Hebrews 3:7-19
7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works 10for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’ 11As in my anger I swore, ‘They will not enter my rest.’” 12Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. 15As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? 19So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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Alright, that’s it! The last straw, you’re grounded – for forty years, or death, whichever comes first! Can you imagine? Yet, that’s what the writer in Heb. 3 says, twice, again in chapter 4. “Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts; you’ll never enter my rest.” The Israelites were a rebellious people, complaining, whining, ready to go back to Egypt when they were at the southern border of Canaan. But, hearing the report from 10 of the 12 scouts who had just come back from Canaan, in fear, they turned their backs on God, hardened their hearts, and wanted to go their own way. Angered, God says this generation will live out their lives in the wilderness, everyone 20 years old and up, 40 years…even Moses!
The warning is still there for us today, “If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Jesus, when tempted by Satan himself, said, “You shall not test God!” The temptations in this life are the same as what Adam and Eve had: “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and boasting of what he has and does.” (1 John 2:16).
We are to exhort one another, daily, that none of us is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. David wrote: “How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.” (Ps.19:12 NLT). Heb.4:1 says, “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.” Our loving God is “slow to anger” and is always ready to forgive, even 70 times 7 times! We need to confess to one another, with one another, “Lord…forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Daily, that we may enter his rest, daily.
Prayer: Lord, help me to not harden my heart, but to keep it soft and open to you. Help me to trust others to encourage and exhort me along my journey, that I may not live out my days in a self-imposed wilderness.
“Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry,
Everything to God in prayer.”
—Ric Soderstrom