Hebrews 3:7-19 - Believing and obeying

The following three passages of Scripture have two things in common.

Firstly, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Moses said to the people in Deuteronomy 9:23:

When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and inherit the land that I am giving to you,” you disobeyed the word of the Lord your God and did not trust him and did not listen to his voice.[1]

Turning to the New Testament, we read, in John 3:36:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

Hebrews 11:31 says:

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.

And what we notice as we listen to these three verses is that each of these verses has in common two families of Greek words, which are used as "opposites". That is, a person either does this or they do that.

The first Greek word is avpeiqew, and it is translated in these passages as “disobeys”, "disobeyed", or "disobedient". And the other Greek word which is used in these passages is, pistij, or pisteuw, translated as “trust’, “believes”, or "faith".

And what each of these three passages tell us is that a person either believes, or they disobey. They either obey, or they have "unbelief" in regard to the commands and promises of God.

In Deuteronomy 9:23, they "disobeyed" and did not "trust".
In John 3:36, people either "believe in" or they "disobey" the Son of God, although the NIV translates this as “rejects”.
And in Hebrews 11:31, Rahab had "faith", while the others were "disobedient".

And this is important for us to remember when we then read in Hebrews 3:18-19:

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

These different passages of Scripture make it abundantly clear to us that the opposite of "faith" is not "unbelief". Instead, the opposite of "faith" is "disobedience".

And the opposite of "obedience" is not disobedience, instead, the opposite of obedience is "unbelief". Or, as Hebrews 3 tells us, the “disobedience", in verse eighteen, is the same as the "unbelief" in verse nineteen.

What did James tell us in James 2:18:

Someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

In other words, my actions are the expression of the reality of my faith. My faith is shown by my obedience, and twice in his letter to the Romans Paul says that the goal of his mission was to:

Bring about the obedience that comes from faith.[2]

What each of these writers are saying to us is that faith, genuine faith, does not exist, cannot exist, without obedience.

Yes, we know that we still sin, we disobey, and we fail to do what God has commanded us, but those times of obedience, those times when we trust God and through that trust in God we do, and act, and speak, and live as God longs for us to, our doing, acting and speaking are all signs of faith.

Think for a minute about Peter. In Matthew 14 Peter and the other disciples are out in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wasn't with them, but we read in Matthew 14:25-27:

Early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

And how did Peter respond?

Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.[3]

Then in the next verse we read that Jesus commanded Peter to "come".

And it was at that point that Peter faced a test of faith. But it was a test of faith that would be displayed in whether or not he would obey the command of Jesus to "come". To get out of the boat and go to Jesus wasn't simply an act of obedience, even though Jesus had commanded him to "come", it was an act of faith.

And so when Peter got out of the boat, and started walking to Jesus on the water, not only was he obeying the command of Jesus to "come", he was also showing, he was displaying by his actions, the fact that he trusted Jesus enough to do what Jesus said, even when the wind and the waves were howling around him.

Of course we know that Peter then began to look at the waves, took his eyes off of Jesus, and began to sink, but in his very act of getting out of the boat and starting to walk to Jesus, Peter not only obeyed Jesus, he also showed his faith in Jesus.

Faith is always displayed in obedience. And obedience is always a sign of faith, while a lack of obedience is not simply a sign of "sin", it is a sign of a lack of faith.

And so when I read the commandment, "do not lie", that is, "do not bear false witness", the question is not whether or not I will obey God and tell the truth, the real question is "do I trust God enough to tell the truth in all circumstances"?

When I read the commandment, "do not steal", the question is not whether or not I will obey God and not take what doesn't belong to me, the real question is "do I trust God enough to not take what doesn't belong to me"? Do I trust God to provide me with the things that I need, so that I don't feel the need to take matters into my own hands and steal the possessions of others?

When I read the commandment, "do not commit adultery", the question is not whether or not I will obey God and be faithful to my spouse, the real question is "do I trust God enough to realise that faithfulness in our marital relationships is always right"?

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, the real question was not whether or not they would obey God and leave alone the fruit from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". The real question was, would they trust God enough to do what he says, even when someone else is whispering in their ear "it's all right. It doesn't matter. Go ahead. You deserve it".

You see, obeying the commandments is not so much a matter of "obedience", as it is a matter of "faith". And if the "faith" is present, then the obedience will follow.

This is what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he talks about the people who experienced the Exodus under Moses.

These were a people who had experienced deliverance, the salvation, of God. They had been brought out of Egypt. They had crossed the Red Sea. They had heard the voice of God at Sinai. They had eaten the Manna, and they had seen God act time and again in the most miraculous ways.

And yet, when God told them to go up and take the promised land, they said, "we can't, because we lack the power".
When Moses went up the mountain to receive the law, they built an idol for themselves, a calf made out of gold, and they worshipped it.
When camping near other nations, they turned to immorality, in spite of the commandment "do not commit adultery".
And when struggles and trials came as they walked through the wilderness, they grumbled and complained. They blamed Moses, they blamed God, and they talked about going back to the slavery of Egypt.

When the people wanted water, and God told Moses to “speak to the rock and water will come out”, what did Moses do?

Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.[4]

But what was God’s response?

Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.[5]

What was their fundamental problem? Was it a lack of obedience? No. Their lack of obedience was merely the symptom of a far greater problem. Clearly, they didn't obey God, but that wasn't the real problem. Clearly, they committed adultery. They committed idolatry. They refused to do what God told them to do. But their fundamental problem was not a lack of obedience, it was a lack of faith. They simply didn't trust God enough to do what God told them. To live how God told them. To keep on walking with God when things got tough.

And that is why the message of Hebrews is so important to us. For here in this letter, we have a group of Jewish Christians who were facing challenges of faith. And for them, the real test was:

Would they trust God enough to continue to follow Christ, even in the face of everything going wrong around them.

Hebrews 10:32-34 says:

Recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.

This group of people had seen their friends imprisoned and their property confiscated. They had been insulted and persecuted. They had suffered greatly. And now, as they looked and saw what was going on in Judea with the rebellion against Rome.

The brutal reconquest by the Romans.
The siege of Jerusalem.
And the eventual destruction of the temple.

They were being told "continue to trust in Christ, no matter what else is going on around you. And through faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel”.

They were told to remember that:

He is the son of God.
He is the creator of all things.
He is greater than the angels.
He became a human being and suffered just like us, therefore he knows exactly what you are going through.
He is our great high priest who offered one sacrifice for sin forever and is now seated at the right hand of God.

Continue to trust in Christ. And through faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel.

Don't allow the circumstances of the moment to sway you.
Don't allow the struggles of life to overwhelm you.
Don't allow your uncertainties about the future to cloud your thinking.

Continue to trust in Christ, and through your faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel.

Hebrews 11 gives numerous examples of individuals who continued to trust God, in spite of their circumstances. People who, in the face of uncertainty and doubt. In the face of persecution, imprisonment, torture and death. In the face of poverty and destitution. In the face of injustice and great evil, Hebrews 11 gives us the example of person after person who, knowing the commands of God. Knowing the promises of God. Knowing the purposes of God, they continued to trust God. And in continuing to trust God, they continued to show their faith through their obedience to the directions, plans, and purposes of God.

There is the example of Noah, who believed God, and built an ark.

There is the example of Abraham, who believed God, and left his home and his family, to go to whatever place God would lead him. Not knowing, of course, where that place was going to be.

There is the example of Moses' parents, who, in the face of the king's command that all male babies be murdered, they hid their son and, as Hebrews 11:23 says, "they were not afraid of the king's edict". Why weren't they afraid? Because they acted in faith. A faith that was put into practice through obedience to the commands and purposes of God. A faith that acted in obedience to the purposes of God, without any idea whatsoever about what was going to happen next. They didn't know if the king would find out about Moses, take them away, imprison them or even kill them. All they knew was what God wanted them to do, and through their faith in God, they lived lives of obedience to what God wanted them to do.

There is the example of Joshua, who did a humanly foolish thing by marching around Jericho once per day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day. And why did he do this? Because he trusted God when God told him that this was what he was to do, and in his faith, he obeyed.

There is the example of Rahab, who knew that God had given the land to Israel, and because she trusted in the God of Israel, she helped the people of Israel, risking her own life in so doing.

And as he continues to talk about those who had faith in God, and who through their faith lived lives of obedience, he says in Hebrews 11:33-38:

Through faith [they] conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

And when he comes to his conclusion on the importance of faith, and on the obedience to the will and ways of God that comes from faith, he says in Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

In Jesus, we have an example of faith, a faith that obeys, that is worth following, so let us never, ever, allow the circumstances of the moment to crush us. Distract us. Or cause us to give up and turn away from Christ.

Let us instead remove all doubts. All fears. All sin. All distractions. So that we might live lives of obedient faith, and faithful obedience, to the will, plan and purposes of the God who has saved us through faith in Jesus Christ.

This was our writer's great concern for this group of Jewish Christians, that through the circumstances of life, they would "turn away" from Christ, so he warns them, using the example of those who were freed from Egypt in the Exodus, quoting Psalm 95:

I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’[6]

Then he warns them:

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.[7]

Notice that it is the "unbelieving heart" that turns away from the living God. Therefore, see to it brothers and sisters, that none of you follow their example of unbelief. An unbelief that led to disobedience, and a disobedience that led to turning away from God, and a turning away from God that led to the judgement of God.

Then, out of his great concern that these people continue in a life of faith in Jesus Christ, he says in verse thirteen, that they were to "encourage one another daily".

Just as "today we hear his voice" and renew our commitment to Christ, so also "today" we encourage one another to renew our commitment to Christ and be strengthened in our lives of faith.

In Colossians 3:3, Paul says that he is writing to the church in Colossae, a church which was being led astray with false teaching, to "encourage them", so that they might know Christ. To encourage them so that they might be able to stand against the challenges, threats, pressures, and false teachings of this world, so that they might continue to live by faith in Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:2, writing to a church in a town where he had been persecuted, Paul says:

We sent Timothy . . . to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:18 they were to encourage one another through Paul's teaching on the resurrection of the dead and the return of Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 they are to:

Encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

Finally, in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, they are to:

encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.

Mutual encouragement to a life of faith, and a life of faithful obedience.

Titus was told to "encourage the young men to be self-controlled",[8] while Peter says that the reason that he wrote his first letter was:

to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.[9]

Encouraging them to "stand fast". Encouraging the timid. Encouraging those who are struggling in faith. Encouraging those who are facing the challenges of life. Encouraging one another.

Hebrews 10:25 makes it clear that this is one of the reasons why we meet together:

not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Through meeting together. Through times of teaching, and worship. The reading of the Scriptures, prayer, and singing. By simply being together and talking with, and listening to, one another, we are "encouraging one another" in faith, so that we each may continue to trust Christ, so that we each might continue to live in obedience to Christ.

And we continue to need this encouragement, because our faith, and the obedience that comes from faith, is being challenged ever more fiercely. But through our mutual encouragement in the faith, we will be enabled to stand against those things which would drag us down. Trip us up. And turn us away from Christ.

And so, in the words of Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13:

As the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. . . . [But] take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Encouraging and being encouraged so that we might live lives of faith.

Encouraging and being encouraged so that through faith, we might live lives of obedience to God.

[1] A New English Translation of the Septuagint

[2] Romans 1:5; 16:26. ὑπακοὴν πίστεως

[3] Matthew 14:28

[4] Numbers 20:11

[5] Numbers 20:12

[6] Hebrews 3:10

[7] Hebrews 3:12

[8] Titus 2:6

[9] 1 Peter 5:12

Hebrews 3:7-19 - Believing and obeying

The following three passages of Scripture have two things in common.

Firstly, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Moses said to the people in Deuteronomy 9:23:

When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and inherit the land that I am giving to you,” you disobeyed the word of the Lord your God and did not trust him and did not listen to his voice.[1]

Turning to the New Testament, we read, in John 3:36:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

Hebrews 11:31 says:

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.

And what we notice as we listen to these three verses is that each of these verses has in common two families of Greek words, which are used as "opposites". That is, a person either does this or they do that.

The first Greek word is avpeiqew, and it is translated in these passages as “disobeys”, "disobeyed", or "disobedient". And the other Greek word which is used in these passages is, pistij, or pisteuw, translated as “trust’, “believes”, or "faith".

And what each of these three passages tell us is that a person either believes, or they disobey. They either obey, or they have "unbelief" in regard to the commands and promises of God.

In Deuteronomy 9:23, they "disobeyed" and did not "trust".

In John 3:36, people either "believe in" or they "disobey" the Son of God, although the NIV translates this as “rejects”.

And in Hebrews 11:31, Rahab had "faith", while the others were "disobedient".

And this is important for us to remember when we then read in Hebrews 3:18-19:

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

These different passages of Scripture make it abundantly clear to us that the opposite of "faith" is not "unbelief". Instead, the opposite of "faith" is "disobedience".

And the opposite of "obedience" is not disobedience, instead, the opposite of obedience is "unbelief". Or, as Hebrews 3 tells us, the “disobedience", in verse eighteen, is the same as the "unbelief" in verse nineteen.

What did James tell us in James 2:18:

Someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

In other words, my actions are the expression of the reality of my faith. My faith is shown by my obedience, and twice in his letter to the Romans Paul says that the goal of his mission was to:

Bring about the obedience that comes from faith.[2]

What each of these writers are saying to us is that faith, genuine faith, does not exist, cannot exist, without obedience.

Yes, we know that we still sin, we disobey, and we fail to do what God has commanded us, but those times of obedience, those times when we trust God and through that trust in God we do, and act, and speak, and live as God longs for us to, our doing, acting and speaking are all signs of faith.

Think for a minute about Peter. In Matthew 14 Peter and the other disciples are out in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wasn't with them, but we read in Matthew 14:25-27:

Early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

And how did Peter respond?

Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.[3]

Then in the next verse we read that Jesus commanded Peter to "come".

Of course we know that Peter then began to look at the waves, took his eyes off of Jesus, and began to sink, but in his very act of getting out of the boat and starting to walk to Jesus, Peter not only obeyed Jesus, he also showed his faith in Jesus.

Faith is always displayed in obedience. And obedience is always a sign of faith, while a lack of obedience is not simply a sign of "sin", it is a sign of a lack of faith.

And so when I read the commandment, "do not lie", that is, "do not bear false witness", the question is not whether or not I will obey God and tell the truth, the real question is "do I trust God enough to tell the truth in all circumstances"?

When I read the commandment, "do not commit adultery", the question is not whether or not I will obey God and be faithful to my spouse, the real question is "do I trust God enough to realise that faithfulness in our marital relationships is always right"?

You see, obeying the commandments is not so much a matter of "obedience", as it is a matter of "faith". And if the "faith" is present, then the obedience will follow.

This is what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he talks about the people who experienced the Exodus under Moses.

These were a people who had experienced deliverance, the salvation, of God. They had been brought out of Egypt. They had crossed the Red Sea. They had heard the voice of God at Sinai. They had eaten the Manna, and they had seen God act time and again in the most miraculous ways.

And yet, when God told them to go up and take the promised land, they said, "we can't, because we lack the power".

When Moses went up the mountain to receive the law, they built an idol for themselves, a calf made out of gold, and they worshipped it.

When camping near other nations, they turned to immorality, in spite of the commandment "do not commit adultery".

And when struggles and trials came as they walked through the wilderness, they grumbled and complained. They blamed Moses, they blamed God, and they talked about going back to the slavery of Egypt.

When the people wanted water, and God told Moses to “speak to the rock and water will come out”, what did Moses do?

Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.[4]

But what was God’s response?

Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.[5]

And that is why the message of Hebrews is so important to us. For here in this letter, we have a group of Jewish Christians who were facing challenges of faith. And for them, the real test was:

Would they trust God enough to continue to follow Christ, even in the face of everything going wrong around them.

Hebrews 10:32-34 says:

This group of people had seen their friends imprisoned and their property confiscated. They had been insulted and persecuted. They had suffered greatly. And now, as they looked and saw what was going on in Judea with the rebellion against Rome.

The brutal reconquest by the Romans.

The siege of Jerusalem.

And the eventual destruction of the temple.

They were being told "continue to trust in Christ, no matter what else is going on around you. And through faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel”.

They were told to remember that:

He is the son of God.

He is the creator of all things.

He is greater than the angels.

He became a human being and suffered just like us, therefore he knows exactly what you are going through.

He is our great high priest who offered one sacrifice for sin forever and is now seated at the right hand of God.

Continue to trust in Christ. And through faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel.

Don't allow the circumstances of the moment to sway you.

Don't allow the struggles of life to overwhelm you.

Don't allow your uncertainties about the future to cloud your thinking.

Continue to trust in Christ, and through your faith in Christ, continue to live lives of obedience to the Gospel.

There is the example of Noah, who believed God, and built an ark.

There is the example of Abraham, who believed God, and left his home and his family, to go to whatever place God would lead him. Not knowing, of course, where that place was going to be.

There is the example of Joshua, who did a humanly foolish thing by marching around Jericho once per day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day. And why did he do this? Because he trusted God when God told him that this was what he was to do, and in his faith, he obeyed.

There is the example of Rahab, who knew that God had given the land to Israel, and because she trusted in the God of Israel, she helped the people of Israel, risking her own life in so doing.

And as he continues to talk about those who had faith in God, and who through their faith lived lives of obedience, he says in Hebrews 11:33-38:

Through faith [they] conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

And when he comes to his conclusion on the importance of faith, and on the obedience to the will and ways of God that comes from faith, he says in Hebrews 12:1-2:

In Jesus, we have an example of faith, a faith that obeys, that is worth following, so let us never, ever, allow the circumstances of the moment to crush us. Distract us. Or cause us to give up and turn away from Christ.

Let us instead remove all doubts. All fears. All sin. All distractions. So that we might live lives of obedient faith, and faithful obedience, to the will, plan and purposes of the God who has saved us through faith in Jesus Christ.

This was our writer's great concern for this group of Jewish Christians, that through the circumstances of life, they would "turn away" from Christ, so he warns them, using the example of those who were freed from Egypt in the Exodus, quoting Psalm 95:

I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’[6]

Then he warns them:

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.[7]

Then, out of his great concern that these people continue in a life of faith in Jesus Christ, he says in verse thirteen, that they were to "encourage one another daily".