Devotion 11 - The Danger of Unbelief

 

Devotion 11 - The Danger of Unbelief

Heb.3:12 – “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God…”
 
The scripture associates and accords unbelief to one having an evil heart, and it warns us that unbelief can cause us to depart from the living God. One important thing to note is that the author of Hebrew addresses them as ‘brethren’ to show that his admonition is targeted towards believers. This means that it is possible for believers to have an unbelieving heart.
 
Unbelief is different from doubts. Doubts are part of the process of decision making, it is like when we are at the crossroad and need to choose which direction to take – belief or unbelief. When we are in doubt, it simply means we are not 100% sure. However, unbelief is when we make a choice to go against what God has spoken.
 
Ex.23:31 – “And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.”
 
Think about the Israelites who spied out the Promised Land and came back with their reports. They said that the inhabitants of that land were bigger than them, and were thus not willing to go in. However, God has clearly spoken that He will give them the promised land. Unbelief in what God has promised hindered them from receiving the promises.
 
Unbelief Leads to Hardened Hearts

Heb.3:12-13 – “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
 
Hearing the Word give us the opportunity to develop our faith. But hearing the Word alone does not guarantee faith. Faith still comes from our attitudes to the Word that we hear and how we receive the Word. Hardness of heart is learning all the truths and yet not willing to put them into practice.
Notice carefully: The purpose of exhorting one another constantly is twofold. First, the urgent intentionality to help each other battle unbelief in our heart. It is evil and it can lead us to fall away from the living God. Second, the deceitfulness of sin. The relationship between these two is plain. A heart of unbelief leads to a hardening of heart, which gives rise to sin. Living by faith is a decision we make daily to trust God in what He says in His Word.
 
Unbelief leads to Disobedience
 
Heb.3:17-19 – “Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?  And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?  So, we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
 
The Bible repeatedly uses “faith” and “obedience” interchangeably (Jn.3:36; Acts 6:7; Rom. 1:5; 10:16; 15:18; 16:26; 2 Thess.1:8; 1 Pet.1:2; 2:8; 3:1; 4:17). We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith always results in a life of obedience to God. An unbelieving heart will lead us into disobedience, which can be used interchangeably with faithlessness. The disobedient who failed to enter God’s rest were one and the same with the unbelieving. To enter God’s eternal rest, we must persevere in obedient faith. To persevere, we must avoid the great sin of unbelief.
 
 
Fear Unbelief

Heb.4:1-2 – “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.  For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”
 
We should fear – fear of ultimately missing God’s eternal rest due to our unbelief. We should fear the danger of unbelief. Fear faithlessness!
 
The Scripture compares Israel’s situation in the wilderness to the situation of believers in our day. They had good news preached to them, the good news of God’s promise to bring them into the land of milk and honey and be with them if they would trust Him and not rebel (Num.14:8-9). We too have the good news, the good news of the cross and eternal rest in the Kingdom of God.
 
Sadly, the good news did not profit them because of their unbelief and thus, they did not enter into God’s rest. They had less faith in God’s promises of a better future compared to their faith in Egypt; and so, they gave up on God and wanted back their old life in Egypt. The same thing will happen to us as to them: we will not enter God’s eternal rest if we keep the unbelief in our heart and do not exercise faith in what we heard.
 
It is important to know that our faith fluctuates. Elijah defeated the false prophets and at the next moment, he was so discouraged that he wanted to die. He could call down fire from heaven one moment and be running for his life the next moment (1Kg.18 & 19). Hence, faith is not constant; we can have great faith one day and maybe little faith on other days. Faith is a reason to trust and a decision we make. When Jesus says to “consider”, He is asking us to think carefully and then come to a conclusion of action (Matt.6:33). And when He says, “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mk.9:22-23), He is reminding us that God’s ability to perform is not a question. The question is, “Can we believe?”

The quality of life on this earth and beyond is determined by our choice of whom and what we trust. At the end of his life, Paul looked back over several decades of being a Christian and said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2Tim.4:7) He had fought the good fight to keep the faith all his Christian life.

Let us always be mindful of this warning in the Scripture, “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.” (Isa.7:9).

Do not be deceived, even as Christians, we are very vulnerable to the subtlety of unbelief. One of the top priorities in our Christian life is learning to battle unbelief and fight the fight of faith!