Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.”
“Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.'” – Hebrews 3:7-11
Sometimes, the subtle glimpses into the thinking of the first followers of Jesus yield the most profound insights. Notice how the Spirit speaks presently for the author of Hebrews—as the Holy Spirit says. The Spirit of the Living God spoke to Israel, to the early church, and is still speaking.
Are you listening?
Israel in the wilderness did not listen. They did not hear; therefore, they did not respond with fidelity and obedience. They were faithless, and consequently, they could not enter the promised rest represented by Canaan, the promised land. They became dull of hearing. Or, said another way, they hardened their hearts.
Biblically speaking, the heart is not the center of your emotions or affections. It is the seat of knowledge and choice, of cognition and volition. If you fail to pay close attention to these things and allow yourself to drift, your ears to become dull, and your heart to harden, you can miss out on God’s promised rest.
What happened to Israel can happen to you today.
It is a danger to which we are subject: Take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God (vs. 12). Unbelieving is the Greek word apostia, the opposite of faith (pistis). It would be better rendered as an unfaithful heart that leads you away rather than towards your faithful Father.
His solution?
Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end (13-14).
Exhorting is what is happening right here, right now. We are participating in the highest form of worship, Bible study which leads to appropriate conduct and thinking. I am encouraging you. I am warning you. Are you listening?
Today, do you hear what the Spirit is saying to the church?
As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (Heb 3:15, Ps 95:7-8).
The issue for our faith forebearers in the wilderness was not belief. They had experienced his deliverance from Egypt and had witnessed the wonders of his presence since that time. Oh, my friends, they believed in God. But they did not tremble and, therefore, were not faithful.
Please get this. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe (James 2:19). The problem for God’s people in the wilderness is apostia, the absence of faith. Here is what Paul says: Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness [apostia] nullify the faithfulness [pistis] of God? By no means! (Rom 43:1-4)
Do you understand how the author of Hebrews can parallel our situation with theirs? Some of us, too, can be faithless. The God of Gods, however, is always faithful.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see they were unable to enter because of unbelief [apostia] (Heb 3:16-19).
To whom did God swear that they would not enter his promised rest? To those who were disobedient. Why were they unable to enter? Because they were not faithful. They did not show fidelity. They did not persevere in walking with their God. Soon after the LORD saved them by his grace out of Egypt, they engaged in idolatry. They became apostates.
Hebrews teaches that the wilderness paradigm applies to the church today.
To many Christians, this particular premise behind the letter to the Hebrews will come as a shock. God’s people are on a pilgrimage destined for the glory of Jesus. We are, in effect, a church in the wilderness. We have not yet arrived; we are on the way. We are a people he has saved and gathered, and now bear his presence and witness to that presence as we travel in the wilderness.
Make no mistake: this world is under the devil’s dominion and hostile to grace. It is a place of temptation and disappointment, suffering and hardship, and ultimately, it is a place of death. But thanks be to God that though we are in it, we are not of it! We are people of life. Because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, we are freed from the fear of death. We are those who know that the power of Satan, sin, and death has been broken in the resurrection of Jesus!
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1 Jn 4:18).
We are those who know love rather than fear—even though, at the moment, we are still subject to death. Because Jesus lived, died, and came back to life, we are assured that on the last day, the eschaton, he will come again, and we will experience the fullness of the resurrection. We shall live again in new physicality animated by the Spirit of the living God! Death shall be utterly destroyed and the devil cast into the lake of fire.
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4).
You, each of you, if you are faithful—if you persist, if you follow Jesus through this wilderness—he will bring you to that place of that promised, sabbatical rest characterized by rejoicing and dancing with joy unspeakable, full of God’s glory. That is what awaits you.
Right now, however, we are on a journey fraught with danger, and we must walk by faith in the light of his faithfulness.
Do you see how the author encourages his hearers (13:22)? He shares glorious revelations, reminds us of foundational truths, and gives us needed warnings. How many of you would raise your hand and say, “Yes, I need that kind of encouragement!”? My hand is up.
“Blessed are you, oh, God our Father! Blessed are you, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is bringing us to the Father! Blessed are you Holy Spirit, who gives us communion with the Father through the Son!”
“Abba, give us an even greater love for Jesus. Give us an even greater fidelity to you and your word. Let us not shrink back, fall away, drift away, become dull of hearing, hardened of heart. Lord, we want to be those who persist, those who are faithful. When the Son of Man returns, we want to be those that he finds faithful. Amen.”
