. HARDENED HEARTS re living truth television “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness….’” —Hebrews 3:7-8 With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, why did the Israelites who participated in the great exodus from Egypt die in the wilderness? Why did they not gain entry into the Promised Land? Most would say it was because of their disobedience and rebellion against God, but what caused this disobedience and rebellion? The reason the first generation of Israelites did not enter Canaan was because of hardened hearts. In Hebrews 3:10, God says, “That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways.’” Moses called them a “rebellious and stiff-necked people” (Deuteronomy 31:27). In Isaiah 65:2, God tell us, “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations…” Disobedience will begin as a hardened heart and becomes a wayward, unbelieving heart. Hebrews 4:2 explains what went wrong. “We also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith.” We recognize the Gospel the Israelites had was different in substance to the Gospel we have today, but it is the same in principle. God had something good for them and God has something good for us. We may have been a Christian for years and have received the gift of eternal life, but there are resources we have never tapped into and purposes we have never connected with. Why? Because we have not combined the truths of Scripture with faith, just as the Israelites had not combined the promises of God with faith. They went their own way, a stiff-necked, obstinate people refusing to believe. If we detach truth from faith it is of no value to us. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” We cannot remain neutral with God; we either move forward or backward. The New Covenant is about taking out the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh; a heart that is soft and pliable where Christ can enter and work. Either we come to God with a heart that is soft and receptive or our hearts are hardened, and a hardened heart becomes a bitter heart and a bitter heart becomes a destructive heart. This was the history of the Israelites. Consequently, they failed to receive God’s provision of the riches of Canaan, but in Jesus Christ the offer still stands… all the riches of heaven made available to us through faith in Him.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:53:49 +0000
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