Moses vs the Son

1. Therefore - A Review
2. Moses
3. Jesus
4. Conclusion

1. "Therefore" - A Review

A Quick Recap

What is the "therefore" there for?

• God has spoken to us in these last days by the Son
• The Son is greater than the angels - both his person and his message
• Let us take heed lest we disregard this great message (the revelation of salvation - the gospel message)
• The Son became flesh and blood, just like us, that he might accomplish redemption as high priest and bring us to glory

The Author's Purpose

• Writing to Jewish believers, entrenched in the Old Testament scriptures
• He must explain, demonstrate, and prove the replacement of the Mosaic covenant. Jesus is greater than Moses.
• He's setting up an introduction for the next several chapters.

2. Moses - The Faithful Steward (Servant)

Context of this passage:

• Miriam was a worship leader and prophetess. The Song of Miriam, Exodus 15, is enshrined forever in the canon. She wasn't perfect, but she was the real deal.
• Aaron was appointed as high priest over the entire nation of Israel. He performed extraordinary miracles in the land of Egypt. In a couple chapters, God is going to re-establish him as a spiritual leader by causing his rod to bud. We all know that Aaron wasn't perfect, but he was the real deal.

Numbers 12:1-8
(1) Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. (2) So they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard [it]. (3) (Now the man Moses [was] very humble, more than all men who [were] on the face of the earth.) (4) Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!" So the three came out. (5) Then the LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood [in] the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. (6) Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, [I], the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. (7) Not so with My servant Moses; he [is] faithful in all My house. (8) I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses?"

House: building.... but also household, family, kingdom, clan, people. The household of God, God's people. Example: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15b)

Faithful: trustworthy, dependable, unfailing. This is where we get the word "amen". Connected to "faith" - worthy of your faith, belief, or trust.

God established Moses and gave him instructions for stewardship over the household of God.

Exodus 25:40
"And see to it that you make [them] according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

Moses did more than just lead the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. He did more than lead them into the gates of the Promised Land. He served as God's "builder" in the establishment of a covenant system. This includes the ten commandments, the sacrifices, the priests, the government, the feasts, the ceremonial laws, and everything else.

A Mediating Work

Deuteronomy 5:23-28
(23) "So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. (24) "And you said: 'Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he [still] lives. (25) 'Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die. (26) 'For who [is there] of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we [have], and lived? (27) 'You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do [it].'
(28) "Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right [in] all that they have spoken.

"Before the might and holiness of God, we are naked in all our sin. We need a mediator! Without God, we perish, but with God, we perish as well! We need someone to hear from God and tell us His ways"

• Do we have this reverence and fear of the Lord? Do we cry out, "I need a mediator!"? Or, "thank God that I have a mediator?"

Deuteronomy 5:29-31
(29) 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! (30) 'Go and say to them, "Return to your tents." (31) 'But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe [them] in the land which I am giving them to possess.'

What a mercy! God listened to his people, and gave them means to access God. God would appoint one to teach them, to establish a sacrificial system, to establish a priesthood and a temple, and establish God's law. This one would be God's "sent one", or apostle, appointed to communicate with authority. He would facilitate a means for which man could walk in harmony with God.

God's House

God established Moses as a servant, or "steward", over the household of God. And Moses, though not a perfect man, was faithful. He faithfully stewarded the house of God. He accurately communicated God's truth.

Our passage in Hebrews is clear that Moses did not build the house - he is not the maker of it, nor is he the owner. His faithfulness was to point to another. He was a "testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward".

1 Corinthians 4:1-2
(1) Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (2) Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

3. Christ Jesus - The Faithful Son

• We can think of Moses as a prophet or a kind of "apostle", a sent one to communicate a message authoritatively. Jesus is called The Apostle and High Priest.
• Moses gave the law, Aaron executed the priesthood... But Jesus is both the messenger AND the executor of this new covenant.

Deuteronomy 18:15-19
(15) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, (16) "according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.' (17) "And the LORD said to me: 'What they have spoken is good. (18) 'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. (19) 'And it shall be [that] whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require [it] of him.

There have been many prophets after Moses - Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest... But none "like Moses". None of those prophets established a new covenant. None of those prophets said "This is the new covenant in my blood".

Until Jesus.

• Just like Moses, Jesus was faithful in all God's house.
  • He was the Apostle, the sent one from God, who communicated the covenant with authority
• But unlike Moses, he came not as merely a steward or a servant, but as the builder of the house - the Son.
  • Not only is Jesus the builder as part of the trinity, He is also the heir as Son. He owns it!

John 6:37-38
(37) "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (38) "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Jesus' glory is greater

The builder of the house is worthy of greater glory than the steward or the house. It's as if the author of Hebrews is saying, "Moses was a faithful servant and communicator, and the law was a wonderful blessing and foreshadow. But let's not get confused here. How much greater is Christ!"

By his position

• Abraham's servant was a faithful steward - but Abraham deserves the greater glory
• Joseph was a faithful administrator - but Pharoah was the king and boss
• Attempt at illustration: Undercover Boss TV show. The point: How much greater is the CEO/owner than the manager?

Also - greater message and mediating work

Hebrews 8:6
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

4. Conclusion

• Continuity in the house of God - there's not 2 houses. There may be a different covenant and a different priest, but there are not 2 different households of God. There is only 1.
  • A greater priest, a greater apostle, a greater message, a greater work - but the same household. In Hebrews there is a clear distinction between the Old and New covenants, and yet a beautiful continuity.
• Participation in the household of God is connected to (and even conditional on) continuing in the faith - "holding fast".
  • Simply put, there is no other means of salvation. Heb 2:3 - "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"
• More key themes in Hebrews - "hold fast", "hope"

Questions/Application

• Do you know that you need a mediator? (Holiness of God)
  • Not a common understanding in our culture. We default to thinking that we have a right to approach God just because we are human.
  • Without God - the source of all life - we perish, but with God - and his blazing holiness - we perish as well.
• Do you delight in your mediator, Christ?
• Are you holding fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope?