To Encourage You

Hebrews 3:3 “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.”

Do you realize that to the non-Messianic Jew, Moses is perhaps the greatest man that ever lived?  It was Moses that wrote the sacred Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. It was Moses who was miraculously saved from death as a child as he was placed in an ark among the bulrushes by his mother, and then providentially found by Pharaoh’s daughter.  It was Moses who rose to a royal position in Egypt, fled from Pharaoh after avenging one of his fellow Israelite’s deaths, and then returned to Egypt to set the Jews free after 400 years in slavery.  It was Moses and his rod through which God performed one miracle after another both in Egypt and in 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. It was Moses to whom God gave the 10 commandments, all the regulations of the Old Testament, the design for the tabernacle, and God’s prescriptions for the priesthood and all the sacrificial offerings and ceremonies meant to deal with the guilt of Israel’s sins.  Yes, Moses was indeed a very great man. 

We are told that Moses was “very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3), which was a demonstration of his godly character.  It was when his own sister and brother questioned his leadership (perhaps because of this meekness), that God became very angry and said to them, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses” (Numbers 12:6-9).

No wonder that the Jews hold Moses in such high esteem. No wonder they view him as the greatest man that ever lived. The only problem is that he was not the greatest man that ever lived, for the passage above from the book of Hebrews tells us so.  And what man has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, the One whose very face shone with the glory of God (Exodus 34:29)?  Well, that greater and more glorious man is none other than Jesus. In fact, like John the Baptist once said of Jesus, Moses was not worthy to untie the sandals on Jesus’ feet (John 1:27), for no one is, not even the great Moses! 

You see, Jesus is greater than Moses, just like the book of Hebrews tells us earlier that Jesus is much greater than all the prophets, and Jesus is much greater than the angels.  You see, it is Jesus and Jesus alone that all the prophets, all the angels, and Moses himself, worship.  While Moses was great because he gave us God’s Law, it was only Jesus that actually fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17). While Moses was a great servant over the house of God, Jesus was the builder of that house, and He alone is the Son over that house (Hebrews 3:3-6).  And while Moses gave us the Law which was God’s instrument to reveal our sin, neither Moses, nor the Law could provide forgiveness for that sin. You see, the sacrifices of Moses were nothing more than an annual reminder of sin.  Later in Hebrews we are told that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you (i.e., God) have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.’ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (Hebrews 10:4-10).  Yet, in spite of this, the Jews collaborated with the Romans to put Jesus to death, and most reject Him today.  As they continue to place their hope in Moses, they don’t understand Jesus’ teaching that “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). 

What about you? Do you know this One Who is greater than Moses? Do you know the one and only Savior of the world?  You can, if you will but come to Him, despite your past rejection, ignorance, and sin, this greatest man that ever lived, this God-Man Jesus Christ, has promised that “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 3:37).  Have you ever heard a greater promise from a greater man than that?!