Hebrews 3:17 Commentary and Bible Study

The writer now picks up the words quoted in verse 9 where God’s patience is described in putting up with the unbelieving multitude for forty years in the wilderness. All of the generation who came out of Egypt apart from two individuals perished there. This was God’s punishment on them for their unbelief: they would never see the promised land themselves, but it would be reserved for their children. This is described in Numbers 26:65 which is virtually quoted here, where Moses expressly names Caleb and Joshua as exceptions to God’s judgment on the majority and says that the rest would die in the wilderness, confirming the interpretation above of verse 16.The tragedy was that God had made the same promise to all of them, and they could all have enjoyed the fulfilment of that promise, but unbelief disqualified most of them. How little was required to experience this blessing – only trusting that God was willing and able to do what he had said. That trust would have enabled them to look at their trials in a completely different light. When problems arose, Caleb and Joshua shared them in common, but their faith saw them as coming from the hand of God and believed he had a purpose in allowing them. Instead of complaining, they should have humbly brought their shortages to the Lord in prayer and accepted that he knew best in sending these providences. As it was their hearts were never changed and God delayed their entry into the promised land until all that first generation had passed away. The wilderness stood for this life in which Christians rely on the Lord to be their manna, their water from the rock, and their cloudy pillar to guide them. Although it took a generation to be executed, God’s judgment of them because of their unbelief was relentless and did not stop until every one of them had died without exception.