During January, we’ve had messages about our annual theme of “Patient Endurance” that we’ll be focusing on for the upcoming year. Personally, near the end of last year I felt like God was challenging me on one aspect related to patient endurance, and it had to do with growing in the fear of the Lord.
First off, I think it’s important to understand how the fear of the Lord is different from the normal kind of fear. When we normally think of fear, we associate it with ideas of danger, or mistrust, or the unknown. We may think of things we’re personally afraid of, and how much anxiety they bring. The instant reaction we have to this kind of fear is to run away fast!
But the fear of the Lord is different. The fear of the Lord causes us to run to God, instead of away from him. The fear of the Lord comes from a place of reverence and honor for God. It gives us a greater desire to stay on the right path with God, out of a deep love for God and a respect for his power.
Last month, I was doing some listening prayer during a time when I felt overwhelmed, and I came upon Hebrews 3. In my Bible translation (CEB version), Hebrews 3:7-13 is titled, “Respond to Jesus’ Voice Now.” That title really caught my attention! I was asking the Lord to speak to me, and the chapter I landed on was talking directly about how we need to respond to Jesus’s voice.
The book of Hebrews is full of good teaching, but there are five sections in the book that are called “severe passages” because of how serious they are. Hebrews 3:7-13 is one of those passages. Hebrews 3:7-11 quotes part of Psalms 95, which are verses that talk about what happened with the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt. In Exodus, God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land. However, as much as God worked among the people, there were many times when they were disobedient and unfaithful to God.
This is why Hebrews 3:8-13 uses some pretty strong language.
8 don’t have stubborn hearts
as they did in the rebellion,
on the day when they tested me in the desert.So I was angry with them.
I said, “Their hearts always go off course,
and they don’t know my ways.”
11 Because of my anger I swore:
“They will never enter my rest!
There is clearly a reason why this is called a “severe passage.” This was a serious moment when the unfaithfulness of the Israelites stirred up God’s anger toward them. If I wasn’t convinced about the fear of the Lord before, I certainly was now!
Hebrews 3:12-13 continues:
12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. 13 Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called “today,” so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception.
There are two lessons I think we can draw from this passage. First, we can read it as an encouragement to follow God closely. The intention of the verse is to exhort us to be faithful to God, always encouraging each other to be sensitive to God’s voice. One great way to become more sensitive to God’s voice is through fasting. Fasting has a way of softening our hearts and making us more receptive and open to God. If you’re joining us in fasting this January, hopefully you’ve experienced this.
The second lesson I think we need to draw from the passage comes in the form of a warning. Hebrews 3:7-13 is without doubt a warning. The warning here is to not be like the Israelites during Exodus, who strayed from God and worshiped other idols. We’re to take the Exodus story as a lesson for what not to do.
An important part of Hebrews 3:13 is the word “insensitive.” The direct translation of the original word here is “dried out.” Other translations of that word are “hardened.” The warning here is to not allow our hearts to become dried out or callous toward God. Our hearts are hardened when we’re no longer sensitive to the voice of God in our lives. We build up a natural resistance to hearing God and allowing him to convict us and show us areas we need to change. When we’re no longer open to such correction and learning, this is when our hearts become dried out.
By God’s grace, and in the fear of the Lord, may we never allow our hearts to become hardened to God in this way. I pray that we would always be sensitive to God’s voice that convicts us and shows us when we need to change. And let’s grow together in patient endurance this year as God continues to mature us in every way.