"Four-Part History" Sermon: Hebrews 3:7-11

“Four-Part History”

[Hebrews 3:7-11]

May 13, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            This morning’s Scripture occurs at least four places in history, and we do well to recognize when a Scripture points to more than one time period.  We do this most often during the Advent season and Christmas when we look at prophecies about Jesus’ Coming.  Yet we have not fully understood these Scriptures if we only look at them and understand them in the light of Jesus fulfilling them in His Coming.  We also need to ask what these texts meant to the people in the time in which they were written – because they surely meant something.

            In our text this morning, the author of Hebrews wrote something to his readers in the first century.  It meant something to them – and we understand that it should mean something to us.  Yet, he quotes a Psalm, which was written a thousand or more years earlier, which meant something in its day.  And the Psalm recounts a history which occurred, perhaps, some five hundred years earlier, which meant something in its day – to the people to whom it occurred.  So, let us think about this four-part history.

One:

“All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?’ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’ So Moses cried to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:1-7, ESV).

After four hundred years of Egyptian slavery, God heard the cry of His people and sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt, and God delivered them by His Mighty Right Arm – preforming ten great miracles which caused Pharaoh to finally let them go and cause the people to give them gold and silver, clothes and animals, and send them on their way. 

When they reached the Red Sea and the Egyptian army chased after them, God opened the Red Sea, so walls of water stood on either side of them as almost two million people crossed the sea on dry land and then turned to watch as God closed the sea over the Egyptians and drown them all.

In the Sinai desert, God led them by cloud and by fire, providing them with manna – a perfect, heavenly food that God sent them, as well as meat, and water.  And God even sustained their clothes so they did not wear out during their forty-year journey.

God met with Moses and gave His people the Law, and the people knew by the radiance of God’s Glory on Moses’ face that he had met with God and these were God’s instructions for them as His people.

They had seen God work in many and miraculous ways, delivering them and providing for them, but still, the people didn’t trust God.

When they got thirsty, they began to cry out to Moses, “We’re thirsty!”

And Moses asked them “Why are you asking me for water?  Is there something I can do about it?  Can I control the weather?  Can I cause water to appear?  Why are you testing God?”

What does that mean?  Hear this definition:  “To distrust God, to disbelieve his promises, whilst a way of duty lies before us, after we have had experiences of his goodness, power, and wisdom, in dealing with us, is a tempting of God, and a greatly provoking sin” (John Owen, Hebrews, vol. 4, 68).

To test God means to distrust Him – especially after one has been given ample reason to trust Him.  To test God means to know in one’s own life that God keeps His Promises and to hear God’s Promises and not believe God will keep them.

How did Israel respond?  “Trust God?  We don’t know if God is among us or not.  You’ve brought us out here to kill us and our children and our sheep!”

They were untrusting and hysterical.  They didn’t know if God was among them or not?  Really?  After the miracles God had performed, after freeing them from slavery, after miraculously providing for them in the wilderness, appearing before them in fire and cloud, and giving them His Law – do we think they might have had a clue that God was with them? 

And they turned against the man of God – “This is a trap – you led us out of Egypt so you could watch us all die in the desert!”

The people of Israel had hardened their hearts against God and did not trust Him, despite everything God had done.  Yet, God was patient and told Moses to take his staff and hit a rock and water would flow from it.  Notice:  there is no record that they gave thanks – only that the place was named “testing” and “quarreling.”

In 1500 B.C., what might the readers of this text have understood?

They would have understood that their fathers sinned in not trusting God – especially after all the evidence of God being trustworthy.  So, they would have understood that God is to be trusted based on the overwhelming evidence and experience of the nation.

They also would have understood that when God makes a promise, He keeps it.  God cannot lie or deceive or come up short in all that He says.  If God has said it, it is so, and nothing will ever change what God has said.

 Two:

            “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!  For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.  Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’  Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest’” (Psalm 95, ESV).

            Five hundred years later, one of the Psalmists put this historical event into one of his Psalms.

            The Psalmist began by calling the people to praise and glorify God in song.  In song, he teaches;

            God is worthy of being praised for salvation comes from God, and God’s salvation is immovable:  if God has saved, one cannot lose salvation.  The security of salvation is based on God’s Character, not on the person being saved.

            God is worthy of all thanksgiving and praise because there is no greater God or King than God:  God is the ultimate God and King.  And one of the ways we know that is through the Creation:  the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains are in the Hand of God, because God is the Creator of the sea and the dry land.  There cannot be a greater god than the God Who created everything that is.  And there is no greater god to be thanked than the God Who created and set humans in dominion over the earth – that humans would care for and steward and love the Creation with a love like God’s.

            God is worthy of all worship – no other god is worthy of worship, but God, because God has chosen a people for Himself.  And God shepherds His people as a shepherd shepherds His sheep.  Shepherds were called on to provide for all of the needs of the flock – to guide them and lead them to food and safe places to eat and rest.  He sought to protect them from other animals and robbers.  He even was willing to lay down his life for the sake of his sheep, if necessary.  And so, God cares for His people and leads them and protects them and lays down His Life for them, because it was necessary.  No one is of greater worth.

            Then the Psalmist turns to the people of his day and addresses them in the light of these doctrines about God:

            The Psalmist calls them to repentance – to hearing the Voice of God – and he warns his readers – and those singing the Psalm – not to harden their hearts as their fathers did in the wilderness – in the place that was called “quarrelling” and “testing.”  The Psalmist warns the people not to test God as their fathers had – not to doubt God – not to distrust God and His Promises after all they had seen and experienced.  No, but to follow God, to obey God, to believe God, because of all they had seen – and experienced – of Him.

            And then the Psalmist brings to mind what happened at the end of the forty years in the wilderness, when God revealed His disgust for the people that He had brought out of the land of Egypt – excepting Caleb and Joshua – because for forty years, they had turned their backs on God and told Him it was never enough – no matter what God did – it was never enough for them to trust God and follow after Him with all their heart.

            So, in God’s Wrath, He did not allow anyone – except for Caleb and Joshua – out of all the people that God freed from slavery in Egypt – to enter the Promised Land.  God kept all of the people in the Sinai desert for forty years – until every one of the two million people He brought out of Egypt was dead – except for Caleb and Joshua.

            Hearing and singing this Psalm since 1000 B.C., God’s people would be reminded of God’s Character – especially His Faithfulness and Trustworthiness.  And the people would hear the call not to sin against God by distrusting Him and doubting whether or not God will keep His Promises, because God takes sin very seriously – and if a person persists in sin against God, God may stop him by killing him or keeping him from receiving God’s Promise by holding it back until after he dies.

            Three:

            “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.  Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.”  As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”’”

About a thousand years after the Psalmist wrote his Psalm, the author of Hebrews quoted his words to the people he was writing to – for Jewish Christians who were considering turning their backs on Jesus and returning to Judaism.

            And we find ourselves at another conclusion – “therefore.”  Since the author of Hebrews had shown that Jesus is the Author of the Gospel and greater than Moses and the Law by both bring the Son of God and the Creator of everything that is – Jesus is the Son; Moses was a servant.  Jesus is the Creator; Moses was a creature.  Since Jesus is greater than anyone and everything that ever was or is or will ever be.

            And then the author of Hebrews draws our attention to the fact that we do not merely have history before us.  We do not merely have a Psalm before us.  We do not merely have moral instruction before us.  But the Psalm that he quotes from is the Very Word of God.  “The Holy Spirit said.”

            Now, we understand that most of the Scripture is not merely God dictating what to write, but humans wrote, guided by God, that they would write everything God wanted us to know for life and salvation, and everything they wrote would be true and without error – and so, the Word of God.

            What the author of Hebrews has done is identify the words quoted as being the Word of God, so he is telling his readers to hear what God says to them – not in the days of the Moses, or in the days of the Psalmist, but in their day – in the first century A.D.

            So, we could preface the text by saying, “If you are considering walking away from Jesus and returning to Judaism, hear the Word of God to you today:”

            The author of Hebrews would have them read the text this way:

            “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.” 

            “Today is the day of salvation – don’t think you’ll have another chance to change your mind and to turn back from your sin.  Hear the Voice of God – understand that turning away from Jesus and going back to Judaism after you have seen and experienced everything you have seen and experienced is no different from the hardening of hearts that your fathers had when after forty years of proof of God being with them, they did not trust God or believe in His Promises.”

“Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’”

“Do not let it be said of you that you persisted in sin – that you persisted in turning away from God and denying God’s Word and denying God’s Promises and saying that God cannot be trusted.  Do not prove that you have never known God.”

 “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

“Remember, God was enraged with your fathers and caused them to die in the wilderness, so that none of them – except Caleb and Joshua – enter the Promised Land.  For you, it is even more serious, because I’m not talking about entering into the rest of a mere piece of property you will inherit, but I am talking about your very salvation:  if you persist in your sin and in your denial of Who Jesus is and all the evidence that is proving Jesus to be God the Savior, who is Superior to anyone and everything – then you will not enter the rest of the Kingdom of God promised to all those who believe, but you will enter eternal damnation, which is what God promises for all those who never believe.”

The author of Hebrews wants his readers to understand that it is insanity to put off faith in Jesus Alone.  Today is the day – you may not have tomorrow.

And he wants them to understand that God is Holy and will not stand for His people to persist in denying God and His Word.

And let us understand, we cannot assume that everyone except Caleb and Joshua were unbelievers who died in the wilderness.  It is possible to believe and – for a time – to go very far from God in sinning against Him.  So, there are times, for the good of the believer and for the good of the Church that God will take a person’s life to save them from doing further harm to themselves and others.  Even though Jesus has paid the debt of every sin a believer ever sins, God may allow us to suffer the consequences of our sin – even death – for our ultimate good.

            Four:

            And today – some nineteen hundred years after the author of the book of Hebrews wrote – how do we hear this history today?  If this is the Word of God and not merely human writing, it must have meaning and power for us today.

            So, we might begin by asking if we have received evidence of the Trustworthiness of God.  Have we seen God’s Promises fulfilled before us?  Do we have evidence of Who God is and His keeping His Word?

            If you are a Christian, listen to one Scripture:

            “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39, ESV).

            There is more historical evidence that Jesus lived, died, and physically rose from the dead than there is historical evidence that any other figure in history ever existed.  And if you are a Christian, you have the witness of God the Holy Spirit living in you as well.

            What are the promises that God gives the Christian in the passage I just read?

            God is for the Christian – no one can ever turn God away from those who believe in His Son.

God has given His Son for us – the greatest gift imaginable – so God will also give us everything we ever need.

God has justified us – He has legally ruled us as “not guilty” in His Sight because Jesus stands in our place before Him.

King Jesus is our Judge, and He stands to intercede for us before the Father.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, will ever separate a Christian from the Love of Jesus.  If you have truly believed in Jesus, there is nothing you can do to ever make Him stop loving you – or to cause Him to forsake you.

Do you believe those promises?  Is there enough evidence in the Bible and throughout the annals of history that God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, lived, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and then physically rose from the dead – what is that?  That’s the Gospel.

Don’t let this day go by without being sure – you may not have tomorrow.  Today is the day.  God has done all the work – believe what He has done – and you will enter into His rest.  When Jesus returns, He will bring all those who truly believed into His Eternal Kingdom on earth.

Let us pray:

Almighty God of History, all our times are in Your Hands.  You planned the moment of the Creation and there is not one maverick molecule or moment in all of history, but You have planned it all, and everything is coming to pass as You have willed.  We thank You for sending Your Son for the Salvation of everyone who will ever believe and for giving us Your Word that we could have the evidence – and the history – of Your Promises and Your fulfilling Your Promises before us that we might believe and be encouraged.  Help each one here this morning not to doubt or to turn away, but to hear Your Voice and to follow after You in faith and obedient holiness until that day when You welcome us into Your rest.  For it is in joy we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.