“Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
That is why the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today when you hear his voice don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled,
when they tested me in the wilderness.
There your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
So in my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest.'”
The author of Hebrews includes a large passage from Psalm 95 today to emphasize how following Jesus is following the heart of God that had been familiar to the Jewish people for generations. We are still differentiating between Jesus and Moses. What is the difference between the servant and the Master of the house? One performs a service (and there can be many) and the other owns the place. Where do we fit in? Together as the church we are the house where God dwells.
What I find interesting here is that in Psalm 95, the passage reads, “the Lord says…” You may notice that in the Bible the letter in “Lord” are written in small caps. This indicates that the name “Yahweh” is used there to show that God himself is speaking. In this passage, “the Holy Spirit” is used interchangeably with what had been “Yahweh,” and prior to this Jesus was referred to as Lord as well. These types of passages in the Bible are not accidental, and they point us to the doctrine of the Trinity: three persons in one God. It is certainly a challenge to wrap our minds around, but the Bible specifically calls the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit “God” on many occasions.
In addition to the underlying theology about the nature of God, the point of today’s passage is that our hearts should be open to Jesus. Many Jews at this time were closed to Jesus — they saw him as a heretic. The author is taking great care to explain Jesus’ role in Israel’s history, his presence in the Old Testament, and his unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Those who harden their hearts to Jesus can never enter the true place of rest — the ultimate Promised Land. Jewish readers who were just prompted to think about Moses would be stirred by this, as Moses himself was denied entrance to the Promised Land after he disobeyed God. How’s the condition of your heart today? Follow the voice of the Holy Spirit and trust where he is taking you.