Today if you hear His voice

Hebrews 3 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus; ² He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. ³ For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. ⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; ⁶ but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the boast of our hope. ⁷ Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; ¹¹ As I swore in My anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’”

¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end, ¹⁵ while it is said,

“Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

¹⁶ For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Today’s text says: “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’”  How much more is the Lord angry with this generation? How much more do we provoke the Lord to anger because of the hardness of our hearts, and we not having seen His works for just forty years, but rather for thousands of years? Our society is filled with fear and anxiety. If we are not yoked to Him, is it any wonder that we do not have rest?

The text says: Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end. Speaking of the deceitfulness of sin, Galatians 5:7-9 says: You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.  If we tolerate sin, if we allow ourselves to be entertained by the very things Christ died to redeem us from, we become desensitized, hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That is the slippery slope of sin, there is never an end to its depravity. As believers we need to encourage each other and be accountable to one another. We need to not allow even a little sin to be acceptable, so that it does not leaven the whole lump. If we are partakers of Christ, then what it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 should be true of us: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We are to keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end. Regardless of what the world does or says, regardless of the depths of depravity, immorality, evil and darkness in the world we are to remain yoked to Christ. In Matthew 24:4-14 Jesus says: “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”  In John 16:33 Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  Romans 12:21 says: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.In the same way, we overcome the evil one, through the goodness of God.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.