7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
Verses 7-11 show how the followers of Moses (He 3:1-6) abjectly failed to trust God in adversity.
The second warning in Hebrews extends from 3:7 to 4:13. It is a warning to the people reading Hebrews that a previous generation did not take God at His Word.
The following section references Psalm 95 extensively. The argument from Psalm 95 is that many times God revealed Himself to Israel, but they rejected His message. We also see this in the judges and historical books of the Old Testament. It was their pattern to reject God’s disclosures of Himself (Ps 78). Hebrews looks at Israel’s behavior through the lens of rejection of divine revelation.
7 Therefore,
The word “therefore” draws an inference from verse 6, where the argument was for the believer to “hold fast the confidence” and “hope” to the end of their lives. The challenge was for the readers of Hebrews to hold “confidence” in the assurance of what they believed. Some of the readers were in danger of drifting back into Judaism.
as the Holy Spirit says:
The Holy Spirit is the primary author of Scripture; David, the human being, is the secondary author (He 9:8; 10:15). The Spirit in this case is the divine author of Psalm 95.
This is a quotation from Psalm 95:7-11. The first six verses of that psalm are a call to worship. We must understand Hebrews 3 in that context.
PRINCIPLE:
Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
APPLICATION:
The Bible comes to us by divine inspiration. God used both divine and human instrumentality to write His thoughts to mankind. Revelation is the mind of God given to the mind of man. The human author was not the primary originator of God’s Word. It was the Holy Spirit speaking through the human author (2 Pe 1:21). Even beyond that, the Holy Spirit governed every word that the human author wrote (2 Ti 3:16).
