As believers of Jesus Christ, we are charged to take up our own cross and follow Him. That means to follow His example, to believe and adhere to all of His Words (teachings, doctrine). To successfully do that requires that we daily die to our flesh and learn to live according to the Spirit God has placed within our hearts. Jesus did not do his own thing. He said and did that which he saw and heard the Father do. He was obedient to that which the Father charged Him with. We are charged to live in exactly the same way.
When we read the Biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt and the following forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, most of us have been guilty of thinking that we would not have been so thick headed as those people were. We need to realize that we are no different than the Israelites of old. We should learn from them that beholding miracles does not change a man's heart. Witnessing the hand of God intervening in your behalf does not guarantee inner change. The Israelites of Old witnessed miraculous events, yet their hearts remained unchanged. If anything, modern man with his technology and fast-paced lifestyle is far more cynical than his forefathers. Seeing the power of God displayed will not transform our hearts. The only thing that will change our inner man is a personal revelation of Jesus Christ.
During their sojourn in the wilderness, God led them as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by day. He fed them with manna from heaven. He gave them the quail they longed for till they were sick of it. He caused fresh water to burst forth from solid rock that they might quench their thirst. For all these things did they ever give thanks and glory to God, the supplier of their needs? No, they constantly grumbled, complained and bickered, longing for the things they left behind in Egypt.
How, you may wonder, are we like the children of Israel? Because we walk in the same unbelief that they walked in. We have our eyes more focused on the pleasures of this world than on the privilege of knowing God. We are just as stubborn, rebellious and disobedient as any of the people we read about. We have not been taught to follow the Gospel of Christ; to partake of His every Word as if our very lives depended upon it (which our spiritual life does). We have not been taught to seek our own personal relationship with God; one that goes beyond adhering to the tenets of our denomination. We have been taught that all we need is to accept Jesus as our Savior; pay our tithes, and regularly attend the services and programs the Church provides. We have learned to be complacent about God. We think if we comply with all the traditions and rules that men have laid upon us, we are serving God. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What we have in common with the Israelites of Old is simply this; this fallen world we have been born into is our "wilderness experience." Job states in Job 12:9-13 (Amplified) Who is so blind as not to recognize in all these that good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature and human life, that it is God's hand which does it and God's way? In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between wise and unwise words, just as the mouth distinguishes between desirable and undesirable food? With the aged you say is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding. But only with God are perfect wisdom and might; He alone has true counsel and understanding. Our ears have not been trained to discriminate between wise and unwise words. We do not trust God's perfect wisdom and might. Our discernment is carnal; guided by reason and logic. Through Christ Jesus we can possess His mind in all things, but we must avail ourselves of it. We will never obtain spiritual wisdom or discernment as long as we are lukewarm and complacent. Putting in our two hours in a comfortable pew on Sunday morning does not satisfy the quota for being a servant of the Lord. God requires our entire Life!
The writer of Hebrews admonished believers not to harden their hearts. The Lord is strongly impressing us with the same warning today. What message do we find in God's reference to those who wandered in the wilderness? We see in vs. 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. We need to realize that at this time we are the temple of the Lord. Jesus said, He and the Father would come to us and make their abode in us. The Israelites had the outer, physical manifestations of God in their midst, but not within their hearts.
Today we have a distinct advantage over them, in that we came into this wilderness after the death and ascension of Christ. We have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into all truth. It is important to note that it is not enough simply to start out in the Christian way, but we must hold fast (seize on, take) the confidence (assurance) and the rejoicing (a boasting, the glory of) of the hope (expectation, confidence) firm (steadfast, sure) unto the end (conclusion, purpose). We must determine to finish the race; to seize the prize of the high calling of God and make it our own.
Vs. 7,8, Today, if you will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts. First of all we must be willing to hear. To hear is to give audience; to understand. God will speak to us in many ways. We have the capacity to listen or to ignore and brush God off. The more earth bound we are, the more centered we are on this physical reality, the more difficult it will be for us to hear God. When we were born again, our Spirit was reborn into the heavenly realm. We must grow in the Spirit, allowing it to lead and direct our steps in this physical world. God's ways are not our ways; nor are our thoughts God's thoughts. It is our responsibility to learn the ways of the household we have been reborn into. It is our responsibility to give the promptings and guidance of the Spirit we receive preeminence over our own limited understanding and natural reasoning. To harden not your heart, means do not be stubborn and unyielding in our thoughts, our feelings, our mind, resisting the Spirit and following the flesh.
Continuing with vs. 8, as in the provocation (irritation, to God as well as man), in the day of temptation (a putting to proof by experience) in the wilderness (lonesome, desolate, solitary). We should recognize that are spiritual life is with God, not with any body of believers. We must first secure our own, personal relationship. Each one of us must face our own wilderness experience. Each one of us will be tested and tried, just as the Israelites were tested and tried, to see if we will serve God or not. We do not come to God as part of a group package.
Only as we are established in our individual relationship with God, do we then become part of the Body of Christ. It is a great mystery, how we can each have an individuality in Christ and at the same time be part of the entire Christian body. This is only possible as long as Christ is the Head. Remembering that we are the House of God helps us to understand that we are corporately His Body in this world. For His Body to function properly, each member of that Body must be directly connected to the Head, getting the proper instructions and orders. Otherwise, the Body cannot function properly.
We see vs. 6 reinforced in vs.14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. If we would be partakers of Christ, we would be sharers, partners with Him. That means that we will share in His sufferings, as well as His glory. We will endure our wilderness experience, and in doing so will become more firmly established in our knowledge of God. Not all who came out of Egypt entered the Promised Land. So today, not all who initially accept Jesus as their Savior will be willing to pay the cost of lying down their own lives and following Him. Not all will want to let go of the pleasures to be found in this physical world, in anticipation of the manifestation of the realities of the Spiritual world. Many will harden their hearts and fail to enter in. Unbelief will keep them out. To harden our hearts is to fail or refuse to believe God over and above our physical senses. To harden our hearts is to love the things of this world more than we love God.
The entire generation of people that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness, never seeing the Promised Land that was intended for them. Why? Because of their unbelief. Despite all the miracles they witnessed, they refused to learn God's ways. We, as modern man, are faced with the very same decision today. Will we learn God's ways? Will we humble ourselves and become a servant of the Most High, or will we resist and trust in our own righteousness? Will we believe every Word that Jesus spoke, or will we pay more attention to the words of men? Will we lean to our own understanding or will we place our entire trust in believing God?
Most of our faith and trust is placed in teachings and traditions that have been handed down to us by men. Much of what we have received is false. It may give us temporary comfort, but only what we receive from the Spirit of God will keep us from the tribulation that is coming upon this world. At this very moment God is preparing the individual members of His Body to receive Him in a measure that will go beyond any move of God this world has ever known. What we believe is critical for what is coming. Now is the time to prepare our hearts. To receive the promises of God, we must walk in absolute obedience to all of God's commandments. We can only do this if we believe God more than our own senses (reason) and more than the voices of those around us who would try and convince us that there is another way. Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, no man cometh unto the Father except by Me."
Any one who tries to tell you that there is some other way to be made righteous before God is a liar. God already knows each and every thought we think; He knows the very intents of our hearts. God already knows those who really love Him, and those who are simply play actors. Now is the time for each one of us to honestly examine our hearts, lest there be any unbelief lurking within. Ultimately the choice rests solely with each one of us, will we believe God or not? We can rest assured that we will reap the rewards of the choices we make now, in this life, for all of eternity.
This same warning is given in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. We have been given a free-will. We choose what we will believe and what we will reject. May we gladly receive the love of the truth that comes from above, and be saved.
