Sermon Tone Analysis

Parenting is not easy.

I’m first to admit that there are many times when I failed and I often ask for Jesus’ help.

But there was a time when I think I did what I should have done.

There were a couple of weeks that our son was incredibly disobedient.

It didn’t matter how we correct him; he would willfully disobey over and over.

It got to the point that we were concerned, and we were thinking about what could be affecting him.

But nothing we did seemed to help.

So, one night I was done with his disobedience, and talk with him, with deep emotions for him and at the same time great disappointment and tears, I told him: “don’t you know that we love you and care for you, we give you so much, but in response you are despising us, rejecting and being disobedient to us.

You need to stop being so disobedient, you need to show respect and love to us and to God.”

Through much prayer, he did get out of that phase.

Because I love him, I had to give him a strong warning.

Because God loves us, He also gives us a strong warning here in Hebrews.

There are five warnings in the book of Hebrews.

We studied the first one in chapter 2:1-4.

The second warning is in chapter 3, verses 7 to the end of the chapter, verse 19.

For the last two weeks, we studied v1-6 of chapter 3. Now there is a quote that goes from v 7 to verse 11, and then there is a commentary on that quote from v 12 – 19.

My initial intent was to cover the whole section v 7- 19.

However, we will look at this section on two different Sundays.

Today we will first study just the quote, there is so much here that we can learn, be reminded, and be warned.

Before the author quotes, he says:

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says…

It starts with the word “therefore”, indicating that the author is connecting the previous verses 1-6 with this section.

In this context, we see that in v 6 the author gave us the command to fix our thoughts on Jesus because He is greater than Moses.

If there were consequences for not listening to Moses, how much greater will be the consequences if we don’t pay attention to Jesus?

Therefore, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

The connection between comparing Jesus to Moses and this quotation and commentary is to warn the listeners of this letter, so that they, and more importantly, we don’t act in unfaithfulness as the wilderness generation did.

Then v 7- 11 quote Psalm 95.

However, before the author quotes, he gives an unusual statement: “as the Holy Spirit says”.

A similar phrase was used two other times in the Hebrews letter when he is quoting Scripture.

(Heb 9:8; 10:15).

When the author quotes Scripture saying “as the Holy Spirit says” He is shouting a reminder that the Bible is God’s words.

He is saying these words are not just words.

These words are life-giving because they are from God.

It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the human authors to write exactly what God intended and to preserve it for centuries and centuries.

2 Peter 1:20-21 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Heb 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

2 Timothy 3 16:17 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God.

All scripture is breathed out by God.

Just pause to consider this… the author of Hebrews is writing Scripture as he is listening to God and then he quotes the Old Testament.

The author is in awe of the fact that God spoke to the Israelites in the wilderness, then many years later through the Psalm, then to the first-century readers, and God continues to speak to us today through His word.

We are daily being transformed through our reading and studying of God’s word.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us as we read His word.

Because you do believe this and live out this reality I encourage you to continue steadfastly holding Scripture as the very words of God.

We often ask God to speak to us or wonder what He tells us.

Well just as this NT author states when he quotes the OT… God says everything in Scripture.

So as you do your daily readings, or maybe you are reading through a yearly reading plan if your attention is caught in one verse, but in your plan, you are supposed to read more, just stop and pay attention and reflect on the verse that caught your attention.

It is better to pay attention and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through one verse than to read 10 chapters without knowing what you just read.

Here in Hebrews, the author gives us an example, he models to us how we should study.

We need to do two kinds of reading of Scripture, fast and slow.

The fast reading, we are reading big portions of Scripture to increase our overall knowledge of Scripture and to have a good grasp of the big picture.

I see this by the amazing knowledge of the author of recalling different passages and knowing the context of the passages as well.

The slow reading is what we see as the author quotes a section.

He is pausing to let the Holy Spirit speak through a familiar passage and apply it to his life then he was allowing God to use Scripture to direct his steps then God used it to also continue to direct our steps today.

When the author states “as the Holy Spirit says” he uses the verb say in the present and not the past tense, he could have said as the Holy Spirit said in psalm 95.

But “says” is in the present tense.

This indicates that the Holy Spirit spoke through Scripture to the original audience.

Furthermore, it tells us that today the Holy Spirit speaks to God’s people when we read His word.

Therefore, when we do our Bible reading before we read, we can confidently pray and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

Whether it be teaching, rebuking, correcting, or training us in righteousness.

We can pray confidently because this is His will for us, to be transformed by His Spirit through His word.

So, with this “head spinning” though regarding the never-ending amazingness of God’s word let’s go back to v7 and the quotation from Psalm 95:7-11.

Sidenote, this doesn’t happen often, but the quotation and the source have the same verse numbers 7-11, both in Heb 3 and Psalm 95.

This number repetition doesn’t have any meaning, it is just interesting that the same numbers were appointed to the same words.

However, we cannot infer anything about this because the verse numbers and chapter division are not inspired, they are helpful tools for us to easily locate the words of Scripture.

If we would put these two Scriptures side by side, Psalm 95 and Heb 3, we will notice some differences.

There are three main differences between these texts.

First, Psalm 95:8 mentions Massah and Meribah, while in Heb 3:8 when it quotes instead says in the rebellion and during the time of testing.

The reason for this difference is that the author in Heb is quoting not from an English translation, but a Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint.

(sep-too-uh-jint) In this translation, the words Massah and Meribah are not transliterated but translated by their meaning as in the rebellion and time of testing.

Why, did the Holy Spirit ordain this difference here?

The words Massah and Meribah have no significance for us unless we are reading them in the context of Exodus 17, which describes the origin of these words.

However, for us when we read Heb 3, what matters is that the Israelites were in rebellion, they were tested by God and a heart of stone was found.

If God will bring you to the fire to test your heart, what is going to be found?

A soft heart to the Lord, or a stone hard heart?

The second difference is a slight Greek alteration that changes the punctuation in v10, which changes the placement of the word “for forty years” with the previous phrase.

This slight alteration changes the meaning of forty years as of a time of God’s wrath as it is written in Psalm 95 to a time when people witness God’s work of grace and blessing for forty years.

The author of Hebrews is not careless or altering God’s word, because in Heb 3:17 the author mentions these forty years as a time of God’s anger.

So, which is it, years of anger or seeing God’s work?

It seems that the author saw these 40 years as both, a time of testing, with God’s blessings and anger being exhibited at the same time.

What is the Holy Spirit saying here in this change?

That the more we are given the more we will have to give an account.

Luke 12:48 “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

We were given so much through Jesus, we have experienced His grace and mercy day by day.

He answered so many prayer requests.

He has been with us each step of the way.

What will be the consequence if we don’t live accordingly?

What will we deserve if we disregard Jesus each day?

The third and last change between Psalm 95 and the quote in Heb 3 is in v10, there is a change from this to that, before the word generation.

This is also an intentional change because the author of Hebrews was contextualizing the Psalm to the hearers of the letter.

Indicating the Holy Spirit spoke to that generation, but now He is speaking to this generation.

He is speaking to you.

What is your response when God corrects and rebukes you?

How are we going to respond when God put us in our place and exalts Himself for His name’s sake?

Are you going to rebel?

Are we going to harden our hearts?

Or are we going to say You are the Lord, You do as You will, we are unworthy servants.

The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Therefore, these three differences between the texts are not unintentional or careless quotations, but it is an intentional quotation to the audience of this letter.