Based on a sermon by Jachin—Singapore

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,

And saw My works forty years.

Therefore I was angry with that generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they have not known My ways.’

So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” (Heb 3:7–11)

The early Jewish Christians would have found this passage, borrowed from the Psalms by the author of Hebrews, very familliar. Faced with the wave of anti-Christian persecution that swept the Roman Empire, these Jewish converts might have yearned for the comfort and stability their old Judaism had afforded them. Their decision to remain faithful to Jesus required a lot of spiritual grit.

It is against this backdrop of persecution and pressure to forget Jesus that the author of Hebrews penned his epistle. Instead of relaying clichéd consolations, he chose to remind the early Christians of the ancient Israelites who were once like them—persecuted, confused, and never lacking in enemies. And just as He was with the Israelites, the almighty one true God was on their side. Yet these Israelites mostly perished in the wilderness. The author warned his audience not to be like them. In fact, the Israelites were a privileged group: they heard the very voice of God, and saw His mighty works. They were also taught the laws of God. But sadly, they rebelled against Him. The author of Hebrews diagnosed the primary cause of their downfall: hardened hearts. When one’s heart is hardened, one is not able to respond appropriately to what God has done.

Hence, the hardening of one’s heart is a pitfall that every Christian must guard against. It happened to the Israelites during the wilderness journey. It happened to the Jewish Christians at the time of the writing of the Book of Hebrews. It could also happen to us today.

MURMURING MEN

How can we identify a hardened heart? A striking symptom of this spiritual disease is the vile practice of complaining—the favorite habit of a group of people Jude would later call “grumblers.” The Israelites were a querulous people. Beginning with their first complaint, recorded in Numbers 11, it is clear that the Israelites expressed little else during their wanderings apart from their dissatisfaction about how God was leading them.

We do not know the reasons for the Israelites’ first complaint (Num 11:1–3). They were probably tired and frustrated with their journey in the wilderness, as well as the harsh living conditions. Moses, when recalling those forty long years as a nomad, remarked poignantly that the wilderness was a “great and terrible place” (Deut 8:15). Their trek, which lasted almost half a century, was no fun, to say the least; travelling defenseless (or so they thought) amidst foreign and hostile kingdoms did not make things easier. They would endure all this to fight, quite possibly to the death, for a strange land to call their own. The odds were stacked against these former slaves, led by a shepherd wielding a wooden rod. Why did they complain? Well, it seems like they had every right to. Why, then, was God so displeased with them?

Apostle Paul tells us that we should not harden our hearts “as in the rebellion” (Heb 3:8). If we are always complaining about our life, we are complaining against God and what He has given us. This was the reason why God was displeased with the Israelites (Num 11). When they complained, they were not making harmless complaints about the scorching sun. They complained that God had allowed them to suffer in the wilderness. This was the first sign of a heart hardening against God’s love. Their complaints angered God, and He sent fire to burn them; hence, they named the place Taberah (which means “burning.”) They complained and they were burned.

A lesson for us Christians is that we have so much more at stake than the non-believer when we complain. The non-believer trusts only in himself and his ability to shape his own path, and therefore all his complaints amount to nothing more than emotional venting or self-critique. We Christians, on the other hand, trust that God has a plan for us and that His love and grace are constantly guiding us. This guidance helps us to become stronger and better, despite, and sometimes because of, what we have to fight our way through. When the Christian complains, he does not just deny the grace given him, he could be denying God!

CONTAGION

There are countless instances of the Israelites complaining. The second example of their rancorous nature, recorded straight after the first, shows us the grave infectiousness of complaining (Num 11:4–6).

Not long after the embers from God’s punishing fire had died, the non-Israelites that were with the group—the “mixed multitudes”—began to yearn for the luxuries of Egypt. They had no complaint about the sweltering heat or the dry and inhospitable land. But these Gentiles bemoaned the lack of variety in the food that was being sent to them directly from heaven. The Israelites, hearing the rising voices of dissatisfaction from within their ranks, also joined in the outrage over the manna that had for so long satisfied them. In melodramatic fashion, the children of Israel wept bitterly, beating their breasts as they once more insulted their God and the boundless grace that had bought them their liberty and lives—for the sake of fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onion and garlic (Num 11:5). The entire nation of Israel was affected by the complaints started by a small group of people.

With God guiding them on their wilderness journey, the Israelites had much to rejoice about and little to whine over. Admittedly, the wilderness was great and terrible; the desert can be scorching in the day, and freezing at night. However, God specially cared for them. He provided them with a pillar of cloud by day, to shield them from the full heat of the sun. At night, He provided them with the pillar of fire, to provide warmth. Ironically, they could see the pillar of cloud and fire every day. But they did not see the grace of God which was right before their eyes.

If we examine our own lives honestly, we know in our heart of hearts that we, too, have much to rejoice about and little to whine over. The trouble is that we are envious creatures, obsessed with comparing ourselves to others. To make things worse, many of us enjoy sharing our troubles with others—not as part of an effort to solve them or to find consolation, but to have others affirm our grievances and support their legitimacy with choruses of approval. This is an unhealthy habit that, while superficially harmless, can slowly make us forget God’s grace in our lives. A single grumble can drown out praises of thanksgiving; a small shadow of negativity can blind us to the light of grace that always lights our way. It is for this reason that Paul instructs:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Phil 4:8)

A LITTLE THING

But how exactly are we to follow Paul’s exhortation? Keeping our heads and hearts sanctified seems to be a tall order for the modern Christian, so plugged into the world and all that it has to offer, both good and bad. If complaining is a bad habit, then we would need to adopt good habits to overcome its insidious nature. One effective habit would be to take a short moment every day, in the calm of the morning or the lull of the evening, to remember one good thing that has happened recently or a blessing in your life that has gone unappreciated for a while. This habit is as timeless as the instructive hymn Count Your Blessings because it is an exceedingly simple thing to do, yet so powerful and life-altering. The goal of a grateful faith, and the antidote to complaining, is not to invent great and fantastical events to be attributed to Providence, but to find the miraculous in the mundane, and to be thankful for it.

WANDERING HEARTS

We have seen the way a hard heart murmurs, and we have seen how quickly and mercilessly complaints can spread. As we follow the Israelites’ journey to Canaan, we see the consequences of a hard heart.

Hard hearts are lost hearts. This is the terse and tragic lesson that the Israelite story teaches. Hard hearts belong to people who no longer truly believe in God’s grace and will for their lives, simply because they do not wish to believe.

What could have persuaded the ancient Hebrews that God was truly on their side? That the Red Sea was parted by a prayer was not enough. That pillars of cloud and fire guarded their sleep and steered their steps was not enough. That manna from the heavens delivered itself at their feet was not enough. Miracle after miracle, grace upon grace—yet nothing could quell the rebellion that insisted on remaining in their hearts. Maybe miracles are too fleeting. Perhaps that is the funny thing about great and powerful interventions from God: they make for edifying testimonies and awe-inspiring anecdotes, but in the hustle-and-bustle of our daily struggles, they are easily put aside and forgotten.

Even so, God had also demonstrated His unfailing love for them in the small things. From chapters 1 to 10 of Numbers, we read of the Creator preparing everything for the Israelites, including the most specific minutiae regarding their assembly, their leadership and their rituals. Everything was planned for them, down to the last detail.

Still, God’s actions could not move the Israelites to true thanksgiving. Instead, they yielded to their “intense craving” (Num 11:4) and protested God’s directions. They rejected God’s rule because, from their perspective, all that there was in the wilderness was suffering. But, in fact, God’s intention was to humble and test them, to do them good in the end (Deut 8:16).

A THAW WE MUST WORK FOR

How are we to thaw a heart long hardened? Or, for that matter, how are we to guard against hardening in the first place? What is most obvious in the Israelites’ gradual decline is that they developed a habit of giving in to their temptations. Their sin was never that they longed for better things; it is only natural for man to feel discontent from time to time. What began as mere longing quickly became resentment and, finally, remonstrations of anger as they directed blame at their Redeemer—a deterioration made possible only because they loved their temptations more than they loved God.

Christianity does not call for a radically ascetic or monastic way of life. Yet, to be able to stand righteous and pure before God we have to struggle with the temptations we will invariably meet, and the best way to kill temptation is to starve it. Practically speaking, this means that every time we find ourselves in a compromising situation that threatens our spiritual integrity, which will burden our conscience and distress the Holy Spirit within us, we have to emphatically start with defiance. To defy temptation, and not enter into it, is the first critical step. We must pray for the strength to resist (Mt 6:13; 26:41). Secondly, it is important that we run away from our lusts, and avoid any situation where we could be tempted (2 Tim 2:22)—for example, choosing not to attend a party where we know drinking, dancing, and sinful activities will take place.

Once we have taken these steps, it is easier to make a stand for God and finally relegate past temptations to a distant memory, replaced by a disciplined commitment to our Christian values.

CONCLUSION

“What do I really need?”

There are no easy answers. At the peak of our success, we may jubilantly give thanks for all of God’s blessings, feeling so fulfilled that we cannot conceive of ever having been in want or in need of anything. Yet these are fleeting moments that never quite last long enough for us to understand what true contentment is. In a world of unending hyper-consumerism that rewards the greedy so richly, it is difficult for a Christian to grasp what Jesus meant when He said: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt 6:33). The corporation, the student, and the banker know only the contentment that the world teaches them; they learn that to be content is to have all their needs and desires satiated. The Christian must learn differently: being content is ultimately not about satisfying ourselves, it is about satisfying God. This is a demanding call. It is also a most necessary one. For the only honest reply the assured Christian can give to the question above— “What do I really need?”—is “God.”