Hebrews 3:16-19 (1), Those who rebelled

We have seen a dramatic swing in our society over the past decade or so and suddenly it okay and acceptable to rebel and disrespect authority. When I was a child 1980’s / 1990’s you better not talk back to someone in authority or the wrath of your parents would fall upon you. Today you see that police offices stand and watch as rioters and rebels destroy entire city blocks and they simply just allow them to act out their rebellion. An authority that willingly allows itself to be undermined is not much of an authority at all. In our verses today the author lets us know that it may be okay to rebel against your local authorities in modern times, but it is never okay to rebel against the heavenly authority, God. They say that those who heard the Word of God in Moses’s time and rebelled found themselves in a place of no rest and their bodies perished in the wilderness.

Our world views lack of action on behalf of the authority as a victory for their cause but lack of action from heaven when we rebel is simply an act of mercy. Judgement for our rebellion will come but in God’s mercy He allows us opportunity to correct our course and obey His authority. Those who stay in rebellion will never find rest in this life and sadly not in the eternal life to come either. Those who rebelled in the days of Moses refused to listen to the word of God and instead chose to believe the lies of this world so much so that when God told them to enter in to their reward they said they would rather go back to bondage than trust in the Lord to simply do what He said He would do. The disobedient and rebellious heart will never find rest and the goal of us all should be to rest eternally in the arms of our loving Savior Jesus Christ but to do this we have to hear and obey His word.