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
Hebrews 3:7-11
I began this Gem the same way I did the other pericope by picking out the elements that we need to address in blue. But as I went through the passage most words ended up blue, so I concluded that was not the best way to approach this passage. So I have chosen to highlight certain features in contrastive colours as we move through the passage. You will note that I have used light blue and dark blue contrastively to distinguish one phrase or set of words from another. If I did not do that you would have no way of determining which phrase I am focusing on.
To begin with I want to focus just on the quote from Psalm 95 and highlight for you what the writer of Hebrews has done. Here is the whole of Psalm 95.
- Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
- Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
- For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.
- He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains.
- The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.
- Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,
- for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!
- The LORD says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
- For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did.
- For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts 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 95:1-11
The Psalm is set in two blocks. The first block is an exhortation to give the LORD praise and thanksgiving for all He has done. The second block is a rebuke for Israel’s waywardness. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews doesn’t quote any of the positive elements from the Psalm but rather goes straight to the rebuke. The Jews know this Psalm well. It is one of their thanksgiving songs, with a reminder not to harden their hearts to the LORD as the ancestors once did. The writer of Hebrews focuses only on the rebuke and includes nothing from the first segment. That says a lot!
Notice the repetition of “Today” in verses 7, 13 and 15. I am not going to begin with the purpose of “today”. I will leave addressing that until we come to the latter examples of it. The first thing to do is to find out what the writer of Hebrews is thinking about. I trust I have made it clear by using the contrastive blue colours to highlight the pieces as they should be highlighted. Pick them out and consider them. Do you see the writer is thinking of another portion of the Old Testament, not just Psalm 95. The full Psalm gives you the clue to what was in:
- the writer’s mind
- the Psalmist’s mind
- the LORD’s mind.
The Psalm from which the passage is quoted gives you specific clues [Meribah and Massah] whereas the writer of the letter to the Hebrews has used the general terms “in the wilderness“, “for forty years“. Take some time before the next Gem to ponder the significance of this and refresh your mind on the specifics of the events that all three, {the author of Hebrews, the Psalmist and the LORD} were thinking about. The way the writer of Hebrews has put it highlights the nature of what was happening.
In the meantime, back to the present day, I need to address something from Gem 2057 which four of you commented on, questioned or queried. Two by way of email, one by way of the comments section on the website and the fourth was Tania while reading through the Gem and querying whether that was really what I meant, it seemed to be a mistake. I had also told you that there were some shocks in Gem 2057. Shock number one was the fact that Moses, the great Prophet and Law Giver, the foundational figure of Judaism, was merely a servant in the household. The Jews would be as shocked by that as the Muslims would be if Mohammad’s name was used in that way. But the second surprise is what I did with:
“His Work (Christ’s) was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.’ What a powerful statement! God is always and forever orchestrating all things. Do you notice the subtlety of what the writer has said?”
I expected somebody to comment. I was not disappointed, I had four of you respond. Four out of 400 plus is not particularly good but perhaps indicative of more who pondered it but didn’t say anything. Mike Clancey nailed his colours to the mast and commented on the website to Gem 2057. Another couple of readers commented on email to the effect as I quote from one of the emails but will leave the name of the source anonymous:
“I found it a little bit confusing when in your gem, you mentioned in this verse”His Work (Christ’s) was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.” while if we look the context starting from here “Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house.” -> does it possibly mean “His work” means Moses’s work? and capital H in His just to indicate the beginning of sentence not referring to Jesus.”
R
All valid questions and comments. I would have been disappointed if no one had made comment or queried it. The fact that four of you made comment tells me you are reading the Gems critically. After all, I have named what I do “Berean Insights”, the insights we get if we approach the Scriptures from the point of view of the Bereans who “were more [honourable, open-minded, noble, nicer] than the Thessalonians because they received the Word from Paul but then checked out what he had to say against Scripture (read: Old Testament) to see if what he said was correct” (Acts 17:11) That is exactly what the four of you did, each in your own way. I hoped that someone would comment and I was not disappointed. I waited to see what would happen. There is another attitude in church circles these days which claims you should not challenge the leadership, you should not criticise if you think what the preacher had to say was in error, you should not reach out your hand to touch the LORD’s anointed to use a King James expression. I disagree. I believe we need to check things out according to Scripture; we need to do what the Bereans did. I tell participants in Deeper Bible not to accept everything the preacher or pastor has to say at face value, including me. Always check it out against the Scriptures. I could say more about this by way of some classic Ian Stories but I will only do that if a number of you ask for them.
Now allow me to address what some of you are concerned about and which hit me for the first time as I exegeted this passage prior to writing Gem 2057. Is the writer referring to Christ or to Moses? That is the question! Here is a more literal rendering the Greek of Hebrews 3:1-3 laid out in propositional analysis format.
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,
Christ Jesus,
“being faithful” to Him who appointed Him,
as also “Moses” was “in all his house.” [Num 12:7]
For He was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
by so much as the one having built the house has more honour than the house.
LITV
Looking at the propositions and their relationship together in this passage influenced me to do what I did and I hoped it would be controversial enough to prompt some of you to comment or wonder what I was doing with the Word of God. The simple fact is that there is no “but” or adversative particle or conjunction in this section. As to whether the “he” is capitalised or not also is irrelevant because there is no pronoun in the passage either. Rather the translation comes from a relative clause in Greek. Christ Jesus . . . “being faithful”. The antecedent is Christ not Moses. The translation above which I laid out in propositional analysis is from the Literal Version, which capitalises Him . . . Him . . . He and thus distinguishes Jesus from Moses. I think it is pretty clear, but you can still all disagree with me if you wish, I don’t mind. One day, all five of us can meet with the author of Hebrews and ask him what he meant when he wrote the words. Now that would be interesting.
The man who wants to change parts of the Bible with which he doesn’t agree, is effectively making himself God.
St Augustine
I’m only responsible for what I say not for what you understand.
Grace Kelly
I never make the same mistake twice. I make it five or six times, just to be sure.
Anonymous
When we are disappointed with God we do not know Him well enough.
Shelley Salthouse
it’s interesting, which translation that you used in this section Ian?
“Here is a more literal rendering the Greek of Hebrews 3:1-3 laid out in propositional analysis format. “