Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

[C]onsider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. (Hebrews 3:1b-2 ESV)

Who was the greatest leader in Old Testament history? Was it David? After all, he is described as “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14)? Is there a better commendation than this?

Before I studied the passage of scripture from which the above text comes, David would have been my answer. I don’t think I would have even considered Moses.

But Moses is definitely a contender in the great Old Testament leader category. Because he steadfastly served God among his people, God commended him as “my servant Moses,” who is “faithful in all my house” (Numbers 12:7). That’s pretty high praise.

Jesus, according to these verses, was an apostle and a high priest. The author of Hebrews can call Jesus an apostle because Jesus was sent by God to be God’s representative on earth. He was God’s emissary and spokesman. He came from God to reveal God to humanity. Jesus was also a high priest, offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for his people and interceding for them before God.

Moses is one of the few Old Testament leaders who, like Jesus, was both an apostle and priest.¹ As God’s emissary, Moses was sent to bring God’s people out of Egypt (Exodus 3:10). He served as God’s spokesman when, for instance, God gave him a message to deliver to Pharaoh (Exodus 9:1). Moses represented God to his people by giving God’s law to them (Exodus 19:3ff; Exodus 24:3). In the work God sent him to do, he revealed God to both the children of Israel and the nations around them. As Moses fulfilled the mission God appointed him to do, he served as an apostle.

And yes, Moses’s brother Aaron was Israel’s official High Priest, but who do we see pleading with God on behalf of the people? Who was their best intercessor? It was Moses! Do you remember when Aaron led the people in worship of the golden calf? It was Moses who petitioned God to forgive them for all for their sin (Exodus 32:30-32). When the people of Israel grumbled and rebelled against Moses and Aaron after the spies returned from the land of Canaan with a bad report, once again, it was Moses who interceded for them. He pleaded for God to pardon them, and God did (Numbers 14:19-20). “It was Moses, not Aaron, who was Israel’s true advocate with God,” writes F. F. Bruce.² As Moses interceded for the people, he served them as a priest (Psalm 99:6).

What’s more, Moses was unique among Old Testament leaders because he had more direct access to God. When we read the story that the author of Hebrews referred back to when he wrote that Moses was faithful in all God’s house, we see that God himself stepped in to defend Moses when Aaron and Miriam challenged his authority. God said to them, 

Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. [7] Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. [8] With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?  (Numbers 12:6–8 ESV)

God communicated to other prophets with visions and dreams, but with Moses, he spoke “mouth to mouth” and “not in riddles.” God spoke to him clearly and directly, and Moses actually saw the form of the Lord. Miriam and Aaron should have been scared to bad mouth him, because he was greater than all the other prophets.³ 

Let’s not minimize Moses. He’s a bright star in Old Testament history. As God’s good and faithful servant, I’d say he’s a bright star in all of human history.  

Who was the greatest leader in Old Testament history? It may well have been Moses.

This is the first piece in a two-part series. Part two is here.

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¹ F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, page 91.

² Bruce, page 92.

³ Tom Schreiner, Commentary on Hebrews, page 117.

Theological Term of the Week: Longer Ending of Mark

longer ending of Mark
Mark 16:9-20, which is not included in some of the oldest manuscripts, and is considered by most scholars to be a later addition and not the original ending of the Gospel of Mark.

• Mark 16:9-20 from the ESV, which puts these verses inside double brackets with a note that they are not included in some of the earliest manuscripts:

[9] [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. [10] She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. [11] But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

[12] After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. [13] And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

[14] Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. [15] And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. [16] Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18] they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

[19] So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. [20] And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]] (ESV)

• From the MacArthur ESV Study Bible notes on the longer ending of Mark:

The external evidence strongly suggests these verses were not originally part of Mark’s Gospel. While the majority of Greek manuscripts contain these verses, the earliest and most reliable do not. A shorter ending also existed, but it is not included in the text. Further, some that include the passage note that it was missing from older Greek manuscripts, while others have scribal marks indicating the passage was considered spurious. The fourth-century church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome noted that almost all Greek manuscripts available to them lacked vv. 9–20. The internal evidence from this passage also weighs heavily against Mark’s authorship. The transition between vv. 8 and 9 is abrupt and awkward. The Greek particle translated “now” that begins v. 9 implies continuity with the preceding narrative. What follows, however, does not continue the story of the women referred to in v. 8, but describes Christ’s appearance to Mary Magdalene (cf. John 20:11–18). The masculine participle in Mark 16:9 expects “he” as its antecedent, yet the subject of v. 8 is the women. Although she had just been mentioned three times (v. 1; 15:40, 47), 16:9 introduces Mary Magdalene as if for the first time. Further, if Mark wrote v. 9, it is strange that he would only now note that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. The angel spoke of Jesus’ appearing to his followers in Galilee, yet the appearances described in vv. 9–20 are all in the Jerusalem area. Finally, the presence in these verses of a significant number of Greek words used nowhere else in Mark argues that Mark did not write them. Verses 9–20 represent an early (they were known to the second-century Fathers Irenaeus, Tatian, and, possibly, Justin Martyr) attempt to complete Mark’s Gospel. 

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Should Mark 16:9-20 be in the Bible?
2. Bible Research: The Ending of Mark
3. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: Is the ending of Mark really scripture?
4. F.F. Bruce: The End of the Second Gospel (pdf)
5. Paul Carter: What Do You Do With the End of Mark’s Gospel?
6. John MacArthur: The Fitting End to Mark’s Gospel

Related terms:

• autographs
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• comma Johannean
• KJV Onlyism
• manuscripts
• pericope adulterae
• text criticism

Filed under Scripture

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Sunday's Hymn: Lead On, O King Eternal

Lead on, O King eternal,
The day of march has come;
Henceforth in fields of conquest
Thy tents shall be our home:
Through days of preparation
Thy grace has made us strong,
And now, O King eternal,
We lift our battle song.

Lead on, O King eternal,
Till sin’s fierce war shall cease,
And Holiness shall whisper
The sweet amen of peace;
For not with swords loud clashing,
Nor roll of stirring drums,
But deeds of love and mercy,
The heav’nly kingdom comes.

Lead on, O King eternal,
We follow, not with fears;
For gladness breaks like morning
Where’er thy face appears;
Thy cross is lifted o’er us;
We journey in its light:
The crown awaits the conquest;
Lead on, O God of might.

—Ernest W. Shurtleff

 Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• All the Ransomed Church of God at The Outspoken Tulip
• Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare at The Happy Wonderer
• When Rising From the Bed of Death at The Upward Call
• The Lord will perfect at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 17, 2019 at The Thirsty Theologian