Hebrews 3:16-19 - Who died in the desert?

3:16

The writer then expounds on the background to Psalm 95, which is about the Israelites who came out of Egypt. First of all, who were the people God is speaking about? They were those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. So they had seen great miracles, they had been set free from slavery. They were on their way to the promised land, they were led by a great man of God. And they all (except Joshua and Caleb) died in the desert because of their unbelief. We may be part of a great church, we may have experienced God doing wonderful things in our lives. I guess many of us know people whom we know God has done significant things in their lives, yet they later fall away. We all need to believe, we all need to persevere.

3:17

“With whom was He angry”? God being angry is not just an Old Testament concept, it applies today as well. This was not a baseless anger, He had good cause. The Israelites had experienced much, He had been extremely patient with them. Time after time He had intervened miraculously, yet they never learned, they never started to actually trust God. And their bodies perished in the desert. Their disobedience, their lack of faith, had consequences. We should never imagine that any lack of faith or disobedience on our part will not have consequences.

3:18,19

It was not mere bad luck that stopped the Israelites reaching the Promised Land, it was a direct, deliberate, judgement from God. He declared it would happen and it did. So if they could not enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief, how much more we will fail to enter a much greater “Promised Land” if we persist in unbelief?

Now let me make a small caveat here. We absolutely must take God seriously, but that does not mean that every little sin or time of doubt will mean we have had it! The Israelites sinned persistently for forty years. If at any point they had seen the light and repented they would have been able to enter the promised land. There is a balance to be had. We should not live in fear that every failing means we are doomed, if that were the case no one would be saved, but we should take life seriously, we should take following Christ seriously.