Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 3:12

"Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God:" — Hebrews 3:12 (ASV)

Take heed, brethren. In view of the conduct of the rebellious Jews and their fearful doom, be on your guard lest you also are found to have the same feelings of rebellion and unbelief. Ensure that, under the new dispensation and in the enjoyment of the privileges of the gospel, you are not found to manifest such feelings as shall exclude you from the heavenly world.

The principle has been settled by their unbelief: those who oppose God will be excluded from His rest. This can be shown under all dispensations and in all circumstances; and there is no less danger of it under the gospel than there was when our forefathers were led to the promised land.

You are traveling through a wilderness—the barren wilderness of this world. You are exposed to trials and temptations. You meet with many deadly and mighty foes.

You have hearts prone to apostasy and sin. You are seeking a land of promise—a land of rest. You are surrounded by the wonders of almighty power and by the proofs of infinite beneficence.

Disobedience and rebellion in you will as certainly exclude you from heaven as their rebellion excluded them from the promised land; and as their great sin was unbelief, be on your guard lest you manifest the same.

An evil heart of unbelief. An evil, unbelieving heart. The word unbelief is used to qualify the word heart by a Hebraism—a mode of speech common in the New Testament. An unbelieving heart was the cause of their apostasy, and what caused their ruin will produce ours. The root of their evil was a lack of confidence in God—and this is what is meant here by a heart of unbelief.

The great difficulty on earth everywhere is a lack of confidence in God, and this has produced all the evils that humanity has ever suffered. It led to the first apostasy; and it has led to every other apostasy and will continue to produce the same effects to the end of the world.

The apostle says that this heart of unbelief is evil. People often feel that it is a matter of little consequence whether they have faith or not, provided their conduct is right; therefore, they do not see or admit the propriety of what is said about the consequences of unbelief in the Scriptures.

But what do people say about a lack of confidence between a husband and wife? Are there no evils in that? What husband can sleep quietly on his pillow if he has no confidence in the virtue of his wife? What child can have peace who has no confidence in a parent?

How can there be prosperity in a community where there is no confidence in a bank or an insurance office, or where one merchant has no confidence in another; where a neighbor has no confidence in his neighbor; where the sick have no confidence in a physician; and where, in general, all confidence is broken up between people?

If I wished to produce the deepest distress in any community, and had the power, I would produce the same lack of confidence between people that now exists between humankind and its Maker. I would thus take away sleep from the pillow of every husband and wife, every parent and child, and make everyone wretched with the feeling that all the property they had was insecure.

Among people, nothing is seen to produce greater evil than a lack of confidence or faith; and why should the same evil not exist in the Divine administration? And if a lack of confidence produces such results between people, why should it not produce similar or greater miseries where it occurs in relation to God? There is not an evil that people endure which might not be alleviated or removed by confidence in God; therefore, one great object of the Christian religion is to restore to humankind its lost confidence in the God who made it.

In departing from the living God. This unbelief is manifested in departing from Him, or it leads to a departure from Him.

The idea is that such a heart of unbelief would be connected with apostasy from God. All apostasy first exists in the heart and then is manifested in the life.

Those who indulge in unbelief in any form, or regarding any subject, should remember that this is the great source of all alienation from God, and that if indulged, it will lead to complete apostasy.

Those who wish to live a life of piety should keep the heart right. He who lives by the faith of the Son of God is safe, and no one is safe but him.