Hebrew 3:15-19 – Finishing strong

It’s important to start well and steadfastly maintain our relationship with God. But it is infinitely more important to finish well. To ensure that we end triumphantly and not make the same mistake as the children of Israel, we are given a summarized lesson from their wilderness wandering. Their failures are our object lessons.

The author first returned to Psalm 95 to illustrate to those teetering on the decision to return to Judaism, on how not to resist the voice of God. He was trying to show them that their situation paralleled that of the children of Israel. In three sets of two rhetorical questions each, he set to show that all who fell started out with faith, but did not finish the race. In each set of the questions, the second question would answer the first. Those children of Israel started well but due to unbelief and disobedience they all did not enter the rest God intended for them in the Promised Land. 

The issue with the wandering Israelites was that at one point they stopped believing that God was with them. They also stopped believing that God was leading them. Worst still they even stopped believing in the promise that God had made to them. It was to such people that God was angry. In essence they had stopped trusting altogether.

Herein lies another lesson. While God may address the whole family of believers, many a times He is more concerned about each one of us as an individual. And He addresses us personally. When we choose to dismiss what He is saying, we will find ourselves meandering down the journey, oblivious and unconcerned about His presence or His promise. We must remember that each one of us is called to be a light to this world and salt of this earth. If we are not lighting the way or seasoning lives, we have lost our value as light and salt. We will jeopardize not only our own lives but the lives of those whom we have ministered to and touched. Remember not to end up lost and detached from the Lord! Just keep on trusting, keep on believing, and keep on focusing aright as we advance in the Lord!