Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
This passage references Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness. They did not trust God to give them the land He promised them. They sinned because they did not trust God. The other part of this week’s reading is Joshua 2:1-24 when the spies went to Jericho and Rahab sheltered them. The spies reported back to Joshua and in Chapter 3 the children of Israel finally cross the Jordan.
When God says we need to trust Him, there’s no room for hesitation. If you do hesitate you may wind up wandering in your version of the wilderness until God grants you another opportunity. God will show you when to take action and when to wait. When He says, “Go,” however, we need to go. We do not live isolated from God. If we’ve trusted Yeshua as Messiah, Savior and King, then we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us — to prompt us, speak to us. We just need to listen.
We also meet together regularly and to build up each other so that we are more apt to trust God all the time. We need to encourage each other so that when one of us thinks there are giants in the land another one of us can remind us to trust God. We need to let each other know that we are praying for each other. We need to disciple each other so that we know what the word of God says (and its application) from cover to cover.
Hebrews 3:16-19 reminds us that one act of obedience doesn’t cover for a later act of disobedience. Those who left Egypt – obedient as they were then – died in the wilderness when they were disobedient and did not take the land the first time they had the opportunity. Their hesitation was rooted in the their distrust of God and it cost them dearly.
Guard against thinking the enemy is stronger than you. Always remember that God is your shield, your protector. Do you need encouragement? Try reading Psalm 27.