"A Warning From The Wilderness"
Hebrews 3:7-19
In the first six verses of Hebrews 3, the supremacy of Jesus
over Moses is presented. He is shown to be superior to Moses not in
faithfulness, but in His person and service. Moses was a servant in the house of
God, but Jesus was the builder of the house and serves as the Son over the
house. In verse 6, the writer affirms that "WE" are the house of Christ. Of
course He is referring to the church, which Paul says in 1Tim. 3:15 is the house
of God. In Eph. 2:11-22, Paul says that in Christ Jews and Gentiles are "members
of the household of God," and that together with the faithful saints of old
(including Moses) we are now "fellow citizens" in the commonwealth of Israel.
And yet our status as the "house" is conditional. Verse 6 says, "whose house we
are if we hold fast ...." So we have to hold fast "the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm to the end."
This need for steadfastness, or faithfulness, explains the exhortations found in
this letter. We saw it in the first exhortation in 2:1-4 with regard to "The
Danger Of Drifting." And now we come to the second exhortation regarding "The
Danger Of Departing From The Living God" in 3:7-19.
This section seems to follow three trains of thought:
"The Example Of Israel In The Wilderness" (vs. 7-11).
"The Danger Of Departing" (vs. 12-14).
"The Example Of Israel In The Wilderness" (vs. 15-19).
The first thing we need to understand about Israel in the wilderness is that
Israel hardened their hearts. The quotation found in vs. 7-11 is from Psa.
95:7-11, where the Holy Spirit warned Israel not to be like their fathers in the
wilderness. And the writer to the Hebrews found this warning to be just as
necessary in his day.
In the wilderness, the Israelites hardened their hearts in rebelling against
God. They tested (or tried) God with their lack of faith. And that is the reason
they did not enter God's rest. God became angry with that generation in the
wilderness because of their persistent rebellion (Psa. 106:13-33). And so in
Num. 14:22-24 and 26-35, God swore that they would not enter His rest. Of all
those over the age of twenty when they left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered
the Promised Land. All the rest, of which there were 603,548 men, died in the
wilderness. Because of their hardened hearts, Israel departed from God. They
rebelled against God. And because of their rebellion, they fell short of the
Canaan rest that had been promised to them.
The Danger of Departing (vs. 12-14).
Now, with this "Warning From The Wilderness" fresh in their minds, the writer
next exhorts his brethren by warning them of "The Danger of Departing." And so,
we need to BEWARE. You see, a believer can develop "an evil heart of unbelief."
Back in v. 1, the recipients of this letter were called "holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling," which means that this warning against
developing a heart of unbelief is presented as a real possibility! A "believer"
can become an "unbeliever"! And unbelief is produced when you are "hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin."
Sin is deceitful! It promises pleasure, power and prestige. And in the short
term it may seem to deliver on that promise. But such things are "passing," or
temporary. Later in 11:25, the writer talks about why Moses left the luxury of
the palace of Pharaoh and says, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin." John warns us in
1John 2:17 not to love the world because "the world is passing away, and the
lusts of it." The rewards of sin are "passing away." They are temporary. But
because sin is deceitful, it is easy for us to become "hardened," to become
stubborn and not willing to heed the Word of God. It happened to Israel, and it
can happen to us! And the consequence of such unbelief is "departing from the
living God." As you grow in unbelief, you drift away from God. While a believer
remains in fellowship with God, an unbeliever can only depart farther and
farther away from God.
So the solution is to "exhort one another daily." This is how a believer avoids
becoming an unbeliever. Through mutual edification on a daily basis we can
prevent the "hardening" that comes from sin's deceitfulness. And an important
part of such exhortation is our assembling together (Heb. 10:24-25; Acts 20:7).
But with the need for "daily exhortation," do you think that we should be
content to limit our assembling to just one service a week? Don't you think that
if we have the opportunity to assemble more often that we ought to? We need to
"exhort one another daily."
But this passage shows us once again the conditional nature of our participation
with Christ. In v. 6, we are the house of Christ "If we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." And now in v. 14, we have become
partakers of Christ "If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the
end." Yet someone is bound to ask, "But what about the security of the
believers?" Well, the "believer" does indeed enjoy the assurance of his
salvation. But we've already seen that a "believer" can develop "an evil heart
of unbelief." In other words, a "believer" can become an "unbeliever." Or as the
writer says in v. 12, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." And so, when a "believer"
becomes an "unbeliever" all of the promises of security and salvation there are
for the "believer" no longer apply to the "unbeliever." And that is why there
are so many warnings to remain faithful, including that of our Lord in Rev.
2:10, where He says "be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of
life."
The Example Of Israel In The Wilderness (vs.
15-19).
In fact, the danger of departing from God is so great that the writer next
returns to the example of Israel in the wilderness and another appeal is made.
Quoting again from Psa. 95:7-8, the writer says "Today, if you will hear His
voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Now notice that the
writer applies this quotation to Christians. You see, Christians need to "hear
His (God's) voice." In 1:1-2, the writer said, "God, who at various times and in
various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these
last days spoken to us by His Son." And then in 2:1-4, he returns to this theme
and says, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have
heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how
shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also
bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of
the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? When he says "hear His voice," he
means to hear with a desire to hearken, because we too can easily harden our
hearts "as in the rebellion."
And so, there is the need for Christians to believe and obey. In the case of the
Israelites, who was it who rebelled? It was all of those who came out of Egypt
except for Joshua and Caleb. Although they had been led by Moses and delivered
from Egyptian bondage, they still rebelled. And so the point is that although we
may have been delivered by Christ from the bondage of sin, rebellion is still
possible even for us. In the case of the Israelites, with whom was God angry for
forty years? It was with all of those who sinned. And they died in the
wilderness as a result of their lack of faith. So if we become hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin, do you think that we will escape judgment? In the case
of the Israelites, who was it that God did not allow into the Promised Land? It
was those who did not obey. It was those who had developed unbelief. And so, if
we disobey through unbelief, are we going to enter our promised rest?
When the apostle Paul related some of the same experiences of Israel in the
wilderness, he said in 1Cor. 10:11, "Now all these things happened to them as
examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages
have come." My friends, it is for our admonition that we have such warnings as
these found in our text because the deceitfulness of sin is just as strong
today. They are there because the hardening of one's heart is just as dangerous
today. They are there because departing from God is just as possible today. The
potential for falling short of our promised rest is just as much a reality for
us as it proved to be for the Israelites in the wilderness. And that is why we
need to "exhort one another daily" to remain strong in the faith and to remain
strong in obedience.
Have you exhorted any of your brothers or sisters lately?
By Joe Stroud
From Expository Files 8.6; June 2001
