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Warning Of Hardening Our Hearts – Hebrews 3
Warning Of Hardening Our Hearts – Hebrews 3
The children of Israel were the chosen people of God. God displayed his great power in bringing them out of the bondage of Egypt. They witnessed not only his power, but his mercy as he saved them through the Red Sea. They looked in awe as God displayed His glory at Mount Sinai. Paul would affirm that they 'were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink" (1Cor. 10:2-3).
It is specifically stated that they believed. Exodus 4:31 states: "And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped." Again in Exod. 14:31 we read: " Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses."
It is THESE people and THAT generation that God became angry with. Hebrews 3 posits three questions: 1) Who was it that heard and yet rebelled? 2) who was God provoked by for forty years? And 3) who did God swear that they would not enter His rest? (Heb. 3:16-18). The answer: the generation which saw and believed and were delivered from Egypt.
That generation made a good start and then turned away, rebelled, sinned, were disobedient, and became a generation of unbelievers. (cp. Heb. 3:10, 16, 17, 18, 19). Believers are not always faithful unto God. Hence the warning to US: "Take care, BROTHERS, lest there be in any of YOU an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God" (vs. 12).
God is not demanding perfection but faithfulness. God forgave us through the sacrifice of Jesus, and the blood of that sacrifice is always available. John wrote that "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1John 1:7). Then in verse 9 John would write: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1John 1:9).
When believers turn away, rebel against God, engage in sin and disobey God, it is often affirmed that they were never believers. Such cannot be successfully affirmed about Israel for the scriptures state they believed and then did such things. Even so, God's people today CAN develop such an evil heart of unbelief. This is not an idle warning. This is not just a hypothetical condition that has no possibility of happening. It is real. Therefore "exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end" (Hebrews 3:13-14).
Hugh DeLong
