Hebrews Chapter Three, Action & Reaction

 

Hebrews 3:10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ [11] So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

 

We know from verse 9 that “this generation” refers to Israel wandering for forty years when the spies gave a bad report to the congregation. In this we see the difference between genuine faith demonstrated by Joshua and Caleb, and the ten spies who spoke contrarily about Canaan and its insurmountable dangers.

Caleb testified, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it,” Numbers 13:30. But in the very next verse the other spies demoralize the people, saying, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we,” Numbers 13:31. In fact, their utter lack of faith led the congregation to make an effort to select a new leader to bring them back into bondage, Numbers 14:4. Joshua and Caleb, faithful to God’s word, urged the people by pleading with them, “Do not rebel against the Lord,” verse 9. The people were so faithless that they wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb to death, and only God interceding prevented their murders. God’s verdict against Israel was this: “They certainly shall not see the land of which I sore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it,” Numbers 14:23.

 

This pattern of fickleness didn’t change in the time of Christ. Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, we read that, “although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,” John 12:37. Seeing signs and wonders is by no means a proxy for faith. Jesus had many such disciples that chased Him for the miracles; when He taught them a hard lesson, they forsook Him, John 6:66. They were not genuine believers. They saw the miracles and wanted more. Like the wilderness wandering, Israel provoked God to anger by challenging His word. He told them that He would provide for them and lead them into a land, already promised to Abraham their ancestor. As in the time of Christ, from the Exodus until the punishment of forty years of wandering, the Jews had seen many miracles, but refused to believe. Did that mean they were atheists? Not at all. But one can believe that God exists without actually believing what He says. James states that demons believe in God’s existence, but that hardly qualifies as saving faith.

 

These incidents gravely undermine the entire Charismatic/Pentecostal movements that capitalize on signs and wonders. But Scripture makes it clear that signs and wonders do not save; in fact, physical manifestations of God’s power can make people chase Him for a prize rather than for truth. Satan, too, can manufacture signs and lying wonders to deceive the unwary. Focusing one’s ministry on signs and wonders is, to say the least, dangerous and unprofitable to those involved. Christians are delivered to a “form of doctrine,” (Romans 6:17) namely the gospel which one must believe to be saved. This gospel is about a Man, Jesus Christ, and what He has done on our behalf, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4. The following verses reveal the historicity of the gospel’s claims, that Peter, James, and hundreds more saw the risen Christ after His death on the cross. It was this witness, this testimony that fueled the Christian faith in the first century, not signs and wonders, though God did provide them to validate the testimony of the apostles. Yet Paul affirmed that the gospel, NOT signs and wonders, was the power of God to salvation for everyone who believed, Romans 1:16.

 

The crux of Hebrews 3:7-11 is action verses reaction. “Today, if you will hear His voice,” we are told, do not harden your hearts. The opposite would be to soften our hearts, to be receptive, responsive to what we are hearing. We heard God’s voice in the Bible and from the testimony of the saints who preach it. Israel heard God’s voice directly from God, and secondarily through Moses. Today, this very day, when you hear His voice, act upon it, 2 Corinthians 6:1, 2. Or, like Pharaoh, we can be reactive to God’s word. His light, His truth, brings to the surface our own sinful inadequacies and things we would rather keep hidden, or pretend are normal. Pharaoh, in his pride, contested God, and only seemed to repent when fear compelled him. When the fear dissipated, so too did his repentance. Fear cannot be our compulsion to believe; I would go so far as to say belief under threat of such fear is illegitimate. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, taught compulsion of infidels by threat of death; but such compulsion to Islamic faith fails because it doesn’t reach the heart. God compels by sending His Son to die in our stead on the cross, to take sin’s penalty for us, and in turn clothe us with Christ’s righteousness. We have forgiveness of sin through Jesus. God’s motivation is love, not fear, and He gave us the gospel to spread in the spirit of that same love.

 

Israel moved God to anger and since they did not want His mercy, instead they received His wrath. They have known His ways, we are told. Someone who claims to follow you but knows nothing of your ways is a self-revealed hypocrite and liar. I cannot believe in a God I do not know. I cannot worship such a God. But then when I learn about Him a decision is forced upon me. I act or react. I either believe what He tells me about my spiritual condition and the remedy He provides in His Son, or I reject it. By rejecting it I in turn reject the God who vouchsafed its efficacy. Israel, for their part, rejected God by refusing to trust that He would provide. Their faith endured only as long as the miracle did. When hardship intruded faith vanished. God disciplined this faithless group by forbidding them entrance in Canaan, the land of rest He provided for them.