Hebrews 3:7-19 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, `They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, `They shall not enter My rest.' '' Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today,'' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'' For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Many people read these verses and equate them with the seventh day Sabbath. They use these verses to say we no longer have to obey the fourth commandments as it states to rememebr the seventh day to keep it holy. But is this what God is saying here? No it's not.
Let's continue.
Hebrews 4:1-11 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,'' although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works''; and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest.'' Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today,'' after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.'' For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
Here in these verses we have God using the finished work of creation as a picture of His finished work of dealing with sin as seen in righteousness by faith. He is not doing away with the fourth commandment or the seventh day Sabbath, but rather, He is using it as a picture of His finished work as seen in creation in light of His finished work as seen in dealing with sin and death.
The rest that God's people experience in the promised land was a rest from their enimies. We can equate that same rest to the rest we have from the power and penalty of sin through faith in Christ. But this is not nullifying the literal Sabbath day in the same way God uses marriage as a picture of our relationship with Him but this does not nullify literal marriage between a husband and wife.
When Joshua took God's people into the promised land they enter into God's rest. Did this mean they did not have to obey God's Law now?
Let's read.
Joshua 21:43-44 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Notice the rest they received in the promise land, which was the rest that God had promised them. Did this rest do away with them having to keep God's Law?
Let's read.
Joshua 22:4-5 "And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren, as He promised them; now therefore, return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.''
We can see very clearly here that the rest God gave Joshua and the people is a different rest from the seventh day Sabbath as seen in the fourth commandment. Joshua and the people rested from having to continue to fight their enimies but they still had to keep the commandments of God. When we enter God's rest we rest in Christ from our enimies, which is the power of sin and Satan but we still keep the commandments of God in that rest.
Many people read these verses and equate them with the seventh day Sabbath. They use these verses to say we no longer have to obey the fourth commandments as it states to rememebr the seventh day to keep it holy. But is this what God is saying here? No it's not.
Let's continue.
Hebrews 4:1-11 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,'' although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works''; and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest.'' Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today,'' after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.'' For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
Here in these verses we have God using the finished work of creation as a picture of His finished work of dealing with sin as seen in righteousness by faith. He is not doing away with the fourth commandment or the seventh day Sabbath, but rather, He is using it as a picture of His finished work as seen in creation in light of His finished work as seen in dealing with sin and death.
The rest that God's people experience in the promised land was a rest from their enimies. We can equate that same rest to the rest we have from the power and penalty of sin through faith in Christ. But this is not nullifying the literal Sabbath day in the same way God uses marriage as a picture of our relationship with Him but this does not nullify literal marriage between a husband and wife.
When Joshua took God's people into the promised land they enter into God's rest. Did this mean they did not have to obey God's Law now?
Let's read.
Joshua 21:43-44 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Notice the rest they received in the promise land, which was the rest that God had promised them. Did this rest do away with them having to keep God's Law?
Let's read.
Joshua 22:4-5 "And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren, as He promised them; now therefore, return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.''
We can see very clearly here that the rest God gave Joshua and the people is a different rest from the seventh day Sabbath as seen in the fourth commandment. Joshua and the people rested from having to continue to fight their enimies but they still had to keep the commandments of God. When we enter God's rest we rest in Christ from our enimies, which is the power of sin and Satan but we still keep the commandments of God in that rest.
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