Psalms 95:7-11(v7)for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice! Don’t harden your…
Hebrews 3:15(v7)while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
Isaiah 55:3(v7)Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Revelation 3:20(v7)Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and…
Hebrews 4:7(v7)he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his…
Show all 67 cross-references
John 10:27(v7)My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Psalms 81:13(v7)Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
Hebrews 3:13(v7)but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2(v7)Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain, for he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you.…
Psalms 81:11(v7)But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.
Matthew 17:5(v7)While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved…
John 10:3(v7)The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
Isaiah 55:6(v7)Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
John 5:25(v7)Most certainly I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
John 10:16(v7)I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one…
Ecclesiastes 9:10(v7)Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are…
2 Peter 1:21(v7)For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
2 Samuel 23:2(v7)“Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.
Hebrews 9:8(v7)The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing.
Proverbs 27:1(v7)Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
Matthew 22:43(v7)He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
Acts 28:25(v7)When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the…
Mark 12:36(v7)For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of…
James 4:13-15(v7)Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Whereas you don’t…
Acts 1:16(v7)“Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning…
Proverbs 28:14(v8)Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
Exodus 17:7(v8)He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is…
Zechariah 7:11-12(v8)But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yes, they made their hearts as hard…
Matthew 13:15(v8)for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive…
Psalms 78:18(v8)They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
Psalms 78:56(v8)Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
Jeremiah 7:26(v8)Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.
Ezekiel 3:7-9(v8)But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.…
Daniel 5:20(v8)But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they…
Acts 7:36(v9)This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
Exodus 8:15(v8)But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
Deuteronomy 4:9(v9)Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all…
Job 9:4(v8)God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
Proverbs 29:1(v8)He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.
Hebrews 3:12-13(v8)Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort…
Deuteronomy 6:16(v8)You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
Deuteronomy 9:22-24(v8)At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and…
2 Chronicles 36:13(v8)He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against…
Psalms 106:14(v8)but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.
Exodus 19:4(v9)‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.
Numbers 14:11(v8)Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have…
Deuteronomy 4:3(v9)Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among…
Deuteronomy 8:4(v9)Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
1 Samuel 6:6(v8)Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t…
Nehemiah 9:16(v8)“But they and our fathers behaved proudly, hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments,
Acts 19:9(v8)But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the…
Romans 2:5-6(v8)But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
1 Corinthians 10:9(v8)Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
Exodus 20:22(v9)Yahweh said to Moses, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from…
Numbers 14:22-23(v8)because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten…
Numbers 14:33(v9)Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in…
Deuteronomy 8:2(v9)You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test…
Deuteronomy 29:2(v9)Moses called to all Israel, and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his…
Joshua 23:3(v9)You have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you.
Joshua 24:7(v9)When they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes…
2 Kings 17:14(v8)Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh their God.
2 Chronicles 30:8(v8)Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified…
Amos 2:10(v9)Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
Luke 7:22(v9)Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the…
Acts 13:8(v9)But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
Deuteronomy 11:7(v9)but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.
Joshua 5:6(v9)For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness until all the nation, even the men of war who came out of Egypt, were…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7–9He proceeds in his exhortation, that they were to…
He proceeds in his exhortation, that they were to obey Christ speaking to them; and that he might add more weight to it, he confirms it by the testimony of David; for since they were to be sharply goaded, it was better, for the sake of avoiding offense, to bring forward another person. Had he simply reproached them for the unbelief of the fathers, they would have less favorably attended to him; but when he brought forward David, it was less offensive. Now, the import of the whole is, — As God from the beginning would his voice obeyed, and could not endure perverseness without punishing it severely, so at this day he will not lightly punish our stubbornness, unless we become teachable. But the discourse is suspended until we come to the words, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be at any time in any of you,” etc. That the passage, then, may flow better, it would be proper to include the rest in a parenthesis. Let us now consider the words in order.
7. As the Holy Ghost saith, etc. This availed much more to touch their hearts than if he had quoted David by name. And it is useful for us to familiarize ourselves with such expressions, so that we may remember that the words adduced from the books of the prophets are those of God and not of men.
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But as this sentence, Today, if ye will hear his voice, is a part of a former verse, some have not unsuitably rendered it thus, “Would to God you would this day hear his voice.” It is indeed certain that when David called the Jews God’s people, he immediately drew this conclusion, that the voice of God ought to have been heard by them; for as to those whom he there invited to sing praises to God and to celebrate his goodness, he reminded them at the same time that obedience was the chief worship which he required, and that it was better than all sacrifices. The chief thing, then, was to obey the word of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7–8So that God was to speak once again after…
So that God was to speak once again after Moses.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–97 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day…
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Ver. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost] It is well observed by Calvin, that the words after "wherefore," to Heb 3:12, should be enclosed with a parenthesis, and then the sense is clear. If Jerome and Egranus had observed so much in this and other places, they would not so sharply have censured St Paul for his obscurities and incongruities, and lame senses and sentences. (Jerome Epist. ad Algesiam. Joh. Egran. apud Jo. Manl. loc. com.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–9The Spirit enforceth his counsel for those Hebrews’ improvement…
The Spirit enforceth his counsel for those Hebrews’ improvement of his doctrine about the gospel Prophet, by alleging a sad example of their fathers refusing to hear and obey him, from Heb 3:7-11. The allegation might be best placed in parenthesis, and the introductive illative particle:
Wherefore, may refer to Heb 3:12; Take heed, brethren.
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As the Holy Ghost saith; as the Spirit, the Holy One, that third relation in the Trinity, whose essence is holiness, is the author of what the psalmist doth write, and is here quoted by him, Psa 95:7-11. So that the example registered is true and infallible, and should suitably affect them, reading it.
To-day if ye will hear his voice; every present time, wherein the great Builder and Lord of God’s church speaketh to them; God would not have a hearer of his Prophet to procrastinate a day, but to be exercising all those internal acts, which this word of sense hear doth comprehend, such as reacheth the heart as well as the ear; if you will attend, intend, believe, love, and obey; a hearing better than all external sacrifices, 1Sa 15:22. The angel of the covenant speaking his mind and will to them by Moses and the prophets, which was for the matter of it faith in God’s covenant, made with them in and through Christ, Psa 95:7; compare Exo 23:20-23.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt1703 · Public DomainOn v7The apostle having proved our Lord Jesus Christ to…
The apostle having proved our Lord Jesus Christ to be the great Prophet and Teacher of his church, doth in these words draw an inference from the foregoing conclusion: namely, that seeing Christ is the chief apostle and prophet of his church, seeing he was a teacher sent of God to instruct the world in the practice of their reasonable duty, that therefore it is our obliged duty to hearken to Christ’s voice, and that now to comply with his call, and that presently: Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, "Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
Observe here, 1. The person spoken of, and that is Christ; his voice; that is, the voice of Christ our great apostle, speaking in his gospel.
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Observe, 2. A duty required of us in reference to his person, and that is, to hear and obey Christ’s voice.
Observe, 3. The circumstance of time, and the special season when this duty of hearing Christ’s voice is to be performed, and that is presently; "Today if you will hear his voice."
Observe, 4. A cautionary direction given to all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and hear Christ’s voice speaking to them therein; namely, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.
Learn hence, 1. That the voice which speaks unto us in and by the gospel, is Christ’s voice.
2. That it is the great duty of all those that sit under the preaching of the gospel, to hear and obey Christ’s voice.
Learn, 3. That it is not only their duty to hear Christ’s voice, and answer his call in the gospel, but to do it now, to do it presently, and without delay; Today if you will hear his voice.
Learn, 4. That it is the duty and ought to be the special care, of all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and that hear Christ’s voice speaking to them therein, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.
Observe lastly, From our apostle’s drawing an instance out of the Old Testament, namely, that of the Jews in the wilderness, to instruct the Hebrews to make use of the present season for hearing the voice of Christ under the New Testament; we learn, That Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions. The examples of our fore-fathers are of use and concernment to us, and ought to be the objects of our deepest consideration: Your fathers tempted me, and I was grieved with that generation.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v7Here the apostle proceeds in pressing upon them serious…
Here the apostle proceeds in pressing upon them serious counsels and cautions to the close of the chapter; and he recites a passage out of Psa 95:7, etc., where observe,
I. What he counsels them to do - to give a speedy and present attention to the call of Christ. "Hear his voice, assent to, approve of, and consider, what God in Christ speaks unto you; apply it to yourselves with suitable affections and endeavours, and set about it this very day, for tomorrow it may be too late."
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II. What he cautions them against - hardening their hearts, turning the deaf ear to the calls and counsels of Christ: "When he tells you of the evil of sin, the excellency of holiness, the necessity of receiving him by faith as your Saviour, do not shut your ear and heart against such a voice as this." Observe, The hardening of our hearts is the spring of all our other sins.
III. Whose example he warns them by - that of the Israelites their fathers in the wilderness: As in the provocation and day of temptation; this refers to that remarkable passage at Massah Meribah, Exo 17:2-7. Observe,
1. Days of temptation are often days of provocation.
2. To provoke God, when he is trying us, and letting us see that we entirely depend and live immediately upon him, is a provocation with a witness.
3. The sins of others, especially our relations, should be a warning to us. Our fathers' sins and punishments should be remembered by us, to deter us from following their evil examples. Now as to the sin of the fathers of the Jews, here reflected upon, observe,
(1.) The state in which these fathers were, when they thus sinned: they were in the wilderness, brought out of Egypt, but not got into Canaan, the thoughts whereof should have restrained them from sin.
(2.) The sin they were guilty of: they tempted and provoked God; they distrusted God, murmured against Moses, and would not attend to the voice of God.
(3.) The aggravations of their sin: they sinned in the wilderness, where they had a more immediate dependence upon God: they sinned when God was trying them; they sinned when they saw his works - works of wonder wrought for their deliverance out of Egypt, and their support and supply in the wilderness from day to day. They continued thus to sin against God for forty years. These were heinous aggravations.
(4.) The source and spring of such aggravated sins, which were, [1.] They erred in their hearts; and these heart-errors produced many other errors in their lips and lives. [2.] They did not know God's ways, though he had walked before them. They did not know his ways; neither those ways of his providence in which he had walked towards them, nor those ways of his precept in which they ought to have walked towards God; they did not observe either his providences or his ordinances in a right manner.
(5.) The just and great resentment God had at their sins, and yet the great patience he exercised towards them (Heb 3:10): Wherefore I was grieved with that generation. Note, [1.] All sin, especially sin committed by God's professing privileged people, does not only anger and affront God, but it grieves him. [2.] God is loth to destroy his people in or for their sin, he waits long to be gracious to them. [3.] God keeps an exact account of the time that people go on in sinning against him, and in grieving him by their sins; but at length, if they by their sins continue to grieve the Spirit of God, their sins shall be made grievous to their own spirits, either in a way of judgment or mercy.
(6.) The irreversible doom passed upon them at last for their sins. God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, the rest either of an earthly or of a heavenly Canaan. Observe, [1.] Sin, long continued in, will kindle the divine wrath, and make it flame out against sinners. [2.] God's wrath will discover itself in its righteous resolution to destroy the impenitent; he will swear in his wrath, not rashly, but righteously, and his wrath will make their condition a restless condition; there is no resting under the wrath of God.
IV. What use the apostle makes of their awful example, Heb 3:12, Heb 3:13, etc. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution, and enforces it with an affectionate compellation.
1. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution; the word is, Take heed, blepete - look to it. "Look about you; be upon your guard against enemies both within and without; be circumspect. You see what kept many of your forefathers out of Canaan, and made their carcasses fall in the wilderness; take heed lest you fall into the same sin and snare and dreadful sentence. For you see Christ is head of the church, a much greater person than Moses, and your contempt of him must be a greater sin than their contempt of Moses; and so you are in danger of falling under a severer sentence than they." Observe, The ruin of others should be a warning to us to take heed of the rock they split upon. Israel's fall should for ever be a warning to all who come after them; for all these things happened to them for ensamples (Co1 10:11), and should be remembered by us. Take heed; all who would get safely to heaven must look about them.
2. He enforces the admonition with an affectionate compellation: "Brethren, not only in the flesh, but in the Lord; brethren whom I love, and for whose welfare I labour and long." And here he enlarges upon the matter of the admonition: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Here observe, (1.) A heart of unbelief is an evil heart. Unbelief is a great sin, it vitiates the heart of man. (2.) An evil heart of unbelief is at the bottom of all our sinful departures from God; it is a leading step to apostasy; if once we allow ourselves to distrust God, we may soon desert him. (3.) Christian brethren have need to be cautioned against apostasy. Let those that think they stand take heed lest they fall.
3. He subjoins good counsel to the caution, and advises them to that which would be a remedy against this evil heart of unbelief - that they should exhort one another daily, while it is called today, Heb 3:13. Observe, (1.) We should be doing all the good we can to one another while we are together, which will be but a short and uncertain time. (2.) Since tomorrow is none of ours, we must make the best improvement of today. (3.) If Christians do not exhort one another daily, they will be in danger of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Note, [1.] There is a great deal of deceitfulness in sin; it appears fair, but is filthy; it appears pleasant, but is pernicious; it promises much, but performs nothing. [2.] The deceitfulness of sin is of a hardening nature to the soul; one sin allowed prepares for another; every act of sin confirms the habit; sinning against conscience is the way to sear the conscience; and therefore it should be the great concern of every one to exhort himself and others to beware of sin.
4. He comforts those who not only set out well, but hold on well, and hold out to the end (Heb 3:14): We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end. Here observe, (1.) The saints' privilege: they are made partakers of Christ, that is, of the Spirit, nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Christ; they are interested in all that is Christ's, in all that he is, in all that he has done, or can do. (2.) The condition on which they hold that privilege, namely, their perseverance in the bold and open profession and practice of Christ and Christianity unto the end. Not but they shall persevere, being kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation, but to be pressed thus to it is one means by which Christ helps his people to persevere. This tends to make them watchful and diligent, and so keeps them from apostasy. Here observe, [1.] The same spirit with which Christians set out in the ways of God they should maintain and evidence to the end. Those who begin seriously, and with lively affections and holy resolutions and humble reliance, should go on in the same spirit. But, [2.] There are a great many who in the beginning of their profession show a great deal of courage and confidence, but do not hold them fast to the end. [3.] Perseverance in faith is the best evidence of the sincerity of our faith.
5. The apostle resumes what he had quoted before from Psa 95:7, etc., and he applies it closely to those of that generation, Heb 3:15, Heb 3:16, etc. While it is said, Today if you will hear, etc.; as if he should say, "What was recited before from that scripture belonged not only to former ages, but to you now, and to all who shall come after you; that you take heed you fall not into the same sins, lest you fall under the same condemnation." The apostle tells them that though some who had heard the voice of God did provoke him, yet all did not so. Observe, (1.) Though the majority of hearers provoked God by unbelief, yet some there were who believed the report. (2.) Though the hearing of the word be the ordinary means of salvation, yet, if it be not hearkened to, it will expose men more to the anger of God. (3.) God will have a remnant that shall be obedient to his voice, and he will take care of such and make mention of them with honour. (4.) If these should fall in a common calamity, yet they shall partake of eternal salvation, while disobedient hearers perish for ever.
6. The apostle puts some queries upon what had been before mentioned, and gives proper answers to them (Heb 3:17-19): But with whom was he grieved forty years? With those that sinned. And to whom did he swear? etc. Whence observe, (1.) God is grieved only with those of his people who sin against him, and continue in sin. (2.) God is grieved and provoked most by sins publicly committed by the generality of a nation; when sin becomes epidemic, it is most provoking. (3.) Though God grieves long, and bears long, when pressed with the weight of general and prevailing wickedness, yet he will at length ease himself of public offenders by public judgments. (4.) Unbelief (with rebellion which is the consequent of it) is the great damning sin of the world, especially of those who have a revelation of the mind and will of God. This sin shuts up the heart of God, and shuts up the gate of heaven, against them; it lays them under the wrath and curse of God, and leaves them there; so that in truth and justice to himself he is obliged to cast them off for ever.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,.... In Psa 95:7
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,.... In Psa 95:7
today if you will hear his voice; either the precepts of Christ, to hear which is to obey them; and this is an acknowledgment to Christ as King of saints, and is a testimony of love to him, and is wellpleasing in his sight; and in which the saints find pleasure themselves, and profit also: or the Gospel of Christ, which is a voice of love, grace, and mercy; of peace and reconciliation; of pardon and righteousness; of liberty, redemption, and salvation by Christ; and to hear it, is not only to hear it externally, but internally, so as to understand it, and distinguish it from the voice of a stranger, and to approve of it, and believe it, and put in practice what is heard: and "today" may intend some festival day in David's time, when, and on account of which, this psalm was penned; as the feast of tabernacles, which was a type of Christ tabernacling in human nature; or it may regard the time of man's life, while it is day, or the present instant of life: or rather the whole Gospel dispensation. The psalm from whence these and some following words are taken, belongs to the Messiah; for the person the subject of it, is called the rock of our salvation; and every thing in it is applicable to him; as the ascription of deity, and divine worship; the creation and preservation of the universe; yea, he is represented as a shepherd, and the saints as his sheep; which plainly points at the office of Christ; and these very words are often made use of by the Jews, and applied to the Messiah, showing that if the Jews would repent but one day, or keep the sabbath but one day, the son of David, the Messiah, would come; since it is said, "today if you will hear his voice" (d); which the Chaldee paraphrase renders "his Word", his essential Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Wherefore - Seeing he is faithful, be not ye…
Wherefore - Seeing he is faithful, be not ye unfaithful. Psalm xcv, 7, &c.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Verse 7. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today]…
Verse 7. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today] These words are quoted from Ps 95:7; and as they were written by David, and attributed here to the Holy Ghost, it proves that David wrote, by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. As these words were originally a warning to the Israelites not to provoke God, lest they should be excluded from that rest which he had promised them, the apostle uses them here to persuade the Christians in Palestine to hold fast their religious privileges, and, the grace they had received, lest they should come short of that state of future glory which Christ had prepared for them. The words strongly imply, as indeed does the whole epistle, the possibility of falling from the grace of God, and perishing everlastingly; and without this supposition these words, and all such like, which make more than two-thirds of the whole of Divine revelation, would have neither sense nor meaning. Why should God entreat man to receive his mercy, if he have rendered this impossible? Why should he exhort a believer to persevere, if it be impossible for him to fall away? What contemptible quibbling have men used to maintain a false and dangerous tenet against the whole tenor of the word of God! Angels fell-Adam fell-Solomon fell-and multitudes of believers have fallen, and, for aught we know, rose no more; and yet we are told that we cannot finally lose the benefits of our conversion! Satan preached this doctrine to our first parents; they believed him, sinned, and fell; and brought a whole world to ruin!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v7Heb 3:7-9. Having demonstrated the pre-eminence of Christ above…
Heb 3:7-9. Having demonstrated the pre-eminence of Christ above Moses in their respective ministries, the apostle, according to his design and usual method, now proceeds to the application of the truth he had evinced, in an exhortation to stability and constancy in faith and obedience. And this he does in a way that adds double force to his exhortation, in that he both reminds them of, and urges upon them the words, testimonies, and examples recorded in the Old Testament, to which they professed a special deference and subjection; and also in that the nature of the example, which he insists upon, is such as supplies him with a new argument for his purpose. Now this is taken from God’s conduct toward them, who were disobedient under the ministry of Moses, which he further explains, Heb 3:15-19. For if God dealt in severity with them who were unbelieving and disobedient, with respect to him who was but a servant in the house, they might easily learn from this what his displeasure would be toward those who should behave so with respect to the Son, who is Lord over the whole house, and whose property all the members of it are. Wherefore — This word shows that what follows is an inference from what precedes; as the Holy Ghost saith — The expression is emphatical, το πνευμα το αγιον, that Spirit, that Holy Spirit, so called by way of eminence; who in an especial manner spake in and by the penmen of the sacred Scriptures, 2Pe 1:21. The words here quoted are taken from Psa 95:7, which the apostle tells us (Heb 4:7) was written by David. Hence we learn that David wrote his Psalms by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as our Lord likewise testifies, Mat 22:43. “The judgments of God executed on sinners in ages past, being designed for the reproof and instruction of those who come after, the Holy Ghost, by David, very properly founded his exhortation to the people of that age upon the sin and punishment of their fathers in the wilderness. And the apostle, for the same reason, fitly applied the words, which the Holy Ghost spake to the people by David, to the Hebrews in his day, to prevent them from hardening their hearts when they heard God’s voice speaking to them in the gospel of his Son.” To-day — Now, at the present time, while the season of grace lasts, and you are favoured with the means thereof; if ye will hear his voice — If ye ever intend, or will consent to do it; harden not your hearts — By inattention, by thoughtlessness, by unbelief, and disobedience. Observe, reader, God speaks by his works, particularly those of creation, providence, and grace, and in and by his word; and to hear him, implies that we hearken to, understand, believe, and obey him; and instead of rejecting his counsel, that we suffer it to enter into our hearts, so as to influence our spirits and conduct; as in the provocation — Παραπικρασμω, bitter provocation; that is, as the Israelites hardened their hearts when they provoked me by their strife and murmurings. See Exo 16:4; Exo 17:2-9; Exo 32:10; Num 10:33; Num 11:3; Num 11:33; Num 11:35; Num 12:16; Num 13:25-32; Num 14:4-22; Deu 1:6-7; Deu 1:19-22; Deu 1:34-35; Deu 2:14; Deu 9:7; Deu 32:51; 1Co 10:4. In short, their whole story manifests a continued scene of provocation. When — Or where, rather, as the Syriac and Vulgate read the words; for the word when would imply that, at the time of the bitter provocation chiefly referred to, the Israelites had seen God’s works forty years, contrary to the history, which shows that that provocation happened in the beginning of the third year from the going out of Egypt: whereas to read where instead of when, agreeably to the matter of fact, represents God as saying by David, that the Israelites tempted him in the wilderness during forty years, notwithstanding all that time they had seen his miracles. The tempting God, here spoken of, consisted in their calling in question his presence with them, their distrusting his power to help and save them, or his faithfulness to his promises; or their despising ordinary means of help and deliverance, and desiring extraordinary. See note on Psa 95:8-9; Mat 4:7; and proved me — Put my patience to the proof, even while they saw my glorious works both of judgment and mercy; or had proof by experience of my power, providence, goodness, and faithfulness, and that for forty years.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Wherefore - In view of the fact that the…
Wherefore - In view of the fact that the Author of the Christian dispensation has a rank far superior to that of Moses. Because Christ has claims on us far greater than those which Moses had, let us hearken to his voice, and dread his displeasure.
As the Holy Ghost saith - In Psa 95:7-11. This is full proof that in the estimation of the author of this Epistle the writer of this Psalm was inspired. The Holy Spirit speaks through the word which he has revealed. The apostle quotes this passage and applies it to those whom he addressed, because the admonition was as pertinent and important under the Christian dispensation, as it was under the Jewish. The danger of hardening the heart by neglecting to hear his voice was as great, and the consequences would be as fearful and alarming. We should regard the solemn warnings in the Old Testament against sin, and against the danger of apostasy, as addressed by the Holy Spirit to us. They are as applicable to us as they were to those to whom they were at first addressed; and we need all the influence of such appeals, to keep us from apostasy as much as they did.
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Today - Now; at present. At the very time when the command is addressed to you. It is not to be put off until tomorrow. All God’s commands relate to “the present” - to this day - to the passing moment. He gives us no commands “about the future.” He does not require us to repent and to turn to him “tomorrow,” or 10 years hence. The reasons are obvious:
Duty pertains to the present. It is our duty to turn from sin, and to love him now.
(2)We know not that we shall live to another day. A command, therefore, could not extend to that time unless it were accompanied with “a revelation” that we should live until then - and such a revelation God does not choose to give. Every one, therefore, should feel that whatever commands God addresses to him are addressed to him now. Whatever guilt he incurs by neglecting those commands is incurred now. For the present neglect and disobedience each one is to answer - and each one must give account to God for what he does today.
If ye will hear - In case you are willing to hearken to God, listen now, and do not defer it to a future period. There is much in a “willingness” to hear the voice of God. A willingness to learn is usually the precursor of great attainments in knowledge. A “willingness” to reform, is usually the precursor of reformation. Get a man “willing” to break off his habits of profaneness or intemperance, and usually all the rest is easy. The great difficulty in the mind of a sinner is in his will. He is unwilling to hear the voice of God; unwilling that he should reign over him; unwilling now to attend to religion. While this unwillingness lasts he will make no efforts, and he sees, or creates a thousand difficulties in the way of his becoming a Christian. But when that unwillingness is overcome, and he is disposed to engage in the work of religion, difficulties vanish, and the work of salvation becomes easy.
His voice - The voice of God speaking to us:
(1)In his written word;
(2)In the preached gospel;
(3)In our own consciences;
(4)In the events of his Providence;
(5)In the admonitions of our relatives and friends. Whatever conveys to us the truth of God, or is adapted to impress that on us, may be regarded as “his voice” speaking to us. He thus speaks to us “every day” in some of these ways; and every day, therefore, he may entreat us not to harden our hearts.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v8This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where…
This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where the history of provocations and contradictions of the Israelites is related at large.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v7The threatening of the Old Testament, that unbelievers shall…
II
The threatening of the Old Testament, that unbelievers shall not enter into the rest of God, is all the more to be taken to heart by the New Testament people of God
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Heb_3:7-19
7 Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit saith: To-day if ye will [om. will] hear his voice, 8harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, 9 when [where οὗ] your fathers tempted me, proved me [by proving],6 and saw my works [during] forty years. 10Wherefore I was grieved [was angry] with that [this]7 generation, and said, They do always err [go astray] in their heart; and they have not known [but they did not know] my ways. 11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. 12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart13 of unbelief, in departing [falling away, ᾶποστῆναι] from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you8 be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we are made [have become] partakers of Christ, if [provided that, ἐάν περ] we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; 15while it is said, To-day if ye will hear [if ye hear] his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16For some, when they had heard, did provoke, [for who, when they heard, provoked him?]: howbeit not all [nay, did not all they?] that came 17 out of Egypt by Moses [?]. But [And] with whom was he grieved [angry during] forty years? was it not with them that had sinned [?], whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 [!] And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to 19 them that believed not [disobeyed, ἀπειθήσασιν]? So [And] we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
[Heb_3:7.—ὡς, as, καθώς, according as—ἐὰν ἀκούσητε, not, “if ye will hear,” but, “if ye hear,” or “shall have heard,” See Del., De W., Moll. Still the precise import of the Hebrew original of the Psalm is doubtful, and it is possible that the Septuagint may intend its ἐὰν ἀκούσητε as having an optative force—would that! Yet we do not seem authorized in our Epistle to depart from the natural rendering of the words.
Heb_3:9.—οὗ, where, not when, as Eng. ver.—ἑν δοκιμασία, in proving, instead of ἐδοκίμασαν.
Heb_3:10.—αύτοὶ δὲ οὐκ έγνωσαν αὐτοί, emphatic; “but they did not know,” etc., to be coördinated apparently not with πλανῶνται, but with εἶπον and δέ, adversative. So De W., Del., Moll.
Heb_3:11.—ὡς ὥμοσα, Eng. ver., so I swore as if ὡς=οὕτως. Moll, so that=ὥστε; so De Wette, Del. Bib. Union, literally, as.
Heb_3:14.—γεγόναμεν, we have become, not are made, ἐάνπερ, precisely if=provided that: stronger than ἐάν, if.
Heb_3:16.—τίνες γάρ, for who? all modern scholars read τίνες, who? instead of the ancient τινές, some, indefinite, which is nearly unmeaning.
Heb_3:17.—ὧν τὰ κῶλα—ἐρήμῳ. Moll rightly follows Del. in making this not a question, but a statement descriptive of the effects of the wrath. So Bib. Un.
Heb_3:18.—Καί, Eng. ver., so, without reason. It is not an inference, but the statement of an actual fact. De Wette, Del., Moll, Bib. Union rightly and.—K.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Heb_3:7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, etc.—The exhortation to take warning from the example of their ancestors against apostasy is introduced by διό, as an inference from the preceding statements, and is to be conceived as corresponding (καθώς) to the address of the Holy Spirit; Διό, however, is neither to be immediately connected with σκληρύνετε, (Schlicht., Ebr., Del., etc.), thus producing a blending of the principal with the subordinate sentence; inasmuch as God, in the citation, Heb_3:7-11, is speaking in the first person; nor with βλέπετε, Heb_3:12 (Erasm., Calv., Este, Grot., Bl., Lün., Bisping, etc.), for this stands too remote. Nor again is the hortatory addition to be supplied (Thol., De W.); but the abrupt breaking off of the construction in the main sentence is characteristic. It gives to the reader a moment’s interval of repose, and yet, at the same time, summons him to reflection, and to a right application of the passage. With new emphasis, and starting, as it were, afresh, the exhortation is subsequently given by the author himself in Heb_3:12.
Heb_3:8. To-day, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts.—As the Sept. often translates the Hebrew particle of desire by ἐάν, it is possible that it has so taken the words here according to the common understanding of the Hebrew text, in which אִם stands first for the sake of emphasis: “Would that to-day ye might hearken to His voice!” It is possible, however, that אִם in Heb. here simply introduces a hypothetical condition [so Delitzsch]. The citation is from Psa_95:7; Psa_95:11, which, by the sudden introduction of the speech of Jehovah, belongs to the class of those that bear a prophetic character. The author is thus entirely warranted in not restricting the “to-day” to the actual ‘present’ of the Psalmist (left in Heb. unnamed—in the Sept. mentioned as David); and in regarding the address itself as that of the Holy Spirit, while, at the same time, the Holy Scripture is regarded in all its parts as θεόπνευστος (2Ti_3:16). Del. communicates the following remarkable Messianic Haggada from bab. Sanhedrin, 98 a.: “R. Joshua Ben Levi once found Elijah (the Tishbite) standing at the entrance of the cave of R. Simeons Ben Jochei. He asked him: ‘Do I come into the future world?’ Elijah answered: If the Lord (אדוך, name of the Shechina that was invisibly present with Elijah) wills it. R. Joshua stated that he saw indeed but two (himself and Elijah), but he heard the voices of three. He asked him further: When comes the Messiah? Elijah: Go and ask Him in person. Joshua: And where? Elijah: He is sitting at the gate of Rome. Joshua: And how may He be recognized? Elijah: He is sitting among poor persons laden with diseases; and while others unbind their wounds at the same time, and then bind them up, He unbinds and then again binds up one wound after another, for He thinks: Perchance I am about to be summoned (called to make my public appearance); and I do this that I may not then be detained! (as would be the case if He unbound all wounds at the same time). Then came Joshua to Him, and He cried: Peace unto thee, son of Levi! Joshua: When comest Thou, Lord? He: To-day. On returning to Elijah, Joshua was asked by him: What said He to thee? Joshua: Peace unto thee, son of Levi. Elijah: In this He has given to thee and to thy father a prospect of the future world. Joshua: But He has deceived me in that He said to me that He comes to-day. Elijah: His meaning in that was this—To-day, if ye hear His voice.”
Heb_3:8. As in the provocation in the wilderness.—The Heb. reads: As at Meribah (Numbers 20), as at the day of Massa, in the wilderness (Exodus 17). Our author takes these proper names etymologically, as appellatives, and the words κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ as added to define the time of the ἐν τῷ παραπικρασμῷ. The κατά is a particle of time, the same as at Heb_9:9, as in the Hellenistic, and is not to be turned into a term of comparison=ὡς. Otto considers that here also Numbers 14 is alone referred to.
Heb_3:9. Where your fathers—during forty years.—The last mentioned temptation took place in the first year of the Exodus; the first mentioned in the fortieth. But the hardness of the people always remained the same, to which Moses refers, Deu_33:8. The οὗ is a particle of place corresponding to אֲשֶׁר, and not, by attraction to πειρασμοῦ, Gen. for ῳ, with which (Erasm., Schmid, Beng., Peirce). The forty years in the wilderness are in the synagogue also regarded as typical. R. Elieser says: “The days of the Messiah are forty years, as it is said, Psalms 95.” (Sanh., fol. 99, 1). And to the question: How long continue the years of the Messiah? R. Akiba answered: “Forty years, corresponding to the sojourning of the Israelites in the desert” (Tanchuma, fol. 79, 4). The admonition of our Epistle must, therefore, have made a powerful impression, if this number of years since the ministry of Christ had, when this Epistle was composed, nearly elapsed. That the author has in mind this typical relation, is clear from the fact that the ‘forty years,’ which in the Heb. belong to the following clause—a construction which he himself recognizes at Heb_3:17—he here carries back to the preceding, and shows that he intends this construction by introducing between the dissevered parts the particle διό (so Intpp. generally since Calov).
Heb_3:10. Wherefore I was angry with this generation.—The Hellenistic προσοχθίζειν from ὀχθή, steep, high bank, or cliff, implies violent, tempestuous excitement, which one either occasions or experiences. Usually it has the latter sense, denoting the feeling of violent displeasure awakened by opposition. The ἀεί belongs not to εἶπον (Erasm.), but to πλανῶνται. A secondary idea of contempt can hardly belong to γενεά (Heinr., Steng.), though very possibly toταύτῃ(Lün.); but it is impossible that, by the latter pronoun (ταύτῃ), instead of ἐκείνῃ, the author could have intended in this connection an incidental reference to his readers (Böhm., Bl., De W.). In this passage also the author follows the Alex. Cod. of the Sept. in reading αὐτοὶ δέ, while the Vat. Cod. follows the Heb. in reading καὶ αὐτοί.
Heb_3:11. As I sware in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.—Possibly ὡς should be taken as=as, but it may also, corresponding to the Heb. אַשֶׁר (Ewald, § 337, a.), denote result=ὥστε, so that. It then, indeed, usually takes the Infin., or the Opt. with ἄν, though sometimes also the Indic. (Win., p. 410) [Ὥστε, so that, as easily takes the Ind. as the Opt.—K.]. The εἰ in the clause containing the substance of the oath, is in imitation of the Heb. אִם. The formula has sprung from the suppression of the apodosis, and negatives the thought, while אִם לֹאֹ affirms it. The κατάπαυσις refers originally to the rest of the Promised Land, Deu_12:9-10. But the idea of the “rest of God,” proceeding from this starting point, acquired a wider scope and a deeper significance.
Heb_3:12. Take heed that there be not—living God.—Μή, after words of seeing, in the Fut. Indic., expresses not only a warning, but, with it, anxiety in regard to a failure to give heed Hart., Part. II., 140). The enclitic ποτέ means, not ever, at any time (Beza, Eng. Ver., etc.), but perchance, and the ἔν τινι ὑμῶν individualizes the admonition, so as to bring it home to each person in conscientious self-examination. The Gen. ἀπιστίας indicates the relation of quality; the evil heart, then, is not to be regarded as the cause or ground (Bl., etc.), nor as the consequence of unbelief (De W., etc.). Nor, again, is ἀπιστία either faithlessness or disobedience (Schultz). The latter is the consequence of unbelief, Heb_3:18; Heb_4:6; Heb_4:11, which appears here as exhibiting its internal essence in apostasy from God. We are not by θεός to understand Christ (Gerh., Dorsch, Calov, Sebast. Schmidt, Schöttg., Carpz.), although the warning refers to the lapse from Christianity to Judaism. And God is here called ζῶν, living, not in contrast with dead works of law, Heb_6:1; Heb_9:14 (Bl.), and not in contrast with dead idols, as Act_14:15; 2Co_6:16; 1Th_1:9 (Böhme), but as He who works with living efficiency, Heb_9:14; Heb_12:22; who executes His threats, Heb_10:31; but chiefly who has appointed Christ as He did Moses, and thus accomplished the fulfilment of His promises. This latter point is overlooked by most interpreters, but is involved directly both in the fundamental conception of our Epistle, and in the immediate connection of the passage.
Heb_3:13. But exhort one another daily—sins.—With the warning stands connected a summons to παράκλησις, i.e., to language at once of consolation and of admonition, with which the hearers are to render daily aid to one another, so long as this period of gracious waiting shall continue. In classical, as well as in New Testament use (Col_3:16) ἑαυτούς, is frequently=ἀλλήλους. Individual self-exhortation cannot be expressed by παρακαλεῖτε ἑαυτούς, which would rather demand παρακαλείτω ἕκαστος ἑαυτόν. Τὸ σήμερον (to-day with the def. art.) cannot denote the life-time of individuals (Theodoret, Theoph., Primas., Erasm., Este, Dorsch, etc.), but must be identical with the day of the Psalm, and thus with the interval of grace extending to the second coming of the Messiah. We might also, in this sense, translate καλεῖται, is named, (Vulg., Est., Bl., Lün., etc.), but inasmuch as this is liable to the misconception: So long as we can yet speak of ‘to-day,’ the rendering is called=so long as the ‘to-day’ of the Psalm sounds in our ears (Calv., Thol., Böhm., Del., etc.), would seem to deserve the preference. The Aor. Pass. σκληρυνθῇ is not to be softened down; it contains a reminder of the divine judicial hardening of those who abuse the means of grace through the deceitfulness of sin. For this reason ἐξ ὑμῶν is designedly placed before τὶς, not as contrasting them with their fathers in the wilderness (Böhme, Bl.), which would almost necessarily require a καί, also, but to designate with emphasis the readers as those who are highly favored (Del.). Apostasy from Christianity is here designated as “sin,” absolutely; for the essence of sin is apostasy from God; but Christ is the Son of God, and has brought to its accomplishment the will of God on earth. The deceit, therefore, which now works upon the heart, is worse than the earlier, Gen_3:13.
Heb_3:14. For we have become joint partakers with Christ if we hold fast, etc.—As in the former chapter the author now again enforces the preceding exhortation by the greatness of the salvation which has been bestowed on us. The term γεγόναμεν, have become, reminds us that we do not possess this salvation by nature, and that consequently without the observance of the requisite condition, we are liable to have it withdrawn from us. This condition, again, introduced by the particle [not of mere condition εἰ with opt., but] of doubt, ἐάν, if, ἐάνπερ, precisely if, provided that (with Subj.) is presented not simply and objectively, as a mere condition, but as of questionable fulfilment, and hence enforces the need of self-examination, of watchfulness, and of fidelity. And for this reason μέτοχοι τοῦ χριστοῦ cannot mean participants of Christ, i.e., having part in His person; but only participants along with Christ, associates of, or joint partakers with Christ in the possessions and blessings of the kingdom of God. Riehm, overlooking this requirement of the context, prefers, with more recent scholars, the rendering participes, sharers in, instead of associates, or sharers with, as the more comprehensive and significant. He is right, indeed, as to the matter of fact, where he says (II. 719): “Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, enters into such intimate personal fellowship with the believer, that it can be said of the latter that he possesses Christ; and along with Christ Himself all that Christ has obtained has also become his own; as one who has part in Christ, he has also part with Christ in the heavenly glory and blessedness.” But the context demands the limitation above given. The term must imply partners or associates of Christ, yet without its being referred back, as by Schultz, to the term “brethren” of Christ (Heb_2:11); and the term μέτοχοι being narrowed down to ἀδελφοί. By ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑπστάσεως Erasm., Schultz, Stein, etc., understand the settled elementary principles or foundations of the Christian religion. Luther renders it “the commenced or inaugurated essence”—angefangene Wesen (as translation of substantia). Vatablus, Este, Bisping make it a periphrasis for faith, in so far as faith produces our subsistence in the spiritual life, or originates the subsistence of Christ within us. Instead of either of these meanings, the context points us to a meaning of ὑπόστασις familiar to the later Greek, viz., firm confidence, as the only one which meets its exigencies. For ὑπόστασις stands here in the same connection as ἐλπίς, hope, Heb_3:6, and in fact denotes this hope in its relation as daughter of faith, and by virtue of its relationship remaining amidst all assaults steadfastly and confidently directed toward the goal. As such it needs perpetual fostering and culture, in order that that beginning of the Christian career, which is wont to be characterized by joyfulness, energy and strength (1Ti_5:12; Rev_2:4), and which, in the case of the readers, has been so characterized (Heb_6:10; Heb_10:32; Heb_13:7), may have a corresponding end. The ἀρχὴ τῆς ὑποστάσεως is, therefore, a beginning, not in the sense of imperfection and weakness, which led Ebrard to find in the readers a set of catechumens and neophytes, but the opening or inauguration of the Church life in its full vitality and power (Camero, Grot., Böhme, Thol., etc.).
Heb_3:15. In its being said to-day if ye hear—harden not, etc.—The author resumes the citation, yet not for the purpose of expressing an admonition, thus making the citation proper extend only to “to-day” (v. Gerl.), or to “hear His voice” (Capell., Carpz., etc.), and the author resume his exhortation at “harden not,” etc., in the applied words of the Psalm, as the answering clause to ἐν τῷ λέγ. For this formula of introduction makes it necessary to take the following words as an entire citation. Nor may we again (with Beng., Michael., etc.), enclose Heb_3:14 in parenthesis. and connect ἐν τῷ λέγ. immediately with the requisition (παρακαλεῖτε, etc.), Heb_3:13; for the verse thus forms not merely an unnecessary and halting appendage, but unnaturally and absurdly summons the readers to mutual admonition by the previous utterance of the words of the Psalm. Nor may we (with Chrys., Grot., etc.), take Heb_3:16-19 parenthetically, and connect ἐν τῷ λέγ., with Heb_4:1; a construction forbidden alike by the subsequent course of thought, and the connecting particle οὖν. Nor may we attach Heb_3:15 directly to Heb_3:14; thus either assigning the mode of procedure by which steadfastness of faith is to be maintained (Vulg., Luth., Calv.), or the reason and necessity of maintaining it in order that we may be partakers with Christ (Ebr.). For ἐν τῷ λέγ. is not=διὸ γέγει, or οὕτως γὰρ εἴρηκεν. Better, therefore, to take the words in question as protasis, or conditioning clause to Heb_3:16, which latter verse is then to be taken as interrogative with an interposed γάρ=for, why, (according to genuine Greek usage) to which also the ἀλλά corresponds (Seml., and most recent interpreters). [This last construction is undoubtedly possible; and I believe it preferable to either of the others, except that which would connect it with Heb_4:1, as held by Chrys., Grotius and others. In this case, however, it is not a case of proper parenthesis, so that Heb_4:1 would stand in regular construction with Heb_3:15. Rather as the author was about to proceed to the train of thought, Heb_4:1, he was led, especially by the language of the quotation itself, to restate sharply and distinctly what had been previously but implied and hinted at, the actual crime and the actual punishment of the ancient Israelites, from which so weighty admonitions were drawn. He, therefore, abruptly breaks off in the middle of his sentence, to introduce in a series of sharp interrogations and, statements these ideas: which being accomplished, he returns,—with a natural change of construction, occasioned by the long interposed passage,—to the idea which at Heb_3:15, he had started to develope. This obviates entirely the objection drawn from the particle οὖν, Heb_4:1, and the otherwise anacoluthic character of the construction, and is, in my judgment, the only solution of the problem of Heb_3:15, that is not attended by nearly insuperable difficulties. The construction, therefore, which I prefer, is decidedly that of Chrys., in a somewhat modified form.—K.]. Of course τίνες must then be taken interrogatively; and the author’s purpose is either to repel the idea, that perhaps there were only a portion who were guilty of the provocation, to wit, the people who were at the time at Meribah and Massa (Böhme, Ebr.); in which case the author would reply that all Israel failed to enter into the Promised Land, for the reason that the whole people were guilty of the sin of unbelief and apostasy; or he designs to emphasize the fact that it was precisely Israel, the highly favored people, that had been conducted forth from Egypt to become God’s special possession, in whom all this had taken place (Del.). I see no reason for separating the two ideas. For while ἀκούσαντες points to the prerogative, which they enjoyed who heard the word of God, and the attendant obligation to obedience, the next and following interrogative sentence, ἀλλ’ οὐ πάντες, brings into closest connection (in πάντες) the universality of the sin, and in ἐξελθόντες, the preceding gracious experience and privilege: [while διὰ Μουσέως suggests here the same contrast between Moses, and his relation to the ancient Theocracy and Christ, as δι’ ἀγγέλων, Heb_1:2, between the angels and Christ.—K.].
Bisping remarks: “yet perchance not all?” but erroneously. For οὐ in interrogations=nonne, has always an affirmative force (Kühner, II., 579; Hart., Part., II., 88). The exceptional cases of Joshua, Caleb and those of tender age, are not of a nature to detract from the truth thus broadly stated, and to require that τίνες be taken, as it generally was before Bengel, indefinitely (τινές, some, instead of τίνες, who?) thus giving the rendering (Erasm., Luth., Eng. ver., etc.), “for some, when they heard committed provocation, but not all those who came out of Egypt by Moses.” How could the 600,000 whom Moses brought out of Egypt, be called τινές? The rendering of Bengel, Schultz, Kuinoel; “Nay, only they who,” etc. “It was merely they who,” [as if denying an assertion that certain men indeed provoked God, but it was not those who came out of Egypt, etc., to which the author replies, “Nay, they were all those=they were none but those] would require the article οἱ before πάντες, in order to give clearly a predicative character to οἱ ἐξελθόντες. [But this οἱ would scarcely mend the matter, and Bengel’s construction would then be little less harsh than it is now].
Heb_3:17. With whom was he angry—wilderness.—Most recent interpreters put the second interrogative mark, or still a third one, at the close of the period, after “wilderness,” to avoid the heavy and dragging effect of the last clause—if without an interrogation. But this construction overlooks the parallelism with Heb_3:18-19, which, in like manner, distribute themselves into three members. For the last clause of these latter verses is not a mere continuation of the facts previously stated; but it points to the fulfilment of the Divine oath, lying before our eyes, in the exclusion of the people from Canaan through unbelief. So also in Heb_3:17 the last clause, “whose carcasses,” points to the manifestation of the Divine wrath, in the fact that those who had fallen away from God, dying, as it were, gradually, during their bodily life, became walking corpses (Del.). Grotius says rightly ex historia cognoscimus, while Seb. Schmidt, followed by Bl., with most later interpreters, maintains; βλέπομεν, non de lectione aut cognitione historiæ, sed de convictione animi e disputatione, seu doctrina præmissa. [That is, Seb. Schmidt, Bl., etc., followed by Alford, regard Heb_3:19, “And we see that they could not,”etc., as an inference, the result of a chain of reasoning, of which, however, it is very difficult to trace any previous links; while Del. and Moll, following Grotius, make it the result stated as well known and clearly seen in the pages of the historical record, and thus brought up as a historical fact to enforce the positions of the author, and so the clause, “whose carcasses fell in the wilderness,” stands related to what precedes. It is the author’s statement, in Scripture language, of the results of the wrath of God.—K.]. The history of Israel is typical, and to this and to the state of things which follows from it, the author is referring (as shown immediately by the commencement of the following chapter), not drawing conclusions from previous premises.—Κῶλα, members, particularly hands and feet, is the term by which the LXX. render the Heb. פְּגָרִים in the sense of bodies or corpses.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. “Our being kept unto salvation, springs from the promised and vouchsafed power of God, yet only through faith, which does not waver or draw back (Heb_10:38-39; 1Pe_1:5): and thus the Apostle has in these words expressed in the most definite manner the theme of his exhortation. In his purpose to carry it out still further, he again lays hold, with the skilful hand of a master, upon the word of the early Scriptures, and says what he has to say to the brethren, the partakers of the heavenly calling, in the words of the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David. For the Epistle to the Hebrews is in so far analogous to the Revelation of John, as it brings into close union the two Testaments, and sets forth the profoundest and ultimate elements of New Testament truths, as a proper fulfilment of the types and preparatory institutions of the Old Testament, as the innermost sense and spirit of the ancient word, which was written beforehand wholly for the fulness of times” (Stier).
2. With the doctrine of predestination in all its forms, this section stands in decided antagonism; for the author speaks indeed of a hardening, which has for its result, the non-attainment of the promised rest; and in like manner of a Divine will and work which are herein accomplished. But this is by no means referred to any original wrath of God, or to His eternal counsel. Rather it is the deceitfulness of sin, by which the obduracy is produced, and against this is directed an earnest warning. The wrath of God appears as the holy fire of righteous indignation upon those who, in consequence of their evil heart of unbelief, have fallen away from the living God, and have provoked and tempted Him, before that He could prove Himself unfaithful, and fail of His own word. And it is unbelief that is emphatically declared to have been the cause of the hardening of the heart, and, as united with disobedience, to have been the ground of the destruction of those who fell in the wilderness. But that unbelief itself is not purposed or produced of God, and that the capacity to believe in the preached word is not refused by God to individual men, or taken from them previously to their own self-determination, is clear from the earnestness of the exhortation that each one should, during the gracious season of his pilgrimage, give heed to the preached word, and not allow himself to be hardened against it, but rather, by the influence of mutual admonitions within the Church, should incite himself to lay to heart the history of the Israelites, and to an unwavering maintenance of the confidence of faith. [That nothing is said here of the doctrine of predestination, proves nothing more against it than is proved by every passage of warning or exhortation in the New Testament. Few Calvinists believe that the doctrine of predestination is incompatible with the free agency and consequent accountability of man.—K.].
3. The hardening of the heart has its gradations of carnal security, which comforts itself with the outward possession of the means of grace, and from natural indifference and insensibility to the word, proceeds on through unbelieving disparagement, faithless neglect, and reckless transgression of the word, to rejection, contempt, and denial of it, and thence to a permanent embittering of the wicked heart; to a conscious stubbornness of the wicked will; to the bold tempting of the living God Himself, until, in complete obduracy, judicial retribution begins the fulfilment of its terrible work.
4. Unbelief is, in its inmost essence, faithlessness and apostasy, and hence always manifests itself as disobedience and corruption. In outward corruption the Divine judgment brings the inward depravity, the πονηρία, to light, and, at the same time, to its due reward. For God, in contrast with the faithless and apostate, remains true to Himself and His word, and as the living God carries His judgment through all resistance of the world and the devil, to victory; bringing His threats, as well as His promises, to gradual, but sure and unchecked accomplishment.
5. It is God’s, will indeed that all men be saved, and this will is potent and mighty; yet as a gracious will, it exercises no compulsion, while, as the will of the living God, it renders possible the fulfilment of the indispensable conditions of salvation; and, as the will of the Holy God, works not magically, but by the ordinary means of grace. The decision of our destiny is thus entrusted to our own will, since God has in a reliable way made known to us our destination to salvation, and provided and proffered the sure means for its attainment.
6. The duty of self-examination, and of the conscientious use of the means of grace, we must never lose sight of; since we have not as yet entered into rest, but are merely on the way to the goal. If our gracious fellowship with Christ is completely to triumph over our natural fellowship with our fathers, it must be nurtured and promoted in the way that God has ordained. Otherwise the end will not correspond with the beginning. For previous obedience excuses not subsequent apostasy, and a faith that has been abandoned does not justify at the Divine tribunal.
7. Since the gracious will of God aims at the salvation of men; while with some His judgments only produce obduracy, as the punishment of unbelief, and in consequence of this, exclusion from salvation; and since to every individual a period of grace is allotted whose limit is unknown, we must suppose that grace has, up to this point, applied in sufficient measure all its means, ways, and resources, and that God, by virtue of His omniscience, has determined this point of time in which the work of grace ceases. But with obdurate hardness, sin passes over into a permanent condition.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Our life is a pilgrimage, if: 1, our goal is entrance into the rest of God; 2, our companions the people of God; 3, our Leader the Spirit of God; 4, our rule the word of God; 5, our Helper the Son of God.—Believers have chiefly to guard themselves: 1, against false security in faith; 2, against arrogance and boasting of faith; 3, against wanderings and backsliding from faith.—How exceedingly important that the season of grace be not neglected: 1, we know not the moment at which our gracious reprieve is ended; 2, they who neglect, incur the sure wrath of God; 3, they who walk under the wrath of God do not come into the land of promise.—We must hearken to the voice of the Holy Spirit as it speaks to us: 1, in the Holy Scripture; 2, in our own conscience; 3, from the mouth of converted brethren.—He who does to-day what God demands, has best cared for to-morrow; and he who does this daily, in the to-day gains eternity.—In self-examination we have particularly to take heed to our heart: 1, whether it is an erring heart, or one steadfast in the faith; 2, whether it is an evil heart, or one converted to God; 3, whether it is a presumptuous heart, or one that is led in the discipline of the Holy Spirit.—Why deception through sin is the most dangerous: 1, because it most frequently occurs, and is most rarely corrected; 2, because it is most easily accomplished, and brings the heaviest losses—To sin all times and ways are alike, but grace has its ordained means, and its limited times; therefore be warned aright, and then in turn warn others.—How can any one be lost in the possession of the means of grace? 1, if he does not use the means of grace which are proffered to him; 2, if his use of the means of grace is in truth an abuse; 3, if he does not perseveringly continue the right use of the means of grace unto the end.—Let us practice the duty of mutual watching and exhortation: 1, on the basis of the word of God; 2, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; 3, as members of the people of God in a common lowliness; 4, from the hearty compassion of genuine brotherly love; 5, for mutual furtherance in faith and obedience toward the Lord our God.
Starke:—Let every one see to it that he rightly avail himself of to-day, i.e., of the present time; for this alone is ours, since the past is already gone, and the future is still uncertain. Besides, if the present is properly employed, it brings with it a blessing for the future (Gal_6:10; Isa_55:6).—The examples of the wicked stand in the Holy Scripture for our improvement (1Co_10:6). There is no better means to be employed against obduracy of heart, than that by frequent self-examination and befitting fidelity, we learn to obey the convictions that have been wrought within us; for thus conscience maintains its tender sensibility, and is preserved from all hardening, 2Co_13:5.—The more proofs and testimonies men have of the guidance and care of God, the heavier becomes the sin, if they will still neither believe nor hope, Mat_23:37-38.—God has come to the aid of human weakness, and uttered in His word many a declaration with the virtual confirmation of an oath, in that He swears by Himself and appeals to the inviolable truth of His being and life.—Divine threatenings are not an empty and dead sound, but have a mighty emphasis; they are fraught with God’s jealous zeal, and are finally put in force. Ah! that thou mightest be awakened by them to repentance! Jos_23:15; Zec_1:6.—Man departs from God, and becomes involved in spiritual death, when he begins to deny the truths which bring salvation (Act_13:46); or to live in conscious and deliberate sins, which are incompatible with union with God.—Oh! how necessary that the whole Christian body be aroused! but who thinks thereupon? We avoid speaking of spiritual things in our common intercourse; and this is a sure sign of a great backsliding.—Preachers cannot do every thing, and cannot be everywhere; therefore, the fathers of the household must be also bishops of the household; nay, one Christian must be bishop to another, and he has good authority and right to rebuke and correct in another what he sees worthy of reproof (1Th_5:11; Jam_5:19).—A man can easily be hardened if he does not take knowledge and care of himself, and take to heart the admonition of others.—Sin is a powerful and deceitful thing; powerful in evil desires, by which one is very easily swept away when he does not, with the grace of God, set himself against them; but deceitful when by the plausible assurance that a thing is right, allowable, and free from peril, it ensnares the man, seduces him into sin, and, unawares, gets the mastery of him. Ah! let every one be on his guard against it (Eph_4:22).—Christ, with all His attributes, offices, and possessions, belongs to us; for us was He born, for us He died, for us He arose, for us He lives, and for us He intercedes. Therefore, if we have Christ, we are wanting in no good whatsoever (Psa_34:11; Rom_8:32).—In Christianity two things are of preëminent importance—an upright character and a steadfast continuance in it. The one cannot and must not be without the other; for if we fail at the outset in uprightness of character, much more shall we fail in steadfastness. And if the latter is wanting, the beginning and the earlier progress will be in vain (Eze_33:12).—One day is like another; we may always fail and fall: therefore, to-day, to-morrow, and at all times there is need of watchfulness and caution (1Co_10:12).—God is inconceivably long-suffering, and waits long before He punishes; and meanwhile He is doing good to sinners, and always alluring them to repentance (Rom_2:4).—O! how many men fail to attain that natural limit of life which God has appointed! They cut it short to themselves by wilful sin, and it is shortened to them again by the Divine wrath (Pro_10:27).—Wilt thou charge unrighteousness upon God, that He lets good come to one and evil to another? Look, He is so righteous that He punishes none except him who is deserving of punishment (Job_34:11; Wis_12:15).—Unbelief is the source of all sin. From unbelief sprang murmuring and all disobedience, inasmuch as by this they denied the presence, omnipotence, wisdom, and grace of God.
Berlenburger Bible:—Since Christ is to rule in us as Lord in His house, we must accept the condition of hearing His voice and giving heed to it at every moment.—The people demand indeed, Christ, but when He comes without sufficient adornment and decoration, they reject Him, and are hardened.—All evil which befalls us springs from our giving no ear to the voice of God, just as our hearkening to it is followed by nothing but good.—The ways of God are entirely unknown and strange to the flesh; the heart of man always wanders about in other things; and thus, also, the dispensations of God are entirely contrary and repugnant to man’s self-will.—Tenderly as God loves a soul, He cannot treat with tenderness its corrupt disposition.—They are zealous for the Sabbath, and have no rest in their heart.—God commences His chastisement by depriving us of rest, in order that we may observe that we have lost something.—If we love others, we admonish them. Open your eyes and see!—Unbelief is a toilsome and an evil thing, which also allows no repose to others.—Now we still hear the call, “to-day;” but the gracious interval may soon close and end. Thus the boundary, with all its uncertainty, is to be kept before our eyes. But God creates this uncertainty, not in order to vex us, but in order to guard us against false security.—The present life is to be regarded merely as a day. Blessed is he who uses it for eternity!—God has appointed the period of life as the period of repentance; yet we may not say that the limit of grace reaches absolutely to the limit of nature.—Paul is obliged to give more space to warnings than to doctrines. Such admonitions are commonly disliked; one must, therefore, deal in them sparingly; yet they spring from an evangelical heart.—Whoever wilfully neglects salvation, who can help him?—In warning a person against the danger of being hardened, we do not deny his former possession of grace, but we remind him that he must not lose his previous grace.
Laurentius:—The ground of the admonition is twofold: 1, Christ’s superiority to Moses; 2, the appeal of the Holy Spirit.—The greater the grace of God, so much the greater frequently is the wickedness of men.—Believers also need to be admonished.—By the false pretexts of sin man is deceived, and by the deceitfulness of sin he is hardened.—By frequent admonition, much evil can be guarded against.—Faith can be again lost.—Not the beginning, but the end, receives the crown.—Unbelief is the capital sin, and is specially punished by God; the examples of punishments inflicted on others should serve as a warning to us.
Rambach:—The heart is hard even by nature, but God endeavors to soften it. If we oppose ourselves to Him, the hardness becomes obduracy.—Unbelief is the single and proper cause of damnation.—Sin has regard to the disposition. With the ungodly she uses force and not cunning, saying, Thou must do that. With believers whom she is unable to rule, she employs cunning and deception.
Steinhofer:—It is the office of the Holy Spirit to testify and to warn against the sin of unbelief, and this office He constantly exercises in the preached word.—What takes place in the case of souls that come into the state of grace, and what is required in order that we may remain in this condition.
Hahn:—What God has already done in us, gives us a new incentive to fidelity.—Though we ourselves find nothing in ourselves, we are still as yet not justified; but we must appeal to another that he should pronounce our justification.—We have before us a goal; therefore we should seek to preserve one another; one should kindle another’s zeal, not light the flame of his passion. Such are the obligations of Christian fellowship.
Rieger:—We meet, within the barriers of the race-course of faith, not only footsteps in which to follow, but also doubtful and dangerous deviations, and connected with these, warnings of the Holy Spirit.—Every one has his fixed barriers and ordained course of faith, from his first hearing of the voice of God even to the goal.—In regard to faith, and our participation in the heavenly calling, we must neither be timid and distrustful, nor again secure and heedless as if there were no danger.—The deceitfulness of sin need only to withdraw one to-day after another, from the attention of thy heart, in order to cheat thee unobserved of thy whole gracious season of many years.—In admonitions and appeals from the word of God, lies a drawing and a calling of God, which sin cannot so much destroy as our own purposes.
Von Gerlach:—As long as the Holy Spirit is still working on the heart, so long continues our respite of grace.
Heubner:—The continuous office of the Holy Spirit in the Church is, to lay Christ upon the heart, to urge us to faith, to rebuke unbelief.—Even in the Old Testament we perceive the voice of the Spirit.—The Spirit urges not irresistibly.—The guilt is man’s, the merit is God’s.—The foolishness of men is a perpetual provoking and tempting of God.—The “to-day” Isaiah 1. a word reminding us of the daily never-ceasing preaching of the Divine word; 2. a word that awakens to repentance; 3. a word of warning against delay; 4. a word of consolation, for where God still calls and still makes His voice heard, the period of grace has not as yet flown by.—Without rest, without repose, wanders round the disobedient son, who hears not the voice of his father.—The weary, wandering soul must strive after the rest of God.—Who trembles not at the words, “never to attain to the rest of God; forever to be banished from the realm of peace?”—If the ultimate issues of the wicked heart are so emphatically set before us in the case of others, this should make us all the more strict and rigorous towards ourselves.—To fall away from the living God, is to fall away from true life.—Had sin no deceitful form, she would not lead astray; let him who knows her, warn the in experienced; let all be indefatigable in exhorting and in hearing.—The grace obtained through Christ remains only to the steadfast believer; it becomes punishment to him who does not hold on to faith.
Stier:—Nothing is demanded of us previously to, or upon any other ground than, our having heard the word of God which brings us grace and salvation.—The successive stages of apostasy are always the same.
Ahlfeld:—To-day let the voice of God warn you against being hardened. We consider 1. the course by which obduracy proceeds onward to judgment; 2. the course by which grace breaks in pieces the hard heart.—Labor with earnestness against thine own hardening. The chief points of this labor are: 1. honest self-examination; 2. hearty, mutual, fraternal admonition; 3. diligence in looking back over the grace which we have received.
Von Bogatzky:—We must not only guard against rude blasphemers, and abominate them, but also take heed to our own heart, and see how this wanders, swerves, and becomes alienated from God.—Whoever holds a sin to be small and insignificant, is already deceived by sin, falls already into error, and, corrupted by his delight in error, is finally utterly hardened.—The commencement of upright and genuine faith brings us already to a complete union with Christ, and is a true foundation, receives Christ as a whole, and rests entirely in Christ as upon its reliable foundation.—Holding fast, we are to hold out unto the end.—Our heart is so unbelieving, that if we ten times experience the help of God, and find ourselves strengthened in faith, still when there comes a fresh emergency, trial and exercise of our faith, unbelief again immediately bestirs herself.—Our God is alone the living God; thus He will give us also life, and power, and full supplies, and will be Himself our life, our light and salvation, and the strength of our life. Thus we need not with our hearts turn with lustful desires to the needy creatures who assuredly without Him can give no life, no true joy and satisfaction, and thus also we need not fear, any creatures, not even the devil.—We have to pray for nothing but faith (although we have it already), in order that we may also maintain faith, and thus, believing unto the end, may save our souls.
Hedinger:—God’s wrath spares not the fathers, much less the children. Why? The latter should have made the conduct and fate of the former a mirror, in which they might behold and gaze upon their own.
[Owen:—The formal reason of all our obedience, consists in its relation to the voice, or authority of God.—We see many taking a great deal of pains in the performance of such duties as, being not appointed of God, are neither accepted with Him, nor will ever turn unto any good account unto their own souls.—Consideration and choice are a stable and permanent foundation of obedience.—Many previous sins make way for the great sin of finally rejecting the voice or word of God.—Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions.—Especial seasons of grace for obedience, are in an especial manner to be observed and improved.—It is a dangerous condition for children to boast of the privileges of their fathers, and to imitate their sins.—Take heed, gray hairs are sprinkled upon you, though you perceive it not. Death is at the door. Beware, lest your next provocation be your last.—When repentance upon convictions of provocations lessens or delays, it is a sad symptom of an approaching day, wherein iniquity will be completed.—Whithersoever sin can enter, punishment can follow.—Though vengeance seems to have a lame foot, yet it will hunt sin, until it overtake the sinner.—A careless profession will issue in apostasy, open or secret, or in great distress, Mat_13:5-6.—This privative unbelief is two-fold: 1. in refusing to believe, when it is required; 2. in rejecting the faith after it hath been received.—We have but a most uncertain season for the due performance of certain duties. How long it will be called today, we know not.—Union with Christ is the principle and measure of all spiritual enjoyments and expectations.—Therefore are the graces and works of believers excellent, because they are the graces and works of them that are united unto Christ.—Constancy and steadfastness in believing, is the great touch-stone, trial and evidence of union with Christ, or a participation of Him.—God sometimes will make men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, righteously exemplary in their punishment.—No unbeliever shall ever enter into the rest of God].
Footnotes:
[6]Heb_3:9.—For ἐπειρασαν με οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, ἐδοκίμασάν με, recent critics read after Sin. A. B. C. D.* E. M. Uff., 73, 137, Ital. Copt., ἐπείρασαν οἰ πατέρες ὐμῶν ἑν δοκιμασία. The lect. recept. is made up from the LXX. Cod. Alex. in which the first and the Vat. in which the second με is wanting.
[7]Heb_3:10.—For τῇ γενεᾷ έκείνη, we are to read with Sin. A. B. D. M., 6, 17, τῆ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ, [this, not that (ἐκείνη) the author, as supposed by many, changing the pronoun for the sake of a more direct application to his readers. This view, however, is rejected by Moll—K.].
[8]Heb_3:13.—Instead of τὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν, read with B. D. E. K. L., 46, 48, ἐξ ὑμῶν τις. Sin., however, has the former reading.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Exhortation from Psa 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose…
Exhortation from Psa 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose participation in the spiritual house. Seeing that we are the house of God if we hold fast our confidence . . . (Heb 3:6). Jesus is "faithful," be not ye unfaithful (Heb 3:2, Heb 3:12). The sentence beginning with "wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis confirming the argument from Psa 95:7-11, is completed at Heb 3:12, "Take heed," &c.
Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired Psalmist; so that the words of the latter are the words of God Himself.
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To-day--at length; in David's day, as contrasted with the days of Moses in the wilderness, and the whole time since then, during which they had been rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the wilderness (Heb 3:8). The Psalm, each fresh time when used in public worship, by "to-day," will mean the particular day when it was, or is, used.
hear--obediently.
his voice--of grace.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–9a. Israel’s failure to attain God’s rest portrayed as…
a. Israel’s failure to attain God’s rest portrayed as warning, Heb_3:7-11.
7. Wherefore—In view of the fact that your forming a part of Christ’s eternal house depends on your hold fast.
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Holy Ghost saith—In Psa_95:7-11. Our author assumes that what the psalm says, the Holy Ghost saith; that is, the psalm is inspired.
As—The so corresponding to this as is implied at Heb_3:12, before. Take heed. The Holy Ghost in the ancient psalm utters all the reproofs of 7-11, so (Heb_3:12,) do you take heed. See our note on Heb_3:12. The warning to the old Mosaic era of the house (Heb_3:2) is still sounding from the Holy Ghost in your ears.
Today— Since you have been so little attentive in past days, let this be the day to hear his, God’s, voice.
2. Dread warnings against disobedience to the Son, like the Jews’ disobedience to Moses, Heb_3:7 to Heb_4:13.
As Christ stands parallel to Moses, so our Christian Hebrews stand parallel to ancient Israel, and so must take warning by Israel’s fatal example.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. Wherefore] The verb which depends on this conjunction…
7. Wherefore] The verb which depends on this conjunction is delayed by the quotation, but is practically found in Heb_3:12, “Take heed.” Christ was faithful: therefore take heed that ye be not unfaithful.
as the Holy Ghost saith] For this form of quotation see Mar_12:36; Act_1:16; 2Pe_1:21.
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To day if ye will hear his voice] Rather, “if ye hear,” or “shall have heard.” The quotation is from Psa_95:7-11, and the word means “Oh that ye would hear His voice!”; but the LXX. often renders the Hebrew im by “if.” The “to-day” is always the Scripture day of salvation, which is now, 2Co_6:2; Isa_55:6. “If any man hear my voice … I will come in to him,” Rev_3:20. The sense of the Imminent Presence of God which reigns throughout the prophecies of the O. T. as well as in the N. T. (Heb_10:37; Heb_1:2. Thess.; 1Pe_1:5, &c.) is beautifully illustrated in the Talmudic story of the Rabbi (Sanhedrin 98. 1) who went to the Messiah by direction of Elijah, and asked him when he would come; and He answered “to-day.” But before the Rabbi could return to Elijah the sun had set, and he asked “Has Messiah then deceived me?” “No,” answered Elijah; “he meant ‘Today if ye hear His voice.’ ”
7–19. A solemn warning against hardening the heart
[This constant interweaving of warning and exhortation with argument is characteristic of this Epistle. These passages (Heb_2:1-4, Heb_3:7-19, Heb_4:1-14, Heb_6:1-9, Heb_10:19-39) cannot, however, be called digressions, because they belong to the object which the writer had most distinctly in view—namely, to check a tendency to relapse from the Gospel into Judaism].
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–9(7) Wherefore.—Since without steadfastness all will be lost. With…
(7) Wherefore.—Since without steadfastness all will be lost. With the words introducing the quotation compare Heb_9:8; Heb_10:15.
Whether the marks of parenthesis here introduced in our ordinary Bibles (not inserted by the translators of 1611) express the true connection of the verses is a question very hard to decide, and one that does not admit of full discussion here. It is very possible that the writer (like St. Paul in Rom_15:3; Rom_15:21; 1Co_1:31) may have merged his own exhortation in that which the quotation supplies (Heb_3:8); and the objection that Heb_3:12 would naturally in that case have been introduced by some connective word is shown to be groundless by such passages as Heb_8:13; Heb_10:23; Heb_12:7; Heb_12:25. On the other hand, if we connect “Wherefore,” in this verse, with “Take heed” in Heb_3:12, we have greater regularity of structure—a strong argument in this Epistle. It seems unlikely, moreover, that the writer (whose tenderness of tone and sympathy are so manifest in his words of warning) would at this stage adopt as his own the stringent and general exhortation, “harden not your hearts:” the spirit of Heb_3:12 (“lest haply there shall be in any one of you”) is altogether different. On the whole, therefore, it seems best to consider Heb_3:7 (“To-day . . .”) to Heb_3:11 (“. . . my rest”) as a pure quotation, enforcing the warning that follows.
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Psalms 95, the latter part of which (Heb_3:7-11) is here cited, is in the LXX. ascribed to David, but is probably of later date. (As to Heb_4:7, see the Note.) In most important respects the words of the quotation agree with the Greek version, and with the Hebrew text. The chief exceptions will be noted as they occur.
To day if ye will hear his voice.—Rather, To-day if ye shall hear (literally, shall have heard) His voice. The Greek will not allow the sense in which the words are naturally taken by the English reader, “if ye are willing to hear.” The meaning of the Hebrew words is either—(1) “To-day, oh that ye would hearken to (that is, obey) His voice!” or, (2) “To-day if ye hearken to His voice.” The “voice” is that which speaks in the following verses. As the words stand before us, the Psalmist does not formally complete the sentence here commenced (“if ye shall hear . . .”). He introduces the divine words of warning, but adds none in his own person. The entreaty “Harden not your hearts” is at once the utterance of the divine voice and the expression of his own urgent prayer. Other passages in which the hardening of the heart is spoken of as the work of man himself are Exo_9:34; 1Sa_6:6; Pro_28:14.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn v7Vers. 7-11. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today…
Vers. 7-11. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The warning, thus led up to, is now introduced by a long quotation from Ps 95, which is cited at length, because the writer is about to dwell on its whole significance in the remainder of this and also in the succeeding chapter. The warning is connected by dio with the conclusion of ver. 6. Since our continuing to be God"s house is on the condition of our steadfastness, therefore beware of failing, as the Israelites referred to by the psalmist did. With regard to the construction of the passage, there is some difficulty in discovering the apodosis to the initiatory kaywv (as saith the Holy Ghost"). It seems best to suppose one understood, being suggested by "harden not your hearts," which occurs m the midst of the quotation. Sentences thus grammatically incomplete are in the style of St. Paul. Otherwise the apodosis must be found in blepete (ver. 12), the long intervening passage being parenthetical. It is, after all, only a question of grammatical construction; in any case the general meaning is clear. As to the successive clauses of the quotation from Ps 95 (vers. 7-11), it is to be observed that
(1) "If ye will hear his voice" may probably mean in the Hebrew, "Oh that ye would hear his voice!" But the Greek of the LXX, cited in the Epistle, is capable of the same meaning. Here, again, the meaning of the particular phrase does not affect the drift of the passage.
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(2) "Harden not your hearts" expresses the abjuration which ensues from resistance of grace. Elsewhere such judicial hardening is attributed to God; as when he is said to have hardened Pharaoh"s heart. (cf. Isa_6:9 Mat_13:13) The two modes of expression involve no difference of doctrine. It is God"s doing as being judicial; man"s as being due to his own perversity. As in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness. Here kata thran , which is from the LXX, may mean at the time of", (cf. Act_16:25, kata to mesonuktion) or "according to," i.e. "after the manner of." The former agrees best with the Hebrew psalm, which has "As at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness," referring to the two places called by these names from what occurred there, when the people murmured for want of water. The first occurrence was at Rephidim, in the wilderness of Sin, at the commencement of the wandering; (Exo_17:1-8) the second was in the wilderness of Zin, near Kadesh, towards the end of the forty years. (Num_20:1-14) Both names are assigned to the former place in Exo_17:7; but elsewhere they are distinguished. (see Deu_33:8) In the text, following the LXX, equivalents of the Hebrew names are given, Massah being rendered literally by peirasmov : Meribah (equivalent to "strife") by the unusual word parapikrasmov , which occurs only here and in the psalm, though the verb parapikrainw is common in the LXX The root of the word being pikro ("bitter"), it may possibly have been suggested by the occurrence at Marah (equivalent to "bitterness"), where there was also a murmuring about water, (Exo_15:23) pikria being the LXX equivalent of Marah.
(3) When (ou in the sense of opou , as is common in the LXX and New Testament) your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. In place of the reading of the Textus Receptus, edokimasan me ("proved me"), which agrees with the LXX, the authority of manuscripts is in favor of en dokimasia . This again, like the ether variations of reading, is of no importance with regard to the meaning. But further, in the original Hebrew, and apparently in the LXX, "forty years" is connected with the clause that follows: "forty years long was I grieved," etc.; whereas, in the text, the interposition of dio at the beginning of ver. 10, necessitates its connection with "saw my works." It is possible that the writer of the Epistle intended a reference to the corresponding forty years from the manifestation of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, which were drawing to their close at the time of writing, and during which the Israelites of his day were trying God by their rejection of the gospel, or, in the case of some of the believers addressed, by their wavering allegiance to it. The supposition that this idea was in the writer"s mind is supported by the fact that Jewish writers refer to the psalm as assigning forty years for the days of the Messiah (see reference in Bleek, Delitzsch, Alford, etc.). That the writer had an intention in his variation from the original is the more likely from his following it correctly afterwards in ver. 17.
(4) As I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest. The reference here is to Num_14:21, etc., beginning with the Divine oath, "As truly as I live," which is again repeated in ver. 28. The occasion was not the murmuring either at Massah or at Meribah, but the general rebellion of the whole congregation after the return of the spies, betokening a universal spirit of apistia (cf. ver. 19). If they shall enter (ei eiseleusontai ) "is an elliptical form of oath, expressing strong negation.
Vers. 7-19. The comparison of Christ and Moses suggests the possibility of apostasy from Christ. As Christ and Moses occupied similar positions as leaders of the household of God, and Israel was faithless under the leadership of Moses, and came to ruin as the result, so it is possible that, under the leadership of Christ, there may be the same infidelity and the same bitter end.
I THE FEAR OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. This solemn exhortation is written to professing Christians; and such professors! (see Heb_10:32-34) Their piety was of such a nature that onlookers could not doubt it; yet, says the apostle, even these may apostatize. Members of the Church, this speaks to you. "Take heed." This possibility is enforced:
1. By Scripture warnings against the repetition of the wilderness-sin. For what means the quotation here from Ps 95, and the four-times repeated "today"? Not that the day of grace is short and may speedily terminate, but rather that it was possible for the men of the writer"s time to repeat the sin of their fathers in the wilderness. That sin was not confined to those who came out of Egypt; for, five hundred years afterwards, David said to Israel, "Today it may be true of you." So the writer here says, "Learn from your Scriptures that the guilt of your forefathers, the awful effects of which you know so well, may be repeated by other generations. Beware, therefore, lest it be repeated in you." We have the same reason for godly fear. What mean the parables of wheat and tares, and wise and foolish virgins; the declaration, "Many will say unto me in that day," etc.; the assurance that at the judgment many will be surprised to find themselves on the left hand of the Judge; and such passages as in this Epistle, (Heb_6:14) but that the wilderness-sin may be true of today"s Church?
2. By the subtlety of the sin of unbelief. "Take heed lest," etc.; "Lest any of you be hardened by the," etc.; as though this sin could grow upon the soul that is unaware of it. It is easy to mistake the nature of faith and the fruits of faith, and to have a spirit of unbelief, the one deadly sin, without knowing it.
3. By the fact that continuance is the test of true faith. "We are partakers of Christ if we hold our begun confidence," etc. Where vital faith exists it endures, the continued mediation of Christ for his people being the ground of this. But it is not uncommon for professors to think themselves to be Christians because of what they were. As long as there are members of the Church whose hope is of this character, the Church will have those in it who apostatize from the living God. "Lord, is it I?
II THE EVIL OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST.
1. To apostatize from Christ is to depart from the living God. (Ver. 12.) We cannot leave Jesus without losing God. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." To relinquish Christ is to be rejected of God. "He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him.
2. To apostatize from Christ reveals an extraordinary degree of inward evil. "An evil heart of unbelief." Is unbelief, then, so very evil? It is the relinquishing the Son of God; it is the making God a liar; it is (in the case of an apostate) the breaking away from Christ, not held fast even by the glory of the fuller vision.
3. To apostatize from Christ is to fail of the rest to which he leads. "For to whom sware he," etc. Rejection from Christ is the one deadly sin. "This is the condemnation;" "He that believeth not is," etc.; "And this is the condemnation, that light," etc. How much more so in the case of the apostate! "I saw," said Bunyan, "that from the very gate of heaven there was a path down to hell.
III THE PREVENTION OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. There is only one means cleave to Christ. Apostasy springs from unbelief; its antidote is faith. How can a persistent faith be maintained?
1. Faith depends greatly on the condition of the heart. "They do err in their heart;" the passage is full of that. Men do not, for the most part, leave Christ because of conscious hostility to him, or a desire to depart; it is rather because the lust of other things entering in blinds them to his beauty, and insensibly draws them from his service.
2. Faith must be shielded from outside influences which tend to weaken it. "Take heed." There are enemies to faith outside as well as in pleasures, companionships, literature.
3. Faith must be supplied with its natural food. "Exhort one another," etc. That is, present the truth. The food of faith is truth, and in order to produce or maintain faith we must present truth to the mind. Let Scripture be unstudied, and faith will die. C.N.
Vers. 7-11. There is an example here of the resources and adaptation of Old Testament Scripture to New Testament conditions. The sacred writer turns to the ninety-fifth psalm to give force to his remonstrances, and cautions against unbelief and disobedience. This part of the Psalter contains an impressive description of the conduct of the ancient tribes of Israel in their passage from Egypt to Canaan. There were two occasions on which the hardness of their hearts was specially and painfully manifest. The first of these was their unbelief at Rephidim, (Ex 17) when they murmured against God and against his servant Moses, and chode with the man of God respecting their want of water; and the place was called Massah ("temptation") and Meribah ("striving" or "contention"). A similar occurrence took place at Kadesh, when the people murmured again, and when supply of water was miraculously obtained; it was called "water of Meribah". (Num_21:13) These acts of unbelief sprang from hardness of heart, which the thought of the Divine deliverances wrought for them and the designs of love revealed to them failed to overcome. The goodness of God did not lead them to repentance, but after their hardness and impenitent heart they "treasured up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." They tempted God, and proved him to find whether he was able to do great things, and whether he was the supreme Ruler of them and all creatures. They found that he was of one mind, and none could turn him. "Harden not your hearts," was the counsel given by the psalmist; and by Isaiah, whose mission, through unbelief in the people of Judah, was a "savor of death unto death." The prophets, and Jesus Christ the great Prophet, repeated and urged the same counsel upon the attention of the Jewish people, and urged it in vain. Jehovah was grieved and vexed with the former generation; and the Image of the invisible God wept over Jerusalem, and said, "If thou hadst known... the things that make for thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." The punishment of the murmurers in the wilderness was that they should not enter into the rest of Canaan, which was designed for the obedient and those who should become a "kingdom of priests." There is probably a sacred meaning in the choice of the psalm, which specially refers to forty years, which length of time was nearly the period which elapsed from the crucifixion of our Lord to the predicted overthrow of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and cessation of sacrifices, and the captivity and dispersion of the people. Holding up the examples and punishment of unbelief before the eyes of Jewish believers, the Holy Spirit taught them to remember the severity of God, and to fear lest their apostasy from Christ should shut them out from the higher and more glorious rest of heaven. B.
Vers. 7-19. Beware of unbelief.
Eminent and honored though Moses had been, the generation of Hebrews whom he led out of Egypt became unbelieving and disobedient, and were in consequence overtaken by a dreadful doom. So the writer of this Epistle, realizing the strong temptations to relapse into Judaism which beset the Hebrew Christians, warns them against the still more dreadful consequences of apostasy from discipleship to Jesus Christ.
I A BESETTING SPIRITUAL DANGER. It is that of losing our participation m God"s house; or, more particularly, of
1. Present unbelief. (Ver. 12.) Unbelief is distrust of God, want of faith in the Divine promise and providence, and especially refusal personally to confide in the Lord Jesus as "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." Unbelief may either presume upon God"s mercy, or despair of it, or neglect it.
2. Growing hardness of heart. (Ver. 8.) "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;" and the heart also is the fountain of sin. Acts of refusal to listen to God"s voice petrify into habits, so that the heart becomes the longer the more careless impenitent, and disobedient.
3. Final apostasy. (Ver. 12.) As acts produce habits, so habits form character. A human heart indurated by unbelief, and confirmed in moral insensibility, will lapse either into atheism, or immorality, or settled worldliness; and, unless Divine grace interpose, will for over "fall away from the living God." This danger easily besets us all much more easily than many professing Christians suspect. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
II A STRIKING HISTORICAL WARNING. (Vers. 7-11.) This the apostle introduces in words borrowed from Psalm 95., which describe the career of the Israelites of Moses" day, in the wilderness. They had, as a people, been:
1. Highly privileged. (Ver. 9.) As the result of the ten plagues of Egypt, and by means of their magnificent march through the Red Sea, they had been emancipated from slavery. They "saw God"s works forty years," in the falling manna, in the water from the rock that followed them, in their raiment which did not wear out, and in the cloudy pillar which accompanied them on their journeys. Yet they were:
2. Habitually faithless. (Vers. 8, 9, 16.) They despised these abiding miracles, and demanded other signs as a condition of believing. They doubted and grumbled; they longed to return again to Egypt; they refused at God"s command to go up to take possession of Canaan; and at last they fell into the idolatries of the heathen around. Zin, Rephidim, Taberah, Kadesh-barnea, and Shittim are names which remind us how the ransomed Jews did "always err in their heart." They were obstinate and unanimous in their apostasy (vers. 16, 17). So they were:
3. Hopelessly doomed. (Vers. 11, 17-19.) The words of the psalm, "I sware in my wrath," reflect the intensity and depth of the Divine displeasure; and the language borrowed from the history, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness", (Num_14:29, Num_14:32) suggests the deep misery of the retribution which fell upon that entire generation. But a ruin still more fearful shall be the portion of all who refuse or despise the gospel spoken by our Lord Jesus, the "Apostle" greater than Moses.
III AN EARNEST PRACTICAL COUNSEL "Take heed, brethren" (ver. 12). This exhortation is, in fact, the key-note of the whole Epistle; it is the chord which rules the strain. While the grace of God does not allow any real Christian to backslide irretrievably, he preserves his people from apostasy by the use of means suited to their rational and moral nature. So, here, the Holy Spirit exhorts every individual believer (ver. 12) to "take heed." If we would not "fall away from the living God," we must:
1. "Hear his voice. " (Vers. 7, 15.) That voice speaks to us now in the sweet and glorious gospel, and tells us of far grander "works" than those
2. Which were wrought for ancient Israel. "God hath spoken unto us in his. (Heb_1:2) To obey his voice will at once soften and strengthen our hearts. It will make us large-hearted as well as tenderhearted.
3. Exhort one another. " (Ver. 13.) Christians are associated in Church fellowship that they may promote one another"s welfare. The Church is a spiritual mutual benefit society. Friendly counsel and admonition are a valuable safeguard against apostasy. Two considerations which should stimulate to this duty are mentioned:
1. the shortness of life;
2. the insidiousness of sin.
3. Continue firm unto the end. " (Ver. 14.) It is dangerous for a believer to rest satisfied with the consciousness of his original conversion; he ought to be constantly turning from sin to Christ. It is unwise for him to lay stress on past frames and feelings; he must cherish through life an always-fresh and. living "confidence" in the Savior a faith which more and. more certifies itself by the ripening "fruit of the Spirit." He must remain ever on his guard against unbelief. Only by persevering steadfastness will any one who has accepted the "heavenly calling" finally enter into the heavenly "rest.
Vers. 7, 8. On hearing God"s voice.
The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Introduction. The witness of the New Testament to the Divine inspiration of the Old. "The Holy Ghost saith". (Psa_95:7-11) We have in the text:
I A GREAT FACT IMPLIED. That God speaks to man. The "if" does not indicate uncertainty as to the Divine voice, but as to man"s attention to this voice. There is no question as to whether God will speak to man or not, but whether man will heed his communications. Notice:
1. The object for which God speaks to man. This object is that man may be saved. The Divine voice proclaims and proffers a "great salvation," and publishes redemptive truth to man.
2. The organs by which he speaks to man.
(1) By the sacred Scriptures, and especially in the life and teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ, as recorded therein. "God... hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son.
(2) By Christian ministries, especially the preaching of his gospel. "We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us,". (2Co_5:20)
(3) By the voice of our conscience. In its approbation of the right and its condemnation of the wrong, God speaks to us.
(4) By the events of his providence.
(5) By the influences of his holy Spirit. He speaks within the soul of man. He imparts emphasis and energy to the other voices by which God addresses us.
3. The frequency with which he speaks to man. Our text implies that he speaks to us daily. And surely by some one or more of these voices, every day he addresses to us some prohibition or persuasion, some caution or encouragement, some precept or promise, some invitation or warning. Were our susceptibility to Divine influences greater, we should ever hear the utterances of the Divine voice.
II A MOMENTOUS DUTY EXPRESSED. Our duty is to hear God"s voice. Consider:
1. The signification of hearing God"s voice. It is not mere hearing that is meant here, but earnest attention to God"s voice, hearty belief in his communications, and willing obedience to his commands.
2. The season for hearing God"s voice. Today; i.e. now.
(1) Because life is uncertain. "Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?" etc. (Jam_4:14)
(2) Because procrastination is perilous. The postponement of our duty today facilitates a further postponement of it tomorrow.
(3) Because it is a present duty, and to defer the performance of it is, therefore, sinful. We ought to attend to God"s voice now. The urgency of this duty is suggested in the text. In the psalm from which it is quoted, our text "is virtually the expression of a wish, "Today if ye will but hearken to his voice! or, "Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice!" The pathos and earnestness which the Holy Ghost puts into this wish suggests the deep importance of the duty; cf. Psa_81:13, "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me!" etc.
III A SOLEMN CAUTION GIVEN. "Harden not your hearts." The sapling is pliant; it may be bent and trained as to the direction and form of its growth. The full-grown tree is fixed in form, firm in texture, and unbending in its resistance; it is hardened. Men harden" their hearts by disregarding the voice of God, by not recognizing the authority of their consciences, by postponing the performance of religious duties, by neglecting the great salvation, and by practically despising or resisting the Holy Spirit of God. St. Paul speaks of men who were "alienated from the life of God, because of the hardening of their heart," and "who being past feeling" had abandoned themselves to persistent and active wickedness. For such moral insensibility what hope remains? "Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice! W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9As the Holy Ghost saith
Heb_3:7-8
As the Holy Ghost saith
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Scripture
1.
The authority of the Scripture is not of man, but of the Holy Ghost.
2. The Scriptures are no dumb letter, but the voice of the Holy Ghost, who by them speaketh.
3. The Holy Ghost is God, the Inspirer of the prophets that wrote the Scripture.
4. The Holy Ghost is a distinct person of the Godhead from the Father and the Son, exercising the proper actions of a person inspiring the prophets, inditing the Scriptures, and speaking to the Church. (D. Dickson, M. A.)
To day, if ye will hear His voice. -
The voice of Jesus
are the voices audible to man throughout this terrestrial sphere. As he journeys on the pathway of life, they salute his ears at every step. In the busy city, the secluded hamlet, the open field; in the arid desert, and on glassy ocean, their words are heard. These voices are vastly dissimilar in their utterances and in their tones, and are fraught with momentous consequences to man. There is creations voice, and they who lend an attentive ear will find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in tones, and good in every thing. Then there is the voice of conscience, which proclaims sin and guilt, warns of misdoing, and harasses with fears. Then there are a multitude of human voices which make glad the heart. The voice of a mother, resonant with ineffable tenderness. The voice of friendship, how it brightens the eye, awakens sympathy, cheers in the hour of adversity. How welcome the voice of mercy, as it announces pardon to the transgressor, or utters a gracious reprieve to the condemned. Then there are other voices, the object of whose utterance is to lure man from the path of virtue, degrade, and destroy. But amid these multifarious voices, the one referred to in our text ever sounds distinct. Like sweetest music it falls upon the ear of the soul, and, when listened to, makes melody in the heart. It is the voice of Divine love, compared with which human affection sinks into insignificance. It sounds in the ear of the sinner and tells of liberty, comfort, strength. Sometimes this voice is preceded by manifestations of Almighty power such as occurred to Elijah on Horebs mount. The destructive wind of adversity may break in pieces the mountain of earthly prospects; the fire of personal afflictions may threaten to consume our bodies; and then follows the still, small voice, proclaiming the illusive character of the fleeting things of time. This voice is constantly asking admission to the human heart Rev_3:20). The saints of old heard it, and were filled with joy; the disciples, journeying, heard it, and their hearts burned within them. Saul of Tarsus heard it, and it crushed out all his pride, laid him low in the dust, subdued his rebellious spirit, and evoked the prayer--Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? But how many close their ears to that voice, and turn away from the loving Saviour t The hue of health flushes the cheek, vigorous physical life is theirs, easy circumstances surround them, and all will be well. The period when we are to hear that voice is to-day; now is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation. By to-morrow the pulse may cease its beating. To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. He asks your attention, your heart, your soul, your all; but He uses no compulsion. If ye will hear! (R. Kingshott.)
An admonitory address
I. THE GREATNESS OF THE SPEAKER.
1. He who addresses you is Christ the Redeemer. This calls for serious consideration.
2. It is He who has witnessed all your past life and behaviour.
3. It is He who will judge you at last, as having a perfect knowledge of your whole life.
4. His judgment is upright. Then there will be no mercy, but all will be judgment.
II. THE THINGS WHICH CHRIST SAYS.
1. He says that your time is gone! This is a serious address.
2. He says that eternity is at hand!--a long, a never-ending eternity!
3. Christ farther says, What have you done with your privileges, and how have you improved the means of grace in past time?
4. Christ still farther says, When will you be ready, and what would make you ready to enter into glory?
III. THE TIME SET FOR YOUR HEARING THESE THINGS is mentioned in our text as being today--not to-morrow.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF ATTENDING TO OR NEGLECTING THESE THINGS. If repentance be obtained, heaven will be your everlasting happy home. If sin continues, hell will be your doom. (James Kidd, D. D.)
A dissuasive from procrastination
I. There is a voice which may, with emphatic propriety, be termed THE VOICE OF GOD.
1. the providences of God, particularly those of an afflictive nature.
2. The sacred Word--both law and gospel.
II. THE VOICE OF GOD DEMANDS OUR SERIOUS ATTENTION,
1. Should a servant decline the reasonable commands of his master--a son, the gentle authority of his father--or a subject turn his back upon his prince, who might condescend to address him?
2. The nature of the subject upon which He deigns to address us is another reason for our attention to His voice. He calls us to no hard service. He invites us to approach that we may receive those blessings which constitute the happiness of man.
III. YOUR ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF GOD SHOULD BE WITHOUT DELAY.
IV. IF WE WOULD LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF GOD WE SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS NOT TO ADOPT A CONDUCT WHICH WILL PREVENT OUR ATTENTION TO ITS ADMONITIONS.
1. Yon must avoid that state of insensibility into which so many nominal Christians have fallen.
2. It will be of equal importance that you also studiously avoid the inordinate cares of life, which first this obstruct and then close up the avenues to the soul, and so produce a fatal insensibility.
3. Moreover, it will be of vast consequence that you avoid temptation; for the mind is rendered insensible in proportion as it becomes familiar with sin.
4. Finally, beware of the whirlpool of scepticism--the dangerous shoals and fatal rocks of infidelity. (S. Lowell.)
Peril of delaying repentance
Not to listen to Gods voice (evil and perilous though it be) is a far lesser evil than to will not to listen to it. Men fail to listen through the impulse of passion; they will not to listen through deliberate choice. A single sin, grave though it be, is of human infirmity; to defer repentance, when called, is deliberately to reject God.
1. He does not promise you time. One time is ours, now. The past is gone; the future is not yet. One time we ever have, a time fleeting by, an ever-passing present. God renews to us this present again and again, in every moment of our being. You can attend, or pray, or resolve at this moment. When the next is come, you may, if Gods grace continues, do the same. But you cannot efface what you have done; you cannot replace what you have left undone. But there will be a morrow which will have no to-morrow except eternity. God has promised pardon to the penitent, but where has He promised a morrow to the procrastinator?
2. He has not promised thee grace. He gives His grace at all times freely. We have no claim upon it; else it were not grace, but debt. He gives it overflowing, without, beyond, against our deserts. But He gives it with wisdom also. He gives it although it is abused; but He does not give it in order that it should be abused, or to encourage mans abuse of it. But it would be to encourage mans abuse of it, to store it up for those who not only again and again refuse it, but who refuse it now because they may have it hereafter (Rom_2:4-5). What is it but to make the mercy of God the occasion of sin, to sin on now, because God is so good, that thou thinkest that He will give thee grace to repent hereafter? And when wishest thou that He should give thee grace to amend? Next year? or the next? or the next? No! In none of these, if thou art even thus far honest with thyself, dost thou wish to amend. No, not yet. How is this? Because thou knowest full well, that even in these six years, thy passions will not be exhausted, thy desires will not be weakened; the wants which thou suppliest unlawfully will still be craving; the evil habits which thou nurturest will be even strengthened; the embers of thy earthly fires will not have died out. When, then, God may ask, wilt thou choose Me? Alas, if thou speakest truly, thou wilt say, When I have nothing else to prefer to Thee. God is nothing to thee. Thou wantest, willest, wishest nothing of God, but to escape Him. It is not God thou choosest, but thyself still. One thing alone thou really choosest, impunity in sin. Those who picture to themselves future repentance, picture to themselves at best only the exchange of pleasure for pleasure, unlawful pleasure, it may be, for lawful; but mostly they picture to themselves a time when they shall be worn out to the world and the world to them, in sickness or death. Then they would give up what they cannot keep; they would part with what has parted with them; and they would receive in exchange--not God whom they know not, but--in some way, they know not how, escape from hell.
3. But wilt thou then have the will to repent? Judge of the future from the past. Think of the time when thou wert just hesitating on the borders of sin, when it first looked pleasant to thee, when first thou was tempted to some slight forbidden gain to take some little thing that was not thine, to give way to some childish or youthful vanity, to taste some slight forbidden pleasure. If thou hast not repented yet, hast thou more or less mastery over thyself now than then? Is it easier to thee to abstain from greater sin now than from lesser sin then? Too surely, thy bands have been bound faster around thee; thy desires have become stronger; thy will weaker. People sin, out of the very habit of sinning. Sin wears out the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength; not itself. It lives on upon the life of soul and body. It lives upon their destruction; but itself thrives and is vigorous in their decay. You have seen the fungous, unsubstantial, putrid, stinking, disgusting, poisonous, fed from the yet living tree. You know it to be the token of decaying life on which it feeds. Such is sin. Its seat is in the will. It corrupts the will. The corrupted will anticipates the sin in act; it survives the power to enact. Avarice, falsehood, hatred, censoriousness, vanity, hypocrisy, love of ill-gotten goods, impurity, will live on in the aged sinners soul; they will accompany him to the last; they will pass out of this world with him and in him; but whither will they accompany him? Will they escort him, as an angel-train, guarding him from the evil spirits, who wait for the departure of the disembodied soul, to seize on their lawful prey? Will they carry him to Abrahams bosom, into the realms of peace and truth and love, where nothing defile, I shall enter? Will they present him before the judgment-seat of Christ, who bids us to love one another as He has loved us, to purify ourselves as He is pure, to deny ourselves as He denied Himself and emptied Himself of His glory that He might take our shame, and thereby bring us to partake of His glory and His love? (E. B.Pusey, D. D.)
Taking the first opportunity of grace
1. It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do (Philippians if. 13). And no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him (Joh_6:44). Is it not then a point of wisdom to yield when God draws?
2. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth; therefore put not off the grace that is offered thee to-day. Boast not thyself of to-morrow Pro_27:1).
3. By putting off an opportunity men make themselves more unfit for another opportunity; for sin, the longer it groweth the stronger it groweth, and the heart useth to be more hardened by putting off means of softening. As they who had received grace were exhorted to persevere therein, put not off to-day, much less let childhood put off to youth, or youth to man-age, or man-age to old-age, or old-age to death-bed. (W. George.)
The offer of salvation
1. That while men have the offer of salvation and the word preached unto them, it is their day.
2. That by the outward hearing, God requireth the heart to be brought down and mollified.
3. That He requireth present yielding, to-day, while he calleth, without delay, because we cannot be sure how long God will spare or continue his offer beyond this present.
4. He that studieth not to yield his heart to believe and obey Gods word, sounding in his cars, hardeneth his heart. For what is it else not to harden their heart, but heartily to believe and give obedience? (D. Dickson, M. A.)
Religion to-day
I. THE VOICE THAT SPEAKS. To-day if ye will hear His voice: whose voice? The voice of God. It is the Holy Ghost that speaks, the source of all inspiration; so that all Scripture may be regarded as His voice. And if it he the voice of God, does it not demand your deep attention, your prompt obedience? Shall God speak, and man refuse to hear? Nor does He speak to you in vengeance, but in love. He does not make His appeal to-day to the sword of justice, but He makes His appeal to the blood of His Cross. And oh 1 can there be any subject more momentous--involving, as it does, your highest interests for time and for eternity? To-day if ye will hear His voice. But how does He speak? Most impressively, most earnestly: by His Word, by His Gospel, by His providence, by your teas, in, by your conscience. But what does He say? There are two subjects, on which He addresses you: your own condition as a sinner in His sight--your guilt, pollution, and depravity; and the rich provision of His mercy in the mediatorial character and work of His beloved Son.
II. THE PROMPT AND IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IT DEMANDS. To-day if ye will hear His voice. Why to-day? Because to-day all is ready. The great salvation is ready; the way of access to the throne is ready; the great Intercessor there is ready; the angels that hover over this assembly are ready; and the Church on earth is ready, to bid you welcome to its communion, Why to-day? why to-day? Because you will never have a more suitable season than to-day. Be assured, that the longer you delay, the more deep and firm will be the hold which the world will get of your heart; the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, like the thorns in the parable, will have grown up to choke every good resolution. Why to-day? why to-day? Because you have delayed long enough. Ah! too long--too long. You should have heard His voice long ago; you should have heard His voice in the days of your youth; you should have heard His voice in early childhood. You should have heard His voice the first time He spoke to you. You should have heard His voice in the advantages which you enjoyed; in parental instruction--in the Sabbath School-under a faithful ministry. Why to-day? why to.day? Because you may not see to-morrow. Amid the stillness of this night, death may enter in at your window. Or to-morrow may come, and this voice not speak to you to-morrow. Or if the voice speak to you to-morrow, you may not be in circumstances to profit by it. Now, it convinces of sin; to-morrow it may not convince. Now, conscience speaks; but to-morrow conscience may be seared.
III. THE SOLEMN WARNING, the admonition, the remonstrance, by which a prompt and immediate attention to the voice that speaks to you is enforced. To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
1. Harden not your heart with infidel objections. Do not say--The Scripture is not true. Have you proved it? Can you stake eternity upon it? You know you cannot!
2. Do not harden your heart by saying you cannot believe. You will not. It is not for want of evidence, but for want of inclination.
3. Do not say, I am not responsible for my belief. Iris false. You are responsible for your belief; the great God holds you responsible for your belief; and so far from your not being responsible for your belief, your destiny will turn upon it. It is upon that very thing it will hinge. He that believeth, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned.
4. Harden not your heart. Oh! think of the consequences if you do. The result is inevitable; the consequence is infallible. He will turn upon you in indignation, who now bends to you in condescension and love. The cup of salvation is handed round amongst you; dash it not untasted from your lips. The sceptre of His grace is stretched out to you; touch it and live. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
Instant consideration of religion recommended
I. THE EXCELLENCE OF RELIGION, AND YOUR INTEREST IN THE PRACTICE OF IT. Both these are indisputable. What do you set your thoughts on, when you take the affairs of religion under your consideration? Is it not the glory of God, and your own salvation from sin and wrath? Now what is so excellent in itself, so honourable, so suitable to the capacities of thinking beings, as these pursuits which form the nature of practical religion?
II. THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE, AND TILE DANGER OF DYING UNPREPARED FOR ETERNITY. What is human life? A vapour, appearing a little while, and then vanishing.
III. THE IMMUTABILITY OF GODS PRESENT DEMANDS. Whatever He requires of you now, He will require twenty or thirty years hence, should you live so long. The method of pardon is already fixed. The Unchangeable will never alter it. And if He will not, men cannot. If you dislike at present humiliation; if you feel now an aversion at a dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for justification; if the duties of holiness seem hard and disagreeable at this instant, they will for ever be so, in relation to depraved dispositions.
IV. THE LONGER IT IS DELAYED, YOUR AVERSION AND INABILITY TO IT WILL INCREASE. Was your life threatened with some distemper, how would you reason, and how would you act? Would you say, I will stay till I be a little worse, and then I will apply to a physician? Would it not be reckoned madness to sport in this manner with life and health?
V. THE NECESSITY OF AN OPERATION OF DIVINE GRACE ON YOUR SOULS. God is now striving with you. But what if these are the last touches He will ever give a heart so long hardened against Him? (Alex. Shanks.)
The solemn caution
I. THE VOICE REFERRED TO.
1. It is the voice of mercy.
2. It is the voice of Divine authority.
3. It is the only voice directly connected with the sinners salvation.
4. This voice addresses us through various mediums of communication.
II. THE ATTENTION DEMANDED.
1. That we hear so as to understand it.
2. That we hear so as to believe it.
3. That we hear so as to obey it.
III. THE SPECIFIED PERIOD FOR HEARING CHRISTS VOICE,
1. Short.
2. Uncertain.
3. Succeeded by the darkness of the grave.
IV. THE IMPORTANT CAUTION ANNEXED. Harden not your hearts
1. By inattention to the concerns of the soul.
2. By pursuing the works of darkness.
3. By yielding to the influences of unbelief.
4. By a sordid attachment to the present world. Application.
(1) You are all responsible, for the voice of Christ has repeatedly sounded in your ears.
(2) You have all your day--a period given for the improvement of your privileges and mercies.
(3) How necessary, then, to hear His voice! How important that you harden not your hearts!
(4) Let our influence be laid out in bringing the ignorant and perishing of our race to hear the joyful sound, that they may not perish for lack of knowledge!
(5) Let us be watching and preparing for the second advent of the Saviour, when they that are in their graves shall hear His voice and live. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Sinners entreated to hear Gods voice
1. The first motive which I shall set before you with this view, is the shortness and uncertainty of life. I urge you to become religious to-day, because you are not sure of to-morrow. Need I tell you, that you are frail as well as mortal; that you must not only die, but may die soon and suddenly? Who, let me ask, are the persons that die suddenly and unexpectedly? Are they the feeble, the infirm? No, observation will tell you, that they are the youthful, the vigorous, the strong. She will tell you that while the former, like a reed, bend before the blast and escape, the latter, like the stubborn oak, brave its fury, and are prostrated.
2. This remark suggests a second reason, why you should not postpone religion to another day. You cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. Now to-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day, then, is the only time which you can properly or lawfully give to God.
3. A third reason why you should commence a religious life to-day, is, that if you defer it, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands you to commence immediately a religious life. Now if you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. Here then is a direct, wilful act of disobedience to Gods commands; and this act tends most powerfully to harden the heart; for after we have once disobeyed, it becomes more easy to repeat the disobedience. But this is not all. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one. If none can readily be found, you will invent one. This also tends most powerfully to harden the heart. A man who is frequently employed in seeking arguments and excuses to justify his neglect of religion, soon becomes expert in the work of self-justification. He is, if I may so express it, armed at all points against the truth; so that in a little time nothing affects him, no arrow from the quiver of revelation can reach his conscience. But if, as is sometimes the case, his excuses prove insufficient, and his understanding and conscience become convinced, he can avoid compliance only by taking refuge in an obstinate refusal, or by resolutely diverting his attention to some other object, till Gods commands are forgotten, or by a vague kind of promise that he will become religious at some future period. Whichsoever of these methods he adopts, the present impression is effaced, and his heart is hardened. He has resisted the force of truth, and thus rendered it more easy for him to resist it again. In a word, he has less religious sensibility; he has become more inaccessible to conviction, and less disposed to yield to it, than before. Now this is precisely what the Scriptures mean by hardening the heart to-day. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The Holy Ghost saith to-day
It is the mistake and ruin of many, both young and old, that they believe and obey Satan rather than God. The one motto is to-day! the other is to-morrow!
I. A CREST SPEAKER. Much depends, for the way in which we regard and treat what is said, on the person who says it. In connection with the Holy Ghost being the speaker here I have three remarks to make. In regard to what is said, you may be sure that.
1. It is important--for the Holy Ghost saith it. Much importance is attached to what great men say. A mans position gives importance to what he says--a king, for instance, or a statesman, or a master, or a judge. How much more important is the word of the Holy Ghost, whether it be in the way of warning, or encouragement, or command, or reproof! When He comes to you, you may be sure it is some momentous errand that has brought Him; and while all Scripture is His Word, such a saying as that in our text is His, in a special sense, and is of peculiar significance. And as, when a king speaks, every voice is hushed, so when the Holy Spirit speaks, there may well be the deepest interest, attention, and reverence. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.
2. It is true--for the Holy Ghost saith it. Sometimes the word of the wisest and greatest is not to be trusted, and even the truest and best may mistake. Here is One who never deceived, never mistook, never was untrue, whose word never was broken--the Holy Ghost. He is the Spirit of truth. His is the Scripture which cannot be broken.
3. It is kind--for the Holy Ghost saith it. He is the Spirit of Love as well as of Truth. With what a gentle voice He speaks. I dare say you have seen people in anxiety about their souls. Their happiness was gone. And in regard to all this, you have heard it said that it was the Holy Spirits doing; and you have thought hardly of Him in consequence. And yet never was He more kind than when He did this very thing. When He awakens and alarms, it is to warn of coming danger, and lead to flight and safety. Will you not listen to Him as a loving Friend?
II. A MOMENTOUS WORD.
To-day! This is what the Holy Ghost says. It is a little word, but it has a world of meaning in it. It may be said to be at once a warning and an invitation.
1. It sets before us the time for repenting. Sin is rebellion against God, and each new sin is another act of rebellion still further endangering the rebels head. What is to be done? The sin must have an immediate arrest laid upon it--must be forsaken. Here is a boy who has begun to be in earnest about his soul. He knows he is lost. He would like to be saved. But he would like to keep his sins too, at least for a while. He is just like that lad, who, while working among the waggons on a railway, has had his leg so bruised and crushed that there is nothing for it but to have the limb taken off. But he cannot make up his mind to part with it. Day after day he asks to have the operation deferred, each day thinking it will not be so difficult the next; though his whole experience has proved that it would have been easier at first, and that the longer the delay, the more difficult it will always become. At length the surgeon, if he is wise and kind, will break in on this state of things, and say, We cannot tamper with a matter of this kind any longer. It is as much as your life is worth, to put off another day. The choice lies between your limb and your life; which are you prepared to lose? Whatever is to be done, must be done at once. It must be now or never. And even so it must be with sin, with the evil habit, the forbidden indulgence--it must go at once. I know how difficult it is. It is compared to cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. Ill repent one of these days. Ill repent to-morrow. And thus it goes on from day to day, till at length the Holy Ghost breaks in with His great word, and says, To-day! There must be no more putting off. You have lost too much time already. It is as much as your soul is worth to wait longer. Or is there a girl who has got a sense of her sin, but fears she is too far gone to be saved. She has put off so long, that she believes she is now past hope. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. She is like to give way to utter despair. Nay, but the Holy Ghost saith, To-day! It is not too late yet. It may be too late to-morrow.
2. It sets before us the time for believing. But here, too, what delay! Here is one trying to make himself better first. He says he is not fit to come to Jesus as he is. His heart is too hard: his sin is too great. He is like that diseased boy who can hardly walk, and yet refuses to see the doctor, or to knock at the infirmary door, because he is too ill, or does not yet sufficiently feel his need of help. He hopes to go by and by. He might not be received as he is. His case is too desperate. He must try to improve himself a little first. He does not see that the worse he is, the greater is the necessity for getting help at once. And when the Holy Ghost saith To-day, it is as if He said, Now is the time to flee to Jesus, whatever you may be. Now is the time to come to Him, all as you are. What a happy day it would be if we heard some of you saying, Lord we take Thee at Thy word to-day I we come to Thee to-day!
3. It sets before us the time for working. It is good for ourselves to work. Idleness of every kind is evil,--unhealthy for the body, for the spirits, for the soul. And so, Christian workers get personal benefit from their work. We need to be doing some work for Christ and for others, to keep our own souls healthy and lively and right. It is good for others. There are few for whom the youngest of us could not do something. It is pleasing and honouring to God. God likes to see His people working. It is one proof of their love to Himself. But where is all this to be done? Here on earth. And by whom? Not only by the old, but by the young also. And when? Now. Perhaps some of you are purposing to be workers when you are grown up. You think of doing nothing meanwhile. But the Holy Ghost saith, To-day;--not when you are older, but now while you are yet young. The kind of work which the Lord now asks of you can only be done here--not in heaven. Can you think of so many perishing all around you, without your doing anything for them? Can you do or give nothing for the heathen now? And so it is as regards giving for Christ. I fear we are far behind in this respect. What a sad thought it will be, I might have done something for Christ, if I had only began in time!
4. It sets before us the best time for repenting, for believing, for working--to-day. Not when you are older, not when you are better qualified,but just now, immediately--to-day. You must have noticed the tide gradually coming in till the shore was covered; and when it was at its full, how eager the fishermen were to get their boats afloat; and how easy it was then as compared with what it was when the tide was back. The tide may be said to he in with you now: it is full tide; it is the time for getting your own boat afloat, and helping others with theirs: and for your encouragement, and for your warning, ere it go back, the Holy Ghost saith, To-day!
5. It sets forth the time for repenting, for believing, for working, as very short: a day--this day--to-day. You say you must enjoy yourselves, and see what the world can do for you. Or you must learn your business first. Nay; but here again, the Holy Ghost saith, Today! It is slipping past, and will soon be over.
6. It sets forth what may be the only time for repenting, for believing, for working. Oh that thou hadst heard, even thou, in this thy day! As if every one had his day--and when that is lost, it is lost for ever. Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. This may be the only to-day we shall ever see.
III. THE LESSON.
1. Value to-day. Regard it and treat it as you do other precious things. We may well say what a daughter told me she heard her dying mother, a Christian woman, saying a few days ago. It was Sabbath morning, and when the early sunshine lighted up her room, after a long night of restlessness and suffering, she was overheard saying, Dear day! Oh yes, it should be a dear day to us all, for it is the day of grace, the day of salvation.
2. Improve to-day. Make hay when the sun shines. If the day is so precious and so short, then surely we should make the very most of it. Do not waste it. Lay it out as a steward of God.
3. Remember that the night cometh.--Every day has its night, and so has this one. Whether you are improving it or not, it is going away, and the night will soon be on. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.)
The entreaty of the Holy Ghost
I. THE SPECIAL VOICE OF THE HOLY GHOST.
1. How does the Holy Ghost thus speak?
(1) He saith this first, in the Scriptures. Every command of Scripture calls for immediate obedience.
(2) Further, while the Holy Ghost speaks in Scripture on this wise, He speaks in the same manner in the hearts of His people, for he is a living and active agent.
(3) The like is also true when the Holy Ghost speaks in the awakened.
(4) Once more, the Holy Ghost speaks thus by His deeds as well as by His words. We have a common proverb that actions speak more loudly than words. Now the acts of the Holy Spirit in the leading of many to the Saviour are so many practical invitations, encouragements, and commands to others.
2. But why so urgent, blessed Spirit, why so urgent? It is because the Holy Ghost is in sympathy with God; in sympathy with the Father who longs to press the prodigal to his bosom; in sympathy with the Son who is watching to see of the travail of His soul.
II. A SPECIAL DUTY. Hear His voice--that is, hear it obediently, eager to do what he bids you, as he enables you. Do not hear and forget. Retain the truth in your memories, and, better still, practise it in your lives.
1. Hear ye the Lord when He instructs you. How often are mens ears stopped up with the wax of prejudice, so that they are dull of hearing. They have made up their minds as to what the gospel ought to be, and will not hear what it is.
2. But the Lord does more than instruct you, He commands; for let men say what they will, the Gospel to be preached to the ungodly is not merely warnings and teachings, it has its solemn, positive commands.
3. But the Lord does more than command, He graciously invites; with tenderness He bids sinners to His banquet of mercy. Shall His love be slighted, and His bounty treated with scorn?
4. But the Lord does more than invite, He adds His promises. Oh do not count yourselves unworthy of them.
5. The Lord also threatens, as well as entreats. He declares that the despisers shall wonder and perish. If Christ be rejected, eternal wrath is certain.
III. A SPECIAL TIME EMPHASISED.
1. To-day, that is while God speaks. Oh, if we were as we should be, the moment God said Seek ye My face, we should reply, Thy face, Lord, will I seek: as soon as the invitations of mercy were heard there would be an echo in our souls to them. Hear God to-day, for to-day He speaks.
2. The apostle says in the next chapter, To-day--after so long a time. I see that some of you have bald heads, or grey hairs lie thick upon them. Is it not long enough to have provoked your God these sixty years? To-day, that is, especially while the Holy Ghost is leading others to hear and to find mercy; to-day, while the showers are falling, receive ye the drops of grace; to-day, while there are prayers offered up for you; to-day, lest the preaching of the Word of God should come to be a matter of routine, and the preacher himself, discouraged, should lose all zeal for your soul; to-day, while everything is peculiarly propitious, hear ye the voice of God. While the wind blows, hoist the sail; while God is abroad on errands of love, go forth to meet Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
To-day
From first to last, salvation is the product of the mighty energies of the Holy Ghost, and is brought about by His voice speaking to our hearts. We shall never be disposed to seek for salvation until the Holy Spirit of God in one way or another begins to stir our desires. Further, we may say that, although we are distinctly commanded to repent and believe the gospel, we never shall repent without His first having convicted us of sin; so that from first to last, on our side as well as His, salvation is of the Lord. All this is true; but it is only one side of the truth, though it is a side we must not ignore. I can imagine a man saying or feeling, If that be so, I am not responsible for my conduct. If the Holy Spirit of God is not pleased to strive with me it is impossible for me to come to Christ; therefore, unless He make me willing I can do nothing. I do not distinctly feel that He is drawing me now, and therefore there is nothing for it but to go on living in sin until my call comes, if it ever do come at all.
1. First, are you quite sure that God has not spoken to you, and that you may not have failed to hear His voice, either because in your sin you did not wish to hear it, or because in your perversity and ignorance you had made up your mind that His voice must speak in a certain particular way, while God has seen fit to speak after quite a different manner?
2. And, second, is your conscience quite clear that He never has spoken to you, and you have known it, and been convinced of it, and yet have hardened your heart against His call? It is quite true that you cannot come unless the Spirit draw, but is it equally true that He has never drawn? It is not too much to say, that whatever moves you in the right direction, whatever influences you to forsake sin and turn to God, is the work of the Holy Ghost. The fervent desire after better things, the inward restlessness, the sense of guilt, the feeling of shame, the fear of punishment, the longing for purity and moral freedom--all these are the effects of the influence of God the Holy Ghost. You shall never be able to say, I would, but God would not. Oh that God might never have to bring the apposite charge against you. I have spoken of one great danger against which we have to guard, if we would benefit by the Divine voice, the danger of ignoring it, and failing to recognize it; but remember there is yet another danger, and to it our text more particularly alludes; it is the danger of bearing Gods voice so plainly that we can entertain no reasonable doubt but that it is Gods voice, and yet while He is speaking hardening our hearts against Him. Harden not your heart. These words bring before us the thought of a capacity that we all possess. We all possess the power to harden our hearts against the gracious influences of God. It is a dangerous thing to do under any circumstances, even when our relations with God are not concerned. I once heard a man say, I used to think it manly to repress my feelings, and so I set myself to steel my heart against them, and now I cannot feel when I would. Happen what may, I might offer my fortune for a tear, and offer it in vain. This may be a serious matter. We have no more right to murder our feelings than any other element in our manhood, but that is a small thing as compared with the folly and the sin of hardening our heart against the Holy Spirit of God. And remember this is a sin which we all remain capable of committing, however strong the influences of God the Holy Spirit may be. He never so influences us that it is impossible for us to resist Him. What shall we say of the folly of him who mutilates his own moral nature of all its higher sensibilities and capacities of spiritual apprehension, and of his own accord elects to be past feeling--twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and withered? But remember, there is only one way of avoiding this terrible issue and that is by yielding at once. But when the Holy Ghost speaks, and you hear His voice: there is always a now in it. He takes care to put before you something to be done then and there. To-day harden not your heart. You are responsible for this winged moment that is even now flying from you. The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Oh, think of all the possibilities, the glorious possibilities of to-day! (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
To-day--a voice for the opening year
I. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS BINDING. The obligation is founded on
1. Absolute proprietorship.
2. Mediatorial interposition.
II. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS PRACTICABLE.
III. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS URGENT.
1. The Holy Ghost thoroughly understands the transcendent importance of the work. The Holy Ghost knows exactly the portion of time allotted you for the work. (Homilist.)
The right time
You admit that it would be the right time to start on a certain journey when the following four conditions were all combined. First, a clear duty to undertake the journey; secondly, a safe route; thirdly, a suitable conveyance waiting for you; fourthly, the danger that you could not go on a later day. To these might be added that year life depended on your starting at once (as happened to myself years ago, when I found myself in a village where cholera was raging fearfully). Now all these five conditions meet, and press you to betake yourself to the Lord Jesus for immediate salvation. Add now to these undeniable arguments the other one--that every day you postpone makes it harder for you to come. Manyyears ago the merchant-ship Lowell went ashore on the New England coast in a terrific gale. Her bows projected so far up towards the shore that the crew leaped off the bow-prit and were rescued, one by one, by the keeper of a neighbouring lighthouse. All leaped off except the first mate, who had been in feeble health; he continued to walk the deck and give orders to the men. The keeper shouted to him, Jump ashore this tide or you are lost! The poor man continued to tramp the deck, which soon crashed to fragments, and he was swallowed up in the wreck. What was the matter? The terrors of the scene had so deranged his weak nerves, that he had become insane and laud, heal at the idea of danger. Yet that unhappy officer of the sinking ship did not act more insanely than you do in persisting in risking the life of your precious soul. When Jesus calls, your salvation depends on prompt obedience. It was short work with Peter when Christ said to him, Follow Me. Again was it short work with him when be was sinking in the waves arid cried out, Lord, save me. It was short work with the Philippian jailer when he heard Pauls directions and threw himself into the Saviours arms on the spot. All the Bible narratives (except that of Nicodemus) describe a prompt action where salvation was secured. Prompt obedience saves! (T. Christlieb, D. D.)
Only to-day is yours
To-day only, to-day is yours; to-morrow belongs to God, and you have no right to take it for granted that He will certainly give it you. What if He does not? An incident occurred some years ago which illustrates this point in a manner so exceptionally startling that I should not venture to relate it to you if it had only come to me by hearsay. I am able to relate it as a fact on the authority of a gentleman who was acquainted with the person referred to. A young lady of good family, a woman of the world, and a devotee of fashion, came home from a religious service, which she had been induced to attend, evidently profoundly impressed. On returning to her chamber, and turning over in her mind all she had heard, I suppose she felt under the force of a mighty influence that was drawing her towards better things. Moved no doubt by a spiritual impulse, she sat down by her table, and took pen, ink, and paper, and wrote down these words: If God spare my life for six months from this time, I will give my heart to Him. She signed her name, and then I suppose a misgiving must have crossed her mind, for she drew her pen through what she had written, and she wrote again underneath, If God spares me for three months from this time, I will give my heart to Him. Once again the voice within, I apprehend, urged the danger of delay. Are you sure that you will live three months longer? And a second time she drew her pen through what she had written, and once more she wrote, If God spare me for one month from the present date, this day month I will give my heart t, Him. The day before that date there was to be a great fancy dress ball, and she had made up her mind she must go to that ball at all costs; something, I conclude, told her that it would not be consistent to go if she were a real Christian, so she fixed the date just one day beyond this last scene of dissipation. If God spare me one month from this time, I will give my heart to Him; and she signed her name, and she went to her bed. The next morning her ladys maid came to call her as usual. She tapped at the door, but there was no answer. She threw it open, entered the room, looked at the bed. There upon the bed lay her young mistress, a cold corpse, and by her side was a sheet of paper, and on this sheet of paper were written the words, If God spare me for one month, I will give my heart to Him. God did not spare her for one night. She had heard Gods voice, but, alas I there would seem to be too much reason to fear that she had done what I entreat you not to do. To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. One more illustration, and it shall be on the brighter side. Some years ago at the close of an evangelistic service, a rough sort of man--a collier he was--came up to the minister who had preached. Sir, he said, do you mean what you told us in your address to-night? What did I tell you? Why, sir, you said that if we were determined to seek and find salvation, we might have it to-night. Yes, said the preacher, I did mean that. Very well, sir; then I want to find it. It must be settled to-night with me; it must be settled now. Thank God, said the preacher, I am glad to hear you say that. Now let me try and show you how you may get it. Well, they had a long talk together. The preacher set before the poor ignorant man as plainly as ever he could the way of salvation; and then they got to their knees, and there they knelt praying and crying to God together, while the preacher sought to direct the seeking soul to Christ. Time was creeping on, and at last the clock struck eleven. The preacher was very weary, and naturally enough, having his own home duties to care for, he said to the collier, My dear fellow, I think now that perhaps you had better go home and consider what I have been saying. I dont see that we can get very much further to-night; for the poor man was very ignorant and full of unbelief. Sir, didnt you tell me that it might be settled to-night? Yes, said the preacher. Very well, then he said; I have made up my mind if it can be settled to-night it shall be settled to-night; I dont rise from my knees until it is settled. Very good, then, said the preacher, if that is so we will stay together. The clock struck twelve, still they were kneeling together; one, and still they were kneeling together; two, and still they were there. The summers sun was just rising, daylight was just beginning to dawn, the poor man was thoroughly worn out. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, he had no strength left. The moment of our weakness is the moment of Gods power. Fairly exhausted and wearied out, at last he was fain to trust himself in the arms of Christ. He might have done so at first as well as at last, but it was only after these hours of anguish that he was brought to the point of utter helplessness and self-despair, and so at length he just rested his weary soul on Jesus, and in a moment the burden was gone. He sprang to his feet with a joyful shout. Glory be to God, he cried, it is settled at last; it is settled at last! With a happy heart he went on his way rejoicing. In the middle of that day there was a hue and cry raised in the neighbourhood that there had been an accident down in the coal-pit, and, as is the custom in colliery districts, everybody rushed to the pit to know what had happened. The tidings soon spread that a portion of the earth in the pit had fallen in, and there was every reason to fear that a man was buried under the rubbish. Half a dozen stalwart colliers were soon at work, working with all that heroic determination which distinguishes those men under such circumstances. For many a long hour they continued their toil, until at last they got near to the place where the unfortunate man was imprisoned. Gently and carefully they prised up the superincumbent mass, and freed one shattered limb after another, and at last lifting the weight off the mans breast, they dragged him out all crushed and shattered as he was. As he felt the load taken off him, he opened his eyes for the last time. A smile came over his begrimed countenance as he gasped out, Thank God it was settled last night! and he fell back and died. To-day, to-day, to-day! (W. HayAitken, M. A.)
The folly of procrastination
It is recorded of Archias, a chief magistrate, in one of the Grecian states, that he was unpopular in his government, and excited the hatred of many of the people, who conspired against his life. The day was arrived when a fatal plot was to be executed.
Archias was more than half dissolved in wine and pleasure, when a courier from Athens arrived in great haste with a packet, which contained, as it afterwards appeared, a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. The messenger being admitted into the presence of the prince, said, My lord, the person who writes you these letters conjures you to read them immediately; they contain serious affairs. Archias replied, laughing, Serious affairs to-morrow; and so continued his revel. On the same night, in the midst of that noisy mirth, the end of which is heaviness, the assailants rushed into the palace, and murdered Archias, with his associates; leaving to the world a striking example of the evil of procrastination. In ten thousand affecting instances, something like this has been the conduct and the fate of men respecting the concerns of eternity. They have been warned, but, like the unhappy prince whose case we have recited, they have said, Serious things to-morrow, and when in an unexpected hour their souls have been required, they have left the world exclaiming, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! (S. Lowell.)
The importance of the present moment
The old sun-dial at Alfric, in Worcestershire, has lately been repaired, and its motto regilt. Now all eyes may read the weighty words inscribed on it by a vanished hand of long ago--On this moment hangs eternity. Is this statement true? Assuredly it is.As we live and act at the present moment we decide our future: living for God, we shall live for ever with God; living for this world, we pen.-h with it.
Come while the lamp burns
There is a story told in ancient history of a certain king who lighted a lamp, and had it hung in his palace: he then sent heralds forth to bring every criminal and rebel to his presence, that they might obtain pardon. Those who came while the lamp was burning were set free; but those who delayed till the lamp had gone out, or who altogether neglected the invitation, met with a terrible death.
The folly of increasing the burden of sin by delay
A hermit was conducted by an angel into a wood, where he saw an old man cutting down boughs to make up a burden. When it was large be tied it up, and attempted to lift it on his shoulder, and carry it away; but, finding it very heavy, he laid it down again, cut more wood, and heaped more on; and then tried again to carry it off. This he repeated several times; always adding something to the load, after trying in vain to raise it from the ground. In the meantime, the hermit, astonished at the old mans folly, desired the angel to explain what this meant. You behold, said he, in the foolish old man an exact representation of those who, being made sensible of the burden of their sins, resolve to repent, but soon grow weary, and, instead of lessening their burden, increase it every day. At each trial they find the task heavier than before, and so put it off a little longer, in the vain hope that they will by and by be more able to accomplish it. Thus they go on adding to their burden till it grows too heavy to be borne; and then, in despair of Gods mercy, and with their sins unrepented of, they lie down and die. Turn again, my son, and behold the end of the old man whom thou sawest heaping up a load of boughs. The hermit looked, and saw him in vain attempting to remove the pile, which was now accumulated far beyond his strength to raise. His feeble limbs tottered over their burden; the poor remains of his strength were fast ebbing away; the darkness of death was gathering around him; and, after a convulsive and impotent attempt to lift the pile, he fell down and expired.
Harden not your hearts
Hardening the heart
I. TO HARDEN THE HEART IS TO CHERISH A VOLUNTARY INSENSIBILITY TO GOD AND DIVINE OBJECTS.
II. HOW THE HEART IS HARDENED.
1. By fixing its affections supremely on the world. A striking exemplification of this was furnished by that miser whose band, cold in death, still held its firm grasp upon his gold, when his spirit had gone to the bar of God.
2. By refusing to turn the attention to Divine things. No truth is plainer than this; that a man will not feel what he does not think of. God unthought of, must leave the heart as hard and unmoved as it would be were there no God, no Christ, and no heaven.
3. By excusing sin. The object of every excuse formed by the mind is to impair or destroy a sense of obligation and guilt.
4. By presumptuous hopes and expectations from futurity. The very language of such hopes is, the authority and glory of God shall not be felt now; the evil of sin and the awful realities of a future world shall not be felt now; all sensibility shall be deadened by hopes from futurity. These hopes of a future repentance, fellow-sinner, are a shield to your heart, which the arrows of the Almighty will never penetrate.
III. TO ENFORCE THE EXHORTATION NO LONGER TO HARDEN THE HEART, BY THE CONSIDERATIONS IMPLIED IN THE TEXT, To-day if ye will hear His voice. The declaration implies
1. That to harden the heart is a fatal obstacle to bearing and obeying the gospel.
2. To harden the heart is the only obstacle to an immediate compliance with the demands of the gospel.
3. To abstain from hardening the heart is as easily done at the present as any future time.
4. The last consideration is that those who now harden their heart may never hear and obey the gospel. This appears, if we consider, in all such cases, the increase of guilt. To harden the heart against the voice of God once is a high measure of provocation; and if it be the tendency of sin, of accumulated guilt, to exhaust the patience of God and to provoke His speedy vengeance, what must be the effect of hardening the heart with the formal design of continuing to rebel against Him? When in its own nature it involves every act of future sin; when its whole strength--strength, too, thus to offend God--is derived from the fact that God is good and long-suffering? What purpose embodies baser ingratitude, a more direct insult to God, greater hardihood in rebellion, and a greater amount of crime; and what purpose could the sinner form to provoke Gods instant vengeance if this does not? Again, there is a fearful principle of Gods administration which arrays all its alarms before such persons. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Soul insensibility
I. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS EVIDENCED.
1. One of these signs is dulness of conscience. A sensitive conscience is only the possession of those whose hearts have not been hardened, or have been softened. But where there is religious insensibility the hearing of the conscience is confused, its sight perplexed, its voice low and weak. This is the state of the moral nature of which Paul speaks when he describes a
conscience seared with a hot iron--an allusion, evidently, to the custom, that was very prevalent among ancient Eastern doctors, of cauterising any affected flesh. Sin is indeed a terrible caustic to the conscience. At first it burns the living moral tissue very painfully, but at last it leaves it insensitive, almost destroyed.
2. Another sign of a hardened heart is poverty of love. No tale of human want or woe stirs their pity or prompts their help; no statement of Gods great bounty or wondrous love awakens their praise.
3. Another sign--comprising those we have mentioned, and suggesting several more--is inability to be moved by the gospel truth.
II. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS ATTAINED.
1. By familiarity with the mere theory of religion. It is well enough to have true ideas, to accept a correct creed; but if those ideas linger only in the intellect, are merely themes for memory, imagination, logic, and do not send down into the affections an influence that will permeate the entire being; if that correct creed is a mere mental property, held and defended jealously by the mind, but not colouring and controlling the plans and loves and whole scope of the daily life, then those ideas, that creed, however true, produce hardness of heart. They lose their freshness, and thus much of their force. The soul becomes accustomed to them, as the forester to the rustling of the foliage, or the mariner to the murmur of the waves. And that familiarity intercepts every effort to arouse, and startle, and awaken.
2. By a neglect of religious claims. Some by procrastination, others by stolid indifference, refuse to come face to face with such questions as What must I do to be saved? The capacity for religion diminishes, and almost dies out through disuse. Is it not thus with every power we possess?
3. By conscious indulgence of any sin. The man who continues, perhaps, in a very studied secrecy, to carry on some business scheme that he knows to be fraudulent, to cherish some desire that he knows to be impure, to maintain a habit that he knows is stamped with meanness, or uncharitableness, is doing the very best he can to become insensible to sincerity, holiness, nobility, and love.
III. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS TO BE PREVENTED.
1. Be earnest. Triflers petrify with terrible rapidity.
2. Be real. They who simultaneously live two lives--the outward, upright, pious, irreproachable; the inward, false, godless, corrupt are, by all the restraint and repression that their hypocrisy involves, hardening their hearts, becoming in heart as hard as a piece of nether millstone.
3. Be watchful. Not only to avoid trifling and to keep wide of all hypocrisy, but because of the insidious influence of familiarity with holy things, there is need in every one for watchfulness. Often introspect yourself to see if you are getting less tender-hearted; and if you are, use every means that can soften and quicken you again.
IV. How THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS TO BE REPROVED.
1. How can the hard heart be broken? God has provided the means.
(1) The dispensations of His providence, such as the loneliness of Jacob, the manifold sorrows of Job, the sickness of Hezekiah, are designed to quicken our spiritual nature.
(2) Gods Word is a hammer that has crushed the pride, shivered the self-righteousness, broken the stony heart of many a sinner.
(3) The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all that cross signifies of a life of love, of sacrificial suffering, and of atoning death, is the great power for melting and subduing human hearts.
(4) The Spirit of God, sometimes using these means, sometimes acting directly upon the human spirit, is the power that takes away the stony heart, and gives a heart of flesh.
2. What are the signs that the heart is rightly broken?
(1) There is consciousness of sin. As in broken stones we find fossils of the reptile or the fern, telling of the time when it was a soft, clay like substance, easily impressible; so in the process of breaking the hard heart, there is revealed the reptile of actual sin, as well as the fern of fair promise. God be merciful to me a sinner! Father, I have sinned.
(2) There is the sense of Gods gracious presence. When the heart is rightly broken, He who was sent to heal the broken-hearted is there. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit. (U. R. Thomas.)
The response of the heart
I. WHEN WE HEAR GODS VOICE THE HEART MUST RESPOND. The assent of the intellect, the admiration of the understanding, the fervour of the imagination, and even the conviction of the conscience, do not suffice. God speaks to the heart. Oh that Christ may dwell there! Gods voice is to soften the heart. Alas I by nature we are bard-hearted; and what we call good and soft-hearted is not so in reality and in Gods sight. God wishes us to be delivered from hardness of heart, that is, from dulness of perception of His love and beauty, from ingratitude and lukewarmness towards Him, from pride and impenitence, from self-seeking and unrest. When we receive Gods Word in the heart, when we acknowledge our sin, when we adore Gods mercy, when we desire Gods fellowship, when we see Jesus, who came to serve us, the heart becomes soft and tender. For repentance, faith, prayer, patience, hope of heaven, all these things make the heart tender. Can we be hard--thinking much of ourselves, discontented with our lot, envious or unforgiving, worldly and restless--when we hear the voice of God--I am the Lord thy God; I have loved thee with an everlasting love; thou art Mine. As I have loved you, love one another.
II. ALL SIN BEGINS IN THE HEART. And what is the error of the heart? What else hut unbelief? God speaks, and the heart is to believe. If the heart is hardened, it believes not; and regarding neither the threatenings nor the promises, it leans not on the strength and love of God: unbelief is the mother of all sin and sorrow.
III. UNBELIEF IS DEPARTURE FROM THE LIVING GOD. HOW simple is this! As long as you trust God you are near Him. The moment you doubt Him your soul has departed into the strange country. Faith is the link between Gods fulness and strength and our emptiness and weakness. If the soul cries out, Abide with me, or Nearer to Thee, the answer of Jesus is, Only believe! (A. Saphir.)
Of the causes of bawdiness of heart
1. Natural hardness. This is the original cause of habitual hardness. If that be not taken away this will accompany it; both will be mixed together.
2. Unbelief. This makes men disrespect promises, threatenings, mercies, judgments, and all other means which are of use to soften, or break mens hearts (Deu_1:32; Deu_9:25; Psa_78:22; Psa_78:32).
3. Hypocrisy. By this men cover and hide their sin, whereby they wax bold in sinning.
4. Pride. For this is ordinarily joined with scorn, disdain, and such like vices as make men refuse and reject the means which might mollify their hearts.
5. Presumption. When sins are committed against knowledge, conscience, light of nature, and motions of the Spirit, they are as heavy weights that press out all spiritual sense and life.
6. Of committing or long lying in the same sin. Many small knocks or blows, long continued, do in time as much as a great blow at once.
7. Relapse.
8. Lewd company. Lewd companions will by evil counsel, bad example, bold encouragement, make men impudent and obstinate in sinning Pro_1:10, &c.).
9. Superfluity of the things of this world; as of wealth, honour, ease, pleasure, applause, and other such things as men by nature delight in.
10. Multitude of crosses not sanctified. There are as many blows upon the smiths anvil (2Ch_28:22; Psa_78:31-32). (W. Gouge.)
Remedies for preventing or redressing hardness of heart
I. TAKE HEED OF ALL AND EVERY OF THOSE CAUSES WHENCE HARDNESS OF HEART ARISETH.
1. Regeneration. Hereby natural hardness is removed.
2. Faith. Hereby unbelief is redressed.
3. Sincerity. This keeps out hypocrisy.
4. Humility Hereby pride and other like vices are kept down.
5. A fear of God. This will withhold us from gross sins.
6. Christian prudence. This will make men weary of multiplying sins and long lying therein.
7. Spiritual watchfulness. This will uphold in such a course as will preserve us from relapse.
8. Holy jealousy, lest we should by company be drawn aside.
9. Contempt of this world and of the things thereof, that we be not ensnared and overcome thereby.
10. Patience under all crosses, as laid on us by our heavenly Father for our good.
II. LABOUR TO FEEL THE HEAVY BURTHEN OF SIN (Psa_38:4). (W. Gouge.)
Harden not your hearts
The metal of the human soul, so to speak, is like some material substances. If the force you lay upon it do not break it, or dissolve it, it will beat into hardness. If the moral argument by which it is plied now, do not so soften the mind as to carry and to overpower its purposes, then on another day the argument may be put forth in terms as impressive, but it falls on a harder heart, and therefore with a more slender efficiency. You have resisted to-day, and by that resistance you have acquired a firmer metal of resistance against the power of every future warning that may be brought to bear upon you. You have stood your ground against the urgency of the most earnest admonition, and against the dreadfulness of the most terrifying menaces. On that ground you have fixed yourself more immoveably than before; and though on some future day the same spiritual thunder be made to play around you, it will not shake you out of the obstinacy of your determined rebellion. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Obduracy of heart
There is a striking image employed by one of the old divines to illustrate the obduracy and insensibility of the human heart. He compares a man in this condition to the blacksmiths dog, who, although lying at the foot of the anvil, is rather not moved at all by the sparks which are continually falling about him, or only disturbed for an instant; while he returns again and again to his old position, and sleeps as sound as ever.
Hardening the heart
The pirate Gibbs, whose name for many years was a terror to commerce, was finally captured and executed in the city of New York. He acknowledged before his death that when he committed the first murder his conscience made a hell within his bosom; but, after he had sailed for years under the black flag, his conscience became so blunted he could rob a vessel, murder all its crew, and then lie down as peacefully to rest as an infant in its cradle.
Hardness of the heart
Stones are charged with the worst species of hardness: As stubborn as a stone. And yet the hardest stones submit to be smoothed and rounded under the soft friction of water. Ask the m, rinds of stones on the seashore what has become of all their angles, once so sharp, and of the roughness and uncouthness of their whole appearance. Their simple reply is, Water wrought with us, nothing but water; and none of us resisted. If they yield to be fashioned by the water, and you do not to be fashioned by God, what wonder if the very stones cry against you? (J. Palsford.)
The hardening of the heart
has its gradations of
1. Carnal security, which comforts itself with the outward possession of the means of grace; and from--
2. Natural indifference and insensibility to the Word, proceeds on through
3. Unbelieving disparagement.
4. Faithless neglect, and
5. Reckless transgression of the Word
6. To rejection, contempt, and denial of it; and thence to a
7. Permanent embittering of the wicked heart; to a
8. Conscious stubbornness of the wicked will; to the
9. Bold tempting of the living God Himself, until in
10. Complete obduracy, judicial retribution begins the fulfilment of its terrible work. (J. P. Lange.)
Hardening the heart
On a winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is now far past the meridian, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a double reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable to the plough. On the one hand, the frost of evening, with ever-increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods. On the other hand, the genial rays, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. Take heed that it be not so with you. As long as you are unconverted you are under a double process of hardening. The frosts of an eternal night are settling down upon your souls; and the Sun of Righteousness, with westering wheel is hastening to set upon you for evermore. If, then, the plough of grace cannot force its way into your ice-bound heart to-day, what likelihood is there that it will enter to-morrow? (R. M.McCheyne.)
Hardness of heart
Known, discovered, and revealed sins, that are against the conscience, (are) to be avoided as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart. (S. Rutherford)
Harden not your hearts
Harden not your hearts; there is no need, they are hard enough already. Harden not your hearts; there is no excuse, for why should you resist love? Harden not)our hearts; there can be no good in it--a man is the less a man in proportion to his loss of tenderness of heart. (Christian World Pulpit.)
Sin hardens the heart
The effects of sin may be compared to those of the river north of Quite, petrifying, according to Kirwins account, the wood and leaves cast into its waters; or to those of the busy feet of passers-by causing the crowded thoroughfare to grow hard. (G. Neil, M. A)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson1891 · Public DomainOn vv7–97–11. Wherefore. Take warning from the fate of Israel.…
7–11. Wherefore. Take warning from the fate of Israel. As the Holy Ghost saith. The words quoted are found in Psa. 95:7–11. David there exhorts his brethren to learn a lesson from Israel in the wilderness, and not to provoke God. To-day if you will hear his voice. At that very time. So to-day, and ever, God wishes us to hear him, to-day, not to-morrow.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v7Heb_3:7-19 form part of an exhortation, based on the…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Heb_3:7-19 form part of an exhortation, based on the superiority of Christ over Moses, and the conduct of the Jewish people in their relation to Moses. They were the chosen people of God, and yet they provoked Him by their unbelief, and were consequently precluded from entering the rest of Canaan. A promise of rest is also given to us. What is it? It cannot be the Sabbatic rest of God from the work of creation: it cannot be the rest of settling in Canaan. It is the rest of belief in Christ, ceasing from our own works and trusting in Christ. Let us take care lest we also fail to gain our rest.
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Heb_3:7. Holy Ghost.—Better throughout the epistle “Holy Spirit.” Here conceived as Inspirer of the Bible-writers; and inspiration carries persuasion and authority (Heb_3:7-11 are a parenthesis). In what sense was the Holy Spirit in the older dispensation? The prophetic gifts, and the special endowments of such kings as Saul and David, gave the Jews their idea of inspiration.
Heb_3:8. Harden not.—Do not resist good influence. See case of Pharaoh. The peril of free-will is that we can “harden ourselves against.” Provocation.—Or time of provocation: from πικραίνω, to embitter. One typical occasion is referred to (Exo_17:7. Compare 1Co_10:1-12). Day of temptation.—If single day be meant, the reference may be to the aggravations of the time of worshipping the golden calf. But the expression may be intended to sum up the thirty-eight years of testing Israel amid the wilderness experiences. Those years of wandering in the desert made up their “day of testing.”
Heb_3:9.—Then comes a play on the words “tempted,” “proved,” Me. They tested Me in an evil and unworthy spirit. God may be tested by us when we want to believe, but feel as if we could not. God must never be put to the test by us in a spirit of doubting and suspicion, and with a view to the support of our self-schemes, and of our unbelief.
Heb_3:10. Grieved.—The figure in the word is “running a ship ashore.”
Heb_3:11. My rest.—For the Jews that was Canaan. It was called “rest” because it came after their long wanderings. The figure of God swearing is consistent with the idea of Him as an Eastern king. But the swearing is strictly official.
Heb_3:12.—Carries on the “wherefore” or “whence” of Heb_3:7. Evil heart of unbelief.—Doubting may be good or bad, right or wrong, according to the state of will that is behind it. An evil heart wants to doubt, and is keen to find reasons and excuses. Faith, when intellectual only, is belief; when inspired by heart-feeling, it is trust. Departing.—In the sense of apostatising.
Heb_3:13. Exhort.—Admonish; use Christian fellowship for the establishing of faith. Deceitfulness of sin.—Sinful delusions; either influence of Judaising teachers, or of persecution and worldliness.
Heb_3:14. Partakers of Christ.—Of His living and saving grace.
Heb_3:19. Could not.—The failure was altogether on their side. The word “unbelief” reminds us that the reason of failure was a heart-reason.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_3:7-19
The Warning of Ancient Failures.—This passage is hortatory. It is an earnest appeal and warning breaking in upon the course of argument, after the manner of this writer. What is its special point of view? The times of Moses have been prominent in the writer’s thought. They were times which there was a strong disposition to unduly magnify. It was easy to slip over the painful things in the older history. But they were there, and were there for the permanent warning of God’s people. The evils, and especially the great evil of unbelief, which broke relations with Jehovah, prevented many from realising the fulfilment of God’s promise, and delayed the fulfilment for many years, were evils still working; and they would prove as effective as ever in delaying or removing the spiritual blessings of the new covenant. Apostasy is always the bad fruitage of cherished unbelief.
I. The responsibility of self rests upon self.—“Harden not your hearts.” A man has control of, power of influence upon, his own heart for good or for evil. He can deal with, restrain, check, qualify, resist, the influences which rest upon his own heart. Therefore it is said, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Every man is responsible for himself to himself, as well as to God. And this is true in relation to unbelief. Negligence of spiritual culture, injudicious reading, unsuitable associations, and other things, tend to nourish unbelief; but these are all within a man’s own control. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
II. The responsibility for each rests on the other.—“But exhort one another day by day … lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” It is true that each man must “bear his own burden”; but it is also true that each must bear the other’s burden; the strong bear the infirmities of the weak. We can come into each other’s lives as gracious remedial forces; and this is especially true when mischievous teachers are exerting injurious influence, and the young, or those of receptive or sceptical dispositions, are placed in special temptation. We can “exhort one another.”
III. Our anxiety should concern the subtlety of sin and temptation.—Unbelief begins in secret questionings and doubtings: it easily grows into a fatal habit. The tempter keeps up the subtlety of Eden by suggesting suspicions,—“Yea, hath God said.” But the kind of subtlety indicated here is the exaggeration of a lower truth so as to push a higher one out of thought. The magnifying of Moses was intended to push out of thought the spiritual claims of Christ.
IV. The direction in which evil works is generally towards unbelief.—Trust is the element in which spiritual life thrives. Therefore the main effort of evil is to disturb that trust. Suspicion, doubt, unbelief, are the elements in which evil thrives. This is illustrated in the experience of the Israelites during their forty years of desert experience. It is the experience of religious life to-day. An age of criticism is an age of enfeebled spiritual life.
V. Unbelief always means hindrance from blessing.—It did, when those who came out of Egypt with Moses died in the wilderness (save the two men of faith, Caleb and Joshua). It did, when it kept the nation back from Canaan for eight-and-thirty years. It does, for God can make no response where there is doubt or unbelief. He cannot, because His response could be no blessing to men who were in such a mood of mind. God’s ever-working law of blessing is succinctly given by the Lord Jesus thus, “According to your faith be it unto you.” The good man always responds to trust. He can do anything for those who commit their interests wholly to him. And the good God is checked from blessing by nothing else as He is by distrust. The saddest thing is said concerning the towns beside the Lake of Galilee, in relation to the Lord Jesus, “He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Do we ask anything of God? His first word in response always is, “Believest thou that I am able to do this?”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Heb_3:7. The Holy Ghost in the Old Testament.—“Even as the Holy Ghost saith,” in the book of psalms. God the Spirit bears relation to man the spirit. For man is a spirit. The great Spirit can overshadow, hallow, help, purify, teach, us dependent spirits. Luther illustrates the relation of the Divine Spirit to the human spirit by the effect of fire in heating, and in some respects changing the character of, water, so that under the power of the fire the water can do what of itself it could not do. The great fire-spirit can penetrate and influence the water-spirit. God, as a Spirit, must always have borne relations to the human spirit, and this superadding and inworking of God’s Spirit must always have been the secret source of all moral goodness. The inspirings of God are not the exclusive privilege of any one age. Illustrate this from—
I. The patriarchal period.—We cannot expect to find much respecting a subject which is the burden of God’s last and highest revelation in this primitive age. We may, however, look for some hints that would indicate, even then, the apprehension of God as working for man, not only externally in nature and providence, but in the very heart of things, and upon the mind or spirit of men. We ought not, however, to be surprised if we also meet with some confusion between man’s spiritual nature and the Spirit of God, or the spiritual working of God. As specimens of the references that may be found, turn to three passages:
1. Gen_1:2 : “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The Spirit is evidently apprehended as the great quickening principle, bearing intimate relation to life, and so dealing with the inward, secret heart of things.
2. Gen_6:3 : “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” The reference may be either to the Holy Spirit, or to the spiritual as opposed to the animal principle in man. Whichever meaning we prefer, the passage indicates discernment of the relation God bears to the inner, spiritual nature of man.
3. Gen_41:38 : “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” Without pressing unduly the meaning of Pharaoh in his use of the term “Spirit of God,” we have here also the indication of the same idea on the part even of the idolatrous peoples. Besides such passages as these we have many suggestions of God’s inwardly helping men in those days. At first we have only external relations with Adam and Noah, excepting perhaps the hint of internal relations afforded by the terms in which Enoch is spoken of: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Passing thus into the spiritual world seems to suggest Divine culture of the spiritual nature. But by-and-by we come to visions, dreams, inward voices, seen and heard by Abraham and Jacob. These reveal personal and individual relations of God with men, and His immediate communication with man’s mind and spirit. These visions, dreams, and inward voices are the proper beginnings and foreshadowings of the spiritual impulses, the inner workings of the Holy Spirit, which we know. And observe how exactly Abraham’s faith was like ours. He believed an inward voice which could not be absolutely verified, even as by our faith we now lay hold of the unprovable. “Blessed,” said Christ, “are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.” It is said in relation to the offering of his son God did tempt Abraham. This tempting, testing, trying of Abraham was manifestly God spiritually dealing with Abraham’s spiritual nature. And the same remark may be applied to the scene at Jabbok: it was the wrestling together of the Divine Spirit and the human spirit of Jacob.
II. The Mosaic period.—This was coincident with a more extensive and exact outward revelation of God. The prominent thing is minute and elaborate ceremonial: the entire outward life of the people in its social, political, and religious phases coming under Divine regulation. We may, however, reasonably expect clearer signs of the recognition of the inward workings of God on the part of those who, within the ceremonial, cultured their inner, spiritual nature. We find a number of passages in which the skill, talents, power to prophesy, and to deliver the country, are traced to the inworking of the Spirit of God. As specimens, refer to Exo_31:2-3 : “I have called Bezaleel … and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding,” etc. Bezaleel’s talents, genius, are directly traced to the inspiration of God. The same applies to Balaam’s power of prophesying. See Num_24:2 : “And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.” See also in reference to the judges:—Jdg_3:10 : Othniel—“The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel and went out to war.” Jdg_6:34 : “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” So of Saul and Saul’s messengers. 1Sa_10:10 : “A company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.” 1Sa_19:20 : “The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.” There is an exceedingly interesting passage in Num_11:17, etc. Moses felt oppressively the burden of his charge in the ruling and judging of so great a people. God graciously arranged for the appointment of seventy elders to relieve him of part of the burden. In connection with this arrangement God said, “I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them.” See Num_11:25 : “When the spirit rested on them they prophesied, and did not cease.” Compare Num_11:29. Here we have very distinctly presented Moses’ own spirit, and the Spirit of God overshadowing and inspiring it. God is called the God of the spirits of all flesh in Num_16:22; Num_27:16-17. And we have the hardening of the hearts of men traced to the operation of God’s Spirit, as in Deu_2:30 : “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate.”
III. The Davidic period.—Here one or two passages will suffice to remind of more familiar ones. Turn to Psa_51:10-12 : “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” Here you observe that repentance was bringing up to light some of the deepest feelings and convictions of David’s soul; it was making him intensely spiritual: so he came to realise his inner dependence on the teachings and movings of God’s Spirit, and was led to express his fear lest at any time he should be left without the succour of the Spirit. See also Psa_143:10 : “Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” But even in this period it is evident that the externality of God, the things God does for us, still occupy chief attention. God is rock, refuge, fortress, deliverer. The inward inspirations of God are clearly recognised, and lovingly dwelt upon, only in the intenser, more spiritual moments of life.
IV. The prophetic period.—And what may we expect in this prophetic age? Its characteristic feature is a struggle to bring to its proper light and influence the inward claims and workings of God. The prophets do not, however, fully deal with the nature of this inward working of God. That would have been to anticipate Pentecostal times. They assume, assert, and vindicate the fact, and then proceed to urge the duty of man’s offering spiritual response to the fact. They were, as prophets, inwardly, Divinely moved men. Not really different from others, only the prominent examples of inspiration which every heart open to God might surely know. So their very presence asserted God’s spiritual relations with spirit. In the histories of the prophetic period we have the continuation of the idea on which we have dwelt: that talent, especially prophetic, is due to the working of God’s Spirit. Elisha desires a first-born’s portion of Elijah’s spirit (2Ki_2:9; 2Ki_2:15). Pul and Tiglath-pileser are said to be stirred up to war by the Spirit, as we have seen Sihon was hardened. And the captives of Babylon were roused up by the Spirit to return to their own land (Ezr_1:5). In the actual prophecies we have again and again the formula, “The word of the Lord came unto me,” implying operation of God on the spirit. Nehemiah says in his prayer, “Yet many years didst Thou forbear them, and testified against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets.” Isaiah speaks of the wanderings of Israel in the desert in this way:—Isa_63:10-11 : “But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him?” Ezekiel often speaks of the inner impulses of the Spirit. Zechariah, speaking of the former time, says (Heb_7:12), “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets.” Enough has been said to show that throughout all ages of the world men have, with more or less distinctness, recognised the relation between God the Spirit and man’s spirit; with more or less clearness men have seen, as one text expresses it, that “there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” But it will be suggested to your minds to inquire: Have we any reason for identifying this work of the Spirit in Old Testament times with the work of the Holy Ghost in this our Christian dispensation? Is the Spirit of God spoken of in the old age to be identified with the Holy Ghost of the new? If it is not, then we shall have to face the difficulty of two senses in which the Spirit of God is spoken of in Scripture, and to deal with the confusion of imagining there has been no unity in the Divine dealings with our race. All thought of God’s education of the world must be put away, and we must think of His ways with us as a number of abrupt and unconnected dealings, fashioned for adaptation to peculiar and unexpected circumstances. “The God of the whole earth” He can hardly “be called.” Turn to two passages in the epistles of Peter (1Pe_1:10-11): “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow.” Now the spirit of the prophets is declared to have been the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is none other than the Holy Ghost: for in 2Pe_1:21 it is said, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” We may therefore say that, apprehended in its most simple form, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Trinity, may be conceived of as God acting upon man’s spirit, inspiring, moving, leading him to the apprehension of all moral truth, and the expression in conduct of all moral goodness. “There is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of God influences it, giving to it understanding and impulse.”
Heb_3:10. Can God suffer?—Is there any sensibility in God that can suffer? Is He ever wrenched by suffering? Nothing is more certain. He could not be good, having evil in His dominions, without suffering even according to His goodness. For what is goodness but a perfect feeling? And what is a perfect feeling but that which feels towards every wrong and misery according to its nature? And thus it is that we freely impute to Him, whether we observe it or not, every sort of painful sensibility that is related to bad and suffering subjects. We conceive of Him as feeling displeasure, which is the opposite of pleasure. We ascribe it as one of His perfections that He compassionates, which means that He suffers with the fallen. We conceive that He loathes what is disgusting, hates what is cruel, suffers long what is perverse, grieves, burns, bears, forbears, and is even afflicted for His people, as the Scripture expressly declares. All which are varieties of suffering. We also ascribe it to God, as one of His perfections, that He is impassible; but here, if we understand ourselves, we mean that He is physically impassible, not that He is morally so. Moral impassibility is really to have no sensibilities of character, which is as far as possible from being any perfection. Indeed there is a whole class of what are called passive virtues that cannot, in this view, belong to God at all, and His perfection culminates without including more than half the excellencies demanded even of us, in the range of our humble, finite capacity. There is then some true sense in which even God’s perfection required Him to be a suffering God—not a God unhappy, or less than perfectly, infinitely blessed; for though there be many subtractions from His blessedness, there is never any diminution; because the consciousness of suffering will bring with it, in every case and everlastingly, a compensation which, by a great law of equilibrium in His and all spiritual natures, fully repays the loss; just as Christ, assailed by so many throes of suffering sensibility—in the temptation, in His ministry, in the garden—still speaks of His joy, and bequeaths it as a gift most real and sublime to His followers. It is this suffering sensibility of God that most needed to be revealed, and brought nigh to human feeling, in the incarnate mission of Jesus.—Horace Bushnell, D.D.
Heb_3:12. Good Unbelief and Bad.—“An evil heart of unbelief.” A head of unbelief may be good; a heart of unbelief must be bad. Doubt may be a condition of mental growth; suspicion and mistrust spoil all moral relations. It is said of the Berœans, “Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” But their superior nobility consisted in their taking an attitude of interested doubt. They listened well, but would not believe until they had removed their reasonable hesitation by full inquiry. It may even be said that a man cannot be capable of faith if he is incapable of unbelief. A mere uninquiring recipiency indicates a very undeveloped moral nature. A man is not manly unless he is able to say, “I can doubt, but I do believe.” Doubt is the impulse to inquiry and search; and therefore absolute certainty is not attainable by man in relation to anything in which he is interested. He is always under inspiration to “prove all things.” Unbelief of the head then may be good. Intelligence involves doubting. He who receives everything thinks about nothing, and receives only as a sponge does. All mental attainments are battles with unbelief. “I am not sure about it”; then, “I must satisfy myself about it.” Intelligent men go through doubt to faith. Unbelief of the heart is bad. That is the unbelief which is so sternly rebuked in the Scriptures. A man may doubt, but want to believe if he can. A man may doubt, and want to find excuse for not believing if he can. The one is good, and the other is evil. The Israelites of the wilderness did not, fail by reason of intellectual unbelief, but by reason of failure in heart-trust: their sin was an “evil heart of unbelief.” Capernaum and the cities of Galilee were not condemned for intellectual unbelief, but for heart-resistance of the claims of the great Teacher. The unbelief that imperils is not opinion, but feeling, mood, bias. It is a resistance of the will, a moral condition which makes evidence ineffective, and persuasion helpless. When the heart influences the head, unbelief becomes ruinous.
Heb_3:13. The Deceitfulness of Sin.—The most marked characteristic of sin is indicated in its first personification, when it was set in relation to man’s moral fall. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Subtlety, secret movement, insincerities, and deceptions, are essentials in the working of sin. That they must be so is seen at once when we apprehend that sin is no creative agency, but a disturbing and upsetting agency. If a man is going to do something, he can be open and above-board; but if he is going to upset something, he will have to work in secret and practise deceptions. The enemy who sowed tares in the wheat-field had to do it secretly and deceptively while men slept. The special deceitfulness of sin referred to here is its way of affecting a man’s will and purpose and heart in relation to the religious life. Its agency is self-interest. In the saved man the self-interest is dethroned, and the Christ-interest enthroned. The work of evil is the subtle endeavour to revive the self-interest. The man finds himself growingly interesting to himself, and before he is aware he finds his heart self-hardened against Christ through the deceitful workings of sin.
Our Only Possession—To-day.—In what sense can a man be said to possess anything? Strictly speaking a man has nothing but the use of things. As the old satirist expresses it, the man who sits down to a loaded table of luxuries really has no more than the little that he can eat. The farmer thought he possessed goods and time. “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” He had power to hold no handful of the goods and no day of time. We speak of what we will do on the morrow, and no man has any to-morrow until God gives it to him, and then he has to call it “to-day.”
“To-morrow, Lord, is Thine,
Lodged in Thy sovereign hand.”
A man has one thing only—the present hour. To-day—that is our only actual possession. Everything else save the thing of the hour, and every coming hour, is God’s possession, not ours; He will give it to us if it pleases Him so to do.
Heb_3:14. Safety in continuing.—“If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.” St. Paul expresses the same truth in commending “patient continuance in well-doing.” And the risen and living Lord bade His Church be “faithful unto death.” Older Scriptures present the same truth, “Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know the Lord.”
I. There is no safety in beginning a Christian profession.—There might be, if we were translated as soon as we had planted our first footstep on the Christian highway. There is not, because that first step does but start a pilgrimage, which is a serious testing of that beginning. The teaching which exaggerates the safety of an act of beginning is mischievous.
II. There is no safety in spasmodic experiences.—Such as are provided for Christians in times of religious excitement. Many think they are safe because they have felt intense feelings occasionally.
III. There is only safety in continuance and persistency.—Because the Christian life is a moral cult, an advancing sanctification, a man only keeps right by keeping on.
Heb_3:16. Relief of a Dark Picture.—The story of the murmuring, distrustfulness, and self-interested rebelliousness of ancient Israel in the wilderness is a sad, dark story. It never ceases to surprise and pain us; and we never feel that the excuses offered for them are sufficient to relieve the darkness. They were the chosen people of Jehovah, brought out of a stern bondage by magnificent displays of Divine power which ought to have inspired absolute confidence—provided for in every way, every recurring need graciously met, every foe held off, and a plain way made for the possession of the Promised Land. And yet persistent rebellion at last reached a climax, and the judgment went forth that doomed every man who had come out of Egypt to find a grave in the wilderness. It was the doom of those who could not take God at His word, and trust Him fully. There is a relief to the almost too dark picture. Two men stand out to view. They will be spared. They will enter the Promised Land. And what is there peculiar in their case? They kept their trust in God. They “followed the Lord fully.” God always honours full trust.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Heb_3:13. The Power of Habits.—“Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The longer you sit under the gospel and continue in sin, the more easily you can hear it without alarm. If a person were obliged to sleep near a waterfall, he would not be able for the first few weeks to sleep soundly for the noise, but in a very short time he would hardly be able to sleep without it. I have seen in Scotland a dog, during the blacksmith’s labour at the anvil, sleeping soundly with the shower of live sparks falling around him.—Dr. Cumming.
So used to it.—You may observe, in travelling on a railroad, how the young cattle run away in terror from the engine, while those that have often seen it pass go on quietly grazing and do not regard it; so one who has been accustomed to be a “hearer of the word, and not a doer,” will acquire more and more of the same kind of familiarity. Suppose that there is in your neighbourhood a loud bell, that is ringing very early every morning to call the labourer to some great manufactory. At first and for some time your rest will be broken by it; but if you accustom yourself to be still, and try to compose yourself, you will become in a few days so used to it that it will not even wake you. But any one who makes a point of rising immediately at the call will become so used to it, in the opposite way, that the sound will never fail to rouse him from the deepest sleep. Both will have been accustomed to the same bell, but will have formed opposite habits from their contrary modes of action. Of sporting dogs there are some, such as the greyhound, that are trained to pursue hares; and others which are trained to stand motionless when they come upon a hare, even though they see it running before them. Now both are accustomed to hares, and both have originally the same instincts—all dogs having an instinctive tendency to pursue game. But the one kind has always been accustomed to run after a hare, and the other has always been chastised if it attempted to do so, and has been trained to stand still.—Whately.
Perilous Beginnings.—You remember the old story of the prisoner in his tower, delivered by his friend, who sent a beetle to crawl up the wall, fastening a silken thread to it, which had a thread a little heavier attached to the end of that, and so on, and so on, each thickening in diameter until they got to a cable. That is the way in which the devil has got hold of a great many of us. He weaves round us silken threads to begin with, slight, as if we could break them with a touch of our fingers, and they draw after them, as certainly as destiny, at each remove, a thickening chain, until at last we are tied and bound, and our captor laughs at our mad plunges for freedom, which are as vain as a wild bull’s in the hunter’s nets.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey1900 · Public DomainOn v77-16. You must remember this letter is written to…
ARGUMENT 1
THE TWO CROSSINGS.
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7-16. You must remember this letter is written to the Palestinian Christians, whose progenitors made the fatal mistake of turning back at Kadesh-Barnea, in open violation of the positive commandment of God, and defiant of Moses their leader. They had not left Egypt for a home in Arabia, but with the distinct understanding that they are to possess and perpetually inhabit the land of Canaan. It was no long journey from the Red Sea crossing to Palestine, as it only took them eleven days to travel from Mt. Sinai on the sea coast to Kadesh-Barnea on the Canaan border. Kadesh means “holy” and Barnea means “delight.” So, in eleven days’ march they actually reached Canaan, the land of holy delight. God’s order was to enter unhesitatingly and take possession of the land. Their hearts failed them at Kadesh-Barnea; they go into camp and send out twelve leaders representing the twelve tribes, to explore the land and bring them word. They spend forty days peregrinating the country, admiring the majestic cities, “walled up to heaven,” contemplating the huge warrior giants who inhabit the land. Meanwhile they are unutterably astonished and delighted with the paradoxical fruitfulness of the land. In their travels they pass through the valley of Eschol, are delighted with the delicious grapes, of which they carry on with them specimens. I traveled through that valley in 1895, down to its terminus in the city of Hebron, over the same ground trodden by the spies. The entire valley is still devoted to the growing of grapes, which excel the productions of all other lands in sweetness and size. After forty days the spies returned to Kadesh-Barnea, loaded with specimens of the exuberant and delicious fruits of the land. They unanimously not only corroborate the wonderful reports which they had heard while in Egyptian bondage, but certify that the land is even better than the, had ever heard. While this is the unanimous report, the majority of ten asseverate positively that the land is utterly impregnable by reason of its walled cities and innumerable panoplied, gigantic warriors, in consequence of which it is utterly impossible for them to take it by conquest. At the same time Joshua and Caleb stand up side by side and proclaim aloud to all Israel, “Let us go up at once and possess the land, for we are abundantly able.” They did not mean that they were able by their own power, but the reason why they declare boldly that they are able to take it was because they had faith in God to conquer the giants and give them the land, according to His promise, whereas the faith of the other ten had woefully collapsed. Consequently, they took the cowardly side of the question. The multitude believe the ten rather than the two, and uproariously clamor aloud, ‘Back into Egypt!” Joshua and Caleb, Moses, Aaron and Miriam do their utmost to lead them from Kadesh-Barnea into the land; but they rebel against them and march back into the wilderness. God now decrees that none who had reached majority when they had crossed the sea shall ever see the land of promise, but they shall all die in the wilderness. This decree symbolizes the fact that God wants us to go directly from our conversion into entire sanctification. When we refuse we come under the decree that everything in our hearts which rebelled against holiness must die before we can ever enter the sanctified experience. Did all those people who died in the wilderness go to hell? We hope not. They turned back from Kadesh-Barnea about the first of July in the second year of the Exodus, wandered in the wilderness thirty-eight years, returning again to Kadesh-Barnea. While they were marching toward Canaan they were in the justified experience, but while marching back- toward Egypt they were under condemnation. The dark history of these thirty-eight years is unwritten. Where they went and what they did we know not. Terrible was their mortality during this period. From the time they turned back at Kadesh-Barnea God put them under an awful castigatory discipline, symbolic of the miserable life of the backslider. Before they got away from Kadesh-Barnea God sent an awful pestilence, heaping the camp with mountains of e dead. During this pestilence every one of the ten spies who brought in the evil report of the land fell dead. This symbolizes the appalling fact that all the preachers who oppose entire sanctification fall dead spiritually, as these spies were all great tribal leaders, and rank as preachers. Do you know the names of the ten cowardly spies? I do not know them, though they are laid down in the Scriptures. They are not worth remembering. We can not afford to fill up our memories with trash. But we all know the names of Joshua and Caleb throughout all Christendom. Children have been named for them in very many families. Only one hundred and fifty years ago the big preachers closed all the churches against John Wesley and the Methodist preachers. In this short time we have forgotten their names. They have utterly sunk into oblivion. But we have not forgotten Wesley, Fletcher, and others whom they drove out of the churches. History repeats itself. The very names of the great men in the church who are this day persecuting the holiness people will rot in a century; while, as in the case of Joshua and Caleb, all future generations will remember with gratitude the people who in this day stand in the front of the battle, and unfurl the banner of truth and holiness. Why did not Moses, Aaron and Miriam, who had enjoyed the sanctified experience forty years,-Moses and Aaron having received it at the burning bush, and Miriam doubtless at an earlier date,-enter the promised land? Though Moses lost his experience by impatience at the waters of Meribah, doubtless he soon regained it, growing brighter and brighter to the end. There was a fundamental reason why Moses could not lead Israel into Canaan. He was the great lawgiver, and emblematizes the law. If he had led them into Canaan, it would involve the conclusion that we can be sanctified by loyal obedience, i.e., by good works, which is utterly untrue, and has proved a snare to millions. It is this day the fatal heresy of the popular churches. Therefore, it would not do for Moses to lead them into the land. Aaron was the high priest, and emblematizes the visible Church. If he had led them in it would inculcate the fatal heresy that you can be sanctified by church rites, and obedience to the preachers. Miriam was a fire-baptized prophetess. If she had reached the land it would involve the conclusion that the holiness evangelist can sanctify you, which is also a fatal heresy. Joshua is a Hebrew word which means Jesus. Hence, Joshua was the only one who could lead them in, thus forever teaching the world that none but Jesus can save and sanctify. Doubtless the terrible castigatory judgments of wasting pestilences, fiery serpents, destroying angels, burning thirst, withering sandstorms, signal defeats by their enemies, and perpetual devastating wars waged against them by the Arabs, conduced much to their humiliation, bringing about many genuine death- bed repentances. Meanwhile, they enjoyed the powerful preaching of Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Joshua, and Caleb. Therefore, it is to be hoped that many of them were reclaimed, sanctified and taken to heaven, But it is a significant fact that they lost their Canaan-life in this world, sadly whiling away their days in the howling wilderness. The great majority of Christians at the present day have nothing in this life but a howling wilderness experience. Oh. how we need a million Joshuas to lead the Church O the present day out of the wilderness into the land of corn and wine! Glory to God, He is fast raising them up! We are now in the van of a grand army of lay preachers, male and female, whom God is raising up to preach holiness to the ends of the earth, hasten His coming, and bring on the millennium.
17. “Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness.” It is a sad phenomenon which no luminous Christian can deny, i.e., that the popular church at the present day is largely filled up with spiritual carcasses, fallen in the wilderness. A grave council of preachers representing a great ecclesiasticism recently held a council of twenty days, legislating and deliberating in the interest of the church. At the beginning of the period, a committee of profound theologians was appointed to deliberate and legislate, and if possible find a remedy for the appalling worldliness which is freezing the church into an iceberg and sweeping the members into hell. They spent the whole twenty days in the execution of the work committed to their charge. The result was a series of legislations establishing restrictive laws against dancing, card-playing, theater-going, circuses, horse races, and whisky drinking, giving all these restrictive rules the full force of disciplinary law. Six years have elapsed. I have traveled in about thirty States of the Union, made diligent investigation, and not found a solitary instance in which those restrictive laws have been enforced by a pastor in that church. What a lamentable demonstration of deficient spiritual light, wisdom and experience on the part of the great theologians who represented that church in her highest ecclesiastical council! Why did they not all get down on their knees and cry to God for the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, thus leading the clergy and the membership by precept and example to the only possible remedy in the case? We everywhere see the devil’s buzzards — i.e., popular and sinful amusements, vices and follies — devouring the Lord’s sheep in the pastures of the various popular churches. What is the true remedy? Common sense, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, readily gives the answer. Buzzards will not eat live sheep; they eat only the dead ones. Jesus Christ still lives. He is the resurrection and the life. Why do n’ t they call them all to the altar, get on their knees, and pray till the resurrection power comes down and raises all their members from the dead? That is not sanctification which the popular clergy are fighting, but it is the regeneration which they all claim; it is the complete and effectual remedy for all the vices and follies which now flood the churches, blot out the distinction between the Church and the world, bring heathen shame on the name of religion, and send the people to hell by the wholesale.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v7Section 4. (Heb 3:7-19; Heb 4:1-13.)
Section 4. (Heb 3:7-19; Heb 4:1-13.)
And leading on through the wilderness to final rest.
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The fourth section is of a very different character. It is the shadow following the light, and in Hebrews we find how the brightest lights can cast the deepest shadows. As a fourth section it reminds us of that wilderness through which the Lord led Israel of old into their rest, and that for us too there is a wilderness, a scene of trial through which we are called to pass on to the rest which for us also still and ever lies beyond us. We are called, therefore, to persevere, to hold on our way, to "hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end." This, in fact, is the test of the reality of things with us. Continuance is the proof of divine work.
1. The first subsection insists upon the spirit of obedience as always the condition of blessing. Grace does not alter this for a moment. It produces in us such a spirit. It meets the conditions; and faith is the very principle of fruitfulness, working, as it does, by love. The exhortation to God’s people of old abides, then, for us, as much as it did for them: "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." The truth speaks with authority, which those who are true will recognize; and the more precious the truth is, the sadder the consequences of practical refusal. To trifle with any truth is perilous, and hardening of heart is the necessary result. How many will one find with consciences, if one may so say, locally paralyzed through refusal of that in which the voice of God was once recognized by them? or, perhaps, the refusal to listen to that in which it was feared God might be speaking; for it is a wrong thought that responsibility only comes with the conviction of God having spoken. There is accountability easily to be detected by the question, Were you willing to have Him speak? What hearts we have, to which such a question could ever need to be put! How sad, above all, that unbelief should in believers produce a disregard, like this, of the one supreme Voice, like which there is no other! Thus the "ifs" come in here. All these are the tests of profession, under which the true and the false alike come necessarily, just because they are needed to distinguish between the false and the true; and also because God uses them to exercise those that are really His people; for we have in us the flesh still, and therefore those tendencies to departure from God which make His constant grace so needful.
But then they are not warnings to the believer against having too much faith, or too simple faith, but they are the very reverse. They are warnings to persevere in joyful confidence to the end. All through this epistle, where the substance which is replacing the shadows is yet invisible, it is faith that is, as it were, the one necessity, and which is as much emphasized, though from another side, as it is in the epistles to the Romans and Galatians.
2. And this is what is dwelt upon in the second subsection, in which the word is seen as needing to be mixed with faith, unbelief being the very root and principle of disobedience; and if we are become the "companions" of Christ, (better not "partakers" here, which would give another thought from what is intended, but what is in the first chapter translated "fellows,") Christ is the complete Example of faith from first to last. We, therefore, must hold "the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end."
Difficulties are supposed, for how could faith show itself if there were no difficulties? Difficulties are, therefore, not strictly a hindrance to faith, but even the reverse. They are the conditions of its manifestation; they are a means of its exercise, and so actually of its growth. Those whose "carcases fell in the wilderness" are not types of believers in any sense, but of those who fail of final entrance into the rest of God; for that is what Canaan here typifies, as is obvious. It is important to distinguish between this final entrance and that under Joshua, which, as we know, was not final, and is for us the type of present entrance into our heavenly portion by faith. In this way we must remember that Joshua is not typically a continuation of Numbers or Deuteronomy, but a new beginning, parallel with these. It is while we are in the wilderness that, in fact, we enter also by faith into our heavenly inheritance. The experience of the wilderness and the laying hold of the inheritance, in this way, go together. The searching of the land by the spies (Num 13:1-33) answers, however, but partially to this, while Deuteronomy ends typically our whole earthly history with that review of the wilderness-course throughout, which is only fulfilled for us at the judgment-seat of Christ. Joshua added to the books of Moses would make them a hexateuch, which the higher critics would have them to be, but which they are not; Joshua being, in fact, a new beginning, the Genesis of a new pentateuch, the historical books. We must have God’s truth in God’s order, or we shall not find it even God’s truth.
3. The third subsection shows us what the actual rest is. We are entering into rest, we who have believed; but we have not entered. From the nature of it, as described presently, no one could enter into it in this life. We are going on to it, and God has been always speaking of it, as in the Sabbath type, keeping it before men from the beginning. God rested on the seventh day from all His works. That was at the beginning; but man violated that rest, and it remains for us only a shadow of what is yet to come. The apostle quotes, also, David’s words, long after Joshua’s day, as showing that Israel’s coming into the land was still not rest. After they had come in, it was still said: Today, if ye will hear His voice." The rest remains, then, a true "keeping of Sabbath" for the people of God, -a rest which will be God’s rest also, or what good could be in it? A rest, too, in which he who rests ceases from all the labor which sin has imposed. Such a rest has not come for us. This carries us, in fact, on to eternity, the eternal rest, of which we have seen long since that the Sabbath is the type, and not of any millennial anticipation of it. The thousand years are a time in which the earth has indeed come to its regeneration. Sin does not reign any more. Righteousness reigns, but still sin exists; and it is after the thousand years that death, "the last enemy," is put under Christ’s feet, and the judgment of the dead comes with that. As a consequence, what we speak of sometimes as millennial rest, is not strictly correct. God cannot rest except with the perfect accomplishment of perfect blessing. He cannot rest while there are enemies yet to be put under the feet, -before sin and death are cast alike into the lake of fire.
4. In the fourth subsection the apostle exhorts all, therefore, to use diligence to enter into the rest before us, and again brings forward, as a warning, Israel’s unbelief in the wilderness. Good tidings had come to them of the land to which God was bringing them, but they had not faith to receive them. The word, full of promise and blessing as it was, yet only exposed the unbelief which goes too surely in company with a rebellious spirit. Though good, it brought out but evil, and thus it is characteristic of the word of God to search us out and make manifest to us what we are. If we submit ourselves to this searching, how great will be the blessing in it! It will bathe us in the very light of God, and thus purge from our eyes the film that hinders the perception of other things.
"For the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there a creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and laid bare unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Thus the word of God acts in the power of Him whose word it is. It brings the soul into His presence. The aroused conscience brings everything before God for judgment. Mists roll off as before the sun; and if the light shine as when at first, at God’s bidding, it broke out upon the darkness and the yeasty waves of the shoreless and barren sea, still we have the word which says: "God saw the light, that it was good." The beginning of communion with God, whatever may be the matter of it, is the reception of the truth. "Soul and spirit" as thus named together can only be the two parts of the immaterial nature of man; which Scripture, spite of what many think, everywhere clearly distinguishes from one another. The soul is the lower, sensitive, instinctive, emotional part, which, where not, as in man, penetrated with the light of the spirit, is simply animal; and which also, where man is not in the power of the Spirit of God, will still gravitate towards this. The spirit is intelligent and moral, that which knows human things (1Co 2:11). In the "natural man," which is really the psychic man, the man soul-led (1Co 2:14), conscience, with its recognition of God, is in abeyance, and the mind itself becomes earthly. Important enough it is, therefore, to divide between "soul and spirit." Joints and marrow" convey to us the difference between the external and the internal, the outward form and the essence hidden in it. Not at all that even the form is unimportant. Everything in nature forbids such a thought. But its beauty and effectiveness depend upon its appropriateness to the idea which rules in it. The word of God must thus be in the highest sense the book of science. All the highest and deepest knowledge is in it, and that of things naturally inaccessible to man; while everything, also, is in right relation and proportion, nothing overbalanced. It has, indeed, none of the pedantry or technical knowledge in which science is apt to shroud its wisdom, but a sweet, homely simplicity and familiarity of greeting, welcoming all comers to it, which deceives the would-be wise, who cannot understand how God’s light should shine for babe and for philosopher, and how God’s learning can have so little savor of the schools. Yet, is it true wisdom to make nought of it for this? Rather, does it not show us God’s real desire for the education of the masses, about which men are beginning to show such very tardy earnestness? All the highest, deepest, and most practical knowledge made the possession of all that will with a Divine Teacher also for the lowly but inquiring soul!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v7A warning lesson from the history of Moses:
A warning lesson from the history of Moses:
v. 7. Wherefore, (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice,
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v. 8. harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
v. 9. when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
v. 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.
v. 11. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest,)
v. 12. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
v. 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
v. 14. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
The last thought in the first paragraph of the chapter had been that of persevering faith and trust, looking forward to the joyful realization of our hope on the last day. The sacred writer now wishes to emphasize the need of this faithfulness for obtaining the prize, and to that end refers to the journey of the children of Israel through the desert and some of the principal incidents of the forty years included in that journey. He quotes Psa 95:7-11, stating at the same time that it was the Holy Ghost to whom the words there written are to be ascribed as the real Author. The passage gives a reason for his earnest warning: Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation (Meribah), as on the day of temptation (Massah) in the wilderness. The prophet refers to the incident related Exo 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, and the writer of our letter quotes the Greek translation of the Hebrew words which are probably the proper nouns of the station in the wilderness where the people rebelled. Their conduct at that time was provoking to the Lord; it challenged His wrath, it demanded His punishment. For, as the quotation continues: Where your fathers tested Me, putting Me to a proof, and saw My works forty years. It is a bitter complaint which the Lord here voices. The children of Israel, by their unruly behavior, put the Lord to a trial, to a proof, just as though they wanted to satisfy themselves as to the length of time that they could oppose His will. The entire history of the journey through the wilderness presents practically a succession of incidents of a nature calculated to provoke the wrath of the Lord. Although He performed miracles of goodness and mercy and judgment before their eyes during all that time with the intention of winning them to Himself, yet they remained a stubborn and rebellious generation.
But the Lord will not be mocked, as the quotation from the prophet continues: Wherefore I was indignant with this generation and said, Always they are astray in their heart; but they, not would they understand My ways; so I swore in My anger, They shall never enter into My rest. The Lord finally grew tired of the continual challenge of the people of Israel; He was exasperated, filled with disgust, loathing, and abhorrence, as the Hebrew text implies. See Num 14:21-23; Num 32:10-13; Deu 1:34-36. All the attempts of the Lord were turned aside in scorn; they persisted in going astray from the way marked out by His Word and command: they refused to acknowledge that He was leading them in paths of goodness and mercy and long-suffering, that His every thought for them was a thought of peace. So the Lord finally swore in His bitter anger at their obstinacy that they should not enter into the land which He had intended for them as a haven, a place of rest and security. The idea of rest in the Land of Promise incidentally acquired a wider scope and a deeper significance, as the application of this passage throughout the present letter indicates.
The sacred writer, having inserted this quotation with its warning lesson, takes up the thread of his argument once more, in driving home the moral of the story: See to it, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The earnest anxiety of the writer is apparent in the entire structure of the sentence, which, incidentally, is contracted as if he had written in great agitation. They should see to it, they should take heed, lest perhaps, by any bad chance, there might be in any one of the readers a bad, wicked, evil heart, caused by a condition of unbelief. For this condition would show itself in departing from the living God. The Lord is the Author and Source of life; not only is He able to come to the assistance of all people that are in need, but He is the only One that can transmit and keep the one true life in the hearts of those that are His own. Should a believer, therefore, scorn and spurn the fellowship of God by departing from Him and His life, he would have only himself to blame for the final damnation which would come upon him.
The sacred writer, therefore, continues his warning on the positive side: Rather admonish one another every day, so long as that period endures which is called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceit of sin. This is one of the functions of their calling which Christians should be glad to take upon themselves, to exhort, to admonish one another, to spur one another on in sanctification. It is a kindness which is not a mere matter indifferent, but whose manifestation is required by the duty which Christians owe one another. Sanctification in every Christian congregation is a matter calling for constant vigilance, for the practice of love which must be carried on daily, day after day. For now is God’s great Today, now is the time of grace, now is the time that He wants us to listen to His wonderful invitation to the heavenly meal. So long as God still issues His pleading call, we should take heed to pay attention to it quickly; for we do not know when this time of grace may come to an end. And there is always the danger of being hardened by a neglect of the Word in time. Sin is present in so many pleasant and deceitful guises, and the devil is so unusually proficient in his ability to make the greatest defections from the will of God appear as mere innocent pastimes, that it requires the most vigilant care on the part of every Christian lest he become callous to the pleadings of the Word of God and become a prey to eternal death. Sin in heart or life blinds a person to the beauty and the meaning of God’s wonderful offer of salvation.
To the observance of this vigilance we should be inspired also by another consideration: For partakers of Christ we have become, if we but hold firm the beginning of our confidence to the end. See Heb 3:6. This is a thought which is often brought out by the Apostle Paul when he warns the Christians against carnal security, and by Peter, when he bids us make our calling and election sure, 2Pe 1:10. We must never lose sight of the fact that by our conversion we have partaken and are now partaking of Jesus Christ, of all the blessings and gifts which He has earned for us by His redemption. This fact, however, puts us under the obligation of remaining in His grace, of keeping unto the end at least that amount of firm confidence in His redemption which is the essence of faith. So sure must the believer’s confidence in His Lord be that it will withstand all attacks until the end, till it will be beyond trial and temptation, finally triumphant, in the presence of Christ. Firmness, confidence, faithfulness, are required of all disciples of the Lord Jesus.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The warning here is a reminder that the Israelites' unbelief kept almost all of them from entering into the land that God had promised them. Their unbelief was well illustrated in Exodus Exodus 17:1-7, when they complained against Moses and doubted that God was with them.
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General Information:
This quotation comes from the Old Testament in the book of Psalms.
if you hear his voice
God's "voice" represents him speaking. AT: "when you hear God speak" (See: Metonymy)
do not harden your hearts
Here "hearts" is a metonym for a person's mind. The phrase "harden your hearts" is a metaphor for being stubborn. AT: "do not be stubborn" or "do not refuse to listen" (See: Metonymy)
as in the rebellion, in the time of testing in the wilderness
Here "rebellion" and "testing" can be stated as verbs. AT: "as when your ancestors rebelled against God and tested him in the wilderness" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7–93:7-19 This passage presents, “as a warning to us”…
3:7-19 This passage presents, “as a warning to us” (1 Cor 10:6), the negative example of those who wandered in the wilderness for forty years and died there. The wilderness wanderings represent disobedience to God and its consequences (see Num 32:7-11; Deut 1:19-35; Ps 106:24-26).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–9 He proceeds in his exhortation, that they were to…
He proceeds in his exhortation, that they were to obey Christ speaking to them; and that he might add more weight to it, he confirms it by the testimony of David; for since they were to be sharply goaded, it was better, for the sake of avoiding offense, to bring forward another person. Had he simply reproached them for the unbelief of the fathers, they would have less favorably attended to him; but when he brought forward David, it was less offensive. Now, the import of the whole is, — As God from the beginning would his voice obeyed, and could not endure perverseness without punishing it severely, so at this day he will not lightly punish our stubbornness, unless we become teachable. But the discourse is suspended until we come to the words, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be at any time in any of you,” etc. That the passage, then, may flow better, it would be proper to include the rest in a parenthesis. Let us now consider the words in order.
7. As the Holy Ghost saith, etc. This availed much more to touch their hearts than if he had quoted David by name. And it is useful for us to familiarize ourselves with such expressions, so that we may remember that the words adduced from the books of the prophets are those of God and not of men.
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But as this sentence, Today, if ye will hear his voice, is a part of a former verse, some have not unsuitably rendered it thus, “Would to God you would this day hear his voice.” It is indeed certain that when David called the Jews God’s people, he immediately drew this conclusion, that the voice of God ought to have been heard by them; for as to those whom he there invited to sing praises to God and to celebrate his goodness, he reminded them at the same time that obedience was the chief worship which he required, and that it was better than all sacrifices. The chief thing, then, was to obey the word of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–8 So that God was to speak once again after…
So that God was to speak once again after Moses.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day…
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Ver. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost] It is well observed by Calvin, that the words after "wherefore," to Heb 3:12, should be enclosed with a parenthesis, and then the sense is clear. If Jerome and Egranus had observed so much in this and other places, they would not so sharply have censured St Paul for his obscurities and incongruities, and lame senses and sentences. (Jerome Epist. ad Algesiam. Joh. Egran. apud Jo. Manl. loc. com.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–9 The Spirit enforceth his counsel for those Hebrews’ improvement…
The Spirit enforceth his counsel for those Hebrews’ improvement of his doctrine about the gospel Prophet, by alleging a sad example of their fathers refusing to hear and obey him, from Heb 3:7-11. The allegation might be best placed in parenthesis, and the introductive illative particle:
Wherefore, may refer to Heb 3:12; Take heed, brethren.
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As the Holy Ghost saith; as the Spirit, the Holy One, that third relation in the Trinity, whose essence is holiness, is the author of what the psalmist doth write, and is here quoted by him, Psa 95:7-11. So that the example registered is true and infallible, and should suitably affect them, reading it.
To-day if ye will hear his voice; every present time, wherein the great Builder and Lord of God’s church speaketh to them; God would not have a hearer of his Prophet to procrastinate a day, but to be exercising all those internal acts, which this word of sense hear doth comprehend, such as reacheth the heart as well as the ear; if you will attend, intend, believe, love, and obey; a hearing better than all external sacrifices, 1Sa 15:22. The angel of the covenant speaking his mind and will to them by Moses and the prophets, which was for the matter of it faith in God’s covenant, made with them in and through Christ, Psa 95:7; compare Exo 23:20-23.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v7 The apostle having proved our Lord Jesus Christ to…
The apostle having proved our Lord Jesus Christ to be the great Prophet and Teacher of his church, doth in these words draw an inference from the foregoing conclusion: namely, that seeing Christ is the chief apostle and prophet of his church, seeing he was a teacher sent of God to instruct the world in the practice of their reasonable duty, that therefore it is our obliged duty to hearken to Christ’s voice, and that now to comply with his call, and that presently: Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, "Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
Observe here, 1. The person spoken of, and that is Christ; his voice; that is, the voice of Christ our great apostle, speaking in his gospel.
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Observe, 2. A duty required of us in reference to his person, and that is, to hear and obey Christ’s voice.
Observe, 3. The circumstance of time, and the special season when this duty of hearing Christ’s voice is to be performed, and that is presently; "Today if you will hear his voice."
Observe, 4. A cautionary direction given to all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and hear Christ’s voice speaking to them therein; namely, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.
Learn hence, 1. That the voice which speaks unto us in and by the gospel, is Christ’s voice.
2. That it is the great duty of all those that sit under the preaching of the gospel, to hear and obey Christ’s voice.
Learn, 3. That it is not only their duty to hear Christ’s voice, and answer his call in the gospel, but to do it now, to do it presently, and without delay; Today if you will hear his voice.
Learn, 4. That it is the duty and ought to be the special care, of all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and that hear Christ’s voice speaking to them therein, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.
Observe lastly, From our apostle’s drawing an instance out of the Old Testament, namely, that of the Jews in the wilderness, to instruct the Hebrews to make use of the present season for hearing the voice of Christ under the New Testament; we learn, That Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions. The examples of our fore-fathers are of use and concernment to us, and ought to be the objects of our deepest consideration: Your fathers tempted me, and I was grieved with that generation.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v7 Here the apostle proceeds in pressing upon them serious…
Here the apostle proceeds in pressing upon them serious counsels and cautions to the close of the chapter; and he recites a passage out of Psa 95:7, etc., where observe,
I. What he counsels them to do - to give a speedy and present attention to the call of Christ. "Hear his voice, assent to, approve of, and consider, what God in Christ speaks unto you; apply it to yourselves with suitable affections and endeavours, and set about it this very day, for tomorrow it may be too late."
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II. What he cautions them against - hardening their hearts, turning the deaf ear to the calls and counsels of Christ: "When he tells you of the evil of sin, the excellency of holiness, the necessity of receiving him by faith as your Saviour, do not shut your ear and heart against such a voice as this." Observe, The hardening of our hearts is the spring of all our other sins.
III. Whose example he warns them by - that of the Israelites their fathers in the wilderness: As in the provocation and day of temptation; this refers to that remarkable passage at Massah Meribah, Exo 17:2-7. Observe,
1. Days of temptation are often days of provocation.
2. To provoke God, when he is trying us, and letting us see that we entirely depend and live immediately upon him, is a provocation with a witness.
3. The sins of others, especially our relations, should be a warning to us. Our fathers' sins and punishments should be remembered by us, to deter us from following their evil examples. Now as to the sin of the fathers of the Jews, here reflected upon, observe,
(1.) The state in which these fathers were, when they thus sinned: they were in the wilderness, brought out of Egypt, but not got into Canaan, the thoughts whereof should have restrained them from sin.
(2.) The sin they were guilty of: they tempted and provoked God; they distrusted God, murmured against Moses, and would not attend to the voice of God.
(3.) The aggravations of their sin: they sinned in the wilderness, where they had a more immediate dependence upon God: they sinned when God was trying them; they sinned when they saw his works - works of wonder wrought for their deliverance out of Egypt, and their support and supply in the wilderness from day to day. They continued thus to sin against God for forty years. These were heinous aggravations.
(4.) The source and spring of such aggravated sins, which were, [1.] They erred in their hearts; and these heart-errors produced many other errors in their lips and lives. [2.] They did not know God's ways, though he had walked before them. They did not know his ways; neither those ways of his providence in which he had walked towards them, nor those ways of his precept in which they ought to have walked towards God; they did not observe either his providences or his ordinances in a right manner.
(5.) The just and great resentment God had at their sins, and yet the great patience he exercised towards them (Heb 3:10): Wherefore I was grieved with that generation. Note, [1.] All sin, especially sin committed by God's professing privileged people, does not only anger and affront God, but it grieves him. [2.] God is loth to destroy his people in or for their sin, he waits long to be gracious to them. [3.] God keeps an exact account of the time that people go on in sinning against him, and in grieving him by their sins; but at length, if they by their sins continue to grieve the Spirit of God, their sins shall be made grievous to their own spirits, either in a way of judgment or mercy.
(6.) The irreversible doom passed upon them at last for their sins. God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, the rest either of an earthly or of a heavenly Canaan. Observe, [1.] Sin, long continued in, will kindle the divine wrath, and make it flame out against sinners. [2.] God's wrath will discover itself in its righteous resolution to destroy the impenitent; he will swear in his wrath, not rashly, but righteously, and his wrath will make their condition a restless condition; there is no resting under the wrath of God.
IV. What use the apostle makes of their awful example, Heb 3:12, Heb 3:13, etc. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution, and enforces it with an affectionate compellation.
1. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution; the word is, Take heed, blepete - look to it. "Look about you; be upon your guard against enemies both within and without; be circumspect. You see what kept many of your forefathers out of Canaan, and made their carcasses fall in the wilderness; take heed lest you fall into the same sin and snare and dreadful sentence. For you see Christ is head of the church, a much greater person than Moses, and your contempt of him must be a greater sin than their contempt of Moses; and so you are in danger of falling under a severer sentence than they." Observe, The ruin of others should be a warning to us to take heed of the rock they split upon. Israel's fall should for ever be a warning to all who come after them; for all these things happened to them for ensamples (Co1 10:11), and should be remembered by us. Take heed; all who would get safely to heaven must look about them.
2. He enforces the admonition with an affectionate compellation: "Brethren, not only in the flesh, but in the Lord; brethren whom I love, and for whose welfare I labour and long." And here he enlarges upon the matter of the admonition: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Here observe, (1.) A heart of unbelief is an evil heart. Unbelief is a great sin, it vitiates the heart of man. (2.) An evil heart of unbelief is at the bottom of all our sinful departures from God; it is a leading step to apostasy; if once we allow ourselves to distrust God, we may soon desert him. (3.) Christian brethren have need to be cautioned against apostasy. Let those that think they stand take heed lest they fall.
3. He subjoins good counsel to the caution, and advises them to that which would be a remedy against this evil heart of unbelief - that they should exhort one another daily, while it is called today, Heb 3:13. Observe, (1.) We should be doing all the good we can to one another while we are together, which will be but a short and uncertain time. (2.) Since tomorrow is none of ours, we must make the best improvement of today. (3.) If Christians do not exhort one another daily, they will be in danger of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Note, [1.] There is a great deal of deceitfulness in sin; it appears fair, but is filthy; it appears pleasant, but is pernicious; it promises much, but performs nothing. [2.] The deceitfulness of sin is of a hardening nature to the soul; one sin allowed prepares for another; every act of sin confirms the habit; sinning against conscience is the way to sear the conscience; and therefore it should be the great concern of every one to exhort himself and others to beware of sin.
4. He comforts those who not only set out well, but hold on well, and hold out to the end (Heb 3:14): We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end. Here observe, (1.) The saints' privilege: they are made partakers of Christ, that is, of the Spirit, nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Christ; they are interested in all that is Christ's, in all that he is, in all that he has done, or can do. (2.) The condition on which they hold that privilege, namely, their perseverance in the bold and open profession and practice of Christ and Christianity unto the end. Not but they shall persevere, being kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation, but to be pressed thus to it is one means by which Christ helps his people to persevere. This tends to make them watchful and diligent, and so keeps them from apostasy. Here observe, [1.] The same spirit with which Christians set out in the ways of God they should maintain and evidence to the end. Those who begin seriously, and with lively affections and holy resolutions and humble reliance, should go on in the same spirit. But, [2.] There are a great many who in the beginning of their profession show a great deal of courage and confidence, but do not hold them fast to the end. [3.] Perseverance in faith is the best evidence of the sincerity of our faith.
5. The apostle resumes what he had quoted before from Psa 95:7, etc., and he applies it closely to those of that generation, Heb 3:15, Heb 3:16, etc. While it is said, Today if you will hear, etc.; as if he should say, "What was recited before from that scripture belonged not only to former ages, but to you now, and to all who shall come after you; that you take heed you fall not into the same sins, lest you fall under the same condemnation." The apostle tells them that though some who had heard the voice of God did provoke him, yet all did not so. Observe, (1.) Though the majority of hearers provoked God by unbelief, yet some there were who believed the report. (2.) Though the hearing of the word be the ordinary means of salvation, yet, if it be not hearkened to, it will expose men more to the anger of God. (3.) God will have a remnant that shall be obedient to his voice, and he will take care of such and make mention of them with honour. (4.) If these should fall in a common calamity, yet they shall partake of eternal salvation, while disobedient hearers perish for ever.
6. The apostle puts some queries upon what had been before mentioned, and gives proper answers to them (Heb 3:17-19): But with whom was he grieved forty years? With those that sinned. And to whom did he swear? etc. Whence observe, (1.) God is grieved only with those of his people who sin against him, and continue in sin. (2.) God is grieved and provoked most by sins publicly committed by the generality of a nation; when sin becomes epidemic, it is most provoking. (3.) Though God grieves long, and bears long, when pressed with the weight of general and prevailing wickedness, yet he will at length ease himself of public offenders by public judgments. (4.) Unbelief (with rebellion which is the consequent of it) is the great damning sin of the world, especially of those who have a revelation of the mind and will of God. This sin shuts up the heart of God, and shuts up the gate of heaven, against them; it lays them under the wrath and curse of God, and leaves them there; so that in truth and justice to himself he is obliged to cast them off for ever.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,.... In Psa 95:7
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,.... In Psa 95:7
today if you will hear his voice; either the precepts of Christ, to hear which is to obey them; and this is an acknowledgment to Christ as King of saints, and is a testimony of love to him, and is wellpleasing in his sight; and in which the saints find pleasure themselves, and profit also: or the Gospel of Christ, which is a voice of love, grace, and mercy; of peace and reconciliation; of pardon and righteousness; of liberty, redemption, and salvation by Christ; and to hear it, is not only to hear it externally, but internally, so as to understand it, and distinguish it from the voice of a stranger, and to approve of it, and believe it, and put in practice what is heard: and "today" may intend some festival day in David's time, when, and on account of which, this psalm was penned; as the feast of tabernacles, which was a type of Christ tabernacling in human nature; or it may regard the time of man's life, while it is day, or the present instant of life: or rather the whole Gospel dispensation. The psalm from whence these and some following words are taken, belongs to the Messiah; for the person the subject of it, is called the rock of our salvation; and every thing in it is applicable to him; as the ascription of deity, and divine worship; the creation and preservation of the universe; yea, he is represented as a shepherd, and the saints as his sheep; which plainly points at the office of Christ; and these very words are often made use of by the Jews, and applied to the Messiah, showing that if the Jews would repent but one day, or keep the sabbath but one day, the son of David, the Messiah, would come; since it is said, "today if you will hear his voice" (d); which the Chaldee paraphrase renders "his Word", his essential Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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(d) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 1. Shemot Rabba, sect. 25. fol. 109. 3. & Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 19. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Wherefore - Seeing he is faithful, be not ye…
Wherefore - Seeing he is faithful, be not ye unfaithful. Psalm xcv, 7, &c.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today]…
Verse 7. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today] These words are quoted from Ps 95:7; and as they were written by David, and attributed here to the Holy Ghost, it proves that David wrote, by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. As these words were originally a warning to the Israelites not to provoke God, lest they should be excluded from that rest which he had promised them, the apostle uses them here to persuade the Christians in Palestine to hold fast their religious privileges, and, the grace they had received, lest they should come short of that state of future glory which Christ had prepared for them. The words strongly imply, as indeed does the whole epistle, the possibility of falling from the grace of God, and perishing everlastingly; and without this supposition these words, and all such like, which make more than two-thirds of the whole of Divine revelation, would have neither sense nor meaning. Why should God entreat man to receive his mercy, if he have rendered this impossible? Why should he exhort a believer to persevere, if it be impossible for him to fall away? What contemptible quibbling have men used to maintain a false and dangerous tenet against the whole tenor of the word of God! Angels fell-Adam fell-Solomon fell-and multitudes of believers have fallen, and, for aught we know, rose no more; and yet we are told that we cannot finally lose the benefits of our conversion! Satan preached this doctrine to our first parents; they believed him, sinned, and fell; and brought a whole world to ruin!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v7 Heb 3:7-9. Having demonstrated the pre-eminence of Christ above…
Heb 3:7-9. Having demonstrated the pre-eminence of Christ above Moses in their respective ministries, the apostle, according to his design and usual method, now proceeds to the application of the truth he had evinced, in an exhortation to stability and constancy in faith and obedience. And this he does in a way that adds double force to his exhortation, in that he both reminds them of, and urges upon them the words, testimonies, and examples recorded in the Old Testament, to which they professed a special deference and subjection; and also in that the nature of the example, which he insists upon, is such as supplies him with a new argument for his purpose. Now this is taken from God’s conduct toward them, who were disobedient under the ministry of Moses, which he further explains, Heb 3:15-19. For if God dealt in severity with them who were unbelieving and disobedient, with respect to him who was but a servant in the house, they might easily learn from this what his displeasure would be toward those who should behave so with respect to the Son, who is Lord over the whole house, and whose property all the members of it are. Wherefore — This word shows that what follows is an inference from what precedes; as the Holy Ghost saith — The expression is emphatical, το πνευμα το αγιον, that Spirit, that Holy Spirit, so called by way of eminence; who in an especial manner spake in and by the penmen of the sacred Scriptures, 2Pe 1:21. The words here quoted are taken from Psa 95:7, which the apostle tells us (Heb 4:7) was written by David. Hence we learn that David wrote his Psalms by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as our Lord likewise testifies, Mat 22:43. “The judgments of God executed on sinners in ages past, being designed for the reproof and instruction of those who come after, the Holy Ghost, by David, very properly founded his exhortation to the people of that age upon the sin and punishment of their fathers in the wilderness. And the apostle, for the same reason, fitly applied the words, which the Holy Ghost spake to the people by David, to the Hebrews in his day, to prevent them from hardening their hearts when they heard God’s voice speaking to them in the gospel of his Son.” To-day — Now, at the present time, while the season of grace lasts, and you are favoured with the means thereof; if ye will hear his voice — If ye ever intend, or will consent to do it; harden not your hearts — By inattention, by thoughtlessness, by unbelief, and disobedience. Observe, reader, God speaks by his works, particularly those of creation, providence, and grace, and in and by his word; and to hear him, implies that we hearken to, understand, believe, and obey him; and instead of rejecting his counsel, that we suffer it to enter into our hearts, so as to influence our spirits and conduct; as in the provocation — Παραπικρασμω, bitter provocation; that is, as the Israelites hardened their hearts when they provoked me by their strife and murmurings. See Exo 16:4; Exo 17:2-9; Exo 32:10; Num 10:33; Num 11:3; Num 11:33; Num 11:35; Num 12:16; Num 13:25-32; Num 14:4-22; Deu 1:6-7; Deu 1:19-22; Deu 1:34-35; Deu 2:14; Deu 9:7; Deu 32:51; 1Co 10:4. In short, their whole story manifests a continued scene of provocation. When — Or where, rather, as the Syriac and Vulgate read the words; for the word when would imply that, at the time of the bitter provocation chiefly referred to, the Israelites had seen God’s works forty years, contrary to the history, which shows that that provocation happened in the beginning of the third year from the going out of Egypt: whereas to read where instead of when, agreeably to the matter of fact, represents God as saying by David, that the Israelites tempted him in the wilderness during forty years, notwithstanding all that time they had seen his miracles. The tempting God, here spoken of, consisted in their calling in question his presence with them, their distrusting his power to help and save them, or his faithfulness to his promises; or their despising ordinary means of help and deliverance, and desiring extraordinary. See note on Psa 95:8-9; Mat 4:7; and proved me — Put my patience to the proof, even while they saw my glorious works both of judgment and mercy; or had proof by experience of my power, providence, goodness, and faithfulness, and that for forty years.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Wherefore - In view of the fact that the…
Wherefore - In view of the fact that the Author of the Christian dispensation has a rank far superior to that of Moses. Because Christ has claims on us far greater than those which Moses had, let us hearken to his voice, and dread his displeasure.
As the Holy Ghost saith - In Psa 95:7-11. This is full proof that in the estimation of the author of this Epistle the writer of this Psalm was inspired. The Holy Spirit speaks through the word which he has revealed. The apostle quotes this passage and applies it to those whom he addressed, because the admonition was as pertinent and important under the Christian dispensation, as it was under the Jewish. The danger of hardening the heart by neglecting to hear his voice was as great, and the consequences would be as fearful and alarming. We should regard the solemn warnings in the Old Testament against sin, and against the danger of apostasy, as addressed by the Holy Spirit to us. They are as applicable to us as they were to those to whom they were at first addressed; and we need all the influence of such appeals, to keep us from apostasy as much as they did.
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Today - Now; at present. At the very time when the command is addressed to you. It is not to be put off until tomorrow. All God’s commands relate to “the present” - to this day - to the passing moment. He gives us no commands “about the future.” He does not require us to repent and to turn to him “tomorrow,” or 10 years hence. The reasons are obvious:
Duty pertains to the present. It is our duty to turn from sin, and to love him now.
(2)We know not that we shall live to another day. A command, therefore, could not extend to that time unless it were accompanied with “a revelation” that we should live until then - and such a revelation God does not choose to give. Every one, therefore, should feel that whatever commands God addresses to him are addressed to him now. Whatever guilt he incurs by neglecting those commands is incurred now. For the present neglect and disobedience each one is to answer - and each one must give account to God for what he does today.
If ye will hear - In case you are willing to hearken to God, listen now, and do not defer it to a future period. There is much in a “willingness” to hear the voice of God. A willingness to learn is usually the precursor of great attainments in knowledge. A “willingness” to reform, is usually the precursor of reformation. Get a man “willing” to break off his habits of profaneness or intemperance, and usually all the rest is easy. The great difficulty in the mind of a sinner is in his will. He is unwilling to hear the voice of God; unwilling that he should reign over him; unwilling now to attend to religion. While this unwillingness lasts he will make no efforts, and he sees, or creates a thousand difficulties in the way of his becoming a Christian. But when that unwillingness is overcome, and he is disposed to engage in the work of religion, difficulties vanish, and the work of salvation becomes easy.
His voice - The voice of God speaking to us:
(1)In his written word;
(2)In the preached gospel;
(3)In our own consciences;
(4)In the events of his Providence;
(5)In the admonitions of our relatives and friends. Whatever conveys to us the truth of God, or is adapted to impress that on us, may be regarded as “his voice” speaking to us. He thus speaks to us “every day” in some of these ways; and every day, therefore, he may entreat us not to harden our hearts.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v8 This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where…
This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where the history of provocations and contradictions of the Israelites is related at large.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v7 The threatening of the Old Testament, that unbelievers shall…
II
The threatening of the Old Testament, that unbelievers shall not enter into the rest of God, is all the more to be taken to heart by the New Testament people of God
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Heb_3:7-19
7 Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit saith: To-day if ye will [om. will] hear his voice, 8harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, 9 when [where οὗ] your fathers tempted me, proved me [by proving],6 and saw my works [during] forty years. 10Wherefore I was grieved [was angry] with that [this]7 generation, and said, They do always err [go astray] in their heart; and they have not known [but they did not know] my ways. 11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. 12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart13 of unbelief, in departing [falling away, ᾶποστῆναι] from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you8 be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we are made [have become] partakers of Christ, if [provided that, ἐάν περ] we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; 15while it is said, To-day if ye will hear [if ye hear] his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16For some, when they had heard, did provoke, [for who, when they heard, provoked him?]: howbeit not all [nay, did not all they?] that came 17 out of Egypt by Moses [?]. But [And] with whom was he grieved [angry during] forty years? was it not with them that had sinned [?], whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 [!] And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to 19 them that believed not [disobeyed, ἀπειθήσασιν]? So [And] we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
[Heb_3:7.—ὡς, as, καθώς, according as—ἐὰν ἀκούσητε, not, “if ye will hear,” but, “if ye hear,” or “shall have heard,” See Del., De W., Moll. Still the precise import of the Hebrew original of the Psalm is doubtful, and it is possible that the Septuagint may intend its ἐὰν ἀκούσητε as having an optative force—would that! Yet we do not seem authorized in our Epistle to depart from the natural rendering of the words.
Heb_3:9.—οὗ, where, not when, as Eng. ver.—ἑν δοκιμασία, in proving, instead of ἐδοκίμασαν.
Heb_3:10.—αύτοὶ δὲ οὐκ έγνωσαν αὐτοί, emphatic; “but they did not know,” etc., to be coördinated apparently not with πλανῶνται, but with εἶπον and δέ, adversative. So De W., Del., Moll.
Heb_3:11.—ὡς ὥμοσα, Eng. ver., so I swore as if ὡς=οὕτως. Moll, so that=ὥστε; so De Wette, Del. Bib. Union, literally, as.
Heb_3:14.—γεγόναμεν, we have become, not are made, ἐάνπερ, precisely if=provided that: stronger than ἐάν, if.
Heb_3:16.—τίνες γάρ, for who? all modern scholars read τίνες, who? instead of the ancient τινές, some, indefinite, which is nearly unmeaning.
Heb_3:17.—ὧν τὰ κῶλα—ἐρήμῳ. Moll rightly follows Del. in making this not a question, but a statement descriptive of the effects of the wrath. So Bib. Un.
Heb_3:18.—Καί, Eng. ver., so, without reason. It is not an inference, but the statement of an actual fact. De Wette, Del., Moll, Bib. Union rightly and.—K.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Heb_3:7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, etc.—The exhortation to take warning from the example of their ancestors against apostasy is introduced by διό, as an inference from the preceding statements, and is to be conceived as corresponding (καθώς) to the address of the Holy Spirit; Διό, however, is neither to be immediately connected with σκληρύνετε, (Schlicht., Ebr., Del., etc.), thus producing a blending of the principal with the subordinate sentence; inasmuch as God, in the citation, Heb_3:7-11, is speaking in the first person; nor with βλέπετε, Heb_3:12 (Erasm., Calv., Este, Grot., Bl., Lün., Bisping, etc.), for this stands too remote. Nor again is the hortatory addition to be supplied (Thol., De W.); but the abrupt breaking off of the construction in the main sentence is characteristic. It gives to the reader a moment’s interval of repose, and yet, at the same time, summons him to reflection, and to a right application of the passage. With new emphasis, and starting, as it were, afresh, the exhortation is subsequently given by the author himself in Heb_3:12.
Heb_3:8. To-day, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts.—As the Sept. often translates the Hebrew particle of desire by ἐάν, it is possible that it has so taken the words here according to the common understanding of the Hebrew text, in which אִם stands first for the sake of emphasis: “Would that to-day ye might hearken to His voice!” It is possible, however, that אִם in Heb. here simply introduces a hypothetical condition [so Delitzsch]. The citation is from Psa_95:7; Psa_95:11, which, by the sudden introduction of the speech of Jehovah, belongs to the class of those that bear a prophetic character. The author is thus entirely warranted in not restricting the “to-day” to the actual ‘present’ of the Psalmist (left in Heb. unnamed—in the Sept. mentioned as David); and in regarding the address itself as that of the Holy Spirit, while, at the same time, the Holy Scripture is regarded in all its parts as θεόπνευστος (2Ti_3:16). Del. communicates the following remarkable Messianic Haggada from bab. Sanhedrin, 98 a.: “R. Joshua Ben Levi once found Elijah (the Tishbite) standing at the entrance of the cave of R. Simeons Ben Jochei. He asked him: ‘Do I come into the future world?’ Elijah answered: If the Lord (אדוך, name of the Shechina that was invisibly present with Elijah) wills it. R. Joshua stated that he saw indeed but two (himself and Elijah), but he heard the voices of three. He asked him further: When comes the Messiah? Elijah: Go and ask Him in person. Joshua: And where? Elijah: He is sitting at the gate of Rome. Joshua: And how may He be recognized? Elijah: He is sitting among poor persons laden with diseases; and while others unbind their wounds at the same time, and then bind them up, He unbinds and then again binds up one wound after another, for He thinks: Perchance I am about to be summoned (called to make my public appearance); and I do this that I may not then be detained! (as would be the case if He unbound all wounds at the same time). Then came Joshua to Him, and He cried: Peace unto thee, son of Levi! Joshua: When comest Thou, Lord? He: To-day. On returning to Elijah, Joshua was asked by him: What said He to thee? Joshua: Peace unto thee, son of Levi. Elijah: In this He has given to thee and to thy father a prospect of the future world. Joshua: But He has deceived me in that He said to me that He comes to-day. Elijah: His meaning in that was this—To-day, if ye hear His voice.”
Heb_3:8. As in the provocation in the wilderness.—The Heb. reads: As at Meribah (Numbers 20), as at the day of Massa, in the wilderness (Exodus 17). Our author takes these proper names etymologically, as appellatives, and the words κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ as added to define the time of the ἐν τῷ παραπικρασμῷ. The κατά is a particle of time, the same as at Heb_9:9, as in the Hellenistic, and is not to be turned into a term of comparison=ὡς. Otto considers that here also Numbers 14 is alone referred to.
Heb_3:9. Where your fathers—during forty years.—The last mentioned temptation took place in the first year of the Exodus; the first mentioned in the fortieth. But the hardness of the people always remained the same, to which Moses refers, Deu_33:8. The οὗ is a particle of place corresponding to אֲשֶׁר, and not, by attraction to πειρασμοῦ, Gen. for ῳ, with which (Erasm., Schmid, Beng., Peirce). The forty years in the wilderness are in the synagogue also regarded as typical. R. Elieser says: “The days of the Messiah are forty years, as it is said, Psalms 95.” (Sanh., fol. 99, 1). And to the question: How long continue the years of the Messiah? R. Akiba answered: “Forty years, corresponding to the sojourning of the Israelites in the desert” (Tanchuma, fol. 79, 4). The admonition of our Epistle must, therefore, have made a powerful impression, if this number of years since the ministry of Christ had, when this Epistle was composed, nearly elapsed. That the author has in mind this typical relation, is clear from the fact that the ‘forty years,’ which in the Heb. belong to the following clause—a construction which he himself recognizes at Heb_3:17—he here carries back to the preceding, and shows that he intends this construction by introducing between the dissevered parts the particle διό (so Intpp. generally since Calov).
Heb_3:10. Wherefore I was angry with this generation.—The Hellenistic προσοχθίζειν from ὀχθή, steep, high bank, or cliff, implies violent, tempestuous excitement, which one either occasions or experiences. Usually it has the latter sense, denoting the feeling of violent displeasure awakened by opposition. The ἀεί belongs not to εἶπον (Erasm.), but to πλανῶνται. A secondary idea of contempt can hardly belong to γενεά (Heinr., Steng.), though very possibly toταύτῃ(Lün.); but it is impossible that, by the latter pronoun (ταύτῃ), instead of ἐκείνῃ, the author could have intended in this connection an incidental reference to his readers (Böhm., Bl., De W.). In this passage also the author follows the Alex. Cod. of the Sept. in reading αὐτοὶ δέ, while the Vat. Cod. follows the Heb. in reading καὶ αὐτοί.
Heb_3:11. As I sware in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.—Possibly ὡς should be taken as=as, but it may also, corresponding to the Heb. אַשֶׁר (Ewald, § 337, a.), denote result=ὥστε, so that. It then, indeed, usually takes the Infin., or the Opt. with ἄν, though sometimes also the Indic. (Win., p. 410) [Ὥστε, so that, as easily takes the Ind. as the Opt.—K.]. The εἰ in the clause containing the substance of the oath, is in imitation of the Heb. אִם. The formula has sprung from the suppression of the apodosis, and negatives the thought, while אִם לֹאֹ affirms it. The κατάπαυσις refers originally to the rest of the Promised Land, Deu_12:9-10. But the idea of the “rest of God,” proceeding from this starting point, acquired a wider scope and a deeper significance.
Heb_3:12. Take heed that there be not—living God.—Μή, after words of seeing, in the Fut. Indic., expresses not only a warning, but, with it, anxiety in regard to a failure to give heed Hart., Part. II., 140). The enclitic ποτέ means, not ever, at any time (Beza, Eng. Ver., etc.), but perchance, and the ἔν τινι ὑμῶν individualizes the admonition, so as to bring it home to each person in conscientious self-examination. The Gen. ἀπιστίας indicates the relation of quality; the evil heart, then, is not to be regarded as the cause or ground (Bl., etc.), nor as the consequence of unbelief (De W., etc.). Nor, again, is ἀπιστία either faithlessness or disobedience (Schultz). The latter is the consequence of unbelief, Heb_3:18; Heb_4:6; Heb_4:11, which appears here as exhibiting its internal essence in apostasy from God. We are not by θεός to understand Christ (Gerh., Dorsch, Calov, Sebast. Schmidt, Schöttg., Carpz.), although the warning refers to the lapse from Christianity to Judaism. And God is here called ζῶν, living, not in contrast with dead works of law, Heb_6:1; Heb_9:14 (Bl.), and not in contrast with dead idols, as Act_14:15; 2Co_6:16; 1Th_1:9 (Böhme), but as He who works with living efficiency, Heb_9:14; Heb_12:22; who executes His threats, Heb_10:31; but chiefly who has appointed Christ as He did Moses, and thus accomplished the fulfilment of His promises. This latter point is overlooked by most interpreters, but is involved directly both in the fundamental conception of our Epistle, and in the immediate connection of the passage.
Heb_3:13. But exhort one another daily—sins.—With the warning stands connected a summons to παράκλησις, i.e., to language at once of consolation and of admonition, with which the hearers are to render daily aid to one another, so long as this period of gracious waiting shall continue. In classical, as well as in New Testament use (Col_3:16) ἑαυτούς, is frequently=ἀλλήλους. Individual self-exhortation cannot be expressed by παρακαλεῖτε ἑαυτούς, which would rather demand παρακαλείτω ἕκαστος ἑαυτόν. Τὸ σήμερον (to-day with the def. art.) cannot denote the life-time of individuals (Theodoret, Theoph., Primas., Erasm., Este, Dorsch, etc.), but must be identical with the day of the Psalm, and thus with the interval of grace extending to the second coming of the Messiah. We might also, in this sense, translate καλεῖται, is named, (Vulg., Est., Bl., Lün., etc.), but inasmuch as this is liable to the misconception: So long as we can yet speak of ‘to-day,’ the rendering is called=so long as the ‘to-day’ of the Psalm sounds in our ears (Calv., Thol., Böhm., Del., etc.), would seem to deserve the preference. The Aor. Pass. σκληρυνθῇ is not to be softened down; it contains a reminder of the divine judicial hardening of those who abuse the means of grace through the deceitfulness of sin. For this reason ἐξ ὑμῶν is designedly placed before τὶς, not as contrasting them with their fathers in the wilderness (Böhme, Bl.), which would almost necessarily require a καί, also, but to designate with emphasis the readers as those who are highly favored (Del.). Apostasy from Christianity is here designated as “sin,” absolutely; for the essence of sin is apostasy from God; but Christ is the Son of God, and has brought to its accomplishment the will of God on earth. The deceit, therefore, which now works upon the heart, is worse than the earlier, Gen_3:13.
Heb_3:14. For we have become joint partakers with Christ if we hold fast, etc.—As in the former chapter the author now again enforces the preceding exhortation by the greatness of the salvation which has been bestowed on us. The term γεγόναμεν, have become, reminds us that we do not possess this salvation by nature, and that consequently without the observance of the requisite condition, we are liable to have it withdrawn from us. This condition, again, introduced by the particle [not of mere condition εἰ with opt., but] of doubt, ἐάν, if, ἐάνπερ, precisely if, provided that (with Subj.) is presented not simply and objectively, as a mere condition, but as of questionable fulfilment, and hence enforces the need of self-examination, of watchfulness, and of fidelity. And for this reason μέτοχοι τοῦ χριστοῦ cannot mean participants of Christ, i.e., having part in His person; but only participants along with Christ, associates of, or joint partakers with Christ in the possessions and blessings of the kingdom of God. Riehm, overlooking this requirement of the context, prefers, with more recent scholars, the rendering participes, sharers in, instead of associates, or sharers with, as the more comprehensive and significant. He is right, indeed, as to the matter of fact, where he says (II. 719): “Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, enters into such intimate personal fellowship with the believer, that it can be said of the latter that he possesses Christ; and along with Christ Himself all that Christ has obtained has also become his own; as one who has part in Christ, he has also part with Christ in the heavenly glory and blessedness.” But the context demands the limitation above given. The term must imply partners or associates of Christ, yet without its being referred back, as by Schultz, to the term “brethren” of Christ (Heb_2:11); and the term μέτοχοι being narrowed down to ἀδελφοί. By ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑπστάσεως Erasm., Schultz, Stein, etc., understand the settled elementary principles or foundations of the Christian religion. Luther renders it “the commenced or inaugurated essence”—angefangene Wesen (as translation of substantia). Vatablus, Este, Bisping make it a periphrasis for faith, in so far as faith produces our subsistence in the spiritual life, or originates the subsistence of Christ within us. Instead of either of these meanings, the context points us to a meaning of ὑπόστασις familiar to the later Greek, viz., firm confidence, as the only one which meets its exigencies. For ὑπόστασις stands here in the same connection as ἐλπίς, hope, Heb_3:6, and in fact denotes this hope in its relation as daughter of faith, and by virtue of its relationship remaining amidst all assaults steadfastly and confidently directed toward the goal. As such it needs perpetual fostering and culture, in order that that beginning of the Christian career, which is wont to be characterized by joyfulness, energy and strength (1Ti_5:12; Rev_2:4), and which, in the case of the readers, has been so characterized (Heb_6:10; Heb_10:32; Heb_13:7), may have a corresponding end. The ἀρχὴ τῆς ὑποστάσεως is, therefore, a beginning, not in the sense of imperfection and weakness, which led Ebrard to find in the readers a set of catechumens and neophytes, but the opening or inauguration of the Church life in its full vitality and power (Camero, Grot., Böhme, Thol., etc.).
Heb_3:15. In its being said to-day if ye hear—harden not, etc.—The author resumes the citation, yet not for the purpose of expressing an admonition, thus making the citation proper extend only to “to-day” (v. Gerl.), or to “hear His voice” (Capell., Carpz., etc.), and the author resume his exhortation at “harden not,” etc., in the applied words of the Psalm, as the answering clause to ἐν τῷ λέγ. For this formula of introduction makes it necessary to take the following words as an entire citation. Nor may we again (with Beng., Michael., etc.), enclose Heb_3:14 in parenthesis. and connect ἐν τῷ λέγ. immediately with the requisition (παρακαλεῖτε, etc.), Heb_3:13; for the verse thus forms not merely an unnecessary and halting appendage, but unnaturally and absurdly summons the readers to mutual admonition by the previous utterance of the words of the Psalm. Nor may we (with Chrys., Grot., etc.), take Heb_3:16-19 parenthetically, and connect ἐν τῷ λέγ., with Heb_4:1; a construction forbidden alike by the subsequent course of thought, and the connecting particle οὖν. Nor may we attach Heb_3:15 directly to Heb_3:14; thus either assigning the mode of procedure by which steadfastness of faith is to be maintained (Vulg., Luth., Calv.), or the reason and necessity of maintaining it in order that we may be partakers with Christ (Ebr.). For ἐν τῷ λέγ. is not=διὸ γέγει, or οὕτως γὰρ εἴρηκεν. Better, therefore, to take the words in question as protasis, or conditioning clause to Heb_3:16, which latter verse is then to be taken as interrogative with an interposed γάρ=for, why, (according to genuine Greek usage) to which also the ἀλλά corresponds (Seml., and most recent interpreters). [This last construction is undoubtedly possible; and I believe it preferable to either of the others, except that which would connect it with Heb_4:1, as held by Chrys., Grotius and others. In this case, however, it is not a case of proper parenthesis, so that Heb_4:1 would stand in regular construction with Heb_3:15. Rather as the author was about to proceed to the train of thought, Heb_4:1, he was led, especially by the language of the quotation itself, to restate sharply and distinctly what had been previously but implied and hinted at, the actual crime and the actual punishment of the ancient Israelites, from which so weighty admonitions were drawn. He, therefore, abruptly breaks off in the middle of his sentence, to introduce in a series of sharp interrogations and, statements these ideas: which being accomplished, he returns,—with a natural change of construction, occasioned by the long interposed passage,—to the idea which at Heb_3:15, he had started to develope. This obviates entirely the objection drawn from the particle οὖν, Heb_4:1, and the otherwise anacoluthic character of the construction, and is, in my judgment, the only solution of the problem of Heb_3:15, that is not attended by nearly insuperable difficulties. The construction, therefore, which I prefer, is decidedly that of Chrys., in a somewhat modified form.—K.]. Of course τίνες must then be taken interrogatively; and the author’s purpose is either to repel the idea, that perhaps there were only a portion who were guilty of the provocation, to wit, the people who were at the time at Meribah and Massa (Böhme, Ebr.); in which case the author would reply that all Israel failed to enter into the Promised Land, for the reason that the whole people were guilty of the sin of unbelief and apostasy; or he designs to emphasize the fact that it was precisely Israel, the highly favored people, that had been conducted forth from Egypt to become God’s special possession, in whom all this had taken place (Del.). I see no reason for separating the two ideas. For while ἀκούσαντες points to the prerogative, which they enjoyed who heard the word of God, and the attendant obligation to obedience, the next and following interrogative sentence, ἀλλ’ οὐ πάντες, brings into closest connection (in πάντες) the universality of the sin, and in ἐξελθόντες, the preceding gracious experience and privilege: [while διὰ Μουσέως suggests here the same contrast between Moses, and his relation to the ancient Theocracy and Christ, as δι’ ἀγγέλων, Heb_1:2, between the angels and Christ.—K.].
Bisping remarks: “yet perchance not all?” but erroneously. For οὐ in interrogations=nonne, has always an affirmative force (Kühner, II., 579; Hart., Part., II., 88). The exceptional cases of Joshua, Caleb and those of tender age, are not of a nature to detract from the truth thus broadly stated, and to require that τίνες be taken, as it generally was before Bengel, indefinitely (τινές, some, instead of τίνες, who?) thus giving the rendering (Erasm., Luth., Eng. ver., etc.), “for some, when they heard committed provocation, but not all those who came out of Egypt by Moses.” How could the 600,000 whom Moses brought out of Egypt, be called τινές? The rendering of Bengel, Schultz, Kuinoel; “Nay, only they who,” etc. “It was merely they who,” [as if denying an assertion that certain men indeed provoked God, but it was not those who came out of Egypt, etc., to which the author replies, “Nay, they were all those=they were none but those] would require the article οἱ before πάντες, in order to give clearly a predicative character to οἱ ἐξελθόντες. [But this οἱ would scarcely mend the matter, and Bengel’s construction would then be little less harsh than it is now].
Heb_3:17. With whom was he angry—wilderness.—Most recent interpreters put the second interrogative mark, or still a third one, at the close of the period, after “wilderness,” to avoid the heavy and dragging effect of the last clause—if without an interrogation. But this construction overlooks the parallelism with Heb_3:18-19, which, in like manner, distribute themselves into three members. For the last clause of these latter verses is not a mere continuation of the facts previously stated; but it points to the fulfilment of the Divine oath, lying before our eyes, in the exclusion of the people from Canaan through unbelief. So also in Heb_3:17 the last clause, “whose carcasses,” points to the manifestation of the Divine wrath, in the fact that those who had fallen away from God, dying, as it were, gradually, during their bodily life, became walking corpses (Del.). Grotius says rightly ex historia cognoscimus, while Seb. Schmidt, followed by Bl., with most later interpreters, maintains; βλέπομεν, non de lectione aut cognitione historiæ, sed de convictione animi e disputatione, seu doctrina præmissa. [That is, Seb. Schmidt, Bl., etc., followed by Alford, regard Heb_3:19, “And we see that they could not,”etc., as an inference, the result of a chain of reasoning, of which, however, it is very difficult to trace any previous links; while Del. and Moll, following Grotius, make it the result stated as well known and clearly seen in the pages of the historical record, and thus brought up as a historical fact to enforce the positions of the author, and so the clause, “whose carcasses fell in the wilderness,” stands related to what precedes. It is the author’s statement, in Scripture language, of the results of the wrath of God.—K.]. The history of Israel is typical, and to this and to the state of things which follows from it, the author is referring (as shown immediately by the commencement of the following chapter), not drawing conclusions from previous premises.—Κῶλα, members, particularly hands and feet, is the term by which the LXX. render the Heb. פְּגָרִים in the sense of bodies or corpses.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. “Our being kept unto salvation, springs from the promised and vouchsafed power of God, yet only through faith, which does not waver or draw back (Heb_10:38-39; 1Pe_1:5): and thus the Apostle has in these words expressed in the most definite manner the theme of his exhortation. In his purpose to carry it out still further, he again lays hold, with the skilful hand of a master, upon the word of the early Scriptures, and says what he has to say to the brethren, the partakers of the heavenly calling, in the words of the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David. For the Epistle to the Hebrews is in so far analogous to the Revelation of John, as it brings into close union the two Testaments, and sets forth the profoundest and ultimate elements of New Testament truths, as a proper fulfilment of the types and preparatory institutions of the Old Testament, as the innermost sense and spirit of the ancient word, which was written beforehand wholly for the fulness of times” (Stier).
2. With the doctrine of predestination in all its forms, this section stands in decided antagonism; for the author speaks indeed of a hardening, which has for its result, the non-attainment of the promised rest; and in like manner of a Divine will and work which are herein accomplished. But this is by no means referred to any original wrath of God, or to His eternal counsel. Rather it is the deceitfulness of sin, by which the obduracy is produced, and against this is directed an earnest warning. The wrath of God appears as the holy fire of righteous indignation upon those who, in consequence of their evil heart of unbelief, have fallen away from the living God, and have provoked and tempted Him, before that He could prove Himself unfaithful, and fail of His own word. And it is unbelief that is emphatically declared to have been the cause of the hardening of the heart, and, as united with disobedience, to have been the ground of the destruction of those who fell in the wilderness. But that unbelief itself is not purposed or produced of God, and that the capacity to believe in the preached word is not refused by God to individual men, or taken from them previously to their own self-determination, is clear from the earnestness of the exhortation that each one should, during the gracious season of his pilgrimage, give heed to the preached word, and not allow himself to be hardened against it, but rather, by the influence of mutual admonitions within the Church, should incite himself to lay to heart the history of the Israelites, and to an unwavering maintenance of the confidence of faith. [That nothing is said here of the doctrine of predestination, proves nothing more against it than is proved by every passage of warning or exhortation in the New Testament. Few Calvinists believe that the doctrine of predestination is incompatible with the free agency and consequent accountability of man.—K.].
3. The hardening of the heart has its gradations of carnal security, which comforts itself with the outward possession of the means of grace, and from natural indifference and insensibility to the word, proceeds on through unbelieving disparagement, faithless neglect, and reckless transgression of the word, to rejection, contempt, and denial of it, and thence to a permanent embittering of the wicked heart; to a conscious stubbornness of the wicked will; to the bold tempting of the living God Himself, until, in complete obduracy, judicial retribution begins the fulfilment of its terrible work.
4. Unbelief is, in its inmost essence, faithlessness and apostasy, and hence always manifests itself as disobedience and corruption. In outward corruption the Divine judgment brings the inward depravity, the πονηρία, to light, and, at the same time, to its due reward. For God, in contrast with the faithless and apostate, remains true to Himself and His word, and as the living God carries His judgment through all resistance of the world and the devil, to victory; bringing His threats, as well as His promises, to gradual, but sure and unchecked accomplishment.
5. It is God’s, will indeed that all men be saved, and this will is potent and mighty; yet as a gracious will, it exercises no compulsion, while, as the will of the living God, it renders possible the fulfilment of the indispensable conditions of salvation; and, as the will of the Holy God, works not magically, but by the ordinary means of grace. The decision of our destiny is thus entrusted to our own will, since God has in a reliable way made known to us our destination to salvation, and provided and proffered the sure means for its attainment.
6. The duty of self-examination, and of the conscientious use of the means of grace, we must never lose sight of; since we have not as yet entered into rest, but are merely on the way to the goal. If our gracious fellowship with Christ is completely to triumph over our natural fellowship with our fathers, it must be nurtured and promoted in the way that God has ordained. Otherwise the end will not correspond with the beginning. For previous obedience excuses not subsequent apostasy, and a faith that has been abandoned does not justify at the Divine tribunal.
7. Since the gracious will of God aims at the salvation of men; while with some His judgments only produce obduracy, as the punishment of unbelief, and in consequence of this, exclusion from salvation; and since to every individual a period of grace is allotted whose limit is unknown, we must suppose that grace has, up to this point, applied in sufficient measure all its means, ways, and resources, and that God, by virtue of His omniscience, has determined this point of time in which the work of grace ceases. But with obdurate hardness, sin passes over into a permanent condition.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Our life is a pilgrimage, if: 1, our goal is entrance into the rest of God; 2, our companions the people of God; 3, our Leader the Spirit of God; 4, our rule the word of God; 5, our Helper the Son of God.—Believers have chiefly to guard themselves: 1, against false security in faith; 2, against arrogance and boasting of faith; 3, against wanderings and backsliding from faith.—How exceedingly important that the season of grace be not neglected: 1, we know not the moment at which our gracious reprieve is ended; 2, they who neglect, incur the sure wrath of God; 3, they who walk under the wrath of God do not come into the land of promise.—We must hearken to the voice of the Holy Spirit as it speaks to us: 1, in the Holy Scripture; 2, in our own conscience; 3, from the mouth of converted brethren.—He who does to-day what God demands, has best cared for to-morrow; and he who does this daily, in the to-day gains eternity.—In self-examination we have particularly to take heed to our heart: 1, whether it is an erring heart, or one steadfast in the faith; 2, whether it is an evil heart, or one converted to God; 3, whether it is a presumptuous heart, or one that is led in the discipline of the Holy Spirit.—Why deception through sin is the most dangerous: 1, because it most frequently occurs, and is most rarely corrected; 2, because it is most easily accomplished, and brings the heaviest losses—To sin all times and ways are alike, but grace has its ordained means, and its limited times; therefore be warned aright, and then in turn warn others.—How can any one be lost in the possession of the means of grace? 1, if he does not use the means of grace which are proffered to him; 2, if his use of the means of grace is in truth an abuse; 3, if he does not perseveringly continue the right use of the means of grace unto the end.—Let us practice the duty of mutual watching and exhortation: 1, on the basis of the word of God; 2, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; 3, as members of the people of God in a common lowliness; 4, from the hearty compassion of genuine brotherly love; 5, for mutual furtherance in faith and obedience toward the Lord our God.
Starke:—Let every one see to it that he rightly avail himself of to-day, i.e., of the present time; for this alone is ours, since the past is already gone, and the future is still uncertain. Besides, if the present is properly employed, it brings with it a blessing for the future (Gal_6:10; Isa_55:6).—The examples of the wicked stand in the Holy Scripture for our improvement (1Co_10:6). There is no better means to be employed against obduracy of heart, than that by frequent self-examination and befitting fidelity, we learn to obey the convictions that have been wrought within us; for thus conscience maintains its tender sensibility, and is preserved from all hardening, 2Co_13:5.—The more proofs and testimonies men have of the guidance and care of God, the heavier becomes the sin, if they will still neither believe nor hope, Mat_23:37-38.—God has come to the aid of human weakness, and uttered in His word many a declaration with the virtual confirmation of an oath, in that He swears by Himself and appeals to the inviolable truth of His being and life.—Divine threatenings are not an empty and dead sound, but have a mighty emphasis; they are fraught with God’s jealous zeal, and are finally put in force. Ah! that thou mightest be awakened by them to repentance! Jos_23:15; Zec_1:6.—Man departs from God, and becomes involved in spiritual death, when he begins to deny the truths which bring salvation (Act_13:46); or to live in conscious and deliberate sins, which are incompatible with union with God.—Oh! how necessary that the whole Christian body be aroused! but who thinks thereupon? We avoid speaking of spiritual things in our common intercourse; and this is a sure sign of a great backsliding.—Preachers cannot do every thing, and cannot be everywhere; therefore, the fathers of the household must be also bishops of the household; nay, one Christian must be bishop to another, and he has good authority and right to rebuke and correct in another what he sees worthy of reproof (1Th_5:11; Jam_5:19).—A man can easily be hardened if he does not take knowledge and care of himself, and take to heart the admonition of others.—Sin is a powerful and deceitful thing; powerful in evil desires, by which one is very easily swept away when he does not, with the grace of God, set himself against them; but deceitful when by the plausible assurance that a thing is right, allowable, and free from peril, it ensnares the man, seduces him into sin, and, unawares, gets the mastery of him. Ah! let every one be on his guard against it (Eph_4:22).—Christ, with all His attributes, offices, and possessions, belongs to us; for us was He born, for us He died, for us He arose, for us He lives, and for us He intercedes. Therefore, if we have Christ, we are wanting in no good whatsoever (Psa_34:11; Rom_8:32).—In Christianity two things are of preëminent importance—an upright character and a steadfast continuance in it. The one cannot and must not be without the other; for if we fail at the outset in uprightness of character, much more shall we fail in steadfastness. And if the latter is wanting, the beginning and the earlier progress will be in vain (Eze_33:12).—One day is like another; we may always fail and fall: therefore, to-day, to-morrow, and at all times there is need of watchfulness and caution (1Co_10:12).—God is inconceivably long-suffering, and waits long before He punishes; and meanwhile He is doing good to sinners, and always alluring them to repentance (Rom_2:4).—O! how many men fail to attain that natural limit of life which God has appointed! They cut it short to themselves by wilful sin, and it is shortened to them again by the Divine wrath (Pro_10:27).—Wilt thou charge unrighteousness upon God, that He lets good come to one and evil to another? Look, He is so righteous that He punishes none except him who is deserving of punishment (Job_34:11; Wis_12:15).—Unbelief is the source of all sin. From unbelief sprang murmuring and all disobedience, inasmuch as by this they denied the presence, omnipotence, wisdom, and grace of God.
Berlenburger Bible:—Since Christ is to rule in us as Lord in His house, we must accept the condition of hearing His voice and giving heed to it at every moment.—The people demand indeed, Christ, but when He comes without sufficient adornment and decoration, they reject Him, and are hardened.—All evil which befalls us springs from our giving no ear to the voice of God, just as our hearkening to it is followed by nothing but good.—The ways of God are entirely unknown and strange to the flesh; the heart of man always wanders about in other things; and thus, also, the dispensations of God are entirely contrary and repugnant to man’s self-will.—Tenderly as God loves a soul, He cannot treat with tenderness its corrupt disposition.—They are zealous for the Sabbath, and have no rest in their heart.—God commences His chastisement by depriving us of rest, in order that we may observe that we have lost something.—If we love others, we admonish them. Open your eyes and see!—Unbelief is a toilsome and an evil thing, which also allows no repose to others.—Now we still hear the call, “to-day;” but the gracious interval may soon close and end. Thus the boundary, with all its uncertainty, is to be kept before our eyes. But God creates this uncertainty, not in order to vex us, but in order to guard us against false security.—The present life is to be regarded merely as a day. Blessed is he who uses it for eternity!—God has appointed the period of life as the period of repentance; yet we may not say that the limit of grace reaches absolutely to the limit of nature.—Paul is obliged to give more space to warnings than to doctrines. Such admonitions are commonly disliked; one must, therefore, deal in them sparingly; yet they spring from an evangelical heart.—Whoever wilfully neglects salvation, who can help him?—In warning a person against the danger of being hardened, we do not deny his former possession of grace, but we remind him that he must not lose his previous grace.
Laurentius:—The ground of the admonition is twofold: 1, Christ’s superiority to Moses; 2, the appeal of the Holy Spirit.—The greater the grace of God, so much the greater frequently is the wickedness of men.—Believers also need to be admonished.—By the false pretexts of sin man is deceived, and by the deceitfulness of sin he is hardened.—By frequent admonition, much evil can be guarded against.—Faith can be again lost.—Not the beginning, but the end, receives the crown.—Unbelief is the capital sin, and is specially punished by God; the examples of punishments inflicted on others should serve as a warning to us.
Rambach:—The heart is hard even by nature, but God endeavors to soften it. If we oppose ourselves to Him, the hardness becomes obduracy.—Unbelief is the single and proper cause of damnation.—Sin has regard to the disposition. With the ungodly she uses force and not cunning, saying, Thou must do that. With believers whom she is unable to rule, she employs cunning and deception.
Steinhofer:—It is the office of the Holy Spirit to testify and to warn against the sin of unbelief, and this office He constantly exercises in the preached word.—What takes place in the case of souls that come into the state of grace, and what is required in order that we may remain in this condition.
Hahn:—What God has already done in us, gives us a new incentive to fidelity.—Though we ourselves find nothing in ourselves, we are still as yet not justified; but we must appeal to another that he should pronounce our justification.—We have before us a goal; therefore we should seek to preserve one another; one should kindle another’s zeal, not light the flame of his passion. Such are the obligations of Christian fellowship.
Rieger:—We meet, within the barriers of the race-course of faith, not only footsteps in which to follow, but also doubtful and dangerous deviations, and connected with these, warnings of the Holy Spirit.—Every one has his fixed barriers and ordained course of faith, from his first hearing of the voice of God even to the goal.—In regard to faith, and our participation in the heavenly calling, we must neither be timid and distrustful, nor again secure and heedless as if there were no danger.—The deceitfulness of sin need only to withdraw one to-day after another, from the attention of thy heart, in order to cheat thee unobserved of thy whole gracious season of many years.—In admonitions and appeals from the word of God, lies a drawing and a calling of God, which sin cannot so much destroy as our own purposes.
Von Gerlach:—As long as the Holy Spirit is still working on the heart, so long continues our respite of grace.
Heubner:—The continuous office of the Holy Spirit in the Church is, to lay Christ upon the heart, to urge us to faith, to rebuke unbelief.—Even in the Old Testament we perceive the voice of the Spirit.—The Spirit urges not irresistibly.—The guilt is man’s, the merit is God’s.—The foolishness of men is a perpetual provoking and tempting of God.—The “to-day” Isaiah 1. a word reminding us of the daily never-ceasing preaching of the Divine word; 2. a word that awakens to repentance; 3. a word of warning against delay; 4. a word of consolation, for where God still calls and still makes His voice heard, the period of grace has not as yet flown by.—Without rest, without repose, wanders round the disobedient son, who hears not the voice of his father.—The weary, wandering soul must strive after the rest of God.—Who trembles not at the words, “never to attain to the rest of God; forever to be banished from the realm of peace?”—If the ultimate issues of the wicked heart are so emphatically set before us in the case of others, this should make us all the more strict and rigorous towards ourselves.—To fall away from the living God, is to fall away from true life.—Had sin no deceitful form, she would not lead astray; let him who knows her, warn the in experienced; let all be indefatigable in exhorting and in hearing.—The grace obtained through Christ remains only to the steadfast believer; it becomes punishment to him who does not hold on to faith.
Stier:—Nothing is demanded of us previously to, or upon any other ground than, our having heard the word of God which brings us grace and salvation.—The successive stages of apostasy are always the same.
Ahlfeld:—To-day let the voice of God warn you against being hardened. We consider 1. the course by which obduracy proceeds onward to judgment; 2. the course by which grace breaks in pieces the hard heart.—Labor with earnestness against thine own hardening. The chief points of this labor are: 1. honest self-examination; 2. hearty, mutual, fraternal admonition; 3. diligence in looking back over the grace which we have received.
Von Bogatzky:—We must not only guard against rude blasphemers, and abominate them, but also take heed to our own heart, and see how this wanders, swerves, and becomes alienated from God.—Whoever holds a sin to be small and insignificant, is already deceived by sin, falls already into error, and, corrupted by his delight in error, is finally utterly hardened.—The commencement of upright and genuine faith brings us already to a complete union with Christ, and is a true foundation, receives Christ as a whole, and rests entirely in Christ as upon its reliable foundation.—Holding fast, we are to hold out unto the end.—Our heart is so unbelieving, that if we ten times experience the help of God, and find ourselves strengthened in faith, still when there comes a fresh emergency, trial and exercise of our faith, unbelief again immediately bestirs herself.—Our God is alone the living God; thus He will give us also life, and power, and full supplies, and will be Himself our life, our light and salvation, and the strength of our life. Thus we need not with our hearts turn with lustful desires to the needy creatures who assuredly without Him can give no life, no true joy and satisfaction, and thus also we need not fear, any creatures, not even the devil.—We have to pray for nothing but faith (although we have it already), in order that we may also maintain faith, and thus, believing unto the end, may save our souls.
Hedinger:—God’s wrath spares not the fathers, much less the children. Why? The latter should have made the conduct and fate of the former a mirror, in which they might behold and gaze upon their own.
[Owen:—The formal reason of all our obedience, consists in its relation to the voice, or authority of God.—We see many taking a great deal of pains in the performance of such duties as, being not appointed of God, are neither accepted with Him, nor will ever turn unto any good account unto their own souls.—Consideration and choice are a stable and permanent foundation of obedience.—Many previous sins make way for the great sin of finally rejecting the voice or word of God.—Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions.—Especial seasons of grace for obedience, are in an especial manner to be observed and improved.—It is a dangerous condition for children to boast of the privileges of their fathers, and to imitate their sins.—Take heed, gray hairs are sprinkled upon you, though you perceive it not. Death is at the door. Beware, lest your next provocation be your last.—When repentance upon convictions of provocations lessens or delays, it is a sad symptom of an approaching day, wherein iniquity will be completed.—Whithersoever sin can enter, punishment can follow.—Though vengeance seems to have a lame foot, yet it will hunt sin, until it overtake the sinner.—A careless profession will issue in apostasy, open or secret, or in great distress, Mat_13:5-6.—This privative unbelief is two-fold: 1. in refusing to believe, when it is required; 2. in rejecting the faith after it hath been received.—We have but a most uncertain season for the due performance of certain duties. How long it will be called today, we know not.—Union with Christ is the principle and measure of all spiritual enjoyments and expectations.—Therefore are the graces and works of believers excellent, because they are the graces and works of them that are united unto Christ.—Constancy and steadfastness in believing, is the great touch-stone, trial and evidence of union with Christ, or a participation of Him.—God sometimes will make men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, righteously exemplary in their punishment.—No unbeliever shall ever enter into the rest of God].
Footnotes:
[6]Heb_3:9.—For ἐπειρασαν με οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, ἐδοκίμασάν με, recent critics read after Sin. A. B. C. D.* E. M. Uff., 73, 137, Ital. Copt., ἐπείρασαν οἰ πατέρες ὐμῶν ἑν δοκιμασία. The lect. recept. is made up from the LXX. Cod. Alex. in which the first and the Vat. in which the second με is wanting.
[7]Heb_3:10.—For τῇ γενεᾷ έκείνη, we are to read with Sin. A. B. D. M., 6, 17, τῆ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ, [this, not that (ἐκείνη) the author, as supposed by many, changing the pronoun for the sake of a more direct application to his readers. This view, however, is rejected by Moll—K.].
[8]Heb_3:13.—Instead of τὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν, read with B. D. E. K. L., 46, 48, ἐξ ὑμῶν τις. Sin., however, has the former reading.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Exhortation from Psa 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose…
Exhortation from Psa 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose participation in the spiritual house. Seeing that we are the house of God if we hold fast our confidence . . . (Heb 3:6). Jesus is "faithful," be not ye unfaithful (Heb 3:2, Heb 3:12). The sentence beginning with "wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis confirming the argument from Psa 95:7-11, is completed at Heb 3:12, "Take heed," &c.
Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired Psalmist; so that the words of the latter are the words of God Himself.
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To-day--at length; in David's day, as contrasted with the days of Moses in the wilderness, and the whole time since then, during which they had been rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the wilderness (Heb 3:8). The Psalm, each fresh time when used in public worship, by "to-day," will mean the particular day when it was, or is, used.
hear--obediently.
his voice--of grace.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–9 a. Israel’s failure to attain God’s rest portrayed as…
a. Israel’s failure to attain God’s rest portrayed as warning, Heb_3:7-11.
7. Wherefore—In view of the fact that your forming a part of Christ’s eternal house depends on your hold fast.
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Holy Ghost saith—In Psa_95:7-11. Our author assumes that what the psalm says, the Holy Ghost saith; that is, the psalm is inspired.
As—The so corresponding to this as is implied at Heb_3:12, before. Take heed. The Holy Ghost in the ancient psalm utters all the reproofs of 7-11, so (Heb_3:12,) do you take heed. See our note on Heb_3:12. The warning to the old Mosaic era of the house (Heb_3:2) is still sounding from the Holy Ghost in your ears.
Today— Since you have been so little attentive in past days, let this be the day to hear his, God’s, voice.
2. Dread warnings against disobedience to the Son, like the Jews’ disobedience to Moses, Heb_3:7 to Heb_4:13.
As Christ stands parallel to Moses, so our Christian Hebrews stand parallel to ancient Israel, and so must take warning by Israel’s fatal example.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. Wherefore] The verb which depends on this conjunction…
7. Wherefore] The verb which depends on this conjunction is delayed by the quotation, but is practically found in Heb_3:12, “Take heed.” Christ was faithful: therefore take heed that ye be not unfaithful.
as the Holy Ghost saith] For this form of quotation see Mar_12:36; Act_1:16; 2Pe_1:21.
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To day if ye will hear his voice] Rather, “if ye hear,” or “shall have heard.” The quotation is from Psa_95:7-11, and the word means “Oh that ye would hear His voice!”; but the LXX. often renders the Hebrew im by “if.” The “to-day” is always the Scripture day of salvation, which is now, 2Co_6:2; Isa_55:6. “If any man hear my voice … I will come in to him,” Rev_3:20. The sense of the Imminent Presence of God which reigns throughout the prophecies of the O. T. as well as in the N. T. (Heb_10:37; Heb_1:2. Thess.; 1Pe_1:5, &c.) is beautifully illustrated in the Talmudic story of the Rabbi (Sanhedrin 98. 1) who went to the Messiah by direction of Elijah, and asked him when he would come; and He answered “to-day.” But before the Rabbi could return to Elijah the sun had set, and he asked “Has Messiah then deceived me?” “No,” answered Elijah; “he meant ‘Today if ye hear His voice.’ ”
7–19. A solemn warning against hardening the heart
[This constant interweaving of warning and exhortation with argument is characteristic of this Epistle. These passages (Heb_2:1-4, Heb_3:7-19, Heb_4:1-14, Heb_6:1-9, Heb_10:19-39) cannot, however, be called digressions, because they belong to the object which the writer had most distinctly in view—namely, to check a tendency to relapse from the Gospel into Judaism].
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 (7) Wherefore.—Since without steadfastness all will be lost. With…
(7) Wherefore.—Since without steadfastness all will be lost. With the words introducing the quotation compare Heb_9:8; Heb_10:15.
Whether the marks of parenthesis here introduced in our ordinary Bibles (not inserted by the translators of 1611) express the true connection of the verses is a question very hard to decide, and one that does not admit of full discussion here. It is very possible that the writer (like St. Paul in Rom_15:3; Rom_15:21; 1Co_1:31) may have merged his own exhortation in that which the quotation supplies (Heb_3:8); and the objection that Heb_3:12 would naturally in that case have been introduced by some connective word is shown to be groundless by such passages as Heb_8:13; Heb_10:23; Heb_12:7; Heb_12:25. On the other hand, if we connect “Wherefore,” in this verse, with “Take heed” in Heb_3:12, we have greater regularity of structure—a strong argument in this Epistle. It seems unlikely, moreover, that the writer (whose tenderness of tone and sympathy are so manifest in his words of warning) would at this stage adopt as his own the stringent and general exhortation, “harden not your hearts:” the spirit of Heb_3:12 (“lest haply there shall be in any one of you”) is altogether different. On the whole, therefore, it seems best to consider Heb_3:7 (“To-day . . .”) to Heb_3:11 (“. . . my rest”) as a pure quotation, enforcing the warning that follows.
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Psalms 95, the latter part of which (Heb_3:7-11) is here cited, is in the LXX. ascribed to David, but is probably of later date. (As to Heb_4:7, see the Note.) In most important respects the words of the quotation agree with the Greek version, and with the Hebrew text. The chief exceptions will be noted as they occur.
To day if ye will hear his voice.—Rather, To-day if ye shall hear (literally, shall have heard) His voice. The Greek will not allow the sense in which the words are naturally taken by the English reader, “if ye are willing to hear.” The meaning of the Hebrew words is either—(1) “To-day, oh that ye would hearken to (that is, obey) His voice!” or, (2) “To-day if ye hearken to His voice.” The “voice” is that which speaks in the following verses. As the words stand before us, the Psalmist does not formally complete the sentence here commenced (“if ye shall hear . . .”). He introduces the divine words of warning, but adds none in his own person. The entreaty “Harden not your hearts” is at once the utterance of the divine voice and the expression of his own urgent prayer. Other passages in which the hardening of the heart is spoken of as the work of man himself are Exo_9:34; 1Sa_6:6; Pro_28:14.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v7 Vers. 7-11. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today…
Vers. 7-11. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The warning, thus led up to, is now introduced by a long quotation from Ps 95, which is cited at length, because the writer is about to dwell on its whole significance in the remainder of this and also in the succeeding chapter. The warning is connected by dio with the conclusion of ver. 6. Since our continuing to be God"s house is on the condition of our steadfastness, therefore beware of failing, as the Israelites referred to by the psalmist did. With regard to the construction of the passage, there is some difficulty in discovering the apodosis to the initiatory kaywv (as saith the Holy Ghost"). It seems best to suppose one understood, being suggested by "harden not your hearts," which occurs m the midst of the quotation. Sentences thus grammatically incomplete are in the style of St. Paul. Otherwise the apodosis must be found in blepete (ver. 12), the long intervening passage being parenthetical. It is, after all, only a question of grammatical construction; in any case the general meaning is clear. As to the successive clauses of the quotation from Ps 95 (vers. 7-11), it is to be observed that
(1) "If ye will hear his voice" may probably mean in the Hebrew, "Oh that ye would hear his voice!" But the Greek of the LXX, cited in the Epistle, is capable of the same meaning. Here, again, the meaning of the particular phrase does not affect the drift of the passage.
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(2) "Harden not your hearts" expresses the abjuration which ensues from resistance of grace. Elsewhere such judicial hardening is attributed to God; as when he is said to have hardened Pharaoh"s heart. (cf. Isa_6:9 Mat_13:13) The two modes of expression involve no difference of doctrine. It is God"s doing as being judicial; man"s as being due to his own perversity. As in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness. Here kata thran , which is from the LXX, may mean at the time of", (cf. Act_16:25, kata to mesonuktion) or "according to," i.e. "after the manner of." The former agrees best with the Hebrew psalm, which has "As at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness," referring to the two places called by these names from what occurred there, when the people murmured for want of water. The first occurrence was at Rephidim, in the wilderness of Sin, at the commencement of the wandering; (Exo_17:1-8) the second was in the wilderness of Zin, near Kadesh, towards the end of the forty years. (Num_20:1-14) Both names are assigned to the former place in Exo_17:7; but elsewhere they are distinguished. (see Deu_33:8) In the text, following the LXX, equivalents of the Hebrew names are given, Massah being rendered literally by peirasmov : Meribah (equivalent to "strife") by the unusual word parapikrasmov , which occurs only here and in the psalm, though the verb parapikrainw is common in the LXX The root of the word being pikro ("bitter"), it may possibly have been suggested by the occurrence at Marah (equivalent to "bitterness"), where there was also a murmuring about water, (Exo_15:23) pikria being the LXX equivalent of Marah.
(3) When (ou in the sense of opou , as is common in the LXX and New Testament) your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. In place of the reading of the Textus Receptus, edokimasan me ("proved me"), which agrees with the LXX, the authority of manuscripts is in favor of en dokimasia . This again, like the ether variations of reading, is of no importance with regard to the meaning. But further, in the original Hebrew, and apparently in the LXX, "forty years" is connected with the clause that follows: "forty years long was I grieved," etc.; whereas, in the text, the interposition of dio at the beginning of ver. 10, necessitates its connection with "saw my works." It is possible that the writer of the Epistle intended a reference to the corresponding forty years from the manifestation of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, which were drawing to their close at the time of writing, and during which the Israelites of his day were trying God by their rejection of the gospel, or, in the case of some of the believers addressed, by their wavering allegiance to it. The supposition that this idea was in the writer"s mind is supported by the fact that Jewish writers refer to the psalm as assigning forty years for the days of the Messiah (see reference in Bleek, Delitzsch, Alford, etc.). That the writer had an intention in his variation from the original is the more likely from his following it correctly afterwards in ver. 17.
(4) As I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest. The reference here is to Num_14:21, etc., beginning with the Divine oath, "As truly as I live," which is again repeated in ver. 28. The occasion was not the murmuring either at Massah or at Meribah, but the general rebellion of the whole congregation after the return of the spies, betokening a universal spirit of apistia (cf. ver. 19). If they shall enter (ei eiseleusontai ) "is an elliptical form of oath, expressing strong negation.
Vers. 7-19. The comparison of Christ and Moses suggests the possibility of apostasy from Christ. As Christ and Moses occupied similar positions as leaders of the household of God, and Israel was faithless under the leadership of Moses, and came to ruin as the result, so it is possible that, under the leadership of Christ, there may be the same infidelity and the same bitter end.
I THE FEAR OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. This solemn exhortation is written to professing Christians; and such professors! (see Heb_10:32-34) Their piety was of such a nature that onlookers could not doubt it; yet, says the apostle, even these may apostatize. Members of the Church, this speaks to you. "Take heed." This possibility is enforced:
1. By Scripture warnings against the repetition of the wilderness-sin. For what means the quotation here from Ps 95, and the four-times repeated "today"? Not that the day of grace is short and may speedily terminate, but rather that it was possible for the men of the writer"s time to repeat the sin of their fathers in the wilderness. That sin was not confined to those who came out of Egypt; for, five hundred years afterwards, David said to Israel, "Today it may be true of you." So the writer here says, "Learn from your Scriptures that the guilt of your forefathers, the awful effects of which you know so well, may be repeated by other generations. Beware, therefore, lest it be repeated in you." We have the same reason for godly fear. What mean the parables of wheat and tares, and wise and foolish virgins; the declaration, "Many will say unto me in that day," etc.; the assurance that at the judgment many will be surprised to find themselves on the left hand of the Judge; and such passages as in this Epistle, (Heb_6:14) but that the wilderness-sin may be true of today"s Church?
2. By the subtlety of the sin of unbelief. "Take heed lest," etc.; "Lest any of you be hardened by the," etc.; as though this sin could grow upon the soul that is unaware of it. It is easy to mistake the nature of faith and the fruits of faith, and to have a spirit of unbelief, the one deadly sin, without knowing it.
3. By the fact that continuance is the test of true faith. "We are partakers of Christ if we hold our begun confidence," etc. Where vital faith exists it endures, the continued mediation of Christ for his people being the ground of this. But it is not uncommon for professors to think themselves to be Christians because of what they were. As long as there are members of the Church whose hope is of this character, the Church will have those in it who apostatize from the living God. "Lord, is it I?
II THE EVIL OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST.
1. To apostatize from Christ is to depart from the living God. (Ver. 12.) We cannot leave Jesus without losing God. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." To relinquish Christ is to be rejected of God. "He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him.
2. To apostatize from Christ reveals an extraordinary degree of inward evil. "An evil heart of unbelief." Is unbelief, then, so very evil? It is the relinquishing the Son of God; it is the making God a liar; it is (in the case of an apostate) the breaking away from Christ, not held fast even by the glory of the fuller vision.
3. To apostatize from Christ is to fail of the rest to which he leads. "For to whom sware he," etc. Rejection from Christ is the one deadly sin. "This is the condemnation;" "He that believeth not is," etc.; "And this is the condemnation, that light," etc. How much more so in the case of the apostate! "I saw," said Bunyan, "that from the very gate of heaven there was a path down to hell.
III THE PREVENTION OF APOSTASY FROM CHRIST. There is only one means cleave to Christ. Apostasy springs from unbelief; its antidote is faith. How can a persistent faith be maintained?
1. Faith depends greatly on the condition of the heart. "They do err in their heart;" the passage is full of that. Men do not, for the most part, leave Christ because of conscious hostility to him, or a desire to depart; it is rather because the lust of other things entering in blinds them to his beauty, and insensibly draws them from his service.
2. Faith must be shielded from outside influences which tend to weaken it. "Take heed." There are enemies to faith outside as well as in pleasures, companionships, literature.
3. Faith must be supplied with its natural food. "Exhort one another," etc. That is, present the truth. The food of faith is truth, and in order to produce or maintain faith we must present truth to the mind. Let Scripture be unstudied, and faith will die. C.N.
Vers. 7-11. There is an example here of the resources and adaptation of Old Testament Scripture to New Testament conditions. The sacred writer turns to the ninety-fifth psalm to give force to his remonstrances, and cautions against unbelief and disobedience. This part of the Psalter contains an impressive description of the conduct of the ancient tribes of Israel in their passage from Egypt to Canaan. There were two occasions on which the hardness of their hearts was specially and painfully manifest. The first of these was their unbelief at Rephidim, (Ex 17) when they murmured against God and against his servant Moses, and chode with the man of God respecting their want of water; and the place was called Massah ("temptation") and Meribah ("striving" or "contention"). A similar occurrence took place at Kadesh, when the people murmured again, and when supply of water was miraculously obtained; it was called "water of Meribah". (Num_21:13) These acts of unbelief sprang from hardness of heart, which the thought of the Divine deliverances wrought for them and the designs of love revealed to them failed to overcome. The goodness of God did not lead them to repentance, but after their hardness and impenitent heart they "treasured up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." They tempted God, and proved him to find whether he was able to do great things, and whether he was the supreme Ruler of them and all creatures. They found that he was of one mind, and none could turn him. "Harden not your hearts," was the counsel given by the psalmist; and by Isaiah, whose mission, through unbelief in the people of Judah, was a "savor of death unto death." The prophets, and Jesus Christ the great Prophet, repeated and urged the same counsel upon the attention of the Jewish people, and urged it in vain. Jehovah was grieved and vexed with the former generation; and the Image of the invisible God wept over Jerusalem, and said, "If thou hadst known... the things that make for thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." The punishment of the murmurers in the wilderness was that they should not enter into the rest of Canaan, which was designed for the obedient and those who should become a "kingdom of priests." There is probably a sacred meaning in the choice of the psalm, which specially refers to forty years, which length of time was nearly the period which elapsed from the crucifixion of our Lord to the predicted overthrow of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and cessation of sacrifices, and the captivity and dispersion of the people. Holding up the examples and punishment of unbelief before the eyes of Jewish believers, the Holy Spirit taught them to remember the severity of God, and to fear lest their apostasy from Christ should shut them out from the higher and more glorious rest of heaven. B.
Vers. 7-19. Beware of unbelief.
Eminent and honored though Moses had been, the generation of Hebrews whom he led out of Egypt became unbelieving and disobedient, and were in consequence overtaken by a dreadful doom. So the writer of this Epistle, realizing the strong temptations to relapse into Judaism which beset the Hebrew Christians, warns them against the still more dreadful consequences of apostasy from discipleship to Jesus Christ.
I A BESETTING SPIRITUAL DANGER. It is that of losing our participation m God"s house; or, more particularly, of
1. Present unbelief. (Ver. 12.) Unbelief is distrust of God, want of faith in the Divine promise and providence, and especially refusal personally to confide in the Lord Jesus as "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." Unbelief may either presume upon God"s mercy, or despair of it, or neglect it.
2. Growing hardness of heart. (Ver. 8.) "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;" and the heart also is the fountain of sin. Acts of refusal to listen to God"s voice petrify into habits, so that the heart becomes the longer the more careless impenitent, and disobedient.
3. Final apostasy. (Ver. 12.) As acts produce habits, so habits form character. A human heart indurated by unbelief, and confirmed in moral insensibility, will lapse either into atheism, or immorality, or settled worldliness; and, unless Divine grace interpose, will for over "fall away from the living God." This danger easily besets us all much more easily than many professing Christians suspect. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
II A STRIKING HISTORICAL WARNING. (Vers. 7-11.) This the apostle introduces in words borrowed from Psalm 95., which describe the career of the Israelites of Moses" day, in the wilderness. They had, as a people, been:
1. Highly privileged. (Ver. 9.) As the result of the ten plagues of Egypt, and by means of their magnificent march through the Red Sea, they had been emancipated from slavery. They "saw God"s works forty years," in the falling manna, in the water from the rock that followed them, in their raiment which did not wear out, and in the cloudy pillar which accompanied them on their journeys. Yet they were:
2. Habitually faithless. (Vers. 8, 9, 16.) They despised these abiding miracles, and demanded other signs as a condition of believing. They doubted and grumbled; they longed to return again to Egypt; they refused at God"s command to go up to take possession of Canaan; and at last they fell into the idolatries of the heathen around. Zin, Rephidim, Taberah, Kadesh-barnea, and Shittim are names which remind us how the ransomed Jews did "always err in their heart." They were obstinate and unanimous in their apostasy (vers. 16, 17). So they were:
3. Hopelessly doomed. (Vers. 11, 17-19.) The words of the psalm, "I sware in my wrath," reflect the intensity and depth of the Divine displeasure; and the language borrowed from the history, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness", (Num_14:29, Num_14:32) suggests the deep misery of the retribution which fell upon that entire generation. But a ruin still more fearful shall be the portion of all who refuse or despise the gospel spoken by our Lord Jesus, the "Apostle" greater than Moses.
III AN EARNEST PRACTICAL COUNSEL "Take heed, brethren" (ver. 12). This exhortation is, in fact, the key-note of the whole Epistle; it is the chord which rules the strain. While the grace of God does not allow any real Christian to backslide irretrievably, he preserves his people from apostasy by the use of means suited to their rational and moral nature. So, here, the Holy Spirit exhorts every individual believer (ver. 12) to "take heed." If we would not "fall away from the living God," we must:
1. "Hear his voice. " (Vers. 7, 15.) That voice speaks to us now in the sweet and glorious gospel, and tells us of far grander "works" than those
2. Which were wrought for ancient Israel. "God hath spoken unto us in his. (Heb_1:2) To obey his voice will at once soften and strengthen our hearts. It will make us large-hearted as well as tenderhearted.
3. Exhort one another. " (Ver. 13.) Christians are associated in Church fellowship that they may promote one another"s welfare. The Church is a spiritual mutual benefit society. Friendly counsel and admonition are a valuable safeguard against apostasy. Two considerations which should stimulate to this duty are mentioned:
1. the shortness of life;
2. the insidiousness of sin.
3. Continue firm unto the end. " (Ver. 14.) It is dangerous for a believer to rest satisfied with the consciousness of his original conversion; he ought to be constantly turning from sin to Christ. It is unwise for him to lay stress on past frames and feelings; he must cherish through life an always-fresh and. living "confidence" in the Savior a faith which more and. more certifies itself by the ripening "fruit of the Spirit." He must remain ever on his guard against unbelief. Only by persevering steadfastness will any one who has accepted the "heavenly calling" finally enter into the heavenly "rest.
Vers. 7, 8. On hearing God"s voice.
The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Introduction. The witness of the New Testament to the Divine inspiration of the Old. "The Holy Ghost saith". (Psa_95:7-11) We have in the text:
I A GREAT FACT IMPLIED. That God speaks to man. The "if" does not indicate uncertainty as to the Divine voice, but as to man"s attention to this voice. There is no question as to whether God will speak to man or not, but whether man will heed his communications. Notice:
1. The object for which God speaks to man. This object is that man may be saved. The Divine voice proclaims and proffers a "great salvation," and publishes redemptive truth to man.
2. The organs by which he speaks to man.
(1) By the sacred Scriptures, and especially in the life and teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ, as recorded therein. "God... hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son.
(2) By Christian ministries, especially the preaching of his gospel. "We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us,". (2Co_5:20)
(3) By the voice of our conscience. In its approbation of the right and its condemnation of the wrong, God speaks to us.
(4) By the events of his providence.
(5) By the influences of his holy Spirit. He speaks within the soul of man. He imparts emphasis and energy to the other voices by which God addresses us.
3. The frequency with which he speaks to man. Our text implies that he speaks to us daily. And surely by some one or more of these voices, every day he addresses to us some prohibition or persuasion, some caution or encouragement, some precept or promise, some invitation or warning. Were our susceptibility to Divine influences greater, we should ever hear the utterances of the Divine voice.
II A MOMENTOUS DUTY EXPRESSED. Our duty is to hear God"s voice. Consider:
1. The signification of hearing God"s voice. It is not mere hearing that is meant here, but earnest attention to God"s voice, hearty belief in his communications, and willing obedience to his commands.
2. The season for hearing God"s voice. Today; i.e. now.
(1) Because life is uncertain. "Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?" etc. (Jam_4:14)
(2) Because procrastination is perilous. The postponement of our duty today facilitates a further postponement of it tomorrow.
(3) Because it is a present duty, and to defer the performance of it is, therefore, sinful. We ought to attend to God"s voice now. The urgency of this duty is suggested in the text. In the psalm from which it is quoted, our text "is virtually the expression of a wish, "Today if ye will but hearken to his voice! or, "Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice!" The pathos and earnestness which the Holy Ghost puts into this wish suggests the deep importance of the duty; cf. Psa_81:13, "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me!" etc.
III A SOLEMN CAUTION GIVEN. "Harden not your hearts." The sapling is pliant; it may be bent and trained as to the direction and form of its growth. The full-grown tree is fixed in form, firm in texture, and unbending in its resistance; it is hardened. Men harden" their hearts by disregarding the voice of God, by not recognizing the authority of their consciences, by postponing the performance of religious duties, by neglecting the great salvation, and by practically despising or resisting the Holy Spirit of God. St. Paul speaks of men who were "alienated from the life of God, because of the hardening of their heart," and "who being past feeling" had abandoned themselves to persistent and active wickedness. For such moral insensibility what hope remains? "Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice! W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 As the Holy Ghost saith
Heb_3:7-8
As the Holy Ghost saith
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Scripture
1.
The authority of the Scripture is not of man, but of the Holy Ghost.
2. The Scriptures are no dumb letter, but the voice of the Holy Ghost, who by them speaketh.
3. The Holy Ghost is God, the Inspirer of the prophets that wrote the Scripture.
4. The Holy Ghost is a distinct person of the Godhead from the Father and the Son, exercising the proper actions of a person inspiring the prophets, inditing the Scriptures, and speaking to the Church. (D. Dickson, M. A.)
To day, if ye will hear His voice. -
The voice of Jesus
are the voices audible to man throughout this terrestrial sphere. As he journeys on the pathway of life, they salute his ears at every step. In the busy city, the secluded hamlet, the open field; in the arid desert, and on glassy ocean, their words are heard. These voices are vastly dissimilar in their utterances and in their tones, and are fraught with momentous consequences to man. There is creations voice, and they who lend an attentive ear will find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in tones, and good in every thing. Then there is the voice of conscience, which proclaims sin and guilt, warns of misdoing, and harasses with fears. Then there are a multitude of human voices which make glad the heart. The voice of a mother, resonant with ineffable tenderness. The voice of friendship, how it brightens the eye, awakens sympathy, cheers in the hour of adversity. How welcome the voice of mercy, as it announces pardon to the transgressor, or utters a gracious reprieve to the condemned. Then there are other voices, the object of whose utterance is to lure man from the path of virtue, degrade, and destroy. But amid these multifarious voices, the one referred to in our text ever sounds distinct. Like sweetest music it falls upon the ear of the soul, and, when listened to, makes melody in the heart. It is the voice of Divine love, compared with which human affection sinks into insignificance. It sounds in the ear of the sinner and tells of liberty, comfort, strength. Sometimes this voice is preceded by manifestations of Almighty power such as occurred to Elijah on Horebs mount. The destructive wind of adversity may break in pieces the mountain of earthly prospects; the fire of personal afflictions may threaten to consume our bodies; and then follows the still, small voice, proclaiming the illusive character of the fleeting things of time. This voice is constantly asking admission to the human heart Rev_3:20). The saints of old heard it, and were filled with joy; the disciples, journeying, heard it, and their hearts burned within them. Saul of Tarsus heard it, and it crushed out all his pride, laid him low in the dust, subdued his rebellious spirit, and evoked the prayer--Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? But how many close their ears to that voice, and turn away from the loving Saviour t The hue of health flushes the cheek, vigorous physical life is theirs, easy circumstances surround them, and all will be well. The period when we are to hear that voice is to-day; now is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation. By to-morrow the pulse may cease its beating. To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. He asks your attention, your heart, your soul, your all; but He uses no compulsion. If ye will hear! (R. Kingshott.)
An admonitory address
I. THE GREATNESS OF THE SPEAKER.
1. He who addresses you is Christ the Redeemer. This calls for serious consideration.
2. It is He who has witnessed all your past life and behaviour.
3. It is He who will judge you at last, as having a perfect knowledge of your whole life.
4. His judgment is upright. Then there will be no mercy, but all will be judgment.
II. THE THINGS WHICH CHRIST SAYS.
1. He says that your time is gone! This is a serious address.
2. He says that eternity is at hand!--a long, a never-ending eternity!
3. Christ farther says, What have you done with your privileges, and how have you improved the means of grace in past time?
4. Christ still farther says, When will you be ready, and what would make you ready to enter into glory?
III. THE TIME SET FOR YOUR HEARING THESE THINGS is mentioned in our text as being today--not to-morrow.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF ATTENDING TO OR NEGLECTING THESE THINGS. If repentance be obtained, heaven will be your everlasting happy home. If sin continues, hell will be your doom. (James Kidd, D. D.)
A dissuasive from procrastination
I. There is a voice which may, with emphatic propriety, be termed THE VOICE OF GOD.
1. the providences of God, particularly those of an afflictive nature.
2. The sacred Word--both law and gospel.
II. THE VOICE OF GOD DEMANDS OUR SERIOUS ATTENTION,
1. Should a servant decline the reasonable commands of his master--a son, the gentle authority of his father--or a subject turn his back upon his prince, who might condescend to address him?
2. The nature of the subject upon which He deigns to address us is another reason for our attention to His voice. He calls us to no hard service. He invites us to approach that we may receive those blessings which constitute the happiness of man.
III. YOUR ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF GOD SHOULD BE WITHOUT DELAY.
IV. IF WE WOULD LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF GOD WE SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS NOT TO ADOPT A CONDUCT WHICH WILL PREVENT OUR ATTENTION TO ITS ADMONITIONS.
1. Yon must avoid that state of insensibility into which so many nominal Christians have fallen.
2. It will be of equal importance that you also studiously avoid the inordinate cares of life, which first this obstruct and then close up the avenues to the soul, and so produce a fatal insensibility.
3. Moreover, it will be of vast consequence that you avoid temptation; for the mind is rendered insensible in proportion as it becomes familiar with sin.
4. Finally, beware of the whirlpool of scepticism--the dangerous shoals and fatal rocks of infidelity. (S. Lowell.)
Peril of delaying repentance
Not to listen to Gods voice (evil and perilous though it be) is a far lesser evil than to will not to listen to it. Men fail to listen through the impulse of passion; they will not to listen through deliberate choice. A single sin, grave though it be, is of human infirmity; to defer repentance, when called, is deliberately to reject God.
1. He does not promise you time. One time is ours, now. The past is gone; the future is not yet. One time we ever have, a time fleeting by, an ever-passing present. God renews to us this present again and again, in every moment of our being. You can attend, or pray, or resolve at this moment. When the next is come, you may, if Gods grace continues, do the same. But you cannot efface what you have done; you cannot replace what you have left undone. But there will be a morrow which will have no to-morrow except eternity. God has promised pardon to the penitent, but where has He promised a morrow to the procrastinator?
2. He has not promised thee grace. He gives His grace at all times freely. We have no claim upon it; else it were not grace, but debt. He gives it overflowing, without, beyond, against our deserts. But He gives it with wisdom also. He gives it although it is abused; but He does not give it in order that it should be abused, or to encourage mans abuse of it. But it would be to encourage mans abuse of it, to store it up for those who not only again and again refuse it, but who refuse it now because they may have it hereafter (Rom_2:4-5). What is it but to make the mercy of God the occasion of sin, to sin on now, because God is so good, that thou thinkest that He will give thee grace to repent hereafter? And when wishest thou that He should give thee grace to amend? Next year? or the next? or the next? No! In none of these, if thou art even thus far honest with thyself, dost thou wish to amend. No, not yet. How is this? Because thou knowest full well, that even in these six years, thy passions will not be exhausted, thy desires will not be weakened; the wants which thou suppliest unlawfully will still be craving; the evil habits which thou nurturest will be even strengthened; the embers of thy earthly fires will not have died out. When, then, God may ask, wilt thou choose Me? Alas, if thou speakest truly, thou wilt say, When I have nothing else to prefer to Thee. God is nothing to thee. Thou wantest, willest, wishest nothing of God, but to escape Him. It is not God thou choosest, but thyself still. One thing alone thou really choosest, impunity in sin. Those who picture to themselves future repentance, picture to themselves at best only the exchange of pleasure for pleasure, unlawful pleasure, it may be, for lawful; but mostly they picture to themselves a time when they shall be worn out to the world and the world to them, in sickness or death. Then they would give up what they cannot keep; they would part with what has parted with them; and they would receive in exchange--not God whom they know not, but--in some way, they know not how, escape from hell.
3. But wilt thou then have the will to repent? Judge of the future from the past. Think of the time when thou wert just hesitating on the borders of sin, when it first looked pleasant to thee, when first thou was tempted to some slight forbidden gain to take some little thing that was not thine, to give way to some childish or youthful vanity, to taste some slight forbidden pleasure. If thou hast not repented yet, hast thou more or less mastery over thyself now than then? Is it easier to thee to abstain from greater sin now than from lesser sin then? Too surely, thy bands have been bound faster around thee; thy desires have become stronger; thy will weaker. People sin, out of the very habit of sinning. Sin wears out the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength; not itself. It lives on upon the life of soul and body. It lives upon their destruction; but itself thrives and is vigorous in their decay. You have seen the fungous, unsubstantial, putrid, stinking, disgusting, poisonous, fed from the yet living tree. You know it to be the token of decaying life on which it feeds. Such is sin. Its seat is in the will. It corrupts the will. The corrupted will anticipates the sin in act; it survives the power to enact. Avarice, falsehood, hatred, censoriousness, vanity, hypocrisy, love of ill-gotten goods, impurity, will live on in the aged sinners soul; they will accompany him to the last; they will pass out of this world with him and in him; but whither will they accompany him? Will they escort him, as an angel-train, guarding him from the evil spirits, who wait for the departure of the disembodied soul, to seize on their lawful prey? Will they carry him to Abrahams bosom, into the realms of peace and truth and love, where nothing defile, I shall enter? Will they present him before the judgment-seat of Christ, who bids us to love one another as He has loved us, to purify ourselves as He is pure, to deny ourselves as He denied Himself and emptied Himself of His glory that He might take our shame, and thereby bring us to partake of His glory and His love? (E. B.Pusey, D. D.)
Taking the first opportunity of grace
1. It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do (Philippians if. 13). And no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him (Joh_6:44). Is it not then a point of wisdom to yield when God draws?
2. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth; therefore put not off the grace that is offered thee to-day. Boast not thyself of to-morrow Pro_27:1).
3. By putting off an opportunity men make themselves more unfit for another opportunity; for sin, the longer it groweth the stronger it groweth, and the heart useth to be more hardened by putting off means of softening. As they who had received grace were exhorted to persevere therein, put not off to-day, much less let childhood put off to youth, or youth to man-age, or man-age to old-age, or old-age to death-bed. (W. George.)
The offer of salvation
1. That while men have the offer of salvation and the word preached unto them, it is their day.
2. That by the outward hearing, God requireth the heart to be brought down and mollified.
3. That He requireth present yielding, to-day, while he calleth, without delay, because we cannot be sure how long God will spare or continue his offer beyond this present.
4. He that studieth not to yield his heart to believe and obey Gods word, sounding in his cars, hardeneth his heart. For what is it else not to harden their heart, but heartily to believe and give obedience? (D. Dickson, M. A.)
Religion to-day
I. THE VOICE THAT SPEAKS. To-day if ye will hear His voice: whose voice? The voice of God. It is the Holy Ghost that speaks, the source of all inspiration; so that all Scripture may be regarded as His voice. And if it he the voice of God, does it not demand your deep attention, your prompt obedience? Shall God speak, and man refuse to hear? Nor does He speak to you in vengeance, but in love. He does not make His appeal to-day to the sword of justice, but He makes His appeal to the blood of His Cross. And oh 1 can there be any subject more momentous--involving, as it does, your highest interests for time and for eternity? To-day if ye will hear His voice. But how does He speak? Most impressively, most earnestly: by His Word, by His Gospel, by His providence, by your teas, in, by your conscience. But what does He say? There are two subjects, on which He addresses you: your own condition as a sinner in His sight--your guilt, pollution, and depravity; and the rich provision of His mercy in the mediatorial character and work of His beloved Son.
II. THE PROMPT AND IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IT DEMANDS. To-day if ye will hear His voice. Why to-day? Because to-day all is ready. The great salvation is ready; the way of access to the throne is ready; the great Intercessor there is ready; the angels that hover over this assembly are ready; and the Church on earth is ready, to bid you welcome to its communion, Why to-day? why to-day? Because you will never have a more suitable season than to-day. Be assured, that the longer you delay, the more deep and firm will be the hold which the world will get of your heart; the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, like the thorns in the parable, will have grown up to choke every good resolution. Why to-day? why to-day? Because you have delayed long enough. Ah! too long--too long. You should have heard His voice long ago; you should have heard His voice in the days of your youth; you should have heard His voice in early childhood. You should have heard His voice the first time He spoke to you. You should have heard His voice in the advantages which you enjoyed; in parental instruction--in the Sabbath School-under a faithful ministry. Why to-day? why to.day? Because you may not see to-morrow. Amid the stillness of this night, death may enter in at your window. Or to-morrow may come, and this voice not speak to you to-morrow. Or if the voice speak to you to-morrow, you may not be in circumstances to profit by it. Now, it convinces of sin; to-morrow it may not convince. Now, conscience speaks; but to-morrow conscience may be seared.
III. THE SOLEMN WARNING, the admonition, the remonstrance, by which a prompt and immediate attention to the voice that speaks to you is enforced. To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
1. Harden not your heart with infidel objections. Do not say--The Scripture is not true. Have you proved it? Can you stake eternity upon it? You know you cannot!
2. Do not harden your heart by saying you cannot believe. You will not. It is not for want of evidence, but for want of inclination.
3. Do not say, I am not responsible for my belief. Iris false. You are responsible for your belief; the great God holds you responsible for your belief; and so far from your not being responsible for your belief, your destiny will turn upon it. It is upon that very thing it will hinge. He that believeth, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned.
4. Harden not your heart. Oh! think of the consequences if you do. The result is inevitable; the consequence is infallible. He will turn upon you in indignation, who now bends to you in condescension and love. The cup of salvation is handed round amongst you; dash it not untasted from your lips. The sceptre of His grace is stretched out to you; touch it and live. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
Instant consideration of religion recommended
I. THE EXCELLENCE OF RELIGION, AND YOUR INTEREST IN THE PRACTICE OF IT. Both these are indisputable. What do you set your thoughts on, when you take the affairs of religion under your consideration? Is it not the glory of God, and your own salvation from sin and wrath? Now what is so excellent in itself, so honourable, so suitable to the capacities of thinking beings, as these pursuits which form the nature of practical religion?
II. THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE, AND TILE DANGER OF DYING UNPREPARED FOR ETERNITY. What is human life? A vapour, appearing a little while, and then vanishing.
III. THE IMMUTABILITY OF GODS PRESENT DEMANDS. Whatever He requires of you now, He will require twenty or thirty years hence, should you live so long. The method of pardon is already fixed. The Unchangeable will never alter it. And if He will not, men cannot. If you dislike at present humiliation; if you feel now an aversion at a dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for justification; if the duties of holiness seem hard and disagreeable at this instant, they will for ever be so, in relation to depraved dispositions.
IV. THE LONGER IT IS DELAYED, YOUR AVERSION AND INABILITY TO IT WILL INCREASE. Was your life threatened with some distemper, how would you reason, and how would you act? Would you say, I will stay till I be a little worse, and then I will apply to a physician? Would it not be reckoned madness to sport in this manner with life and health?
V. THE NECESSITY OF AN OPERATION OF DIVINE GRACE ON YOUR SOULS. God is now striving with you. But what if these are the last touches He will ever give a heart so long hardened against Him? (Alex. Shanks.)
The solemn caution
I. THE VOICE REFERRED TO.
1. It is the voice of mercy.
2. It is the voice of Divine authority.
3. It is the only voice directly connected with the sinners salvation.
4. This voice addresses us through various mediums of communication.
II. THE ATTENTION DEMANDED.
1. That we hear so as to understand it.
2. That we hear so as to believe it.
3. That we hear so as to obey it.
III. THE SPECIFIED PERIOD FOR HEARING CHRISTS VOICE,
1. Short.
2. Uncertain.
3. Succeeded by the darkness of the grave.
IV. THE IMPORTANT CAUTION ANNEXED. Harden not your hearts
1. By inattention to the concerns of the soul.
2. By pursuing the works of darkness.
3. By yielding to the influences of unbelief.
4. By a sordid attachment to the present world. Application.
(1) You are all responsible, for the voice of Christ has repeatedly sounded in your ears.
(2) You have all your day--a period given for the improvement of your privileges and mercies.
(3) How necessary, then, to hear His voice! How important that you harden not your hearts!
(4) Let our influence be laid out in bringing the ignorant and perishing of our race to hear the joyful sound, that they may not perish for lack of knowledge!
(5) Let us be watching and preparing for the second advent of the Saviour, when they that are in their graves shall hear His voice and live. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Sinners entreated to hear Gods voice
1. The first motive which I shall set before you with this view, is the shortness and uncertainty of life. I urge you to become religious to-day, because you are not sure of to-morrow. Need I tell you, that you are frail as well as mortal; that you must not only die, but may die soon and suddenly? Who, let me ask, are the persons that die suddenly and unexpectedly? Are they the feeble, the infirm? No, observation will tell you, that they are the youthful, the vigorous, the strong. She will tell you that while the former, like a reed, bend before the blast and escape, the latter, like the stubborn oak, brave its fury, and are prostrated.
2. This remark suggests a second reason, why you should not postpone religion to another day. You cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. Now to-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day, then, is the only time which you can properly or lawfully give to God.
3. A third reason why you should commence a religious life to-day, is, that if you defer it, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands you to commence immediately a religious life. Now if you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. Here then is a direct, wilful act of disobedience to Gods commands; and this act tends most powerfully to harden the heart; for after we have once disobeyed, it becomes more easy to repeat the disobedience. But this is not all. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one. If none can readily be found, you will invent one. This also tends most powerfully to harden the heart. A man who is frequently employed in seeking arguments and excuses to justify his neglect of religion, soon becomes expert in the work of self-justification. He is, if I may so express it, armed at all points against the truth; so that in a little time nothing affects him, no arrow from the quiver of revelation can reach his conscience. But if, as is sometimes the case, his excuses prove insufficient, and his understanding and conscience become convinced, he can avoid compliance only by taking refuge in an obstinate refusal, or by resolutely diverting his attention to some other object, till Gods commands are forgotten, or by a vague kind of promise that he will become religious at some future period. Whichsoever of these methods he adopts, the present impression is effaced, and his heart is hardened. He has resisted the force of truth, and thus rendered it more easy for him to resist it again. In a word, he has less religious sensibility; he has become more inaccessible to conviction, and less disposed to yield to it, than before. Now this is precisely what the Scriptures mean by hardening the heart to-day. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The Holy Ghost saith to-day
It is the mistake and ruin of many, both young and old, that they believe and obey Satan rather than God. The one motto is to-day! the other is to-morrow!
I. A CREST SPEAKER. Much depends, for the way in which we regard and treat what is said, on the person who says it. In connection with the Holy Ghost being the speaker here I have three remarks to make. In regard to what is said, you may be sure that.
1. It is important--for the Holy Ghost saith it. Much importance is attached to what great men say. A mans position gives importance to what he says--a king, for instance, or a statesman, or a master, or a judge. How much more important is the word of the Holy Ghost, whether it be in the way of warning, or encouragement, or command, or reproof! When He comes to you, you may be sure it is some momentous errand that has brought Him; and while all Scripture is His Word, such a saying as that in our text is His, in a special sense, and is of peculiar significance. And as, when a king speaks, every voice is hushed, so when the Holy Spirit speaks, there may well be the deepest interest, attention, and reverence. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.
2. It is true--for the Holy Ghost saith it. Sometimes the word of the wisest and greatest is not to be trusted, and even the truest and best may mistake. Here is One who never deceived, never mistook, never was untrue, whose word never was broken--the Holy Ghost. He is the Spirit of truth. His is the Scripture which cannot be broken.
3. It is kind--for the Holy Ghost saith it. He is the Spirit of Love as well as of Truth. With what a gentle voice He speaks. I dare say you have seen people in anxiety about their souls. Their happiness was gone. And in regard to all this, you have heard it said that it was the Holy Spirits doing; and you have thought hardly of Him in consequence. And yet never was He more kind than when He did this very thing. When He awakens and alarms, it is to warn of coming danger, and lead to flight and safety. Will you not listen to Him as a loving Friend?
II. A MOMENTOUS WORD.
To-day! This is what the Holy Ghost says. It is a little word, but it has a world of meaning in it. It may be said to be at once a warning and an invitation.
1. It sets before us the time for repenting. Sin is rebellion against God, and each new sin is another act of rebellion still further endangering the rebels head. What is to be done? The sin must have an immediate arrest laid upon it--must be forsaken. Here is a boy who has begun to be in earnest about his soul. He knows he is lost. He would like to be saved. But he would like to keep his sins too, at least for a while. He is just like that lad, who, while working among the waggons on a railway, has had his leg so bruised and crushed that there is nothing for it but to have the limb taken off. But he cannot make up his mind to part with it. Day after day he asks to have the operation deferred, each day thinking it will not be so difficult the next; though his whole experience has proved that it would have been easier at first, and that the longer the delay, the more difficult it will always become. At length the surgeon, if he is wise and kind, will break in on this state of things, and say, We cannot tamper with a matter of this kind any longer. It is as much as your life is worth, to put off another day. The choice lies between your limb and your life; which are you prepared to lose? Whatever is to be done, must be done at once. It must be now or never. And even so it must be with sin, with the evil habit, the forbidden indulgence--it must go at once. I know how difficult it is. It is compared to cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. Ill repent one of these days. Ill repent to-morrow. And thus it goes on from day to day, till at length the Holy Ghost breaks in with His great word, and says, To-day! There must be no more putting off. You have lost too much time already. It is as much as your soul is worth to wait longer. Or is there a girl who has got a sense of her sin, but fears she is too far gone to be saved. She has put off so long, that she believes she is now past hope. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. She is like to give way to utter despair. Nay, but the Holy Ghost saith, To-day! It is not too late yet. It may be too late to-morrow.
2. It sets before us the time for believing. But here, too, what delay! Here is one trying to make himself better first. He says he is not fit to come to Jesus as he is. His heart is too hard: his sin is too great. He is like that diseased boy who can hardly walk, and yet refuses to see the doctor, or to knock at the infirmary door, because he is too ill, or does not yet sufficiently feel his need of help. He hopes to go by and by. He might not be received as he is. His case is too desperate. He must try to improve himself a little first. He does not see that the worse he is, the greater is the necessity for getting help at once. And when the Holy Ghost saith To-day, it is as if He said, Now is the time to flee to Jesus, whatever you may be. Now is the time to come to Him, all as you are. What a happy day it would be if we heard some of you saying, Lord we take Thee at Thy word to-day I we come to Thee to-day!
3. It sets before us the time for working. It is good for ourselves to work. Idleness of every kind is evil,--unhealthy for the body, for the spirits, for the soul. And so, Christian workers get personal benefit from their work. We need to be doing some work for Christ and for others, to keep our own souls healthy and lively and right. It is good for others. There are few for whom the youngest of us could not do something. It is pleasing and honouring to God. God likes to see His people working. It is one proof of their love to Himself. But where is all this to be done? Here on earth. And by whom? Not only by the old, but by the young also. And when? Now. Perhaps some of you are purposing to be workers when you are grown up. You think of doing nothing meanwhile. But the Holy Ghost saith, To-day;--not when you are older, but now while you are yet young. The kind of work which the Lord now asks of you can only be done here--not in heaven. Can you think of so many perishing all around you, without your doing anything for them? Can you do or give nothing for the heathen now? And so it is as regards giving for Christ. I fear we are far behind in this respect. What a sad thought it will be, I might have done something for Christ, if I had only began in time!
4. It sets before us the best time for repenting, for believing, for working--to-day. Not when you are older, not when you are better qualified,but just now, immediately--to-day. You must have noticed the tide gradually coming in till the shore was covered; and when it was at its full, how eager the fishermen were to get their boats afloat; and how easy it was then as compared with what it was when the tide was back. The tide may be said to he in with you now: it is full tide; it is the time for getting your own boat afloat, and helping others with theirs: and for your encouragement, and for your warning, ere it go back, the Holy Ghost saith, To-day!
5. It sets forth the time for repenting, for believing, for working, as very short: a day--this day--to-day. You say you must enjoy yourselves, and see what the world can do for you. Or you must learn your business first. Nay; but here again, the Holy Ghost saith, Today! It is slipping past, and will soon be over.
6. It sets forth what may be the only time for repenting, for believing, for working. Oh that thou hadst heard, even thou, in this thy day! As if every one had his day--and when that is lost, it is lost for ever. Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. This may be the only to-day we shall ever see.
III. THE LESSON.
1. Value to-day. Regard it and treat it as you do other precious things. We may well say what a daughter told me she heard her dying mother, a Christian woman, saying a few days ago. It was Sabbath morning, and when the early sunshine lighted up her room, after a long night of restlessness and suffering, she was overheard saying, Dear day! Oh yes, it should be a dear day to us all, for it is the day of grace, the day of salvation.
2. Improve to-day. Make hay when the sun shines. If the day is so precious and so short, then surely we should make the very most of it. Do not waste it. Lay it out as a steward of God.
3. Remember that the night cometh.--Every day has its night, and so has this one. Whether you are improving it or not, it is going away, and the night will soon be on. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.)
The entreaty of the Holy Ghost
I. THE SPECIAL VOICE OF THE HOLY GHOST.
1. How does the Holy Ghost thus speak?
(1) He saith this first, in the Scriptures. Every command of Scripture calls for immediate obedience.
(2) Further, while the Holy Ghost speaks in Scripture on this wise, He speaks in the same manner in the hearts of His people, for he is a living and active agent.
(3) The like is also true when the Holy Ghost speaks in the awakened.
(4) Once more, the Holy Ghost speaks thus by His deeds as well as by His words. We have a common proverb that actions speak more loudly than words. Now the acts of the Holy Spirit in the leading of many to the Saviour are so many practical invitations, encouragements, and commands to others.
2. But why so urgent, blessed Spirit, why so urgent? It is because the Holy Ghost is in sympathy with God; in sympathy with the Father who longs to press the prodigal to his bosom; in sympathy with the Son who is watching to see of the travail of His soul.
II. A SPECIAL DUTY. Hear His voice--that is, hear it obediently, eager to do what he bids you, as he enables you. Do not hear and forget. Retain the truth in your memories, and, better still, practise it in your lives.
1. Hear ye the Lord when He instructs you. How often are mens ears stopped up with the wax of prejudice, so that they are dull of hearing. They have made up their minds as to what the gospel ought to be, and will not hear what it is.
2. But the Lord does more than instruct you, He commands; for let men say what they will, the Gospel to be preached to the ungodly is not merely warnings and teachings, it has its solemn, positive commands.
3. But the Lord does more than command, He graciously invites; with tenderness He bids sinners to His banquet of mercy. Shall His love be slighted, and His bounty treated with scorn?
4. But the Lord does more than invite, He adds His promises. Oh do not count yourselves unworthy of them.
5. The Lord also threatens, as well as entreats. He declares that the despisers shall wonder and perish. If Christ be rejected, eternal wrath is certain.
III. A SPECIAL TIME EMPHASISED.
1. To-day, that is while God speaks. Oh, if we were as we should be, the moment God said Seek ye My face, we should reply, Thy face, Lord, will I seek: as soon as the invitations of mercy were heard there would be an echo in our souls to them. Hear God to-day, for to-day He speaks.
2. The apostle says in the next chapter, To-day--after so long a time. I see that some of you have bald heads, or grey hairs lie thick upon them. Is it not long enough to have provoked your God these sixty years? To-day, that is, especially while the Holy Ghost is leading others to hear and to find mercy; to-day, while the showers are falling, receive ye the drops of grace; to-day, while there are prayers offered up for you; to-day, lest the preaching of the Word of God should come to be a matter of routine, and the preacher himself, discouraged, should lose all zeal for your soul; to-day, while everything is peculiarly propitious, hear ye the voice of God. While the wind blows, hoist the sail; while God is abroad on errands of love, go forth to meet Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
To-day
From first to last, salvation is the product of the mighty energies of the Holy Ghost, and is brought about by His voice speaking to our hearts. We shall never be disposed to seek for salvation until the Holy Spirit of God in one way or another begins to stir our desires. Further, we may say that, although we are distinctly commanded to repent and believe the gospel, we never shall repent without His first having convicted us of sin; so that from first to last, on our side as well as His, salvation is of the Lord. All this is true; but it is only one side of the truth, though it is a side we must not ignore. I can imagine a man saying or feeling, If that be so, I am not responsible for my conduct. If the Holy Spirit of God is not pleased to strive with me it is impossible for me to come to Christ; therefore, unless He make me willing I can do nothing. I do not distinctly feel that He is drawing me now, and therefore there is nothing for it but to go on living in sin until my call comes, if it ever do come at all.
1. First, are you quite sure that God has not spoken to you, and that you may not have failed to hear His voice, either because in your sin you did not wish to hear it, or because in your perversity and ignorance you had made up your mind that His voice must speak in a certain particular way, while God has seen fit to speak after quite a different manner?
2. And, second, is your conscience quite clear that He never has spoken to you, and you have known it, and been convinced of it, and yet have hardened your heart against His call? It is quite true that you cannot come unless the Spirit draw, but is it equally true that He has never drawn? It is not too much to say, that whatever moves you in the right direction, whatever influences you to forsake sin and turn to God, is the work of the Holy Ghost. The fervent desire after better things, the inward restlessness, the sense of guilt, the feeling of shame, the fear of punishment, the longing for purity and moral freedom--all these are the effects of the influence of God the Holy Ghost. You shall never be able to say, I would, but God would not. Oh that God might never have to bring the apposite charge against you. I have spoken of one great danger against which we have to guard, if we would benefit by the Divine voice, the danger of ignoring it, and failing to recognize it; but remember there is yet another danger, and to it our text more particularly alludes; it is the danger of bearing Gods voice so plainly that we can entertain no reasonable doubt but that it is Gods voice, and yet while He is speaking hardening our hearts against Him. Harden not your heart. These words bring before us the thought of a capacity that we all possess. We all possess the power to harden our hearts against the gracious influences of God. It is a dangerous thing to do under any circumstances, even when our relations with God are not concerned. I once heard a man say, I used to think it manly to repress my feelings, and so I set myself to steel my heart against them, and now I cannot feel when I would. Happen what may, I might offer my fortune for a tear, and offer it in vain. This may be a serious matter. We have no more right to murder our feelings than any other element in our manhood, but that is a small thing as compared with the folly and the sin of hardening our heart against the Holy Spirit of God. And remember this is a sin which we all remain capable of committing, however strong the influences of God the Holy Spirit may be. He never so influences us that it is impossible for us to resist Him. What shall we say of the folly of him who mutilates his own moral nature of all its higher sensibilities and capacities of spiritual apprehension, and of his own accord elects to be past feeling--twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and withered? But remember, there is only one way of avoiding this terrible issue and that is by yielding at once. But when the Holy Ghost speaks, and you hear His voice: there is always a now in it. He takes care to put before you something to be done then and there. To-day harden not your heart. You are responsible for this winged moment that is even now flying from you. The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Oh, think of all the possibilities, the glorious possibilities of to-day! (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
To-day--a voice for the opening year
I. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS BINDING. The obligation is founded on
1. Absolute proprietorship.
2. Mediatorial interposition.
II. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS PRACTICABLE.
III. THE HOLY GHOST COMMANDS IT, AND THEREFORE IT IS URGENT.
1. The Holy Ghost thoroughly understands the transcendent importance of the work. The Holy Ghost knows exactly the portion of time allotted you for the work. (Homilist.)
The right time
You admit that it would be the right time to start on a certain journey when the following four conditions were all combined. First, a clear duty to undertake the journey; secondly, a safe route; thirdly, a suitable conveyance waiting for you; fourthly, the danger that you could not go on a later day. To these might be added that year life depended on your starting at once (as happened to myself years ago, when I found myself in a village where cholera was raging fearfully). Now all these five conditions meet, and press you to betake yourself to the Lord Jesus for immediate salvation. Add now to these undeniable arguments the other one--that every day you postpone makes it harder for you to come. Manyyears ago the merchant-ship Lowell went ashore on the New England coast in a terrific gale. Her bows projected so far up towards the shore that the crew leaped off the bow-prit and were rescued, one by one, by the keeper of a neighbouring lighthouse. All leaped off except the first mate, who had been in feeble health; he continued to walk the deck and give orders to the men. The keeper shouted to him, Jump ashore this tide or you are lost! The poor man continued to tramp the deck, which soon crashed to fragments, and he was swallowed up in the wreck. What was the matter? The terrors of the scene had so deranged his weak nerves, that he had become insane and laud, heal at the idea of danger. Yet that unhappy officer of the sinking ship did not act more insanely than you do in persisting in risking the life of your precious soul. When Jesus calls, your salvation depends on prompt obedience. It was short work with Peter when Christ said to him, Follow Me. Again was it short work with him when be was sinking in the waves arid cried out, Lord, save me. It was short work with the Philippian jailer when he heard Pauls directions and threw himself into the Saviours arms on the spot. All the Bible narratives (except that of Nicodemus) describe a prompt action where salvation was secured. Prompt obedience saves! (T. Christlieb, D. D.)
Only to-day is yours
To-day only, to-day is yours; to-morrow belongs to God, and you have no right to take it for granted that He will certainly give it you. What if He does not? An incident occurred some years ago which illustrates this point in a manner so exceptionally startling that I should not venture to relate it to you if it had only come to me by hearsay. I am able to relate it as a fact on the authority of a gentleman who was acquainted with the person referred to. A young lady of good family, a woman of the world, and a devotee of fashion, came home from a religious service, which she had been induced to attend, evidently profoundly impressed. On returning to her chamber, and turning over in her mind all she had heard, I suppose she felt under the force of a mighty influence that was drawing her towards better things. Moved no doubt by a spiritual impulse, she sat down by her table, and took pen, ink, and paper, and wrote down these words: If God spare my life for six months from this time, I will give my heart to Him. She signed her name, and then I suppose a misgiving must have crossed her mind, for she drew her pen through what she had written, and she wrote again underneath, If God spares me for three months from this time, I will give my heart to Him. Once again the voice within, I apprehend, urged the danger of delay. Are you sure that you will live three months longer? And a second time she drew her pen through what she had written, and once more she wrote, If God spare me for one month from the present date, this day month I will give my heart t, Him. The day before that date there was to be a great fancy dress ball, and she had made up her mind she must go to that ball at all costs; something, I conclude, told her that it would not be consistent to go if she were a real Christian, so she fixed the date just one day beyond this last scene of dissipation. If God spare me one month from this time, I will give my heart to Him; and she signed her name, and she went to her bed. The next morning her ladys maid came to call her as usual. She tapped at the door, but there was no answer. She threw it open, entered the room, looked at the bed. There upon the bed lay her young mistress, a cold corpse, and by her side was a sheet of paper, and on this sheet of paper were written the words, If God spare me for one month, I will give my heart to Him. God did not spare her for one night. She had heard Gods voice, but, alas I there would seem to be too much reason to fear that she had done what I entreat you not to do. To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. One more illustration, and it shall be on the brighter side. Some years ago at the close of an evangelistic service, a rough sort of man--a collier he was--came up to the minister who had preached. Sir, he said, do you mean what you told us in your address to-night? What did I tell you? Why, sir, you said that if we were determined to seek and find salvation, we might have it to-night. Yes, said the preacher, I did mean that. Very well, sir; then I want to find it. It must be settled to-night with me; it must be settled now. Thank God, said the preacher, I am glad to hear you say that. Now let me try and show you how you may get it. Well, they had a long talk together. The preacher set before the poor ignorant man as plainly as ever he could the way of salvation; and then they got to their knees, and there they knelt praying and crying to God together, while the preacher sought to direct the seeking soul to Christ. Time was creeping on, and at last the clock struck eleven. The preacher was very weary, and naturally enough, having his own home duties to care for, he said to the collier, My dear fellow, I think now that perhaps you had better go home and consider what I have been saying. I dont see that we can get very much further to-night; for the poor man was very ignorant and full of unbelief. Sir, didnt you tell me that it might be settled to-night? Yes, said the preacher. Very well, then he said; I have made up my mind if it can be settled to-night it shall be settled to-night; I dont rise from my knees until it is settled. Very good, then, said the preacher, if that is so we will stay together. The clock struck twelve, still they were kneeling together; one, and still they were kneeling together; two, and still they were there. The summers sun was just rising, daylight was just beginning to dawn, the poor man was thoroughly worn out. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, he had no strength left. The moment of our weakness is the moment of Gods power. Fairly exhausted and wearied out, at last he was fain to trust himself in the arms of Christ. He might have done so at first as well as at last, but it was only after these hours of anguish that he was brought to the point of utter helplessness and self-despair, and so at length he just rested his weary soul on Jesus, and in a moment the burden was gone. He sprang to his feet with a joyful shout. Glory be to God, he cried, it is settled at last; it is settled at last! With a happy heart he went on his way rejoicing. In the middle of that day there was a hue and cry raised in the neighbourhood that there had been an accident down in the coal-pit, and, as is the custom in colliery districts, everybody rushed to the pit to know what had happened. The tidings soon spread that a portion of the earth in the pit had fallen in, and there was every reason to fear that a man was buried under the rubbish. Half a dozen stalwart colliers were soon at work, working with all that heroic determination which distinguishes those men under such circumstances. For many a long hour they continued their toil, until at last they got near to the place where the unfortunate man was imprisoned. Gently and carefully they prised up the superincumbent mass, and freed one shattered limb after another, and at last lifting the weight off the mans breast, they dragged him out all crushed and shattered as he was. As he felt the load taken off him, he opened his eyes for the last time. A smile came over his begrimed countenance as he gasped out, Thank God it was settled last night! and he fell back and died. To-day, to-day, to-day! (W. HayAitken, M. A.)
The folly of procrastination
It is recorded of Archias, a chief magistrate, in one of the Grecian states, that he was unpopular in his government, and excited the hatred of many of the people, who conspired against his life. The day was arrived when a fatal plot was to be executed.
Archias was more than half dissolved in wine and pleasure, when a courier from Athens arrived in great haste with a packet, which contained, as it afterwards appeared, a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. The messenger being admitted into the presence of the prince, said, My lord, the person who writes you these letters conjures you to read them immediately; they contain serious affairs. Archias replied, laughing, Serious affairs to-morrow; and so continued his revel. On the same night, in the midst of that noisy mirth, the end of which is heaviness, the assailants rushed into the palace, and murdered Archias, with his associates; leaving to the world a striking example of the evil of procrastination. In ten thousand affecting instances, something like this has been the conduct and the fate of men respecting the concerns of eternity. They have been warned, but, like the unhappy prince whose case we have recited, they have said, Serious things to-morrow, and when in an unexpected hour their souls have been required, they have left the world exclaiming, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! (S. Lowell.)
The importance of the present moment
The old sun-dial at Alfric, in Worcestershire, has lately been repaired, and its motto regilt. Now all eyes may read the weighty words inscribed on it by a vanished hand of long ago--On this moment hangs eternity. Is this statement true? Assuredly it is.As we live and act at the present moment we decide our future: living for God, we shall live for ever with God; living for this world, we pen.-h with it.
Come while the lamp burns
There is a story told in ancient history of a certain king who lighted a lamp, and had it hung in his palace: he then sent heralds forth to bring every criminal and rebel to his presence, that they might obtain pardon. Those who came while the lamp was burning were set free; but those who delayed till the lamp had gone out, or who altogether neglected the invitation, met with a terrible death.
The folly of increasing the burden of sin by delay
A hermit was conducted by an angel into a wood, where he saw an old man cutting down boughs to make up a burden. When it was large be tied it up, and attempted to lift it on his shoulder, and carry it away; but, finding it very heavy, he laid it down again, cut more wood, and heaped more on; and then tried again to carry it off. This he repeated several times; always adding something to the load, after trying in vain to raise it from the ground. In the meantime, the hermit, astonished at the old mans folly, desired the angel to explain what this meant. You behold, said he, in the foolish old man an exact representation of those who, being made sensible of the burden of their sins, resolve to repent, but soon grow weary, and, instead of lessening their burden, increase it every day. At each trial they find the task heavier than before, and so put it off a little longer, in the vain hope that they will by and by be more able to accomplish it. Thus they go on adding to their burden till it grows too heavy to be borne; and then, in despair of Gods mercy, and with their sins unrepented of, they lie down and die. Turn again, my son, and behold the end of the old man whom thou sawest heaping up a load of boughs. The hermit looked, and saw him in vain attempting to remove the pile, which was now accumulated far beyond his strength to raise. His feeble limbs tottered over their burden; the poor remains of his strength were fast ebbing away; the darkness of death was gathering around him; and, after a convulsive and impotent attempt to lift the pile, he fell down and expired.
Harden not your hearts
Hardening the heart
I. TO HARDEN THE HEART IS TO CHERISH A VOLUNTARY INSENSIBILITY TO GOD AND DIVINE OBJECTS.
II. HOW THE HEART IS HARDENED.
1. By fixing its affections supremely on the world. A striking exemplification of this was furnished by that miser whose band, cold in death, still held its firm grasp upon his gold, when his spirit had gone to the bar of God.
2. By refusing to turn the attention to Divine things. No truth is plainer than this; that a man will not feel what he does not think of. God unthought of, must leave the heart as hard and unmoved as it would be were there no God, no Christ, and no heaven.
3. By excusing sin. The object of every excuse formed by the mind is to impair or destroy a sense of obligation and guilt.
4. By presumptuous hopes and expectations from futurity. The very language of such hopes is, the authority and glory of God shall not be felt now; the evil of sin and the awful realities of a future world shall not be felt now; all sensibility shall be deadened by hopes from futurity. These hopes of a future repentance, fellow-sinner, are a shield to your heart, which the arrows of the Almighty will never penetrate.
III. TO ENFORCE THE EXHORTATION NO LONGER TO HARDEN THE HEART, BY THE CONSIDERATIONS IMPLIED IN THE TEXT, To-day if ye will hear His voice. The declaration implies
1. That to harden the heart is a fatal obstacle to bearing and obeying the gospel.
2. To harden the heart is the only obstacle to an immediate compliance with the demands of the gospel.
3. To abstain from hardening the heart is as easily done at the present as any future time.
4. The last consideration is that those who now harden their heart may never hear and obey the gospel. This appears, if we consider, in all such cases, the increase of guilt. To harden the heart against the voice of God once is a high measure of provocation; and if it be the tendency of sin, of accumulated guilt, to exhaust the patience of God and to provoke His speedy vengeance, what must be the effect of hardening the heart with the formal design of continuing to rebel against Him? When in its own nature it involves every act of future sin; when its whole strength--strength, too, thus to offend God--is derived from the fact that God is good and long-suffering? What purpose embodies baser ingratitude, a more direct insult to God, greater hardihood in rebellion, and a greater amount of crime; and what purpose could the sinner form to provoke Gods instant vengeance if this does not? Again, there is a fearful principle of Gods administration which arrays all its alarms before such persons. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Soul insensibility
I. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS EVIDENCED.
1. One of these signs is dulness of conscience. A sensitive conscience is only the possession of those whose hearts have not been hardened, or have been softened. But where there is religious insensibility the hearing of the conscience is confused, its sight perplexed, its voice low and weak. This is the state of the moral nature of which Paul speaks when he describes a
conscience seared with a hot iron--an allusion, evidently, to the custom, that was very prevalent among ancient Eastern doctors, of cauterising any affected flesh. Sin is indeed a terrible caustic to the conscience. At first it burns the living moral tissue very painfully, but at last it leaves it insensitive, almost destroyed.
2. Another sign of a hardened heart is poverty of love. No tale of human want or woe stirs their pity or prompts their help; no statement of Gods great bounty or wondrous love awakens their praise.
3. Another sign--comprising those we have mentioned, and suggesting several more--is inability to be moved by the gospel truth.
II. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS ATTAINED.
1. By familiarity with the mere theory of religion. It is well enough to have true ideas, to accept a correct creed; but if those ideas linger only in the intellect, are merely themes for memory, imagination, logic, and do not send down into the affections an influence that will permeate the entire being; if that correct creed is a mere mental property, held and defended jealously by the mind, but not colouring and controlling the plans and loves and whole scope of the daily life, then those ideas, that creed, however true, produce hardness of heart. They lose their freshness, and thus much of their force. The soul becomes accustomed to them, as the forester to the rustling of the foliage, or the mariner to the murmur of the waves. And that familiarity intercepts every effort to arouse, and startle, and awaken.
2. By a neglect of religious claims. Some by procrastination, others by stolid indifference, refuse to come face to face with such questions as What must I do to be saved? The capacity for religion diminishes, and almost dies out through disuse. Is it not thus with every power we possess?
3. By conscious indulgence of any sin. The man who continues, perhaps, in a very studied secrecy, to carry on some business scheme that he knows to be fraudulent, to cherish some desire that he knows to be impure, to maintain a habit that he knows is stamped with meanness, or uncharitableness, is doing the very best he can to become insensible to sincerity, holiness, nobility, and love.
III. HOW THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS TO BE PREVENTED.
1. Be earnest. Triflers petrify with terrible rapidity.
2. Be real. They who simultaneously live two lives--the outward, upright, pious, irreproachable; the inward, false, godless, corrupt are, by all the restraint and repression that their hypocrisy involves, hardening their hearts, becoming in heart as hard as a piece of nether millstone.
3. Be watchful. Not only to avoid trifling and to keep wide of all hypocrisy, but because of the insidious influence of familiarity with holy things, there is need in every one for watchfulness. Often introspect yourself to see if you are getting less tender-hearted; and if you are, use every means that can soften and quicken you again.
IV. How THIS HARDNESS OF HEART IS TO BE REPROVED.
1. How can the hard heart be broken? God has provided the means.
(1) The dispensations of His providence, such as the loneliness of Jacob, the manifold sorrows of Job, the sickness of Hezekiah, are designed to quicken our spiritual nature.
(2) Gods Word is a hammer that has crushed the pride, shivered the self-righteousness, broken the stony heart of many a sinner.
(3) The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all that cross signifies of a life of love, of sacrificial suffering, and of atoning death, is the great power for melting and subduing human hearts.
(4) The Spirit of God, sometimes using these means, sometimes acting directly upon the human spirit, is the power that takes away the stony heart, and gives a heart of flesh.
2. What are the signs that the heart is rightly broken?
(1) There is consciousness of sin. As in broken stones we find fossils of the reptile or the fern, telling of the time when it was a soft, clay like substance, easily impressible; so in the process of breaking the hard heart, there is revealed the reptile of actual sin, as well as the fern of fair promise. God be merciful to me a sinner! Father, I have sinned.
(2) There is the sense of Gods gracious presence. When the heart is rightly broken, He who was sent to heal the broken-hearted is there. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit. (U. R. Thomas.)
The response of the heart
I. WHEN WE HEAR GODS VOICE THE HEART MUST RESPOND. The assent of the intellect, the admiration of the understanding, the fervour of the imagination, and even the conviction of the conscience, do not suffice. God speaks to the heart. Oh that Christ may dwell there! Gods voice is to soften the heart. Alas I by nature we are bard-hearted; and what we call good and soft-hearted is not so in reality and in Gods sight. God wishes us to be delivered from hardness of heart, that is, from dulness of perception of His love and beauty, from ingratitude and lukewarmness towards Him, from pride and impenitence, from self-seeking and unrest. When we receive Gods Word in the heart, when we acknowledge our sin, when we adore Gods mercy, when we desire Gods fellowship, when we see Jesus, who came to serve us, the heart becomes soft and tender. For repentance, faith, prayer, patience, hope of heaven, all these things make the heart tender. Can we be hard--thinking much of ourselves, discontented with our lot, envious or unforgiving, worldly and restless--when we hear the voice of God--I am the Lord thy God; I have loved thee with an everlasting love; thou art Mine. As I have loved you, love one another.
II. ALL SIN BEGINS IN THE HEART. And what is the error of the heart? What else hut unbelief? God speaks, and the heart is to believe. If the heart is hardened, it believes not; and regarding neither the threatenings nor the promises, it leans not on the strength and love of God: unbelief is the mother of all sin and sorrow.
III. UNBELIEF IS DEPARTURE FROM THE LIVING GOD. HOW simple is this! As long as you trust God you are near Him. The moment you doubt Him your soul has departed into the strange country. Faith is the link between Gods fulness and strength and our emptiness and weakness. If the soul cries out, Abide with me, or Nearer to Thee, the answer of Jesus is, Only believe! (A. Saphir.)
Of the causes of bawdiness of heart
1. Natural hardness. This is the original cause of habitual hardness. If that be not taken away this will accompany it; both will be mixed together.
2. Unbelief. This makes men disrespect promises, threatenings, mercies, judgments, and all other means which are of use to soften, or break mens hearts (Deu_1:32; Deu_9:25; Psa_78:22; Psa_78:32).
3. Hypocrisy. By this men cover and hide their sin, whereby they wax bold in sinning.
4. Pride. For this is ordinarily joined with scorn, disdain, and such like vices as make men refuse and reject the means which might mollify their hearts.
5. Presumption. When sins are committed against knowledge, conscience, light of nature, and motions of the Spirit, they are as heavy weights that press out all spiritual sense and life.
6. Of committing or long lying in the same sin. Many small knocks or blows, long continued, do in time as much as a great blow at once.
7. Relapse.
8. Lewd company. Lewd companions will by evil counsel, bad example, bold encouragement, make men impudent and obstinate in sinning Pro_1:10, &c.).
9. Superfluity of the things of this world; as of wealth, honour, ease, pleasure, applause, and other such things as men by nature delight in.
10. Multitude of crosses not sanctified. There are as many blows upon the smiths anvil (2Ch_28:22; Psa_78:31-32). (W. Gouge.)
Remedies for preventing or redressing hardness of heart
I. TAKE HEED OF ALL AND EVERY OF THOSE CAUSES WHENCE HARDNESS OF HEART ARISETH.
1. Regeneration. Hereby natural hardness is removed.
2. Faith. Hereby unbelief is redressed.
3. Sincerity. This keeps out hypocrisy.
4. Humility Hereby pride and other like vices are kept down.
5. A fear of God. This will withhold us from gross sins.
6. Christian prudence. This will make men weary of multiplying sins and long lying therein.
7. Spiritual watchfulness. This will uphold in such a course as will preserve us from relapse.
8. Holy jealousy, lest we should by company be drawn aside.
9. Contempt of this world and of the things thereof, that we be not ensnared and overcome thereby.
10. Patience under all crosses, as laid on us by our heavenly Father for our good.
II. LABOUR TO FEEL THE HEAVY BURTHEN OF SIN (Psa_38:4). (W. Gouge.)
Harden not your hearts
The metal of the human soul, so to speak, is like some material substances. If the force you lay upon it do not break it, or dissolve it, it will beat into hardness. If the moral argument by which it is plied now, do not so soften the mind as to carry and to overpower its purposes, then on another day the argument may be put forth in terms as impressive, but it falls on a harder heart, and therefore with a more slender efficiency. You have resisted to-day, and by that resistance you have acquired a firmer metal of resistance against the power of every future warning that may be brought to bear upon you. You have stood your ground against the urgency of the most earnest admonition, and against the dreadfulness of the most terrifying menaces. On that ground you have fixed yourself more immoveably than before; and though on some future day the same spiritual thunder be made to play around you, it will not shake you out of the obstinacy of your determined rebellion. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Obduracy of heart
There is a striking image employed by one of the old divines to illustrate the obduracy and insensibility of the human heart. He compares a man in this condition to the blacksmiths dog, who, although lying at the foot of the anvil, is rather not moved at all by the sparks which are continually falling about him, or only disturbed for an instant; while he returns again and again to his old position, and sleeps as sound as ever.
Hardening the heart
The pirate Gibbs, whose name for many years was a terror to commerce, was finally captured and executed in the city of New York. He acknowledged before his death that when he committed the first murder his conscience made a hell within his bosom; but, after he had sailed for years under the black flag, his conscience became so blunted he could rob a vessel, murder all its crew, and then lie down as peacefully to rest as an infant in its cradle.
Hardness of the heart
Stones are charged with the worst species of hardness: As stubborn as a stone. And yet the hardest stones submit to be smoothed and rounded under the soft friction of water. Ask the m, rinds of stones on the seashore what has become of all their angles, once so sharp, and of the roughness and uncouthness of their whole appearance. Their simple reply is, Water wrought with us, nothing but water; and none of us resisted. If they yield to be fashioned by the water, and you do not to be fashioned by God, what wonder if the very stones cry against you? (J. Palsford.)
The hardening of the heart
has its gradations of
1. Carnal security, which comforts itself with the outward possession of the means of grace; and from--
2. Natural indifference and insensibility to the Word, proceeds on through
3. Unbelieving disparagement.
4. Faithless neglect, and
5. Reckless transgression of the Word
6. To rejection, contempt, and denial of it; and thence to a
7. Permanent embittering of the wicked heart; to a
8. Conscious stubbornness of the wicked will; to the
9. Bold tempting of the living God Himself, until in
10. Complete obduracy, judicial retribution begins the fulfilment of its terrible work. (J. P. Lange.)
Hardening the heart
On a winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is now far past the meridian, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a double reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable to the plough. On the one hand, the frost of evening, with ever-increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods. On the other hand, the genial rays, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. Take heed that it be not so with you. As long as you are unconverted you are under a double process of hardening. The frosts of an eternal night are settling down upon your souls; and the Sun of Righteousness, with westering wheel is hastening to set upon you for evermore. If, then, the plough of grace cannot force its way into your ice-bound heart to-day, what likelihood is there that it will enter to-morrow? (R. M.McCheyne.)
Hardness of heart
Known, discovered, and revealed sins, that are against the conscience, (are) to be avoided as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart. (S. Rutherford)
Harden not your hearts
Harden not your hearts; there is no need, they are hard enough already. Harden not your hearts; there is no excuse, for why should you resist love? Harden not)our hearts; there can be no good in it--a man is the less a man in proportion to his loss of tenderness of heart. (Christian World Pulpit.)
Sin hardens the heart
The effects of sin may be compared to those of the river north of Quite, petrifying, according to Kirwins account, the wood and leaves cast into its waters; or to those of the busy feet of passers-by causing the crowded thoroughfare to grow hard. (G. Neil, M. A)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7–11. Wherefore. Take warning from the fate of Israel.…
7–11. Wherefore. Take warning from the fate of Israel. As the Holy Ghost saith. The words quoted are found in Psa. 95:7–11. David there exhorts his brethren to learn a lesson from Israel in the wilderness, and not to provoke God. To-day if you will hear his voice. At that very time. So to-day, and ever, God wishes us to hear him, to-day, not to-morrow.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v7 Heb_3:7-19 form part of an exhortation, based on the…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Heb_3:7-19 form part of an exhortation, based on the superiority of Christ over Moses, and the conduct of the Jewish people in their relation to Moses. They were the chosen people of God, and yet they provoked Him by their unbelief, and were consequently precluded from entering the rest of Canaan. A promise of rest is also given to us. What is it? It cannot be the Sabbatic rest of God from the work of creation: it cannot be the rest of settling in Canaan. It is the rest of belief in Christ, ceasing from our own works and trusting in Christ. Let us take care lest we also fail to gain our rest.
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Heb_3:7. Holy Ghost.—Better throughout the epistle “Holy Spirit.” Here conceived as Inspirer of the Bible-writers; and inspiration carries persuasion and authority (Heb_3:7-11 are a parenthesis). In what sense was the Holy Spirit in the older dispensation? The prophetic gifts, and the special endowments of such kings as Saul and David, gave the Jews their idea of inspiration.
Heb_3:8. Harden not.—Do not resist good influence. See case of Pharaoh. The peril of free-will is that we can “harden ourselves against.” Provocation.—Or time of provocation: from πικραίνω, to embitter. One typical occasion is referred to (Exo_17:7. Compare 1Co_10:1-12). Day of temptation.—If single day be meant, the reference may be to the aggravations of the time of worshipping the golden calf. But the expression may be intended to sum up the thirty-eight years of testing Israel amid the wilderness experiences. Those years of wandering in the desert made up their “day of testing.”
Heb_3:9.—Then comes a play on the words “tempted,” “proved,” Me. They tested Me in an evil and unworthy spirit. God may be tested by us when we want to believe, but feel as if we could not. God must never be put to the test by us in a spirit of doubting and suspicion, and with a view to the support of our self-schemes, and of our unbelief.
Heb_3:10. Grieved.—The figure in the word is “running a ship ashore.”
Heb_3:11. My rest.—For the Jews that was Canaan. It was called “rest” because it came after their long wanderings. The figure of God swearing is consistent with the idea of Him as an Eastern king. But the swearing is strictly official.
Heb_3:12.—Carries on the “wherefore” or “whence” of Heb_3:7. Evil heart of unbelief.—Doubting may be good or bad, right or wrong, according to the state of will that is behind it. An evil heart wants to doubt, and is keen to find reasons and excuses. Faith, when intellectual only, is belief; when inspired by heart-feeling, it is trust. Departing.—In the sense of apostatising.
Heb_3:13. Exhort.—Admonish; use Christian fellowship for the establishing of faith. Deceitfulness of sin.—Sinful delusions; either influence of Judaising teachers, or of persecution and worldliness.
Heb_3:14. Partakers of Christ.—Of His living and saving grace.
Heb_3:19. Could not.—The failure was altogether on their side. The word “unbelief” reminds us that the reason of failure was a heart-reason.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_3:7-19
The Warning of Ancient Failures.—This passage is hortatory. It is an earnest appeal and warning breaking in upon the course of argument, after the manner of this writer. What is its special point of view? The times of Moses have been prominent in the writer’s thought. They were times which there was a strong disposition to unduly magnify. It was easy to slip over the painful things in the older history. But they were there, and were there for the permanent warning of God’s people. The evils, and especially the great evil of unbelief, which broke relations with Jehovah, prevented many from realising the fulfilment of God’s promise, and delayed the fulfilment for many years, were evils still working; and they would prove as effective as ever in delaying or removing the spiritual blessings of the new covenant. Apostasy is always the bad fruitage of cherished unbelief.
I. The responsibility of self rests upon self.—“Harden not your hearts.” A man has control of, power of influence upon, his own heart for good or for evil. He can deal with, restrain, check, qualify, resist, the influences which rest upon his own heart. Therefore it is said, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Every man is responsible for himself to himself, as well as to God. And this is true in relation to unbelief. Negligence of spiritual culture, injudicious reading, unsuitable associations, and other things, tend to nourish unbelief; but these are all within a man’s own control. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
II. The responsibility for each rests on the other.—“But exhort one another day by day … lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” It is true that each man must “bear his own burden”; but it is also true that each must bear the other’s burden; the strong bear the infirmities of the weak. We can come into each other’s lives as gracious remedial forces; and this is especially true when mischievous teachers are exerting injurious influence, and the young, or those of receptive or sceptical dispositions, are placed in special temptation. We can “exhort one another.”
III. Our anxiety should concern the subtlety of sin and temptation.—Unbelief begins in secret questionings and doubtings: it easily grows into a fatal habit. The tempter keeps up the subtlety of Eden by suggesting suspicions,—“Yea, hath God said.” But the kind of subtlety indicated here is the exaggeration of a lower truth so as to push a higher one out of thought. The magnifying of Moses was intended to push out of thought the spiritual claims of Christ.
IV. The direction in which evil works is generally towards unbelief.—Trust is the element in which spiritual life thrives. Therefore the main effort of evil is to disturb that trust. Suspicion, doubt, unbelief, are the elements in which evil thrives. This is illustrated in the experience of the Israelites during their forty years of desert experience. It is the experience of religious life to-day. An age of criticism is an age of enfeebled spiritual life.
V. Unbelief always means hindrance from blessing.—It did, when those who came out of Egypt with Moses died in the wilderness (save the two men of faith, Caleb and Joshua). It did, when it kept the nation back from Canaan for eight-and-thirty years. It does, for God can make no response where there is doubt or unbelief. He cannot, because His response could be no blessing to men who were in such a mood of mind. God’s ever-working law of blessing is succinctly given by the Lord Jesus thus, “According to your faith be it unto you.” The good man always responds to trust. He can do anything for those who commit their interests wholly to him. And the good God is checked from blessing by nothing else as He is by distrust. The saddest thing is said concerning the towns beside the Lake of Galilee, in relation to the Lord Jesus, “He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Do we ask anything of God? His first word in response always is, “Believest thou that I am able to do this?”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Heb_3:7. The Holy Ghost in the Old Testament.—“Even as the Holy Ghost saith,” in the book of psalms. God the Spirit bears relation to man the spirit. For man is a spirit. The great Spirit can overshadow, hallow, help, purify, teach, us dependent spirits. Luther illustrates the relation of the Divine Spirit to the human spirit by the effect of fire in heating, and in some respects changing the character of, water, so that under the power of the fire the water can do what of itself it could not do. The great fire-spirit can penetrate and influence the water-spirit. God, as a Spirit, must always have borne relations to the human spirit, and this superadding and inworking of God’s Spirit must always have been the secret source of all moral goodness. The inspirings of God are not the exclusive privilege of any one age. Illustrate this from—
I. The patriarchal period.—We cannot expect to find much respecting a subject which is the burden of God’s last and highest revelation in this primitive age. We may, however, look for some hints that would indicate, even then, the apprehension of God as working for man, not only externally in nature and providence, but in the very heart of things, and upon the mind or spirit of men. We ought not, however, to be surprised if we also meet with some confusion between man’s spiritual nature and the Spirit of God, or the spiritual working of God. As specimens of the references that may be found, turn to three passages:
1. Gen_1:2 : “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The Spirit is evidently apprehended as the great quickening principle, bearing intimate relation to life, and so dealing with the inward, secret heart of things.
2. Gen_6:3 : “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” The reference may be either to the Holy Spirit, or to the spiritual as opposed to the animal principle in man. Whichever meaning we prefer, the passage indicates discernment of the relation God bears to the inner, spiritual nature of man.
3. Gen_41:38 : “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” Without pressing unduly the meaning of Pharaoh in his use of the term “Spirit of God,” we have here also the indication of the same idea on the part even of the idolatrous peoples. Besides such passages as these we have many suggestions of God’s inwardly helping men in those days. At first we have only external relations with Adam and Noah, excepting perhaps the hint of internal relations afforded by the terms in which Enoch is spoken of: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Passing thus into the spiritual world seems to suggest Divine culture of the spiritual nature. But by-and-by we come to visions, dreams, inward voices, seen and heard by Abraham and Jacob. These reveal personal and individual relations of God with men, and His immediate communication with man’s mind and spirit. These visions, dreams, and inward voices are the proper beginnings and foreshadowings of the spiritual impulses, the inner workings of the Holy Spirit, which we know. And observe how exactly Abraham’s faith was like ours. He believed an inward voice which could not be absolutely verified, even as by our faith we now lay hold of the unprovable. “Blessed,” said Christ, “are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.” It is said in relation to the offering of his son God did tempt Abraham. This tempting, testing, trying of Abraham was manifestly God spiritually dealing with Abraham’s spiritual nature. And the same remark may be applied to the scene at Jabbok: it was the wrestling together of the Divine Spirit and the human spirit of Jacob.
II. The Mosaic period.—This was coincident with a more extensive and exact outward revelation of God. The prominent thing is minute and elaborate ceremonial: the entire outward life of the people in its social, political, and religious phases coming under Divine regulation. We may, however, reasonably expect clearer signs of the recognition of the inward workings of God on the part of those who, within the ceremonial, cultured their inner, spiritual nature. We find a number of passages in which the skill, talents, power to prophesy, and to deliver the country, are traced to the inworking of the Spirit of God. As specimens, refer to Exo_31:2-3 : “I have called Bezaleel … and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding,” etc. Bezaleel’s talents, genius, are directly traced to the inspiration of God. The same applies to Balaam’s power of prophesying. See Num_24:2 : “And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.” See also in reference to the judges:—Jdg_3:10 : Othniel—“The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel and went out to war.” Jdg_6:34 : “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” So of Saul and Saul’s messengers. 1Sa_10:10 : “A company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.” 1Sa_19:20 : “The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.” There is an exceedingly interesting passage in Num_11:17, etc. Moses felt oppressively the burden of his charge in the ruling and judging of so great a people. God graciously arranged for the appointment of seventy elders to relieve him of part of the burden. In connection with this arrangement God said, “I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them.” See Num_11:25 : “When the spirit rested on them they prophesied, and did not cease.” Compare Num_11:29. Here we have very distinctly presented Moses’ own spirit, and the Spirit of God overshadowing and inspiring it. God is called the God of the spirits of all flesh in Num_16:22; Num_27:16-17. And we have the hardening of the hearts of men traced to the operation of God’s Spirit, as in Deu_2:30 : “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate.”
III. The Davidic period.—Here one or two passages will suffice to remind of more familiar ones. Turn to Psa_51:10-12 : “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” Here you observe that repentance was bringing up to light some of the deepest feelings and convictions of David’s soul; it was making him intensely spiritual: so he came to realise his inner dependence on the teachings and movings of God’s Spirit, and was led to express his fear lest at any time he should be left without the succour of the Spirit. See also Psa_143:10 : “Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” But even in this period it is evident that the externality of God, the things God does for us, still occupy chief attention. God is rock, refuge, fortress, deliverer. The inward inspirations of God are clearly recognised, and lovingly dwelt upon, only in the intenser, more spiritual moments of life.
IV. The prophetic period.—And what may we expect in this prophetic age? Its characteristic feature is a struggle to bring to its proper light and influence the inward claims and workings of God. The prophets do not, however, fully deal with the nature of this inward working of God. That would have been to anticipate Pentecostal times. They assume, assert, and vindicate the fact, and then proceed to urge the duty of man’s offering spiritual response to the fact. They were, as prophets, inwardly, Divinely moved men. Not really different from others, only the prominent examples of inspiration which every heart open to God might surely know. So their very presence asserted God’s spiritual relations with spirit. In the histories of the prophetic period we have the continuation of the idea on which we have dwelt: that talent, especially prophetic, is due to the working of God’s Spirit. Elisha desires a first-born’s portion of Elijah’s spirit (2Ki_2:9; 2Ki_2:15). Pul and Tiglath-pileser are said to be stirred up to war by the Spirit, as we have seen Sihon was hardened. And the captives of Babylon were roused up by the Spirit to return to their own land (Ezr_1:5). In the actual prophecies we have again and again the formula, “The word of the Lord came unto me,” implying operation of God on the spirit. Nehemiah says in his prayer, “Yet many years didst Thou forbear them, and testified against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets.” Isaiah speaks of the wanderings of Israel in the desert in this way:—Isa_63:10-11 : “But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him?” Ezekiel often speaks of the inner impulses of the Spirit. Zechariah, speaking of the former time, says (Heb_7:12), “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets.” Enough has been said to show that throughout all ages of the world men have, with more or less distinctness, recognised the relation between God the Spirit and man’s spirit; with more or less clearness men have seen, as one text expresses it, that “there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” But it will be suggested to your minds to inquire: Have we any reason for identifying this work of the Spirit in Old Testament times with the work of the Holy Ghost in this our Christian dispensation? Is the Spirit of God spoken of in the old age to be identified with the Holy Ghost of the new? If it is not, then we shall have to face the difficulty of two senses in which the Spirit of God is spoken of in Scripture, and to deal with the confusion of imagining there has been no unity in the Divine dealings with our race. All thought of God’s education of the world must be put away, and we must think of His ways with us as a number of abrupt and unconnected dealings, fashioned for adaptation to peculiar and unexpected circumstances. “The God of the whole earth” He can hardly “be called.” Turn to two passages in the epistles of Peter (1Pe_1:10-11): “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow.” Now the spirit of the prophets is declared to have been the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is none other than the Holy Ghost: for in 2Pe_1:21 it is said, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” We may therefore say that, apprehended in its most simple form, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Trinity, may be conceived of as God acting upon man’s spirit, inspiring, moving, leading him to the apprehension of all moral truth, and the expression in conduct of all moral goodness. “There is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of God influences it, giving to it understanding and impulse.”
Heb_3:10. Can God suffer?—Is there any sensibility in God that can suffer? Is He ever wrenched by suffering? Nothing is more certain. He could not be good, having evil in His dominions, without suffering even according to His goodness. For what is goodness but a perfect feeling? And what is a perfect feeling but that which feels towards every wrong and misery according to its nature? And thus it is that we freely impute to Him, whether we observe it or not, every sort of painful sensibility that is related to bad and suffering subjects. We conceive of Him as feeling displeasure, which is the opposite of pleasure. We ascribe it as one of His perfections that He compassionates, which means that He suffers with the fallen. We conceive that He loathes what is disgusting, hates what is cruel, suffers long what is perverse, grieves, burns, bears, forbears, and is even afflicted for His people, as the Scripture expressly declares. All which are varieties of suffering. We also ascribe it to God, as one of His perfections, that He is impassible; but here, if we understand ourselves, we mean that He is physically impassible, not that He is morally so. Moral impassibility is really to have no sensibilities of character, which is as far as possible from being any perfection. Indeed there is a whole class of what are called passive virtues that cannot, in this view, belong to God at all, and His perfection culminates without including more than half the excellencies demanded even of us, in the range of our humble, finite capacity. There is then some true sense in which even God’s perfection required Him to be a suffering God—not a God unhappy, or less than perfectly, infinitely blessed; for though there be many subtractions from His blessedness, there is never any diminution; because the consciousness of suffering will bring with it, in every case and everlastingly, a compensation which, by a great law of equilibrium in His and all spiritual natures, fully repays the loss; just as Christ, assailed by so many throes of suffering sensibility—in the temptation, in His ministry, in the garden—still speaks of His joy, and bequeaths it as a gift most real and sublime to His followers. It is this suffering sensibility of God that most needed to be revealed, and brought nigh to human feeling, in the incarnate mission of Jesus.—Horace Bushnell, D.D.
Heb_3:12. Good Unbelief and Bad.—“An evil heart of unbelief.” A head of unbelief may be good; a heart of unbelief must be bad. Doubt may be a condition of mental growth; suspicion and mistrust spoil all moral relations. It is said of the Berœans, “Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” But their superior nobility consisted in their taking an attitude of interested doubt. They listened well, but would not believe until they had removed their reasonable hesitation by full inquiry. It may even be said that a man cannot be capable of faith if he is incapable of unbelief. A mere uninquiring recipiency indicates a very undeveloped moral nature. A man is not manly unless he is able to say, “I can doubt, but I do believe.” Doubt is the impulse to inquiry and search; and therefore absolute certainty is not attainable by man in relation to anything in which he is interested. He is always under inspiration to “prove all things.” Unbelief of the head then may be good. Intelligence involves doubting. He who receives everything thinks about nothing, and receives only as a sponge does. All mental attainments are battles with unbelief. “I am not sure about it”; then, “I must satisfy myself about it.” Intelligent men go through doubt to faith. Unbelief of the heart is bad. That is the unbelief which is so sternly rebuked in the Scriptures. A man may doubt, but want to believe if he can. A man may doubt, and want to find excuse for not believing if he can. The one is good, and the other is evil. The Israelites of the wilderness did not, fail by reason of intellectual unbelief, but by reason of failure in heart-trust: their sin was an “evil heart of unbelief.” Capernaum and the cities of Galilee were not condemned for intellectual unbelief, but for heart-resistance of the claims of the great Teacher. The unbelief that imperils is not opinion, but feeling, mood, bias. It is a resistance of the will, a moral condition which makes evidence ineffective, and persuasion helpless. When the heart influences the head, unbelief becomes ruinous.
Heb_3:13. The Deceitfulness of Sin.—The most marked characteristic of sin is indicated in its first personification, when it was set in relation to man’s moral fall. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Subtlety, secret movement, insincerities, and deceptions, are essentials in the working of sin. That they must be so is seen at once when we apprehend that sin is no creative agency, but a disturbing and upsetting agency. If a man is going to do something, he can be open and above-board; but if he is going to upset something, he will have to work in secret and practise deceptions. The enemy who sowed tares in the wheat-field had to do it secretly and deceptively while men slept. The special deceitfulness of sin referred to here is its way of affecting a man’s will and purpose and heart in relation to the religious life. Its agency is self-interest. In the saved man the self-interest is dethroned, and the Christ-interest enthroned. The work of evil is the subtle endeavour to revive the self-interest. The man finds himself growingly interesting to himself, and before he is aware he finds his heart self-hardened against Christ through the deceitful workings of sin.
Our Only Possession—To-day.—In what sense can a man be said to possess anything? Strictly speaking a man has nothing but the use of things. As the old satirist expresses it, the man who sits down to a loaded table of luxuries really has no more than the little that he can eat. The farmer thought he possessed goods and time. “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” He had power to hold no handful of the goods and no day of time. We speak of what we will do on the morrow, and no man has any to-morrow until God gives it to him, and then he has to call it “to-day.”
“To-morrow, Lord, is Thine,
Lodged in Thy sovereign hand.”
A man has one thing only—the present hour. To-day—that is our only actual possession. Everything else save the thing of the hour, and every coming hour, is God’s possession, not ours; He will give it to us if it pleases Him so to do.
Heb_3:14. Safety in continuing.—“If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.” St. Paul expresses the same truth in commending “patient continuance in well-doing.” And the risen and living Lord bade His Church be “faithful unto death.” Older Scriptures present the same truth, “Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know the Lord.”
I. There is no safety in beginning a Christian profession.—There might be, if we were translated as soon as we had planted our first footstep on the Christian highway. There is not, because that first step does but start a pilgrimage, which is a serious testing of that beginning. The teaching which exaggerates the safety of an act of beginning is mischievous.
II. There is no safety in spasmodic experiences.—Such as are provided for Christians in times of religious excitement. Many think they are safe because they have felt intense feelings occasionally.
III. There is only safety in continuance and persistency.—Because the Christian life is a moral cult, an advancing sanctification, a man only keeps right by keeping on.
Heb_3:16. Relief of a Dark Picture.—The story of the murmuring, distrustfulness, and self-interested rebelliousness of ancient Israel in the wilderness is a sad, dark story. It never ceases to surprise and pain us; and we never feel that the excuses offered for them are sufficient to relieve the darkness. They were the chosen people of Jehovah, brought out of a stern bondage by magnificent displays of Divine power which ought to have inspired absolute confidence—provided for in every way, every recurring need graciously met, every foe held off, and a plain way made for the possession of the Promised Land. And yet persistent rebellion at last reached a climax, and the judgment went forth that doomed every man who had come out of Egypt to find a grave in the wilderness. It was the doom of those who could not take God at His word, and trust Him fully. There is a relief to the almost too dark picture. Two men stand out to view. They will be spared. They will enter the Promised Land. And what is there peculiar in their case? They kept their trust in God. They “followed the Lord fully.” God always honours full trust.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Heb_3:13. The Power of Habits.—“Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The longer you sit under the gospel and continue in sin, the more easily you can hear it without alarm. If a person were obliged to sleep near a waterfall, he would not be able for the first few weeks to sleep soundly for the noise, but in a very short time he would hardly be able to sleep without it. I have seen in Scotland a dog, during the blacksmith’s labour at the anvil, sleeping soundly with the shower of live sparks falling around him.—Dr. Cumming.
So used to it.—You may observe, in travelling on a railroad, how the young cattle run away in terror from the engine, while those that have often seen it pass go on quietly grazing and do not regard it; so one who has been accustomed to be a “hearer of the word, and not a doer,” will acquire more and more of the same kind of familiarity. Suppose that there is in your neighbourhood a loud bell, that is ringing very early every morning to call the labourer to some great manufactory. At first and for some time your rest will be broken by it; but if you accustom yourself to be still, and try to compose yourself, you will become in a few days so used to it that it will not even wake you. But any one who makes a point of rising immediately at the call will become so used to it, in the opposite way, that the sound will never fail to rouse him from the deepest sleep. Both will have been accustomed to the same bell, but will have formed opposite habits from their contrary modes of action. Of sporting dogs there are some, such as the greyhound, that are trained to pursue hares; and others which are trained to stand motionless when they come upon a hare, even though they see it running before them. Now both are accustomed to hares, and both have originally the same instincts—all dogs having an instinctive tendency to pursue game. But the one kind has always been accustomed to run after a hare, and the other has always been chastised if it attempted to do so, and has been trained to stand still.—Whately.
Perilous Beginnings.—You remember the old story of the prisoner in his tower, delivered by his friend, who sent a beetle to crawl up the wall, fastening a silken thread to it, which had a thread a little heavier attached to the end of that, and so on, and so on, each thickening in diameter until they got to a cable. That is the way in which the devil has got hold of a great many of us. He weaves round us silken threads to begin with, slight, as if we could break them with a touch of our fingers, and they draw after them, as certainly as destiny, at each remove, a thickening chain, until at last we are tied and bound, and our captor laughs at our mad plunges for freedom, which are as vain as a wild bull’s in the hunter’s nets.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v7 7-16. You must remember this letter is written to…
ARGUMENT 1
THE TWO CROSSINGS.
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7-16. You must remember this letter is written to the Palestinian Christians, whose progenitors made the fatal mistake of turning back at Kadesh-Barnea, in open violation of the positive commandment of God, and defiant of Moses their leader. They had not left Egypt for a home in Arabia, but with the distinct understanding that they are to possess and perpetually inhabit the land of Canaan. It was no long journey from the Red Sea crossing to Palestine, as it only took them eleven days to travel from Mt. Sinai on the sea coast to Kadesh-Barnea on the Canaan border. Kadesh means “holy” and Barnea means “delight.” So, in eleven days’ march they actually reached Canaan, the land of holy delight. God’s order was to enter unhesitatingly and take possession of the land. Their hearts failed them at Kadesh-Barnea; they go into camp and send out twelve leaders representing the twelve tribes, to explore the land and bring them word. They spend forty days peregrinating the country, admiring the majestic cities, “walled up to heaven,” contemplating the huge warrior giants who inhabit the land. Meanwhile they are unutterably astonished and delighted with the paradoxical fruitfulness of the land. In their travels they pass through the valley of Eschol, are delighted with the delicious grapes, of which they carry on with them specimens. I traveled through that valley in 1895, down to its terminus in the city of Hebron, over the same ground trodden by the spies. The entire valley is still devoted to the growing of grapes, which excel the productions of all other lands in sweetness and size. After forty days the spies returned to Kadesh-Barnea, loaded with specimens of the exuberant and delicious fruits of the land. They unanimously not only corroborate the wonderful reports which they had heard while in Egyptian bondage, but certify that the land is even better than the, had ever heard. While this is the unanimous report, the majority of ten asseverate positively that the land is utterly impregnable by reason of its walled cities and innumerable panoplied, gigantic warriors, in consequence of which it is utterly impossible for them to take it by conquest. At the same time Joshua and Caleb stand up side by side and proclaim aloud to all Israel, “Let us go up at once and possess the land, for we are abundantly able.” They did not mean that they were able by their own power, but the reason why they declare boldly that they are able to take it was because they had faith in God to conquer the giants and give them the land, according to His promise, whereas the faith of the other ten had woefully collapsed. Consequently, they took the cowardly side of the question. The multitude believe the ten rather than the two, and uproariously clamor aloud, ‘Back into Egypt!” Joshua and Caleb, Moses, Aaron and Miriam do their utmost to lead them from Kadesh-Barnea into the land; but they rebel against them and march back into the wilderness. God now decrees that none who had reached majority when they had crossed the sea shall ever see the land of promise, but they shall all die in the wilderness. This decree symbolizes the fact that God wants us to go directly from our conversion into entire sanctification. When we refuse we come under the decree that everything in our hearts which rebelled against holiness must die before we can ever enter the sanctified experience. Did all those people who died in the wilderness go to hell? We hope not. They turned back from Kadesh-Barnea about the first of July in the second year of the Exodus, wandered in the wilderness thirty-eight years, returning again to Kadesh-Barnea. While they were marching toward Canaan they were in the justified experience, but while marching back- toward Egypt they were under condemnation. The dark history of these thirty-eight years is unwritten. Where they went and what they did we know not. Terrible was their mortality during this period. From the time they turned back at Kadesh-Barnea God put them under an awful castigatory discipline, symbolic of the miserable life of the backslider. Before they got away from Kadesh-Barnea God sent an awful pestilence, heaping the camp with mountains of e dead. During this pestilence every one of the ten spies who brought in the evil report of the land fell dead. This symbolizes the appalling fact that all the preachers who oppose entire sanctification fall dead spiritually, as these spies were all great tribal leaders, and rank as preachers. Do you know the names of the ten cowardly spies? I do not know them, though they are laid down in the Scriptures. They are not worth remembering. We can not afford to fill up our memories with trash. But we all know the names of Joshua and Caleb throughout all Christendom. Children have been named for them in very many families. Only one hundred and fifty years ago the big preachers closed all the churches against John Wesley and the Methodist preachers. In this short time we have forgotten their names. They have utterly sunk into oblivion. But we have not forgotten Wesley, Fletcher, and others whom they drove out of the churches. History repeats itself. The very names of the great men in the church who are this day persecuting the holiness people will rot in a century; while, as in the case of Joshua and Caleb, all future generations will remember with gratitude the people who in this day stand in the front of the battle, and unfurl the banner of truth and holiness. Why did not Moses, Aaron and Miriam, who had enjoyed the sanctified experience forty years,-Moses and Aaron having received it at the burning bush, and Miriam doubtless at an earlier date,-enter the promised land? Though Moses lost his experience by impatience at the waters of Meribah, doubtless he soon regained it, growing brighter and brighter to the end. There was a fundamental reason why Moses could not lead Israel into Canaan. He was the great lawgiver, and emblematizes the law. If he had led them into Canaan, it would involve the conclusion that we can be sanctified by loyal obedience, i.e., by good works, which is utterly untrue, and has proved a snare to millions. It is this day the fatal heresy of the popular churches. Therefore, it would not do for Moses to lead them into the land. Aaron was the high priest, and emblematizes the visible Church. If he had led them in it would inculcate the fatal heresy that you can be sanctified by church rites, and obedience to the preachers. Miriam was a fire-baptized prophetess. If she had reached the land it would involve the conclusion that the holiness evangelist can sanctify you, which is also a fatal heresy. Joshua is a Hebrew word which means Jesus. Hence, Joshua was the only one who could lead them in, thus forever teaching the world that none but Jesus can save and sanctify. Doubtless the terrible castigatory judgments of wasting pestilences, fiery serpents, destroying angels, burning thirst, withering sandstorms, signal defeats by their enemies, and perpetual devastating wars waged against them by the Arabs, conduced much to their humiliation, bringing about many genuine death- bed repentances. Meanwhile, they enjoyed the powerful preaching of Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Joshua, and Caleb. Therefore, it is to be hoped that many of them were reclaimed, sanctified and taken to heaven, But it is a significant fact that they lost their Canaan-life in this world, sadly whiling away their days in the howling wilderness. The great majority of Christians at the present day have nothing in this life but a howling wilderness experience. Oh. how we need a million Joshuas to lead the Church O the present day out of the wilderness into the land of corn and wine! Glory to God, He is fast raising them up! We are now in the van of a grand army of lay preachers, male and female, whom God is raising up to preach holiness to the ends of the earth, hasten His coming, and bring on the millennium.
17. “Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness.” It is a sad phenomenon which no luminous Christian can deny, i.e., that the popular church at the present day is largely filled up with spiritual carcasses, fallen in the wilderness. A grave council of preachers representing a great ecclesiasticism recently held a council of twenty days, legislating and deliberating in the interest of the church. At the beginning of the period, a committee of profound theologians was appointed to deliberate and legislate, and if possible find a remedy for the appalling worldliness which is freezing the church into an iceberg and sweeping the members into hell. They spent the whole twenty days in the execution of the work committed to their charge. The result was a series of legislations establishing restrictive laws against dancing, card-playing, theater-going, circuses, horse races, and whisky drinking, giving all these restrictive rules the full force of disciplinary law. Six years have elapsed. I have traveled in about thirty States of the Union, made diligent investigation, and not found a solitary instance in which those restrictive laws have been enforced by a pastor in that church. What a lamentable demonstration of deficient spiritual light, wisdom and experience on the part of the great theologians who represented that church in her highest ecclesiastical council! Why did they not all get down on their knees and cry to God for the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, thus leading the clergy and the membership by precept and example to the only possible remedy in the case? We everywhere see the devil’s buzzards — i.e., popular and sinful amusements, vices and follies — devouring the Lord’s sheep in the pastures of the various popular churches. What is the true remedy? Common sense, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, readily gives the answer. Buzzards will not eat live sheep; they eat only the dead ones. Jesus Christ still lives. He is the resurrection and the life. Why do n’ t they call them all to the altar, get on their knees, and pray till the resurrection power comes down and raises all their members from the dead? That is not sanctification which the popular clergy are fighting, but it is the regeneration which they all claim; it is the complete and effectual remedy for all the vices and follies which now flood the churches, blot out the distinction between the Church and the world, bring heathen shame on the name of religion, and send the people to hell by the wholesale.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v7 Section 4. (Heb 3:7-19; Heb 4:1-13.)
Section 4. (Heb 3:7-19; Heb 4:1-13.)
And leading on through the wilderness to final rest.
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The fourth section is of a very different character. It is the shadow following the light, and in Hebrews we find how the brightest lights can cast the deepest shadows. As a fourth section it reminds us of that wilderness through which the Lord led Israel of old into their rest, and that for us too there is a wilderness, a scene of trial through which we are called to pass on to the rest which for us also still and ever lies beyond us. We are called, therefore, to persevere, to hold on our way, to "hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end." This, in fact, is the test of the reality of things with us. Continuance is the proof of divine work.
1. The first subsection insists upon the spirit of obedience as always the condition of blessing. Grace does not alter this for a moment. It produces in us such a spirit. It meets the conditions; and faith is the very principle of fruitfulness, working, as it does, by love. The exhortation to God’s people of old abides, then, for us, as much as it did for them: "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." The truth speaks with authority, which those who are true will recognize; and the more precious the truth is, the sadder the consequences of practical refusal. To trifle with any truth is perilous, and hardening of heart is the necessary result. How many will one find with consciences, if one may so say, locally paralyzed through refusal of that in which the voice of God was once recognized by them? or, perhaps, the refusal to listen to that in which it was feared God might be speaking; for it is a wrong thought that responsibility only comes with the conviction of God having spoken. There is accountability easily to be detected by the question, Were you willing to have Him speak? What hearts we have, to which such a question could ever need to be put! How sad, above all, that unbelief should in believers produce a disregard, like this, of the one supreme Voice, like which there is no other! Thus the "ifs" come in here. All these are the tests of profession, under which the true and the false alike come necessarily, just because they are needed to distinguish between the false and the true; and also because God uses them to exercise those that are really His people; for we have in us the flesh still, and therefore those tendencies to departure from God which make His constant grace so needful.
But then they are not warnings to the believer against having too much faith, or too simple faith, but they are the very reverse. They are warnings to persevere in joyful confidence to the end. All through this epistle, where the substance which is replacing the shadows is yet invisible, it is faith that is, as it were, the one necessity, and which is as much emphasized, though from another side, as it is in the epistles to the Romans and Galatians.
2. And this is what is dwelt upon in the second subsection, in which the word is seen as needing to be mixed with faith, unbelief being the very root and principle of disobedience; and if we are become the "companions" of Christ, (better not "partakers" here, which would give another thought from what is intended, but what is in the first chapter translated "fellows,") Christ is the complete Example of faith from first to last. We, therefore, must hold "the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end."
Difficulties are supposed, for how could faith show itself if there were no difficulties? Difficulties are, therefore, not strictly a hindrance to faith, but even the reverse. They are the conditions of its manifestation; they are a means of its exercise, and so actually of its growth. Those whose "carcases fell in the wilderness" are not types of believers in any sense, but of those who fail of final entrance into the rest of God; for that is what Canaan here typifies, as is obvious. It is important to distinguish between this final entrance and that under Joshua, which, as we know, was not final, and is for us the type of present entrance into our heavenly portion by faith. In this way we must remember that Joshua is not typically a continuation of Numbers or Deuteronomy, but a new beginning, parallel with these. It is while we are in the wilderness that, in fact, we enter also by faith into our heavenly inheritance. The experience of the wilderness and the laying hold of the inheritance, in this way, go together. The searching of the land by the spies (Num 13:1-33) answers, however, but partially to this, while Deuteronomy ends typically our whole earthly history with that review of the wilderness-course throughout, which is only fulfilled for us at the judgment-seat of Christ. Joshua added to the books of Moses would make them a hexateuch, which the higher critics would have them to be, but which they are not; Joshua being, in fact, a new beginning, the Genesis of a new pentateuch, the historical books. We must have God’s truth in God’s order, or we shall not find it even God’s truth.
3. The third subsection shows us what the actual rest is. We are entering into rest, we who have believed; but we have not entered. From the nature of it, as described presently, no one could enter into it in this life. We are going on to it, and God has been always speaking of it, as in the Sabbath type, keeping it before men from the beginning. God rested on the seventh day from all His works. That was at the beginning; but man violated that rest, and it remains for us only a shadow of what is yet to come. The apostle quotes, also, David’s words, long after Joshua’s day, as showing that Israel’s coming into the land was still not rest. After they had come in, it was still said: Today, if ye will hear His voice." The rest remains, then, a true "keeping of Sabbath" for the people of God, -a rest which will be God’s rest also, or what good could be in it? A rest, too, in which he who rests ceases from all the labor which sin has imposed. Such a rest has not come for us. This carries us, in fact, on to eternity, the eternal rest, of which we have seen long since that the Sabbath is the type, and not of any millennial anticipation of it. The thousand years are a time in which the earth has indeed come to its regeneration. Sin does not reign any more. Righteousness reigns, but still sin exists; and it is after the thousand years that death, "the last enemy," is put under Christ’s feet, and the judgment of the dead comes with that. As a consequence, what we speak of sometimes as millennial rest, is not strictly correct. God cannot rest except with the perfect accomplishment of perfect blessing. He cannot rest while there are enemies yet to be put under the feet, -before sin and death are cast alike into the lake of fire.
4. In the fourth subsection the apostle exhorts all, therefore, to use diligence to enter into the rest before us, and again brings forward, as a warning, Israel’s unbelief in the wilderness. Good tidings had come to them of the land to which God was bringing them, but they had not faith to receive them. The word, full of promise and blessing as it was, yet only exposed the unbelief which goes too surely in company with a rebellious spirit. Though good, it brought out but evil, and thus it is characteristic of the word of God to search us out and make manifest to us what we are. If we submit ourselves to this searching, how great will be the blessing in it! It will bathe us in the very light of God, and thus purge from our eyes the film that hinders the perception of other things.
"For the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there a creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and laid bare unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Thus the word of God acts in the power of Him whose word it is. It brings the soul into His presence. The aroused conscience brings everything before God for judgment. Mists roll off as before the sun; and if the light shine as when at first, at God’s bidding, it broke out upon the darkness and the yeasty waves of the shoreless and barren sea, still we have the word which says: "God saw the light, that it was good." The beginning of communion with God, whatever may be the matter of it, is the reception of the truth. "Soul and spirit" as thus named together can only be the two parts of the immaterial nature of man; which Scripture, spite of what many think, everywhere clearly distinguishes from one another. The soul is the lower, sensitive, instinctive, emotional part, which, where not, as in man, penetrated with the light of the spirit, is simply animal; and which also, where man is not in the power of the Spirit of God, will still gravitate towards this. The spirit is intelligent and moral, that which knows human things (1Co 2:11). In the "natural man," which is really the psychic man, the man soul-led (1Co 2:14), conscience, with its recognition of God, is in abeyance, and the mind itself becomes earthly. Important enough it is, therefore, to divide between "soul and spirit." Joints and marrow" convey to us the difference between the external and the internal, the outward form and the essence hidden in it. Not at all that even the form is unimportant. Everything in nature forbids such a thought. But its beauty and effectiveness depend upon its appropriateness to the idea which rules in it. The word of God must thus be in the highest sense the book of science. All the highest and deepest knowledge is in it, and that of things naturally inaccessible to man; while everything, also, is in right relation and proportion, nothing overbalanced. It has, indeed, none of the pedantry or technical knowledge in which science is apt to shroud its wisdom, but a sweet, homely simplicity and familiarity of greeting, welcoming all comers to it, which deceives the would-be wise, who cannot understand how God’s light should shine for babe and for philosopher, and how God’s learning can have so little savor of the schools. Yet, is it true wisdom to make nought of it for this? Rather, does it not show us God’s real desire for the education of the masses, about which men are beginning to show such very tardy earnestness? All the highest, deepest, and most practical knowledge made the possession of all that will with a Divine Teacher also for the lowly but inquiring soul!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v7 A warning lesson from the history of Moses:
A warning lesson from the history of Moses:
v. 7. Wherefore, (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice,
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v. 8. harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
v. 9. when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
v. 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.
v. 11. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest,)
v. 12. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
v. 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
v. 14. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
The last thought in the first paragraph of the chapter had been that of persevering faith and trust, looking forward to the joyful realization of our hope on the last day. The sacred writer now wishes to emphasize the need of this faithfulness for obtaining the prize, and to that end refers to the journey of the children of Israel through the desert and some of the principal incidents of the forty years included in that journey. He quotes Psa 95:7-11, stating at the same time that it was the Holy Ghost to whom the words there written are to be ascribed as the real Author. The passage gives a reason for his earnest warning: Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation (Meribah), as on the day of temptation (Massah) in the wilderness. The prophet refers to the incident related Exo 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, and the writer of our letter quotes the Greek translation of the Hebrew words which are probably the proper nouns of the station in the wilderness where the people rebelled. Their conduct at that time was provoking to the Lord; it challenged His wrath, it demanded His punishment. For, as the quotation continues: Where your fathers tested Me, putting Me to a proof, and saw My works forty years. It is a bitter complaint which the Lord here voices. The children of Israel, by their unruly behavior, put the Lord to a trial, to a proof, just as though they wanted to satisfy themselves as to the length of time that they could oppose His will. The entire history of the journey through the wilderness presents practically a succession of incidents of a nature calculated to provoke the wrath of the Lord. Although He performed miracles of goodness and mercy and judgment before their eyes during all that time with the intention of winning them to Himself, yet they remained a stubborn and rebellious generation.
But the Lord will not be mocked, as the quotation from the prophet continues: Wherefore I was indignant with this generation and said, Always they are astray in their heart; but they, not would they understand My ways; so I swore in My anger, They shall never enter into My rest. The Lord finally grew tired of the continual challenge of the people of Israel; He was exasperated, filled with disgust, loathing, and abhorrence, as the Hebrew text implies. See Num 14:21-23; Num 32:10-13; Deu 1:34-36. All the attempts of the Lord were turned aside in scorn; they persisted in going astray from the way marked out by His Word and command: they refused to acknowledge that He was leading them in paths of goodness and mercy and long-suffering, that His every thought for them was a thought of peace. So the Lord finally swore in His bitter anger at their obstinacy that they should not enter into the land which He had intended for them as a haven, a place of rest and security. The idea of rest in the Land of Promise incidentally acquired a wider scope and a deeper significance, as the application of this passage throughout the present letter indicates.
The sacred writer, having inserted this quotation with its warning lesson, takes up the thread of his argument once more, in driving home the moral of the story: See to it, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The earnest anxiety of the writer is apparent in the entire structure of the sentence, which, incidentally, is contracted as if he had written in great agitation. They should see to it, they should take heed, lest perhaps, by any bad chance, there might be in any one of the readers a bad, wicked, evil heart, caused by a condition of unbelief. For this condition would show itself in departing from the living God. The Lord is the Author and Source of life; not only is He able to come to the assistance of all people that are in need, but He is the only One that can transmit and keep the one true life in the hearts of those that are His own. Should a believer, therefore, scorn and spurn the fellowship of God by departing from Him and His life, he would have only himself to blame for the final damnation which would come upon him.
The sacred writer, therefore, continues his warning on the positive side: Rather admonish one another every day, so long as that period endures which is called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceit of sin. This is one of the functions of their calling which Christians should be glad to take upon themselves, to exhort, to admonish one another, to spur one another on in sanctification. It is a kindness which is not a mere matter indifferent, but whose manifestation is required by the duty which Christians owe one another. Sanctification in every Christian congregation is a matter calling for constant vigilance, for the practice of love which must be carried on daily, day after day. For now is God’s great Today, now is the time of grace, now is the time that He wants us to listen to His wonderful invitation to the heavenly meal. So long as God still issues His pleading call, we should take heed to pay attention to it quickly; for we do not know when this time of grace may come to an end. And there is always the danger of being hardened by a neglect of the Word in time. Sin is present in so many pleasant and deceitful guises, and the devil is so unusually proficient in his ability to make the greatest defections from the will of God appear as mere innocent pastimes, that it requires the most vigilant care on the part of every Christian lest he become callous to the pleadings of the Word of God and become a prey to eternal death. Sin in heart or life blinds a person to the beauty and the meaning of God’s wonderful offer of salvation.
To the observance of this vigilance we should be inspired also by another consideration: For partakers of Christ we have become, if we but hold firm the beginning of our confidence to the end. See Heb 3:6. This is a thought which is often brought out by the Apostle Paul when he warns the Christians against carnal security, and by Peter, when he bids us make our calling and election sure, 2Pe 1:10. We must never lose sight of the fact that by our conversion we have partaken and are now partaking of Jesus Christ, of all the blessings and gifts which He has earned for us by His redemption. This fact, however, puts us under the obligation of remaining in His grace, of keeping unto the end at least that amount of firm confidence in His redemption which is the essence of faith. So sure must the believer’s confidence in His Lord be that it will withstand all attacks until the end, till it will be beyond trial and temptation, finally triumphant, in the presence of Christ. Firmness, confidence, faithfulness, are required of all disciples of the Lord Jesus.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The warning here is a reminder that the Israelites' unbelief kept almost all of them from entering into the land that God had promised them. Their unbelief was well illustrated in Exodus Exodus 17:1-7, when they complained against Moses and doubted that God was with them.
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General Information:
This quotation comes from the Old Testament in the book of Psalms.
if you hear his voice
God's "voice" represents him speaking. AT: "when you hear God speak" (See: Metonymy)
do not harden your hearts
Here "hearts" is a metonym for a person's mind. The phrase "harden your hearts" is a metaphor for being stubborn. AT: "do not be stubborn" or "do not refuse to listen" (See: Metonymy)
as in the rebellion, in the time of testing in the wilderness
Here "rebellion" and "testing" can be stated as verbs. AT: "as when your ancestors rebelled against God and tested him in the wilderness" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
Holy Spirit
voice
heart
rebel
test
desert
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7–9 3:7-19 This passage presents, “as a warning to us”…
3:7-19 This passage presents, “as a warning to us” (1 Cor 10:6), the negative example of those who wandered in the wilderness for forty years and died there. The wilderness wanderings represent disobedience to God and its consequences (see Num 32:7-11; Deut 1:19-35; Ps 106:24-26).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.