Hebrews 3:7-11 - As the Holy Spirit says

3:7

The gospel supersedes the old covenant, but only in the sense that it fulfils it and is far superior to it. The old contained many warnings, both those verbally given to Israel and the historical record of what actually happened. The writer now turns to one example of that in Psalm 95:7-11 and he is warning them about the consequences of not listening to God. God has spoken most clearly through the Lord Jesus Christ, so it is imperative that we listen. Notice also the “as the Holy Spirit says”. There is an implicit assumption throughout the New Testament that every word in the Old Testament was the word of God. Look at the way Jesus used  the Old Testament, He quite clearly believed that it was God’s spoken word.

So anyone who thinks that the Old Testament does not need to be paid attention to, or can be glibly ignored, needs to be aware that they are going directly against what Jesus said and thought.

3:8-11

“Today” is an oft repeated phrase by the writer to the Hebrews. He is dealing with matters of immediate and great importance. The Psalm refers back to what happened at the waters of Meribah. The Israelites failed to trust in God’s provision. The Hebrews were in great danger of not trusting in God’s provision for our justification through the cross.

God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. There wasn’t much in the way of natural food or water, but God provided. Now their need for righteousness was all too obvious, we need to trust in God’s provision of righteousness through the cross.

There is a testing. Note that they hardened their hearts. There are various passages in the New Testament that talk about God hardening, and then ones like this which talk about our hardening of our hearts. The two are not contradictory.

There was a serious consequence to the Israelites refusal to learn from God. They were not allowed to enter His rest. The writer will talk more about this in the next chapter, but for now just remember that the Israelites who complained their way through the desert did not enter the Promised Land. There are serious consequences to ignoring God’s word.