Hebrews: The Daily Discipline of a Devoted LifeSample

World War One was famously called ‘the war to end all wars,’ yet ironically, only twenty years later, the world descended into World War Two. It is as though we learned nothing from the bodies of young soldiers scattered over the trenches of the Somme. 

Here the writer wants to make sure that these Hebrew Christians, who were showing signs of deserting Christ, did not forget the lesson of their forefathers in the desert. Then, bodies were strewn across the wilderness because of those who turned their backs on the God who rescued them from Egyptian slavery. 

‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ (v. 7), implores the writer, as he reminds his readers of Israel’s debacles at Massah and Meribah (Ex. 17:7). The frightening truth was that Israel’s rebellion then made God swear that his people – the very ones he had rescued from Egypt, and signed a covenant with at Sinai – would not ‘enter my rest’ (v. 11). Rest in the Old Testament context meant release from struggle and settlement in the Promised Land. Rest in our context means bringing our earthly labours to an end and entering God’s new world. 

It is possible to be part of a believing community, yet have an ‘unbelieving heart’ (v. 12). It is possible to attend church, read your Bible daily, and even have a systematic prayer life, without being truly transformed by responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit through the living Word of God. 

And if you continue to fill your life with Christian ritual and discipline, without allowing God’s Word to penetrate and change you, and move you to heartfelt service and devotion, your heart becomes hard. There is no worse place to be than to be impervious to God’s voice. 

This passage is a warning we all need to hear now, before we slide into hardness of heart. It applies even to those of us who open our Bibles every day, and read devotional guides! Don’t assess your relationship with God by how much ritual or discipline there is in your life, but by how much transformation there is in your soul. 

Are you really listening to God? Are you really obeying him? Or do you need to ask the Spirit to circumcise your heart again (to use a phrase from Deuteronomy 10:16), until you are sensitive to every command and urging of scripture?

Reflection

Ponder the words of this hymn: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart today; try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts, I pray’ (James E. Orr).