Hebrews 3:12-19
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. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Failure of the Wilderness Wanderers
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
We are called as the rebellious people of Israel to find eternal rest in obedience to the gospel and therefore in Christ Himself. This requires faith that has trusted in Christ’s work alone to salvation from sin’s penalty of eternal judgment and that stops attempting to earn the only grace that can save us. Even after we have so taken God at His word for Christ’s work of suffering and putting sin to death on the cross of our curse from the fall of mankind, even then we can slip into walking away from God and obed to His word. This is evil. Instead, we are to keep on warning and encouraging on another (Colossians 1:28) to keep from hardening our consciences and hearts by cauterizing our convictions through continued sinning. We have become shareholders in Christ; how and why then would we want to return to wallow in the filth of our former sins which are mere passing and momentary pleasures that cannot satisfy the soul or bring the joy of holy righteousness in communion with our Lord and Master? When we heard the gospel, we who now know the Lord Christ chose not to further rebel in disobedience and disbelief, but rather heard His voice calling us to Himself by grace that day and were changed into new (Galatians 2:20) men and women! We did not continue to harden our hearts when confronted with the bad news of our sin and the penalty of God’s wrath on us for it, but rather turned from it to Him in trust as He regenerated us and opened the eyes of our hearts and ears of our wills to understand the message and be reborn in obedience to the good news of saving grace. Unlike the people of God set free from the physical bondage in Egypt, we were set free from the bondage of sin (Galatians 5:1, Romans 6:18, 22-23, 8:15) to follow and serve Him. Do we wish to go back to the world of spiritual Egypt in putting ourselves back under bondage to sin and suffer the consequences or do we continue to obey as we put to death our sinful thoughts and deeds by His Spirit within us giving the ability and power to do so? Remember how Israel wandered for forty years and all died out as the consequence of their rebellion against God’s word and were therefore unable to enter the promised land brought on by their lack of faith and obedience to His will. We have been brought to the promised land of the kingdom of God and should have no desire to return to the more of the world of darkness (Acts 26:18, 1 Peter 2:9) we were pulled out of. We now have entered into the light of belief and are called to cast of remaining sin as we follow and imitate Him in holiness (1 Peter 1:16) and enduring trust until we meet Him at the end of our lives or of time itself if He returns before then. If we heard His voice and obeyed the gospel to salvation, then we should continue to listen and hear that we might live to honor Him in spirit and truth, in our thoughts and desires according to His word as we have been called by faith in grace. Rest in Christ and His work as you follow faithfully in fearful trembling of awe and in trust of His power (Philippians 2:12-13) working in you to change your mind and heart in conformity to Christ confirmed (Matthew 7:20-21) by changed actions!
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