Knox Bible

1

Brethren and saints, you share a heavenly calling. Think, now, of Jesus as the apostle and the high priest of the faith which we profess,

2

and how loyal he was to the God who had so appointed him; just as Moses was loyal in all the management of God’s house.✻

3

In any household, the first honours are reserved for him who founded it; and in that degree, Jesus has a prouder title than Moses.✻

4

Every household has its founder, and this household of creation was founded by God.✻

5

Thus the loyalty of Moses in the management of all God’s house was the loyalty of a servant; he only bore witness to what was to be revealed later on;

6

whereas Christ’s was the loyalty of a Son in a household which is his own. What is that household? We are, if only we will keep unshaken to the end our confidence, and the hope which is our pride.

7

Come, then, the Holy Spirit says, If you hear his voice speaking to you this day,

8

do not harden your hearts, as they were hardened once when you provoked me, and put me to the test in the wilderness.

9

Your fathers put me to the test, made trial of me, and saw what I could do,

10

all those forty years. So I became the enemy of that generation; These, I said, are ever wayward hearts, these have never learned my lessons.

11

And I took an oath in my anger, They shall never attain my rest.✻

12

Take care, brethren, that there is no heart among you so warped by unbelief as to desert the living God.

13

Each day, while the word To-day has still a meaning, strengthen your own resolution, to make sure that none of you grows hardened; sin has such power to cheat us.

14

We have been given a share in Christ, but only on condition that we keep unshaken to the end the principle by which we are grounded in him.✻

15

That is the meaning of the words, If you hear his voice speaking to you this day, do not harden your hearts, as they were hardened once when you provoked me;

16

those who provoked him were the people (some, though not all of them) whom Moses had rescued from Egypt.✻

17

Who was it, during all those forty years, that incurred his enmity? Those who sinned; it was their corpses that lay scattered in the wilderness.

18

To whom did he swear that they should never attain his rest? Those who refused to believe in him.

19

We see, then, the consequences of unbelief; this it was that denied them entrance.