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. ² Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed him just like Moses was faithful in God’s house. ³ But he deserves greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of the house deserves more honor than the house itself. ⁴ Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ⁵ Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant in order to affirm the things that would be spoken later. ⁶ But 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

⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says,

¹² Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. ¹³ Instead, 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. ¹⁴ We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end.

¹⁵ When it says,

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

Enter the rest

4 Therefore, since the promise that we can enter into rest is still open, let’s be careful so that none of you will appear to miss it. ² We also had the good news preached to us, just as the Israelites did. However, the message they heard didn’t help them because they weren’t united in faith with the ones who listened to it. ³ We who have faith are entering the rest. As God said,

And yet God’s works were completed at the foundation of the world. ⁴ Then somewhere he said this about the seventh day of creation: God rested on the seventh day from all his works.^{[d] 5} But again, in the passage above, God said, They will never enter my rest!^{[e] 6} Therefore, it’s left open for some to enter it, and the ones who had the good news preached to them before didn’t enter because of disobedience. ⁷ Just as it says in the passage above, God designates a certain day as “today,” when he says through David much later,

⁸ If Joshua gave the Israelites rest, God wouldn’t have spoken about another day later on. ⁹ So you see that a sabbath rest is left open for God’s people. ¹⁰ The one who entered God’s rest also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own.

First summary of the message

¹¹ Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience, ¹² because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. ¹³ No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer.

¹⁴ Also, let’s hold on to the confession since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son; ¹⁵ because we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.

¹⁶ Finally, let’s draw near to the throne of favor with confidence so that we can receive mercy and find grace when we need help.

The Israelites’ complaint

14 The entire community raised their voice and the people wept that night. ² All the Israelites criticized Moses and Aaron. The entire community said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt or if only we had died in this desert! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken by force. Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to each other, “Let’s pick a leader and let’s go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembled Israelite community. ⁶ But Joshua, Nun’s son, and Caleb, Jephunneh’s son, from those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to the entire Israelite community, “The land we crossed through to explore is an exceptionally good land. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he’ll bring us into this land and give it to us. It’s a land that’s full of milk and honey. ⁹ Only don’t rebel against the Lord and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are our prey.^[a] Their defense has deserted them, but the Lord is with us. So don’t be afraid of them.” ¹⁰ But the entire community intended to stone them.

The Lord’s anger and Moses’ intercession

Then the Lord’s glory appeared in the meeting tent to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people disrespect me? And how long will they doubt me after all the signs that I performed among them? ¹² I’ll strike them down with a plague and disown them. Then I’ll make you into a great nation, stronger than they.”

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear, for with your power you brought these people up from among them. ¹⁴ They’ll tell the inhabitants of this land. They’ve heard that you, Lord, are with this people. You, Lord, appear to them face-to-face. Your cloud stands over them. You go before them in a column of cloud by day and in a column of lightning by night. ¹⁵ If you kill these people, every last one of them, the nations who heard about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord wasn’t able to bring these people to the land that he solemnly promised to give them. So he slaughtered them in the desert.’ ¹⁷ Now let my master’s power be as great as you declared when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is very patient and absolutely loyal, forgiving wrongs and disloyalty. Yet he doesn’t forgo all punishment, disciplining the grandchildren and great-grandchildren for their ancestors’ wrongs.’ ¹⁹ Please forgive the wrongs of these people because of your absolute loyalty, just as you’ve forgiven these people from their time in Egypt until now.”

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “I will forgive as you requested. ²¹ But as I live and as the Lord’s glory fills the entire earth, ²² none of the men who saw my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the desert, but tested me these ten times and haven’t listened to my voice, ²³ will see the land I promised to their ancestors. All who disrespected me won’t see it. ²⁴ But I’ll bring my servant Caleb into the land that he explored, and his descendants will possess it because he has a different spirit, and he has remained true to me. ²⁵ Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley, tomorrow turn and march into the desert by the route of the Reed Sea.”^[b]

The Israelites’ punishment

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ How long will this wicked community complain against me? I’ve heard the Israelites’ dissent as they continue to complain against me. ²⁸ Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “just as I’ve heard you say, so I’ll do to you. ²⁹ Your dead bodies will fall in this desert. None of you who were enlisted and were registered from 20 years old and above, who complained against me, ³⁰ will enter the land in which I promised^[c] to settle you, with the exception of Caleb, Jephunneh’s son, and Joshua, Nun’s son. ³¹ But your children, whom you said would be taken by force, I’ll bring them in and they will know the land that you rejected. ³² Your bodies, however, will fall in this desert, ³³ and your children will be shepherds in the desert for forty years. They will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies fall in the desert. ³⁴ For as many days as you explored the land, that is, forty days, just as many years you’ll bear your guilt, that is, forty years. This is how you will understand my frustration.” ³⁵ I the Lord have spoken. I will do this to the entire wicked community who gathered against me. They will die in this desert. There they’ll meet their end.

³⁶ The men whom Moses sent out to explore the land had returned and caused the entire community to complain against him by starting a rumor about the land. ³⁷ These men died by a plague in the Lord’s presence on account of their false rumor. ³⁸ But Joshua, Nun’s son, and Caleb, Jephunneh’s son, survived from those men who went to explore the land.

³⁹ Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned bitterly. ⁴⁰ They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain range, saying, “Let’s go up to the place the Lord told us to, for we have sinned.”

⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why do you disobey the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed. ⁴² Don’t go up, for the Lord isn’t with you. Don’t be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³ The Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you and you will fall by the sword because you turned away from the Lord, and the Lord is no longer with you.” ⁴⁴ Yet they recklessly^[d] ascended toward the top of the mountains, even though Moses and the Lord’s chest containing the covenant didn’t depart from the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites, who lived in those mountains, descended, struck them down, and beat them all the way to Hormah.