Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2002

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

“For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.  As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’  For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?  Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?  And with whom was he provoked for forty years?  Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?  And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

Introduction:  In the greatest movie of the Twenty-first Century, there was a scene where the light came up as morning dawned on a battle field littered with thousands of dead, wounded, dying and men lying among the dead hoping to be able to crawl off the field to safety.  It was the morning after the battle of Fredericksburg and in the terrifying scene the countless little humps of sky-blue overcoated bodies blotted the landscape as far as the camera could reveal..

Again, in another, earlier bloodletting  this time half a world and half a century before: Waterloo.  In the twilight hours of eroding day, the once formidable squares of Allied, French and Prussian squares littered the landscape marking out the positions for which  hundreds of regimental battalions stood and died.

Again, during World War Two  the British armored forces began to move into and across the Western Desert of Egypt towards the Italian forces gathering for invasion.  In one place a mobile column discovered a landscape of harried and hurried tire marks running parallel to their line of march and reaching far behind their careful positioning.  Experts were quickly called in to make sense of the strange markings in the desert.

One old hand recognized it immediately as the area in which his armored car companies had campaigned briefly a generation ago during another Great and World War!

To this day, alert scholars capable of navigating the desert  can still study the movements of desert columns to and from Tobruck and across the arid wadis and wastes of those areas undisturbed by wind and rain.  Bodies in some battlefields are still being found and even in the richer European soils of the Western Front and the farm fields in Eastern America  relics going back as far as the American Civil War are still found and.

So too was written in the desertscapes of the Sinai the marching out of Egypt of Israel almost three and a half millennia ago.  Geographically we may not follow those tracks as easily as the campaigns I described within the memory of our relatives.

An even by David’s time  five hundred years or so after the fact, there was only the engraved memories of the people and the few Chronicles recorded at God instruction: to demonstrate the tragic irony of slaves set free whose minds remained slavish to the sins of Egypt.  Their bodies literally littered the desert much as the mounds of snow covered bodies marked out Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.  Frenchmen still shudder at that memory, Brits still have “remembrance” celebrations of the dead of two world wars and ever popular are the fields of Gettysburg crowded with tourists.  Even in the dead of winter, you cannot wander those hallowed hills and fields alone  such is the human fascination with the ethnic sufferings of their ancient and familiar kindred.

Development:  Do you begin to get a sense of this Exodus memorial in the minds of Jews down trough the ages?  This great Jewish common memory is summoned up by the Apostle in the end of Chapter three in Hebrews to make a careful and specific point!  In our analysis of these few short verses this morning we have begun in the middle, will go to the end and then return to the beginning for the challenge of the Apostle’s preaching.

From the desert experience of ancient Israel the Apostle would make five brief comments, questions and answers.

1.      “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?”  We begin with the sorry lot of sinners who not only heard the voice of the Almighty on the Mountain, but also saw and followed day by day the wispy but visible: “pillar of cloud of something.”

Yes, we understand that many did indeed mistake the voice of the Almighty for thunder and the same did not sense the cloudy presence as perceptibly as others.  Many complained about the miraculous meals of bread, meat and water graciously provided throughout the long journey.  What more can we say of a generations whose clothes wore so well through the same period of time?

When I was growing up  shoes and clothing lasted for longer periods of time than we are currently accustomed.  No it wasn’t miraculous because they were just better made.  I can remember writing a letter of complaint to Red Wing Shoes because my second pair of their product did not last seven years like the first.  And when I was visiting in Scotland I walked into a tailor’s hop to look at a beautiful dress coat which the proud retailer claimed would “see me oout”!  In other words  I would never have to purchase another!  I marveled at the thought and wished I had the amount he requested!

Could we only marvel at the grace upon grace showered miraculously upon the Israelites as they traveled through the desert blind as bats at the glorious provision given to them day by day and year by year from the very heart and hand of their Creator God?

2.      “Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?”  Here the Apostle identifies the tragic generation of those who were brought out of the land of Egypt.  The whole generation failed in their spiritual response.  No, this does not mean that every single one of them was lost for all eternity.  Very many their were who covered their ears and pleaded that their lives be spared from the awesome voice they truly did hear.  There were also those who stood aside when Israel played the harlot before the golden calf.  They were called upon to punish the wicked pagans who turned so quickly from their awe and wonder before the God of heaven. 

3.      “And with whom was he provoked for forty years?” Do you see the grace, mercy and patience of the Lord in this statement?  Provoked is a fairly strong emotion and humans are not nearly so patient as the Lord God of heaven and earth.  Martin Luther was once asked what He would do in God’s place and he announced that he would quickly destroy every single sinner, small and great alike.

Providentially, Martin was not promoted above his natural station  but had to remain content with the human condition living under the far greater patience, grace and mercy of the God of Israel revealed in Jesus Christ.

4.       “Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?”  As in the case of all mankind, the valley of bones revealed to the prophet Ezekiel is descriptive of the littered landscape of those who would ignore the clear and distinct revelations of our God and King.  “Can these bones live?”  the Lord God asked the prophet, and being careful of a trick question Ezekiel gave the moment back to the Lord.  And when he was instructed to prophecy in the vision  lo and behold the breath of life came into the bones and a whole host of the elect rose to celebrate the glories of our God and King.  Likewise outside of Jerusalem, Jesus proclaimed that were the people silent in their welcome of Him  the Lord could raise up a crowd of worshippers from the very stones covering the highway.

And yet, in Israel’s case we have to remember that a great multitude of slaves and hangers on came out from Egypt to travel with God’s people.  A mixed company of tares and wheat as we might understand it even to this day.  But all of those who knew not the Creator God  died twice there in the desert.  Once to life and second to that which is eternal.

5.      “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?”  Here we understand our second point just affirmed  God would and will not have the unrepentant in His presence any longer than His charity and patience will allow.  The disobedient here are all of those who deny Him before the world and them He will deny in the world to come!

Application:  The Apostle ends this section with this observation: “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”  In the brevity of that description we see the whole tragedy of every man, woman and child who is lost to all eternity with no hope in hell.  The cause is simple in a diagnostic sense:  “unbelief!”  In spite of the great and mighty works and wonders miraculously done in the presence of all Israel and Egypt  many did not see the hand of God.

Some years ago, I preached through the book of Exodus and in explaining the early plagues of Egypt some thought I was too worldly in my analysis of possible and probably effects of the eruption of Mount Thera in the Mediterranean.  To which I asked  isn’t it just as much a miracle if the God of Creation plans and activates a series of complex natural events thousands of years before the fact?  And I did carefully distinguish between the most obvious hands on destruction of the first born for what it specifically was the direct punishment of an Avenging Angel upon the sinful people living in Egypt at the time of His redemption of ancient Israel.

In just the same way, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the “Avenging Angel” demonstrating the hand of God working in punishment to draw out the last ounce of blood necessary to recompense the generations of slavery that had been allowed in this free land.

Now what are we to make of these warnings to Israel and even the gentiles who come after the coming of Christ.  Look at the beginning of our text today to see the Apostle’s admonishment that would set us apart from a lost and dying world:  “For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end”.  May we learn from this text the life-giving breath given to us in Christ and continue to breathe his mercy and grace now and forever>

I remember when I was a teenager, my father received a frantic call from the neighbor.  He came running out the door and pushed me into the car with him.  He tore out the gravel lane like the hounds of hell were pounding right behind us.  Providentially, no traffic was coming and he continued to accelerate until the neighbor’s lane was reached.  We rounded the corner on two wheels and skidded to a stop.  I was left to take the vehicle out of gear and follow him up on the porch where his fondest neighbor and friend was stretched out without a breath of life.  Years before it became standard procedure, he breathed into the dead body and pounded on the chest and caused me to take a turn when he was exhausted.  But it was too late and the providence of the Lord did not allow any recovery.

That was the first dead body that I remember and it was with some gratitude that I heard the local parson preach a funeral sermon worthy of any contemporary evangelist  holding out the hope of Christ for those who believed and did keep their original confidence throughout their lives.  I think that I must have just finished confirmation class that year and had recently joined the church.  And so the experience was timely as I reflect on that lesson observed and learned about forty years ago.  To me, the treasures of the faith remain from my training by and at my Father’s side.  And my own original confidence is much the stronger at this late date and for that growth in grace and knowledge I do indeed thank the Lord of heaven and earth. 

As we close, I do earnestly pray that which you now know concerning the Lord will not only remain but also grow year by year so that at your journey’s end, all these dire comments of unbelievers may not describe you, but that you may be found in Christ alone.  Amen.