Hebrews was written for the Jewish people, but it also applies to us.
HEB 3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
It is talking about after their deliverance from Egypt where they had been in slavery. Even so they knew Gods way they chose not to follow it.
HEB 3:10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.' "
You might say his patience with them ran out. God can only look on for so long, there comes a time when he says enough is enough.
When will God's patience run out with us?
Let's read more:
HEB 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
We have a tendency to drift. If we don't stay plugged in to God's word and follow his
guidance, this is bound to happen.
That is why he told us the following:
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
We need to hang in there. We need to encourage each other. It is hard to be a loner Christian, we need each other.
If you just decided to put your trust him you really need others, we can help you and guide you. Its always easier to learn with help from others.
15 As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."
The same way the Jewish people where warned, we have to consider ourselves warned. We are warned to not harden our hearts.
Hardening is a progression not an immediate thing. The more you ignore God, the easier it becomes. You get used to sinning, the more you do it, the less it bothers you. Watch yourself and you will see what I mean.
You say: It will never happen to me. Are you sure?
Read on:
HEB 3:16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
These where people that started out believing in God and drifted away from him. They hardened their hearts. Let's make sure we don't fall in that category. That we go thru the motions, but aren't really who we say we are.
HEB 4:6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."
Conclusion:
Are you truly who you think you are? Or is this YOUR TODAY
It is an easy test: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."
Do you hear that call today?
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