ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER DAILY

Hebrews 3:7-19 / Keywords 3:13

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

8     do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion,

    during the time of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,

    though for forty years they saw what I did.

10 That is why I was angry with that generation;

    I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,

    and they have not known my ways.’

11 So I declared on oath in my anger,

    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”[b]

12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts

    as you did in the rebellion.”[c]

16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Footnotes

b. Hebrews 3:11 Psalm 95:7-11

c. Hebrews 3:15 Psalm 95:7,8

 

1. The Psalmist spoke the word of God to caution the people to listen to the Lord. The Israelites were delivered from Pharaoh. They heard the word of the Lord directly. They saw miracles in the desert, but they hardened their hearts. They refused to obey the Lord and instead worshipped other gods. They went away from God and wandered without rest. “Today” for them meant the day God revealed his glory to them through his call and his word. God has revealed himself to us “today” through his Son. We must not harden our hearts but rather open our hearts to his love.

 

2. We are unbelieving in our sinful nature, but we are called to encourage each other continually. We have the blessings of sharing in Christ and the promise of entering into his eternal rest. We need constant encouragement to protect us from unbelief and hard hearts. God was angry with his people in the desert because they refused to receive him even after he delivered them from Egypt, out of the land of slavery. We have been led by Jesus himself out of sin and death to enter God’s eternal rest. We must share in Christ and encourage each other always.

 

Prayer Lord, help me to receive you with an open heart and be a source of encouragement to God’s people.

One Word Encourage one another daily