by Joe La Bianca

Created on: November 13, 2009

So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.

A person can give an audience to the gospel; he can understand the report about God's Son and His work on the cross, and still indurate his heart toward God. The Holy Spirit's voice discloses the truth of grace to men and women, but it is the decision of people to either believe or become spiritually hardened. Never cause yourself to have an unfeeling, stubborn heart of unbelief. Rather, believe God's word and be healed.

Many times the Israelites provoked God in the wilderness; once for bread, when God sent them manna; again for water, when Moses struck the rock; again when they made the golden calf of idolatry; again, when they refused to believe Caleb and Joshua's good report and then refused to possess the land; and other times as well. We must never disbelieve God's promises as they did in the provocation, when Israel initiated God to anger for forty years. Instead, let's hear the Holy Spirit's voice and believe.

We must never scrutinize God, for the Almighty is not pleased when we carefully inspect Him as if to critique His nature and will. God gets angry at such behavior, because the testing of the Lord shows a heart that roams and wanders away from the truth. The way of Jesus, which is His mode of operation, must be known by those who are His. The way of the Lord is that road to Calvary, where our High Priest was sacrificed for our sins and where we receive the robe of righteousness as a gift, to cover sin, and clothed with God's imputed goodness. May our hearts not ever be out of the way, but may we know the grace of God, and believe His great promise about His Son.

That whole generation of accountable

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