Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hebrews 3:7-12

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’” Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

v 7-11 - The quote is from Ps 95:7.  The children of Israel challenged God's authority over them by their rebellion in the wilderness.  Because of this, they failed to enter into the rest of dwelling in Canaan and they perished in the wilderness.

v 11 - 'rest' - (a point of emphasis at this juncture in the book of Hebrews - 3:11, 18; 4:1, 3-5, 8-11)

v 12 - The writer now applies Israel's experience to the dangers facing his readers.

"Having reminded his readers of the defection of the wilderness generation, the writer now proceeds to warn them against committing a similar sin.  He says "Take heed."  The word is 'blepete', a present imperative involving durative involving durative action.  "Be seeing to it constantly, keep a watchful eye ever open," is the idea.  The words, "lest there be" are in a construction in the Greek which indicates that with the fear that the thing spoken of may occur, there is also a suspicion that it will occur.  The words "in any certain individual of your number" show that the writer is appealing to each one individually." (Kenneth S Wuest)

"The word "departing deserves special attention.  It is 'aphistemi' which is made up of 'apo' "off," and 'histemi' "to stand," the compound word meaning "to stand off from."  This was exactly the position of these Hebrews.  They were standing aloof from the living God.  The idea is not that of departing, but of standing off from.  Our word "apostasy" is derived from a form of this Greek word.  Apostasy is defined as the act of someone who has previously subscribed to a certain believe, and who now renounces his former professed belief in favor of some other which is diametrically opposed to what he believed before.  In other words, his new belief is not merely a new system of faith, but one which at every point negates his former belief.  These Jews, should they renounce their professed faith in the New Testament system and go back to the First Testament sacrifices, would be embracing that which is brought in again would negate the New Testament.  It was a question of the Levitical sacrifices or the crucified Messiah.  In making a profession of Messiah as High Priest and then renouncing that professed faith to return to a dependence upon the sacrifices which God set aside at the Cross, the person would commit the sin called apostasy." (Kenneth S Wuest)

"Simply stated, these people may fail to access the heavenly calling of this chapter's first verse if their heart is evil and unbelieving.  This is not the imputed righteousness Paul teaches in Romans chapter four but rather the conditional standing whereby, as in ages past, some did not enter into God's rest.  Hence the parenthetical remark explains the tenuous situation to the Hebrew people using the illustration of Moses and his house." (T D McLean)

No comments:

Post a Comment