Can you imagine how long it would take to get somewhere if we abandoned our planned trip and took a detour at every interesting place along the way? You could imagine what would happen if you were traveling and stopped for every diversion. The trip is supposed to take just one hour. But you haven’t had breakfast, so you stop at a restaurant to eat. Further down the road, you see a gourmet coffee shop, so you stop to get some good coffee. Then there’s an antique store that you’ve heard about, and you stop for an hour of browsing. A few miles further you run across a specialty candle store, and you have to stop. The trip goes on like that, an excursion of diversions. Some travelers not only get diverted by distractions that waste time but that waste a person’s character and a sidetrack becomes a dead-end.
For the author of Hebrews, the situation of this group of people to whom he was writing was dire. He was afraid of them getting sidetracked, losing their way. The paradigmatic story of redemption from bondage to sin as illustrated in the Exodus contained a failure of the people to complete the journey God had provided. They left home in Egypt but never arrived at their destination. It’s a classic example of what it means to lose your way, and it happens all the time to Christians and to churches. The author of Hebrews wants us to know, we can be sure of arriving at our destination if each of us is heart-conscious toward God (3:12), if we encourage each other to stay faithful (3:13–14), and we remember what happens to those who fail through unbelief (3:15–19).
Each Beware of Turning from God in Unbelief (3:12)
Individually, we should be careful about our own attitudes to God. The author describes it as having an “evil, unbelieving heart” (3:12). The expression “turn away from the living God” implies following false gods and idols. God was distinguished from pagan gods because they were represented by a physical object. God was the elohim hayyim, the living God. Deut 13 has a dire warning about false prophets that distract the Israelites from God to worship idols. Deut 13:10 states that the one should be stoned who seduces others “to turn you away from the LORD your God.”
How are people drawn away these days? One of the most powerful forms of persuasion is the media. Television shows are not written just to entertain or educate. They are frequently created to manipulate society. I often get the sense, when I’m watching a sitcom that’s really funny or clever—but the life situation or the philosophical message is not one I would have agreed with—that the writers and producers were really smart to affect my way of thinking through entertainment. People get the message that, those who appear as models for behavior and beliefs are people we should want to imitate. If we don’t, then we are outmoded and irrelevant—or just plain boring. That happens whenever someone charismatic or glamorous is put in front of us. If we want to be like them, we should believe like them.
We should not, of course, follow the instructions of Deuteronomy 13:10 in a literal way. Rather, we are to keep watch on ourselves to see how we are being affected. We should find ways to balance the influences in our lives. Our minds and character are continually being molded by what we see and hear. Why would we want to set a bad example for ourselves to follow?
Together Encourage Each Other to Faithfulness (3:13–14)
Not only should we watch out for ourselves, we should be watching out for each other. It’s not just on Sunday that we should encourage each other, but we should be doing it every day. It’s like the old line about doing something tomorrow: every day you can put something off, because every day always has a tomorrow. Our instruction is about what we should do “today.” Each day it is “today,” so each day is the day in which we should not harden our hearts.
What is distracting us from God is deceptive and deceitful; it lures us away with false promises and empty pleasures. We can give each other encouragement because we are not alone on this trip. Remember that we have a tour guide. Christ is our companion on this trip.
Notice that here again we have one of those conditional statements in verse 14. We belong to Christ as long as we stick to what we started until the end. Hebrews continues to point out that we can’t rely on some initial spiritual experience that would allow us to go on and live life any way we want to.
What if we could perform an autopsy on someone and determine their spiritual condition? The coroner makes a slit down the man’s chest, cracks the ribcage open, and removes the heart. When the spiritual detective comes for a briefing, the coroner takes the heart and hits it with a hammer. “Clang,” it goes. It’s a hard heart. The detective deduces that this man had stopped listening to God. The ears were intact; the man could hear the words, but there was no obedience. His vision was okay, but he would not see what God wanted to show him. He could walk but was unwilling to follow the path God set before him. His arms were strong and healthy, but he would not put his hands to the task God gave him. All symptoms lead back to the condition that had developed in the major organ, his firm determination to do what he wanted to do and ignore, even detest, what God wanted.
It could go a different way. The coroner pulls from a woman’s chest a heart that is soft and malleable. It’s obvious that she had allowed God to direct her life. She was open to hearing God, seeing what God laid before her, walking in God’s Spirit, and accepting life with open and willing hands.
Not everyone needs an autopsy to determine the cause of death. For many people, it’s obvious what’s killing them—spiritually speaking. They’re cold and indifferent to people around them, they freeze from the inside out. Or they are always angry, and they burn with antagonistic fever. Bitterness, despondency, selfishness, narcissism, lust, and domination choke the spiritual life from a person. Spiritual health is visible in people who have a positive outlook in spite of circumstances, whose power displays itself in focused energy toward the good of others, whether it’s happy encouragement or righteous indignation to right a wrong. The spiritually vital person is open to listen, willing to change for the better, soft and gentle toward the misguided or the unfortunate.
We spend so much time talking about physical health. What would we be if we spent just as much time talking about our spiritual health. Give yourself a spiritual check-up; do it every day. Today is the day to keep your heart tender toward God.
Don’t be Like Those Who Failed the Test Because of Unbelief (3:15–19)
Hebrews again quotes the Psalm 95 passage. Then three times the author asks a question about the identity of those spoken of in the quotation. Those who were rebellious were the Israelites who left Egypt with Moses. Who were those with whom God was angry? It was the Israelites who sinned against God, and their carcasses were left along the way. Who were those who would not enter God’s rest? They were the disobedient. The conclusion, then, is that the Israelites from ancient time did not arrive at their destination because they disobeyed God along the way. We in the present time as Christians are not any better than they, but we have a better guide than Moses in Christ. That’s the message of Hebrews.
I’ve been getting where I need to drive to lately thanks to map web sites. I can remember when I used to do pulpit supply in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Once I was having a terrible time with someone’s directions to their church. After a few wrong turns we discovered that the directions they had given us were turned around and we had to do the opposite of what was written. There were many times when I arrived at a church just in time or maybe even a little late.
Tony Campolo tells of such a time. He was driving around trying to find the church. He finally located the church and, since he was late, walked to the platform while the congregation was singing the first hymn. He soon discovered that it was not the right church and had to excuse himself. I may get lost along the way and I might be late, but I’ve always gotten to the right church.
Not everyone gets where they’re going. Highways are dotted by crosses marking the places where people failed to reach their destination. Church cemeteries don’t have as many corpses of past members as church rolls have lists of those who have died out along the way. We set up monuments to remember the one, but the others are lost to memory and perhaps simply