Hebrews 3:7-19 - A Serious Warning Against Unbelief

⁷ Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice,
⁸
Do not harden your hearts as [your fathers did] in the rebellion [of Israel at Meribah],
On the day of testing in the wilderness,
⁹
Where your fathers tried Me by testing [My forbearance and tolerance],
And saw My works for forty years
[And found I stood their test].
¹⁰
“Therefore I was angered with this generation,
And I said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways [nor become progressively better and more intimately acquainted with them]’;
¹¹
So I swore [an oath] in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest [the promised land].’”

¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that there not be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord, a heart] that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today” [and there is an opportunity], so that none of you will be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [its cleverness, delusive glamour, and sophistication]. ¹⁴ For we [believers] have become partakers of Christ [sharing in all that the Messiah has for us], if only we hold firm our newborn confidence [which originally led us to Him] until the end, ¹⁵ while it is said,

“Today [while there is still opportunity] if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your heart, as when they provoked Me [in the rebellion in the desert at Meribah].”

¹⁶ For who were they who heard and yet provoked Him [with rebellious acts]? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies were scattered in the desert? ¹⁸ And to whom did He swear [an oath] that they would not enter His rest, but to those who disobeyed [those who would not listen to His word]? ¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest—the promised land] because of unbelief and an unwillingness to trust in God.