Hebrews 3:10

Hebrews 3:10

Their hearts are always going astray

The unbelief of the Israelites and their insolence in questioning God’s ways led to Him being exceedingly angry with them. He accuses their “Hearts of always going astray.” What does this mean? Are there lesson here for us?

Firstly, our hearts go astray when we adamantly refuse to listen to God’s voice. They also go astray when we realise He has spoken but we question His judgement! Our hearts also go astray when we look at situations and problems and evaluate them with human wisdom rather than through the eyes of God. There must be countless occasions in all our lives when the Lord has issued instructions for us to proceed with his plans, but we see the obstacles, we look at our own in abilities, we measure the risks and fail to trust Him to carry us through. What an indictment of our faith it is when we spend years “in the wilderness in disobedience” and someone else has to come along and pick up the reigns and carry out the tasks that were first assigned to us. What a waste of our lives and God’s time!

There is another consequence of unbelief, “They have not known my ways.” Those foolish Israelites who wasted 40 years meandering around in the desert places never did get to discover how powerful and amazing the ways of God are. All of those original travellers died on route; they had been freed from Egypt’s slavery but chose to become slaves of their own disobedience and rebellion. The treasures of the Promised Land lay nearby but well beyond their reach for they never crossed over and claimed the territory that was waiting for them. God forbid that we should be so foolish and harden our hearts against the Lord, the ones who miss out on His blessings are those who adopt such thinking.

“Lord help us to clearly see and know Your will and then to pursue it however dark and difficult the journey may appear to be, knowing that You will always protect and sustain us.”

 

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