Rebellion in the Wilderness

In our most recent post we looked at a key Scripture for digging deeper into spiritual ground. Repeated three times in Hebrews 3 and 4 the verse reads:

"Today, when you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts." Heb 4:7

This verse in Heb 3:8 and 3:15 goes on to say:

“…do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

What is this ‘rebellion’ part? Now please hold on because this may be a bit of a rough ride. We usually think of rebellion as fighting against the status quo. For the Israelites to whom this Scripture refers the status quo would have been their condition of slavery in Egypt. So their ‘rebellion’ as we may think of the word would have actually been their exodus out of Egypt. This could not have been what ‘rebellion’ in this scripture means.

The development (etymology) for the word ‘rebellion’ in Greek, parapikrasmos, is interesting. It stems from pikraino which means to embitter. Were the Israelites in the wilderness embittered by their slavery in Egypt? Not in this context. Quite the opposite. They were embittered by their experience in the wilderness; by the very freedom that God was leading them into. Their rebellion was that they wanted to go back to their enslaved condition in Egypt.

If we follow the etymology of the word for rebellion even further we come to the root of the word, pegnumi, which means to fix or to peg as in setting up a tent. Now it’s probably not a good idea to place too much emphasis on the roots of words, as the meanings are set more through usage, but I think this begins to develop a picture of the truth that this verse tries to communicate. Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament places the meaning of the word in the Hebrews passage as “to be recalcitrant.” It is one of hardening into a position of one’s situation in the world and resisting God who is trying to free us from our slavery to the world. We have driven our tent stakes deep into the ground and we resist being uprooted. The Israelites wandering in the wilderness complained:

"Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to
die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to
die in the wilderness." Ex 14:11-13

Many times I make this cry. The journey into the depths of God means to be uprooted from our comfortably ensconced positions in the world which have become familiar to us. This is the struggle of going deeper into spiritual ground. We have formed our identity, our sense of who we are, around the templates of the world. This can even extend to religion; to our church and our good works if these have become idols. Whatever ground we have driven our tent stakes into hardens us against the deeper journey.

God is calling us closer to Him. Ours is the arduous work of yielding. The words of Moses in reply to the rebellious Israelites will give encouragement and comfort to those who brave the deeper journey:

"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work
for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still." Ex 14:13-15