Study

The Mercy of Exhortation

Jackie Hill Perry

6 Days

The Necessity of Mercy

Day 1

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Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Hebrews 3:7-14

In the grand scope of scripture, the writer of Hebrews commands us to exhort or encourage one another. We see this call to encourage as not a gentle suggestion but a guardrail to keep us from deception.

The truth is encouragement keeps us and protects us. It is one of the means by which God pursues us. Using Hebrews 3 and Exodus 17 as a guide, we will embark on a journey over the next six days to understand the means, gifts, and lessons of extolling one another.

Summary

The writer of Hebrews tells us that encouragement keeps us from deception. Take a moment to consider a time in your life when you were deceived. To make sense of your experience, we will do our best to help you complete the story, filling in the blanks when faced with discouragement.

As an example, maybe you have experienced feelings of loneliness. Whatever the cause, to make sense of those feelings, you may have begun believing you are lonely because nobody loves you or sees you. The cycle continues as those feelings lead you to withdraw further, only enhancing the lie you bought into in the first place.

The cycle of discouragement is a spiral led by lies away from reality. But you can stop the cycle.

To be discouraged is to be deprived of courage or confidence. That confidence is not an external flaunt but rather an assurance of standing on something sturdy and solid. If discouragement can weaken your confidence, then it poses a threat to your faith.

Hebrews 3:12 says: "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God."

In maturity, discouragement can serve as a tool to see the weakened parts of our faith and identify where we are struggling to trust or believe God as thoroughly as we want to. Discouragement, while deadly, is not the enemy: unbelief is.

Without diligence, discouragement stirs up unbelief, and the response is to trade God’s good plan for a cheap substitute. One of the overall thrusts of the Book of Hebrews is to lift up Christ's superiority and stir up perseverance in us, the saints. The writer of Hebrews does not want us to become like those who let their discouragement deceive them to the point that they did not enter into God's rest.

We stop the discouragement cycle and experience mercy when we acknowledge the season we are in and allow our community and family of faith to remind us of the truth.

Let's go back to the example of loneliness. If we inject confidence that comes from scripture, community, or a time of worship into that scenario, we arrive at a different outcome.

Aware of how some feelings may try to lead you away from God, speak scripture over yourself, or allow a trusted friend to remind you of the truth in those moments. When you do, suddenly, the cycle is lined with truth, leading you toward the reality of God's great plan and love for you.

What's Next?

Consider the cycles we talked about today. In your journal, trace back a time of discouragement. Survey what led you to discouragement and if that discouragement has caused you to embrace unbelief. Using scripture, inject God's truth into the story.

How does injecting scripture into your cycle of discouragement change the outcome?

Scripture References

7So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

8do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion,

during the time of testing in the wilderness,

9where your ancestors tested and tried me,

though for forty years they saw what I did.

10That is why I was angry with that generation;

I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,

and they have not known my ways.’

11So I declared on oath in my anger,

‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

12See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

14We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

7for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,

8“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,

1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the

Lord

commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

2So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the

Lord

to the test?”

3But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4Then Moses cried out to the

Lord

, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5The

Lord

answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

6I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the

Lord

saying, “Is the

Lord

among us or not?”

13Jesus answered,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

14We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

15As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion.”

16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?

18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the

Lord

commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

2So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the

Lord

to the test?”

3But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Jackie Hill Perry

Jackie Hill Perry is an author, bible teacher, poet, and hip-hop artist. Since becoming a Christian, she has been compelled to use her speaking and teaching gifts to share the light of the gospel of God as authentically as she can. She is the author of Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been and Holier Than Thou. At home, she is a wife to Preston and Mommy to Eden, Autumn, Sage, and August.