Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways. Hebrews 3:10
This verse refers to the children of Israel. It’s quite amazing after spending forty years in the desert and experiencing God’s miraculous provision, his people didn’t know his ways. They would have seen manna appear from heaven, water from the rock and the Red Sea parted, yet they didn’t learn God’s ways. The Israelites seem to expect that God would be their magic genie who was there to make their lives comfortable and pleasant. They didn’t seem to consider they were part of something much bigger and greater that God was doing in the world. They were part of God’s plan yet they didn’t know it.
The same thing can happen to us. We may attend church and Bible study every week and have great Bible knowledge. We may even see God do miraculous things and have our prayers answered, but our hearts will go astray if we don’t know God’s ways. We will expect God to be there for our comfort and convenience and we won’t understand why God doesn’t intervene in our circumstances more often than he does. We may move from one experience to the next without even considering God’s plans and purposes.
In order to know God’s ways, we need to be attentive to his word and consider Jesus’ ministry while on earth. As we reflect and meditate on Jesus’ life, his compassion, his teaching, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection, we will begin to hear his voice. John wrote, “… his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:3-4).
The more we learn to know his voice, to follow his directives for our lives, the more we will know God’s ways.
