Do Not Harden Your Hearts (Heb. 3:7-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 01-15-03

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  Do Not Harden Your Hearts

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Hebrews 3:7-11

 

            1.  Message of the verses:  “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, `They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, `They shall not enter My rest.'" (NKJV)  “This is why the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today you must listen to his voice.  Don’t harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested God’s patience in the wilderness, There your ancestors tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.  So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me.  They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I made a vow: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”  (NLT)

            I want to start out by saying that this section of Hebrews has always been very hard for me to understand, but after reading “Be Confident” by Warren W. Wiersbe, I am beginning to understand this section of Hebrews.  The section goes from 3:7 to 4:13, and he has entitled it, “Christ is greater in the rest He gives.”

            This section of verses from 3:7-3:10 are a quotation from Psalm 95:7-11 and the writer of Hebrews does right in attributing this passage to the Holy Spirit, as he begins this section.  In order to understand this section I must understand the geography of the nation of Israel at the time of their exodus from Egypt as described in the first five books of the OT. One of the key things that must be understood is the application of the word “rest” and what the writer is talking about in this section.  As I studied this section before I had always thought that the rest that the writer was speaking of is my salvation, and this is partly true, but there are four rests that he is speaking of in this section.  The NT says in a couple of different places that the things that are written in the OT are for our benefit and that they do have wonderful spiritual applications to the lives of NT believers, and this is surely an example of that.  The picture of Israel being in bondage in Egypt is a picture of man in the bondage of sin and there is no rest in sin.  The picture of Moses delivering the people of Israel out of this bondage of Egypt (he did this by the power of God) is a person being saved from their sins.  The children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt by the blood of a lamb, and a person today is saved from his sin by the blood of The Lamb: Jesus Christ.  This is the rest of salvation and all believers have this rest.  However the picture of Israel going into Canaan is a picture of submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ and having rest in the promises that He has made to His children.  God became angry with all of the generation that came out of Egypt except Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, for they were the only ones who believed that God would defeat the enemies of Canaan. 

Past                                                     Present                                                Future

God’s Sabbath rest                               Salvation                                              Heaven

Israel’s Canaan rest                              Submission rest

                                                            (Victory in Christ)

This little chart is from Dr. Wiersbe’s book, “Be Confident” and helps explain the rests described in this section.

 

            2.  Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at this passage and remember all of the times that, in my mind I have been hard on the generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt because that had seen all of the great miracles that God had done for them, and I wondered why they did not trust the Lord to take them all into Canaan.  I too have had an even larger miracle done for me, and that is the salvation of my soul which was done at the expense of Jesus Christ’s painful death on the cross where He suffered not only the physical pain of that awful death, but He also suffered becoming sin for me and suffered the separation from His Father, which He never experienced before.  Yes this was a far greater miracle that those that happened in the presence of the young nation of Israel.  The point of all of this is that I too have displayed many times where I lacked faith and trust in the Lord to provide that going over into Canaan type of faith and trust in the Lord.  If He has taken care of my biggest problem then it is true that He will take care of all of the things that come into my life, and will see me safely into His heaven one day.

 

The Word of God has been refreshing, convicting and challenging to me today.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  I want to continue to learn from God’s Word, and I want to trust the Lord to make me a doer of the Word and not only a hearer of His Word.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Ephesians 2:10 & Mark 12:20 (NIV)

 

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.