intro/history
section quotes heavily from psalm 95.
psalm 95 in turn references the desert history - two major events especially...
prologue:
israel had spent 400 years as slaves in egypt.
god picked moses to lead them out, and has moses ask pharoah to let god's people go.
the revelation of god:
10 plagues. (and passover to make sure they never forget)
israel grumbled at moses throughout, asking him to leave them alone, etc
god shows up as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night, so they know where to go.
the red sea splits for them (ex 14).
the people get upset at moses, and remind him that they previously asked to be left alone in egypt.
god provides water (sweetened at marah, ex 15).
3 days of no water...the people grumble at moses.
god provides manna (ex 16).
the people have eaten through their food. they grumble.
"would that we had died by the lord's hand in the land of egypt"
god provides meat (ex 16).
in exodus, the meat comes sort of with the manna. numbers 11, in the recap, gives a few more details.
there is grumbling, and there is the wrath of god (he kills many of them)
massah / meribah
israel needs water in the wilderness of sin
israel quarrels with moses; they grumble against moses.
god tells moses to strike the rock, and water will come out.
moses does so..."and he named the place massah and meribah because of the quarrel of the
sons of israel, and because they tested the lord, saying, 'is the lord among us or not?'" (ex 17:7)
interim:
god gives israel the law; israel worships the golden calf. god kills many of them.
kadesh
numbers 13 - 12 spies enter the land and return with produce and terror (save two)
the people rebel - "we're going back to egypt! let's stone joshua/caleb/etc and jet!"
then god busts in ("the glory of the lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of israel")
god tells them that none of them save caleb/joshua will enter the land. all the others will die in the desert.
heb 3:7-19
7. 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.' "
12. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
13. 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.
14. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
15. while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."
16. For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
17. And with whom was He angry 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 not able to enter because of unbelief.
text summary:
v7-11 quote psalm 95, and remind us not to be like the israelites who displeased god.
v12-15 restates the command/encouragement to hold fast and not fall away.
special shout out to v14, which will become relevant to discerning who is and who is not part of god's family.
v16-19 remind us that god judged those who did fall away in the desert.
the first command: take care.
v12 - Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
what are we avoiding?
"an evil, unbelieving heart"
what did this look like in the history quoted by psalm 95?
1. they hardened their hearts (v8)
2. the tested god (v9)
3. they went astray in their hearts and did not know god's ways (v10)
what did this look like?
well...they had seen the clear revelation of god.
*but*...they still disbelieved/ignored it and grumbled.
ex 17 - specifically grumbling at god for the lack of water...which seemed to turn into rebellion/etc.
seems like they questioned either god's ability or desire to care for them, and tried to do things their own way.
this disbelief resulted in anger and rebellion.
how active/conscience do you think their "evil" and "unbelief" was?
if we asked a random israelite, do you consider yourself 'evil' and 'unbelieving', how many would say, "oh yes, i am."
what would this look like in us? (basically the same thing)
starting at the end and working backwards (assuming we did things the same way)
- anger and rebellion
- questioning god's ability or desire to care for us
- ignoring the revelation of god
e.g. hardening our hearts, testing god, going astray
1. do not believe you are immune.
1 cor speaks of sin in general in a similar way:
1 cor 10:12 "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall."
the first warning in hebrews also says the same thing - heb 2:1 speaks of us needing to pay attention so that
we do not "drift away".
we have a command to "take care";
we should be putting some thought/effort into our beliefs, maybe starting with who we think god is.
2. take care of your heart
remember heart is not the seat of emotion only - it is the seat of you (volition, emotion, thought, etc)
continually decide to care about what god has revealed; this is a command, this is our encouragement.
encourage one another.
v13 - 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.
first - little notice to the bit on 'today'.
look at v7...the author is saying that every day we have counts as 'today', a day in which we need to respond to god's revelation.
cute writing, huh?
second - what are we to avoid?
"being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
hardened?
ja...this is somewhat normal biblical language for sin.
increased sin leads to decreased sensitivity to sin; i.e. hardening.
easy to see with stuff like sex, greed, hatered - the more you do it the less odd it seems.
harder to do with the root sins - disbelief, etc.
third...what are we to do about it?
encourage one another day by day.
you require this from others; they require it from you.
we are a community of people united by god for a common purpose; we are to encourage each other to that end.
4 - cute overly specific application
for the sake of application...can you think of at least a few people you would be willing to do this for in the coming 2 weeiks?
conclusion:
the things we are supposed to do sound simple: "take care" and "encourage one another".
unfortunately, they are harder than they sound, since:
- we're warned/reminded to be careful
- we know the statistics on failure from the desert.