May 06, 2025 | Be God's Family
The Israelites Tested God in the Wilderness
Scripture: Hebrews 3:7-11(NIV)
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
Devotional
At the end of the book of Genesis, the entire nation of Israel had relocated to Egypt for food and security. The next book of the Bible, Exodus, opens four hundred years later. By then Israel had grown to a vast nation within Egypt, though now as slaves to Pharaoh.
Enter Moses.
He led the people out of bondage and through the Red Sea on dry ground. For the next forty years, God continued to provide for the Israelites as they were awaiting entrance into the Promised Land. They complained against Moses, rebelled against God, and embraced idolatry.
God told them to have no other gods; they built a golden calf. God gave them bread from heaven; they wanted meat. God provided water from a rock; they got cotton-mouthed with thirst for self. God commanded them to refrain from adultery; they prostituted themselves with false gods.
The result: none of them would be allowed to enter the Promised Land; none of them would enter God’s rest. Living a Godly life is not a matter of, “I don’t get it.” In the end, it’s a matter of, “I don’t want it.”
In today’s passage, the Holy Spirit calls this “rebellion.” The dictionary defines rebellion as the act of resisting authority. Teens rebel against parents. Citizens rebel against governments. Everybody rebels against God.
Psalm 14:2-3 says, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Enter Jesus.
Though we were in bondage to sin, Jesus opened a safe passage to peace with God, to life in Christ, to ministry in the Spirit, to eternity in heaven.
Will you yield to Him and walk in the way that leads to life?
Poem
Proclaiming Your Name
Psalm 95:1-7
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Psalm 95:6-7
When bonded in slav’ry
You set us all free
When chased by our en’my
You opened the sea
When tired and thirsty
Your Rock water gave
When hungry and fainting--
Heav’n’s Manna to save
Each day and each night
Cloud and fire beside
When idols we worshipped
Your wrath did not hide
You claimed us “My people”
We claimed you “Our God”
You are our Great Shepherd
We go where you trod
We build now an altar
Our hearts set aflame
We enter Your promise
Proclaiming Your name
