Hebrews 3:13, commentary and pictures

Believers are to encourage, warn and watch over one another every day while it is still called Today, so that no one is hardened through sin's deceit and turned away from God. Today means the present opportunity to hear God's voice and respond at once without delay, because no one is promised tomorrow and delay itself hardens the heart. Hardening comes step by step through sin's wonderful deceptiveness, as one unrepented wrong prepares the way for another until conscience loses sensitiveness and the heart resists light. The warning recalls Israel led out of Egypt, who tempted God forty years, erred in heart through unbelief and murmuring, and were shut out of His rest with their carcasses falling in the wilderness. The same danger presses with intensified peril upon God's people in the last years of earth's history standing on the borders of heavenly Canaan, who must hold firm the beginning of confidence unto the end and be made partakers of Christ.

Today Means Respond Now

While it is called Today means the present opportunity to hear God's voice, seek His grace, and answer Him now, not at some future time to prepare for in advance. It is today, while it is still called today, that Christ's knocking at the door of the heart must be heard without hardening the heart against Him. Every soul must do something now, take hold of the work in earnest, consecrate present powers and God-given talents, and cry to God with heart and soul and voice for courage to receive Jesus.

The call must be heard at once and answered without delay, while it is called Today, without hardening the heart as in the provocation. No one is promised tomorrow, so delaying decision for God risks hardening the heart and must not be postponed for earthly pleasures. Delay wastes time, opportunity and privilege and hardens through the deceitfulness of sin, and delaying repentance and obedience puts a person in danger in this probationary time to prepare for eternity. Postponement makes a person less willing to become a Christian and to join His truth-believing people, and the appeal presses each person and each family member to decide now to follow Christ, give Him the heart, and serve God.

Immediate response brings vital connection with God, His breath of life, His great transforming power, and partnership with Himself for eternal welfare and service. To act while it is called today is to receive Christ, represented by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and to take His Word into practical life through faith and obedience, which leads to eternal life. Continuing in sin and yielding leaves a harmful influence that continues to work and can lead the path toward desolation, while turning to the Lord prevents that course.

Today's offer of mercy may be the sinner's last, because there is no second probation after it is refused. Refusing the invitation and persisting in disobedience hardens the heart, and the call to hear and obey must be answered without delay while it is still called today, not merely by agreeing to obey but by repenting, forsaking sin, and doing what is right. Heeding Him cannot be delayed or put off to a second time of change, lest He come suddenly and find people unready, for the invitation may not come again.

Today calls to earnest work for eternal life, with every hour filled with good deeds and diligent use of entrusted talents, with tenderness and love for one another, with earnest striving to keep the commandments of God and come into harmony with His law. It calls to constant watching and striving, to fight the good fight of faith without ceasing and to run the race with patience in order to receive the prize, since only earnest endeavor wins eternal life. It calls to take heed and redeem the time by understanding and repenting of imperfect service for the Master and unconverted influence, with the assurance of pardon and of divine strength united with repentant effort. Taking heed means examining whether God is enthroned in conscience and truth occupies the citadel of the soul and holds control, a searching especially urgent for fathers and mothers who have indulged their children to their hurt. Students called to labor for God must respond promptly rather than allow unnecessary delay, because time is limited and prolonged education can hold workers back from their work.

While it is called today is the time of probation to hear the voice of the Lord and turn fully to Him from own will and way, heeding His warnings and reproofs instead of working at cross purposes with Him. Those who hear and turn now will have mercy upon them and be abundantly pardoned, and will take up His work intelligently and unitedly in proclaiming warning and salvation. Turning must be before the heart is hardened, for deeds on Satan's side leave a harmful influence, while only the pure, clean, and holy can enter God's city. Repentance and reconversion are short work to be done while mercy is still offered, with believers helping one another in tenderness as God's Spirit transforms character and makes example influence others.

Israel's Wilderness Failure

The warning recalls Israel led out of Egypt by Moses, who heard His voice and yet provoked Him in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. There the fathers tempted Him and proved Him and saw His works forty years. Those who heard and provoked after coming out of Egypt by Moses suffered His grief for their sin and died in the wilderness.

They always erred in heart and did not know His ways. That erring was unbelief, disobedience, murmuring, complaints and rebellion, refusing God's warnings and not following truth though again and again kept before them. Their leaders did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer, divorcing from God to follow the wisdom of men not under His direction.

God was grieved forty years with those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. All but two of the adults who left Egypt died there, save the two who wholly followed Him. It was not His good pleasure for them to wander so long, for He would have brought them immediately to the promised land if they had submitted and loved to be led by Him.

God swore in His wrath that they should not enter His rest because they believed not. Unbelief shuts out of God's rest, so that hearing without faith profits nothing and they fell in the wilderness and could not enter in. Their persistent backsliding, unbelief, obstinacy and idolatry in obstinately refusing the warnings that came to them brought His wrath for their destruction.

Their unbelief, doubt, murmuring and rebellion were written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. With that history before them, believers must take heed not to walk over the same ground as Israel in the provocation by committing the same sins and following the same way of unbelief and rebellion. God's people in these last days, standing just on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, must not repeat the sin of the unfaithful spies by indulging doubts, criticisms and complaints, which sow seeds of unbelief and distrust, leaven the whole congregation, and cause the golden opportunity prepared by the Lord to pass by.

How Sin Deceives

Sin is wonderfully deceptive, especially when clothed in garments of righteousness. To the heart unchanged by grace it offers a counterfeit righteousness, and those who trust in it build on shifting sand that the storm of test and trial will overcome. Unless the Word is kept ever before the mind, people are drawn away from truth into by and forbidden paths. Those thus hardened are taken in the enemy's snare for lack of divine light from heaven, and may be filled with intense earnestness yet be moved by a power from beneath unless constant guard is kept lest possession of the mind be obtained.

Temptation is always presented under the guise of goodness, disguised as something good. Amusements and folly may be mixed with apparent benefits to draw people to follow inclination instead of resisting the first temptation. Yielding to this disguise must be resisted, for the church must wake from slumber and earnestly examine such self-deception among its members.

Satan is well acquainted with the Scriptures and can lead minds to misunderstand what is written, to misquote and misinterpret what God has written. After the word of the kingdom is heard he watches for opportunity to lead to doubt through agencies who misstate the message. When the tempted one opens the mind to them and yields, he turns the truth of God into a lie and takes possession of the heart, so that it becomes hardened and loses the blessed influence that, cherished, would have meant eternal life. Guarding against this requires linking closely with Christ, personal labor for those who have heard the truth, and drawing near to God so He draws near and lifts up a standard against the enemy.

The deception can leave people maintaining prayer and religious duties while their professions and experience are used to advance the opposing cause, keeping religious forms while believing themselves safe and gradually led into error. Sin is then treated as a light thing when judged by worldly standards or personal inclination, though it is exceedingly sinful. It leads people to misjudge their character and relation to God, to foster false hope, and to paralyze effort in the right direction. It makes a person quick to see and condemn others' faults while blind to his own wrongdoing, as David was before Nathan exposed his sin.

Sin also deceives by making people treat God's voice as unfamiliar and grow more rebellious despite His blessings, showing the harm of refusing to heed Him. It deceives into trusting a false preparation that proves groundless, discovered too late to be without foundation even when death or judgment is near. Unless peace is made with God and separation from the world takes place, that hope will fail in the urgent crisis.

How Hearts Harden

Hardening comes step by step, for one violation of straightforward truthfulness prepares the way for a second, and repeated wrongs continue until the heart of unbelief is hardened and conscience loses its sensitiveness. One act of disobedience unless repented of leads to another, for sins have a close connection, and a small departure or indulgence prepares the way for further wrongdoing, separation from God, and even apostasy. What a person becomes accustomed to, whether good or evil, is difficult to abandon, and corrupt habits can form more quickly than habits of righteousness and truth. The safeguard is to resist yielding because temptation is presented under the guise of goodness, to humble the heart before God, and to ask forgiveness for speaking words of unbelief that cast reflection on Him who is too wise to err and too good to do harm.

People harden their own hearts when they resist light and refuse to hear the voice of warning and reproof, and the opportunity to hear and repent while it is called Today must not be lost. Rejecting correction strengthens resistance, and that resistance brings the harvest of a hardened heart, while following a wrong course makes a person resist reproof and persist in wrong principles. When light is neglected it fades from a mind unwilling to receive it, and rejecting clear evidence blinds the understanding until continued unbelief cannot recognize the evidence for Jesus. Humility and willing reform when corrected open the way for rich gifts, answered contrite prayer, and true self-understanding. The time to turn is now, before the present day of opportunity is lost through resisting correction.

The hardened heart becomes like a hard-beaten path trodden by men and beasts, a highway for the traffic of the world with its pleasures and sins. Absorbed in selfish aims and sinful indulgences and pleasures, the spiritual faculties are paralyzed, so the hearer becomes inattentive, hearing but understanding not. He does not discern that the word applies to himself, does not realize his need and danger, does not perceive the love of Christ, and passes by the message of grace as something that does not concern him. Giving the good seed no place to take root, the hardened heart leaves Satan to catch away the seeds of divine truth.

Continued exposure to truth does not itself prevent hardening, for if life gives no growing evidence of love for truth and its sacred claims, the person becomes less affected by truth and God's work. Such a one loses the Spirit's impressions and ceases to discern eternal things as distinct from ordinary things. The conscience becomes hardened through sin's deceit when people fail to come nearer to Christ and consider Him as Captain and Redeemer, whereas looking to Him brings a clearer sense of sin and penitence.

Departure from God hardens the heart through the deceitfulness of sin, and nothing but obedience will keep from apostasy. He who justifies himself in sin is led on step by step in deception till at length he sins with impunity, with heart hardened and eyes blinded because the truth is not obeyed. Giving place to selfish motives and self-confidence, such turn from the path marked out to worldly principles and crooked paths, and by example lead inexperienced others astray.

The same hardening is spread to others when professed Christians criticize preaching, judge ministers and church members, and gossip and slander before the unconverted. When parents speak lightly of the word and its messengers before children, they educate youth to disregard the gospel. Love of dress is a cause of backsliding that can lead to neglecting serious responsibilities and losing love for God, and must be renounced without delay as sin against self and God. Persisting in prideful, fashionable dress despite warnings and appeals shows a heart not assimilated to Christ and can lead away from God.

Those hardened through the deceitfulness of sin are taken in the enemy's snare because they have not received the divine rays of light from heaven. They may be filled with intense earnestness yet be moved by a power from beneath, drawn away from truth into by and forbidden paths unless the Word is kept ever before them. Satan is well acquainted with the Scriptures and can lead minds to misunderstand, misquote, and misinterpret what is written, so unless every point of attack is guarded he will obtain possession of minds. The safeguard is to exhort, warn, and watch over one another daily while it is still called Today, speaking a word in season to souls in need, watching unto prayer, keeping soul and heart with all diligence, and holding holy trust in the Lord. Even those long tested may fall suddenly and be unprepared to close their earthly account with joy, since temptation will come to every soul, and God bears long to arouse sinners rather than hasten their destruction.

Faith Unbelief and Rest

Daily mutual encouragement guards against developing a hardened, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, for that hardening is exactly what the verse warns will come through sin's deceit. It cherishes faith by talking faith and acting faith, teaching trust in God's leading in every circumstance instead of murmuring, complaining, suspicion, distrust, evil surmising, evil thinking and evil speaking, and instead of putting brethren in human scales to judge their words and motives. For those carrying responsibility it means frankness rather than secretiveness, brotherly confidence rather than self and proprietorship over the work, and shared interest in every line of the work in building one spiritual house, a holy temple for God, refusing to repeat Israel's course in the provocation in the wilderness. It keeps hearts soft and characters molded after the divine likeness instead of indulging personal feelings and charging failure where none belongs when the work does not look prosperous. The same danger faced Israel in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when the fathers tempted God, proved Him and saw His works forty years, always erred in heart and did not know His ways, so God swore in wrath they should not enter His rest.

That history will be repeated in the last years of the history of God's people established by grace and power, when men greatly honored will pattern after ancient Israel, with perils encountered in past ages encountered again intensified as Satan gains influence over men God honored above all human intelligence as He honored Solomon. Leaders then failed to receive the blessings God designed because they did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer. Believers remain Christ's house and become partakers of Christ only by holding fast the beginning of confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm and steadfast to the end, refusing to cast away confidence which has great recompense of reward. The wilderness example shows why, for those who heard His voice and came out of Egypt by Moses provoked Him, suffered His grief forty years for their sin, fell with carcasses in the wilderness — all but two of the adults who left Egypt dying there — and were barred by oath from His rest because they did not believe.

With a promise left of entering His rest there must be fear lest any come short of it, for unbelief shuts out of God's rest. The gospel preached profits only when mixed with faith in those who hear it, so hearing at once with an unhardened heart while it is called Today is required. Hearing without faith and obedience brings guilt rather than benefit, as Israel heard Christ's words yet selfishness, pride, murmuring and unbelief marked failure to receive them in faith or practice them, and as Noah's generation lacked faith, rejected appeals that could have saved them, and was destroyed. The same danger of failing through unbelief to enter rest remains for those who refuse God's warnings, do not follow truth though again and again kept before them, and divorce from God to follow the wisdom of men not under His direction.

The verse warns one in great peril, for whom Jesus died, not to cast away confidence and not to draw back, but to have patience to do God's will and receive the promise, for the just shall live by faith and He that shall come will come and will not tarry. Depression, murmuring and complaining must not be allowed to grow into an evil heart of unbelief that departs from God, because Christ humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and God has highly exalted Him in the marvelous work wrought for salvation. Lack of faith withholds precious blessings hanging over God's people, who are in danger of indulging the same spirit of unbelief and murmuring as the children of Israel. The Word must therefore be used, practiced, trusted, believed soberly and meekly, received and appropriated, to be made perfect in Christ who is righteousness and to gain a precious experience that makes wise unto salvation.

Discord and strife among believers show imperfect union with Christ, so hearts must be softened by God's grace and joined in love and tenderness. Vigilance must be kept against falling after the same example of unbelief into which Israel fell when sin hardened them.

Exhort One Another Daily

Brethren, fellow workers and believers are to exhort, encourage, warn and watch over one another every day while it is still called Today, speaking a word in season to souls in need, so that no one is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and turned away from God. This daily encouragement guards against unbelief and departure from the living God and helps believers hold the beginning of confidence firm and steadfast unto the end, as Israel's failure in the wilderness warns against turning from God and coming short of His rest. The charge belongs to the time of the end as well as to those who first heard it, for people living in the last years of earth's history stand in the same need of mutual guarding of faith.

Daily exhortation cherishes faith and talks faith and acts faith, teaching trust in God's leading under all circumstances instead of murmuring, complaining, suspicion, distrust, evil surmising, evil thinking and evil speaking. It refuses to put brethren in human scales to judge their words and motives, and it refuses to voice and dwell on doubts, since expressing doubt strengthens unbelief in the speaker and spreads it to others. Mutual encouragement, holding firm in faith, and refusing counsel opposed to God keep believers faithful to Christ when tempted to follow a voice contrary to Him.

The safeguard is watching unto prayer, keeping soul and heart with all diligence, guarding every point of attack, and holy and perfect trust in the Lord. It is humbling the heart before God and asking forgiveness for speaking words of unbelief, because such words cast reflection on Him who is too wise to err and too good to do harm, and it is walking in the light, confessing sin and receiving cleansing and forgiveness. This watchfulness is needed because temptation comes disguised under the guise of goodness, and hardening comes step by step as one violation of straightforward truthfulness prepares the way for a second until the heart of unbelief is hardened and conscience loses sensitiveness.

In social relations Christians are to work on Christ's principles with honesty, true courtesy, kindness and gentleness, with a faith that is not narrow or selfish but a strong living piety that draws to God. That piety leads to earnest work to correct personal errors and to do the duties Christ has enjoined, for to refuse those duties is not to be a Christian. For fellow workers together, and especially for men in responsible positions, ministers of the gospel and physicians with solemn responsibilities, daily mutual exhortation means frankness instead of secretiveness, brotherly confidence instead of self and proprietorship over the work, and shared interest in all lines of the work in building one spiritual house, a holy temple for God. It keeps hearts soft and characters molded after the divine similitude instead of indulging personal feelings and charging failure where it does not belong when the work does not appear prosperous, and it warns not to let precious opportunities slip unimproved, since temptation will come to every soul and even those long tested and tried may fall suddenly unprepared to close their earthly account with joy.

Faith in Christ leads to active obedience and cooperation in saving others, using abilities to win souls and watching over souls as those who must give an account. Personal influence is to be used now to persuade others to believe Bible truth and turn from sin rather than waiting for better openings, for faithful use of small openings prepares the way for greater work. Tender mutual help in turning from sin while the short time called Today lasts allows God's Spirit to transform character so that example influences others. The warning is a call to repent and attend to one's own spiritual condition rather than attack others, and it meets church members who ignore reproof, remain self-complacent, or complain against one another instead of examining their own hearts. Repentance is the only hope of salvation, for delay is dangerous and persistent resistance to repeated warnings leaves people to the results of their own choices unto destruction without remedy.

Warning for Last Days

The warning belongs to those living in the time of the end as much as to those who first heard it, for God's people in the last years of earth's history are standing just on the borders of the heavenly Canaan and must not repeat Israel's failure. Israel's unbelief and departure from the living God stand as the example, showing how deception can destroy confidence in Christ and lead into murmuring, discord, rebellion and ruin. Their unbelief, doubt, murmuring and rebellion were written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, lest indulged doubts, criticisms and complaints sow unbelief and distrust, leaven the whole congregation, and let the golden opportunity prepared by the Lord pass by. The call therefore remains in every age to encourage one another every day while the opportunity is still called today, so that no one is hardened through sin's deceit and turned from the living God through unbelief.

History is being repeated with intensified perils, for as ancient Israel whom God would have blessed if they had obeyed His voice was shut out of His rest, so men whom God has greatly honored will in the closing scenes pattern after ancient Israel. In the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness the fathers tempted and proved Him and saw His works forty years, always erred in heart and did not know His ways, so that God swore in wrath they should not enter His rest. Israel could not receive the blessings God designed because leaders did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer, and this experience will be repeated in the last years of the history of the people of God established by grace and power. Satan has obtained influence over men honored above all human intelligence as He honored Solomon, and the perils God's people encountered in past ages are encountered again intensified.

The danger is an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God by yielding to Satan's temptations, sophistries and delusive influences from beneath that unsettle faith in the experience of the past which bore the signature of Heaven and in the testimonies. It is the course of obstinately refusing the warnings that came from God, not following truth though again and again kept before them, divorcing from God to follow the wisdom of men not under God's direction, provoking Him after hearing His voice, always erring in heart and not knowing His ways. Their persistent backsliding, unbelief, obstinacy and idolatry brought the wrath of God for their destruction, so that with those who sinned God was grieved forty years and their carcasses fell in the wilderness, all but two of the adults who left Egypt dying there because they could not enter into His rest through unbelief. Only holding the beginning of confidence steadfast unto the end makes partakers of Christ and guards against failing through unbelief to enter rest.

Believers must hold firm to the end the beginning of their confidence in the truth the Lord gave them, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. The itching desire to originate something new brings strange doctrines and erroneous theories and methods that destroy the influence of those who would be a power for good and make the truth disgusting to sensible people. Holding firm keeps the third angel's message in straight lines, free from fanatical demonstrations, confusion, and cheap inventions. It was not God's good pleasure for Israel to wander so long in the wilderness, and He would have brought them immediately to the promised land if they had submitted and loved to be led by Him. God requires His people to trust in Him alone and not to receive help from those who do not serve Him, save the two who wholly followed Him entering rest while the rest who grieved Him in the desert were sworn against in wrath.

The present call to act while called today means to reform defective character and overcome harshness, severity, coarseness, unkindness and unsanctified words and conduct, for there is no second probation in which to make these changes. Love of dress must be renounced without delay as sin against oneself and God, since it is a cause of backsliding that can lead to neglecting serious responsibilities and losing love for God. A small departure or indulgence in amusements must be rejected, because it can prepare the way for further wrongdoing, separation from God and even apostasy, and what a person becomes accustomed to, whether good or evil, is difficult to abandon, with corrupt habits forming more quickly than habits of righteousness and truth. Choosing the temporary pleasures of sin while refusing salvation purchased by Christ's suffering and death leads to God's wrath and eternal death, separated from Jesus and losing eternal glory for brief pleasure.

The verse warns against listening to suggestions that excuse indifference to earlier instruction, for self-gratification and false security imperil eternal life. Time must be used wisely and temptation resisted rather than trading hope and inheritance for sinful pleasure, with earnest effort to hold on to hope in Jesus and gain eternal life. Those who profess the truth can be hardened with unbelief by rejecting great light and truth, so that they do not know the time of their visitation, while those who have not had that light and have not rejected it can still have hearts that respond to God's messages. Sin that defiles the body can lead members of God's flock astray and cause them to be lost, so church officers must give this deceiving and hardening danger serious attention.