(Audio version; Music: "How Deep The Father's Love For Us" and "All Honor" by: WorshipMob)
Introduction
When my
girls were still very small, I remember loading them up and going shopping with
my wife. I can’t remember what store we were at but I remember it was a
clothing store because I remember the clothing racks. After we had been in the
store for a while, the girls were getting a bit restless constantly at my side
so they thought it would be a good idea to hide amongst the clothing hanging on
the clothing racks. One minute they were at my side, the next they were gone.
To say I lost my mind would be an understatement. I kept calling them and
calling them but they wouldn’t answer. Every possible thought raced through my
mind and none of them were good. I started running from one clothing rack to
the next tearing the clothes off the racks calling for them. Finally, I got to
the clothes rack against the wall and I could hear giggles. I can’t even begin
to tell you all the emotions that raced through me. All I could do was grab
them and hold on to them. I asked them why they didn’t come when they heard my
voice. They said, “we were hiding dad; waiting for you to find us.” After I was
able to compose myself, they were in more trouble than you can even imagine. Once
I had their undivided attention, I instituted a new rule. My girls are now 22
and 23 years old respectively and if you ask them about the rule that I
instituted that day, they would be able to tell you exactly what the rule is—“If
you can’t see me, I can’t see you.” It was a simple rule that little kids could
understand but we used it for years whenever we were out in public or when we
did missions work together. I also told them that if they ever heard me calling,
they needed to come running.
As their
father, I knew all the awful dangers that the world could throw at them. But I also
knew that as long as they could hear my voice and see me then the chances were
pretty high that I could get to them if they were in trouble. Also, being close
enough the hear me and see me meant a certain degree of accountability for
their behavior. Our relationship, ever since they were very young, is based on
me guiding and protecting them and them listening and submitting their lives to
that guidance and protection. I have come to realize that this is precisely the
type of relationship that God desires with His children. Unlike me, God is the
perfect Father so His guidance and protection are perfect. The only problem is
that to often we, His children, are hiding from Him. We’re hiding because we
don’t want Him to have access to our lives. We don’t want Him to see our
sin—because we don’t want to give up our sin. But God, like the perfect Father,
is relentless—always seeking to protect His children; always seeking to guide
His children; always looking for His children; always calling to His children.
Have you been avoiding God? Have you been hiding from God? We’ve all done that
at some point in our lives before so I’m not casting stones but we can’t
continue to insist that we are in relationship with God yet refuse to let go of
the sin in our lives. So God comes looking; knocking on the door to our heart
and calling to us to repent of our sins and return to Him. All we have to do is
answer the door; answer the call, repent and return to Him. What will you do if
you hear that knock; if you hear the call? What will you do If You Hear His Voice?
Subject Text
Hebrews 3:7-19
7So,
as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not
harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in
the desert, 9where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty
years saw what I did. 10That is why I was angry with that
generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not
known my ways.’ 11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall
never enter my rest.’” 12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a
sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But
encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you
may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in
Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15As
has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as
you did in the rebellion.” 16Who were they who heard and rebelled?
Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was
he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell
in the desert? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never
enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19So we see that they
were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
General Context
No one
knows for sure who the author(s) of the letter to the Hebrews was. The various
references to religious sacrifices and ceremonies probably means that it was
written before 70 A. D. because there’s no reference to the destruction of the
temple. Although the letter has application for all believers, the specific
references to Moses and the Old Testament tells us that the letter was directed
toward Jewish Christians. It is possible that the letter was written to second
generation believers based on Hebrews 2:3. That would mean that the letter
circulated during a time of intensified persecution of the Church. It is
possible that these Jewish Christians were looking for a way out; a way to
justify a return to their Old Testament religious system. In order to
counteract any shift away from the sufficiency of faith in Christ, the author
of the letter to the Hebrews wants to reiterate that the incarnation of Christ
inaugurated a new era in their relationship with God. The author wants to
clarify that God has called them out of their Old Testament identity in the Law
to their New Testament identity in Christ. The letter to the Hebrews reinforces
the need to seek relationship reconciliation with God through faith in Christ
not by the meticulous adherence to the Law.
Theological
Context
Before we
dig into the historical context of Subject
Text, let’s look at the theological context of the verses. These verses
demonstrate the very stark differences between true Christianity and deceptive
cults like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses who deceive those who are ignorant
to the differences that they too are Christians. Look who’s speaking the words
of these verses—the Holy Spirit; God the Spirit! And look who the God the
Spirit is talking about—God the Father and God the Son. All three members of
the Godhead are present in our Subject
Text. Belief in the Trinity is an essential confession of true Christianity
and a theological distinction that is not part of the confession of false
religions. It is why only Christians can recite the Nicene Creed or the
Apostles’ Creed as a reflection of their theological beliefs. You can find the
Nicene Creed as the Statement of Faith for this ministry at the bottom of this
Website.
The verses of
our Subject Text are drawn directly
from Psalm 95:7-11 and would have been well known to the Hebrews. It is a
magnificent Psalm that invites the reader to worship God for His sovereignty
and magnificence. However, it is also a convergence of some other theological
concepts that find their fuller meaning only in Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look
at Psalm 95 and identify the various points of contact between the Hebrew
understanding of God in the Old Testament and the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ in the New Testament:
1Come, let us sing for
joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let
us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3For
the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4In his
hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5The
sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6Come,
let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7for
he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did
at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9where your
fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10For forty
years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts
go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11So I declared on oath
in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
You’ve
probably read this countless times as I have strictly in its Old Testament
context. And the Hebrews probably had it memorized as was the custom of the
Jewish culture. But since these verses have been drawn into the New Testament,
let’s try to understand them in that context using the New Testament’s revelation
of God in Jesus Christ.
Psalm 95:1—Come,
let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our
salvation.
Jesus Christ (1 Cor
10:3-4)—They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual
drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that
rock was Christ.
Psalm 95:2-3—Let
us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the
LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
Jesus Christ (Rev
17:14)—They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will
overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him
will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.
Psalm 95:4-5—In
his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The
sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Jesus Christ (Col
1:16-17)—For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all
things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in
him all things hold together.
Psalm 95:6—Come,
let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Jesus Christ (Phil
2:10-11)—That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
Psalm 95:7a—For
he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Jesus Christ (Jn
10:11)—I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep.
Psalm 95:7b-10—Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you
did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me,
though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that
generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have
not known my ways.”
Jesus Christ (Mt
22:2-14)—“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding
banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the
banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more
servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my
dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready.
Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off—one to
his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated
them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed
those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The
wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to
the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants
went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both
good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king
came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding
clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and
foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen."
Psalm 95:11—So I
declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Jesus Christ (Mt
11:28-30)—“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.”
Text Analysis
7So, as the Holy
Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your
hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9where
your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
The writer
of Hebrews wants his readers to understand in vv. 7-9 that the actions of God in the Old Testament were like a
trail of breadcrumbs leading to the revelation of Jesus Christ in the New
Testament. If they abandon the truth that was revealed to them in Jesus Christ
then they are, in essence, ignoring God’s call; ignoring His voice and
repeating the same “rebellion” (derived from the name Meribah) and thereby
“testing” (derived from the name Massah) God as did the Jews during the Exodus and
once again drawing God’s ire.
“During a
stop in the wilderness at Rephidim, Moses confronted a nation of Israelites
complaining because they had no water (Exod. 17:1). He accused the grumbling
Jews of putting ‘the Lord to the test’ (Exod. 17:2). The people continued to
grumble against Moses and accused him of bringing them to the wilderness to
die. In desperation Moses asked God, ‘What shall I do?’ God directed Moses to
strike the rock to produce water. He did this, and God supplied the water.
Nevertheless,
because of the bitter experience in the location, Moses gave the names Massah
(‘testing’) and Mirabah (‘quarreling’ or ‘rebelling’) to the place as a reminder
of the people’s disobedience and hardness of heart (Exod. 17:7). The writer of
Hebrews feared that his readers might walk in the moral tracks of the Old
Testament Jews. He was concerned that the rebellion of his own readers might
cause them to forfeit the blessings which God had in store for them.
Christians
today need to realize the danger of rebellion against the Lord through their
own personal hardening. Those who listen to the warning of Moses can find the
strength to maintain their initial hope, commitment, and courage to follow
Christ. Those who ignore the warning will find that they have demonstrated that
their profession of faith was an empty, meaningless promise, and they will
experience divine judgment.”[1]
10That is why I was angry with
that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they
have not known my ways.’ 11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They
shall never enter my rest.’”
From the
plagues God sent to Egypt that eventually secured the release of the Hebrew slaves
to leading the Hebrews on foot through the heart of the Red Sea, God, time and
again, demonstrated His power and sovereignty as well as His ability to protect
and care for His people like a shepherd protects and cares for his sheep. The Hebrews
understood the phrase of entering God’s rest variously as meaning the Sabbath
rest commemorating the seventh day of creation when God rested from his
creative works and as a reference to entering the Promised Land where Israel
would finally rest from their desert wandering. It is the latter understanding
that is obviously in view here. However, it is important to remember that vv. 10-11 also have a New Testament
trajectory that we must understand that find their ultimate fulfillment in
Christ. For the Christian, failure to respond If You Hear His Voice and persist in their faith in the face of
persecution and suffering will result in failure to enter His rest. And that
rest for the Christian means the rest we will enjoy for all eternity in heaven
in the presence of Christ.
“Although
they have God’s promise that he will give them the land of Canaan, the spies’
report concerning the strength of Canaan’s inhabitants makes them falter.
Abandoning their confidence in God, they accuse him of leading them out to the
desert to die, refuse the command to invade Canaan and start formulating a plan
to return to Egypt. God receives all this as a flagrant denial of his
reliability and ability to provide, a reliability that should have been beyond
doubt, given all the earlier occasions where God came through for them. This
denial is an affront to God’s goodness and their disobedience a flouting of the
right and authority of the Patron to command obedience. Those whom God desired
to benefit returned insult for favor, slighting God through their distrust of
God’s good will and ability. God responds with wrath, or anger toward those who
have been disobedient, who have trampled the promise and faltered in their
trust. The result of God’s wrath is the people’s irrevocable loss of access to
the promised benefit.
In this
example the addressees encounter a group brought to the very border of their
promised inheritance, who at the last moment panic and withdraw their trust
from God. They fear and respect the people over whom God had promised to give
them victory, rather than fear and respect the God who promised them a lasting
inheritance. The audience is invited to see the dangers of their own situation
reflected in this story. Having endured a period of ‘wandering’ in which they
experienced the world’s rejection and still held onto God’s promise, some of
the believers are wavering in their commitment at the very time when they are
closer than ever to attaining what was promised. Some stand in danger of
falling into distrust, of disobeying God by not continuing to assemble together
to worship and by dissociating from those in need, and of regarding the opinion
and hostility of society more than the God who promises them an unshakable
kingdom.”[2]
12See to it, brothers, that none
of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But
encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you
may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
It is clear
from vv. 12-13 that this instruction
is directed specifically at Christians. I know it sounds obvious but I want you
to remember that because it will be an important detail later. These verses
imply where sin exists in a believers heart, unbelief is nearby. A sinful heart
doesn’t believe God’s way is the best way. A sinful heart doesn’t believe Jesus
when He says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.” A sinful heart doesn’t believe God when He says,
“You cannot serve both God and money.” A sinful heart doesn’t believe God when
He says that marriage is between a man and a woman and, “Therefore what God has
joined together, let no one separate.” A sinful heart is an unbelieving heart. A
sinful life is a vicious circle. Sin perpetuates an unbelieving heart and an
unbelieving heart produces more sin. Christians have a two-fold responsibility
to one another: The first is to warn our brothers and sisters in Christ against
the dangers of sin in their life, and the second is to not be deceived by sins
temptations.
“The lesson
from Israel’s experience applies to all believers. The readers had not yet
revolted against Christ or drifted away from him, but they were in danger of
emulating Israel’s rebellion. The Israelites, who, with their own eyes, had
seen great miracles from God’s hand, had fallen away from God. Christians must
be careful not to fall into the same snare. No Christian is immune from turning
away from or rejecting God. Sometimes people gradually drift; sometimes they
rebel. We believers should carefully watch our Christian lives.
An evil and
unbelieving heart leads to dire consequences; it causes a person to turn away
from the living God. As illustrated by the Israelites, hard hearts can cause
rebellion. Turning away from Christianity implies more than turning away from a
system of beliefs or a set of doctrines; it means turning away from God.”[3]
14We have come to share in Christ
if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
It would be
so nice if v. 14 had ended at the
word, “Christ.” We could all get behind the verse if it read, “We have come to
share in Christ.” But it doesn’t end there, does it? Instead, the verse is
actually a conditional clause. We come to share in Christ “if” a certain
condition is met. So what is that condition? In this context, it means that the
believers are to hold firm to their original belief that all that was necessary
for their salvation was belief in Christ apart from adherence to the Law. “The
relationship between Christ and the community is conceived in the binding terms
of a business partnership. The community can rely on the faithfulness of
Christ, but they too must display ‘good faith.’ They have been placed under
obligation. The conditional clause…stresses the provisional character of the
relationship. The appeal to hold firmly to the basic position held at the
beginning in v. 14 presents the
antithesis to…‘turning away,’ in v. 12.
It draws its emotional force from the disposition of Israel at Kadesh, where
the people determined to elect new leadership and return to Egypt rather than
to maintain their position and to act on the promise of God. The readers are
reminded that perseverance until the time of the actual realization of the
promise and entrance into the eschatological rest prepared for the people of
God is required of those who are ‘partners with Christ.’ The community is
called to expectant waiting.”[4]
15As has just been said: “Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” 16Who
were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of
Egypt? 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with
those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18And to whom did
God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19So
we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
So now the
writer of Hebrews is connecting the dots for his readers in vv. 15-19 to warn them that Christians
who turn from God will suffer the same fate as the Israelites who turned from
God. Just as the Israelites’ wandering in the desert were denied access to the
Promised Land because they rebelled and tested God’s faithfulness and turned
away from Him, so too do Christians risk being denied access to the promise of
spending eternity with Him because of their sinful and unbelieving hearts. Above
I wrote the rather obvious statement that this letter was written to Christians
as evidence by the writer’s address to his “brothers.” Here is why that’s
important—many Christians believe that once a person is saved, they can never
lose their salvation. Now there is certainly some biblical evidence to support
that position. However, there are far greater examples that our salvation is
conditioned on remaining faithful to our confession of faith in Christ. Why
does it matter? It matters because if we can never lose our salvation then why
not just make a profession of faith and then go right back to our sinful lives?
In essence we’re saying that God is bound to his duty to save but we aren’t
bound by our duty to turn from our sins. Do you really think that God can be
mocked in this way? Probably not. So does that mean that we lose our salvation
if we sin? No necessarily. You see, we always have the freedom to turn back to
God and He will always take us back no matter how awful our sins might be. It
is implicit in the practice of repentance. Sin is the act of turning away from
God. Repentance is the act of turning away from our sin and turning back to
God. Nevertheless, the writer of Hebrews is not saying that we have a duty to
determine who is and who is not saved. Instead, it is our duty as Christians to
warn our brothers and sisters in Christ against the danger of falling away from
their faith; against the danger of allowing their hearts to be hardened by sin
and unbelief. It is our duty as Christians to encourage our brothers and
sisters in Christ to get up when they’ve fallen down; to hold on; to keep going;
to always hope; to always trust; to never give up because no matter where we
are in life, we are never far from the gates that lead to rest in the Promised
Land Jesus has prepared for us.
“The
tensions inherent in these conditional constructions indicate a fundamental
principle for dealing with matters related to a person’s relationship with
Christ: Human perspective on the status of another person before God is
limited...The author of Hebrews, Paul, you, and I—every human being—have
limitations on what we can know about the spiritual condition of another
person, and to some degree, we are dependent on an outward manifestation of
spiritual realities…In 2 Corinthians 13:5a Paul exhorts his readers, ‘Examine
yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.’ First John
offers similar admonitions: ‘We know that we have come to know him if we obey
his commands’ (1 John 2:3); “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims
to live in him must walk as Jesus did’ (2:5b-6); ‘Dear children, let us not
love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we
know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his
presence’ (3:18-19). The inner reality of one’s relationship with God is
manifest in the outward action and give assurance.
The author
of Hebrews cannot give unqualified assurance to those drifting away from God
that they indeed have a part in God’s house or are sharers in Christ. He
addresses them collectively as believers, but realizes that some in the group
may manifest a different reality as time goes on. Perseverance does not gain
salvation but demonstrates the reality that true salvation indeed has been
inaugurated. If the end comes and a person is not in relationship with Christ,
it means that the person had never truly become Christ’s companion.”[5]
Application
I know our Subject Text is addressed to Christians
but I’d like to take a bit of theological license and apply it to unbelievers
as well. I would like to suggest that unbelievers can hear God’s voice as well.
Maybe not in the same way that Christians hear God’s voice but I am convinced
that God speaks to unbelievers nonetheless. If He didn’t then unbelievers would
never become believers. Let me explain: Jesus said, “No one can come to me
unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last
day (Jn 6:44).” So what does it mean for the Father to “draw” them? Well I
suppose it can mean a lot of things but at a minimum it means that He sends out
faithful messengers to invite unbelievers to be in a relationship with Jesus.
Remember the story of the wedding feast I told you earlier from Matthew’s
gospel? That’s what I’m talking about here. I suppose God can do it a different
way; He certainly has the prerogative to do that. However, there’s a reason
Jesus gave us the Great Commission. It’s one of the main ways God decided to
speak to an unbelieving world. If you are an unbeliever and you’ve heard
someone tell you about Jesus then you’ve heard God knocking; you’ve heard God
calling. If you’re reading this then God is knocking; God is calling. The only
question is, will you answer If You Hear
His Voice?
Now to my brothers
and sisters in Christ, we tend to take God’s voice in our lives for granted. We
spend so much of our time talking to God or more likely talking at God and
calling it prayer that we seldom take the time to listen. And when we aren’t
busy talking to God or at God, we’re busy running from God; sometimes literally
but certainly metaphorically. We run from God when we are disobedient; when we
don’t put into practice what we say we believe; when we let go of God and hold
on to our sin. Again, I’m not casting stones because this describes all of us
to some extent and at some point along our journey of faith. But the same hope
that was available to us before we became believers is still available to us as
believers even while our sins swirl around us like storm clouds. It can be hard
to hear God knocking; God calling in the midst of the storms of your life but
He’s there; always there knocking, calling and waiting. Will you answer? Will
you turn away from your sins and instead turn back toward God? I don’t know
where you are in your walk with Christ. I don’t know your struggle. I don’t
know your sins nor do I care to know your sins. I have my own to deal with. The
only thing I want to ask you is this: Are you still listening for God’s voice
or are you afraid you might hear Him speaking to you? Before you answer, I want
you to stop and listen. Is God calling to you? What will you do today If You Hear His Voice?
[1] Thomas
D. Lea, Hebrew & James—Holman New
Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), p. 57.
[2] David A.
deSilva, An Introduction to the New
Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2004), pp. 793-794.
[3] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 1019.
[4] William
L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8—Word Biblical
Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), pp. 87-88.
[5] George
H. Guthrie, Hebrews—The NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), p. 136.
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