Useful Bible Studies > Hebrews Commentary > chapter 3
In Hebrews chapter 11, the author will show us some extraordinary examples of faith. But here, with words from Psalm 95:7-11, the author is showing us an example of lack of faith.
In fact, there is more than one example here. Psalm 95 mentions two places (Meribah and Massah) where this happened. Those place names do not appear in the Book of Hebrews because the author translates the meanings of those names.
And Psalm 95 mentions those two places merely as examples of what happened continuously for 40 years (Hebrews 3:9). That period was the 40 years when Moses led God’s people. And for that whole period, there was constant lack of faith. God was leading his people – but the people refused to believe God.
Faith means active belief and trust in God. But the people did not have faith in God. Instead, they trusted their own feelings. And they did not want to obey God’s word.
The Bible says that they made their hearts hard. God wanted them to love him with all their hearts (Deuteronomy 6:5). But instead, they had attitudes that they would not change. That is what it means to have a ‘hard heart’.
God’s word changes people’s lives. But people can refuse to accept his message. They may refuse to trust him; or they may refuse to obey him.
Such lack of faith ruins a person’s relationship with God. That is what happened in the desert, in Psalm 95. And so the author of Hebrews warns Christians. They must not let that happen to them, too.
Next part: Lessons from history (Hebrews 3:9)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.