God's New Bible

The Epistle to the Hebrews

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 3 -

1
My fellow believers, God has set you apart and has chosen you to belong to himself. So consider Jesus. He is God’s apostle to us and is also the high priest whom we say we believe in together.
2
He faithfully served God, who appointed him, just like Moses faithfully served all of God’s people, whom we call God’s house.
3
Now just as every house is made by someone, God made everything.
4
So God has considered that Jesus is worthy for people to honor him more than they honor Moses, just as the one who builds a house deserves for people to honor him more than they should honor the house.
5
Moses very faithfully served God as he helped all of God’s people, just as a servant faithfully serves his master. So Moses testified about what Jesus would say later.
6
But Messiah is the Son who rules over God’s people, and we are the people he rules if we continue to courageously believe in Messiah and confidently expect God to do all that he has promised to do for us.

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

(Psalm 95:1–11)
7
The Holy Spirit caused the psalmist to write these words in the scriptures to the Israelites: “Now, when you hear God speak to you,
8
do not refuse to obey him, and do not let your desires be more important that what God says, for if you do, you would be just like your ancestors long ago, when they turned away from God and did not obey him.
9
Your ancestors repeatedly tested me, to see whether I would be patient with them, even though for forty years they saw all the amazing things I did.
10
So I became angry with those people, and I said about them, ‘They are never faithful to me, and they do not understand how I wanted them to conduct their lives.’
11
I was angry with them and solemnly declared, ‘They will not enter the land of Canaan where I would let them rest!’”

The Peril of Unbelief

12
So, fellow believers, be careful that none of you stops trusting in Messiah because of evil in your heart, which would cause you to reject the only God who actually lives.
13
Instead, each of you must encourage each other every day, while you still have the opportunity. If you are stubborn, others will deceive you and lead you to sin.
14
We are now joined to Messiah if we continue to seriously and confidently trust in him, from the time we first trusted in him to the time when we die.
15
The psalmist wrote in the scripture that God said, “Now, when you hear me speaking to you, do not stubbornly disobey me as your ancestors did when they rebelled against me.”
16
Remember who it was who rebelled against God, even though they heard him speak to them. It was all of God’s people who Moses led out of Egypt.
17
And remember who it was with whom God was disgusted for forty years. It was God’s people who sinned, and their dead bodies lay there in the desert.
18
And remember about whom God solemnly declared, “They will not enter the land where I would let them rest.” It was those Israelites who disobeyed God.
19
So, from that example we know that it was because they did not keep trusting in God that they were unable to enter the land where God would allow them to rest.
1
Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus,
2
who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses was in all his house.
3
For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house.
4
For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.
5
Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,
6
but Christ (a) is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

(Psalm 95:1–11)
7
Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says,Today if you will hear his voice,
8
don’t harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of the trial in the wilderness,
9
where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years.
10
Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’
11
As I swore in my wrath,They will not enter into my rest.’”(b)

The Peril of Unbelief

12
Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
13
but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is calledtoday”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,
15
while it is said,Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”(c)
16
For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
17
With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18
To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19
We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

Footnotes

(a)3:6 “Christ” means “Anointed One”.
(b)3:11 ℘ Psalms 95:7-11
(c)3:15 ℘ Psalms 95:7-8