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by Katie Erickson

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).

The author of Hebrews has just quoted a portion of Psalm 95 that encourages the reader to follow the ways of God instead of falling into rebellion against God. He continues on that theme as we begin today’s passage of Hebrews 3:12-19.

This passage starts out with a command to see to it that we don’t have a heart that turns away from God. This verb translated here as “turns away” has the idea of a rebellion - purposefully and intentionally turning away from God and rebelling against Him as a lifestyle choice, not just an occasional mistake. It can also mean to abandon, leave, withdraw, or revolt. We are commanded not to abandon, leave, rebel, or revolt against God - but this is what we end up so often doing in our sin.

What should we do instead, to counter that rebellion? “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (verse 13). The way to keep our hearts right and pointed toward God is to encourage one another every day. Note that it doesn’t say to encourage each other when you meet weekly on Sunday mornings; encourage one another daily.

The phrase “as long as it is called ‘Today’” adds a sense or urgency to this command. Each day often seems to go by very quickly, especially when looking back. Have you encouraged a fellow believer today? How about yesterday? Is this something we’re making a point to do every single day? This is the only way that we can fight against the natural inclination of our hearts to turn away from God and toward the sinful things of this world that seem to so easily draw us in and deceive us.

How can we encourage each other in this way? “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end” (verse 14). This sharing in Christ can also be translated as participating in Christ together. None of us should be trying to be a Christian alone; we’re all in this together! It is important to hold onto that conviction that we had when we first became followers of Jesus. For some people, that was a dramatic and transformational moment, and we need to keep that conviction in mind and encourage one another to not let it go. For others, like myself, coming to faith has been a gradual lifelong process without one defining moment. But God will still give us moments where we have greater confidence in our faith and what God is doing in and through us than in other moments, so we need to hold onto that conviction to get us through the times where we struggle more.

The author then goes back to a quote from Psalm 95:7-8 in verse 15, the beginning of the quote we looked at last week: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Perhaps he thought that quote needed some more explanation, which he then begins to discuss by asking questions in verses 16-18: “Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?” All of these questions relate to the people of Israel. They were in a great position and relationship with God, and then they chose to give all that up to rebel against God.

The first question is who were they who heard and rebelled? This is answered with a rhetorical question that gives us the answer - those who Moses led out of Egypt, the people of Israel. The second question is who was God angry with for 40 years? Again, the answer is Israel, but given in the form of a descriptive question - those who sinned and died in the wilderness. The third question asks about the ones who disobeyed, and again the answer is Israel, of course.

God did so much for the people of Israel, yet they still chose to go their own way and rebel against Him. The depressing conclusion of this passage is found in verse 19: “So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” This is not just God overreacting and getting mad that they disobeyed Him; this is the inevitable outcome of not believing in God. This is true whether applied to the people of Israel wandering in the wilderness, to the first-century Church, to us today, and everyone in between.

This section of Hebrews is a warning for all followers of God for the consequences of falling away from our faith in Him into unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion. We need to continually be on our guard against this, as it is so easy to do! Our enemy, the devil, is constantly working to deceive us, so we need to be in fellowship with other believers so that we can be encouraged and fight that temptation to wilfully rebel against God.

What are you doing in your life to fight that temptation to rebel against God? How are you encouraging others as you walk in faith to keep fighting the good fight to stay obedient to God? I encourage you this week to work on even small ways to encourage yourself and others to stay on the path of faith and obedience.

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