Apostle and High Priest – Hebrews 3

Joy: You’re listening to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Episode #207.  Today we’ll read Hebrews chapter 3 together:  The author calls Jesus our Apostle and High Priest and warns against unbelief.

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast.  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me as we simply read God’s word together.  Some things require discipline and sometimes that’s just not easy to muster by yourself, no matter how badly you want to do it or how much you know you should.  It’s just easier to do it with a friend.  So refill your coffee or tea, get comfortable in your favorite chair and follow along as I read aloud.  I’m so glad you’re here!

Welcome

A thought occurred to me this morning as I was re-listening to some of our past podcast episodes.  As I’ve told you many times before, I have no formal teaching in the Scriptures.  I have the same Holy Spirit residing in me that you do.  So, if – big if – I ever do say anything smart, you have to accept that it’s the Holy Spirit speaking.  

None of that keeps me from still getting a little nervous when I dare to offer something on particularly meaty passages.  But the Lord brought something to mind that I thought would be useful for all of us to remember as we read the Scriptures.

Our inclination is always to judge and/or interpret the Scriptures through the lens of our own cultural perspective.  With all due respect, I think we as Americans do that a lot.  We have strong attitudes about what constitutes respect and rudeness.  There are long-fought for battles of the sexes that color our outlooks.  Politics, upbringing, education or lack thereof, and many other mores play into the mix.

And then we pick up the Bible.

We Want to Get it Right

The entryway of our understanding is already painted with all that other stuff and it tends to color our understanding of Scripture and, let’s be honest, whether we persevere in studying God’s Word.  I have found it useful to switch-up my perspective.  

I’m not saying we all must have seminary degrees in order to read the Scriptures.  But there are certain facts we must consider before we start to read or listen to God.  When writing a business plan, we call them Key Assumptions. 

Here is the short list that I use, especially when a passage pricks my sense of right and wrong.  First, God is love.  Then, God is good.  Finally, God loves me and means me no harm.  To those, we can throw in some questions that I’ve shared before like, “What does God want me to know from this passage?”  And, “How would I have handled that situation and why?”

You probably have several others that I would love to hear at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.  The point is to pause.  Let’s be careful of the filter we are using when we consume God’s Word because…we want to get it right.

Hebrews Chapter 3

Our Apostle and High Priest

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.

Warning against Unbelief

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

where your ancestors tested me, tried me,

and saw my works for forty years.

Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation

and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,

and they have not known my ways.”

So I swore in my anger,

“They will not enter my rest.”

Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

As it is said:

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Closing Thoughts

Now, if you were Jewish, you would have been immersed in the Torah all your life.  This is, after all, the Letter to the Hebrews.  The Jews reading this letter would have held Moses in the highest esteem.  He had led his people out of captivity according to God’s plan.  And here, Jesus is described as being worthy of more glory than Moses, and being a Son and not just a servant like Moses was.  This would have grabbed their attention and it should grab ours too.

The story of rebellion that our author refers to in this Hebrews passage is in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Numbers.  Even if you haven’t read the Old Testament, you may have heard that the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years.  What you may not know is that their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken them about eleven days.  But they did not trust God, despite the miracles and provision He had shown to them.  They hardened their hearts and did not believe that God would bring them through.  

We would do well to learn from the Israelites.  Our lesson is not to be like those who rebelled, not to harden our hearts toward God, but to believe.  Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father, what happens to us as we pass from being trusting children to adults with hardened hearts?  Is it that we have been hurt by this world too many times, or as this passage said, hardened by sin’s deception?  Is it because we think its somehow sophisticated to go our own way; to belittle trusting You?  Please forgive us, Lord.  Help us not to harden our hearts toward You.  Help us to receive the love You have for us.   Remind us, Holy Spirit to encourage each other to trust and not to be hard.  Help us to hold on.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray God will grow in you what has been planted and watered here.  In this time of unprecedented struggle worldwide, we can look to God for guidance and comfort.  Be sensitive to those in your circle of influence who need a word of encouragement and invite them to join us.  If you like this show, it would be great if you give it a five-star review.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you right here tomorrow.  Be well!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.