Read Hebrews 3.
A prime message of the book of Hebrews is a warning, an exhortation, to Jewish
believers who are living under pressure. It is a call to endurance and
spiritual maturity.
Whenever reading or studying the Bible, one should always ask some key
questions. Among them include: To whom is this originally written?
Why is the writer saying this to them? Answering these and other
contextual questions will prevent one from wrongly applying verses or phrases.
To clarify once and for all, in verse 1 the original readers are called
"holy brothers...who share in a heavenly calling". These were
believers in Jesus. The encouragement is to hold on to the confidence of
one's faith while living under extreme stress and/or persecution (vv.6 and 14).
Naturally, some became discouraged and even loosened their grip on the
hope that is in Christ.
When adversity arises, needs become overwhelming, prayers go unanswered, bad
things happen, or tragedy strikes, the disillusioned will be tempted to think,
"Where is God when I need Him?" Yet, such times are never a
test of God. He does not change. Indeed, those times only reveal
the depth and grounding of one's true faith. The test is of us!
The illustration is how God tested Israel during the wilderness wanderings.
Though God took care of their every need and visibly led them each day,
many voiced their dissatisfaction. Their discontent "provoked"
the LORD (v.10). Their sinful and rebellious attitudes led to hardened
hearts. The root problem was that they did not believe God was taking
care of them (vv.12 and 19)). Over the forty years of the Exodus, that
entire generation died without ever enjoying the Promise Land.
Everyone goes through tough times. God has great things in store for us.
We need each other and we need to encourage one another "every
day...today"! (v.13)
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