Remember what it says:

“Today when you hear His voice,

don’t harden your hearts

as Israel did when they rebelled.” (Hebrews 3:15, NLT)

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The last time I found myself on I-10 Texas, I was 30 weeks pregnant bouncing along in a truck filled to the brim with our household goods. We were doing what the military calls a “DITY move,” PCSing from Arizona to Florida. If you don’t know much about I-10 Texas, imagine a lot of heat, endless dust, tumbleweed, and way too many miles between rest stops – hundreds of miles of every Western movie ever filmed.

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This is what I picture when the Bible talks about the Israelites in the wilderness. Have you ever stopped to think about the reality of the wilderness? Yes, God was carrying them to somewhere better, and He never failed them, but let’s admit – the road there was hard. Babies were born, snakes were poisonous, beloved family and friends died, and home was a tent in a new place all the time. We often talk about the Israelites and their complaints, but can we take a minute to put ourselves in their hot, dusty, worn-out sandals? We can see the big picture from Scripture’s accounts of their wandering, but they lived the day-to-day, and I’m guessing that felt really hard.  

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Isn’t that just like us? We know God is good to us, and we know He has a plan, but sometimes the day-to-day is hard, and we find ourselves complaining because we can’t see the bigger picture. It’s easy to get caught up in the “woe is me,” like the Israelites did, and to overlook the choices we have in the midst of our circumstances. In every situation, there is at least one truth: we can choose our response. We may not have chosen the circumstances, but we are responsible for how we react to them.  

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Reading through Hebrews 3, the word “today” stuck out to me. It reminded me that this day I’m living right now means something. Today is not just another day to get through. It’s a day that matters eternally. If today matters eternally, then the choices I make and how I live also matter. The voices I listen to and where I fix my eyes are vital to living in God’s best for my life. The Israelites failed to fix their eyes on God during their hard wilderness days, and it cost them. The end of Hebrews 3 tells us the Israelites Moses led out of Egypt weren’t able to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:16-19). Their hearts became hard even though they’d seen God’s miracles for 40 years (Heb. 3:8-9). How does that happen?  

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Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked” (NLT). Do you remember that little song, “Oh, be careful little ears what you hear? Oh, be careful little eyes what you see?” This is where that comes into play. The heart is directly changed by what feeds it. What you’re listening to and what you’re watching directly affects your heart. Somewhere along the way, the Israelites failed to fix their eyes on Jesus, check their hearts, and obey God. As a result, their hearts became hardened.

It’s easy to look at the Israelite’s story and believe that could never happen to us. But the reality is, if we take our eyes off of Jesus and fail to follow His best for our lives, we could end up with unrepentant, rebellious hearts, too. The Israelites’ hearts didn’t become hard overnight. As we’ve been learning in this series, it’s a slow drift. Hearts harden when we choose to live in the comfort of sin instead of working through conviction and repentance. We have to come before God and check our hearts.  

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After his affair with Bathsheba, David prayed the words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (Psalm 51 NLT). God answered David’s prayer and restored him to Himself. He wants to do that for you, too. Don’t be afraid to come to God in repentance today, asking Him to renew you. He wants us to call out to Him. If you’re unsure where to begin, echo the words of David in your own prayers. Ask God to help you guard your heart because what’s in your heart determines the course of your life (Prov. 4:23 NLT).