THE CATASTROPHY OF UNBELIEF Hebrews 3:7-19. The warning against disobedience and unbelief stretches as far as chapter 4 verse 13.

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Hillary Beasley
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1 1 THE CATASTROPHY OF UNBELIEF Hebrews 3:7-19 The warning against disobedience and unbelief stretches as far as chapter 4 verse 13. WHEN ISRAEL FAILED TO ENTER GOD S REST Luke quotes from Psalm 95:7-11 in which the psalmist speaks about the failure of Israel to obey their leader Moses and live up to God s standards: So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried Me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.' So I declared on oath in My anger, `They shall never enter My rest'" (3:7-11). Psalm 95 describes worship which is acceptable to God but closes with a flashback to the false worship of Israel in the desert. They had outwardly seen themselves as God's flock, but in their hearts they were hard against him and complained to Moses about their lack of water. The incident is recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. After God miraculously met their thirst by ordering Moses to strike the rock and bring forth water, Moses named the place Meribah (which means "quarreling,") and Massah (which means "testing"). Unfortunately, their attitude was not one of quiet trust in God, but one of fretful complaint and obstinate challenge. This outlook was repeated at least ten times (Nu 14:22) throughout the desert wanderings. Finally, God was fed up and made the serious pronouncement: "Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways So I declared an oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest'" (Ps 95:10,11). God's anger is not lightly aroused. Their grumblings and murmurings were patiently endured over a span of forty years. On occasion God sought to make them aware of their ingratitude and rebellion by visiting them with well-deserved punishment (fire, plagues, quails and poisonous serpents). But He always offered repentance and recovery. Still, their complaints continued and their hearts gradually hardened until, at Kadesh-Barnea, when God commanded them to enter the land of Canaan and take it for their own, they rebelled and refused to go up. The reasons for God s solemn oath was twofold: 1. They continually went astray in their heart. Rather than having a grateful spirit for astounding deliverances and limitless blessings, there was a settled attitude of complaint because everything did not go exactly as they desired each day. They saw themselves as deserving more than they were getting, and they resented it, not with an occasional outburst of displeasure, but with a constant harping that wore down everyone's nerves.

2 2 2. They had not learned God's ways. Over forty years, their real knowledge of God had not increased because their grumbling hearts blinded their spiritual eyes. A teachable spirit sustains a grateful heart. Centuries later Jesus would pray: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent" (Jn 17:3). This failure to grow in knowledge of God's ways is the very danger our author sees as a possibility for his own readers. He reminds them of this episode in Israel's history so they might heed its warning. Full apostasy is present when God says of anyone, They shall never enter my rest. This is the first use of the word rest in Hebrews. This word describes the end of wandering and restlessness and promises calmness and tranquility. The reference here is clearly to the land of Canaan and the promise of a state of peace and prosperity. Yet this Canaan rest was a symbol and a shadow of a greater rest available to the people of God in the future. Because they continued to grumble and murmur against God the hearts of over a million Israelites became increasingly hardened until they were unable to seize the opportunity to enter the land of promise when they came to its borders. Instead they perished at an average of almost ninety deaths a day, until the generation that left Egypt (except for Joshua and Caleb) had died out. UNBELIEF KEPT ISRAEL OUT OF THE PROMISED LAND Don't Miss Your Opportunity In verses 12-13, this example is now applied to all who read Hebrews. The writer's argument is: If unbelief kept Israelites out of the land of Canaan (a picture of God's rest), how much more serious is it today to give way to unbelief and thus miss the greater rest (the rest of justification and salvation). The warning is addressed to the whole assembly: Guard Your Heart See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God (v. 12). The psalmist prayed, Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps 139:23-24). His prayer is that God would examine him and see the integrity of his devotion and keep him true.

3 3 Recognize Your Responsibility These phrases recognize individual responsibility to act. To turn away rebelliously (literally to become apostate ) from God is, as F. F. Bruce puts it, a complete break with God. 1 This means to turn away from life and to choose death, just as did some of the Israelites who came out of Egypt. Encourage Each Other Encouragement is key to persistence and perseverance: But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness (v. 13). Not only does Satan use deceit as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden, but our own hearts are deceitful: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, Who can know it? (Jer 17:9) The heart is the wellspring of life, in which wickedness must not be allowed to take root. Continue in the Faith We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first (v. 14). Salvation is evidenced by continuing in faith to the end. Such perseverance reveals those who share in the life of Christ. The writer warns again: Do Not Harden Your Heart As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion" (3:15).

4 4 ISRAEL S REBELLION KEPT HER OUT OF THE PROMISED LAND The following argument is pursued with a series of rhetorical questions: Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief (3:16-19). The important truths are that the people who failed to enter Canaan were the ones who had heard God s promise concerning the land and that they refused to believe what God has promised (v. 19) an action described as rebellion (v. 16), sin (v. 17) and disobedience (v. 18). These rhetorical questions (vv.16-18) show how an outward facade of belief can be maintained while the heart is still unrepentant. It is possible to participate in and benefit from the miracles of God, as the Israelites did who came out of Egypt with Moses (v. 16) and yet not believe, that is, to be changed from the inside out. We who read this may not be battling with pressures to return to a previously held faith, but many church members today are content to live lives that are essentially no different than the lives of non-christians around them. They easily forget Paul's plea, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Ro 12:2). Also, "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking" (Eph 4:17). Israel. All who ignore these words today are in great danger of repeating the ancient error of For the first time in Hebrews the power of corporate faith is recognized with the words encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today (v. 13). It will be highlighted again in 10:24-25 where the writer states: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

5 5 spirit. This is a warning against the danger of failing to deal with a grumbling and complaining Discouragement is one of the most effective tools of the devil. This is why we need to be constantly alert to its danger and do everything we can, not just as individuals, but as a body of believers, to keep ourselves and each other strong. APPLICATION How do we remain strong through the rough spots in life? How do we keep from being overwhelmed by discouragement when everything goes wrong? How do we endure to the end? 1. Read, study and meditate on the Scriptures thoughtfully and closely every day. 2. Pray regularly with and for one another. 3. Fellowship regularly with fellow believers. 4. Worship with other believers in a shared experience of God's wonder and glory. 5. Witness about the hope you have in Christ. 6. Serve people's needs out of love for Christ. These are the things that contribute to keeping our faith strong to the end. This will enable us to hold to the confidence we had at first. NOTE 1 F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 66.

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Jesus is Better. Lesson 3 Hebrews chapter 3

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