Firm to the End

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
    on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
    and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

12 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 have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 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. – Hebrews 3:7-19 ESV

Reaching back into the pages of the Old Testament narrative, the author quotes from Psalm 95, using the history of the people of Israel as a life lesson for his Hebrew audience. The psalmist recounts the story of Israel’s rebellion against God during their journey from Egypt to the promised land. Under the direction of God, they reached a place called Rephidim, and after setting up camp they discovered, “there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink’” (Exodus 17:1-2 ESV).

Moses’ response was to ask them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” (Exodus 17:2 ESV). But driven by their physical thirst, they demanded, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3 ESV). The people were so angry with Moses that he feared for his life, suspecting they would resort to stoning him. But God knew the people were using Moses as an easy target because their anger was really directed at Him. So, God gave Moses some interesting instructions.

“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. 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. 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?’” – Exodus 17:5-7 ESV

That last line is key to understanding the story and grasping the point that the author of Hebrews is trying to make. Influenced by the negative nature of their circumstances and their own physical desires, they doubted the presence, power, and provision of God. This was in spite of all He had done to deliver them from Egypt and secure their freedom from slavery. The miracles of the ten plagues and the wonder of the crossing of the Red Sea faded into oblivion at the first sign of trouble. Suddenly, their God was no match for their personal problems, and they grumbled. They complained. They revealed their ingratitude for all that God had done. And yet, in the face of their rebellion, God graciously provided them with water – from a rock. The apostle Paul provides insight into what was going on behind the scenes.

I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. – 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 NLT

The rock was Christ. It was a representation of the mercy and grace of God that would one day be expressed through the gift of His Son. Moses was instructed to strike the rock and from it came living water. God provided for them the very thing for which they had grumbled and complained. But while they “drank the same spiritual water,” God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Many of them never made it to the land of promise, the place of rest. The psalmist clearly portrays that the anger of God was directed at those who doubted His saving power.

“For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known “my ways.” Therefore, I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” – Psalm 95:10-11 ESV

The letter to the Hebrews provides us with the application.

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. – Hebrews 3:12-14 NLT

The author is not suggesting that we can lose our salvation. But he warns against having “evil and unbelieving” hearts. The danger the Jewish believers in his audience faced was turning away from the saving grace provided by God through Jesus Christ and returning to their old, familiar faith in Judaism. Warren Wiersbe writes, “every believer is tempted to give up his confession of Christ and go back into the world system’s life of compromise and bondage.”

Again, this is not about losing our salvation but about missing out on all that God has promised us as believers in this life, simply by turning away from God and doubting the sufficiency of His Son’s saving work. F. F. Bruce provides with the context:

“…a relapse from Christianity into Judaism would be comparable to the action of the Israelites when they ‘turned back in their hearts unto Egypt’ (Acts 7:30); it would not be a mere return to a position previously occupied, but a gesture of outright apostasty, a complete break with God.” – F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews

When Christians face difficulties, there will always be the temptation to doubt God and return to their former way of life. Relapse into our old ways is a natural response to the unexpected and unwanted trials that sometimes accompany the Christian life. We may even be tempted to try something completely new and different, other than the walk of faith. That is why the writer of Hebrews warns us, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12 ESV).

The issue is one of unbelief. That is why we are to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’’’ (Hebrews 3:13 ESV). We need to encourage one another to keep the faith and remain committed to Christ's cause. We must not allow circumstances or our own personal passions to draw us away from God and back to the false promises of this world. We must continue to believe in and rest on the promises of God, despite all we see happening around us. A little later in his letter, the author of Hebrews provides us with the key to standing firm in the face of trials.

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. – Hebrews 11:6 ESV

The Israelites to whom the author refers in this passage were those who had been miraculously delivered from captivity in Egypt and promised the hope of a new land in which they would live and enjoy God’s rest. But because of their rebellion, that generation would never make it to Canaan. That initial group of freed Israelites took their eyes off the prize and focused their attention on the circumstances taking place around them. Rather than trust God to keep His word and fulfill His promises, they displayed doubt and disbelief, attacking God’s messenger and questioning God’s will for them.

And the believing Jews to whom the author was writing were facing a similar test. They were allowing their current circumstances to cloud their thinking and cause them “to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12 ESV). Like their long-forgotten ancestors, these Jews were running the risk of rebelling against God’s will and missing out on all the blessings He had in store for them. They wouldn’t lose their salvation but they would jeopardize any hope of experiencing the life-transforming and sanctifying power of God’s Spirit in their lives. Their eternal future would remain secure in Christ, but they would find it difficult to find rest in the midst of the unrest of this world. 

Just before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus comforted His disciples with these words:

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” – John 16:32-33 NLT

Take heart. Stand firm. Remain committed to the cause. And if you do, the reward will be rest, both now and in the age to come.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Dead, But Not Forgotten.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying,

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep,
    into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
    at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
    whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
    O Lord my God.
When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. – Jonah 2:1-10 ESV

Jonah thought he was a dead man. He had been thrown into the sea by the sailors in an attempt to appease God’s wrath, and it had worked. The sea and wind had calmed, but Jonah had sank under the water. And in his mind, his life was over. Jonah describes his predicament in stark terms: “You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves” (Jonah 2:3 NLT). Jonah was going to drown and he knew it. And he knew he deserved it. He had blatantly disobeyed the command of God. Jonah had doubted that God knew what was best, both for himself and the people of Nineveh. And it looked like death was going to be the outcome for his disobedience.  Jonah describes what he experienced: “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!” (Jonah 2:5-6 NLT).

What God had done was send a great fish. Nowhere does the text mention a whale, but when we think of a sea creature large enough to swallow a man whole, a whale is what comes to mind. But regardless of what kind of sea creature it was, God sent it and it literally snatched Jonah from the jaws of death. Jonah went from drowning to being swallowed alive. But to him, that was a blessing. Because Jonah had cried out to God for deliverance. As he had been in the process of sinking under the waves, he had prayed to God for help.

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice” – Jonah 2:2 ESV

For the Hebrew, Sheol was the place where the departed spirits of the dead went. Jonah thought he was going to join the dead. And it seems that his prayer was borrowed from a psalm of David.

“The cords of death encompassed me;
    the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
    the snares of death confronted me.” – Psalm 18:4-5 ESV

Jonah was quoting Old Testament Scripture as he struggled to stay afloat and alive. Even in the process of drowning, he had the composure to pray to God. He realized that he had turned his back on God and yet, in his predicament, he was completely dependent upon God for salvation.

“As my life was slipping away,
    I remembered the Lord.
And my earnest prayer went out to you
    in your holy Temple.” – Jonah 2:7 NLT

And God heard him and rescued him. God sent the fish. It’s interesting to note that Jonah conceived of being swallowed alive as a form of salvation. He didn’t suddenly turn his concern from drowning to being slowly and painfully digested while still alive. No, Jonah saw this as a sign from God. He had called out for salvation and God had sent it. In the form a very large fish.

We don’t know what Jonah had in mind when he called out to God. We have no way of knowing what kind of salvation he was looking for. It is likely that Jonah didn’t really care. All he knew was that he was drowning and about to die. He left the means of salvation up to God, and God delivered him. It’s amazing how we can be so specific with God when we have something we want from Him. Our prayers can be very detailed and our requests, quite to the point. But when we find ourselves in a hopeless place, where all seems lost, we tend to pray more dependently and in a far less demanding tone. We simply ask God for rescue. And we really don’t care what form that rescue takes. For Jonah, it took the unlikely and miraculous form of a giant fish. He went from the jaws of death to the literal jaws of a fish. And many of us, had we been in Jonah’s place, would have found reason to argue with God over His chosen means of rescue. We would have said, “Really, God! You call this a rescue! This is the best you can do?!”

But Jonah was more than satisfied. He somehow knew that this was part of God’s plan. He said, “yet I shall again look upon your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4 ESV). He had hope. He could see the hand of God in the form of the fish. And he praised God for His love and salvation.

“Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the Lord!” – Jonah 2:8-9 ESV

He was in the process of being rescued by a loving, all-powerful God. He was not dependent upon some man-made idol that sat on a shelf and lacked any ability to hear prayers, let alone answer them. It had been Jonah’s God who had rescued the pagan sailors by calming the sea and the storm. It had been Jonah’s God who had heard his cry from the depths of the sea and sent a savior in the form of a fish. I can’t help but think of the words of Paul: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54 ESV). As hard as it is for us to believe, the swallowing of Jonah by the fish was actually a form of victory for him. It was what kept him from drowning. As strange and bizarre at it may sound to us, his time in the belly of the fish was part of God’s preferred means of rescue. In a way, all of this is tied to what Jesus referred to as “the sign of Jonah”. If you recall, Jesus had told the religious leaders that the only sign they would see was the sign of Jonah. He would die on the cross. He would then be buried or swallowed up by the grave. But then He would rise again three days later. And that is exactly what happened to Jonah. He effectively died in the sea, was swallowed by the fish, and delivered safe and sound, three days later, on the beach. Here is what the text says happened:

And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.  – Jonah 2:10 ESV

Jonah lived. He had been delivered by God from a death he most certainly deserved. Jonah had rebelled against the God of the universe and lived to tell about it. And what a dramatic lesson that should have been for Jonah. Here was a man who had refused to take God’s warning of judgment to the people of Nineveh because he didn’t believe they deserved it. And yet, God had rescued him in spite of his own sin and rebellion. God had redeemed Jonah from death, not because Jonah deserved it, but simply because it was His will that Jonah live.

You would think that an experience like the one Jonah had would be truly life changing and transformative. And it was, to a degree. God had his attention. But did God have his whole heart? Was Jonah a changed man? Time will tell and the rest of the book of Jonah will reveal just how this experience impacted Jonah. One of the things we will learn is that salvation by God can have a life-changing effect on us. But once saved, we sometimes have a bad habit of forgetting just how great a salvation we experienced. We begin to forget just how bad our situation was before God stepped in. The apostle Paul had a way of reminding the believers in his day not to forget their pre-cross condition.

Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NLT

He told the Ephesian believers:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world…But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. – Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-6 NLT

We were as good as dead. But we were rescued from death by an unlikely, unbelievable means. God sent His Son to swallow up death by dying and then rising from the dead. And we were raised with Him.

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
 – Romans 6:4 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson