Chapter 2 of Hebrews tells us that Jesus qualifies as man’s high priest before God because he himself took on the nature of man and then suffered and tasted death for every man. The next chapter warns us of disobedience again, saying,
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end… (Hebrews 3:7-14 KJV)
Israel under Moses set the pattern for all later-day believers. Each generation before today died before entering God’s kingdom. None were glorified although many earnestly yearned for their new body and believed the Lord’s second coming was at hand. All before us have died in the wilderness of the testing of their faith, but not all have failed. Hebrews 11 lists many champions of faith who prevailed and will receive a “better” resurrection. The Book of Hebrews exhorts us, just as it did the dead Christians before us, to work out our salvation in “fear and trembling” as Paul says. Think of this book as the water (of the Word) that sprinkles (baptizes) the seed of the Spirit in you. Think of it as the Book of the Overcomer.
Which seed did you receive when you believed in Jesus? Which seed are you? Are you that which hears and then immediately forgets or never understood the wonderful truths of God’s Word? Are you that which once heard and were very zealous for the Lord, that is, until temptations or persecutions came your way? Or, again, are you that which walked with God for some time, but then the cares of this world or your desire for riches choked the Word within you? Have you become hardened to God’s Word because of the deceitfulness of sin? Or, have you persevered along the way and continued to bear fruit for the Kingdom?
Every person to whom Hebrews was written once believed. Harden not your hearts as did those in Moses’ day! Do not provoke God in your day of temptation in the wilderness, the wilderness which now is. And why did they and we err and fall into hardness of heart through temptation? Because we have not known God’s ways! Make it your goal today, while it is still called today, to learn something more of God’s ways. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. (Psalms 103:7 KJV) To know God’s ways is to know his mind and is an essential step in becoming like him, which is the goal of our creation and all faith.
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. (Psalms 145:17 KJV)
Blessed is every one that fears the LORD; that walks in his ways. (Psalms 128:1 KJV)
