A couple of years ago I bought a magazine about “off grid living.” I have always enjoyed that kind of thing as I have done a good bit of backpacking over the years. I love the mountains and I love figuring out how to make life work in a naturel setting. But as for the magazine, maybe I was considering moving off the grid, as it was during the covid lockdown time, and I thought to myself, “if I’m going to be locked down, I might as well move out in the open country and just live off the land!” I love the wilderness.
I don’t know if you have ever experienced the true wilderness before, but while it can dreamy and wonderful, AND it can also be a disorienting and frightening. We get used to the way we live and our familiar surroundings. When you out in the wilderness, you cannot control any of that. YOU have adapt to the weather, topography, and wildlife that may come your way. What is one day a wonderful experience can the next minute turn into a nightmare (like the time I took teens out and a giant life threatening freezing downpour came on us unexpectantly miles and miles from the safety of the trailhead).
Hebrews 3 is our focus passage this coming Sunday as we continue to study about Knowing God out of this New Testament book. This part of the Scripture talks a great deal about a wilderness experience that the Jews went through when they were 40 years wandering in the desert.
As you prepare for this Sunday, take plenty of time to read Hebrews 3, and notice how they reacted to the wilderness experience. The author either quotes directly or eludes heavily to the story we find in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy specifically. Then ponder over the phrase quoted twice in the chapter that actually comes from Psalm 95… “Today, I you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.”
We Know God ultimately in Jesus Christ. But do we harden our hearts to Him?
