So, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, don’t have stubborn hearts as they did in the rebellion, on the day when they tested me in the desert. That is where your ancestors challenged and tested me, though they had seen my work for forty years. So I was angry with them. I said, “Their hearts always go off course, and they don’t know my ways.” Because of my anger I swore: “They will never enter my rest!” Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called “today,” so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception. We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end. When it says, Today, if you hear his voice, don’t have stubborn hearts as they did in the rebellion. Who was it who rebelled when they heard his voice? Wasn’t it all of those who were brought out of Egypt by Moses? And with whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And against whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest, if not against the ones who were disobedient? We see that they couldn’t enter because of their lack of faith. Therefore, since the promise that we can enter into rest is still open, let’s be careful so that none of you will appear to miss it. We also had the good news preached to us, just as the Israelites did. However, the message they heard didn’t help them because they weren’t united in faith with the ones who listened to it. We who have faith are entering the rest. As God said, And because of my anger I swore: “They will never enter into my rest!” And yet God’s works were completed at the foundation of the world. Then somewhere he said this about the seventh day of creation: God rested on the seventh day from all his works. But again, in the passage above, God said, They will never enter my rest! Therefore, it’s left open for some to enter it, and the ones who had the good news preached to them before didn’t enter because of disobedience. Just as it says in the passage above, God designates a certain day as “today,” when he says through David much later, Today, if you hear his voice, don’t have stubborn hearts. If Joshua gave the Israelites rest, God wouldn’t have spoken about another day later on. So you see that a sabbath rest is left open for God’s people. The one who entered God’s rest also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own. Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience (Hebrews 3:7— 4:11, CEB)
When did we hear God?
What day is today? It seems the author here is trying to say that at any time when you hear the word of God, you need to listen. Today, if you hear Their voice, do not have stubborn hearts.
“Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God.” Our hearts can lead us from following God. Listen for God, and when you hear Their voice, listen. Follow where They lead.
Whenever you hear God.
aSacredRebel 