Hebrews 3:7-4:11
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works 10 for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, 'They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.'
As in my anger I swore,
'They will not enter my rest.'"
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil,
unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one
another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you
may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners
of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is
said,
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."
Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those
who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? But with whom was he angry
forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the
wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest,
if not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to
enter because of unbelief.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us
take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For
indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they
heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with
those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God
has said,
"As in my anger I swore,
'They shall not enter my rest,'"
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in one
place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, "And God rested on the
seventh day from all his works." And again in this place it says, "They
shall not enter my rest." Since therefore it remains open for some to
enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter
because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day — "today" — saying
through David much later, in the words already quoted,
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts."
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another
day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for
those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from
his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no
one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
