- When you think of the phrase "harden your hearts," who or whom do you usually think about?
- Heart of Pharaoh -- Yet this passage is referring to?
- Israel (or the Exodus generation)
- Note: The Exodus generation (20 and over who left Egypt)
- Note: The Wilderness generation (those under 20 and born during the 40 years in the wilderness)
- Read quotation from OT
- Ps 95:8. Note: Meribah means quarreling; Massah means testing
- Also the first half of Ps 95 emphasizes what?
- He is our God (deserving of our worship)
- We are his people
- His pasture (his creation)
- His sheep (his responsibility)
- The second half refers to what?
- Forty years he "loathed" the generation
- The exodus generation were a people
- Who were going astray in the heart (hearts were focused on other things)
- Who did not know his ways (we were weak in their knowledge of him)
- God swore (promised) that "his people" (defined in verse 7) would not see his rest
- Sin as a result of disobedience forfeited blessings
- The Massah & Meribah incident occurs very early in the desert
- Read Ex 17: 1-7
- What is the real issue here?
- Note the two main passages (Ps 95 and Ex 17)
- Psalm 95:9 " … put me to the proof, though they had seen my work."
- Numbers 17:7 " … they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"
- [START VIDEO]
- Explain my story
- Second child born with multiple birth defects
- Tracheal web
- Stomach not connected to esophagus
- Esophageal atresia - soft trachea
- Missing corpus callosum
- Enlarged anterior ventricles
- Premature fusion of the cranial bones
- A staff doctor on the team once got Sharon aside and told her to stop bothering the staff because her son was going to die of pneumonia at some point (he had six pneumonias that first year) -- relate story of praying during a pneumonia
- Israel
- They had just seen the tremendous miracles
- Faith was not whether God could do it or not, but rather would he? Sure he cared about the big picture of the nation, but did he care about "me, my family, my struggles"
- When we pray, we all struggle with when and how God will answer -- water in a desert is the perfect issue -- the prayer has to be answered soon!
- The issue is NOT
- … God's power
- … God's existence
- The issue in the mind of the Exodus generation … DOES GOD CARE FOR ME, MY FAMILY, MY LIVELIHOOD …
- How does God define faith?
- In other words, He deeply cares about us
- Let's look at Israel. What is the result of Israel's sin at Kadesh Barnea?
- Note that the people repented and God forgave them (Num 14:20). They didn't lose their salvation but they forfeited God's blessing
- What is it that the writer of Hebrews is warning the believers against?
- Refusal to walk by faith in obedience to God results in missing out on God's rest
- What is the rest?
- Observations about Rest
- The offer of entering still stands
- You can fall short of it (they were not maturing …"they ought to be teachers by now")
- You can believe (live by faith) and enter it
- Rest
- Caanan Rest: rest based on work; here and now rest that is a result of obedience and faith (faith / life rest)
- Creation Rest: God rested from all His creation work (for us, might refer to our inheritance)
- Sabbath Rest: rest a believer experiences spiritually as he matures
- Which rest is the author challenging the readers to enter?
- They are already believers (Heb 3:1), the warning is not about the rest of Heaven, but the faith / life rest that God offers all believers and that comes as a result of maturity in their faith
- Which is why there is a lot of discussion in Hebrews on the importance of maturity
- Application:
- Jewish believers were at the same point. Saved, but now a big decision is before them. They were in danger of committing the same mistake the Exodus generation made
- What is God calling us to do?
- Are we continuing in faith? Or are we just treading water?
- In light of what we just read, what is a sinful, unbelieving heart?
- The problem with the Exodus generation was their faith
- But it was not in the power of God (miracles, Red sea, two pillars, manna, …)
- It was in the care and concern of God
- Water was a time-sensitive need, and they pushed the button -- does God really care about me?
- Disciples (Story of asleep in boat is in Matt 8 and Luke 8)
- Faith is believing that God knows me and cares for me
- How do we protect ourselves?
- Encouragement (we need fellowship)
- Staying away from sin (we need to listen to God)
- Application:
- Faith is believing
- God cares about me
- God completely knows me
- God is working my best
- Circumstances may be against me, but God can use bad circumstances for our good
- The opposite of real faith is believing …
- If I believe something hard enough, God will do it
- My life should always have good things
- Faith is not believing in something hard enough such that it happens. Faith is believing that God knows and cares and what happens or doesn't happen is for my best
- Rom 8:28 says the very same
thing
- Five rhetorical questions: really only 3, because 2 answer the previously question
- Who heard and rebelled?
- Were they all those Moses led out of Egypt? Yes, by implication a physically redeemed people
- And with whom was he angry for forty years?
- Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? Yes, the Exodus generation
- And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
- Some did not enter his rest, which in this case is the promised land. We should note that Moses, Aaron, and Miriam did not enter
- Therefore, it is not a spiritual, but a physical rest
- What is this rest? (read the next passage)
- Add end story VIDEO
- In the midst of suffering, I never liked the ending of Job
- But the ending is more than an "ever-after happy ending," because Job still lost 10 children
- God answered our prayers, but it will never take away the feeling of pain we endured
- Luke lived
- Actually, the Doctor who said that, died early
- Luke finished High School
- Luke married
- Luke has a daughter, our first grandchild
Review:
The first pillar of Judaism: Angels
Second pillar of Judaism: Moses
Ex 17:1-7 (ESV) All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 And the Lord said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) — 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) —
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Num 14:19-23 (ESV) Please pardon the iniquity of this
people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have
forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."
20 Then the Lord said, "I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it
Heb
3:12-15 (ESV) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort
one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of
you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if
indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
Mark 4:37–41 (ESV) — 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Phil 2:25-30 (ESV) I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.
Heb 3:16-19 (ESV) For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
3:18 disobedient also translated disbelieved
Job 42:12–17 (ESV) — 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
