In Hebrews 3, we are warned to avoid the sin that Israel committed, the one that "provoked" God and upset him to the point that he sent Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years. Had to be something big right? Something awful. Something immoral or perverse. Had to be one of the big sins.
But it wasn't. It was something much simpler and, unfortunately, more common, that aroused God's divine pique. The story starts in verses 1-6, when the author regales us with the goodness, glory and works of Jesus as our great high priest.
Jesus is faithful as our high priest, bringing us into right relationship with the Father and serving our true spiritual needs. Jesus Christ was the Son who served God faithfully by fulfilling his mission - to die for our sins and bring redemption and renewal to us. As God was faithful to Israel in the Old Testament, Christ was faithful to his people by bringing them out of bondage into the freedom he purchased for us at the Cross.
But Israel was never grateful for that work that God did through Moses. Instead of trusting the God who had been so good, they hardened their hearts, turned from him, complained about everything, walked in their own ways instead of God's and tested his patience and forbearance.
Their terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad sin? Unbelief! They failed to trust the God whose faithfulness was beyond contestation, whose goodness was overwhelming and whose power was irresistible. When trouble came, they murmured and complained, but did not trust the God who had displayed his glory among them.
Are you kidding me? Unbelief? That's all? Failing to believe God and trust in his goodness is such a horrible sin that it provokes God and arouses his discipline?
Yes, my friend, it does. When God has done as much for us as he has, when he has worked in us and through us with his mighty hand of power, when he has demonstrated grace, when he has given his Son to suffer and die for our sakes, when he has raised his Son back to life, when he has poured out his Spirit in us to empower us and when he has daily, even hourly displayed such amazing mercy and grace to us, it is an affront and an insult to him when we do not trust him fully.
What more does God need to do to earn our trust?
Yet so often we hold back, we refuse to give our lives over to him and place ourselves completely in his hands. We fail to obey him and follow his will. Why? Because we do not fully trust God and his plan for us.
It may be a common human response, but we must remember that precisely that sin, the sin of unbelief, was the one that provoked God's anger and caused his hand to fall upon Israel. And that is why the author of Hebrews warns us against that in verse 12.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
God is good and faithful, and he deserves our trust - fully, unreservedly and eternally. He has earned it and we must not turn back from it.
Father, too often I've shrunk back in unbelief, like Israel. As the man said to Jesus, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." Forgive me for when I have failed to trust you fully and strengthen me by your Spirit to trust you in everything.
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