My Achy Breaking Heart

Keep Your Heart Soft

Hebrews 3:7–19

Purpose: To discover how privileged people can fail to reach their spiritual potential.

INTRODUCTION

High school reunions reveal a great deal about how wrong teenage perceptions often are. It takes but a few minutes at such an event to recognize that the “good-looking” kids are aging just as quickly as the rest, that the class clown is struggling with the same serious problems that everyone else has to face, and that the person voted “most likely to succeed” probably hasn’t.

The same dynamics can be observed on the pages of Scripture. Saul, for example, bore all the outward signs of a successful monarch, yet he is remembered most for his failures and his inglorious death. The same can be said for the Israelites whom God rescued from slavery in Egypt. Having just experienced God’s miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea, they surely would have been voted “most likely to succeed” by the people of their day. Yet they all died in failure, never reaching the land God had promised to them and their children. What happened? How could a people with such potential for spiritual success fail so miserably?

Proposition: Unless we keep our hearts soft before God, we will never experience God’s success or rest.

I. ISRAEL MISSED GOD’S REST BECAUSE THEY HARDENED THEIR HEARTS TO HIS WORD (HEBREWS 3:7–11, 16).

A. Hebrews 3:7–19 begins by quoting a portion of Psalm 95, a song of praise and instruction. Notably, the author of Hebrews passes over the first part of the psalm, which worships God for his goodness, and includes only the final warning not to disobey (Hebrews 3:7–11; cf. Psalm 95:7–11). There is a time to praise, and there is a time to listen. Clearly this is one of the latter times.

B. The historical event to which the psalm refers was Israel’s complaint against God at places called Meribah and Massah, just a few days after crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 17:1–7). The author of Hebrews translates these two place names with their actual meanings: “rebellion” and “testing.” About a year later, the people refused to enter Canaan, preferring the bad report of ten spies over the good report of two spies who trusted God to do what he had said. This is when God sentenced them to forty years in the desert, where everyone twenty and older would die (Numbers 13, 14). The Israelites’ rebellion was so continuous that Psalm 95 brings the two incidents together.

C. Hebrews asks, “Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?” (3:16). These people enjoyed tremendous advantages—God’s presence, visible manifestations of God’s power, and God’s provision for their daily needs. Yet advantages do not guarantee success. The Israelites failed miserably and never enjoyed God’s success or rest. What can we learn from their example?

II. WE CAN AVOID ISRAEL’S FAILURES BY KEEPING OUR HEARTS SOFT BEFORE GOD (HEBREWS 3:13, 14).

A. We face the same danger that the Israelites faced. It is possible for our hearts to become hard, as theirs did. Thus we are warned not to have sinful, unbelieving hearts. Some people are inclined more toward certain sins, but all are inclined toward some sin. But God has given us the power to choose to obey him. We have the power to reject sin’s deceitfulness and to hold tightly to the One who promises us life (Hebrews 3:13, 14).

B. We can also help one another avoid becoming hardhearted. Hebrews 3:13 tells us to “encourage one another.” We are not designed by God to live life alone. We need others, and others need us. That is why the image of the church as a body is so appropriate (Romans 12:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 12:12–26). We can and should help the other members of the body remain soft and pliable to God’s leading and instruction.

Note also that we are to do this on a “daily” basis. Church today tends to make us nudge one another weekly, not daily, which is better than nothing. But God would have us encourage one another every day, keeping ourselves and others tender before God and his Word.

C. We should also remember what we have come to share in Christ (Hebrews 3:14). Think how diligent we would be if the president of our country or our business asked us to participate in a project of his. Jesus has made us partners with him in this project of spreading faith, of bringing many children to glory (2:10).

D. Finally, we must hold on firmly until the end (Hebrews 3:14). The Israelites started out well, but their disobedience and unbelief disqualified them from enjoying God’s rest. Hebrews understands the words “Today … do not harden your hearts” to imply that God’s rest remains open even now (3:7; cf. 4:1). Thus we would do well to remember King Ahab’s words that “One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off” (1 Kings 20:11). Only those whose hearts are softened by faith will enjoy God’s promised rest.

CONCLUSION

Don’t be satisfied with being the most likely to succeed. Succeed. Keep your heart soft to God and his will. And as you do, help someone else stay faithful. In so doing, you will begin to enjoy the rest God has promised to those who love and obey him.[1]