person and work presented in the previous 2 chapters)  

…worthy of more glory than Moses… (in that Moses’ glory faded. See 2nd Corinthians 3:7-11)  

…inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his (God’s) house… (as seen in a comparison of Moses with Miriam and Aaron in Numbers 12:2-7) 

…as a servant, for a testimony… (All things God’s servant Moses said then may be completely accepted; such as His testimony of a prophet greater than himself to come.)  

…of those things which were to be spoken after… (This is a reference to what all of Paul’s arguments will continue to firmly rest upon; the things Moses gives testimony to which will be revealed later as only shadows of things to come. Some being the types of Melchizedek, Israel, the Tabernacle and its services, its priesthood, etc.)  

…But Christ as son… (set in glory as appointed Resurrections’ High Priest)  

…over… (as opposed to Moses in God’s house as a servant)  

…his… (God the Father’s)  

…own house… (Him being sole heir; The faithful Son)  

…whose (God’s) house… (now greater, being the greater spiritual reality of that shadowed in Israel, the tabernacle and the priesthood. Read 1st Peter 2:4-10)  

…are we… (to be as holy adopted sons unto glory, appointed to be Christ’s brethren) 

…if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope… (of his [heavenly] calling. Read Ephesians 1)  

…firm unto the end… (As Israel’s hope in the wilderness was being tested, and as the Hebrew Christians’ hope was being tested by persecution and long delay…likewise, surely our hope of the fullness of Redemption is being tested).  

One of the main objects of the Book was to encourage regenerated followers of Jesus in continued faithfulness in their hope and testimony of the Return of Christ, in the attaining of the promise of partaking in His heavenly kingdom. Christ is here and in the first two chapters shadowed in Moses’ testimony of Joseph’s life. In that he was favored, chosen and appointed, and was rejected by his brethren, betrayed yet innocent, cast in prison, raised up and exalted by the Pharaoh, who “…made him governor over Egypt, and over all his house”. (Acts 7:10 with Genesis 37:2-41:46)      

VERSE 7:1 is the beginning of the second great warning of five in the Book of Hebrews, which continues through chapter 4, verse 12. (Please read in full now Hebrews 3:7-4:12.) This warning follows the revealing of this Greater Deliverer’s ascendancy to the highest place, the Right Hand of the Father as our Apostle and High Priest. And that according to His unmatchable deeds, He is now in exalted position and power. He is Whom Christians are now exhorted to follow faithfully, unwaveringly, doubting nothing, that they also may ascend in inheritance of the heavenly realm of the Millennial Kingdom as sons filled with glory. 

In verse 7, Paul begins the warning by comparing the two houses and their redemptions with an instructive quote from the Torah of Moses. This always being essential in establishing truth, and has much to instruct is in our understanding. In Paul’s quote, he is exhorting to His Rest, (although the Law could not bring any one into His Rest). Thus here the Holy Spirit, 500 years later, inspired David to write about that great defining event in the Wilderness as seen in Psalm 95. Read now.)  

The following verses are Hebrews 3:7-15 and 4:1-2. (In verses 7-11, Paul repeats the Words of Psalm 95:7b-11.) 

…Wherefore, as saith the Holy Ghost, today… (which Paul brought up by the Spirit to apply to those of his day, but is also to speak to us this very day in which we are reading; in this present dispensation)  

…if ye will hear his voice… (Then being in the time of the Law, the voice of Moses in Deuteronomy 1:8 and presently His voice being the Word of Jesus Christ in regards to His heavenly call, unto obedience in following Him into glory through the tests and trials we are today to face faithfully. See Mark 4:14-20, Matthew 7:21, Deuteronomy 1:8,21.) 

…harden not your hearts… (by turning away from HIS instructive Words)  

…as (exampled) in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness… (the chief provocation being Numbers 13–14) 

…When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest…  

Then, immediately in verse 12, Paul applies the historical application to present believers. …Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you… (He speaks not to Jews, not to merely professors, but to Christians. The principle being repeated in the parables of the Great Supper, and the Wedding Garment in that those first invited would not come to the King’s Feast. See Matthew 22:8–9)  

…an evil heart of unbelief… (He who hears the Word of God must not harden his heart. Faith softens; unbelief makes light of it.)  

…in departing from the living God… (It is Christ here being referred to in example, as Israel in heart departed God. This is seen in Numbers 14:3–4: “And wherefore hath the Lord brought us …And they said one to another… Let us return to Egypt…”)  

…But exhort one another every day… (This and “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” seen in Hebrews 10:25, is the remedy prescribed to keep us from the peril.) 

 …While it is called To Day: lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin… (Many are the reasonings of the mass of Christianity, as they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior from eternal death, yet they don’t believe in Him as their Lord/Leader to the great prize. Nor do they give any credence to their exclusion from any Kingdom to which He now invites them, just as it was with the mass of ancient Israel in the Wilderness. But they did not prevail against God’s Word.)  

…For we are made partakers (companions) of Christ, if we hold the beginning… (Here is the foundational principle of the entire Book of Hebrews. The call is not to unbelievers, but to believers to attain. 2nd John 8, Mark 4 Only ONE class of hearers entered into the kingdom.) 

…of our confidence steadfast unto the end… (And what is the end? The first resurrection out from among the dead, unto the Bride and Army of heaven. See Revelation 19:7,14.)  

…While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation… (Are not most of God’s redeemed in Christ resisting the calling and thereby provoking God? Are not many taught worldliness by their religious leaders?)

…Let us fear…(What is the sense of these words in Hebrews 4:1 to fear if Christians are certain of their REST? FOUR times in these passages, the REST is associated with REWARD, yet unfulfilled.)  

…a promise being left… “It remaineth that some must enter therein”…“There remaineth therefore a rest”…“Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest”….   

…did not profit them…” (Joshua and Caleb preached the Word here in Hebrews 4:2 that did not profit the hearers because their reasonings overwhelmed their faith. Just as religious reasonings prevent current redeemed ones from entering into the Heavenly Inheritance.) 

PAUL IS SAYING THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DIRECTED David to write in Psalm 95 of a time. That being“Today” that God yet calls His People to His future REST.  **** 

The Psalm prophetically speaks of that REST in which God’s Peoples will recognize Jesus the Messiah as the “Great God, King, Creator, and Shepherd. The Shepherd of then two flocks, brought into His Redemption Rest. Paul points warningly to Israel as our example who provoked God, who spurned His Redemption, and failed. They were saved out of Egypt but lost or shut out of His typical Rest as a consequence of the deceitfulness of sin, (the subtleties of satan’s reasonings as seen in 2nd Corinthians 11:3) unto the hardening of their hearts to His governing Word.   

Now this Rest into which they were instructed to enter, was a typical shadow. It was not typical of Creation’s Rest, nor was Canaan a type of an inheritance in Heaven. Neither was it typical of His eternal Rest, but it was typical of Redemption’s Rest; that Greater Rest that is typed in Creation’s Rest. (Creation’s Rest being the seventh Day which came after six 24 hour days of Work, wherein Angels in wonder gave praise.) Whereas Redemption’s Rest, (being the anti-type) was/is much longer in the making. It being 40 years in Israel’s type, and 6000 years in the reality to be revealed. Therefore it is much greater in grandeur, for the wonders of Redemption far exceed those of Creation. Those grandeur wonders were first displayed in Israel’s redemption and then were greater still in Christ’s redemption. For this ongoing Redemption Work is far more glorifying to God, as represented in the 1000 years Observance of the millennial Rest.  

It is to this Rest that the 7th Day Rest of Creation points. It is to this Redemption Rest that the “today” in the 95th Psalm and the repeated “today” in Hebrews 3 points to. The Holy Spirit presents this to us as our greater calling. The Unbelief of Israel grieved God, and in His Wrath He forbade them to enter into His Rest into the Promised Land (typical to the 7th Day of the Redemption Rest). They continued to distrust and disobey, and would not submit to His governing Word. And so they are an example of unbelief unto great loss (first in the type, and later when the unbelieving Jews eliminated themselves from the heavenly kingdom anti type as seen in Matthew 21:43). He now exhorts the Christians not to fall short of that future Millennial Rest after God’s Marvelous 6 thousand years (6 spiritual Days) in the Work of Redemption. Not to fall short of the First Resurrection inheritance prize, that which Christ’s present duties as High Priest for His People, has in view. 

Finally, to end this warning argument, Paul takes up the subject of the Word of God which was the root of the entire warning in the 95th Psalm. The question being “Do you believe the 95th Psalm applies to you?” The Word of God is not to be trifled with. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  The ending of this 2nd warning establishes the basis on which this argument is founded; the Word, and its latent power. Let us not attempt to twist, or evade the Word of God, but to submit to it.  

(These warnings in Hebrews run parallel with Christ’s warnings in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7 and others including the Epistles 1st Corinthians 6:7-10, Galatians 5:19-21, and Ephesians 5:1-6.)     

*The meaning of  “house” having to do with more than just our current physical body… “For we know that if our earthly house (or body) of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building (new body) of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house (glorious heavenly body) which is from heaven .” [2nd Corinthians 5:1-2] (At the first resurrection out from among the dead, that which answers to the heavenly calling.)