READ: Heb. 3:7-19: … Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion … So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ Beware, brethren … For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
This text is very compelling and admonishing. What happened to Israel in the wilderness can also occur in the New Testament church. Israel collectively hardened their hearts against the words of the LORD and faced His destructive wrath. The church is warned that among its members, there may be a corrupt heart without genuine faith, leading them to apostatize from the living God.
What is the first sign of this? Recognizing it is important because within the church, there is a responsibility to admonish one another and ensure that no one falls away. The very first visible sign of apostasy can be a decreasing frequency of opening the Bible, becoming careless in reading and prayer. It can also manifest as continued Bible reading and church attendance but in a more formal, habitual manner. In both cases, the living bond of faith with God is at risk, becoming weaker.
The next step might be that the Word increasingly passes you by, and you start to follow paths that deviate from God’s Word. You see less and less what truly matters in this life. The likelihood that you’ll allow yourself to be confronted with this behavior becomes more challenging as you become hardened. Unless the Lord prevents it, rejection of the living God, as Heb. 3 speaks of, may follow.
Heb. 3:12-14 also points out the way to prevent this. It is the path of mutual encouragement, consolation, admonishment, and correction. God has given us to each other for this purpose and has given us His Spirit to build one another up in the most holy faith (Jude 20). In this way, we can, under God’s blessing, hold unwaveringly to God’s steadfast promises we have received in Christ (Ephesians 4:16).
Which petition corresponds to this passage of Scripture?
Singing: Ps. 95:3,4