#DailyDevotion Listen To The LORD Today! Don’t Be Like Those Israelites.

Heb. 3 ¹⁵When it says: “Today, if you hear Him speak, don’t harden your hearts as it happened when the people provoked Me” — ¹⁶who were those that heard Him and yet provoked Him? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷With whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies dropped dead in the desert? ¹⁸To whom did He swear they would not come to His place of rest if not to those who disobeyed? ¹⁹So we see that they couldn’t come there because they didn’t believe.

Sometimes I’m just utterly amazed at the stupidity of humanity. I guess it’s really the utter deceptiveness of sin. Think about it. Adam and Eve, they were sinless, yet Eve got deceived by the serpent and the Man outright rebelled against the LORD who created him, provided him a nice garden to live in and gave him a wife.

Now the book of Hebrews hearkens back to the Exodus. He asks, “who were those that heard Him and yet provoked Him?” He then explains who they were. They were those whom He led out of Egypt. Now think about that. The LORD had sent Moses and Aaron to free them from their bondage in Egypt. During this time, the LORD worked ten marvelous signs, plagues, upon the Egyptians, which they all saw, and they did not believe the LORD or trust in Him.

They saw Moses part the Red Sea and they walked over, 3 million of them, on dry ground. They saw the Angel of the LORD in a pillar of fire by night and smoke by day stand between them and the Egyptian army. They saw the walls of water crash on the Egyptian army and kill them all. They heard the voice of the LORD from the glory on top of the mountain. They were fed with manna and quail along with being provided for with water. They witnessed all these workings of the LORD and they still did not believe Him or trust Him.

These were the people the LORD was angry at for forty years having them drop dead in the wilderness until that whole generation was removed from the face of the earth. They did not enter His place of rest, the Promised Land because they disobeyed. They could not enter it because they didn’t believe.

Now, Today is today! Today is the day of salvation. Today in this reading you read how the LORD, the Father sent the LORD, the Son to take on human flesh in order to redeem you. He took on your guilt and shame into Himself. He bore your sins in His body and shed His blood to make full atonement for your sins. He offers you this salvation absolutely free of charge. Eternal life Jesus gives you all by His grace. He wants to give you the Kingdom of God. How will you live and respond to His grace? Will you be like the Israelites who did not believe and didn’t enter His rest or will you be like Joshua and Caleb who believed and entered into the Promised Land? Do not harden your hearts against the Gospel of Jesus but let it circumcise your hearts so you may find your rest in Jesus.

Merciful God and Father, grant us Your grace that our hearts may be circumcised so we may believe all Your promises in Christ Jesus and enter into Your rest. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.