Christ and Moses In his comparison between Christ and the prophets of the Old Testament and the angels, the Apostle clarified the great attributes of Christ, without demeaning the prophets nor the angels. Here, he compares between Christ and Moses the Prophet, being the first leader of the Israelites, who led them from captivity, crossed to the wilderness, and stood on the Mountain of Moab. He delivered them to Joshua, their leader, to enter the promised land. The Apostle did not demean the great prophet Moses, but confirmed his faithfulness in work and projected the Lord Jesus, the true Leader, capable of delivering us from bitter captivity to the freedom of the children of God. He discussed two points: 1. The Lord Christ and Moses 1-6. 2. The hardness of the heart 7-19. 1. THE LORD CHRISTAND MOSES "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house" [1, 2] St. Paul called the Hebrews "holy brethren." In his previous talk when comparing the Lord Christ with His angels, he mentioned the humility of the Incarnate Logos, who became the Firstborn Brother. The Apostle sees that the believers are "holy brethren," being members in His Holy Body and partakers of the Divine calling. In the Heavenly Christ, the believers enjoy His holy heavenly life, so they may live in Him up to a holy heavenly standard. As Origen says, [If you believe that He sat on the right hand of the Father in heaven, then it is appropriate that He is preparing a place for you not on earth but in heaven1.] When the Apostle was comparing between Christ and Moses the prophet, he told them to look at the Lord Jesus from two aspects: A. The Apostle of our confession Through the incarnation, the Son was declared as an Apostle, the Father sent Him to declare the divine love practically on the cross, and grant us the capability of the resurrection by His resurrection, and the entry to heaven by His sitting at the right hand of the Father. The Lord Jesus differs from the prophets and the angels from that aspect, for He, being sent, does not mean that He left a place to go to another, but it means His apparition in the flesh and His dwelling among us, and that His divinity remains not separate from His Father, and He fills the heaven and the earth. The purpose of His message is to declare our faith or our confession of the Truth. He presented Himself as the divine unchangeable Truth. We accept Him, thus, we know the mysteries of the Father, too. As He says, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him... He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:7,9). Therefore, His mission is unique. Through it he holds us within Him, so we may enter the bosom of His Father, thus we may know Him, unite with Him and have fellow- 1 Comm. On John, Fragm. 144. Chapter 1 2 ship with Him. We see in the Father the unseen, and enjoy what the physical senses cannot express! B. High Priest: The Hebrews, upon accepting the faith in Christ, were deprived of the Levitical priesthood and of enjoying the works of the high priest, the descendant of Aaron. However, they enjoyed a much better High Priest, on a divine level. He works in heaven forever, without ceasing, this matter which the Apostle discusses when he talks about the Lord Jesus as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and his intercession on our behalf in the heavenly holies. We mentioned earlier that the Jews saw the bitter conflict between the true prophets and the hypocrite priests who were not true worshipers. But the Lord Jesus surpassed all. In Him, the prophecy is not a partial knowledge, but it is the "truth and the perfect knowledge." In the mean time, He is the High Priest, not on the level of offering bloody sacrifices, but through the divine love. He offers His life a ransom for His people, where the prophecy is united with the priesthood in a unique way which surpasses Moses, the great prophet and Aaron the high priest whom God appointed. This is an introduction of the comparison between the Lord Jesus and Moses the Prophet, which is summarized in the following points: First: The Apostle praises Moses the prophet being faithful in all his house [2]. He did not start by revealing how the Lord Jesus surpasses Moses, because the Jews were so attached to Moses. [He was afraid lest the hearer may flee, and block his ears, for in spite of them being believers, yet they carried special deep emotions towards Moses2.] When he said “In all his house,” he meant in the midst of all his people, for Moses was faithful in caring for the people as their guardian and care taker. St. Paul raised the status of Moses, for he declared that he is faithful in all his house, and that the Lord Jesus whom the Father raised is faithful too. The Arians tried to concentrate on this phrase to stumble the believers in the Person of Jesus Christ, especially when he said, "He appointed Him,” declaring that this phrase makes the Lord Jesus less, as being created, and that the Creator appointed Him to be on his house, or the Church. St. Athanasius of Alexandria explained this phrase by emphasizing that the Lord Jesus is the Eternal Word of God, and He raised for Himself a house in the womb of Virgin Mary, where He became one with our humanity. This is what the wise Solomon talk about, saying: "Wisdom has build her house..." (Prov. 9:1) The Word of God is the Wisdom who built His house, it is our human nature with whom He united3." St. Ambrose comments on this apostolic phrase by saying, [Here we see that the Apostle said, Jesus was appointed, He took a flesh from the seed of Abraham, obviously emphasizing the point of start of the body, for how could he make propitiation for the sins of the people except in His flesh? Because He suffered according to the flesh, as it was said . Moreover He is the High Priest, who shared His priesthood with His priestly people4.] Second: Moses is faithful in his pastoral work. However, there is a vast difference between his faithfulness and the faithfulness of the Lord Christ. As He says, "For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the 2 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:4. 3 Against Arians, 3:6. 4 On Christian Faith, 3:86. Chapter 1 3 house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God" [3,4]. What a great difference between the Lord Jesus our Creator, the Builder of the house, who is capable of renewing our nature, and between Moses, for truly he is faithful, yet he himself is the house which the Lord Jesus builds! Third: Moses was faithful as a minister to witness for God's love and care, and to declare His Law and statutes. Therefore, he used to take off his shoes when entering the holies, (Exod. 3:5) as a faithful minister who wants to be holy to meet the Holy One. However, the Lord Jesus is the Son, the Heir of everything. St. Paul says, "And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward" [5]. St. John Chrysostom comments by saying, [Moses cared for others' possessions, but the Lord Jesus cares for His private possessions5.] This means, He cares for us, His house, His holy temple and the subject of His kingdom. Fourth: The practical result of this comparison is, "Whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end" [6]. We have to remain as the house of God which Moses previously served, as a faithful prophet, and where the Son dwells as the Owner of the house, and who sanctifies us by the Holy Spirit. And we be as an eternal dwelling for Him which does not perish, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. We conclude this comparison by the words of St. John Chrysostom, [We see him talking not about the temple, but about the whole people. Do you realize how the Apostle differentiate between the thing created (house of God) and the Creator, between the servant and the Son? Moreover, He takes the possessions of His Father as a Master, while the other deals as a servant6.] 2. THE HARDNESS OF THE HEART The Apostle moves from his talk about the Lord Christ comparing him with His prophet Moses, to the people themselves. If the Hebrews glory in their great leader, yet the people coming out of Egypt did not enter the promised rest, not due to the weakness of the leader, but due to the rebellion of the people in the wilderness. Moses was faithful, but because of the disobedience of the people and their unbelief, they lost what God has promised them through Moses. Therefore, it was appropriate for them not to glory in Moses, but to look at themselves lest they be deprived of the true rest and enjoyment of the divine promises like their fathers, because of the hardness of their hearts and unbelief. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years”[7-9]. Here, the Apostle quotes the last part of psalm 95. First he compared between the faithfulness of the Lord Christ, being the Son and the Creator of the house of God, and between the faithfulness of Moses the Prophet, being the faithful servant and who is an important part of the house itself. Then, he revealed to them how their fathers were deprived of the divine promises, for they perished in the wilderness, and did not enter the promised land, in spite of the faithfulness of Moses their leader. This generation perished not because of lack of the divine care, nor because of the unfaithfulness of their leader 5 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:5. 6 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:4. Chapter 1 4 and faithful servant Moses, but because of the hardness of their hearts, and their unbelief. God cared for them for forty years. Number ‘40’ refers to our temporary life on earth, for God's kind hand cares for us unceasingly all the days of our life, desiring to enter us to His rest. However, our unbelief deprives us of this care, or as St. John Chrysostom says, [Unbelief is based on hardness of the heart. As there are dry hard organs in the body which do not submit to the hands of the physician, so there are hard souls which do not submit to the Word of God7.] As long as the heart is hard it does not accept the work of the divine Word in it, but one leads the life of unbelief depriving himself of God's wonderful care! The Apostle gave us a practical example of the Israelites leaving Egypt, who lost their enjoyment of God's promises due to their unbelief, because of the hardness of their hearts. They lived in a state of unceasing grumble and complaint. Before crossing the Red Sea, they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?!" (Exod. 14:11). After crossing the Red Sea and singing to the Lord, they soon started complaining about the bitter water (Exod. 15:11). At Elim, they complained for the third time saying, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full!” (Exod. 16:3). When God sent them Manna to eat, they still did not obey, for they kept some till the following day (Exod. 16:19). On the Sabbath, they went to gather Manna but found none (Exod. 16:27). When Moses was late in descending from the mountain, they insisted that Aaron makes them a golden calf to go before them instead of God (Exod. 32). In unbelief, they craved for cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic, for they said, "We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the leeks, the onions and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Num. 11:5,6) When God sent spies to spy out the land of Canaan, the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron saying, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" (Num. 14: 2,3) Thus, their lives became continuos murmuring, and this became their nature, to grumble all the time. Therefore, the Lord rejected this generation and none entered the promised land except Joshua and Caleb. This communal experience should always be in our minds, so we may not lose God's promises, because of the hardness of our hearts. Here he concentrates on the heart which is the source, for it may be a holy temple for the Lord through which the whole body is sanctified, or it may be a source of evil, when it is hard, and rejecting the work of God's grace therein. The cure is repentance which, in essence, is returning of the heart to God as the secret of each one’s life, salvation and sanctification. The word of God draws the heart to repent, thus the Apostle says, "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts..." He is emphasizing the word "Today," because our life yesterday does not intercede for us if we today live in hardness of heart. Also, the future is not in our hands as long as we do not hear His voice today. However, if we today live in repentance, listening to His voice, we benefit from the past with its blessings and weaknesses, and we are full of hope regarding the future. Time 7 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:3. Chapter 1 5 becomes useful to us as long as our lives submit to the Lord. Therefore, the Apostle continues saying, "But exhort one another daily, while it is called 'Today,' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" [13]. St. John Chrysostom comments by saying, [Let each one teaches the other. Watch lest what happened to them happens to you, so no one is ‘hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.’ See how sin begets unbelief. As unbelief begets an evil life, thus when the soul enters into the depth of sin it becomes contempt. "When the wicked comes, contempt comes also; and with dishonor comes reproach" (Prov. 18:3). When one becomes contempt, he does not even accept faith to be freed of fear8.] Sin deceives the soul and drives it to unbelief, and unbelief drives it to sin. Thus one is in a daze of unbelief and falling in evil. The Apostle continues, "For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end" [14]. St. Paul moves from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Since the people of the Old Testament fell in the hardness of their hearts, the Lord Jesus offered us His fellowship as a new capability, so we may not fall as the fathers did. He offered us Himself as the Head of the body and we became members of His body, of His flesh and of his bones (Eph. 5:30), if we hold the beginning of our confidence, that is, if we hold the foundation of our faith in Him as our Creator and the one who Renews our nature. He emphasizes our positive role in enjoying the rest promised to us by obedience. He says, “while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who having heard, rebelled?! Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?! Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness?! And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?! So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" [15-19]. St. John Chrysostom comments on that, [They also listened as we listen, but they did not benefit from listening. Do not think that benefiting is from listening, for they listened but did not benefit because they did not believe9.] 8 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:3. 9 St. John Chrysostom: In Hebr., hom. 5:4.
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