Tuesday 2nd
Hebrews 3:7-18 – 4:11
NIV (3:15, 4:7) – ‘As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”’
‘God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”’
ESV (3:15, 4:7) – ‘As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”’
‘. . . again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”’
The second part of our verse from yesterday reminds us that we are God’ house ‘if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’
Our text for today takes us back to the time when the people of God, (that is those who were his house at that time) were going through a time of rebellion in the wilderness. They had been brought up out of Egypt, they had had the promises of God concerning a land that was flowing with milk and honey, they had witnessed spectacular miracles, first back in Egypt with the plagues that God sent upon the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, then they had seen miracles during their journey, the parting of the Red sea, the provision of manna, quails, water from a rock etc. They were on their way to the promised land and yet they became rebellious, impatient and as a result they wandered in circles and lost out on the promised land. They had not held onto the promise of God, they had not held fast to the initial confidence that they had with God and lost their hope.
The psalmist recorded what happened in Psalm 95:7-11 and it is from here that the Hebrew writer is quoting from, ‘For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”’
I think that this recollection of the people of God in the Old Testament being given as a reminder to the New Testament people of God, the Church, God’s house, and therefore also us today, is a very serious warning. Notice the people of God when they left Egypt were making for the promised land – but they did not arrive! They had been saved from the bondage of Egypt, but they did not enter the promised rest, and why? Because they began to disbelieve, they began to harden their hearts, they went astray in their hearts and failed to know God’s ways, as a result GOD SAID, ‘they shall not enter my rest.’
The Hebrew writer says that we ‘are God’s house ‘if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’ You can only hold fast onto something that you have received, in this case it is our confidence in what Christ has done for us at Calvary, and our hope that springs from placing our confidence in the finished work of Christ, AND we need to hold it fast, this means to hold on tight, grasp it and do not let go of it. It is possible that after believing we can begin to do the same as the people of God in the Old Testament, begin to disbelieve, lose trust, lose confidence, allowing our hearts to be hardened and to go astray, failing to know God’s way. And this brings a stark warning, if God said they shall not enter my rest, what could be the implications for us?
The verses from the Old Testament, Psalm 139:23-24 come to mind at this point, and perhaps it is a prayer we should all be making to ensure that our hearts are right with God, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!’
The Hebrew writer has already said this in chapter 2, ‘Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.’ (vv1-4) and in out text today he says, ‘“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”’
If you are reading this devotion today, I ask how firm is your grasp on the hope that you have received through Christ, are you holding on tight with confident assurance or are you allowing disbelief to take hold, are you allowing external things to bring hardness into your heart, are you going astray? Then ‘today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart as in the rebellion’, return to righteousness, return to the one who has called you out of the kingdom of darkness and is leading you toward eternal rest, grasp, take hold tightly again, and renew your confidence and hope in God.
I close with verses 12-14 of Hebrews 3, ‘Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But 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.’