As – If You Hear His Voice, Do Not Harden Your Hearts The Second Warning 3: 7-19

Today, If You Hear His Voice, Do Not Harden Your Hearts
The Second Warning – 3: 7-19
The Danger of a Hardened Heart: Unbelieving Jews

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts DIG: Why does God warn us? To what incident does the quotation of TaNaKh refer? How did the people of Isra’el harden their hearts? What were the results? What does it mean to turn away from the living God? What is an apostate? Why was God angry with the wilderness generation? What role do believers play in keeping us pointed in the right direction (verse 13)? What will be the outcome of faithfulness (verses 14-18)? What does it mean to enter God’s rest (verses 11, 18-19; 4:1-11)?

REFLECT: What is the only unpardonable sin? What are some practical ways they you can put verse 13 into practice? Does that make you nervous? How might reaching out to others actually help you? What has been one of the most rebellious times in your spiritual life? What resulted from it? Who (or what) helped to bring you back? How would you describe your heart right now? Soft? Hard? Cold? Warm? Why? How could you respond to someone who said they couldn’t live by faith?

From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures warn that the wrath of God is inevitable if people continue to sin. Since Ha’Shem takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezeki’el 18:32), and is not wanting anyone to perish, but that everyone to come to repentance (Second Peter 3:9), He continually warns mankind. This is one such warning. ADONAI warns unredeemed men and women to turn to Yeshua Messiah before it’s too late. Many people know the facts of the gospel but have never committed themselves to Jesus Christ. To know the truth but not act on it brings a worse judgment than never to have known at all. This warning is to Jews who knew the gospel, but because of their love of sin or fear of persecution, they had not committed themselves to what they knew to be true. This is the second of five warning passages (to see link click Ag – The Audience of the Book of Hebrews).

It is as if there was a fire in a hotel and people are on the tenth floor. Because there is a net below, the firemen are yelling, “Jump, jump.” But they do not jump. They hesitate. They are well aware of the danger and they know the net is their only hope, but the do not act on what they know to be true and necessary. They might be concerned about saving some of their possessions, or perhaps they think they can find another way out. Some might even be concerned about how they would look while jumping. But the point is this: simply knowing about the danger and knowing the way out of it will not save them. If they don’t jump they will die. When your life is at stake, doing nothing shouldn’t be an option.⁹¹

The illustration of unbelief: The writer gives us a picture of what he is talking about from Psalm 95:7-11. Although David wrote this Psalm, it speaks about the time of Moshe. It is a moving example of the problem many Jews faced in the time of the early Messianic Community. It describes Isra’el’s disobedience and rejection of ADONAI in the Exodus wanderings. David used this story to warn his people of against unbelief. A thousand years later the writer to the Hebrews used it for the same purpose. Nearly two thousand years later the warning is still valid.

Therefore, as the Ruach ha-Kodesh says. The word therefore reaches back to the three preceding arguments. In view of the fact that Messiah is better than the prophets (1:1-3), better than the angels (1:4-14), and better than Moses (3:1-6), the warning is: Today, if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your hearts. The word today, of course, indicates urgency. In other words “right now!” These Hebrews were already hardening their hearts. Inspired by the Ruach, the author urged them to stop, turn, and repent. Today lasts only as long as there is an opportunity to decide. When the heart is soft, when the conscience is sensitive, when the intellect is convinced about Messiah – that is the time to decide. Otherwise that person’s heart will become spiritually hard, stubborn, and insensitive. The gospel no longer has any appeal. When a person’s today is over, it’s often too late.

Don’t harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing (see the commentary on Exodus Cu – Strike the Rock and Water Will Come Out of It) in the wilderness where you put God to the test (3:7-8 CJB quoting Psalm 95:7b-8 CJB). It was if the author was saying, “Don’t do what the children of Isra’el did even after they had seen proof of God’s power and care for forty years. They continued in their disbelief. Don’t do that! You never know how long you will have to decide.” In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). God’s time for salvation is always today.

In his earlier ministry D.L. Moody often would end his message with, “Go home and think about what I’ve said.” One night in Chicago he told the people to do this and come back the next night ready to made a decision. That night the great Chicago fire of 1871 broke out, and some who had been in his congregation died. That was the last time he told anyone to think over the claims of Christ and make a decision later. Today signifies the present time of grace. People today, as in the time of Moody, and in the time of the Hebrews, and in the David, and in the time of Moses, never know how long that time of grace will be for them.⁹²

Unbelief never has enough proof. Asking for more proof is merely a pretext, an excuse, and a delaying tactic. The Israelites kept testing God, and the time of testing lasted forty years (Exodus 17:1-2). Yes, your fathers put Me to the test; they challenged Me, and they saw My work for forty years (3:9 quoting Psalm 95:9-10a CJB)! The Greek word test (peirazomai) means to put to the test to see what good or evil may be in a person. What an insult it flings in the face of an all-loving, all-powerful God. The first century readers of this letter are warned not to take that same attitude toward YHVH. Yes, they were being bitterly persecuted because of their profession of faith in Messiah, but they needed to trust ADONAI in the midst of it all and not harden their hearts against Him.⁹³

The Israelites thought they could go their own way and do their own thing, but they couldn’t. Sin is deceiving. It takes you further than you want to go, and costs you more than you want to pay. Sin makes darkness seem light, bitter seem sweet, slavery seem like liberty, and wrong seem right. Most people do not need more proof that ADONAI is real or that Yeshua is His Son. They need to hate and repent of their sin and to commit themselves to Him. A God who is continually tested will never be accepted. The one who tests God toady does so for the same reason that the Israelites did in Moshe’s day – to put Him off, because they love their sin, their own way, their own plans far too much to give them up for God’s Way (Acts 9:2).⁹⁴

Therefore, I was disgusted with that generation – I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, they have not understood how I do things” (3:10 CJB quoting Psalm 95:7b-8 CJB). The objects of God’s loathing were the rebels, that generation that perished in the wilderness. They could not, and did not, enter into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 12:9; Psalm 132:8, 14). “In My anger against Isra’el’s sin I swore that they would not enter My permanent rest in Canaan,” in contrast to the slavery of Egypt (Hebrews 3:11 CJB quoting Psalm 95:10b-11 CJB). It is God’s rest that He would give to His people. It refers to the permanent and tranquil rest promised Isra’el in Canaan if they obeyed His Word. Unfortunately, even the generation that entered the Land enjoyed no permanent rest because of sin and was taken into captivity. The remnant that returned from the exile was governed by successive Gentile empires until 70 AD when it was scattered over the then known earth.⁹⁵ Ultimately, God’s chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6) will never occupy all the Land that ADONAI had promised them, nor enjoy the shalom that He said would be theirs until the Messiah comes and institutes His thousand-year reign (see the commentary on Revelation Fj – My Chosen People Will Inherit My Mountains).

The invitation to end unbelief: Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there will not be in any one of you an evil heart lacking trust, which could lead you to turn away (Greek: the root word is from histemi meaning to stand off from) from the living God (3:12 CJB)! And that is exactly what some of them were doing, standing aloof from YHVH (see the commentary on Jude Ah – Godless People Have Secretly Slipped In Among You). The ideas is not of departing, but standing aloof from. Our word apostasy is derived from a form of this Greek word. Some of the Jews in this Messianic community, should they renounce their professed faith in the B’rit Chadashah and go back to the Levitical sacrifices, would be apostatizing. Their choice was clear: Levitical sacrifices or the crucified Messiah!

The phrase brothers and sisters is not a reference to believers; when the writer addresses believers, he refers to them as brothers and sisters whom God has set apart (3:1 CJB). Here he merely addresses fellow Jews. He warns them that if they reject Yeshua as Messiah, they are rejecting God. They were on the verge of faith, but had not committed. They had rejected the wooing of the Holy Spirit. This is the only unpardonable sin (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Em – Whoever Blasphemes Against the Holy Spirit Will Never Be Forgiven). They were in grave danger.

No matter how close you are to faith in Jesus Christ, if you never commit yourself to Him, you have an evil heart of unbelief. Your punishment will be even greater because you have departed from that which you knew to be true. Hebrews 6:6 says: It is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance. They turned away from the Truth and from life itself. When a person hears the truth of Jesus Christ, acknowledges that it is true, and then turns their back and walks away . . . there is nothing else Ha’Shem can do.⁹⁶

The instruction against unbelief: Instead, encourage (Greek: parakeleo, meaning come along side to give help) each other every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you will become hardened by the deceit of sin (3:13 CJB). This echoes a well-known exhortation found in the Talmud, “Rabbi Eliezer said, ‘Repent on day before you die.’ His disciples objected, ‘Does one know in advance the day of one’s death?’ He replied, ‘All the more reason to repent today, lest you die tomorrow! In this way, your entire life will be one of repentance’ (Shabbat 153a).”⁹⁷

They were especially urged to help their unbelieving Jewish brothers and sisters by encouraging them not to harden their hearts but to accept Yeshua as Messiah. When a person becomes hardened, they are rarely aware of it. They can hear the gospel over and over again and not respond. But the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. If your heart is not melted by faith, it will be hardened by unbelief.

The old sinful nature suggests that trusting in Christ is no big deal. Becoming a believer in Yeshua is too costly, too demanding, too restrictive, too boring, and, above all, unnecessary. Many lost people think, “I take care of my family, I’m a helpful neighbor and a good citizen. I’m not perfect, but I’m not evil either. I’m not going around robbing banks for heaven’s sake. My life has room for improvement, sure, but it doesn’t need saving.” But God’s assessment is quite different: But those who are righteous will live their lives by faith, and if they shrink back, I will not be pleased with them. However, we are not the kind to shrink back and be destroyed; on the contrary we keep trusting and thus preserve our lives (10:38-39 CJB)!⁹⁸ The choice is clear. Once reaching the age of accountability everyone has the same decision they cannot escape. What do believe about Jesus Christ. Either you believe in Him and who He says He is, or you fall back into hell for eternity (see the commentary on Romans Al – The Evidence Against the Pagan Gentile). You don’t get to heaven by what you do, you get to heaven by what you believe.

None of us are immune to temptation. Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin. ADONAI knows this , so he has assigned us as individuals the responsibility of keeping each other on track. “Mind your own business” is not a phrase that believers should use. We are called and commanded to be involved in each other’s lives. If you know someone who is wavering spiritually right now, it’s your responsibility to go after then and bring them back into the fellowship: If you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back (James 5:19 The Message).⁹⁹

For we have become sharers in the Messiah, provided, however, that we should hold firmly to the conviction we began with, right through until the very end (3:14 CJB). If we really believe the gospel, if we have committed our life to Yeshua Messiah, then at the end of the day, at the end of the year, at the end of our life, our commitment will still stand. The greatest proof of salvation is continuance of faith in Christ. The true believer stands with Jesus: If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples (Yochanan 8:31). When someone departs from the gospel, backs away from the faith they once professed, we can only conclude that they never really believed in the first place. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us (First John 2:19). Staying with the Lord marks the difference between possession and profession.¹⁰⁰

The issue of unbelief: Those who fall short of salvation do so because of unbelief. God’s blessings are available to those who take hold of them by faith (11:1). Some people claim they can’t live by faith – they have a pragmatic, empirical mind that has to have all the facts. However, when you think about it, everyone lives by faith. You live by faith when you eat at a restaurant. You live by faith when you drive a car. No one drives in constant fear that around the next bend they will smash into a forty-foot-high concrete wall; we trust the people who made our highways. When crossing a bridge, we don’t expect it to end halfway out. If you can put your faith in the highway department and the people who prepare your food, you can certainly put your faith and trust in the God of the universe.¹⁰¹

The appeal to turn to the Lord without delay is repeated again for emphasis. Now where it says, “Today, if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion,” who were the people who, after they heard, quarreled so bitterly? Ha’Shem had become angry with all those whom Moshe brought from Egypt who would not believe and used them as an example. At the borders of Canaan they had refused to follow Caleb and Joshua into the Promised Land and exhibited a lack of faith. The inspired author pleads with his readers not to follow that example and suffer the same fate. And with whom was God disgusted for forty years? Those who sinned – yes, they fell dead in the Wilderness! Unbelief forfeits blessing and brings judgment (see the commentary on Jude Aj – The LORD Delivered His People Out of Egypt, But Later Destroyed Those Who Did Not Believe). And with whom was it that He swore that they would not enter His rest? Those who were disobedient (3:15-18 CJB). They were of that non-persuadable type that would not listen to reason, stiff-necked and obstinate. The writer says, “don’t be like them.”¹⁰²

In the final analysis, their disobedience, their insubordination, their rebellion, led to their lack of faith. So we see that they were unable to enter God’s rest because of lack of faith (3:19 CJB). Do you know someone who professes to be a believer but has walked away from the YHVH? On the basis of what you have learned in this teaching, how would you evaluate him or her? Begin to pray for that person, and ask ADONAI to give you an opportunity to share this warning, and the boldness to confront your friend with the consequences of continuing to walk away from God.