Hebrews 3

Common English Bible

We are Jesus’ house

3 Therefore, brothers and sisters who are partners in the heavenly calling, think about Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. ²Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed him just like Moses was faithful in God’s house. ³But he deserves greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of the house deserves more honor than the house itself. ⁴Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ⁵Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant in order to affirm the things that would be spoken later. ⁶But Jesus was faithful over God’s house as a Son. We are his house if we hold on to the confidence and the pride that our hope gives us.

Respond to Jesus’ voice now

⁷So, as the Holy Spirit says,

Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸    don’t have stubborn hearts
        as they did in the rebellion,
        on the day when they tested me in the desert.
⁹That is where your ancestors challenged and tested me,
        though they had seen my work for forty years.
¹⁰So I was angry with them.
I said, “Their hearts always go off course,
        and they don’t know my ways.”
¹¹Because of my anger I swore:
        “They will never enter my rest!”^[a]

¹²Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. ¹³Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called “today,” so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception. ¹⁴We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end.

¹⁵When it says,

Today, if you hear his voice, don’t have stubborn hearts
as they did in the rebellion.^[b]

¹⁶Who was it who rebelled when they heard his voice? Wasn’t it all of those who were brought out of Egypt by Moses? ¹⁷And with whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? ¹⁸And against whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest, if not against the ones who were disobedient? ¹⁹We see that they couldn’t enter because of their lack of faith.

Footnotes

Hebrews 3

The Message

The Centerpiece of All We Believe

3 ^1-6So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.

^6-11Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! That’s why the Holy Spirit says,

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,”
    that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years,
    your ancestors refused to let me do it my way;
    over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked!
    I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God;
    they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

^12-14So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as God’s still calling it Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;
don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

^15-19For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

Common English Bible (CEB)

The Message (MSG)