Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. 13 Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. 14 We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end, 15 for it is said: “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.” 16 Who were those who rebelled when they heard? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was he “provoked for forty years”? Was it not those who had sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did he “swear that they should not enter into his rest,” if not to those who were disobedient? 19 And we see that they could not enter for lack of faith.
God manifests Himself in His works; more specifically God manifested Himself in Christ and his works. To forsake the living God means that one is rejecting Jesus, his teaching, and ultimately God. St. Paul told the Corinthians, “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known (1 Cor. 13:12).” In our earthly life we only have the beginning of the reality of God and should live in the hope of seeing Him face to face and not be seduced by the ‘deceit of sin.’ After they left Egypt, the Hebrews disobeyed God and refused to go into the land of Canaan. The Israelites were to enter into God’s rest, but they were disobedient and only Joshua, Caleb and those who were born after the Hebrews left Egypt did not die in the desert. The rest God offered the Hebrews was only an indication of the rest to which Christians are called, to which they will enter as long as they are obedient and persevere in faith. To fall away from Christianity is to abandon the living God. St. Paul made a connection between disobedience and lack of faith.
Almighty God, we are not always faithful or obedient to your teaching and often presume that you will be merciful to us. Help us to persevere in faith so that our hope of seeing you face to face will be realized and you will welcome us into your rest. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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