Hebrews 3 (4)

Introduction
Here the writer felt the need for more direct exhortation and admonition. This is one of those “if the shoe fits, wear it” challenges that encourage folks to examine themselves accordingly. The writer draws from Israel’s past to remind and refocus his readers.

Read Psalm 95.

Read Hebrews 3.7-12.

Think it through.
1.  Let’s begin by focusing on the unspoken objective these drifting Hebrew Christians were pursuing. The pressure was on them to renounce Christ and return to the Jewish fold. The writer of Hebrews wants to check that drift by refocusing them on the excellency of Christ. The readers were seeking peace. What did the writer of Hebrews point to instead of the temporary respite from hassle they were seeking (v. 11)? What is that? By seeking rest from persecution, these believers were in danger of missing the rest of God. What can cause us to drift this way (v. 8)? Give some examples. What is the antidote to such drift (v. 7)?

2.  What “works” of God did Israel’s fathers observe in the wilderness (v. 9)? What works of God should we be paying attention to in our daily walk with the Lord? Those who do not listen to the voice of God, in His Word and in His world, betray a condition of heart and mind, which the writer summarizes in verses 10 and 12. Can people afflicted with this condition really be Christians? Explain. We cannot look into the hearts of other people to know what’s really going on there. But we can know our own heart, and that our heart is always tempted to seek rest andpeace and wellbeing in places other than the Lord. How can believers help one another recognize this temptation and prevail over it?

Meditate.
“Because the argument from the future is not so persuasive as from the past, he reminds them of the history in which they had lacked faith. For if your fathers, he says, because they did not hope as they ought to have hoped, suffered these things, much more will you.” John Chrysostom (344-407 AD)

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.13, 14

Search my heart, O Lord, and know me, as You only, Lord can do! Let my heart and mind be …

Pray Psalm 95.8-11.
Call on the Lord to search your heart and mind, so that you may love what you should and know what you must.

Psalm 95.7-11 (Tidings: O Zion Haste, Thy Mission High Fulfilling)
You are our God, we are Your sheep, Your people:
Speak, Lord, and let us hearken to Your Word.
Let not our hearts grow hard through sin, and feeble,
As when our fathers sinned against You, Lord.
Refrain v. 6
Come let us worship, kneel to our Lord;
Worship our Maker: Father, Holy Spirit, Word.

Long years You loathed that wicked generation,
Who in their hearts, rebelled against Your path.
Them You forsook, and kept from Your salvation;
Them You subjected to Your fearsome wrath.
Refrain

T. M Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006.