For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses — as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
The letter went to Jewish believers who honoured Moses above every other name in their history. Here the writer sets that name beside Jesus and measures the two. The comparison turns on a simple picture: a house, and the one who built it.
Why Moses Is Brought In
The writer does not attack Moses. He sets him at his full height and then points to Someone higher. One commentator shows what that does for readers still drawn back to the old way of worship:
Samuel RidoutIf the apostle can show that the One the Christian is to look to is infinitely greater than Moses, he has at once loosened the hold of Judaism on Hebrew Christians. That hold was the pull of the earth, of its fleshly worship and its ritual. He loosens that hold by replacing what they already had with better and greater things. He does not do it by speaking of some failures of Moses. He says nothing of the thing that shut Moses out of the land of Canaan. He says nothing of his killing the Egyptian, hiding the body in the sand, and fleeing when he found the matter was known. Instead he sets this great lawgiver and leader before these Christians, this faithful servant of God in every connection. Then he says: the One you have to be occupied with is infinitely greater than this most faithful man.
Builder and House
Moses did set up the tabernacle. But he worked to God's directions, and setting up is not the same as building:
C E StuartFirst, all must admit that he who builds a house has more honour than the house. Moses was not a builder, though he did set up the tabernacle at Sinai according to God's directions. But the Son, the Apostle for the Hebrews, was a builder, and in that none could equal Him. He built all things, as chapter 1 plainly says of Him. Far, far superior therefore to Moses is the Son. Moses was a creature. He is God.
Where Comparison Turns to Contrast
Verse 2 put the two men side by side as faithful. Verse 3 does something else:
Leslie M. GrantBut if verse 2 is comparison, verse 3 is contrast. Moses had been faithful in God's house. But Christ is the Builder of the house. He is worthy of greater honour than the house itself, and so of greater honour than any servant in it. … The force of the passage is simply this: a house is proof that someone must have built it. Creation testifies also that it has a Builder greater than itself.
How far does that comparison reach? One commentator answers by naming who the Builder is:
William KellyThe reason for this has no limit… Jesus, whatever office He may fill, is God. He sheds glory on the position He takes.
Which House?
The house Moses served in was the tabernacle, the tent of worship in the desert. One writer reads that tent as a picture of something far larger — and then of something much nearer:
J. N. DarbyMoses identified himself with the house, faithful in it in all things. But Christ is more excellent, just as the one who builds the house is more excellent than the house. … In fact the house — the tabernacle in the wilderness — was a figure of the universe. … In a certain sense this universe is the house of God. He stoops to live in it. Christ created it all. But there is a house which is more truly His own. We are His house, taking it for granted that we persevere to the end.
Moses Is Not Belittled
To say Christ was counted worthy of more glory is not to say Moses had none:
W. T. P. WolstonThere is something very beautiful in the way God speaks about Moses in connection with Jesus. Of Jesus it is written: "For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses." Did Moses have glory? Indeed he had. Moral glory often covered Moses.
Set beside the Son, that real glory disappears from view:
The Bible TreasuryWhen brought beside the Son of God, the glory of the man is completely eclipsed. … So the greatness of Moses vanishes before the infinite glory of the person of the Son of God.
Summary
- In the house. Moses' honour was real. But his place was inside a house someone else built.
- Over the house. Christ is the Builder. The builder always outranks the building.
- God of the house. The Builder of all things is God, so the measure of His superiority over Moses has no limit.
- Beyond the house. The desert tent pictured something far bigger: the universe God lives in, all of it made by Christ.
- We are the house. The argument ends at the reader's door. Believers are His own house, held there by persevering to the end.