Heb 3:14-19 | KingComments | STEP | It is a good thing to repeat that in this letter everyone is addressed who confesses to belong to God’s people. In the first place it is about believing Hebrews, Jews who came to faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, given by God. They are familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament. They learnt from that about the coming of the Messiah. When the Lord Jesus came, they believed in Him as the Fulfiller of all God’s promises to His earthly people of which they were part. But the Lord Jesus was rejected. By that their faith was severely put to the test. They do not see the Lord Jesus, but to faith He certainly is there, namely in heaven. They found themselves on earth. Instead of finding themselves in the millennial kingdom of peace, that was to start with the coming of the Messiah, they are mocked and persecuted by their unbelieving fellow countrymen. They had to learn that the fulfillment of the promises was postponed. That fulfillment is sure, only there is still a way of faith to go before it happens. Here you see the parallel with the wilderness journey that the people of Israel made from Egypt to Canaan. You travel with God’s people through the world on the way to the promised blessing of rest. In this letter the world is pictured as a wilderness, the territory of trials of faith, accompanied by temptations through worldly and religious seductions. . You are one of the “partakers of Christ”. The writer sees himself as one of them. He speaks about “we”. Then that conditional “if” appears again ( ), through which it seems that it is still not sure and that it will only be sure if you have made a certain performance. That performance is here: “Hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” Again I want to make it clear that it is different from making a performance. You ought to discern again two things clearly. On the one side, a person who once has become a child of God through conversion and faith, remains a child of God for ever. If a person is a child of God, his life must and will show this. Therefore on the other side it becomes clear through trials whether someone is really a child of God. On the one side each believer is a companion of Christ, but on the other side, not everyone who outwardly belongs to God’s people is a believer. The latter will be evidenced by perseverance. Although trueness is assumed, there is room left that the confession is only a lip confession, with no life from God present. Therefore hardships are the test whether there is real faith with the confessor. To a true believer hardships are not hindrances for faith, but on the contrary it is a motivation to show faith. Such a person has started the journey of faith with assurance and he will continue with assurance. A lack of assurance in God causes a person to doubt his salvation. Then the awareness of His love, His power or His concern for us is not there anymore. The assurance has disappeared. The hope and the appreciation for intangible things are diminishing, while the appreciation for tangible things is increasing. The exhortations are meant to keep you in the assurance you have and to persevere in that. They are not meant to stop fear and doubt. The letter is not addressed to doubting Christians or people who still do not have total assurance in God. I again went into details here because I know that young Christian believers, and even older Christian believers also, may struggle with these things. I hope that it has also helped you to understand the writer’s arguments better. . The writer repeats ( ) the essence of the quotation from Psalm 95 to make the reader aware of the power of it. The danger the Hebrew confessors were exposed to – and to which we are exposed in Christendom –, was the same as that of their ancestors when they were in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. To be able to face this danger it is a crucial thing to listen to God’s voice. You hear His voice if you read His Word and in the meetings where His Word is preached. By subsequently doing His will you will be kept from a hardened heart and from provoking God. . To emphasize his exhortation more, the writer asks three questions in . In these three questions he summarizes in three great events from the past the history of the people of Israel. The first question is about the departure from Egypt, the second question refers to the wilderness journey, the third question regards the entry into the promised land. He himself replies to these questions in the form of questions in which the answer is embedded. By teaching in an interrogative sentence he forces his readers to think. It is not the issue to rationally give a good answer; the point is that the question moves the heart. The first question shows that a whole nation can be affected by the sin of unbelief. So not only an individual was involved. This is the embarrassing answer of a whole nation to the mercy of the Lord toward Israel. “All” refers to those who were guided by Moses from Egypt, which means six hundred thousand men together with their households ( ). The gravity of sin is that they became rebellious after they heard God’s voice. That makes them much more responsible than many who live in sin without having heard anything about God and Christ. Therefore the idolatry that is committed by Christians in worshiping Mary and Peter and angels is much worse than the worship of idols as Zeus or Venus by pagans. . The first question deals with the attitude of the people toward God. The second question shows the reaction of God to the sin of the people. It was not only that the whole nation was sinning against God, but they did that all the time for forty years. Therefore God was angry with them the whole time, which was the reason that they who had sinned didn’t reach the promised land. Their “bodies fell in the wilderness”. God didn’t punish them because of only one mistake, but because of their persistent rebellion during the time when His care for them was overwhelmingly evident. . The third question shows that they hardened their heart to the utmost. Even when they were standing at the border of the land, they did not enter the land because of their disobedience. Disobedience is unacceptable to God. He abhors and judges that. He swore because of this evil “that they would not enter His rest”. God cannot possibly connect Himself to disobedience in any way. To bring these disobedient or unbelieving people into His rest would be in contrast with His Being. His rest is only for those who do rest in Him and in His will. . You can see this verse as a conclusion. That conclusion is that their unbelief is the cause of their perishing and of not being able to enter. Unbelief is the lack of trust in God being able to bring them there and that He wanted to bless them. They didn’t know God. He was acting strangely in their eyes. Still God had spoken to them and had revealed them His will and His way. However, when the heart desires other things than only honoring God by trusting Him, which means to believe Him, the blessing will not be obtained. It is not written that they were stopped by God, but that their own unbelief made it impossible for them to enter. They were not able to do that. The inevitable result of unbelief is that it does not take into possession what has been reserved for faith. Unbelief excludes trust. Unbelief robbed the wilderness generation from the rest they were supposed to expect, after they went out of Egypt. The character of unbelief is the attitude of neglecting or forgetting God, acting as if He doesn’t exist, while the everlasting Present One is full of mercy. Unbelief makes God a liar instead of Someone Who speaks the truth in what He promises. Unbelief makes God Someone Who is too weak to fulfill His promises. Unbelief means that He is changeable and that He reconsiders His promises and that He is therefore not the Unchangeable One. Unbelief doubts His faithfulness to the expectations that He raises through His promises. I hope that unbelief will not get a chance to settle in your heart. I rather hope that you are like Caleb and Joshua ( ). Opposite the unbelief of their ten fellow spies and the unbelief of the whole nation, they honored God by keeping His Word as the absolute truth and His power as infinite, His counsel as unchangeable and His faithfulness as that great that He surely fulfills the expectations raised by Himself. Now read Hebrews 3:14-19 again. Reflection: What makes you confident that you will enter God’s rest?

‏ Hebrews 3:14-19

Hold Fast the Assurance Firm Until the End

It is a good thing to repeat that in this letter everyone is addressed who confesses to belong to God’s people. In the first place it is about believing Hebrews, Jews who came to faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, given by God. They are familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament. They learnt from that about the coming of the Messiah. When the Lord Jesus came, they believed in Him as the Fulfiller of all God’s promises to His earthly people of which they were part. But the Lord Jesus was rejected. By that their faith was severely put to the test. They do not see the Lord Jesus, but to faith He certainly is there, namely in heaven.

They found themselves on earth. Instead of finding themselves in the millennial kingdom of peace, that was to start with the coming of the Messiah, they are mocked and persecuted by their unbelieving fellow countrymen. They had to learn that the fulfillment of the promises was postponed. That fulfillment is sure, only there is still a way of faith to go before it happens.

Here you see the parallel with the wilderness journey that the people of Israel made from Egypt to Canaan. You travel with God’s people through the world on the way to the promised blessing of rest. In this letter the world is pictured as a wilderness, the territory of trials of faith, accompanied by temptations through worldly and religious seductions.

Heb 3:14. You are one of the “partakers of Christ”. The writer sees himself as one of them. He speaks about “we”. Then that conditional “if” appears again (Heb 3:6), through which it seems that it is still not sure and that it will only be sure if you have made a certain performance. That performance is here: “Hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

Again I want to make it clear that it is different from making a performance. You ought to discern again two things clearly. On the one side, a person who once has become a child of God through conversion and faith, remains a child of God for ever. If a person is a child of God, his life must and will show this. Therefore on the other side it becomes clear through trials whether someone is really a child of God. On the one side each believer is a companion of Christ, but on the other side, not everyone who outwardly belongs to God’s people is a believer. The latter will be evidenced by perseverance.

Although trueness is assumed, there is room left that the confession is only a lip confession, with no life from God present. Therefore hardships are the test whether there is real faith with the confessor. To a true believer hardships are not hindrances for faith, but on the contrary it is a motivation to show faith. Such a person has started the journey of faith with assurance and he will continue with assurance. A lack of assurance in God causes a person to doubt his salvation. Then the awareness of His love, His power or His concern for us is not there anymore. The assurance has disappeared. The hope and the appreciation for intangible things are diminishing, while the appreciation for tangible things is increasing.

The exhortations are meant to keep you in the assurance you have and to persevere in that. They are not meant to stop fear and doubt. The letter is not addressed to doubting Christians or people who still do not have total assurance in God.

I again went into details here because I know that young Christian believers, and even older Christian believers also, may struggle with these things. I hope that it has also helped you to understand the writer’s arguments better.

Heb 3:15. The writer repeats (Heb 3:7-8) the essence of the quotation from Psalm 95 to make the reader aware of the power of it. The danger the Hebrew confessors were exposed to – and to which we are exposed in Christendom –, was the same as that of their ancestors when they were in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. To be able to face this danger it is a crucial thing to listen to God’s voice. You hear His voice if you read His Word and in the meetings where His Word is preached. By subsequently doing His will you will be kept from a hardened heart and from provoking God.

Heb 3:16. To emphasize his exhortation more, the writer asks three questions in Heb 3:16-18. In these three questions he summarizes in three great events from the past the history of the people of Israel. The first question is about the departure from Egypt, the second question refers to the wilderness journey, the third question regards the entry into the promised land. He himself replies to these questions in the form of questions in which the answer is embedded. By teaching in an interrogative sentence he forces his readers to think. It is not the issue to rationally give a good answer; the point is that the question moves the heart.

The first question shows that a whole nation can be affected by the sin of unbelief. So not only an individual was involved. This is the embarrassing answer of a whole nation to the mercy of the Lord toward Israel. “All” refers to those who were guided by Moses from Egypt, which means six hundred thousand men together with their households (Num 1:46).

The gravity of sin is that they became rebellious after they heard God’s voice. That makes them much more responsible than many who live in sin without having heard anything about God and Christ. Therefore the idolatry that is committed by Christians in worshiping Mary and Peter and angels is much worse than the worship of idols as Zeus or Venus by pagans.

Heb 3:17. The first question deals with the attitude of the people toward God. The second question shows the reaction of God to the sin of the people. It was not only that the whole nation was sinning against God, but they did that all the time for forty years. Therefore God was angry with them the whole time, which was the reason that they who had sinned didn’t reach the promised land. Their “bodies fell in the wilderness”. God didn’t punish them because of only one mistake, but because of their persistent rebellion during the time when His care for them was overwhelmingly evident.

Heb 3:18. The third question shows that they hardened their heart to the utmost. Even when they were standing at the border of the land, they did not enter the land because of their disobedience. Disobedience is unacceptable to God. He abhors and judges that. He swore because of this evil “that they would not enter His rest”. God cannot possibly connect Himself to disobedience in any way. To bring these disobedient or unbelieving people into His rest would be in contrast with His Being. His rest is only for those who do rest in Him and in His will.

Heb 3:19. You can see this verse as a conclusion. That conclusion is that their unbelief is the cause of their perishing and of not being able to enter. Unbelief is the lack of trust in God being able to bring them there and that He wanted to bless them. They didn’t know God. He was acting strangely in their eyes. Still God had spoken to them and had revealed them His will and His way. However, when the heart desires other things than only honoring God by trusting Him, which means to believe Him, the blessing will not be obtained.

It is not written that they were stopped by God, but that their own unbelief made it impossible for them to enter. They were not able to do that. The inevitable result of unbelief is that it does not take into possession what has been reserved for faith. Unbelief excludes trust. Unbelief robbed the wilderness generation from the rest they were supposed to expect, after they went out of Egypt.

The character of unbelief is the attitude of neglecting or forgetting God, acting as if He doesn’t exist, while the everlasting Present One is full of mercy. Unbelief makes God a liar instead of Someone Who speaks the truth in what He promises. Unbelief makes God Someone Who is too weak to fulfill His promises. Unbelief means that He is changeable and that He reconsiders His promises and that He is therefore not the Unchangeable One. Unbelief doubts His faithfulness to the expectations that He raises through His promises.

I hope that unbelief will not get a chance to settle in your heart. I rather hope that you are like Caleb and Joshua (Num 14:6-9). Opposite the unbelief of their ten fellow spies and the unbelief of the whole nation, they honored God by keeping His Word as the absolute truth and His power as infinite, His counsel as unchangeable and His faithfulness as that great that He surely fulfills the expectations raised by Himself.

Now read Hebrews 3:14-19 again.

Reflection: What makes you confident that you will enter God’s rest?