Hebrews 3:7-19
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.’
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”
Hebrews is addressing the unbelief Israel practices in the desert. Israel had escaped Egypt and were heading towards the promised land. Yet they did not believe that God would continue to provide for them. In the same way, the Jews alive during the time of Hebrews, were walking a tightrope in the wilderness between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. As the ancient unbelieving Israelites could not enter the promised land because of unbelief, so those alive during the times of Jesus and the early church could not enter into spiritual rest without faith. The author of Hebrews is urging his readers to cross the bridge from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Many of these Jews were on the fence about Jesus. There was progress being made by the Gospel, but many were still in transition.
Because of their unbelief: As the Gospel went out to the Jews, many heard the message but did not choose to respond to it. As a result, they did not enter into the spiritual rest of God. This has parallel to the Old Testament wilderness setting. Just as the Jews who did not believe God did not enter into the promised land, so all who reject the Gospel remain without eternal life.
