Read Hebrews 3:7-19
In 2013, after years of denying the truth, Lance Armstrong admitted to doping, allowing him to be the world’s greatest cyclist for almost two decades! Lance was considered a hero of sport. His story of fighting cancer and coming back for 7 consecutive Tour de France wins inspired many! The problem with making a hero out of anyone, is that at some point, they will likely let you down. Sometimes in little ways, other times in big spectacular ways! The reason is simple: we are all sinful.
In today’s passage, we see how God’s people are described as sinning and rebelling against Him. They were not like Moses (a hero of faith), and they were certainly not like Jesus. In fact, there is an important point here whenever you read about the great heroes of the Bible: You are not one of them! Like David and Goliath – you are not David. David points us to Jesus. Rather, you and I are like the cowering Israelites at the back hoping that this crazy idea of sending a shepherd boy out to fight a giant is going to work! Today, perhaps we are like the rebellious Israelites, trying and testing God with hard and stubborn hearts! It’s easy to read such a passage and think about how silly and foolish those Israelites are. It can be easy to look at the sin of others but forget to look at honestly at ourselves. Sin is deceitful. The truth is, we regularly rebel against God.
But aren’t you thankful for Jesus, the real hero in the story of the Bible? He is the hero that will never let us down, because he was perfectly faithful and obedient to His father. He is the hero we are to look to, to open our hearts to and trust and believe in. Because Jesus is faithful and obedient, we can be faithful and obedient through our faith in him.
The disobedient Israelites were not able to enter the promised rest because of their disobedience. That is the same fate for any who rebel against and reject Jesus. But we share in Christ. We are partakers of His obedience, partakers of His suffering, partakers of His death, partakers of His resurrection, partakers of His victory, partakers of His plan, partakers of His power, partakers of His ministry of intercession, partakers of His work, partakers of His glory.
Reflect
- Even the heroes of faith at times showed a lack of faith and trust in God. What can we learn from their mistakes?
- How is Jesus greater than your heroes, and how will you fix your eyes on Him instead?
Pray
Father God, thank you that Jesus is a greater hero than any person on earth. Because he is perfect, we can place our hope and trust in Him to save us. Help us to fix our eyes on Him each day and to fight our sin by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.