WARNINGS (III)

Last week we continued to see the consequences of drifting from the faith as well as the resulting discipline of God. We saw that God does not allow His children to rebel against Him. Today we will continue with the warning passages in Hebrews and look at the second warning. Our passages today will be Hebrews 3:7-3:16, but before we get into the warning passage I want to take a look back so we understand the background of these passages.

The author of Hebrews begins the second warning passage with a quote from Psalm 95, “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 on the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers put Me to the test, 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 anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’” Hebrews 3:7-11. The actual Psalm is a reference back to Numbers 14 when the Jews had been brought out of Egypt and into the desert. They were removed from their slavery in Egypt but many began to doubt God’s promise about the Promised Land in Canaan. In doing so they began to drift from their faith in what God would do. They had witnessed God parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14), when they complained about the bitter water at Marah God provided fresh water (Exodus 15), when they complained about hunger God provided Manna and meat for them (Exodus 16), and yet they still doubted the Word of God and His promises for them. They were on the brink of the Promised Land when they sent out spies into the land of Canaan, these spies came back and stated “27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.” Numbers 13:27-28. 

It is here that the Israelites began to drift from the Word, all but two men did not believe that God would put this land into their hands. They had heard that the land was good but feared the inhabitants there and despite the encouragement from Joshua and Caleb that, “8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Numbers 14:8-9 the Israelites chose to doubt God rather than believe in His promises and so they wandered in the desert for forty years never finding the rest that God had for them.

Now I want to make a quick note here, many people have tried using the reference to Psalm 95 as a passage about losing your salvation, this is simply not the case. The Bible is clear that once you accept Jesus Christ nothing can separate you from Him, not even your own doubting of His promises. “28 and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” John 10:28-30 Further proof that this is not a passage about losing salvation is in the fact that Moses appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. “2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.” Mark 9:2-4, if Moses’ doubting heart had caused him to lose his salvation then he would not have been there at the Mount of Transfiguration. What this reference back to Numbers 13-14 does do is to first shows us that God does not wish for us to remain in bondage, like the Israelites were in Egypt, but if we doubt Him and His promises, we do not receive the rest He offers.

Second, the reference gives us an understanding of the background to the warning that is then provided in Hebrews 3:12-13, “12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” This warning can be grouped into two admonitions.

  The first is to take care, or in some translations take heed. When the Israelites were making their way to Canaan many began to doubt what God’s plan for them was, they believed that He brought them out of Egypt just to kill them in the desert and so they wanted to return to Egypt. This is similar to what the author of Hebrews was warning against, there were Christian Jews who wished to return to Judaism to avoid persecution, and for us today who might be wishing to compromise with this world in order to have an easier time we face the same consequences. If we try to compromise with this world we lose our position as a spiritual representative of the household of God, meaning we lose our capacity to be an accurate witness for God if we are still following the ways of this world. Again this does not mean that we lose our salvation, but if we compromise with the world we are not accurately representing God to those around us. For those who have compromised, it raises the question of if they were saved or not, “19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us.” 1 John 2:19. It is possible that someone is wandering much like the Israelites were and that God will one day chastise them and bring them back, but there is the real possibility that someone who has compromised with this world is someone who never really belonged to God in the first place. One of the best ways for the true believers of Christ to be identified is in how they handle trials and tribulations. For those who do not belong to Christ, when they are facing persecution they will return to the world because that is where their heart truly lies. For the believer facing persecution, “3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:3-4. For the believer when we face persecution it causes us to dive deeper into the Word (perseverance), which then allows us to have a better knowledge of the Word (character), this knowledge leads to better understanding of the promises that God has for us (hope).

The second admonition in this warning is a heart problem. The hearts of the Israelites had drifted away from God (the first warning) which then caused them to doubt his Word that He would bring them into Canaan. Because they doubted Him, they hardened their hearts. This happens to us today when we do not spend time studying God’s Word, being in prayer, and being around other believers. We begin to drift and when we drift we harden our hearts against the Word of God. Our faith in the living Savior does not remove us from God chastising us as discussed last week. Even though Jesus is interceding for us, we do not have an excuse to sin for we are told, “for it is written ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:16. This also does not mean that a Christian will not have to deal with the consequences of a sinful choice. Christians at times have thought God to be the “fun police” who goes out of His way to make sure we have no fun in this world. In actuality God is concerned with our choices and actions that can cause irreversible harm to us. By being active in our life, He is daily proving His love and care for us. It is why He has given us His word, so that we know right from wrong. The book of Proverbs provides great wisdom in that aspect.

While believers who rebel against God’s Word do not lose their salvation, they do miss out on an important aspect of His blessings. In Hebrews we see the reference to what a doubting believer is missing, they miss His rest. In times of difficulty and persecution this could also be described as missing His peace. To have “an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” Hebrews 3:12b leads the individual to not finding the rest that God offers. For the Israelites, their doubting hearts caused them to miss out on the Promised Land and they spent the rest of their years wandering in the desert. For us today, if we doubt God’s promises for us it is easy to fall into despair with how this world is going. We believe that God has forgotten us and His promises, I want to assure you that this is not the case! Lean on Him and you will most assuredly find rest, “28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30. So I ask you to reflect on your heart, are you more like the Israelites who doubted God’s promises and therefore hardened your heart against God, or are you like Joshua and Caleb who encouraged the Israelites to move forward into the Promised Land?

Seek the truth and encourage one another,

Alex