Hebrews 3:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They should have remembered how in the wilderness He split the rock, granted abundant streams of water, and sent down manna. Remembering all these and the other wonders He had performed, they should have believed in God.

But they thought of none of this, as though nothing had happened. Giving themselves over to fear, they wished to return again to Egypt, saying that God had brought them there to destroy them with their children and wives (Ex 17:3; Num 20:4).

"They tested Me," He says, "and saw My works for forty years." Do you see that one must not demand an accounting from God, but believe Him whether He delivers from calamities or not?

He now reproaches them because they tested God. For whoever wishes to receive proofs of God's power, providence, or care does not yet believe that He is almighty and loves mankind.

The Apostle hints at this also in the present epistle, since perhaps they wished to receive assurance and proof of His power and providence toward them in temptations.

Do you see how irritation and anger always arise from unbelief? What, then, does he say next?

Blessed Paul says: "When you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the time of murmuring" (Heb 3:8). That is, whenever you hear the Lord preaching, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Mt 3:2), do not harden your hearts like the so-called Cathari, the pure.

"In the day of testing in the wilderness." In Psalm 77 (Ps 77:17) it is said of the ancient Hebrews that they embittered the Most High in the waterless land and tested God in their hearts.

Then they hardened their hearts, rejecting the voice of God which they had heard on Sinai. They forgot His benefits and lost faith in His almighty power.

By "provocation" he also means the testing that occurred when they heard from the spies who returned from the promised land about the size and strength of those dwelling in it.

They were frightened and began to murmur, without considering from how many and what great dangers God had delivered them. For this reason they perished.

Therefore the prophet exhorts us not to blame Him when the spiritual enemy is struck down and the voice of God is heard at the coming of the Only-begotten.

For then the prophet was not merely some simple prophet or a mediator of the law. God Himself was speaking.

We must not blame Him for the very thing for which we ought to give thanks, as the Jews did when they called Christ a deceiver and a breaker of the law (Mt 27:63).

For because of this, blasphemers suffer destruction from spiritual serpents.

Since we do not know the continuation of our earthly life, then "while it is called today," that is, throughout the whole present time, and in every moment of its course bringing us nearer to our heavenly homeland, we must be on guard.

We must not be deceived by anything sinful, fall away from the living God, be carried into murmuring like the Old Testament Hebrews, or reach hardness of heart.

By faith and obedience to the voice of God, we can enter the rest of God, like the chosen from among the Hebrews. By unbelief, we can be deprived of it, like the obstinate and unbelieving Hebrews.

In the psalm, σήμερον means always, because the word of God applies to every circumstance and time. We must not act as the Hebrews did when God was provoked against them, ἐν τῷ παραπικρασμῷ, cf. verse 16, on the day when they tested Him in the wilderness.

Even in the first year of wandering, according to the word of the Lord Himself, they tempted Him ten times and did not listen to His voice (Num 14:22). For this they were condemned to forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Num 14:33).

By the words of the psalmist, the Apostle warns Christians against imitating the ancient Hebrews in hardness of heart. He has in mind especially their conduct in the wilderness of Rephidim near Sinai, shortly after the theophany at Sinai.

There the Hebrews felt a lack of water. They began to speak to Moses with murmuring: why had he brought them out of Egypt and was killing them, their children, and their flocks with thirst?

They insistently demanded water from him. Moses said to them, "Why do you reproach me? Why do you tempt the Lord?"

At God's command he approached the rock of Horeb and struck it with his wonder-working staff. Water burst forth from the rock in such abundance that it was enough to quench the thirst of the whole people.

Moses named that place Massah or Meribah, temptation and reproach, because of the reproach of the sons of Israel. They had tempted the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" (Ex 17:2-7).

Do not many Christians resemble the Hebrews, who were inclined to murmur against the Lord and boldly tempted His long-suffering? The Lord does not always act according to their desire.

He permits them to endure various privations and sorrows, to test their love for Him and to train in them the spirit of humility and devotion to His holy will. But they murmur against God for this.

They express doubt about His goodness and even His justice, and by their murmuring they provoke Him. Murmuring and dissatisfaction with God sometimes appear in relation to God's commandments.

To many, they seem a burden heavy and hard to bear. Their fulfillment requires self-denial and unconditional submission of one's will to the will of God.

But they lack this self-denial. They are given over to self-pleasing and whims. They are attached to earthly goods and pleasures, have acquired sinful habits, and do not want to part with them.

It would be in vain for someone, zealous for their salvation, to reprove them and remind them of the duty of obedience to God, His holy law, and His Church. It would be vain to exhort them to works of piety and self-denial.

"We are not monks," they would say. "We live in the world, and willingly or unwillingly we must follow the rules and customs accepted in it."

People of the world are especially burdened by the struggles of repentance during the days of Great Lent. Either they avoid them altogether, or they fulfill the duty of fasting with extreme negligence.

They do not abandon their sinful habits and whims. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, they complain about the restrictions in food and drink required by the Church.

Their moral condition is pitiable. Let them, at least in the days of fasting and repentance, take to heart the Apostle's exhortation.

"Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord calling you to repentance through the mouth of the Holy Church, do not harden your hearts." Be ashamed of your stubbornness.

Together with those faithful to the Lord and obedient to the Holy Church, begin to exercise yourselves in the struggles of fasting. Do not miss this most favorable time for salvation.

The Lord long endured the murmuring and dissatisfaction of the sons of Israel. Finally, He condemned them to forty years of wandering through the waterless wilderness.

During that time, all who were twenty years old at the exodus from Egypt died before reaching the promised land. Here is an example for the instruction of all who stubbornly resist the voice of God calling them to repentance.

They also will not reach the Kingdom of Heaven unless they break their stubbornness.