Thoughts on Hebrews Questions from 7/9
HEBREWS STUDY QUESTIONS
My Sunday School Life Group is studying Hebrews. Every Monday, I post questions that were discussed the day before in Sunday School. I encourage you to ponder/think about them and jot down your thoughts.
On Wednesdays, I post some of the ideas that came up in the Life Group's discussion for you to consider.
Make yourself comfortable, this is most likely going to be a year-long experience.
These questions were discussed in my Life Group yesterday. Take time to reflect on them. I'll post thoughts from the class discussion on Wednesday of this week.
Chapter 3
Vv 7-19
What’s the “time of testing” in vv 7-11? Christ's temptation in the desert. Most agreed with Hebrews' 40 years of wandering in the desert.
What brought about God’s oath?
Hard heart: intellectual rigidity, emotional unresponsiveness. God's anger: In Exodus 17, Moses strikes the rock and water gushes out for the Hebrews--here Moses had the right spirit. That place was called Meribah (quarreling/complaining against God). In Numbers 20, Moses is told to speak to a rock for water. In anger/frustration, Moses strikes the rock. Moses had the right spirit in Exodus. In Numbers, Moses disobeyed/lost trust in God and found what the Hebrews already knew: It is a bitter experience to play in the arena of rebellion. God has the right to test us.
What does it mean to turn your heart away from God?
Set your heart against. Harden heart = provoking God. Forgetting what God has done for us while in a spiritual desert. This is the opposite of what is written in Hebrews 10:24.
Every day we are alive is today.
The day we're living in.
The present.
Supporting, helping, and encouraging others is the way to avoid a hard heart.
Other translations use conviction. Confidence is conviction or assurance. Confidence began with salvation and continues from reassurance.
Verse 13 is TODAY. Verse 14 is ALWAYS.
The Hebrews' 40 years of wandering in the desert when they rebelled because of NO FOOD (In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Ex 16:2-3), NO LEADER and NO GOD (When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Exodus 32:1-4), and Moses hit the rock in anger instead of speaking to the rock in obedience.
A hardened heart can be doing wrong, doing nothing, not doing what is right.
Can you think of another hardened heart?
King Saul's acts of disobedience.
Pharoah in Egypt.
Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus time.
We can get a hard heart:
- By failing to see what God is doing now.
- By the things we say and do.
Can you imagine what feeling the anger of God might be like? Now extend that for 40 years.
There was consensus that we did not want to feel this or even imagine what it would be like.
Disobedience - by not trusting God to deliver them from their enemies. (Numbers 13-14)
Lack of trust.
Unbelief.
If you'd like a PDF of the pages of questions in table form with room for you to write answers, email me at chuckdowning4@gmail.com/
I'd appreciate your feedback as a comment on Blogger!
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