Messianic Jews 3:12-19
Letter to the Messianic Jews

In my last post, we began an introduction to the topic of Yeshua Rest Is Superior To That of Moshe and Y’Hoshua.  In this post, we continue to explore that concept of the necessity of persevering faith to enter Yeshua’s rest contained in Messianic Jews 3:12-19.

“¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there will not be in any one of you an evil heart lacking trust, which could lead you to apostatize from the living God! ¹³ Instead, keep exhorting each other every day, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you will become hardened by the deceit of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become sharers in the Messiah, provided, however, that we hold firmly to the conviction we began with, right through until the goal is reached. ¹⁵ Now where it says, “Today, if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your hearts, as you did in the Bitter Quarrel,” ¹⁶ who were the people who, after they heard, quarreled so bitterly? All those whom Moshe brought out of Egypt. ¹⁷ And with whom was God disgusted for forty years? Those who sinned — yes, they fell dead in the Wilderness! ¹⁸ And to whom was it that he swore that they would not enter his rest? Those who were disobedient. ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of lack of trust.” ~ Hebrews 3:12-19 (CJB)

I have previously dealt with the subject of apostasy in my series on Eternal Security and would refer you back to Eternal Security Part 4; Part 5; and, Part 6.

In urging his readers to keep exhorting each other, the author is exemplifying the principle that the Messianic life pattern is not one in which the vast majority of passive believers let a few “ministers” do all the work. Rather, Yeshua gives His followers leaders whose task is “to equip God’s people for the work of service that builds the Body of the Messiah” (Ephesians 4:11-16). He will reiterate this point in Messianic Jews 10:24-25.

In effect, the author is saying, “While there is yet time, while you can still speak of ‘today’ give God the trust and the obedience that he must have.” For the individual “today” means “while life lasts” and the author is saying, “While you have the chance, give God the submission you ought to give. Give it to him before your day closes.”

There are three significant warnings here. [1]

• God makes humanity an offer. Just as He offered the Israelites the blessings of the Promised Land, He provides us the benefits of a life which is far beyond the life that we can live without Him.
• To obtain the blessings of God two things are necessary.
  • Trust is necessary. We must believe that what God says is true. We must be willing to stake our lives on his promises.
  • Obedience is necessary. In any realm of life, success depends on obedience to the word of the expert. God is the expert in life, and real happiness depends on obedience to Him.
• There is a limit to God’s offer. That limit is the duration of our life here on earth. We speak easily about “tomorrow” but for some of us, tomorrow may never come. All we have is today. Someone has said: “We should live each day as if it were a lifetime.” God’s offer must be accepted today; the trust and the obedience must be given today ~ for we cannot be sure that there will be a tomorrow.

Here we have the excellent offer of God, but it is only for absolute trust and full obedience, and it must be accepted now, or it may be too late.

In my next post, we’ll explore Messianic Jews 4:1-13 containing a warning against missing Yeshua’s rest as typified by Canaan rest.

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[1] Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT) by William Barclay.