Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:As in the provocation — When Israel provoked me by their strife and murmurings.In the day of temptation — When at the same time they tempted me, by distrusting my power and goodness. Exodus 17:7. read more
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.Where your fathers — That hard-hearted and stiff-necked generation. So little cause had their descendants to glory in them.Tempted me — Whether I could and would help them.Proved me — Put my patience to the proof, even while they saw my glorious works both of judgment and mercy, and that for forty years. read more
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.Wherefore — To speak after the manner of men.I was grieved — Displeased, offended with that generation, and said, They always err in their hearts - They are led astray by their stubborn will and vile affections.And — For this reason, because wickedness has blinded their understanding.They have not known my ways — By which I would have led them like a flock.Into my rest — In... read more
a. Israel’s failure to attain God’s rest portrayed as warning, Hebrews 3:7-11 . 7. Wherefore In view of the fact that your forming a part of Christ’s eternal house depends on your hold fast. Holy Ghost saith In Psalms 95:7-11. Our author assumes that what the psalm says, the Holy Ghost saith; that is, the psalm is inspired. As The so corresponding to this as is implied at Hebrews 3:12, before. Take heed. The Holy Ghost in the ancient psalm utters all the reproofs of 7-11,... read more
2. Dread warnings against disobedience to the Son, like the Jews’ disobedience to Moses, Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:13. As Christ stands parallel to Moses, so our Christian Hebrews stand parallel to ancient Israel, and so must take warning by Israel’s fatal example. read more
8. Provocation… temptation In Exodus 17:7, at the smiting of the rock to bring water for the murmuring people, it is said that Moses “called the name of the place Massah, [ temptation, ] and Meribah, [ bitterness, ] because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not.” The word provocation, here, is the Septuagint translation of Meribah, and temptation of Massah. Wilderness Of Zin. read more
9. Tempted… proved Made trial ascertained. Forty years The perversity of the people at Meribah was at the beginning of this forty years. In the psalm the forty years is in the following verse, measuring the time in which I was grieved. Our author, in thought, measures the same period, though he varies the phrase. It was, also, forty years between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish race. The period had nearly expired when this epistle was... read more
10. That generation Of the forty years. Heart Note, Romans 10:10. Not known Not merely a passive ignorance, but a positive ignoring, a refusing to know. My ways My works, in Hebrews 3:9, were the divine miracles and revelations; my ways, here, are the Lord’s righteous dealings with free-agents. They had so ignored God’s ways and modes of government as to act as if there were no God. read more
11. I sware Made an affirmation, to be held as sure and firm as the divine existence. So Numbers 14:21, “As truly as I live;” and Numbers 14:28-29, “As truly as I live… your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.” My rest To the Israelites the words meant a failure to attain Canaan; with the deeper implications underlying of a death under the divine wrath. To the spiritual Israel the literal Canaan had no significance except as a type of the eternal rest. read more
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Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Hebrews 3:7
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,Wherefore — Seeing he is faithful, be not ye unfaithful. Psalm 95:7, etc. read more