THE SON—GREATER THAN MOSES, "WHEREFORE"
"Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God."—HEBREWS 3:12
These words occur in a passage of warning and exhortation (Heb. 3:5-19). A characteristic of this letter is that the writer constantly turned aside from the main line of argument to utter such words. The warning here is focused in the words of the text. These words are more immediately connected with the paragraph beginning with the word "Wherefore" in the seventh verse. Between that word and this particular injunction is a quotation taken from Psalm 95. This quotation had reference to the experience of the Hebrew people in the wilderness during their tarrying there for forty years, under the direct leadership of Moses. Consequently the warning is closely connected with the claim that the writer had made, that Jesus was greater than Moses.
The letter was written to those who had been under Moses, the God-given leader, but who now were under the Son, God's final Leader. Having shown the superiority of the Son, even over the faithfulness of Moses, these words of warning were written. The illustrations he takes are not of the failure of Moses, but of the failure of the people to obey him. Moses was faithful, but the people had been disobedient. The words, therefore, consist of a solemn warning to such as have the greater Leadership of the Son, lest they also should fail in like manner.
From this brief examination of the surrounding passage we may turn to the warning itself. God has spoken through His Son. God has given Him—to quote the ancient prophecy—to be "A Leader and Commander to the people." Therefore let us "take heed." In this warning two matters arrest our attention, first that of the danger described; "falling away from the living God"; and secondly, the process through which this falling away may take place, "an evil heart of unbelief."
Whereas we should remember that the letter was addressed to all those who are described as "holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling," everything in the warning is reduced to the terms of the individual:
"Lest there should be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God."
We are forever prone to miss the whole force of teaching directed to the saints generally, or to the whole Church. It is best, therefore, that we consider it as an individual word in a personal way. The strength of the aggregate is created by the loyalty of the individual. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A castle is only as safe as its least guarded door. The strength of the Church is created by the loyalties of its members. Thus the writer arrests us individually in the words, "Lest . . . any one of you."
The peril then is described as "Falling away from the living God." The arresting phrase is "the living God." In itself it reveals the distinguishing conception of the Hebrew people. The one central conviction of that people from the father of the nation, Abraham, was the Monotheistic conviction, the fact that there is one God. But more than that; they ever thought of Him as "the living God." Their prophets and poets in referring to other religions, as contrasted with that centered in Jehovah, spoke of false gods as dead:
"They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not; Noses have they, but they smell not; They have hands, but they handle not; Feet have they, but they walk not; Neither speak they through their throat."
The final word in sarcasm concerning these false gods is found in one brief sentence:
"Neither is there any breath in their mouths."
This comes in the poetic and remarkable passage in the prophecy of Isaiah, as to how men make gods. They take a tree and carve it, adorn it, decorate it, and set it up in its appointed place. Having done so, the prophet declares that where it is placed it will remain. It cannot move. If they leave, they must carry their gods with them. He places the God of Israel in contrast with all such as he shows that He is a living God. Men make idols and carry them. God makes men and carries them. It is upon that fundamental fact that the whole Christian superstructure is erected. When at Caesarea Philippi Christ asked that earliest group of His disciples, Who do you say that I am? The great confession of Peter was uttered in the words:
"Thou art the Messiah; the Son of the living God."
The phrase occurs four times in the course of this letter. Emerging in our text, it is found again in chapter nine, verse fourteen, in a declaration that the Son through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God that He might purge our consciences
"From dead works to serve the living God."
In chapter ten, verse thirty-one, in another solemn warning the writer says:
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
In the twelfth chapter and the twenty-second verse, when once again comparing the economy of the Son with that of Moses, the writer says:
"We are not come unto a mount that burned with fire that might be touched . . . we are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God."
The fourfold occurrence of the phrase is in itself arresting. First the warning word, "Lest we fall away from the living God"; then a revealing word, the Son came to purge our consciences that we might serve the living God; again a warning that there is a danger of apostatizing, and falling into the hands of the living God; and finally, a prediction of an ultimate glory and victory in a reference to the city of the living God.
The peril, therefore, is that of falling away from that living God. The word rendered "falling away" is a strong word. It does not mean stumbling merely, but refers to apostasy which is definite, deliberate departure from God.
We may be inclined to say at once that surely that cannot be done, and yet the whole force of the warning is a revelation of the fact that such apostasy is possible. No one ever intends to apostatize. There was an hour when Simon Peter said to Jesus:
"Though all shall forsake Thee, yet will not I";
And there is no reason to doubt his sincerity in the declaration. Nevertheless he did forsake his Lord and that so positively as to deny Him with oaths and curses. Such apostasy, however, is never a sudden thing. There are multitudes of people today who have, in this sense, apostatized. They would resent being described as infidels, but the living God is not real to them in any practical sense. They have departed from Him, dismissed Him from the realm of consideration, and perhaps while still professing intellectual conviction of His existence, live as though there were no God.
In the words that follow, the writer reveals the process leading to this disaster, in the words, "an evil heart of unbelief." The arresting and almost startling word in the phrase is the word "unbelief." To illustrate it, the writer goes back to the history of the people in the wilderness. It is best to remember in this connection how many perished in the wilderness. Of the adult population that were brought into the wilderness at the exodus, only two entered Canaan, and those, Joshua and Caleb. Moses himself was excluded.
The writer then shows that the reason for this was that of unbelief. To summarize his arguments, he says these people had the message, God's speech through Moses.
They disobeyed through unbelief, and consequently their hearts became hardened. An examination of the passage in which the text occurs will show the differing terms that are used therein to describe the failure of the people; sin, unbelief, disobedience. These are synonymous terms.
They heard the word, but proved their practical unbelief by disobedience; and the result was that they lost their sensitiveness to the Divine order. There are people in the world today who will say of certain attitudes and actions, "My conscience does not condemn me." That may be a terrible thing to say, revealing the fact that the conscience is hardened, has lost its true functioning power. Oftentimes, when conscience does not condemn us, we should condemn our conscience. Unbelief is not failure in intellectual apprehension. It is disobedience in the presence of the clear commands of God.
The whole process and result is revealed in the sentences that follow, wherein the writer warns us in the words:
"Lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
It is thus that those who have heard the speech of God may apostatize from the living God. Such a condition is described as "evil," an "evil heart of unbelief." The Greek word there rendered "evil" means harmful, destructive. Unbelief, in the sense of disobedience to the revealed will of God, whether through Moses or the Son, is not only merely wrong, but completely destructive of life. These people had had the word of God through Moses. We have it through the Son. They, having received that word through Moses, and disobeying it, were excluded from rest. If they were excluded because of disobedience to the word of Moses, how much more shall we be excluded from rest if we are disobedient to the voice of the Son.
In the midst of this passage there is a word which our translators have arrestingly and helpfully spelt with a capital letter, the word "Today." It occurs in a quotation from a Psalm. It speaks of hope, and the possibility of recovery, even though there may have been failure. If for any reason we have been disobedient to the voice of the Son, and if the callousing process has begun, it is still called "Today." "Today" is God's day of love, God's day of grace, God's day of the possibility of pardon and renewal.
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