⁷ Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice …”

Urgent news requires urgent communication. In the early days of newspaper publishing, not only did the publishers print the regular news, but would also publish an additional issue. The extra issues would be distributed to newsboys who would sell the “extra” news on street corners, proclaiming, “Extra, extra, read all about it.”

The urgent message of the Spirit is, as it were, “Extra, extra, read all about it. Today if you hear His voice…” Taken from Psalm 95, the Lord’s message to alert the people of God still stands, to the Hebrews readers as well as to us today. Psalm 95 was written to the people of God, not to those outside the covenant community of faith. In fact, in the middle of the psalm there is an abrupt change from worship to warning, as William MacDonald points out in his commentary. Yes, even a worshipping community can stray from God.

How often do we put off obeying the Lord? Like dieting or quitting a bad habit, we find it easier to begin submitting to God “tomorrow,” but tomorrow never arrives. The thought process and heart motivation (or lack thereof) that lead us to procrastinate our obedience to God will all be there tomorrow, operating in exactly the same way. And we will find ourselves making the same procrastinating decisions that we make today. It will be just as difficult to change from that disobedience tomorrow as it is today. In fact, it will be harder tomorrow, because we will have one more day cementing a pattern or habit of disobedience into our life. Why would we think it will be any easier or more likely that tomorrow we will finally have the light dawn on us and the circumstances be any easier for us to begin obeying the Lord? Like leather that is folded over, the longer it stays that way, the more the crease becomes permanent. That is, unless something changes.

God looks for those who, like Isaiah,  say “Here am I, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8b). Or Samuel, who in childlike response to God’s voice, said, “Here I am” and later at the instruction of Eli the priest, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” (1 Sam 3:10a). How unlike Adam and Eve who cowered at the “sound of the Lord God” in the Garden of Eden and fled to the bushes (Gen 3:8-9).

God speaks, we need to listen. This is not a call to obey a dusty tome of religious rules. We are called by the Holy Spirit to hear God calling out to us through His Word. We must come to our senses, like the prodigal, and return to Him, and listen to His voice. Today! The urgent news: Don’t delay, Christian!