As Long As It Is Called Today (Heb. 3:7-19)

As Long As It Is Called Today (Heb. 3:7-19)

There is a legendary bird in the Himalaya Mountains. The meaning of this bird's name is "I will build my nest when a new morning comes." There the temperature difference between daytime and nighttime is so great. During the daytime the bird flies here and there raising its voice and singing songs attracted by beautiful and mild weather. However, during the nighttime the temperature drops so low and strong wind blows, the bird cannot think of making its nest. The bird regrets and cries "I will build my nest when a new morning comes."
But when a new morning has broken, the bird forgets its resolution and flies here and there raising its voice in a beautiful warm weather.

God wants his children to do things what they are supposed to do today 'today' not 'tomorrow.'
So we should study today, not tomorrow.
We should read the Bible, listen to His Word today, not tomorrow.
We should love our parents, brothers and sisters, our friends today, not tomorrow.
We should clean our house, our table, our backyard today, not tomorrow.
Yet, we have a tendency to postpone what we should do today to tomorrow.
Who gives this mind of postponement?
It is Satan that gives this mind. Satan wants us to postpone what we should do today to tomorrow.

He keeps telling us, "It is okay that you do it tomorrow. You still have a plenty of days."
But remember if you don't do what you should do today, you will not do it tomorrow, either.
If you do not study today, you will not study tomorrow, either.
If you do not read the Bible and not listen to the Word of God today, you will not read the Bible and not listen to the word of God tomorrow, either.
If you do not follow Jesus Christ today, you will not follow Jesus Christ tomorrow, either.
If you do not love your parents, your brothers and sisters, your friends today, you will love them tomorrow, either.
So what should you do?
Do today what you are supposed to do today!
Do not postpone them to tomorrow!

In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to the Desert of Sinai (Exodus 19:1).
They stayed there for a year. During that time, Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to receive the two tablets of ten commandments and God's other instructions for the Israelites.
After a year of stay in the Desert of Sinai, they moved further to the Wilderness of Paran, where God told Moses: "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe some one of its leaders." (Numbers 13:1-2)
So at the LORD's command Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe, out to the land of Canaan. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. (Numb. 13:3)
After exploring the land for forty days, the twelve men returned to Moses and the people of Israel at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran.
They reported Moses and the whole community of Israel: "We arrived in the land you sent us to see, and it is indeed a magnificent country--a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit as proof. But the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large. We also saw the descendants of Anak who are living there. ..." (Numb. 13:27-28)
What they tried to tell was "We cannot go up against them! They are stronger than we are. The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there.

All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that's what we looked like to them!" (Numb. 13:32-33)
They discouraged the whole community with their report.
Only Caleb with Joshua encouraged the people by saying, "Let's go at once to the land. We can certainly conquer it (by the help of God)!" (Numb. 13:31).

All the people who heard the ten people's discouraging report began to weep aloud and complained against Moses and God, "We wish we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness! Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and little ones will be carried off as slaves. Let's get out of here and return to Egypt! Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!" (Numb. 14:1-4)
They kept complaining against Moses and God out of their hardened unbelieving hearts.

What was God's reaction to them?
God told the Israelites through Moses: "You will all die here in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, none of you who are twenty years old or older and were counted in the census will enter the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ... Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. ... Because the men who explored the land were there for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years--a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. ... I will do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will all die here in the wilderness!" (Numb. 14:29-35).

Even though they heard God's word of punishment in the wilderness, they did not repent their faithlessness and did not stop their complaints in the wilderness for forty years.
They hardened their hearts and kept complaints in the wilderness  until they all died in the wilderness.

How many men who were twenty years old and older came out of Egypt?
They were 603,550 (Numb. 1:4).
                                                   
How many of them survived in the wilderness after forty years and entered the land of Canaan?
Only two, Joshua and Caleb who showed their faith in God.
Their descendants who were less than twenty years old at the time when they came out of Egypt and those who were born later in the wilderness could enter the land of Canaan.

But, what was the problem with them?
Even though they could enter the land of Canaan--the land flowing with milk and honey as they were not condemned by God because of their young age, they were also faithless like their parents.
It was because the descendants of Israel only saw their fathers and mothers complaining against Moses and God.
They only learned how to complain against God and their leader but not how to worship God and how to follow their leader.
So, in the land of Canaan they showed their unbelief by worshipping heathen idols and complaining against God and their leaders.
The land of Canaan could not be the true land of rest that God would give.
So, God needed to provide another land of rest through his only Son Jesus Christ, eternal land of rest, the New Heaven and the New Earth--that is, Kingdom of God.

The Israelites in the wilderness probably told Moses and God: "Although today we do not obey God well because we are now in the wilderness, tomorrow we will obey him well in the land of Canaan if we could enter there."
Many people today may tell God: "Today I do not obey and follow you well because my situation is very bad, because I am too busy with many things that I should do today, but tomorrow I will obey and follow you whatever you say to me."
But, remember that there may be no tomorrow.

Today is the most important day for us all.
You cannot do anything with yesterday the day that already passed.
Tomorrow is a uncertain day.
You can do today what you want to do.
So, as long as it is called today, do not harden your heart but listen to the Word of God and follow Him with your whole heart.