LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
"If Ye Shall Hear His Voice This Day..."
Three times this phrase from Psalm 95:7 is quoted in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. The call is not to harden our hearts when we hear God's voice. Disregarding God and hardening the heart was Israel's great sin, which brought unbelief and disobedience. The apostle adds: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God ... lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:12-13).
The consequence of unbelief was the failure to enter God's rest (3:19). The apostle concludes with a warning to us: "Let us therefore fear lest, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, any of you should seem to have fallen short of it. For to us also the good news was preached as to them; but they did not profit by hearing the word, because it was not accompanied by faith in those who heard it" (4:1-2).
The sequence of these ideas allows us to associate unbelief with the inability to hear God with faith, unbelief with disobedience, and disobedience with the loss of rest. Everything is generated by indifference to the voice of God, the inability to hear in faith.
How important it is to hear the words of God in faith. If we do not do so today, our hearts will be hardened, and we will be bewildered. How significant it is that unbelief is brought together here with disobedience. It is faith that generates obedience; unbelief generates disobedience. Obedience is not the fruit of our effort or will, but simply of believing.
Thus we discover the power of faith. By God's grace, God's resources are placed at our disposal, and by faith we receive them for every need. On the one hand, the hand of God offers us liberally (grace), and on the other hand, we take freely what God gives us in grace (by faith).
Hebrews bears much resemblance to Romans and Galatians. In these three epistles the issue of faith, as opposed to law and works, is present. Like Romans, Hebrews refers us to Abraham to tell us that it is "by faith and patience (that) the promises are inherited" (6:12). Like Romans, Hebrews quotes Habakkuk in that wonderful phrase: "But the just shall live by faith" (10:38).
God's rest is a consequence of believing. Believing fills us with joy and peace, according to Romans, and also introduces us to rest, according to Hebrews. Isn't it wonderful? Rest is looking at the good works of God and resting in the sufficiency of them. Rest is also, in the words of Romans, to receive "the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness" in order to "reign in life". Let us therefore hear his voice and not harden our hearts, but believe.