Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
This verse gives a strong warning to the readers and to us by extension. This is the problem of the desert generation when they turned their backs on God’s promises because they lacked faith. The essential problem is “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” What is the link between sin and unbelief? One leads to the other. It begins with temptation that offers a false promise and leads us to turn away from God. The desert generation was given a choice of going into the unknown but with God’s help or remaining where they were or even going back to Egypt. The old life was enticing. One of the big problem was that their memories were short. They forgot the pain and sorrow of living in slavery. The world offers false promises to us. Sin looks appealing, otherwise it would not be tempting. Temptation begins to raise doubts in our minds about God’s promises. Sometimes fear sets in. The author describes God here as “living.” This is significant in light of the challenges the people faced. They wanted to return to the dead gods of the Egyptians, just like we are tempted to return to the dead gods of our world today. God is living and active in our lives. This is the real thing, not some theory or human religion. Temptation leads us to doubt in God. We may forget what God has done for us in the past. Our lack of faith is an open door to sin. The problem with the desert generation is that they had not fully committed their lives to God. They were holding back. They were not sanctified fully in faith that would take them into the promises God had for them. The is the essential call of the the Bible: to be committed fully to God in order to receive and participate in God’s promises for us. We must deal with our sinful and unbelieving hearts. It begins by turning back to God in repentance and then moving forward in faith in his direction.
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