Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit, To-day if ye will hear his voice,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness;
Two real places in Israel's desert history stand behind this warning. The writer takes the words from Psalm 95 and applies them to people who had already professed faith. So what is a hardened heart? And how does someone who has watched God work for years end up with one?
The writers quoted below use an older English translation. It reads "provocation" and "day of temptation" where the ESV has "rebellion" and "day of testing."
The wording is not general. Each word points to one incident.
Israel's past history was to teach lessons for their children. In the original, the Psalm would remind everyone of two events. The word translated provocation recalls Meribah, described in Numbers 20:1-13. The word translated temptation recalls Massah, told in Exodus 17:1-7. God among them, God's power and care for them — they doubted on these two occasions, but with no reason at all. So let the Hebrews take care not to act in the same way.
The word here is stronger than dullness or slow understanding.
When the apostle in Hebrews refers to the wilful obstinacy of the Israelites in the wilderness he uses a different word: "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." Its finer shades of meaning are not settled here. But this word and its forms seem to describe a definite resistance in man. It deliberately blocks up the heart to shut out the light of God. As the Lord said, "You refuse to come to me that you may have life."
Because hardening is resistance to light, the light a person has received decides how serious it is.
It was easy to hear with the outward ear only, and to harden the heart. Stephen warned: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you." Sin is measured by the truth heard and despised. What testimony can God present to those who refused the voice of Christ? He was not only humbled but glorified, and He died for sinners.
Israel's forty years were not short of evidence.
For forty years they saw God's works of power and mercy. He provided for their needs and kept them from every danger. Yet despite every sign of His presence, they tested God by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" In this they showed the hardness of hearts untouched by God's goodness. They sought only their own desires and did not know God's ways. So they made it plain that, whatever profession they had made, they had no real confidence in God.
One writer compares this to the seed sown on rocky ground.
Someone who has merely made a profession without reality may easily harden his heart. The wilderness history of Israel served to bring out what was actually in their hearts. In the same way, a person may be only a rocky-ground hearer. The seed may spring up fast. Then persecution or trouble comes because of the Word, and the truth of the Word is given up just as fast. The heart hardens against what the conscience had once approved.
The psalm turns from praise to warning. What decides the shift is where the eye is looking.
Notice the change when the psalm speaks of the Shepherd, and of them as the sheep of His hand. Praise is simple and happy work while we are occupied with the Shepherd. When we turn to the sheep, we need warning... As long as God in His love and grace fills the soul, there can only be praise. But when the eye turns from God to man, we need the warning not to harden the heart. It is not enough for a man to say, "I was converted ten years ago." How is it today? ... There is no sadder sight than a heart hardened by grace neglected or despised.
The warning carries a date, and the date is now.
When Israel was delivered out of Egypt, they provoked God in the wilderness — and this has been true of Christians in this world too — because they were not at once, and without difficulty, in Canaan, the land God had promised... This word "today" is the expression of the patient activity of God's grace. It may be that only a few will listen. But the word "today" still sounds out for everyone who has ears to hear, until the Lord appears in judgment.
- Named — "Provocation" and "temptation" point to Meribah and Massah. There Israel doubted God's presence and care, with no reason at all.
- Wilful — Hardening is not dullness. It is deliberate resistance that blocks the heart to shut out God's light.
- Exposed — The desert brought out what was already in Israel's heart. Forty years of goodness left them untouched, and trouble still exposes profession without reality.
- Present — A conversion ten years ago proves nothing today. No sight is sadder than a heart hardened by grace neglected.
- Today — "Today" is God's patience still speaking. The more truth you have heard, the more urgent the call to hear His voice now.
where your fathers tempted [me], by proving [me], and saw my works forty years.
These words come from a psalm, quoted as a live warning. They point back to the desert years, when Israel put God on trial. It raises a hard question: how could people who watched God work for forty years still fail to trust Him?
Commentators trace the wording back to two breakdowns in Israel's history.
Israel's past history was to teach lessons for their children. In the original, the word translated provocation would remind everyone of what happened at Meribah, told in Numbers 20:1-13. The word translated temptation would remind them of what happened at Massah, told in Exodus 17:1-7. God among them, God's power and care for them — they doubted on these two occasions, but with no reason at all. So let the Hebrews take care that none of them acts in a similar way.
It came down to one question, asked by people He had just rescued.
To test the LORD in the desert was to say, "Is the LORD among us or not?" Unbelievers may think this a small offence. In the eyes of God and of faith it is serious. Had He not broken the pride and power of Egypt for His poor unworthy people? Had He not brought them out of the house of slavery in triumph? He was their Guide and their Rearguard, come to live among them and be their God. They put Him to the proof while the signs of His faithful presence never stopped. The least such a people owed such a God was to judge themselves and go forward, sure of His gracious power.
The forty years worked in two directions at once. Every test they set for God, He passed.
They tested God: He bore long with them. They tried Him: countless times He proved faithful and gracious in spite of their self-will. They saw His works of grace and power for forty years. But they treated all this with contempt, and His patient forbearance too. Time proved their hearts false and ignorant of God's ways.
The same writer removes the excuse that hard circumstances forced their hand. Their rebellion, he says, was occasioned by trial but not caused by it — and if a man pleads that he was provoked into rebelling, "let him think again that such rebellion is a reason for God's being rightly provoked to judge him."
While Israel was assessing God, something was going on that they missed completely.
The sin here is independence from God. They wanted to test how fruitful the land was and how strong its inhabitants were. Little did they think that God was testing them. He had already tested them by law. Now He tested them after declaring Himself "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Hebrews 3 refers to this very time. It is the day of testing, when their fathers put God to the test. The Holy Spirit adds another word — provocation — to show how evil their sin was.
Israel saw God's works. Their hearts stayed hard anyway. Commentators point out how little evidence achieves on its own.
But does man ever really profit by light graciously given by his Creator? Israel watched the mighty works God did in Egypt and in the wilderness, in full view, by His mighty hand. What effect did they have? Divine and sovereign grace worked in the hearts of men like Joshua and Caleb. Beyond them, the works produced no lasting good effect at all, and might just as well never have been done. And what does the Spirit of God say about the descendants of that people? The Saviour had been among them, doing works no man had ever done before. Only this: "Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him" (John 12:37).
Israel made a public start: they left Egypt behind. That public start is what makes them a warning to anyone who makes a profession.
Israel made the profession of leaving Egypt and following the LORD. Their road ran through a wilderness full of dangers, where confidence in God alone could carry them to the end. For forty years they saw God's works of power and mercy providing for their needs and preserving them from every danger. Yet He gave them sign after sign of His presence. Despite that, they tested God and put Him to the proof by asking, "Is the LORD among us or not?" They showed the hardness of hearts untouched by God's goodness.
- Place. The "where" is Massah and Meribah. On both occasions Israel doubted God's power and care for no reason.
- Provocation. They tested God with one question: "Is the LORD among us or not?" Unbelief calls that small. God calls it serious — and He had just carried them out of slavery.
- Patience. Forty years of testing only proved Him faithful. They treated that faithfulness with contempt.
- Proof. While they were testing God, God was testing them — and the sin exposed was independence from Him.
- Peril. Seeing works never made anyone believe. Hearts untouched by God's goodness stay hard. A public start out of Egypt is no substitute for real confidence in Him.
Wherefore I was wroth with this generation, and said, They always err in heart; and *they* have not known my ways;
Here God gives His verdict on a whole generation. Forty years of patience ended in one plain charge: their hearts were wrong, and His ways were unknown to them. Hebrews sets these words before its readers as a live warning. So why was God grieved? What does it mean to go astray "in the heart"? And how does anyone come to know His ways?
God's deep feeling here flows out of what He is.
God is just and true. That is exactly why He felt so deeply the stubborn and deceitful rising up of Israel against His will. Their error was not in their understanding but in their heart. So they never learned God's ways; they ignored them.
Scripture speaks of God's grief in the same way long before this. Older translations read "grieved" here where the ESV reads "provoked."
We read of divine grief in the Old Testament in the days before the flood. "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart" (Gen. 6:5-6).
God's charge lands on the heart, not the head. That is what makes it so serious.
There may be more wickedness in a sin of the heart than of the hand. The more of the heart and spirit that goes into a sinful act, the more evil there is in it... So to go astray in the heart is worse than to have an error in the head. That is why God makes Israel's sin heavier with this: "They always go astray in their heart" (Heb. 3:10). Their hearts run them into the error. They liked idolatry, so they soon believed what pleased them best.
The forty years were a test, and it ran long enough to show what was really there.
They tested God: He bore long with them. They tried Him: countless times He proved faithful and gracious despite their self-will. They saw His works of grace and power for forty years. But they treated all this, and His patience too, with contempt. In this way time proved their hearts false and ignorant of God's ways.
Watching what God does is not the same as knowing why He does it.
One reason, I do not doubt, was that they were unable to view such acts in connection with the ways of the Lord. To them these were only separate acts of divine power to help them. Each act simply met some hard circumstance that rose up against them from time to time. They could always sing the Lord's praises when such acts came to rescue them from the enemy's efforts to crush them. But once the occasion had passed, their rebellion always broke out again.
The same history holds one man who is the exact opposite of the nation.
Israel did not understand His ways. So they never knew His heart, and they went astray in their own. As Scripture says, "They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways." Moses, on the other hand, did value the heart of God. Of him Scripture says, "The LORD made known His ways to Moses."
Hebrews sets this verse before its readers to weigh personally, not as ancient history.
So it is good for us, on our own or together, to weigh well the Lord's way with us, which surely leads to the Lord's end. Of Israel it was said that they were "a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways." In this way the state of the heart before God becomes important. Then God disciplines the soul, and it reaches His end. Nothing happens without His hand in it.
- Heart. The fault God names is not a mistake in the head but a bent in the heart — and a heart that likes the error will soon believe it.
- Grief. Because God is just and true, that bent heart truly grieved Him. Scripture uses the same words of Him before the flood.
- Time. Forty years were long enough to test them: repeated faithfulness on His side, repeated contempt on theirs.
- Ways. They saw God's acts as separate rescues and never linked them to His ways. So fresh rebellion followed each rescue.
- Contrast. Moses valued God's heart, and God made His ways known to him — the door Israel left shut, and the one still open today.
so I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest.
These words are not the writer's own. He takes them from a psalm, and sets God's oath against the desert generation before readers who were tempted to turn back from Christ.
The psalm points back to real events. One commentator links the wording to two of them, where Israel doubted God's care for no reason.
Israel's past history was to teach lessons for their children. In the original, the word translated provocation would remind everyone of the incidents at Meribah, described in Numbers 20:1-13. The word translated temptation would remind them of those at Massah, recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. God was among them, with power and care for them. Yet on these two occasions they doubted Him, and with no reason at all.
Commentators differ on which moment the oath answers. Another writer points to the time when Israel weighed up the land and its people.
The sin here is independence from God. They would test the fruitfulness of the land and the strength of the inhabitants. They never thought that God was testing them… For forty years they saw His works, and they kept provoking Him. But Hebrews 3 has special reference to this time… This despising of the land was the provocation.
The oath breaks off mid-sentence in older translations: "If they shall enter." One writer explains why those unfinished words carry such weight.
"As I swore in My wrath if they shall enter into My rest" (that is, they shall not). A solemn sentence of exclusion. In a man's mouth it is incomplete: God do so to me and more, if —! On God's lips the condition of man's entering is the moral certainty that it is all over with him. Good is only and wholly of grace. There is no entrance into the rest of God if it depends on man's deserts. If they shall enter means, for unbelievers, that they shall not enter.
The rest belongs to God; He calls it My rest. One writer rules out three things people often mean by that word.
It is not the present rest of conscience that faith in the Person and work of Christ gives the believer. The Lord spoke of that rest when He said, "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Nor is it the rest of heart that is the daily portion of the one who walks in obedience to Christ… Nor is it the temporary rest of a tired worker.
What God rests in depends on what God is. That puts His rest in the future.
God can only rest in what satisfies His love and holiness. God's rest will come when God's love has fulfilled all His mind for those He loves. When righteousness is established, and sorrow and sighing flee away, God will "rest in His love" (Zephaniah 3:17). "Holiness cannot rest where sin is; love cannot rest where sorrow is."
The oath had a cause. One writer traces it to what Israel had already given up.
This was the case with Israel in the wilderness. God swore to them that they should not enter into His rest (Numbers 14:21-23). And why? They had given up their confidence in Him. They had heard how beautiful and excellent the land was, yet their unbelief robbed them of the promised rest.
One writer reads the desert generation as a picture, and names who that picture is for.
Of course, it does not raise the question whether they were lost as to their soul's salvation. It takes them as figures of those who never enter into God's rest… They are figures of those who make a profession in this day. They hear a gospel preached to them — not about Canaan, but about a heavenly calling and a place in Christ. But they refuse that gospel and turn back from Christ, their appointed Leader, as Israel did from Moses their appointed leader.
- Provocation. The oath answers a real refusal. Israel doubted God's care at Meribah and Massah, and later despised the good land. Writers point to both.
- Wrath. The oath breaks off mid-sentence: "If they shall enter." On God's lips those unfinished words are a settled sentence of exclusion. They mean they shall not.
- Rest. It is His rest — not a quiet conscience, not a break from work. God rests only where His love and holiness find full satisfaction. So the rest is still ahead.
- Unbelief. They lost confidence in Him first; the exclusion followed. Entry never depended on deserving it, since good is wholly of grace.
- Today. The desert generation pictures people who profess faith today. They hear the gospel of a heavenly calling, then turn back from Christ their Leader.