Throughout this letter the Pastor will pause from the main subjects to bring a warning to the people. This is the second time in the letter. This time the warning passage is quite long starting here in verse 7 and continuing into chapter 4 v 13.
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.” (Hebrews 3 v 7-9)
The Pastor has already referred to how God declared Moses faithful in all of God’s house using the words from Numbers 12 when Aaron and Miriam were challenging his leadership. Continuing closely into the next story the Pastor uses the story of the report from the 2 spies on the Promised Land that was drowned out by the majority and who then missed the voice of God and suffered further consequences. He uses Psalm 95: 7-11 where the Psalmist quotes from the same story.
No one will ever forget what September 11th stands for. There were so many heroes that day. One such hero was Isaac Hoopii who was outside the Pentagon building. Wearing only his short-sleeved blue police uniform he ran into the blackness of the building. He called out, “Is anybody in here?” Wayne Sinclair and five colleagues were crawling through rubble directionless when they heard his voice. They cried out, and Hoopii responded. “Head toward my voice.” Following his voice, they soon made their way out of the crumbling building.
Today if you hear His voice.
There are people today, without direction, confused and in danger and they need to head toward the voice of Jesus.
You are in a 24hr. period that you will never have again, you didn’t have it yesterday and you won’t have it tomorrow.
Satan is out to attack your today. He’s not interested in tomorrow but today. He’s planning to mess it up, cause problems, to do everything he can to make it into a bad day. He uses yesterday to do that and he knows if he can destroy today he has broken your tomorrow.
God wants to keep today good. At the beginning of time at the end of each day God saw that it was good. He loves today. He loves the opportunity of now.
He’s interested in the right now, this day. The most important time for God is now. Despite the attacks of Satan. Despite the circumstances and situations that are not good. To get to the end of this day and be able to look upon our Lord and say ‘Today has been a good day, I’ve kept it good, I have been listening for your voice’
The blessed life is the life that listens, hears and obeys.
However, there are other voices, there is the majority often that skew what God is saying. Be careful.
Safety in numbers isn’t always true.
10 said we can’t; 2 said we can.
10 saw God in light of their circumstances; 2 saw circumstances in light of their God.
10 were bothered about self-image; 2 weren’t bothered what they looked like.
And that night all the people of the community decided there is safety in numbers.
The outcome: 10 died and 2 survived. But the deaths of the 10 led to the death of a generation.
How many people built the ark? How many people defeated Goliath? How many people took on the 450 prophets of Baal? How many people died on a cross to save the world?
If they had listened to popular thought, to the safety in numbers theory, they would have missed their purpose. The whole office are doing this! … So? Everyone says! … So? I don’t want to be the odd one out! … Why? Following the crowd can sometimes mean you end up under a bus.
But it is the voice you see that is the most important. The voice of God. And today don’t be like the rest, don’t ignore what God is saying to you.
Missions Paul 