Reading: Hebrews 3:1-4:13
Hebrews 3 begins with a direct address: it’s speaking to “holy brethren,” to “partakers of the heavenly calling.” Because we belong to Jesus, He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. He has made us holy, because He was faithful to His calling, as Moses was faithful in his time. If Christ Himself has faithfully made you holy, you’re stuck in the people of God. The question now is whether you will be faithful with what He has given you—and the danger of failure here is very real. After all, the people who followed Moses didn’t turn into not-Israel when they failed…but they did fail, and they all died in the wilderness because they didn’t trust God.
If we were retelling their story, we would point to the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, when God told them to go up into the promised land and they refused, as the climax of the story. Hebrews locates the failure much earlier, at Massah, where that generation complained against God and went “astray in their hearts.” And so Hebrews challenges us to attend to our hearts, and that’s not a job anybody should tackle without help.
Hard-heartedness doesn’t have to happen intentionally; it sneaks up on you. And so we should be diligent together, “encouraging one another daily.” To be a “partaker with Christ,” one of His companions who fully exhibit His victory in this life—to succeed where the Exodus generation failed, in other words—we need to remain confident to the very end. That confidence is more fragile than we like to think. So let’s not allow a day to go by where we don’t encourage each other, and Christmastide is a great time for it. The Son was faithful, so that we could partake in the divine nature. Remind someone of that today! We all need it.
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