Hebrews 3:7-19: Disobedience After the Exodus
Hebrews - Jesus is Greater • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 93 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
Quote
Quote
Evangelical Biblical Theological Commentary
Hebrews Context
The superiority of Jesus the Son to Moses the servant is not a theological abstraction. The previous text concluded with a call to stand firm until the end. Now the author continues in this vein, proceeding to warn his readers in a long section extending from 3:7–4:13, beginning with a fairly long citation from Ps 95:7–11. The warning takes center stage: they must not harden their hearts as the wilderness generation did. The Israelites tested the Lord and resisted him, even though they saw his gracious and saving work for 40 years. As a result, God poured his anger out on them and swore that they would not enter his rest, which is the land of promise.
Scripture
Scripture
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose 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 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Outline
Outline
Hebrews 1-2 - Jesus is Greater Than the Angels
Hebrews 1-2 - Jesus is Greater Than the Angels
Hebrews 1:1-4 - God has Spoken
Hebrews 1:5-14 - The Son is Superior to the Angels
Hebrews 2:1-4 - A Warning
Hebrews 2:5-9 - Lowliness to Crowning Glory
Hebrews 2:10-18 - Jesus has Delivered His Brothers
Hebrews 3:1-4:13 - Jesus is a Greater Rest
Hebrews 3:1-4:13 - Jesus is a Greater Rest
Hebrews 3:1-6 - Jesus is Worthy of More Glory Than Moses
Hebrews 3:7-19 - Disobedience After the Exodus
Hebrews 3:7-11 - Recalling Psalm 95
Hebrews 3:12-15 - Call to Persevere
Hebrews 3:16-19 - The Exodus Generation Disobeys
Purpose of Book
Purpose of Book
Christ, who has accomplished salvation through His atoning sacrifice, is greater than all things; therefore, persevere in true faith and encourage others to do likewise
Christ, who has accomplished salvation through His atoning sacrifice, is greater than all things; therefore, persevere in true faith and encourage others to do likewise
Main Point
Main Point
Do not harden your hearts to rebellion like the Exodus generation
Do not harden your hearts to rebellion like the Exodus generation
Hebrews 3:7-11 - Recalling Psalm 95
Hebrews 3:7-11 - Recalling Psalm 95
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
Psalm 95 Background
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament Hebrews 3:7–11, 15–19; 4:3–7
Psalm 95 divides into two distinct movements, the first a celebratory song of thanksgiving (95:1–7b), the second a prophetic word of exhortation to the psalmist’s community (95:7c–11).
ESV Expository Commentary
Hebrews–Revelation Comment
Psalm 95 opens (Ps. 95:1–7c) as a call to worship the Lord who is the source of salvation, the great God, the creator of everything, the shepherd of his people—descriptions that Hebrews applies to Jesus the Son (Heb. 2:10; 1:8, 10; 13:20). Then the psalm shifts suddenly from praise to a sobering warning against hardness of heart, drawn from the travesty of Israelite unbelief in the wilderness after the exodus (Ps. 95:7d–11).
Hebrews follows the Septuagint
Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Echoing Exodus 17:7, the Hebrew names Meribah and Massah (which appear in v. 8 of the psalm) are translated in the LXX not as proper names but as “rebellion” and “testing,” so that the specific echo is lost. By using these names, the psalmist had linked the climactic rebellion of Numbers 14 with the original act of defiance in Exodus 17, but our author’s use of the LXX, where that echo does not occur, has the effect of focusing attention only on the incident of Numbers 14, with its disastrous consequence in the loss of the “rest” in Canaan.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Therefore,
This whole section elaborates on Hebrews 3:6 - Holding fast to our confession unlike the Exodus generation of Israelites
Scripture spoken by the Holy Spirit
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Why are we spending time to do this? We believe the Word of God is inspired by God Himself.
Reformed Systematic Theology by Joel Beeke
Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God Doxological Fruit of Applied Revelation
The Word of God reveals the glory of God for the worship of God.
Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God Doxological Fruit of Applied Revelation
Oh, what an indescribable gift God has given to us in his Word! We have the very words of God, the truth of God, the light of God, the glory of God, and the name of God. With this Word, God opens eyes blinded by ignorance, opens ears stopped up by unbelief, breaks the chains of sin, frees the prisoners of Satan, makes the lame to walk in his paths, and raises to life those who were dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord becomes our strength and our song; he is our salvation. With the Word in our hearts and in our mouths, bearing fruit in our lives, we are set free to fulfill the purpose for which God created us: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Today, if you hear his voice
New American Commentary
Hebrews (2) Beware of Unbelief (3:7–19)
This phrase indicates three things: (1) the Holy Spirit speaks in Scripture; (2) the Holy Spirit spoke through Scripture to the author’s original audience; and (3) the Holy Spirit speaks to God’s people today through this text when they read these words.
Right now, this present moment, immediately listen to the voice of God and become obedient
Harden your hearts
Hardening one’s heart through willful rebellion
Your - PLURAL
Day of testing in the wilderness
Reference to Exodus 17:1-7 & Numbers 14
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
Where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
Your - PLURAL
Test
Israel to God
God to Israel
2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
My works
10 plagues in Egypt
Red Sea
Providing water, manna, and quail
The 40 years in the wilderness can be characterized as disobedience
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
Provoked
Always go astray in their heart
This was not a one time occurrence
Rest
8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
They shall not enter my rest
ESV Expository Commentary
Hebrews–Revelation Comment
The oath that the Lord swore in his anger, “They shall not enter my rest,” is expressed grammatically as a conditional clause in Hebrew and Greek, “If they shall enter my rest,” with the consequence implied: “may I myself be accursed and destroyed.” In other words, the force of oaths sworn by “the living God” (3:12) is to put his own life on the line: if those rebels gained access to his land, the Lord would himself willingly undergo a violent death.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
The author’s warning here is the same for Psalm 95 - Do not harden your hearts like the Exodus generation!
Hebrews 3:12-15 - Call to Persevere
Hebrews 3:12-15 - Call to Persevere
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
New American Commentary
Hebrews (2) Beware of Unbelief (3:7–19)
The final paragraph of this chapter (3:12–19) comprises the author’s application of the quotation to his readers. It is primarily hortatory in nature. The situation of the original readers (3:12–14) is compared to that of the wilderness generation (3:15–19).
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Care - Command
Be alert
Urgent warning
Brothers
Family ties to one another as a result of the work of Jesus
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
Lest there be
Do
Any of you
New International Greek Testament Commentary
The Epistle to the Hebrews 3:12. A Warning against the Loss of Faith
The warning is addressed to the community as a whole. The references to individual members (ἔν τινι ὑμῶν here, and τις ἐξ ὑμῶν in v. 13; cf. 4:1–6; 10:25; 12:15f.; 1 Cor. 10:8–10) express, not so much the author’s concern that not even a single member should go astray, as his conviction, expressly stated in 12:15, that one unbelieving member could corrupt the whole community.
Evil, unbelieving heart
The heart was the center of an individual
You - PLURAL
Fall away
Like the rebels of Israel
Living God
Opposed to dead idols
15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today”,
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today”,
Exhort - Command
② to urge strongly, appeal to, urge, exhort, encourage
The author commands the congregation to minister to one another through warnings and encouragements
Today
Right now
That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Why is the congregation command to exhort one another?
You - PLURAL
Sin leads people away from God
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Amplifies Hebrews 3:6
6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
We have come
Present reality since conversion to Christ
Share in Christ
Participants
As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Your - PLURAL
Reenforces the warning already given
Hebrews 3:16-19 - The Exodus Generation Disobeys
Hebrews 3:16-19 - The Exodus Generation Disobeys
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose 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 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
10 Plagues
Exodus 7:14-25 - Nile to blood
Exodus 8:1-15 - Frogs from the Nile
Exodus 8:16-19 - Dust to gnats
Exodus 8:20-32 - Flies
Exodus 9:1-7 - Egyptian livestock die
Exodus 9:8-12 - Boils
Exodus 9:13-35 - Hail
Exodus 10:1-20 - Locusts
Exodus 10:21-29 - Darkness
Exodus 12:29-32 - Death of the Firstborn
Exodus
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
37 And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
Red Sea
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
Bitter Water
Exodus 15:22–25 (ESV)
22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
No Food
1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”
No Water Part II
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
Who sinned
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
Anchor Yale Bible Commentary
According to Hebrews, the failure of the wilderness generation to enter the promised land did not reflect God’s faithlessness, but their own. The term “unbelief” (apistia, cf. 3:12) does not mean doubt, but is akin to the evil that is manifested in the hardening of one’s heart (3:15), in rebellion (3:16), testing, and sin (3:17). The intensity of the term is designed to startle listeners into awareness of the need for faith, so they do not “drift” (2:1) from Christ or his community. The “ignorant and wayward” have in Christ a merciful high priest (4:14; 5:2), but Hebrews does not allow that grace eliminates the need for perseverance.
Unbelief
Hardness of heart - sin
Closing Quote
Closing Quote
Evangelical Biblical Theological Commentary
Hebrews Bridge
The warning addressed to early Christians still applies today. Believers should be vigilant so that unbelief does not begin to invade our hearts. One of the marks of the church should be daily, mutual encouragement so we aren’t hardened by sin. Such encouragement means believers know one another and share struggles. Perseverance until the end is necessary for salvation. When we read about the wilderness generation, we see what happens to those who disbelieve and disobey. They failed to enter God’s earthly rest. How much more terrible it is to fail to enter the heavenly rest.