Treking Through the Wilderness

           
Hebrews 3-Part 4
While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Hebrews 3:15


LET IT GLOW

There was a time that I wandered around in my own wilderness, four and a half years to be exact. I made the choice to teach at a public school instead of a Christian school, where God wanted me to go. During that trek, things went from bad to worse, job wise and family wise. Finally, my eyes were opened  to what I was doing, living in rebellion.  So many things had lurred me down the wrong path. Looking back, it was actually  a lack of faith, unbelief, disobedience that took me there. Finally, I repented. God was merciful and I was able to get to the right place, His will. So I understand some of what the Israelites went through in the wilderness.

Look at verse 15. It is actually a quote of Psalm 95.
There were two of the twelve spies, that Moses sent to look at Canaan, which returned with a good report about the land. They were Joshua and Caleb. These two spies were the only ones allowed to enter the Promised Land which trusted God to conquer for the Israelites. The other ten said they were giants and they couldn't be conquered. These ten influenced 600,000 men to reject the good report, according to Falwell.

God keeps His promises, friends. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Of course, it is to our advantage that we have the rest of the story and know how it turned out for the Israelites. They conquered the ones who lived in "their" land, one by one. (I'm talking about the younger generation.) It was all divided up among the 12 tribes of Israel (except Levites, the priests) for their land in which to settle.

Do I harden my heart when I hear God's voice speaking to me? Or do I have a soft heart, wanting to obey what God tells me? How about you? Don't we have a tendency to want to pick and choose what we'd like to do? Do we even have a choice? Isn't it rebellion if I don't obey? I really don't wish to return to the wilderness ever again.



LET IT GROW

Who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice?

• Israel in the days of Moses. They were the ones who were slaves in Egypt; the ones who had seen the parting of the Red Sea; the ones who worshiped God; the ones that lived through the 10 great plagues; the ones who didn't have their first born die like the Egyptians did. These were the ones.
• They heard God's voice.
• They were the ones who made God angry for forty years.
• They were the ones who doubted that God could give them the Promised Land of Canaan and didn't go take it, the first generation; the unbelievers.
• They were the ones who sinned.
• Their corpses lay in the wilderness.
• They were the ones to whom God made an oath that they would never enter His rest.
• They are known as the people who disobeyed God; the doubters.

Forty years treking through the wilderness. I don't think it was a picnic. The journey was rough. Poor Moses, he had to put up with  all the complaining and misery.
Rest refers to the heavenly blessedness in which God dwells, and of which he has promised to make persevering believers in Christ partakers after the toils and trial of life on earth are ended. (Thayer's Lexicon)

In Exodus 33, God says to Moses, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
(For further reading, Numbers 13 and 14 gives us an account of the story.)

Gd was angry with the Israelites. They forfeited rest for the rest of their lives. Always on the move.

We see Israel's distrust of God, His power, and His providence; the author of Hebrews shows the evil nature of unbelief, and the sad effects of it; to deter persons from it, and that they might take heed of encouraging it. (John Gill)

The key to entering rest is reveals: belief. The unbelief came first, then the obedience. (See verses 18-19.) When we trust in these things (superiority of Jesus), making them the "food" of our souls, we enter into God's rest. Israel's great failure was to persevere in faith. They ended up falling short-because they did not persevere in faith in God and His promise. Will the passing years wean us away from an on-fire, trusting relationship with the Lord? Or will they only serve to increase our life of trust and relieance on Jesus?
(David Guzik)

I sure don't want to be like the generation that perished in the wilderness. I've had enough of that. I want to walk by faith as He leads. Then I will have rest and peace. How about you?


LET IT GO

Let go of a hard heart; let it be soft toward God.

When I hear God speak to me, obey.

Encourage others to obey God.

Rest in His will for me.