Hebrews 3:7-19

7God's Holy Spirit says this: ‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.

8Do not refuse to obey him. Do not be like God's people many years ago. When they travelled in the wilderness, they turned against me. They wanted to see if I would punish them.

9For 40 years your ancestors saw the great things that I did. But still they did not obey me.

10That is why I became angry with them. I said, “They always want to do what is wrong. They refuse to understand my message.”

11Because of that, I promised to punish them. Because I was angry with them, I said, “They will never arrive in my special place of rest.” ’

12So be careful, my Christian friends. Do not refuse to trust God. That would be a very bad thing to do. Do not turn away from the God who lives for ever.

13Instead, help each other to be strong every day. Today, you can still hear God's message. While that is still true, do not refuse to obey God. Do not think that sin will not hurt you. That is a lie.

14We must continue to trust Christ very well, as we did when we first believed in him. We must continue to trust him until the end of our lives. Then we will share in everything that is his.

15We have seen what the Bible says: ‘You must listen when you hear God speak today. Do not refuse to obey him. Do not be like God's people many years ago, when they turned against God.’

16Who were those people who heard God speak? All of them were the people that Moses led away from Egypt. They heard God's message, but they refused to obey him.

17Who was God angry with for 40 years? He was angry with those same people. They did what was wrong. So they died and their bodies remained in the wilderness.

18God promised to punish them, because they refused to obey him. He said, ‘They will never arrive in my special place of rest.’

19So we must be careful ourselves! Those people did not trust God. As a result, they never arrived in God's special place.