Twice in Hebrews 3 God is angry at the Israelites – for their “sinful, unbelieving heart” (12) and their “disobedience” (18) – resulting in God angrily stating they would “not enter his rest” (11).
But why would God be angry? Was it because after “forty years of seeing him in action” (9), the Israelites still didn’t “know his ways” (10)? Well, yes, because they’d been on an amazing journey with “the living God” himself (12), who’d proved to them beyond all doubt that he was real, that he cared, and that in all his dealings with them he only had their good in mind, but instead of the Israelites happily and fully trusting God, they rebelled against him (7-8).
Which gives the impression that this was deliberate on their part. They weren’t acting out of ignorance or weakness, because the Greek word parapikrasmos for “rebellion” in verse 8 means provocation, and even exasperation. Their immediate assumption, for instance, that God didn’t care every time a new problem arose – when they knew he’d resolved every problem up to that point – sorely tested God’s patience (9).
Jesus expressed the same exasperation in Matthew 17 when a Dad with a demon-infected child said he’d gone to Jesus’ disciples to heal his son but they couldn’t do it (16). To which Jesus replied, in obvious exasperation, “You really are an unbelieving, obtuse lot, aren’t you? How much longer can I put up with you?” (17).
His exasperation was based on the same premise as God’s exasperation with Israel. The Israelites had seen and experienced God’s obvious power, just as Jesus’ disciples had seen and experienced their power to heal people with demons – and so far without fail too (Luke 10:17). So why not this time as well – when, just like the Israelites, they knew that God had resolved every problem they’d faced up to that point?
Jesus’ reply was simple in Matthew 17: “It’s because you have so little faith” (20). So instead of them believing in “the living God” who can resolve every difficulty without fail (the moving mountains bit in verse 20), this time the awful impact of the demon on the child was so great it froze their faith in God’s power to deal with it. And that exasperated Jesus, because they’d seen in his life, over and over again, what faith and confidence in the certainty of God’s power in all situations made possible. And not just in his life; their own Israelite history was full of people showing “What faith does” too….(next blog)
