Hebrews 3

Lately we've been discussing the metanarrative, or "big story," of the Bible. Here's another way to look at it. The Bible can be summarized in four words: creation, fall, redemption, recreation. The whole cosmos is created by God (Genesis 1-2), is judged at the fall of man (Genesis 3), is redeemed through Christ's death on the cross (Matthew 27), and will be recreated when Christ returns (2 Peter 3).

The book of Hebrews takes place in between redemption and recreation—Christ has died and risen, but not yet returned. However, this book also looks back to the time between the fall and the redemption. Its goal is to show us the supremacy of Jesus; or some say, to show us that "Jesus is better."

So here in chapter 3 Jesus is compared to Moses. Remember, Moses was God's servant, chosen to lead God's people out of Egypt and into the promised land. "Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later" (vs 5). High praise here for Moses. But, Jesus is better. "Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses" (vs 3). Moses's faithfulness was meant to point us ultimately to God's chosen Son, who would lead God's people out of sin and death and into eternal life. Do you see the connection? Moses lived about 1500 years before Jesus, yet his life and faithfulness point to Christ, and help us to understand the magnificence of God's Son.

So we did two things: (1) We placed the passage into the metanarrative (creation, fall, redemption, recreation; and (2) We showed how it is connected to Jesus. Whenever you read a passage of Scripture, ask where it fits into the metanarrative of the Bible, and ask how it relates to Jesus.