Hebrews
3
Listen
to the voice of LORD, and
don’t harden your heart against Him
Heb 3:7 So
then, as the Holy Spirit says, "If you hear God's voice today,8 do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they
rebelled against God, as they were that day in the desert when they
put him to the test. 9 There they put me to the test and tried me,
says God, although they had seen what I did for forty years. 10 And
so I was angry with those people and said, 'They are always disloyal and refuse to
obey my commands. 11 I was angry
and made a solemn promise: 'They will
never enter the land where I would have given them rest!"
Heb 3:15
This is what the scripture says: "If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn, as your
ancestors were when they rebelled against God."
Heb 3:18
When God made his solemn promise, "They
will never enter the land where I would have given them rest"—of
whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. 19 We see, then, that
they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.
The warning God gave to the Hebrews is a stern one, but it is given from a place of
deep love:
Do not be stubborn, do not harden your hearts, do not disobey my commands… Why?
Because if we do, we will not be able to enter the place of rest that God
promise us, when we obey Him and yield to His ways.
Things that
harden our hearts if left unchecked and undealt with are: Rebellion, Unforgiveness,
Envy, Selfishness, Arrogance, Pride, Sexual sin, Dishonesty to name only a few.
Beloved
child of God our sinful nature wants to rebel against God. In our own strength
we cannot overcome these things and we really need to humble ourselves,
ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the areas in our lives where we
struggle with sin.
When you
stumble (all of us do) come before the Lord in Prayer with humility, ask
forgiveness. Be like David who poured out his heart in sorrow before God and
asked for forgiveness of his sins in Psalm 51. The Lord is true to His Word and
just to forgive us our sins. The Lord will not despise a broken and repentant
heart (Ps 52:17).
Prayer
Father God,
by the power of our Holy Spirt help us to walk in humility so that our hearts
will not rebel against you and be hardened. Create in us a clean heart oh Lord,
renew a right spirit within us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation and
make us willing to obey you. We praise you Lord and all honour and glory belong
to you. Amen
A note on humility. I really wanted to have a deeper
understanding of what humility means and my search lead me to an explanation
from the Hebrew language:
In Hebrew,
the word for humility is anavah.
Anavah (a humble heart) is a picture of strength surrendered to
God. The Bible describes Moses, the great leader of Israel, like this in
Numbers 12:3 “Now Moses was very humble (anav), more than
anyone else on the face of the earth.” Moses confronted Pharaoh, parted the
Red Sea, and received the Ten Commandments, yet the defining characteristic God
highlights is his humbleness. His strength was not in himself, but in his
surrender to God. From the perspective and depth of the Hebrew language
humility (anavah) means:
· bowing low so that God can lift you
high,
· strength restrained by love,
· walking with confidence in God’s
power, not in your own pride.
Micah 6:8 “He
has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To
act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly (anavah) with your God.”
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PASTORA HESMA - JCRC CAPETOWN
Amen😇
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