“Take Care Brothers”

Hebrews 3:7-19 (ESV)

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
⁹ where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
¹⁰ Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

One main idea is easy to discover: “Take Care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.” In the history of the Jewish people – documented in the Old Testament – many hardened their hearts against God, become ungrateful, grumbling and complaining – they went astray. As a result or consequence, they were unable to enter the promised land. They fell away from the living God.

To paraphrase, the writer is saying – to Christians with Jewish background who knew this history – I don’t want this to happen again to you! Take care, exhort one another daily, consider Jesus, the apostle and High Priest of your profession …

All these warnings begin to stack up in this part of the Hebrew letter. And the message to Christians today is simple: TAKE CARE, examine yourself and hold firm your confidence to the end.

-Quotes from English Standard Version