The Book of Hebrews was written to the Jewish people in a key point in their lives. This letter was written to us as well. As the French writer so aptly put it “The more things change the more they stay the same.”
Our passage this morning is a timeless warning to those who are God’s children. It is a warning against allowing our hearts to become hard.
The Historical backdrop is a theme that most of the 1st century readers were most familiar. A time when our fathers were in the wilderness, led by Moses.
They were on a journey that could have been accomplished in eleven days but wound up taking 40 years. Why did it take so long? Unbelief. Their unbelief and sin provoked the Lord time and time again.
The blessings and peace that God would provide fled from them, as they continued to follow their own way instead of God’s. To this day this kind of attitude persists in the hearts of God’s people.
That’s why this warning to the Messianic Jews of the first century is in our Scriptures, it is a timeless truth.
Hardening of the heart is not a dinosaur relegated to ages past, but an ever-present reality in the world and day we live in.
The writer looks back to Psalms 95:7-11. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, {8} DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, {9} WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. {10} “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; {11} AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'”
Since his readers were Messianic Jews, it was only natural that he would verify his warning by utilizing an illustration found in the Tenakh, The Jewish Scriptures
In these five verses where the Psalmist recalls the events recorded in Exodus and Numbers. “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me…”
In order to get a better understanding of the context, lets consider three different portions of the Old Testament. We need to keep in mind that a test from the Lord can result in our testing Him in return.
First of all there was a physical test: Thirst (Ex 17:1-7) read. The sons of Israel had traveled from the wilderness of Sin to Rephidim, an area without drinking water. It was here that they contended with Moses saying “give us water that we may drink”
How did Moses respond? Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? The people grumbled and accused him of leading them from Egypt into the wilderness to die.
Moses cried to God, fearing for his life. The Lord told him to take a group of elders and go to a particular place carrying in his hand the staff with which he had struck the Red Sea to cause it to part.
God said, “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did what he was told.
He named the place Massah (test) and Meriaba (quarrel). Why? Because it was at that location that the sons of Israel quarreled with him and tested the Lord saying “Is the Lord among us, or not?
This was a divinely planned test designed to prompt the Israelites to respond to the Lord in the midst of their thirst with trust, prayer, and confidence.
God’s people failed the test and instead tested God. They jumped to the conclusion that they’d been taken into the wilderness to die. They had an opportunity to have their faith strengthened but failed to do so.
A second kind of test Israel experienced in the wilderness was an external one: Giants (Num. 13:1-14:4). Soon after leaving Egypt, the Israel arrived at Kadesh-Barnea. It was there the Lord counseled Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan.
Moses appointed them and gave them instructions to “Go up into the Negev, and then into the hill country. They were told to accomplish 3 things. 1. To see what the land was like, whether the people were strong or weak, few or many.
2. To see the state of the land, whether it was good or bad, fertile or barren, whether the cities were camps or fortresses.
3. To make an effort to bring back some fruit of the land.
40 days later the spies returned bringing their reports and samples of the fruit of the land. “We went into the land, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey” this was a reference to the abundance in the land.
But the reports of all but two of the spies were riddled with pessimism and fear. They stated that the residents of the land
of Canaan were strong, and their cities were fortified and large. There were giants there! The spies were overcome with appearances.
But two of the 12 had their eyes on God, rather than what they were seeing. Caleb, one of the two said, “We should should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”
But the other 10 had their attention on the men they had seen.” We became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and in their sight. Their eyesight was distorted by unbelief. The result of their report was weeping and grumbling against Moses and Aaron.
They wished that they were back in Egypt, or that they were already dead. They saw only the worst before them. But their response is a typical one. They wanted to go back to Egypt and to slavery, to the bondage they had been delivered from. And they wanted a new leader to bring them back.
They had a chance to believe God for His promised provision, but they refused to trust Him.
The writer of Hebrew then cites The Psalmists response from Psalm 95 which had considered these events over time. The Psalmist called Israel to say, “Come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (V. 6)
That kind of response is far different than Israel in their journey, was only grumbling and complaint. The Psalmist saw things in this way…For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of Hand” (v.7)
Then he gives the warning that is repeated in Hebrews 3. “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness” Ps. 95:8.
When we are faced with a test, and it looks like an overwhelming barrier, we need to remember that God surrounds his tests with a rest. This rest comes only if our response is the right one in the midst of whatever the trial is.
We’ll learn more of this in chapter 4.
The warning in 3:7-11 is an expression of divine anger at hearts that become hardened. But God has provided atonement and forgiveness through the Messiah.
But in v. 12 we are given a warning. “Take care…lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.
In v. 14 we have specifics concerning this warning. (Heb 3:14) For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
It is a reminder to the Jewish believers that they are not spectators of an event in history past. But they are partakers in God’s movement among them right now.
Remember they were fearful of losing their standing in their families, their synagogues and among their religious leaders. And in much the same way we also fear others rather than God.
We like those first century Jewish Believers have come to experience God’s forgiveness through the promised Messiah of Israel and at times considered traitors to our people.
We like them are called to “hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” and avoid hardening our hearts. The Jewish Believers were approaching a point where they would not be able to learn any more . . . where their freedom of choice would be forfeited.
The people of Moses’ day failed to enter God’s rest not because of their unwillingness, but because of their inability, which was a result of their hardened hearts.
Verses 13-14 give us some insights into how to avoid hardness of heart.
(Heb 3:13-14) But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.
1. We need to encourage one another regularly. This is why we need to be involved in regular fellowship with other believers.
2. We need to persevere in the midst of our tests; to remember that the fact that we continue in our trials is a demonstration that we really are children of God.
When trials come, we need to turn them immediately over to God, accepting them as tests from Him. We need, at the same time, to ask Him to teach us and show us His power and His rest in those tests.
Here are a few thoughts which can help us avoid hardness of heart.
1. We need to remember that when tests come, they come to soften our hearts.
2. To experience God’s rest means that I accept what God wants, not what I want.
3. When we learn to rest in the midst of God’s testings, we will behold God’s hand which far surpasses human striving
