Today's Devotion

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Holy Week, Mar 31, 2026 - Heb 3:1-19

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

The exodus of the children of Israel was, in many ways, a disaster. A million people were miraculously freed from slavery, led by Moses, guided by God, and given possession of a Promised Land: “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey,” (Ex 3:8). They were sustained in the desert by miraculous food and water, their clothing did not wear out, and God spoke to them and visibly led them – even destroying Pharaoh’s army. But nevertheless, it was a spectacular failure. A journey that should have been over in a few weeks lasted forty years. God punished everyone from that entire generation. What we call the exodus, God calls a “rebellion.” Instead of a celebration to be remembered, the author of Hebrews calls it a warning to be heeded.

Even Moses was punished by God, and was only allowed to look at the Promised Land. All of the rebellious generation died in the desert. Only two of that generation were allowed to enter the promised land: Joshua and Caleb. Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader. Joshua (whose name in Greek is “Jesus”) led the people beyond where Moses could take them. This Old Testament Jesus points us to the New and Greater Joshua who takes us to the New and Greater Promised Land. Our Lord Jesus Christ brings us to eternal life, where Moses could only take us so far.

We still need Moses, dear friends. We need the Law. We still learn and recite the Ten Commandments. We still read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Old Testament: the books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, for in all of this Word of God, we see glimpses of our Joshua, our Jesus, who was still to come, who has come, and who will come again. In spite of his faults, Moses was still counted “faithful in all God’s house.” And Jesus is “worthy of more glory than Moses.” The author of Hebrews calls Moses a “servant” in “God’s house,” but our Lord Jesus Christ is placed “over God’s house as a Son.” We are called to “hold fast our confidence and our boasting” not in ourselves, not in our works of the Law, and not even in Moses, but rather “in our hope.” For our hope is Christ alone, the New and Greater Moses (who frees us from slavery), the New and Greater Aaron (who offers the “once for all” (Heb 10:10) priestly sacrifice for us), and the New and Greater Joshua (who brings us where Moses and Aaron cannot: to the Promised Land of eternal life).

So “take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” Let us rather, so long as we call it “today,” not be like those in “the rebellion” – “do not harden your hearts,” but rather “hear His voice.” The exodus began with great promise, but rebellion led it to failure. St. Paul warns: “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:6-11).

The author of Hebrews calls us “holy brothers” who “share in a heavenly calling.” For “we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” So while it is “today,” let us rejoice in our freedom from slavery, heeding His voice, gratefully receiving the manna He provides for us. As our Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33). That is our Promised Land.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.