Hebrews 3:7-15

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ ¹¹ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” ¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵ while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Commentary

Vs 7-11 ⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ ¹¹ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

In recalling the Wilderness Israelite's failings to believe and obey God (Psalm 95:7-8). the Holy Spirit is now warning us all not to miss out on Christ's salvation for ourselves as they did, by saying, "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness ..."  For too harden ones heart as the O.T. Israelite's did in their rebellion in wilderness is now to only perish in ones own sins and transgressions separated forever from the Presence and thus the Salvation of the Lord. And so all that generation who did so, all perished in the wilderness, though they were the congregation of the Lord, yet they never entered the promised rest, because they hardened their hearts when God tested them in the wilderness, and by doing so they alienated themselves from the Lord, because they would not believe and obey the Lord. And so the Lord gave them up to forty years of wandering futility in the wilderness, until every last one of that generation perished from the presence of the Lord. This warning then of that rebellious generations end, should not be lost on any of us, because the Lord is the same today, yesterday, and forever (Heb. 13:8, also consider 1 Cor 10:1-13). And being in (or amongst) the congregation of the Lord is no guarantee that one is of the family (or people) of the Lord. For the Lord Jesus Christ Himself warns us all that 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matt 7:21-23

Vs. 12-15 ¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵ while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Beware then brethren because no one is immune to having an evil heart of unbelief overtake them in this degenerating world, and thus have them depart from the living God (vs. 12). And so believers have to always be on guard against disappointments, distractions, doubters, dissenters and cynics etc., but specifically against the deceitfulness of sin, because nothing will harden ones heart more to the will of God than living in sin (vs. 13). Therefore while it is called "Today" that is the day or time of salvation for one and all who repent and believe, exhort one another to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in discipleship, in all faith and obedience to the will of the Lord. For as it states in verse 14, "we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." Therefore the salvation of the Lord isn't just a one time confession of having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and then one goes back to living however they were living. Rather it is a complete transformation of our entire persons and lives, (and so one must ever look back to what God called them out of like Lots wife did, for she perished in her desire to return, see Gen. 19:15-26; Luke 17:32), but rather we who believe are now to go forward in faith pursuing the will of the Lord for us, which always begins with our own repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who by His own Crucifixion death and shed blood has not only atoned for all our sins and transgressions, but through that Holy Sacrifice of Himself the Lord Jesus Christ has also washed us clean in the sight of God, thereby making us fit to be recipients of His Spirit and His new life, and thus His everlasting salvation as He baptizes us into His own death, burial and Resurrection (Rom 6), by which we have all died (our old selves are dead), so that Jesus Christ by His Resurrection from the dead can bring us into a new and everlasting life with Himself as the Head of it all (2 Cor 5:17; Col 1:18). Therefore as the Holy Scripture says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Do not then be like the Wilderness wandering Israelite's who though they saw the works of God and heard His Holy Word for forty years would not believe Him, and instead kept mumbling and grumbling and complaining against Him, wanting to return to the land of Egypt, the very place of oppression and bondage that He had brought them out of! And so instead of following in their footsteps hear the Lord Jesus Christ's voice Today and open your heart to Him and receive Him as your own Lord and Savior, so that He might not only cleanse you and save you from all your own sins and transgressions, but He also might regenerate you (and thus transform you) and bring everlasting life and all the fruits of His Spirit (see Gal 5:22-23) into you (and thus hope and life and love and peace and joy) and then He will work through you a Godly purposed filled life with Himself as the Lord of it all if you do. Therefore do not delay, receive the Lord Jesus Christ today! 

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. (1982). (Mt 7:21–23). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.