Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Sometimes in life we miss the obvious. We have our minds set in one way, and despite the presentation of contrary evidence, we continue on our set course. Or is this just something I run into in my own life? Does this every happen to you, or to someone you love?
I could give you any number of contemporary examples, but I won’t I don’t want to alienate anyone. But society has been forced in one direction and continues in that direction despite the evidence shouting in the opposite direction. Evidence doesn’t matter when you are set on a course.
But it isn’t only in politics that we can get set in a wrong direction. Our text is the summary statement of this section of the book. It is speaking about the children of Israel and their failure to trust the LORD when they exited Egypt and were supposed to go into the Promised Land straight away. Their lack of trust cost them their lives.
Previously in chapter two, the writer told us that it was to Abraham’s descendants that the LORD brought help. This is interesting. Why not say that it was to Adam’s descendants? What is the difference?
Abraham demonstrated his faith. Adam did not. Abraham is held up as an example of someone who trusted even in the face of a seemingly contradictory command. Abraham was told to offer his son as a sacrifice to the LORD. Abraham was willing and had the knife in his hand. He trusted when others would have most certainly turned away.
The children of Israel turned away when they had every reason to trust. They had just been miraculously delivered, having seen the LORD’s hand in the plagues and the dividing of the Sea. What kept them from trusting?
I think their minds were so influenced by their time Egypt, that they couldn’t accept the evidence they themselves had experienced. Their mind were so infused with Egyptian concepts of gods and spiritual things that they were unable to comprehend a living, intervening God. They had no space in their hearts for the LORD to fill, because they had Egyptian gods in that space.
And it takes faith to displace rotten beliefs. It takes faith to see the evidence and abandon the old ways of thinking and being. The evidence was right in front of them, but they couldn’t see it because they still held onto the old ways of thinking.
I wonder what beliefs we are holding onto that prevent us from a fuller trust in Jesus? Are we holding onto childish ways of framing the work of God in the world in ways that prevent us from seeing His hand working right in front of us? Do we close the door to God’s movement by the small box in which we place Him?
If we do, we can enlarge the box or remove the box completely. We can change our view. The evidence is there. The LORD wants to move and change our hearts and the hearts of everyone who will trust Him with their lives and futures.
But we can get comfortable, wanting our leeks and onions by the Nile. Following Jesus means giving up what we now believe is fulfilling for what is truly fulfilling. Think cotton candy vs. a steak dinner cooked to perfection. Think a kid’s toy piano vs. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.
Go for the reality that is real reality. Trust Jesus with it all!
The Arnold Journey 