Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Hebrews 3:7-19
In the face of great persecution, the audience of the epistle to the Hebrews was tempted to abandon Christ and return to the old covenant. The author of Hebrews wrote to these Christians in order to encourage them to persevere in their faith in Christ Jesus. So far we have seen him do this by discussing the superiority of Christ to angels and by alluding briefly to Christ’s role as the Great High Priest. Ever conscious of his Jewish-Christian audience, the author has spent several verses demonstrating Christ’s superiority to Moses and, thus, to show the superiority of the new covenant to the old. Now, the author issues a stern warning against abandoning Christ. The author quotes from Psalm 95. He writes that it is the Holy Spirit who spoke in this Psalm. There are two important things in this passage, first, it demonstrates the high view of Scripture the author has. Though David wrote this Psalm, it is the Holy Spirit speaking through David. The words of the Old Testament are the very words of God; second, the author clearly understands that the Holy Spirit is speaking here. God still speaks directly to His people through His Sacred Scripture. The Psalm that is quoted refers to the testing of the Israelites in the wilderness. The “day of testing in the wilderness” refers to the generation who had left Egypt under Moses and was complaining and desiring to return to bondage even though God had graciously redeemed them. God had had enough of their grumbling and determined to prevent that first generation from inheriting the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan. The author is telling his audience not to harden their hearts in rebellion like that first generation who was led out of Egypt. Deliverance from sin under Christ is an even greater exodus. Many Christians think that the Old Testament is irrelevant to their lives. However, the New Testament teaches that the events of the Old Testament are examples for us so that we may avoid evil. Our verses today exemplify this. Study the Old Testament as diligently as you study the New so that you may avoid evil.
Source: S C Ball March 23, 2024
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