Hebrews 4:7 Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice… We have two brief clauses to dwell upon: "If ye will hear His voice"; "Harden not your hearts." 1. The word "will" is not in the original. The apostle is not speaking at present of a willingness on the part of man, but of a grace on the part of God. The exercise of the human will does not come into view till the next clause. This says merely, "If ye hear," or " shall hear," God's voice speaking. It is the recognition of the Divine freedom to speak or not to speak. "If ye should hear God speaking, listen." It is conceivable that God may not speak. We may have wearied Him out by our inattention. He may say, "My Spirit shall no longer strive." "If ye should hear His voice." This awakens thought, quickens interest, arouses anxiety. What if I should have silenced that voice? Often have I heard without hearing. Often has the voice pleaded, entreated, besought, and there was nothing in me that regarded. Neither hope nor fear, neither love nor dread, neither interest, nor apprehension, no, nor curiosity. "If ye hear" says, "which haply ye may not." 2. "Harden not your hearts." The figure is taken from that process of drying and stiffening which is fatal to the free play of a limb or the further growth of a vegetable. The "heart," in Scripture phrase, is that life-centre, that innermost being, out of which are the issues of thought and action, and upon the condition of which depend alike the decisions of the will and the habits of the living and moving man. When the heart is hardened, there is an end of all those influences of grace which till then can touch and stir, control and guide, inspire the quickening motive and apply the heavenward impulse. Sometimes this hardening is ascribed in Scripture to the operation of God. That is when the voice ceases to speak, and the will to disobey has become at last an incapacity to obey. But this we say, Never does the hardening b-gin on God's side; and never does the Divine hardening preclude the human softening. "Whosoever will" — that is the condition: and without the willing salvation cannot be even if it would. These are deep as well as sorrowful mysteries. The text of this day lets them alone. It addresses itself to the will, which is the man, and says, "Harden not your heart." If you will not harden it, certainly God will not. "Why will ye die, when He hath no pleasure in it?" If you hear, any one of you, the voice speaking — hear it say, "This is not your rest"; hear it say, "I am Thy salvation — come unto Me — abide in Me — I will refresh — in Me ye shall have peace" — harden not your heart. If the deceitfulness of sin should say within any of you, "The voice can wait — let it plead outside you till you have taken your fill of that which it cannot tolerate and cannot dwell with — then, when age comes, or sickness, or sorrow, or some shadow cast before of death or eternity, then hearken, then obey" — harden not your heart. 3. "To-day, if ye shall hear His voice." The Epistle returns again and again to that word. What is " To-day." It is the opposite of two times and two eternities. It is the opposite of yesterday and to-morrow in time; it is the opposite of an immeasurable past, an inconceivable future, in the eternity which God inhabits. "To-day " is at once the dividing line and the meeting point of the two — the barrier between the two finites, and the link between the two infinites. "To-day." What a word of reproof and of admonition — of thanksgiving and of hope — of opportunity and of blessing. Is not each To-day the very epitome and abstract of a life? It has its morning and its evening; it has its waking and its falling on sleep; it has its typical birth and death; it has its hours marked out and counted; it has its duties assigned and distributed; it has its alternations of light and shade; it has its worship and its service, its going forth to labour and its coming back to reckon. Within these twelve or these sixteen hours a life may be lived, a soul lost or won. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. |
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