Spiritual Hardness - 2 Kings 6:8-33

If you have been a Christian for very long, you have watched someone make a profession of faith in Christ, followed by dramatic changes in his life. It’s exciting to see his new joy. But then a difficult trial hits. His or her faith is shaken. They stops coming to church and begins to avoid other Christians. Soon they are back into their old ways. And you wonder, “What happened? Was their conversion genuine? Can Christians lose their salvation?”

Jesus explained what I just described in the parable of the Sower. He said that the seed of the gospel falls on four kinds of soils: the hard road; the thin soil over a hard-rocky layer; the soil infested with thorns; and the good soil. What I just described is the seed that fell on the rocky soil. In Jesus’ words, “When they hear the word, immediately [they] receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away” (Mark 4:16-17). Neither they nor the thorny ground persevere to bear fruit unto eternal life.

When we look at the book of Hebrews, we find the author of Hebrews is concerned with the same thing. He is concerned that his readers hearts may be like those where the seed of the Word of God fell on rocky soil. For when affliction or persecution happens in their life the truth about God writhers. It never finds root in their hearts.
They were in danger of going back to a more comfortable life in their old Jewish religion because of the imminent threat of persecution in their newfound Christian faith. So, as he concludes his comparison showing Jesus’ superiority over Moses, he says that “Whose house are we” but then adds, “if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope” (3:6). He continues by illustrating his point with a story from Jewish history that all of his readers knew well, the story of Israel in the wilderness.