Hebrews 3:7-8, 13 — Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Yesterday I talked about ignored or Unintended consequences. There’s another issue though that perhaps is driven by a similar mindset. Missed opportunities, like unintended and neglected consequences, have their roots in a lack of awareness and thoughtfulness.
This passage in the letter to the Hebrews would have spoken very directly to its original hearers, speaking as it did about painful incidents in their history. The words translated as “provocation” and “disobedience” are actually two place names, Maasah and Meribah. God offered wonderful blessings to the people of Israel. They failed to trust Him and obey Him, and so missed those benefits. Why was it, though, that they failed to trust and obey? Somehow, they forgot — or looked away from — all that He had done for them. I wonder if that’s what David had in mind when He wrote “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:” (Psalm 103:2).
Groups have an important dynamic — the group members influence one another. (if they don’t, maybe it’s not a group!). That influence can work neither way. For the Hebrews in the wilderness it worked in a negative way. Instead of reminding each other of all the amazing and wonderful things God had done, they stood at the entrances to their tents and murmured and their hearts became hardened.
Paul is anxious that his hearers avoid the mistakes of the original Hebrews. He wants the group dynamic to work the other way. “Talk to each other every day”, he says, “let’s not make the same mistake again!”
In Paul’s instructions one word needs to be carefully considered. “Today”. What does Paul mean when he says “today”. Today is today. Yesterday was today. Tomorrow, if it comes, will be today. Today is every day — until we run out of today’s. Today is all we have, and we need to pay attention. For us, individually, “today” means our lifetime. For the church, as a whole, it means the church age. We can never take our eye of the ball without risking the hardening of our hearts that leads to a loss of the blessings God has I’m store for us.
So how are we doing? Well look around. What do you see? I’m in one of those “party cities” this weekend. What I see is people completely oblivious to their opportunities. But what do you see where you are? Are you surrounded by people who are just as blind as the ones I see, or are you blessed to be in a community of mindful people encouraging one another every day?