3:1
Throughout Hebrews the goal of the writer is for us to fix our eyes on Jesus, and here he explicitly says that. We are not to fix them on angels, next he will turn his attention to demonstrating Christ’s superiority to Moses. Now note here both angels and Moses are good, but they need to be held in their proper place. Today a good tactic for a false teacher in Charismatic circles to use is to talk about visions of angels and things like that. Such a speaker will get the attention of some. Likewise there can be an overemphasis on the gifts themselves. Now angels are good, the gifts are good. Indeed any theology which neglects angels and gifts is deficient, but if we give undue attention to these things we are in error. Conversely, when things are given their proper place they fulfil their proper function and benefit the church.
Jesus is our apostle and high priest. This is the only place where Jesus is called an apostle. We need to remember that apostle means “one who is sent”. In John’s gospel there is repeated mention of the importance of Jesus being the one whom God sent. In the Law the High Priest was important, Jesus is our High Priest.
We share in a heavenly calling. We have not just chosen to follow an ideology, nor even a religion. We have responded to a call from heaven.
3:2
The writer now turns his attention to demonstrating Jesus’ superiority to Moses. First he draws a parallel between them. The Old Testament contained a shadow of the New Covenant. So we will find hints of it in the Old Testament, but then everything will be fulfilled to a much greater extent in the New, in Christ. Moses was sent by God to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses fulfilled his task. Jesus did so too, He was completely faithful to the One who appointed Him, ie to His Father.
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