Hebrews 3:9-10
27 April 2025
where your fathers put Me to the test
and saw My works for forty years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known My ways.’
So last time, when we were in this opening part of Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 to 11, which, if you remember from that time, is a quote almost word for word from Psalm 95, we were considering the situation of Israel's hardness of heart, their rebellion against the living God. And we spent quite some time dealing with that in verses 7 to 8.
And this is what we're going to be picking up again as we come to verses 9 to 10 here this afternoon, which really presses home the heart of the issue in this particular passage, which is the heart issue of sinful man. That man ultimately here does not know God. That is the problem that we have with a people—who, let's be clear—have been so richly blessed. The people of Israel, chosen and set apart by God from all the nations. They were rescued from slavery in Egypt, a people redeemed by Yahweh. And then in the wilderness, which is what we're dealing with in this specific psalm, we see where their hearts are at. And ultimately, we are dealing with hearts that are hardened to the truth, namely, the truth about who God is.
Now, what we have to understand here this evening, as we come to texts like this, is that God is not a lifestyle choice or some entity that we can take or leave as it suits, or something or someone that we can mold in our image or idea of what we believe a deity or a higher power ought to be. All of these things are very much captured in the attitude that we see of the Israelites. Because the Israelites are very much a warning from Scripture, which is a warning that is now for the church today. Because, as we've seen not only in our time in Hebrews, but when we were studying the book of Exodus, there is one true living God. His truth is absolute. And as His followers, we do not pick or choose what we decide may suit us regarding the commands of God, regarding the identity of who God is. If it is about who God is, if it is about what God commands, then we come as His people, faithfully in obedience.
Now, this is something to stress because of what we see the Israelites have done. Look at the language that is used. We have this hardness of heart language in verse 8, but there's also mention of testing. In verse nine, it says, the Fathers have put God to the test. In verse 10, we see the language of God being provoked by that generation. Now, when we think about who God is, the one true living God, our Creator, the One who has made us for His glory. And then we look to the attitude of the hearts of these people. They put God to the test. They provoked God in that generation. Instantly, with that language, we can already see something of the problem, and this is the problem that we're going to be unpacking as we consider how important it is that, in knowing who God is, we come as a people ready and willing to obey and to worship Him.
So, as we come to this text, what we're going to be doing this afternoon for quite a bit of time is actually dealing with a few Scripture passages in the time of the Israelites in the wilderness. So if you think back to what we saw in verses 7 to 8, that specifically deals with the account in Exodus 17, which we went to. So, if you remember back in Exodus 17, that was a time when they were testing in the wilderness, which is where we get this name Massah. And also, it's during the time of their rebellion, which is where we get the name Meribah—both names that were found in Exodus chapter 17. And that initial part of the Psalm in verses 7 to 8 of our text deals with the initial weeks of Israel's beginning to rebel in their time of the wilderness.
But as you'll notice from verse 9, it then deals with the 40-year span. So it's not simply dealing with the initial troubles that Israel had in the middle part of Exodus. Now we're dealing with the entire time because an entire generation is ultimately going to not only wander in the wilderness, but as we see, they will ultimately die in the wilderness. Because in verse 11 of Hebrews 3 it says, "They shall not enter my rest." So we're going from this initial period of time to— in verses 9 and 10 of this Psalm, which is quoted here—dealing with the entire span of Israel's time in the wilderness. So that's what we're dealing with.
So, if we can turn first of all to Numbers chapter 11, we're going to be dealing with a few of the chapters in the Book of Numbers. So, if we consider where already we've seen in the hardness of Israel's hearts, we've seen in that middle section in Exodus that in chapter 15, in Shur, the water is turned sweet after the Israelites panic, God provides manna in chapter 16 of Exodus when again they're panicking about the lack of food. Then, as we've seen in Exodus chapter 17 in Rephidim, where the LORD provides water from the rock, again and again we see the reaction of the Israelites—one of panic, one of fear, one of blaming Moses, one of almost looking to get angry and violent as a result of the predicament of their circumstances. All of this has already happened.
There has also been the golden calf later in Exodus chapter 32, where, when Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments and God's law, what are the people doing down below? Well, they are erecting a god in their image. That's what they're doing. So all of that has already happened. And as we go through the weeks and the months of Israel wandering in the wilderness, the issues continue to come. And this is where we're picking it up here in Numbers chapter 11. So we're only going to read little portions of this because there's so much to deal with when we consider what happens next. So Numbers, chapter 11, verses 1 to 3:
"And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes. And when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah because the fire of the LORD burned among them."
So what do we have here? Well, again, the people are complaining. Common pattern. The problem comes—people complain. And it's interesting to note, and this is something that should remind us in case there is ever a moment when we forget. It doesn't say in this passage that they're complaining to the LORD, but it does say that they complained in the hearing of the LORD. So there's no secret grumbling that we can have that the LORD is not entirely aware of. So the LORD hears what they are saying about their misfortunes.
Now, if you're scratching your heads and thinking, what misfortunes has Israel been subjected to? Well, certainly if we were to go back many years, we would see the misfortune of slavery, being in a foreign land. But this covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, has remembered them. He has heard them, He has rescued them, He has redeemed them, He has provided them with water, He has provided them with food. And so what misfortunes are they grumbling about?
But brothers and sisters, what we need to remember is that this is very much a picture and a glimpse into not just the hearts of the people of Israel, but our hearts. That's the problem. Our hearts and what we have very much is a picture that is building more of the LORD in His justice and the LORD in His wrath, His righteous anger. Now we're going to think more about that specifically as we get to Hebrews chapter 3, verse 10, with this, therefore, I was provoked with that generation. But so far, we're dealing with Hebrews 3:9, which says, "Your fathers put Me to the test and saw My works for 40 years."
So here again is this putting God to the test. And as they're doing this, as they're grumbling at their misfortunes, the LORD burns with anger against them. Think of Hebrews 12:29, which says, "Our God is a consuming fire." And so some in the camp are struck. Notice it says at the end of verse 1, the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. This is the consequence of man's rebellious, hardened heart. We saw this back in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 2, where every transgression and disobedience shall have a just retribution. These are the consequences that are unfolding.
And if we're thinking, well, surely as this now yet again is happening, where the people are grumbling and the LORD is burning with anger that lessons would be learned, let's scroll down to verses 13 to 15 of Numbers chapter 11:
“Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat that we may eat.’ I'm not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you'll treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favour in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
Now, what is Moses doing? Well, he is interceding for a grumbling, self-entitled people. Instead of looking at once more, the LORD's anger is burning against them. The outlying parts of the camp are being burned up. Instead of them learning and realising and looking to the history of what God has done, of who God is, again and again, they'll come with their grumblings, their complaining of how unfortunate their life is.
And we see this sort of behaviour today in our social media world. Is this not what the age of narcissism has been able to produce? This victim mentality, where woe is me. And we'll get our audience to come and sympathise with our circumstances. No sense of accountability, no sense of a conviction of our own sin or our wrongdoing, but everyone and everything else is to blame.
Well, brothers and sisters, this is exactly what we see of the attitude of Israel. And this is an attitude of Israel that is being projected against God. Now, this is a heart problem fundamentally that we all have, if we do not truly know God. There is no lasting satisfaction if it is not found in the LORD. Man may seek and strive to find answers in their own sense of identity, in their own popularity, in their own status, maybe in their own religion, that they've been able to find all of these different directions and ways by which man seeks and strives. But it is only in the LORD that there is eternal satisfaction.
This is why the LORD Jesus says in John 4:14 that the eternal thirst that we have will be quenched in Him. And if we're sitting here this evening knowing and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ as the LORD of our life, as the Saviour of our souls, the One who is risen and exalted, seated on the throne, then in Him we have perfect rest. In Him we have perfect satisfaction.
And as we look to the example of the Israelites, this is a warning to us, where we know how easily we can wander into this same sense of self-pity and victimhood mentality. Because it continues as we get closer to the end of the chapter. In verses 31 to 33 of chapter 11, it goes on to say,
"Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered 10 homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague."
Now, what's going on here? Well, God has been merciful in providing them with even more food— this time, the meat that they've requested. But also, we see that once more the LORD's anger is kindled against them. Because, remember Hebrews 3:9, they are testing the LORD. They are putting God to the test. And lest we need to be reminded of this, we do not put the one true living God, who is the end point of all things and who is the absolute expression of perfection, to the test. God does not revolve around our life and circumstances. We revolve around Him. And this is the picture that is now beginning to unravel as Israel continues again and again in their fear, in their worldliness, in their sin.
So as we continue, we'll skip over chapter 12, which is a very powerful chapter in Numbers where we see the jealousy of both Miriam and Aaron. We come to chapter 13, and this is a chapter where another big problem comes. Namely, some spies are sent to Canaan, which is the promised land, to see what it's like to assess the lay of the land, because this is the land that God has promised the people in the wilderness. And they find that the picture in Canaan is a very daunting one. There's a lot of big, strong-looking people in Canaan. And we weak Israelites, we cannot fight against them. So again, we—what is the response of the people when they see this? Well, it's panic, it's fear, it's anxiety. And if we just read in verse 31 of chapter 13, it says,
"Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height."
So this is the circumstance. Now, being sympathetic to the circumstance, I'm sure—fleshly speaking—every one of us would look at this and we would feel a sense of fear and uncertainty. Big, strong-looking, warrior-like figures. But then, what do we remember? The God that we know, the God who time after time has provided that water, has provided that manna, provided that water, provided that quail. This God, whose mighty hand has struck down arguably the most powerful empire in the world at that time—the Pharaoh and the Egyptians—Israel has witnessed this. So what are they going to do? What do we do in these moments? These moments when we are tested, tested in the face of affliction, when the circumstances are overwhelming, when what is before us is more than we can handle, which very much is going to be the case this side of eternity. To whom do we look and trust? Chapter 14, verse 2:
“And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"
Here they're doing the exact same thing that we saw in Exodus 17. First of all, they're redefining their past. What was their past in Egypt? The way they're describing it here, it sounds like it was a real lavish lifestyle that they were enjoying. They were so anguished during their time in slavery that they could but groan before the LORD.
And how quickly we are to forget times of great trial that we have faced before, and how the LORD has been our strength. How quickly we are to forget when the next crisis comes. And this is why not only is there that redefining of the past, there's also that exaggerating of the present, because we've already had the bad report that is being given in chapter 13.
And now here we come to their grumbling before Moses, which ultimately means they are grumbling against God. And this again is why Hebrews 3:9 says that they are testing God. And this is not a testing where they're coming in faith, trusting, knowing that God is going to be there for them. No, they come with doubt. They come with uncertainty. They come with unbelief.
Now, ultimately, this is where it will be. Brothers, sisters, friends in our hearts. If even at times we have seen—I can recollect the LORD provided, He blessed me in that time. He helped me to get out of this. But if you do not truly know the living God, then in your unbelief, you are going to turn to what you know of the flesh. And this is the warning for us, because we know, we know this danger. We know this is the carrot that the evil one will seek to dangle in front of your eyes: ‘Turn to the flesh. This God cannot be trusted.’ And it's why, by the grace of God, we have passages and warnings like this. And this is something we need to take heed of. Because ultimately, the consequence for Israel is such a tragic one. If we turn to the end of chapter 14—and just as you're looking at that—let's remember that in Hebrews 3 it says that they saw God’s works for 40 years. This promised land, which God has promised to Israel, is not one that they are going to enter this generation. So Numbers 14 from verse 26:
“And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ‘How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in My hearing, I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure.’ I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness, they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
Now, if you notice in this chapter, first of all, it is Israel themselves who have said, "We shall not enter." This is God’s judgment. They shall not enter. But they said it first. Now think of the folly of sinful man in their hardness of heart—even when they are blessed to hear so much truth, as Israel has been blessed with. When people today—perhaps grown up in the church environment, having heard the gospel proclaimed—and later in life say, "I'm not interested in heaven, not interested in the things of God," it becomes a bore to them. Are you sitting here tonight saying the truth of the word of God is a bore to you? Well, here in this text is what you will face. This is how serious it is, brothers and sisters. This is the consequence of Israel's decision in their hardness of heart. We don't want to enter there, projecting our cowardice upon Yahweh. And in response, Yahweh comes in judgment against this generation.
And this is why in Hebrews 3:17 it says, the bodies will fall in the wilderness, straight from what we find in Numbers, chapter 14. Also, Deuteronomy 2:14 says, "And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them." Also, Deuteronomy 9:7—"Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.” What a damning picture this is of man's sin and rebellion. And this, remember, is God’s chosen people who have been rescued and redeemed from Egypt into this wilderness. And they've rejected God. One other passage to go to in Numbers 20, just briefly, just so that we see the full extent of the testing—because not only is it this generation (you'll notice it said, only Caleb and Joshua are the ones who will go into this promised land)—what about Moses? Let's just read this briefly so that we've got this reference. Numbers chapter 20, from verse 6:
“Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.’ And Moses took the staff from before the LORD as He commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in Me, to uphold Me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarrelled with the LORD, and through them He showed Himself holy.”
And this really does wrap it up, doesn't it? As we come back to Hebrews 3:9—this really wraps up this sorry picture of Israel. Verse 9, putting God to the test. And where we do see that they saw His works for 40 years—the 40 years in the wilderness, where each of them would ultimately die.
And as we come then to verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 3, this is where the LORD declares, therefore, of this people, of this generation. “Therefore, I was provoked with that generation,…” Now, this word provoked more literally means angered or loathed. So I was angered. I was loath with that generation. Now, earlier on, in the beginning of Numbers 11, we dealt with the subject of God's anger. And this is where we come to unpack one of the attributes of our God, namely, His wrath, the attribute of the wrath of the living God, because this is God's righteous anger at the face of our sin.
Understand this, friends, that our God is grieved by our sin. When you sin, our God is grieved by this. This is not some arbitrary or distant God. He is deeply invested in His creation. And yet, how do we act in this world? As if sometimes our sin isn't much of a relevance or a big deal or of any connection to God. I'm sure you can maybe think of times, maybe late one night, maybe when nobody is looking and you've done something and not really bothered about the fact that you've done that or any consequences, because nobody's really seen that, and you say to yourself, well, it's not really a big deal, as if the living God does not see all things in your life. We act like this, where often we'd be more worried if the elders of the church see us than God. And why is that? Where is that problem coming from? Because this is such foolishness. And it highlights where so often we can think and act like the flesh when we see that our sin is against our Creator and is of such immense pain and grief to Him. Think back to the account of the Flood in Genesis, chapter 6. In Genesis 6:6 it says,
"And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart."
Now, this word regretted does not reflect on the unchanging, all-powerful nature of who God is and what He decrees, but rather it refers to the righteous anger and displeasure at man's sin. That's what we see consistently from Genesis all the way to when we come to the time of Christ, and then throughout history thereafter. Because our sin, the sin of mankind, the fallenness in this world, is something which is wholly against the holy, perfect God. Our God cannot tolerate it. He cannot look upon sin. This is how offensive, how intolerable, how abominable it is.
And it is why, sitting here this evening, we must never ever, ever, ever be flippant or casual about sin. Take heed and see the weight of your bad temper, your lustful thoughts, your idolatrous activity. It's not a bit of fun, it's not a small sin, and so not so important. It is a sin before the Most High God. And this is what our God was provoked by, what He was angered with, with this generation. And why. Because ultimately, for this generation and so many in our world today, we go on to read, “…They always go astray in their heart…”(Hebrews 3:10); they go astray in their heart.
In Isaiah 53:6, it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray…[each] to its own way." And that's it. The picture of sheep not knowing which way to turn, not knowing where to go, that is us and our sin. And maybe man will say, well, if God reveals Himself to me, if He shows and proves Himself to be true, then yeah, well, I believe, then—No, you wouldn't! And Israel in the wilderness is the exact case in point. They have seen the mighty power of the living God time after time, even to the point where it has literally blessed Israel throughout their lives. And in their hardness of heart, in their unbelieving wickedness and rebellion, they've gone astray. And this is it. You cannot find your way to God with your own sense of intellect or your own idea of what you think God is. And this goes back to this point at the start. God is not a lifestyle choice, not an entity we could put on and take off as we please. He is not someone or something that we can mold or craft in our own image. He is the one true living God, and He has revealed who He is, and He is true to Himself and His glorious attributes.
Isaiah 55:9.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
And Romans 11:33.
"Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways."
This is the God of the Bible, the living God who created you in His image. But in our fallen rebellion, we, in our hardness of hearts, have turned our backs on God in our sin. And this is why our God is righteously angry at our sin. It's why there are images of a consuming fire both in Numbers 11 and in Hebrews chapter 12. And it is exactly why we need to, again and again, week after week, day after day, morning by morning, look to the glory of the cross and see that this is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has faced for His people. That consuming fire, the righteous wrath of the living God, which burns against sinful man. Which means that you are deserving of eternal hellfire. And let's be clear that hell is not an absence of some religious things that we're not really interested in anyway. No, hell is being eternally under the wrath and judgment of God. So everything good and lovely that you enjoy here on this earth, hell is devoid of it all. That's how great a torment it is.
And that, brothers and sisters, is what Christ died for. That's what was being nailed to the cross when Christ was languishing there, the sins of His people. And that's why the darkness came, because of this wrath burning against the Son. That's what Christ has done for His people. His people, who no longer have a hardened, rebellious heart of stone. But He has now blessed us with this heart of flesh. A heart which now yearns for, adores and worships Yahweh.
And where we look to the example of Israel in the wilderness, and we see the folly, we take heed of the warning. And what a stern and serious warning this is. This is a passage that we're going to go on to unpack in even more detail on the subject of the danger of an unbelieving, hardened heart.
But, brothers and sisters, for those who are in Christ, for those of you who have truly been convicted that you are a sinner before this living God, that you, like these Israelites, are in rebellion and wickedness, but you've turned from that sin in repentance. Confess with your lips. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is LORD. This is the means by which we are saved, and we are born again. And by which, by God's grace, we now come to worship Him tonight. That's the gospel.
That is the hope that we have as we look at sobering, damning passages like this. Warnings that are given in a chapter in a book like Hebrews, which is saturated in, which permeates the love, the majesty, the beauty, the glory, the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
It is to Christ that we must pay attention—Hebrews 2:1.
It is Christ that we are to consider—Hebrews 3:1.
It is Christ that we proclaim and worship here this evening. Because in Christ all the fullness of God dwells in Him. And this is the One that we worship and adore as His people. This is how we know God. This is the means by which we can worship God. This is how we live our lives to the glory of God. Because of the gospel, because we're disciples of Jesus Christ, and because the Spirit of God is alive in us. Dead to the desires of the flesh, that hardness of heart which leads us to hell and alive for Jesus Christ, the living LORD and Saviour of our lives, this is the Gospel.
And this is why, as we're going to continue to unpack in this chapter, though for Israel, it meant they would not reach this promised land. They would all be wiped out. A whole generation in this wilderness. For those who are in Christ Jesus, it's not simply the promised land of Canaan here on this earth. It is the promised land of glory with our God forevermore which awaits. That is your hope tonight, Christian. And it is all because of Christ and Christ alone.