Do Not Harden Your Hearts

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:1-7 ESV).

 

In our previous devotionals we have seen the superiority of Jesus clearly presented. At the end of this part of the epistle the writer ends ended with the warning that it was unbelief that kept the people of Israel from entering into the promised land and the rest God had promised there (cf. Hebrews 3:19). The point we can draw from this is that we must care enough about each other that every day we get in each other’s lives and exhort each other not to let distrust in God creep in and destroy our lives. Certainly this is the meaning of Hebrews 3:12–13:

 

“Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

 

So, one conclusion to draw from the warning of Hebrews 3:19 is that unbelief is such a constant and dangerous temptation that we must help each other fight it off. Persevering in faith to the end is a community project. This may be accomplished in smaller groups of like-minded believers. The “small group” or “home group” of our present practice can have a tremendous seriousness about them, if we believe what this says. They should meet and form relationships of mutual accountability and love because our faith depends on it. And our entering into God’s rest depends on our faith. No wonder the writer will later say:

 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:4-25 EAV).

 

This is one of ways we help one another to stretch out to Jesus! That keeps us from hardening our hearts!