October 14, 2018 Text: Hebrews 3:12-19
Dear Friends in Christ,
In our Adult Bible Class we are studying the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. They endured slavery, plagues, Passover, the parting of the Red Sea and wandering for forty years. Led by Moses they were on the way to the Promised Land. Along the way many of them lost the faith – fiery serpents and a bronze snake lifted on a pole. They turned their back on the God who could rescue them.
As we look forward to our Promised Land – heaven – we too are on a journey. Like the Israelites we endure setbacks, tragedies, and messes of our own making. We need the Lord’s help to sustain us to the end. In your daily struggles do you ever question . . .
“IS MY CONFIDENCE WAVERING?”
That is not such a crazy question because we all know people who sat in these pews over the years that in their wandering walked away from the faith. Was it the influence of the world? Did their priorities change? Did they just get lazy? Did they turn to some other god? This is the warning this morning, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (v. 12)
The people of Israel were partakers of the blessings that God gave. When they grumbled against Moses they were grumbling against God. Many died in the wilderness, short of the promised rest. Had they remained faithful they would have seen God’s deliverance. They would have seen God raise Joshua, in the Greek – Heseus – Jesus. In Joshua, the guarantee of God came to its fulfillment; Joshua led the people of God to be partakers of, sharers in, the long-promised land of rest.
Are you remaining faithful? Is your confidence wavering? As people of all stripes question Christ and the Christian faith do you find yourselves wondering? As society turns its back on many of things that Christianity stands for do you teeter on the edge? As the Law of God is dismissed as ancient or not conducive to this new world thinking do you ever want to go along to get along?
The Israelites instead of encouraging one another in the promised joy that awaited them, inflamed one another in sinful passions, self-gratification, and various sins of wickedness and unbelief. “Their bodies fell in the wilderness” (v. 17) and “we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (v. 19) St. Paul recounts the sad example they left for us, admonishing us, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” (1 Cor. 10:6)
Hopefully we see them as examples this morning of what we don’t want to be and where we don’t want to go. We look to Christ but not merely as example. He is not the occupant of the house, He is the builder. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) “On this rock I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18), and again, “I go to prepare a place for you.” (Jn. 14:2) Christ is the builder of the house. He is the righteous substitute who endured all things in order that the promise would be guaranteed. As the Son He is faithful over God’s house. He is our confidence and hope as the Holy Spirit helps us to hold to the promise. So heed the warning of our text, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (v. 15)
This is our encouragement so that our faith does not waver. “For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (v. 14) The Holy Spirit is working tirelessly to bring all that is Christ’s and give it to us. Christ took all the sin and bondage that is ours, the faith that wavers on the brink, and hung with it on a tree in our place and overcame it and paid for it. He has given us all the riches and inheritance that are His, that we might be sharers, part-owners, in Him, according to the mercies of God. Joshua means God saves so Jesus means God saves. Christ has delivered you from the bonds of greater Egypt and leads you through this world’s wilderness. He is the bread of heaven and the spring of living water that you need to be sustained. He keeps the promise.
Do you ever just sit and think about that Promised Land that awaits you? Could it be forty years? Could it be tomorrow or next week or next year? You wander and have your ups and downs but you have a hope. You have a confidence that does not waver because the Lord has made that promise. He is faithful and through your consistent worship and prayers and Scripture study the promise will not be taken away. “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all that the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers…Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” (Joshua 21:43-45)
Amen.