Hebrews 3:4 Commentary and Bible Study

The reasoning clarifies the idea of a house and its builder, and shows that in this case we are thinking of a house being built on the greatest possible scale: the house which God is building. Every house has a designer, an architect, a builder, for nothing builds itself. The builder receives credit for a well-constructed and attractive building, or else he shows the poverty of his work. Creation also is a work of construction and everything which forms a part of creation owes its existence to the Creator, so that one could speak in terms of God building all things. That building includes not only what was constructed at the start – the bringing into existence of the world – but also the unfolding of history and the events that have occurred in time which form part of God’s plan, his providence. That too should be considered part of the building, for the building is all that God does in creation from beginning to end. He alone is the sovereign God who directs history, who governs all providence, who is the origin of all things, and the goal of all things, the Alpha and the Omega. The Bible makes clear that Israel was central to God’s purpose not only for that nation but for the whole human race, and central to God’s relationship with the nation of Israel was the covenant made on Sinai through Moses. The name of Moses was so great that he was made to stand for the whole law, which is called the law of Moses (Acts 13:39), or even just Moses (Acts 21:21; 1 Corinthians 10:2). But after all, he was a part of the house that God was building.But the comparison we are considering is between Moses and Jesus Christ, and all that Hebrews says here is intended to bear on that comparison. We have just read that Christ is counted worthy of more honour than Moses in exactly the same way that a housebuilder has more honour than the house he builds, and now in this verse that thought is extended to say that the builder we should have in mind is God himself. Given this argument, it is impossible not to equate Christ with God as the builder of all things, which is no more than has already been said in chapter 1. Moses was indeed given a great place in the purposes of God, but far greater is the position of the Son of God who makes all things. Moses owes his greatness to his Creator, Jesus Christ, who conceived the place he would have in the plan of God, and brought that plan to pass. All that Moses did prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, and the law was fulfilled in the Jesus Christ.