Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. – Hebrews 3:3

Today's Scripture Reading (May 10, 2021): Hebrews 3

We don't do honor well in our culture. I struggle to think of many people of which we can say that there is universal honor given. Maybe it is just nostalgia, but it seems that it has not always been this way, that there was a time when we "honored' better. A time, before the great political divide, when we saw the best of ourselves in our cultural heroes of yesterday.

Maybe it has never been this way, but I seem to believe that there was a time when Abraham Lincoln was remembered as the "Great Emancipator" without someone reminding us that he was just a man who did what was politically expedient in the face of opposition. A time without detractors reminding us that Lincoln did not believe in the equality of the races, at least not like we do. Was there a time when we honored George Washington as the Father of the great American democratic experiment, without pointing out that Washington was a slave owner, someone not really worthy of our honor? In the northernmost part of the North American continent, a time when we remembered Sir John A. MacDonald as the Father of the Canadian Federation and not as someone who had a troubled past with the native American population. The truth seems that each of these men were people of their times and their cultures, which they had no control over. And they fought against the dominant culture of their day, planting the seeds out of which our societies grew, even if they didn't measure up to our culture's contemporary standards.  

We don't do honor well, but other cultures do. And for Israel, the one who deserved the most honor was Moses. He was the great "Law Giver" and the architect of Israelite society. Moses was the one who met face to face with God.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him (Exodus 34:29-30). 

When Miriam and Aaron opposed Moses's leadership, God himself stepped into the gap and supported Moses. Throughout his life, Moses was led by God. Admittedly, he had grown up in luxury in the palace of the Egyptian Pharaoh. He was a murderer of an Egyptian guard and lived for forty years in exile. It doesn't appear that Moses was ever a functional part of Israelite society. But none of these facts mattered. Moses was worthy of honor, not for what he did in the first eighty years of his life, but for what God did through him during the last forty years of his life. And so, Israel gave Moses their highest honor.

But Hebrews argues that as worthy as Moses is of honor, Jesus is worthy of more as part of the Godhead that had worked through Moses. And the author uses the illustration of a house. A house can be very beautiful or well-designed and worthy of our notice, but the honor goes to the house's builder. Moses deserves honor because he was obedient to God, but Jesus deserves even more honor because he was the builder of the house; creation took place through the efforts of Jesus. Jesus was God, and therefore he was the reason why Moses's face shone as he came off the mountain.

As great as Moses was, Jesus was greater, and so, Jesus deserved the greater honor.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hebrews 4