Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 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. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 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.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Over 10,000 people a year in the United States will die in a car accident because of alcohol, by far the biggest contributor to such accidents. But about 15% of all fatal car accidents, and about 6,000 deaths per year involve this…any guesses? Falling asleep while driving.
Have you ever had it happen…where your eyes close for just a moment and you are immediately jolted with a sudden rush of adrenaline as your body realizes that you dozed…for just a second? It is frightening isn’t it?
Nobody gets into their car with the intention of falling asleep. Nonetheless, there are factors that contribute to such happening…there are triggers, warnings that we should be alert to so as to take precautions. When I was a kid we traveled yearly on long vacations. My mom and I knew that after lunch dad got a little sleepy…oh he wouldn’t admit it, but my mom was terrified.
So, she put Mr. Blabber-mouth (that would be me) in the front seat with him after lunch. My job was to talk…or as my dad would put it, to annoy the ibby-gibbies out of him. Again, we were just taking precautions.
Recognizing the state you are in spiritually…taking stock of yourself, or as the prophet Haggai admonished God’s people, “consider your ways”. This doesn’t play all that well in our self-absorbed day. We are more likely to hear about following our own path…or continuing our own faith journey…being true to yourself…than we are to have someone telling us to take a candid and honest evaluation of the spiritual dullness and sleepiness of our hearts and lives.
The fact is, there are times in our pilgrimage that we are like the sleepy driver: ‘oh take it easy’, comes the deceitful voices; ‘you are fine…God has forgiven you…it’s not a big sin…you aren’t hurting anyone…you can go to church next week…you read the Bible a few days ago…you don’t need to set aside time for prayer…God knows your needs.’
If you catch yourself doing such things, listening to such things, then I would suggest you do the spiritual equivalent of stopping the car, getting a cup of coffee, walking around a bit or putting your gabby son in the seat next to you.
As we saw at the end of last week, the Hebrews sermon is in the thick of Psalm 95. And as verse 14 says we need to keep a firm grasp on our confidence in Xp Jesus…and as verse 13 says, we need to be exhorted daily to be on guard against the deceitfulness of sin.
If we are not as wide awake as we were when we began, then perhaps we need to stop and get ourselves back to where we need to be. “Otherwise, in spiritual language, our hearts will become hard and bitter, verse 15, the spiritual equivalent of nodding off to sleep while driving.” (NTW 32)
Look at verses 16-18, the preacher is going to drive his point home with three questions that are rattled off like a machine gun:
Question #1: Who were those who heard and rebelled? Why, it was the people that God had done wonders for, not the pagans. It was the same ones He had brought out, miraculously so! It was the ones who saw…who experienced…who benefited from the sheer power of God’s mercy…God’s people are those who rebelled!
-Question #2: With whom was God provoked? Again, it wasn’t the nations, this is not a reference to Egypt. It was the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They heard what God said, and proceeded to do the very opposite. So, the preacher is saying, this warning isn’t for your next door neighbor, or for your co-worker…this warning is for YOU.
-And then finally; To whom did God swear they would not enter His rest? It was to those who made a start and then stopped believing…stopped trusting the promises that God had made. They accused Moses of tricking them, of exalting himself. And when the spies went into the land and told the people what they saw, the congregation simply chose to embrace a faith-less response.
Think about that: They would insist that they are God’s people, that they are followers of Yahweh even that they trusted him…and yet they stopped, not believing IN God, they stopped believing God and they believed a lie.
Once you stop believing the God who called you, again you still believe IN God, but you are not believing His day-to-day promises, when you stop believing the God who rescued you, the God who guides you, the God who says He has a future for you…once you do that, you simply go round and round in the wilderness, never getting anywhere. (NTW, pg. 33)
It could be, and I for one think it is undeniable and that the church is filled with such folks. They, like all of us, find themselves in the wilderness, and no wonder they are uninspiring…looking to be no different in thought, or affection than those who do not believe in the Lord…because when the rubber meets the road, despite the objections…they do not live with and in an active faith that says, Yes,to all that God has and is saying.
What Hebrews wants to make sure that we don’t miss is that the alternatives, and the context of what Israel faced in the wilderness is the same believer face today and this is demonstrated in this text and throughout the epistle, especially in the terminology that is used.
We find the word promise in 4:1 and again in 6:12 and 9:15. The word gospel, in 4:2 and again as a verb in verse 6. The point is this: The gospel and its demands were announced to the OT church as well as to us. The gospel’s proclamation, its demands, its glorious promises have remained unchanged from the beginning and the spiritual world of those in wilderness wanderers in the Old Testament, with all the temptations, sorrows, difficulties, blessings and power, is identical to the world that the originals hearers of Hebrews lived, and the exact spiritual world that we live in as well.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, by the strength of Your Spirit, may I continue in the faith that You have given. May I not grow weary or turn back, even for a moment. Give me gospel courage that I may not be ashamed or tantalized by the things of this world; Then I would persevere and press on toward the high calling of Jesus Christ. Help me Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: All Hail the Power of Jesus Name (Give a listen…this is really good)