We have now studied as far as the sixth verse of the third chapter of Hebrews. The next verse begins with “Wherefore,” the reference being to the statement in verse 6 that we are the house of God “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Faithfulness is the one, essential thing, “wherefore” the exhortation is,
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; while it is said, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke; howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3.12-19
These verses give, the direct connection from the sixth verse, but verses 7-11 contain an explanation in parenthesis, and these we must also have before us for our present study: —
“As the Holy Spirit saith, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted Me, proved He, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.”” Hebrews 3.7-11
A Few Questions on the Text directing the attention sharply to just what is said, will help us to understand it better than pages of comments. We begin, for the sake of the connection, with the sixth verse, taking the text in the order that we have quoted it.
• On what conditions are we the house of God?
o “If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
• What exhortation is therefore pertinent?
o “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in stay of you an evil heart of unbelief.”
• What would an unbelieving heart cause?
o “Departing from the living God.”
• What is necessary in order to be really partakers of Christ?
o That “we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”
• What in the meantime is said?
o “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”
• When was “the provocation,” to which the Holy Spirit refers?
o “The day of temptation in the wilderness.” Verse 8
• Who when they heard did provoke?
o “All that came out of Egypt by Moses.”
• How long did they grieve Him?
o “Forty years.”
• What does God say they did?
o “Your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.”
• What did He say of their way?
o “They do always err in their hearts.”
• Although they saw God’s