HEARING AND RECEIVING

HEBREWS 3:16–19

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Where they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

(Hebrews 3:16).

As we have seen, Psalm 95 warns us that it we hear His voice, we must harken to it and not rebel. Hebrews follows the citation from the Psalms by asking a series of questions. First, he asks, “Who was it who heard and rebelled?” The Israelites heard God thunder the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20). Yet they rebelled, over and over, until God left them to die. This means it is not enough just to have the privilege of hearing God’s voice, which today means growing up in the church and being exposed to the Bible. We must respond to God’s Word with trust.

Second (v. 16b), he asks, “Weren’t the rebels the same people who had been redeemed from Egypt?” The answer is yes. What this meant for them, and means for us, is that being delivered from bondage is not enough. It is not enough to have a one-time conversion and conquer an addiction to drugs, sex, or some other problem. If our faith is not daily faith, it is empty faith.

Third (v. 17a), “Whom was He angry with for forty years?” The people He had redeemed. Believers can provoke God to anger and lose blessings in this life. Moses angered God and did not get to enter Canaan, though he did enter heaven. Some professing Christians may anger God to the point where they are allowed to become apostates, showing that they never really had the root of the matter in them.

Fourth (v. 17b), “Weren’t those who angered God the people who sinned and died in the wilderness?” Yes. The meaning is the same as we have previously seen. The Bible does not teach a simplistic “once saved, always saved” doctrine, as if a person can “receive Christ” and then live as he pleases but still be saved. The Bible teaches that true saints persevere to the end. Unrepentant “saints” and false saints will experience “death” from God; they will suffer judgments.

Finally, verse 18 makes the point that God swore in His anger that those He had redeemed would not enter His rest. God’s own character is at stake in this issue. God would not be righteous if He allowed rebels to enter His rest.

CORAM DEO

Amos 1–3

WEEKEND

Amos 4–9

Should we be looking back to some experience in the past for our assurance as believers? Could that backward glance be deceiving? True faith is expressed in day-by-day trust in God and obedience to Him, following Him to the ultimate Promised Land. Ask God to give you a forward-looking kind of faith.

For further study: Galatians 6:1–10 • 2 Peter 1:3–11 • Revelation 3:7–13

WEEKEND