Hebrews 3:5–6

The house in which Moses was faithful was not his own house or family, but was the House of God, as we can see from Numbers 12... "If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision... Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house." ... Moses was the one who, guided by the Holy Spirit, regulated all the details of the tabernacle, and he did not forget a single one of them. This is a very important and searching principle. At the end of Exodus God tells Moses to do everything exactly as He commanded. There is no room for human invention in the things of God.

According to Mr. W. E. Vine the word for servant here (therapon) "is a term of dignity and freedom." Yet the very next verse contrasts the Sonship of Christ with this. "But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we…"

Moses never rose above a servant, and no creature ever does — not Gabriel in heaven, nor even Michael the archangel. Jesus is the Son, the eternal Word, the Only-Begotten. He is — not merely was, but is — in the bosom of the Father from everlasting to everlasting. So in His case it was not just a testimony of things to be spoken later. His glory was and is His own, personal and intrinsic.

Moses was faithful as a servant, and a witness. His ministry pointed to something still to come... He made the tabernacle and set up the priesthood of Levi with its rituals. In the way he served, he was a prophetic witness of good things to come. But what he testified to, both through symbolic ceremony and in prophetic words, could not be declared openly. He was a preacher of law, but a prophet of grace. The things his ministry witnessed to "were to be spoken after."

The first order of things is here called a house. It was a servant to serve a coming Christ — Moses and the house are one and the same. All the activities of that order were worth nothing if they did not bear testimony to a coming Christ: therefore it was a servant.

This was a great public failure, and it kept Moses out of Canaan. But is it not wonderful that centuries later the Spirit's testimony about the man is "faithful in all His house"? Such is the reckoning of grace.

The tabernacle was a picture of what God would reveal later (and has now revealed). So the servant Moses bore testimony to the truth of God even in what was only a picture of the church. And if so, does our God expect any less faithfulness to His Word in the church itself? How careful every servant of the Lord should be to follow the whole Word of our God faithfully!

This verse is better rendered: "But Christ as a Son over His house." Read as the older Authorized Version has it, it would mean Christ's own house. But it is God's house. The comparison drawn makes this clear... Christ is more glorious in His person than Moses was. He built the house, and, having "built all things," He is God. Moses too was faithful in all His house, but only as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. Christ is a Son over His house. The glory of Christ outshines that of Moses in His person and in His position. As Son, He is supreme over the house of God.

Moses never rose above a servant. No creature ever does — not the angel Gabriel in heaven, nor Michael the archangel. Jesus is the Son, the eternal Word, the Only-Begotten. He is — not merely was, but is — at the Father's side, from everlasting to everlasting. In His case it was not merely a testimony of what would be spoken later. His glory was and is His own, belonging to His person.

Earlier in the letter we read of Him as both Priest and Son, and then it adds, "we are his house." We are God's house, God's priestly family. Over us is this Great Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have full access to God.

The worshippers need a great Priest — one who is over the house, even over them. This must not be forgotten. We are not priests in our own right, nor do we have the freedom of the house in our own right — everything hangs on the great Priest.

Is it not a strange conclusion to draw from verse 6 — that the Christian is in danger from confidence in his soul, and from the boast that the glory before us inspires?... It is plain and sure that the Holy Spirit here takes two things for granted. First, that the Christian has the confidence to which Christ and His redemption entitle every simple-hearted believer. Second, that the glory of God we hope for is a happy and settled boast... The real danger against which the Hebrew confessors are warned is giving up that confidence and boast. They are urged to hold it fast.

The believers the inspired writer was addressing were this house, if at least they held fast their confession of His name to the end. The danger for these Hebrew converts was losing their confidence. Nothing stood before their eyes as the fulfilment of the promises.

With profession there is always the possibility of unreality, and so the "ifs" come in... This is not a warning against being too confident in Christ, or in the eternal security that belongs to the believer. As has been truly said, "There is no 'if' either as to Christ's work or as to the glad tidings of God's grace. All there is, is unconditional grace to faith." The warning assumes that those addressed have this assurance. It warns them against giving it up. The true believer will hold fast — or rather, God will hold him fast to the end through the priestly grace of Christ, in spite of many a failure. That is certain... The wilderness that tests the true believer exposes the unreality of those who merely profess.

There are "ifs" in Scripture, but not where our salvation is concerned. Our salvation is perfect, and we have it... The "ifs" bring out my constant dependence on the Lord, who never takes His eyes off the righteous.