Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
"TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME,
AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me,
AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.
THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION,
AND SAID, 'THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART,
AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS';
AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'"
It's surprising to me still that I decided to work my way through the book of Hebrews and write down my reflections - ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc - here for the world to see. It's really not my style, but here I am anyways.
This bit in the third chapter about Moses vs Jesus is about the law more than it's about Moses. The law being fulfilled by Jesus. More importantly, as the author of the Law, God is more important than the law. He deserves more glory than the law. As we read earlier in Hebrews, Jesus was with God from the beginning and "the world" was created through Him, certainly then also the law was created through Jesus. Jesus deserves more glory than the law.
Moses was simply a servant in the church, the body of Christ, the house
We are part of that body only if we hold fast our faith until the end; our faith in Jesus as our saviour, our faith that the house indeed does exist.
Do I believe that the house exists? That's the important question. Do I live inside the faith that Jesus Christ dies for my sins?
The question isn't "Do I believe that I am a good person?" or "Do I believe that God likes good people?" God built a house for his children and intends for us to live in it. We sin, but that doesn't get us kicked out. We live rent free, in fact. No animal sacrifices or fasting to pay the rent.
Just faith.
Sometimes, I desire the law, though. Sometimes I wish I could just follow the Old Testament stuff. I wish I could just follow the ten commandments and ritually wash myself and slay the right animals and burn all the right parts. I'm pretty smart, see, so it wouldn't be too hard for me to learn all of that and always know exactly how good I am and how good (or not) everyone else is. It'd be easy...
But then I am reminded of the Hebrews in the desert wandering and dieing and being denied entry into God's rest because of their provocations. The rules can only tell me what not to do. The House that Jesus built is about living and freedom.
There is a struggle to live within the simplicity of what Jesus has built, but it's what drew me to Jesus in the first place. I thought it was always about how good I was or wasn't. I thought I had to act a certain way and be a certain person. I didn't know that by fulfilling the law of the old testament, Jesus had set us free of the punishment sin demands.
The new covenant turns it all upside down and makes everything new by doing everything the old covenant promised that it would do! Not destroyed or over-turned or re-imagined or "now under new management" or new and improved or any of that.
Solid and consistent throughout all time. Always.
Doesn't that blow your freakin' mind?
