Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
3 1 Therefore, holy brothers who share in a heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all our Father's house. 3 For Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves more honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is our Father. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all our Father's house as a servant, to bear witness to the things that would be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful as a son over his house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, a a v7 The book of Hebrews treats Scripture as the Holy Spirit's living voice — the same Spirit who spoke through the prophets now speaks to us today, calling us into our Father's rest. 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways. 11 So I swore in my anger, 'They will never enter my rest. b b v11 'Rest': the secure peace of being fully accepted.
12 Watch out, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living Father. c c v12 "The living God" is one of Hebrews' favorite names for our Father. Falling away isn't drifting from a doctrine — it's turning your back on a living, relational Father who is calling you home. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the very end. 15 As it is said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."
16 For who were they who heard and rebelled? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest, but to those who refused to obey? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.