As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Comment: The author argues like this –
- All those led out of Egypt rebelled against God.
- God was provoked by their sinning.
- God denied them entry to the promised land and the initial generation all died in the wilderness. This was because of their unbelief and disobedience. This was mentioned in yesterday’s, post.
- Now the promise of reaching true ‘rest’ in Jesus is available. Let us beware not to follow those who failed before into loss. That is now of the newly promised rest in Jesus. Not rest in a land, but in a Person, Jesus the Messiah.
Prayer: With that man of the gospels (Mark 9; 24) I pray ‘Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief’.
As I read it! 