Category: Reflections on Scripture

Encourage One Another Day After Day: A Reflection on Hebrews 3

Published on by Josh ThomasLeave a comment

I’ve lately been contemplating the purchase of a new Bible. I’m a believer in marking one’s Bible, but I suspect that such highlights, underlines, etc. can inadvertently lead to neglecting portions of our Bibles as our eyes are drawn naturally to our annotations. I suppose a fresh copy will lead to a fresh reading.

Thinking to buy a Bible I’ve previously used, I grabbed the one I had in Bible college to “test drive” the format. I started reading Hebrews. Apparently, we worked through Hebrews 3 on Valentine’s Day 2007. I wrote “V-DAY 07” next to the heading. The record shows I drew red hearts around all the instances where the word heart appears also. This Bible is very marked up, and this morning it led to the following observations and reflections:

(So that I might dive straight in, take a moment to read Hebrews 3, in your Bible or here. It will take two minutes.)

Did you notice what is said concerning the heart?

v.8 – Do not harden your hearts…

v.10 – They always go astray in their heart…

v.12 – …unbelieving heart that falls away…

v.15 – Do not harden your hearts…

With this in view, return to verse 13, which says, “But encourage one another day after day…” Why? Because of how easy it is for this – verses 8, 10, 12, 15 – to happen! Specifically, the author says, “so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” This is the danger. And it is a danger for Christians. I think we know this intuitively, but there are clues in the text also, including the author’s repeated address of “brethren” (verses 1, 12). There are more clues, but perhaps the most sobering is the repeated references to the Exodus, the analogy of our own redemption. Not only were the Israelites brought out of the land of slavery by God, they clearly saw the miraculous ways in which He worked to accomplish their salvation. And yet, their hearts were hardened – i.e., they hardened their own hearts, little by little, day by day, by unbelief. If you are saved, I do not think you can lose your salvation, but I do think we can, through unbelief and its many manifestations, become hard-hearted. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. But a hard heart can just as well be indicative of an unsaved heart. If that be the case, flee to Christ Jesus! And if, Christian, your heart is hard or cool, flee to Christ Jesus!

He is the Faithful One. He is our Rest. Consider Jesus, you holy partakers of Him and His heavenly calling. Keep your eyes fixed on Him, the foundation of our faith. And encourage one another day after day so that our hearts will not grow hard, but remain soft and sensitive to the things of God, submitted to Him in all things, in joy-filled service and worship.

Rainbow Reminders

Published on by Josh ThomasLeave a comment
Grand Canyon National Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The story of Noah and the flood is well known – God observes humanity’s sin; God decides to destroy humanity, except for Noah; God instructs Noah to build the ark, etc. (See Genesis 6-9 for the full story.)

For the purposes of this post, I want to fast-forward to the end – Genesis 9. There, God covenants with Noah, his family, and all the creatures of the earth, saying, “Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood” (v.11, NIV). God then says, “This is the sign of the covenant… my rainbow in the clouds” (vv.12-13).

All of this is very familiar. And like so many familiar stories, it is easy to miss peculiarities like the fact that God says twice, “When I see the rainbow, I will remember my covenant” (my paraphrase, cf. vv.15-16).

God will remember? Well, that’s interesting, considering God is omniscient. Even more interesting that He twice frames the rainbow as for His remembrance and not ours. That is what struck me a couple of weeks ago as I prepared to lead a small group through this chapter.

God doesn’t need the reminder – we do! Over and over and over again. We need the reminders of who we are and who God is and how good He’s been to us when we don’t deserve it.

Not only that, but I think there’s another important lesson here to be taken to heart; namely, setting signs to remind us of truth – of who we are and who God is and how good He’s been to us when we don’t deserve it. Because those are the things we need to be reminded of, over and over and over again.