Faith Must Trust and Obey

Hebrews 3:7-13 

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

When we hear the gospel of Christ, do we do as the Israelites and harden our hearts?  Do we test God to prove Himself and then not believe the wondrous works He does?  The lessons from Israel wandering in the desert until they died off should be a warning to us not to ever hear God and disbelieve when we see Him work.  God was angry with that generation whom He had delivered with wonders of plagues and crossing the Red Sea, who then kept grumbling and doubting God’s deliverance and grace.  Their hearts were the issue, rebellious and faithless, so they kept wandering away from God.  Unless we have a new heart from God, a new birth, we also will wander off in disbelief and doubt that is the root of sin and source of God’s wrath on us as fallen people.  As believers, we know better, but the old man still tempts us with doubt which is disobedience.  We are to be aware of this and beware of walking away, and can help each other by daily challenging and encouraging one another.  It is easy to be hardened by sin if we lose sight of the great grace and work of God in our hearts, but doubt flees as we trust and obey.