When a baby is born the arteries in her body are strong, elastic and flexible, allowing blood to carry oxygen and nutrients from the heart to the rest of the body. By her early 20’s small amounts of plaque have begun to form in those arteries. As she ages, her arteries, affected by things like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol, become stiff. This may prevent blood from flowing to organs and tissues that need it. This stiffening of the arteries is called arteriosclerosis. The old timers called it ‘hardening of the arteries’.
Modern medicine knows this hardening of the arteries in the body can lead to many serious, and often fatal, complications such as heart attacks and strokes. The writer of Hebrews knew a little something about this concept of hardening. In the third chapter of Hebrews, three times he warns his readers against hardening their hearts. The Greek word he used each time was skleryno, which means ‘to make hard or stiff’. (Zodhiates Key Word Study Bible. P. 1672). Each time this word is used in the New Testament it is used figuratively rather than literally and it is always used in reference to the heart or mind. Do you see the similarity in the two words: arterioSCLERosis and SKLERyno? Any time you see that root word used you can immediately know it is referring to something being hardened.
HeBrews: A Better Blend
God sent the writer of Hebrews to these Christian Jews of antiquity to remind them not to place Moses on the throne of their hearts. Only Jesus should occupy the throne in the heart and life of a Christian. As we continue our look into chapter three of Hebrews we find the writer taking a laser pointer and identifying the exact problem of these Christians.
Read Hebrews 3: 7-19 again
7 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 desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ “ 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily,as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed ? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
- Look carefully at verses 8, 13 and 15. What word do you find used in each of these verses? (Hint: skleryno)
Now turn to Psalm 95 and read verses 6 through 11.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Do you find anything familiar? There is that word ‘harden’.
Consider this passage from Word Biblical Commentary about these corresponding verses from Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3.
“The witness of Scripture is brought from the past into the present, contemporary with the experience of the readers. What was spoken or written concerning the desert generation centuries before has immediate relevance to the community addressed.” (WBC p.85)
These two passages refer to the Israelites turning away from God in the desert at Kadesh. They had refused to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief and hearts that were hardened toward God.
Next week we will finish our look at Hebrews 3 and this issue of hardened hearts. But for now, consider our Meditation Moment for the day.
MEDITATION MOMENT: It seems that hardened hearts are a common theme in the life of humanity. The Israelites of antiquity were plagued with hardened hearts. The Hellenistic Jews of New Testament times seemed to be tempted toward hardened hearts. Does this hard-heart syndrome still live on today? Explain your answer and offer examples, if appropriate.
