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NOT AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23
Hebrews 3:1-19

Psalm 95:1-11

 

“…lest there be in any of you an

evil heart of unbelief…”

 

NOT AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF
 
The Israelites in the wilderness also furnish an example of what the Hebrews writer calls “an evil heart of unbelief ” (Heb 3:12). The reference here is to the many times in the wilderness when the Israelites “tempted” and “proved” God; they “saw [His] works forty years” (v 9), and yet persisted in their murmurings and rebellions against Him, such that He swore in His wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest” (v 11). We are reminded of God’s word to Moses: “all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it” (Num 14:22-23).
 
Significantly, the writer in this passage quotes not from the Pentateuch, but from the Psalms (Ps 95:7-11). The psalmist himself was using the history of Israel to exhort the people of his day to “worship and bow down,” and “kneel before the LORD” (v 6). The writer has a similar aim, and uses the same history with the implication that even those within the church are to “take heed” (Heb 3:12), lest such a heart be found in them.
 
Dear reader, mere membership in the visible communion of the church cannot save, any more than physical presence among the mass of those who left Egypt was a certain sign of salvation (cf. Jude 5). It is possible for such an “evil heart of unbelief ” to be found in any one of us, such that we depart “from the living God” (Heb 3:12).
 
Let us therefore obey the biblical injunction, to “take heed,” and “exhort one another daily” (vv 12-13). While the day of salvation and grace remains, there is hope for repentance; there is hope that such an evil, unbelieving heart may be transformed by God’s power into a pure and truly believing heart!
 
THOUGHT: “[I]n the day of temptation” (Heb 3:8), the hearts of the people were revealed. What will be revealed of my heart, when I am tempted?
PRAYER: “Remove this hardness from my heart, this unbelief remove; to me the rest of faith impart, the Sabbath of Thy love.” (Wesley)

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