Messianic Jews 3:1-6
Letter to the Messianic Jews

In my last post, we continued to learn about Yeshua, the Son of Man ~ Part 4 in Messianic Jews 2:14-18. That passage concerned Yeshua’s as humanities true sacrifice. In this post, we begin to explore Messianic Jews 3:1-6. This passage relates to Yeshua as Lord is better than Moshe as a servant.

“¹ Therefore, brothers whom God has set apart, who share in the call from heaven, think carefully about Yeshua, whom we acknowledge publicly as God’s emissary and as cohen gadol. ² He was faithful to God, who appointed Him; just as “Moshe was faithful in all God’s house.” ³ But Yeshua deserves more honor than Moshe, just as the builder of the house deserves more honor than the house. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. ⁵ Also, Moshe was faithful in all God’s house, as a servant giving witness to things God would divulge later. ⁶ But the Messiah, as Son, was faithful over God’s house. And we are that house of His, provided we hold firmly to the courage and confidence inspired by what we hope for.” ~ Messianic Jews 3:1-6 (CJB)

Let us remember the conviction with which the writer of the Messianic Jews starts. The basis of his thought is that the supreme revelation of God comes through Yeshua and that only through Him has humanity real access to God. He began by proving that Yeshua is superior to the prophets; he then went on to establish that Yeshua is superior to the angels, and now he proceeds to demonstrate that Yeshua is superior to Moshe.

Yeshua, like Moshe at Sinai, was God’s emissary, conveying God’s truth and God’s wishes to the people of Israel. In this respect, Yeshua fulfills the role of being a prophet like Moshe, as predicted in D’varim 18:15-19. Also, like Moshe, Yeshua intercedes for the people (Messianic Jews 7:25), and as such, He is fulfilling the role of a cohen, just as Moshe did when the people worshipped the golden calf (Sh’mot 32:32) and at other times.

Yeshua is not merely on the same level as Moshe, the paragon of virtue within Judaism (faithful in all God’s house), but better than Moshe ~ just as he is better than angels and better than other human beings in general (Messianic Jews 2:8, 4:15). Thus Yeshua deserves more honor than Moshe.

Barclay explains it this way: [1]

It might, at first sight, seem that this is an anticlimax. But it was not so for a Jew. For him, Moshe held a place which was utterly unique. He was the man with whom God had spoken face to face as a man speaks with his friend. He was the direct recipient of the Ten Commandments, the very Law of God. The greatest thing in all the world for the Jew was the Law, and Moshe and the Law were one and the same thing. For a Jew, the step that the writer to the Hebrews takes is the logical and inevitable step in the argument. He has proved that Yeshua is greater than the angels; now he must prove that he is greater than Moshe who was greater than the angels.

In fact, this quotation which is used to tell of the greatness of Moshe is proof of the unique position which the Jews assigned to him. “Moshe was faithful in all his house.” The quotation is from B’midbar 12:7. Now the point of the argument in Numbers is that Moshe differs from all the prophets. To them God makes himself known in a vision; to Moshe, he speaks “mouth to mouth.” To the Jew, it would have been impossible to conceive that anyone ever stood closer to God than Moshe did, and yet that is precisely what the writer of the Hebrews sets out to prove.

The idea that the Messiah is better than Moshe can also be inferred from traditional Jewish sources. [2]

“‘And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.’ This phrase from Genesis 1:2 alludes to the spirit of the Messiah because Isaiah 11:2 says, ‘And the spirit of Adonai will rest upon him’ [that is, upon the ‘shoot of Jesse’, which is a name for the Messiah]. Also, we learn from the same text in Genesis 1:2 that this spirit of the Messiah comes through the merit of repentance; for in Lamentations 2:19 repentance is likened to water: ‘Pour out your heart like water.'” (Genesis Rabbah 2:4)

The logic of verses 3-4 leads to the conclusion that Yeshua is to be identified with God since he is the one who built everything (compare Messianic Jews 1:2). As usual, the Brit Hadasah does not state outright that Yeshua is God but makes this identification indirectly (see Messianic Jews 1:6b, Colossians 2:9).

A second reason why Yeshua is better than Moshe is that the latter was a servant, but the former is a Son. For a comparison between son and servant, see Galatians 4:1-7 and Yochanan 15:15.

A third reason that Yeshua is better than Moshe is that he knew a little about God, but Yeshua is God.

In my next post, we’ll explore Messianic Jews 3:7-11 were we begin to examine Yeshua’s rest as superior to that of Moshe’s and Y’hoshua’s.

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[1] Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT) by William Barclay.

[2] Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern.