The Superiority of Messiah to Moses
3: 1-6
After having shown that Messiah is better than the angels, the first pillar of Judaism of his day (1:4 to 2:18), the writer now demonstrates that Jesus Christ is better than Moshe, the second pillar of Judaism of his day (3:1-6). The background to this section is Numbers 12:5-8. The brother and sister of Moses challenged his authority and the LORD intervened, and pointed out Moshe’s faithfulness and his uniqueness as a prophet with whom He had spoken face-to-face. Next, to Abraham, Moshe was undoubtedly the man most revered by the Jewish people. To go back to the Levitical system meant to go back to Moses, and the recipients of this letter were very tempted to do just that. It was vitally important that the writer convince his readers that Yeshua Messiah is greater than Moses.74
Moses was extremely esteemed by the Jewish people. YHVH had miraculously protected him as a baby and personally provided for his burial (see the commentary on Jude, to see link click Ao – Michael Disputed with the Devil about the Body of Moses). Between those to points in his life we see miracle after miracle after miracle. He was the man to whom ADONAI spoke face-to-face. He had seen the Sh’khinah glory of God, and, in fact, even had the Shechinah reflected in his own face for a brief while. After he came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because He had spoken with the LORD (Exodus 34:29). He was the one who led Isra’el out of Egypt. As Rabbi Sha’ul stresses in Romans 2, the Israelites had great confidence in the Torah. The Israelites lived their lives by the 365 commandments and 248 prohibitions of the Torah, and to them Moses and the Torah were synonymous. The B’rit Chadashah often refers to the commandments and prohibitions of YHVH as the Torah of Moshe (Luke 2:22, 24:44; John 7:23; Acts 13:39, 15:5, 28:23; 1 Cor 9:9; Hebrews 10:28 CJB). Moses not only brought the Ten Commandments (see the commentary on Exodus Dh – Moses and the Torah), but he also wrote the five books of Moshe (B’resheet or Genesis; Sh’mot or Exodus; Vayikra or Leviticus; B’midbar or Numbers; and D’varim or Deuteronomy).
God spoke to the prophets in visions, but He spoke face-to-face with Moses. YHVH spoke to him in the burning bush. He spoke to Him out of heaven and gave him the plans for the Tabernacle and the ark of the Covenant. He spoke to him on Mount Sinai and wrote the commandments with a finger of fire. Moshe was, above all others, God’s man.75
Because of the great importance of Moses and his bringing the Torah to the Israelites, a comparison of him and Jesus would have been of great significance to the Messianic community of Hebrews.76 The contrast here, however, is not to denigrate Moses, but to exalt Jesus. Nor does the book of Hebrews denigrate the TaNaKh; rather it seeks to exalt the B’rit Chadashah. More than that, rather than denigrating the access Moses had to God, Hebrews exalts the access believers now have to ADONAI. And instead of denigrating the faithfulness of Moshe as God’s servant, Hebrews exalts the faithfulness of Yeshua as God’s suffering Servant (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12). Moshe was faithful in all God’s house, but the Messiah was faithful over God’s house (3:5a-6a CJB). Moses’ intimacy with the Torah, his face-to-face access to Ha’Shem, and his position as a faithful servant in all God’s house, all point to the One who would be greater in all these areas.77
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