Israel Rebelled and Missed Entering Their Rest
That is why the Holy Spirit says,
“TODAY WHEN YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DON’T HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS ISRAEL DID WHEN THEY REBELLED, WHEN THEY TESTED ME IN THE WILDERNESS. THERE YOUR ANCESTORS TESTED AND TRIED MY PATIENCE, EVEN THOUGH THEY SAW MY MIRACLES FOR FORTY YEARS. SO I WAS ANGRY WITH THEM, AND I SAID, ‘THEIR HEARTS ALWAYS TURN AWAY FROM ME. THEY REFUSE TO DO WHAT I TELL THEM.’ SO IN MY ANGER I TOOK AN OATH: ‘THEY WILL NEVER ENTER MY PLACE OF REST.’” Psalm 95:7-11
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
Remember what it says:
“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”
And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice?
Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years?
Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness?
And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him?
So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.
Hebrews 3:7-19
Now we need to examine carefully how the pieces go together. Let’s look back at the bigger picture.
I have divided the block of text found in Hebrews 3:1-5:14 as follows:
- Jesus is Greater Than Moses (Heb 3:1-6)
- Israel Rebelled and Missed Entering Their Rest (Heb 3:7-19)
- Don’t Miss Out On God’s Rest Like Israel (Heb 4:1-13)
- Jesus is Our Great High Priest (Heb 4:14-5:10)
- Grow Up and Mature (Heb 5:11-14 . . . )
I told you in the last Gem that when we reached the second and third pericope (above) I would make comment about my division of the block of text and my choice of titles. Some of you have asked me questions about my choice of division and the titles I chose, so we will address that now.
The first of these linked pericope finshes with:
And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
Hebrews 3:6
The table showing the differences in the divisions of the text across four translations in Gem 2055 indicates that the first division is uniformly labelled as Jesus Greater Than Moses with some slight variations. All translations follow this title in one form or another. It is clear that the writer has moved on to his next comparison – Moses. However that is where the uniformity ends. Essentially the versions are divided as to whether to name the next block according to the reoccurrence of “rest” or to pick up the warning the author gives. Here is that table again to make it easy for you to compare the divisions.
Section Headings Across Four Different Bibles
NLT (E-Sword 8.0.1 – 2021) | NIV | NLT (1996) | KJV |
Jesus Greater Than Moses (Heb 3:1-6) | Jesus Greater Than Moses (Heb 3:1-6) | Jesus is Greater than Moses (Heb 3:1-19) | Christ Superior to Moses (Heb 3:1-11) |
A Rest for the People of God (Heb 3:7-4:13) | Warning Against Unbelief (Heb 3:7-19) | Promised Rest for the People of God (Heb 4:1-13) | The Disobedient Generation (Heb 3:12-19) |
Jesus the Great High Priest (Heb 4:14-5:10) | A Sabbath Rest for the People of God (Heb 4:1-13) | Christ is Our High Priest (Heb 4:14-5:10) | The Promise of Rest (Heb 4:1-13) |
Warning Against Apostasy (Heb 5:11-6:12) | Jesus the Great High Priest (Heb 4:14-5:10) | A Call to Spiritual Growth (Heb 5:11-6:12) | Christ the Way to God (Heb 4:14-5:10) |
Warning Against Falling Away (Heb 5:11-6:12) | Warning Against Apostasy (Heb 5:11-6:8) |
The tone at the end of the first of these pericope closes the initial discussion of the household by stating the conditions of us remaining in the household by keeping our courage and remaining confident in our hope in Christ to save us. Then comes a block of text which contains the repetitive word “rest”, leading some publishers to choose to label the pericopes which follow after the repetition. But the writer has not used the word “rest” to begin a discussion on that rest and he is certainly not talking about the Sabbath Rest. Rather he has used the rest to focus initially on the rest they might have gained in the Promised Land, which they failed to gain. But it appears the longer term view of rest is in mind. The rest that will come when Christ returns, our ultimate rest when we gain the eternal prize.
It appears that the predominant tone of the 2nd and 3rd pericope (blocks) are to do with his use of the example of the sons and daughters of God missing the point as a result of their unbelief or disobedience. We will look at those two terms I have italicised in a later Gem. The second pericope is a warning not to follow the example of the earlier Jews who missed out. The third pericope is a reminder or challenge for the Jewish Christians not to follow the example of their ancestors. It is all reminiscent of Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 where he used the behaviour of the ancestors as a warning to what the leaders in Israel were doing just after the time of Christ’s first appearance on earth. Surely that is the whole point of why the writer has used the example of Jewish unbelief in the past to exhort the ones he is trying to persuade not to give up their trust and hope in Christ. That is the reason why I have divided the second and third pericope into two contrastive passages.
Israel Rebelled and Missed Entering Their Rest (Heb 3:7-19)
Don’t Miss Out On God’s Rest Like Israel (Heb 4:1-13)
Yet both passages were centred around the way the Jewish Christians needed to live under the imminent threat of the persecution during Nero’s reign as the Roman Emperor. Looking at it in this way preserves to flow of the text from the discussion about God’s household into the warning not to follow the path of ancient Israel. Rather to hold on to their confidence in the message Christ came personally to give us all. This Son is greater than angels; greater than the prophets who delivered the message in past times, and indeed greater than Moses the Law giver. Hold on to that message and trust.
Now I believe we are ready to tackle the following pericope with a clear sense in mind of what the writer wants to convey to the readers of his letter. The readers he set out to write the letter for, the Jewish Christians facing persecution, and in fact all those who would read his letter down to the 21st Century.
Now is the time to read both sections of the letter from Hebrews 3:7 to 4:13, taking note of the way the segments naturally divide on the basis of tone and content. In the next Gem we will start to investigate the text at a deeper level to see what it had to say to the Jewish Christians of the first century but more importantly to note its relevance to us. Read it over a number of times and let the importance of the words challenge you and equip you for what you might be facing internally or externally.