Hebrews 3:17, But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18, And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them who believed not?
19, So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief.
The Children of Israel had recently (about two years previous) been freed from the death grip of Egypt and its Pharaoh. They had seen miracle after miracle used by God during this time of deliverance.
They had seen the Red Sea parted miraculously and walked across on dry ground. They saw the armies of Egypt drown when they tried to pass through.
But now God desires them to enter into the Promised Land. He desires for them to cross over Jordan and take the Land which He has promised to their forefathers and to them.
However, they did not apparently believe that God would deliver the Land of Canaan into their hands, so they simply refused to do what God had said must be done.
Verse 18 of Hebrews says that they should not enter into His rest, because they believed not. Verse 17 says that this was the sin (the sin of unbelief) that caused that they should wander in the wilderness for forty years till they died.
TODAY
The same is true today.
People still wander in a desert where there is no spiritual water because of their sin.
But notice that the Bible is not talking about sins of adultery, or the sin of bearing false witness, or yet even the sin of murder. The Word of God here is not suggesting that the sin which caused them to die in the wilderness was some kind of lust or idolatry or some form of unholiness or uncleaness.
What the Word of God is telling us, and very plainly so; is that it was the sin of UNBELIEF which doomed them to wander the desert until they died.
Unbelief is still the sin which dooms people to wander until they die. John 8:24, I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am He you shall die in your sins.
Verse 8 of Hebrews 3 says, that those Israelites of old hardened their hearts, provoked, and tempted God.
Those people who are not believing in what Christ accomplished for us at Calvary today are also provoking and tempting God with hearts which will become ever harder as they continue to reject the Gospel of Christ.
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