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Reflection for Shelakh-Lekha

“No Rest for Hardened Hearts: The Deceitfulness of Sin”

Hebrews 3:7-19

excerpted from TorahScope Apostolic Scriptures Reflections

In this week’s Torah reading, Shelakh-Lekha (Numbers 13:1-15:41), we examine the infamous account of the twelve spies sent to survey the Promised Land, as the Israelites continued to complain about some of the challenges of life which required not only faithfulness on their part—but most especially perseverance.[1] It is easy to overlook how the idea to send spies into Canaan, was a suggestion of the people themselves, and was not necessarily from the Lord. I would submit that looking back on this scene in Biblical history, it might have been possible for God not to have issued penalties upon Israel, if they had not demanded that the Land be scouted out. Note the request of the people to Moses, found in the opening of Deuteronomy:

“‘Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.’ You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, ‘Let’s send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come’” (Deuteronomy 1:21-22, WMB).

What is most remembered about our Torah selection, is the fact that because of a bad report and the fear which ensued after the forty-day excursion, the Ancient Israelites eventually spent the next forty years wandering in the desert, as those over twenty years of age would die because of a lack of faith (Numbers 14:28-35). There would be no rest and refreshment found for the vast majority of those who left Egypt in the Exodus, because they had failed to believe in the promises of their Creator and Deliverer.

What we read about in Shelakh-Lekha this week, is actually that the congregation of Israel was preparing to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb—the leaders of Israel, and the two spies who came back with a positive report. They are defended by the Holy One, for their insistence that obeying Him was far more important than listening to bad reports and cowering away from the challenge to take the Promised Land. The declaration Moses made about God’s mercy and compassion, was similar to what happened after the golden calf incident (cf. Exodus 20:6; 34:6), because Moses was able to intercede, and the Lord would not summarily wipe out all of His chosen people for being rebellious. Once again, to just eradicate Israel as a nation, would demonstrate to the Egyptians and others, that the God of Israel was no different than any other deity of the Ancient Near East (cf. Exodus 32:11-14):

“But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The LORD’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. The LORD said to Moses, ‘How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’ Moses said to the LORD, ‘Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are among this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, “Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.” Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, “The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.” Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.’ The LORD said, ‘I have pardoned according to your word; but in very deed—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the LORD’s glory—because all those men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it’” (Numbers 14:10-23, WMB).

Turning to the Apostolic Writings, the author of Hebrews made light of the decree from the Lord that the Ancient Israelites would not enter into His rest, awaiting them in the Promised Land (cf. Psalm 95:11). God’s judgment would come forth in the unfaithful people being prohibited from entering into their inheritance. The analogy was made to a First Century audience, perhaps teetering on denying the Messiah Yeshua, that if they gave up on Him—a far worse fate than not being able to enter into the Promised Land awaited them:

“Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, “They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.” As I swore in my wrath, “They will not enter into my rest” [Psalm 95:7-11; Exodus 17:7; Numbers 20:2-5].’ Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called ‘today’, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Messiah, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end, while it is said, ‘Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion’ [Psalm 95:7-8]. For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:7-19, WMB).

For those of us reflecting upon these passages of Scripture today, it is critical to note that the Holy One of Israel remains the same (Hebrews 13:5-8) and that He does not change (1 Samuel 15:29, Titus 1:2). It is incumbent upon Believers to take these words from Hebrews to serious heart, especially when readers are told, “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13, NRSV). We are to learn from the examples of those Ancient Israelites who fell in the wilderness, so that none of us might repeat their past and most severe mistakes.

No different than the generation of those who came out of Egypt, it is possible for those who claim faith in Yeshua the Messiah to allow their hearts to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin—and for them to fall away in their trespasses. It is possible for some to apostatize from the faith, and actually lose a position of salvation. God forbid that such a thing would ever happen to one who has experienced His goodness and grace, but an entire generation which was expecting to enter into the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, instead was not allowed to do so. We do not know the eternal condition of such people, but the lesson is for us to simply learn.

The Prophet Jeremiah understood the potential to fall away because of the deceitfulness of the human heart. Jeremiah warned an ancient audience, that without persevering in the things of the Lord, it is possible for one to be utterly deceived:

“The LORD says: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings’” (Jeremiah 17:5-10, WMB).

The Lord is the only One who is really able to evaluate the condition of an individual’s heart, and thus determine whether one is truly “saved” or not, and can enter into His Kingdom. If this frightens you at all, because you think that you might have unresolved sins or issues you need to take care of before Him—then the Apostle Paul’s prescription is to test yourself. Make sure that you have Yeshua the Messiah resident inside of you!

“Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Yeshua the Messiah is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified. Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect” (2 Corinthians 13:5-8, WMB).

If you sense that your heart is hardening toward the things of the Messiah and what He has done for you—catch yourself, and confess and repent of the gradual slippage in your walk! Remember that the world, the flesh, and the Devil are worthy adversaries—not even to mention the subtle hardening of the heart which results from the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). With a resolve like Joshua and Caleb, make sure that you are on good standing with the King of Kings!

If you can do this, then the deceitfulness of sin will not catch you with your guard down. Gird up your loins and fight the good fight—keeping your eyes firmly fixed on Messiah Yeshua (Hebrews 12:2). Persevere until the end. Make every effort that you can to enter into the Lord’s eternal rest in His Kingdom to come!