Lessons From Israel’s Wilderness Wanderings – Hebrews 3:15–18 | Good News Unlimited
Lessons from Israel’s Wilderness Wanderings – Hebrews 3:15–18
Sep 5, 2025 221
[15] As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” [16] For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? [17] And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? [18] And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? (ESV)
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A Familiar Warning
The passage begins by repeating the refrain from Psalm 95: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” The writer wants us to feel the urgency. Every generation faces this same decision: will we trust God’s promises, or will we doubt His goodness and harden our hearts?
It’s striking that this warning isn’t aimed at atheists or pagans. It’s aimed at people who have experienced God’s salvation. Israel had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. They had eaten manna, seen water gush from a rock, and followed God’s presence in the pillar of cloud and fire. They had heard His voice at Sinai. Yet even with all those privileges, they hardened their hearts.
Israel’s Tragic Example
Verses 16-18 unfold as a series of rhetorical questions. Who heard and rebelled? Who provoked God for forty years? Who fell in the wilderness? Who was barred from entering God’s rest? The answer is chilling: it was God’s own redeemed people.
Rod Irvine puts it starkly: “Israel’s history is a reminder that you can start well, see God’s mighty hand at work, and yet still fail to persevere in faith. Privilege is no substitute for perseverance.” (Christ our Refuge Sermon)
This is the tragedy of unbelief. It isn’t simply ignorance – it’s refusing to trust the God who has already shown Himself faithful. The Israelites knew God’s power and promises, but they preferred fear and grumbling to faith and obedience. Their story is recorded for us as both a warning and a mirror.
Hearing Isn’t Enough
It’s possible to sit in church, hear the Word of God, sing the songs, even witness His work in the lives of others, and yet still harden your heart. Hearing isn’t enough. Faith is required. As Dennis E. Johnson observes, “Merely belonging to a community favored with God’s gifts does not secure eternal salvation. Rebellion, sin, disobedience, and unbelief are complementary descriptions of the hardened hearts that excluded Moses’ generation from God’s rest.” (ESV Expository Commentary)
That’s why Hebrews keeps pressing the word today. The past is gone, and the future of God’s rest is guaranteed – but only for those who keep trusting Christ.
Christ Our Rest
The good news is that Jesus has done what Israel could not. In the wilderness, He trusted His Father perfectly, resisting temptation and obeying all the way to the cross. By His life, death, and resurrection, He has secured for us the true and lasting rest of God’s kingdom.
Israel’s story warns us, but Christ’s story assures us. We don’t persevere in our own strength. We persevere because Jesus, our faithful High Priest, has already triumphed. By His Spirit, He keeps His people believing until the very end.
So let the wilderness generation teach you. Don’t stop short of God’s rest. Don’t let unbelief rob you of the promises of God. Keep trusting the One who has opened the way into His eternal rest.
Reflection:
How does Israel’s wilderness story challenge you to keep trusting Jesus today?
