Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How the Old Testament Points to Jesus | New Testament | Hebrews 3

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

Key parts of the Old Testament share glimpses of Jesus's life and ministry. So how do you make sense of them? How does the Old Testament foreshadow the New Testament? In today's episode, Jensen uses Hebrews 3 to explain the connection of Moses and Jesus. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Hebrews 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt-McNair. If you've been following along with 10-minute Bible talks this year, then you'll know that we are spending all of 2023 in the New Testament. Right now, we're in the third chapter of the book of Hebrews. And the thing about this book is that in order to really understand the meaning and depth of what the author is saying to his original audience, we also need to have a good understanding of the Old Testament. You see, Hebrews was most likely written to a Jewish Christian audience, meaning those who had grown up in the Jewish culture, but had come to believe in Jesus. And because of that, they'd grown up learning and being inundated with their Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament, specifically the Torah. Now, if you've been with us for a while, then you'll know we tackled the Torah last year. But we all need a refresher now and then, and Hebrews is going to do a great job of reminding us of key parts of the Torah last year. but we all need a refresher now and then, and Hebrews is going to do a great job of reminding us of

key parts of the Old Testament and how they point forward to the person and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Particularly in chapter 3, in order to really understand the depth of what is being said in the first six verses that we're focusing on today, we need to have a good understanding of who Moses was. To the people of Israel, Moses was one of their fathers. He was respected. He was one of God's most faithful servants. Moses was the man who God used to rescue his people out of oppression, out of slavery. Moses was seen as the savior of God's people throughout the Old Testament. He was the one that God used to deliver his people out of bondage and make a way for them through the wilderness into the promised land. He was a servant to the people of God,

giving his life over to God's great rescue plan for the nation of Israel. And maybe you can already hear it, but throughout the Bible, Moses' faithfulness and his work in the nation of Israel foreshadows, the one who will come to ultimately rescue, not just Israel, but all of creation from its bondage and deliver them into the kingdom of God. From our historical vantage point, we know that coming rescuer to be Jesus Christ. Our scriptures focus on him and his work. Our Bible classes in Sunday schools and sermons all focus on the person and work of Christ, for good reason. But if we put ourselves back into the mindset of the book of Hebrews' original audience, then we will remember that Jesus has only recently entered the scene, recently died and rose from

the dead. His church is young, and they're only beginning to learn the depths of who Jesus was. These first six verses of Hebrews 3 paint a picture of who this Jesus really was in relation to their forefather and rescuer Moses. Diving into the first verses of Hebrews 3, we see that it starts with therefore. The author is drawing our attention to the last verse of chapter 2, where he lays out the foundational truth that Jesus is the great high priest for his people, the one who made the ultimate and perfect sacrifice for all people to, cleanse them once and for all of their sin-stained guilt before God. And so with that in mind, we continue.

Therefore, because of who Jesus is, our high priest. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. Notice that the author is speaking to holy brothers. This term just refers to faithful Christians, members of the church, who share in a heavenly calling, meaning not a call to go to heaven one day, but the call to follow God's perfect order, to share in our future life with God and His kingdom. Those people are to consider Jesus, who is faithful to God the Father, who sent him to

earth to be our high priest and take on our sins through his death on the cross and to overcome death once and for all of creation in his resurrection. Consider him, consider this man who was faithful to his calling just as Moses was faithful. The author is tying these two together here, saying just as you've learned and heard of the great faithfulness of Moses, the saving sacrifice of Moses, the servanthood of Moses, Jesus was also faithful to God. He specifically points out here that Moses was faithful in all God's house. He was faithful to follow God's call and work in the house of God throughout the Israelites' journey through the wilderness. And Jesus too was faithful. Knowing this, we continue on. Verse 3. For Jesus had been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more

more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Here, the author now begins to show how Moses and Jesus differ. You see, they were both faithful. Moses's work foreshadowed that of Jesus' but Jesus is worthy of even more glory than Moses. This is a big statement. To say that a man who walked and talked on earth, Even a rabbi, a teacher, was greater than Moses. Someone in the Torah, the one who wrote much of the Torah, the one who spoke directly to God, who performed miracles, who parted the Red Sea and delivered God's people. But the author says that Jesus is greater, because Jesus was not merely a man. You see, Moses worked in God's house. He followed God's plan. He was a servant of God. But Jesus is God. We see Moses was a part of the house being built, but it was God who was building it all along. God is the builder of all things and the orchestrator of the story of the universe.

So God put together the great saving of Israel in the Old Testament through Moses. And Jesus is God. He is the one who called Moses to deliver his people, who came down to live among his people, and be the holy sacrifice and great high priest that they always needed. Jesus is greater than even Moses. He is the builder of the house. Verse 5. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be

spoken later. So Moses was a servant in God's house, meant to point his people forward to the one who would come to rescue all of creation, not just God's people. He was a faithful servant in God's house. Verse six. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. So Christ, Christ, the Messiah, the true king, he is faithful over God's house. He was not a servant in God's house like Moses. He is over God's house. He is over God's house. the builder, the servant king of all creation. And this is where the author goes from revealing to us

the truth about Jesus to teaching his audience what that means for them today. The last half of verse 6, we learned that we, the holy brothers who share in a heavenly calling, are his house. This may sound weird, but throughout scripture we see the church, the people of God being referred to as God's house, his holy temple, his dwelling place. 1. Peter 2.5 tells us that you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2. Corinthians 616 tells us, for we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

people. Second Corinthians references the Old Testament passages where God promises to dwell with the Israelites and be their God. And in these New Testament passages, we learn that that has become true through the work of Christ. Because of His atoning death and resurrection, we, the people of the living God, have become his temple, the place where he dwells. We are a spiritual house that God is working through and living in. God came down to dwell among us through the life of Jesus, and although he ascended, he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell here in the lives of His holy people. We are the House of God, the place where His spirit dwells here on earth, and Jesus promises that when he returns to bring His heavenly perfect realm to be joined with earth,

that God will bodily dwell with His people once again in a restored creation. Jesus will reign as the servant king over all of creation, and we, his church, his people, will live with him. But the last half of verse six is also a sort of warning for us. It says that we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope. And so we must hold fast to that hope. We must have confidence in the absolute reality that is the people of God. Christ has secured for us a place in his kingdom. that in the final days when heaven and earth are joined and Jesus defeats the curse of death,

you and I will be raised to life again to live alongside Jesus in His kingdom for all of eternity. That is the hope we hold fast to you every single day. Jesus is greater than even Moses. He was the faithful servant who gave his life so that you and I in all of creation would have a hope to be set free from the chains of brokenness, the chains of sin, the chains of depression and anxiety and pain and death. From the very beginning, God has been making a way to dwell among his people once again, just as he did in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Now he began that work in Moses, building a tabernacle, establishing a nation, setting them free,

and giving them a land to dwell and flourish in. But that was only a foretaste of the final and complete work of Christ. God has always intended to dwell among his people, and through the work of Jesus, he has done it. Today, you and I are tasked with a call to be the house where God dwells here on earth. Through our lives, our work, our care for the people around us, we are making the kingdom of God a reality here on earth today. One day we know that Jesus will complete that work by joining heaven and earth and dwelling among his people forevermore. But until then, we faithfully partner with Him, giving our lives as servants to the house and work of God. May our choices, our hearts, our lives, be guided by the confident hope

and assurance we have that one day we will dwell with God here on a restored earth because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.