2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
July 19, 2023
Hebrews 3:1-11
Recap from two week ago. In our first lesson, we read how the writer argued that Jesus is greater than the angels. The argument was that if the message of angels was binding, then the message of Jesus, who was greater than the angels, most be even more binding. The second major argument of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is superior to Moses. Moses was revered by the Israelites because God gave him the Law and he led the Israelites out of Egypt. But the writer in Hebrews argues that Moses was just a servant and a messenger. Moses was limited. Moses could get the people out of physical bondage, but Moses could not carry the people into the promise land. Moses could give the Law, but Moses was not the Law. Jesus on the other hand is better than Moses. Jesus can get you out of spiritual bondage and bring you into the eternal promise land. Jesus was not given the law, but Jesus is the law of God walking in the flesh. Jesus is better than Moses. If the people listened to Moses, they should definitely heed the words of Jesus.
In a similar fashion Hebrews 3:7-11 contains an extended quotation from the Old Testament to support the argument that Christ is better than Moses. Almost all of Hebrews 3 :7-11 is a quotation from Psalm 95:7b-11. But the words of introduction in Hebrews 3:7a show how the author intended the Old Testament passage to function in his own message. The first word is "therefore." It is designed to connect the conditional statement in verse 6 with the command in verse 8. Verse 6 had proclaimed that we are the household of Christ if we hold fast to the confidence and pride of our hope. The word "if" raises the question of whether the readers of Hebrews will be faithful to Christ in the midst of pressure being faced. Because there is some question about that faithfulness - therefore - the scripture from Psalm 95 is quoted to warn and exhort the readers of the importance of trusting obedience of God. The quotation formula used by the author reflects his high view of Scripture. "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says" Says is the present tense of the verb says. The Holy Spirit also speaks now and continues to speak through the Scripture, the author of Hebrews was convinced that what the psalmist sang about the Israelites in the wilderness (centuries earlier) had relevance and meaning for the community of faith in its time of pressure in the first century. One of the chief evidences of inspiration is the Holy Spirit’s ability to take words written to and about people centuries ago and make those words speak with the power of God to a new generation.
Psalm 95 has two major sections. Verses 1-7a, of the Psalm, were a call to worship God. Verses 7b-11, quoted by our author, were a warning against disobeying God by referring back to a painful time in Israel's history. Psalm 95 has been used in synagogue worship from ancient times to the present as a prelude to the Friday evening and Sabbath morning synagogue worship. No doubt the original readers of the book of Hebrews would have been familiar with the psalm from their own experiences of synagogue worship. There is evidence the psalm was sung as part of the temple service in Jerusalem on Sabbath mornings. It is important that the two parts of Psalm 95 be kept together. The worship of God called for in the first part of the psalm is important and necessary. But that worship must come from sincere and obedient hearts. We separate the psalm into two parts - the call to worship and the warning against hardness of heart. But in reality, the psalm was one call to worship. The second part demanded searching self-examination of one's heart as part of the process of coming into the presence of God.
Verse 7. “Today, if you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” The call to hear his voice can be easily misunderstood by modem readers. We tend to think simply in terms of a sound being heard. The Hebrew word for hear and obey is the same word. Thus, the psalmist Was not just appealing for Israel to hear (listen to) the Word of God, but also for them to obey that word. Hebrew poetry was written with what is called parallelism. In this case hear his voice is a parallel thought or antithetical or the opposite of not harden your hearts. That is, hearing the voice of God means having hearts that are open and responsive to him rather than hard and closed. The words of the psalm are directly applicable to the readers of the book of Hebrews. Those readers were under pressure for their faith in Christ; they were being tempted to give up their faith. But to give up the faith means turning their backs to and closing both their ears and hearts to the entreaties of God. The words of the psalm say exactly what the writer of Hebrews wanted to say, "don't harden your heart" against God’s effort to strengthen and encourage you. Don't resist God's efforts to help you in the midst of your pressure and trouble. To give up the faith in the face of persecution was the moral equivalent of the rebellion against God that took place in Israel's history during the wilderness wanderings. The author of Hebrews continued to quote the Old Testament in verse 8. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness. The literal translations of the Hebrew text of Psalm 95:8 read, "Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness."
The references to Meribah and Massah connect the psalm to Exodus 17:1-7 and several passages in Numbers (14:20-23, 28-35 and 20:1-13). At that time Israel had bitterly complained against God (and falsely accused him of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them) at a time when the people had run out of water. Exodus 17:7 states that Moses named the place Massah and Meribah - Hebrew words meaning "testing" and “quarreling." Massah and Meribah became code words for a testing, testy, cantankerous spirit that was never satisfied with what God provided. It was a quarreling, complaining, bitter attitude. That Israel could have fallen into such an attitude so soon after God had brought them out of Egypt should be a reason for humility rather than criticism.
The spiritual issue at stake here is trusting God. Surely, after God had brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, he could supply water for them in the desert. How could they fail to trust him? After God had sent Christ and revealed him to be the Messiah to the first readers of Hebrews, surely, they could trust him to preserve them through persecution, couldn't they? After all that God has done for us, how could we not trust him in any and every circumstance of our lives? But we don't! Sometimes after God has performed the greatest miracle of helping us out, we stew and fret and worry that we just can survive the next problem coming down the line. The issue for Israel, for the first readers of Hebrews, and for us, is trust. Will we believe that he can and will safely carry us home? Or will we begin to scheme and connive to solve our problems and relieve the pressures upon us in our own strength with our own wisdom?
Verse 9-11 describes Meribah and Massah as the place where the Israelite fathers tested God by trying to make him prove himself. The demand that God prove himself is the opposite of trust. It is the opposite of obedience. And the response of God according to verse 10 is anger. They always are deceived in their hearts and they did not know my ways. The idea of being deceived in their hearts is a powerful word image. The word deceived speaks of wandering off track so that person, animal, or thing is not where the observer expects it to be. Tempting God to prove himself is thus described as being off track and deceived. The Hebrew parallelism suggests that being off track also means not recognizing God's ways. God uses the difficult times of life - whether it be the desert, persecution, or the pressures we face in life - to test our trust and obedience. To try to turn the tables on God and test him in those times is to usurp the role and way of God. That is sin. As a result, God swore that the Israelites would not enter my rest. In the context of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings not entering God's rest meant not entering the Promised Land. But the use of the word rest immediately draws Genesis 2:2-3 to mind where God rests at the end of the process of Creation. To refuse to trust God, to usurp God's own role in testing, and to harden one's heart is to get stuck in the creation process. It is to not reach the goal of God's work in one's life. It is to be incomplete, immature, and unfulfilled. It is to say, "Not only is God not finished with me yet, he's not going to finish with me."
Hebrews 3:12-15. Verse 12 begins the application of Psalm 95 with an abrupt and stern warning. "Watch out!" would be an accurate translation of the first word in verse 12. It is very interesting since the first readers of Hebrews were facing persecution that the warning deals with their hearts. "Watch out lest you have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." The problem of giving up on God and turning back is ultimately not a persecution problem; it is a heart problem. To describe the heart as unbelieving taps in on all the concepts alluded to in Psalm 95. An unbelieving heart is a heart that does not trust God. A heart that tums from the living God has no place to tum to except to one's own self. The apostasy of turning away is doubly tragic because there is nothing to turn to when one turns away from God. This is the mistake that we must learn from. Turning away from God is turning away to nothing.
Verse 13. The word encourage could be translated "exhort." The word speaks of motivation, recognizing that sometimes motivation must take a comforting and encouraging approach while other times it must take a tough and urging manner. The key word in verse 13 is daily. Two things are at work. The author of Hebrews recognizes that his readers need encouragement every day if they are to survive the pressure of the persecution that is coming their way. Nobody outside their community of faith will be encouraging them; so, they must encourage each other. Second, the author is ready to connect the need for daily encouragement with the use of the word today in Psalm 95. This leads him to make a direct application of the psalm to the circumstances of his readers. Failure to encourage each other daily could lead to their being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The words and concepts come from the psalm. The meaning is that failure to stay true to Christ would mean that those first readers of Hebrews had hardened their hearts and been deceived by sin.
Verse 14 strengthens the appeal and connects all the material from verses 7-13 to verse 6. The verb hold fast in verse 14 is identical to the verb in Hebrews 3:6. There the author was arguing that Christ is better than Moses because Christ was a faithful son while Moses was only a faithful servant in the house of God. This sheds light on the exhortation of verses 12-15 and the use of Psalm 95. Perhaps the Israelites could be excused for their failure to trust God at Meribah and Massah. After all, they were only led by Moses. But since Christ is superior to Moses, those of us who bear the name of Christ, those of us who have become partakers of Christ, we have no excuse for failure to trust God and obey. So, we cannot make the same mistake and fail to trust Christ like the Israelites failed trust Moses. To clinch his argument the author repeats the first two lines from his earlier quotation from Psalm 95:7b-8a in verse 15.
Hebrews 3:16-19. The conclusion of chapter 3 is built around a series of rhetorical questions in verses 16, 17, and 18. The answer given in verses 16 and 17 comes in the form of another question, while the answer for verse 18 is incorporated into the question itself. The three questions are built on phrases taken from Psalm 95 and the three answers are built on phrases taken from Numbers 14. The relationship can be seen in table form:
v. 16a Ps.95:7-8v. 16b Num. 14:13, 19, 22
v. 17a Ps.95:10v. 17b Num. 14:10, 29, 32
v. 18a Ps.95:11v. 18b Num. 14:30, 33, 43
The question asks "who?" The answers are crescendo of accusation against Israel. They rebelled against God (v. 16b); they sinned against God (v. 17b); and they refused to obey God (V. 18b). The culmination of sin and unbelief was open defiance toward God. One cannot argue against the conclusion that God had to prohibit their entry into the Promised Land. The author of Hebrews draws his conclusion in verse 19. They were not able to enter because of unbelief. Unbelief is not to be understood as doubting the truthfulness or factual character of some data or proposition. Rather, it is defined by the rejection recounted in verses 16-18. Defiance of God made entrance into the Promised Land impossible. Likewise, refusing to trust God (unbelief) in the midst of persecution and pressure will make possession of the promised time impossible also. The connection of Numbers 14 is important for understanding Hebrews 3:19. Numbers 13-14 tells the story of the twelve spies. Upon their return ten spies opposed invasion of Canaan and two supported an invasion. The people of Israel sided with the ten and decided to not obey God and invade the land. But after they realized their mistake, they presumptuously attempted to invade Canaan in their own strength in spite of the fact God had sworn that all but Caleb and Joshua would die in the wilderness. Their self-based invasion failed miserably. They tried to enter on their own strength and not faith. That generation of Israelites did not believe God, even though they saw example after example of how God kept His word through Moses. Again and again, God announced a coming plague, and each came as and when God said. Again and again, God announced that He would remove a plague. And each time it came about just as (and when) God said. The Israelites complained and rebelled when they were hungry or thirsty, even though God had promised to meet all their needs. And, in the end, the Israelites failed to believe that God would give them victory over the giants in the land. The root evil behind Israel’s failure to enter into God’s “rest” was unbelief.
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