The writer now turns to some harsh warnings. Why does he do this at this point? In our society we are obsessed with everyone making up their own mind, saying that everyone must come to their own conclusions and beliefs. In fact this is seen as the most important thing, but this is nonsense. Now it is true that people do have the "right" to believe and think what they want, and you cannot and must not force someone to believe something, but it is vitally important what we believe. The choice is to believe and obey the truth, or to believe a lie. If we live by te truth we will live, if we follow a falsehood we will die.
The writer quotes from Psalm 95. The Psalm begins with acclamation of praise for God and His great creating acts, and then says let us bow down before Him for we are the sheep of his pasture. This is followed by the warning quoted here. The Israelites who came out of Egypt saw God do many mighty acts, yet they refused to believe in Him. So they failed to enter the Promised Land.
Note why they failed to enter. It was not because God said "you shall not enter". In fact God took them to the border and told them to go in, but they refused to enter, refusing to believe that God could give them victory over the enemies. Likewise, every man and woman is invited into God's kingdom, people only fail to enter if they make the wrong choice.
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