1: So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe,
2: faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful,
3: but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day.
4: Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God.
5: Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come.
6: Christ as Son is in charge of the house. Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we're the house!
7: That's why the Holy Spirit says, Today, please listen;
8: don't turn a deaf ear as in "the bitter uprising," that time of wilderness testing!
9: Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.
10: And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, "They'll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road."
11: Exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest."
12: So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.
13: For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes.
14: If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.
15: These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.
16: For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt?
17: And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness?
18: And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear?
19: They never got there because they never listened, never believed.