The Sabbath

Overview

Two frequently asked questions of practicing Christians by new believers, and also by non-believ­ers, is: "Why don't Christians, as a whole, worship on the SABBATH (Saturday), instead of Sunday?”, and “If we are to obey the Ten Commandments, why do Christians OMIT obeying the fourth commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy’?”

To answer these questions, let's first start by posing a series of ques­tions of our own on this subject. Charles Halff, a Christian Jew, gives us four of these questions from his booklet, ANSWERS TO YOUR BIBLE QUESTIONS. (1)

_________________________________________________

WHICH DAY IS THE SABBATH?

Saturday is the Sabbath. In Exodus 20:10 we are told,

"The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God."

Many people call Sunday, being the first day of the week, the Sabbath. They are in error. Nowhere in the Bible is the first day of the week ever called the Sabbath. Nor is there any proof that God ever changed the Sabbath. However, it has been abolished as we will see later.

_________________________________________________

SHOULD THE SABBATH BE OBSERVED TODAY?

No. God never commanded a single Gentile or Christian to keep the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath was strictly a sign between God and Israel.

Deuteronomy 5:15 says:

"And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you” (Israel) “to observe the sabbath day. "

Ezekiel 20:12 says:

"And I also gave them” (Israel) “My sabbaths to be a SIGN between Me and them” (the Israelites), “that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (the Israelites).

Exodus 31:12-13, 16-17 says:

"And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "But as for you, speak to the sons of ISRAEL, saying, 'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a SIGN between Me and you throughout your” (Israelite) “generations, that you” (Israel) “may know that I am the Lord Who sanctifies you” (Israel) “. . . . So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a SIGN between Me and the sons of Israel forever..."

The Sabbath was for the Israelites (Jews) and for the Israelites ONLY. There is no place in God's Word where you will find any command for the Church, the Body of Christ, to observe a Sabbath day.

WAS THE SABBATH EVER CHANGED FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY?

No. There was never a Sabbath but Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The notion that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday by our Lord, is utterly without foundation.

IS THERE ANY SPECIAL DAY FOR BELIEVERS TO KEEP IN THIS DISPENSATION?

No. The Lord wants us to worship Him the same 365 days a year.

Romans 14:5-6;
"One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind."

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians 4:10-11;

"You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain."

This tells us that the observance of days is a sign of weakness, childishness, and lack of development. There are no holy days, feast days or Sabbath days for members of the Body of Christ.

IF THE SABBATH WAS NEVER CHANGED, WHY DO CHRISTIANS WORSHIP ON SUNDAY?

Since the Sabbath is a perpetual SIGN between God and Israel, the Sabbath will someday again be observed by the Jewish nation in the coming Millennial Dispensation. At that time, Israel will be once more, revived by God as a spiritual and obedi­ent people. Because they broke their covenant to Him (read all of Deuter­onomy 28), and refused to accept Jesus as their Savior, they were set aside, and the church age was inserted as a new age to bring salvation to the Gentiles; see (Romans 11:12-15, 23, 25-27).

God did not reject them totally or forsake them forever. By no means! But because of their ungodliness, the covenant was broken and the Sabbath day was temporarily abolished and set aside until the nation of Israel is redeemed and cleansed.

IF JESUS OBSERVED THE SABBATH, SHOULD WE
AS CHRISTIANS FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE?

Not at all. Jesus observed the Sabbath because He came not only to seek and to save them that are lost, but also to "fulfill the Law", since He was living in the Old Testament Temple Dispensation; not the New Testament Church Dispensation. The church did not start until Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2. No, we shouldn't continue to follow His Sabbath example because we are now liv­ing in the New Testament age of grace, and not in the Mosaic, ceremonial, and ritual age of Law.

If you believe you must keep the Sabbath, you are try­ing to return to ritual Law, and would have to keep the WHOLE Law as well. Not only the Sabbath day, but ALL the high holy days: Passover, Tabernacle, Day of Atonement, Rosh Hashana, Trumpets, all the Feasts and of course, go back to tithing, dietary laws, seasons, new moons, the 613 Torah laws, the Leviti­cal priesthood, washings, cleansings, and circumcision. Now include the sacrificing of lambs, goats, grain offerings, together with drink offerings in the Temple in Jerusalem, which doesn’t even exist any longer! All of this to pay for all your sins.

James 2:10;

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

To try to keep the Law in the church age is futile. Without the temple, there can be no sacrifices for sins, and so you would still be in your sins. You cannot take a Sabbath day apart from the whole Law, but MUST take the whole Law.

Are you a Jew? Only Jews have the Sabbath day, and they are still unsaved by trying to keep the Law, since they do not have a temple, and have no Christ to save them. Neither do they have any Levitical priesthood today since all geneological records were destroyed along with the temple. For anybody to observe the Sabbath day today, whether Jew or Gentile, reveals that that person is either not saved, has not read the whole Bible with understanding, or does not comprehend the different dispensations and ages of time in the Bible. The greatest SIGN that God ever did so the whole world would know that something NEW had begun (the church) was the complete destruction of the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A. D. by the Romans. Not one stone was left standing upon another as Jesus had predicted.

Matthew 24: 1, 2;

“And Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He answered and said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down."

This was a clear signal that the sacrifice of goats and lambs had been replaced by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world.

1 Corinthians 15:3, 4;

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

It also finalized the end of the ceremonial and ritual Law as well as the Levitical priesthood. A new age of grace, not Law-keeping had begun. The Old Testament covenant, which was set aside by God, now and in this age, is OBSOLETE.

Hebrews 8:13;

“When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

A New Covenant without the Sabbath day had superceded the Old Covenant.

1 Corinthians 11:25;

“In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

HOW DID CHRISTIAN WORSHIP ON THE "LORD'S DAY" (SUNDAY) EVER GET STARTED?

Some churches, that are Sabbatarians, have said that the Pope decreed Sunday as the worship day, and for that reason, we should not follow his decrees. However, it must be remembered that since the Papacy has no Biblical author­ity whatsoever, and is merely a cultic, tradition of men (Mark 7:7-9) the decrees of Rome have no authoritative substance for us Bible-believing Christians and what he says should not even be considered.

Mark 7:7-9;

“`But in vain do they worship Me, Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.’ He was also saying to them, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”

The reason why worship started on the "Lord's Day" is not because of the pronouncements of the Papacy, but because the early Apostolic church was not able to use the synagogues, due to an increasing bitter persecution of the Christians, of which Paul himself had been a leading persecutor.

Acts 22:19;

"And I said, `Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in Thee.’”

Since the church was no longer under Mosaic ceremonial Law, but under grace, and a new freedom arose to choose for themselves which day to worship as a group, or otherwise, the day the Lord rose from the dead seemed to them as good a day as any.

Galatians 2:4, 5;

“But it was because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”

There was no law or command or decree to do this, it just happened; and since the Apostles said nothing against it in the Scriptures, it revealed that the new church age was not under Sabbatical law.

The favoring of the Lord's day emphasized the resurrection as a major difference from Judaism. The church had received special favors from the God of Israel by accepting Jesus as the risen Savior and Redeemer, …..

Titus 2: 11-14;

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

while blinded Judaism was still groping and seeking a Messiah that would fit their traditional (not Biblical) expectations.

Romans 11:25;

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in;”

Notice the pattern of departure from the Sabbath to Sunday even before Acts Chapter 2 had taken place:

1. The disciples are met by Jesus on the first day of the week (Sunday) one week after His resurrection:

John 20:19

"When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week (Sunday) and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst. "

2. The disciples see Jesus again eight days later (counting from the first day of the week, as was the custom):

John 20:26
"After eight days again (Sunday) His disciples were inside and Thomas, with them. Jesus came...and stood in their midst. "

3. At Troas Paul met the congregation on Sunday to break bread:

Acts 20:7

"And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered to­gether to break bread, Paul began talking to them. . . "

4. One church at Corinth is advised to lay up their collections for Christian charity on Sunday, the Lord's Day, not Saturday.

1 Corinthians 16:1, 2
"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches in Galacia, so do you also. On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come” (during the week).

Do Sabbatarian churches have collections on SUNDAY as the Bible directs?

5. To John, the Revelation on Patmos came on the Lord's Day:

Revelation 1:1O, 11;

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day (Sunday), and I heard behind me a loud voice... saying... "Write... "

Thus, we see an increasing usage of Sunday as a significant day in the Scriptures long before any self-styled Pope ever came on the scene. Yet, the Bible does not set any specific commands for the church to observe only one specified day, as the Mosaic Law had done. As a result, Sabbath-day keeping gradually ceased, just as tongues, titheing, prophecy, and sign gifts ceased, although not for the same reasons nor at ex­actly the same time.

The Sabbath ceased first, because the new age of grace replaced the obso­lete Mosaic ritual law-keeping.

Hebrews 8:13;

“When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

All the sign gifts had ceased by the time the text of the New Testament was completed, around 100 A. D., and possibly as early as 70 A. D. or earlier, since some of the gifts were not operating during the writing of the epistles (60 to 69 A. D.). These things ceased gradually, and not instantly because the book of Acts reveals a gradual transition was going on, away from the Law and into grace. It wasn't until the 50s and 60s A. D. that the epistles first began to explain, in detail, what the church was, in textual form. There had been nothing in the Old Testa­ment Scriptures about a "church" or church age, and caution, awe, wonder and slowness to change characterized the transition. God, Himself, had to intervene with great signs and wonders in the Apostolic church to convince those Christians that Gentiles, as well as Jews, were in a new grace age.

Acts 9:3-5, 15; 9:33, 34; 10:3-5, 34-36, 45; 10:9-15; 14:37-41; 28:24-28;

THERE MUST BE A TRUE CHRISTIAN CHURCH SOMEWHERE, THAT IS A "GRACE" CHURCH WITH A SABBATH DAY OBSERVANCE, ISN'T THERE?

Not to the knowledge of this writer. Once a church truly understands the difference between Law and Grace, and recognizes the dispensational age we are living in, they won't practice Sabbath-keeping as a mandated Law. Most Sabbath-­keeping denominations have been classified either as a cult religion by major evangelical anti-cult writers, (including this one), or are Judaized, legalistic, churches which the Bible rebukes and condemns. (See all of Galatians, and Hebrews 10, particularly 10:4, 18, 26, 29.) Examples of Sabbath-keeping reli­gions under condemnation from the Scriptures are:

Worldwide Church of God Assemblies of Yahweh Sacred Name Movement

Church of God (Sabbatarian)

British Israelism Churches

Soldiers of the Cross of Christ, E. R. C.

Unification Association of Chris­tian Sabbath-keepers

Seventh Day Adventist Church and all Adventist Sabbath-keeping denominations

All these groups have faulty and distorted gospels of salvation. All are based on good works, Law-keeping of the Mosaic ceremonies or rituals, obeying the Ten Commandments, or they teach a polluted gospel of the shed blood of Christ by adding certain deeds which they determine then equals salvation.

2 Peter 3:16;

“as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Galatians 1:6-9;

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”

All such "different" gospels are invalid, and if believed, can only lead the person who believes such fabrications to hell.

Ephesians 2:8,9;

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”

Sweep away all these phony Sabbatarian gospels.

BUT DIDN'T THE EARLY CHURCH KEEP THE SABBATH?

Some tried, particularly the Jerusalem church, but they were quickly cen­sured for trying to resurrect a dead covenant.

Hebrews 8:13;

“When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

The book of Hebrews was specifically written for Hebrew Christians who were trying to straddle the Old Testament Covenant Ceremonial Law and the New Testament theology after having been clearly instructed in the New Testament operation of grace apart from the Law. They were rebuked because of this error. They had become dull of hearing.

Hebrews 5:11;

“Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

Despite previous instruction, they needed to be taught all over again since they were not practicing their new Christian faith.

Hebrews 5:12-14;

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

They were backsliding into the Mosaic Law practices.

Hebrews 6:1-3;

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we shall do, if God permits.”

The writer of Hebrews feared that the Jewish readers of this epistle were headed for severe discipline for their backslidden condition.

Hebrews 6:4-6, 12; 10:30-31, 35-39; 12:5-13, 15, 25-29;

Also read Hebrews 17:18, 19, and 8:6-13; 10:1, 9, 10, 20.

In addition, the Pauline epistles also contended and strongly fought back against any Judaizing of church doctrine. Besides the Book of Acts, Paul's epistles, even more than the other New Testament writings, gave the principles of church order, pro­cedure, and the doctrinal basis, as well as the uniqueness of God's Body of Christ, and His indwelling eternal presence in believers as His Temple.

Read: Romans 2:1, 20, 28; 4:14, 15; 9:31, 33; 10:1-3; 1 Corinthians 9:20; Galatians 2:14-21; 3:2, 10, 21, 24-25; 4:9-11; 5:1-4, 12, 15; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Philippians 3:2-4, 9; Colossians 3:11; I Thessalonians 1:14-16.

THEN WHAT ABOUT THE "SABBATH REST" MENTIONED IN HEBREWS 4:9?

The Sabbath "rest" mentioned in vs. 9 has nothing to do with Sabbath-day ­keeping. It refers to the “rest” of Christians in our present age. Not only of the type of rest and confidence and assurance we receive as a result of salvation,…

Romans 5:1;

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Romans 8:1;

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:7;

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

… but the FINAL “rest” we will attain to IF we continue in our WALK to do those works He wills for us to do as Christians.

Titus 3:8;

“This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.”

Hebrews 4:1-7;

“Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore in My wrath, although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; and again in this passage, "They shall not enter My rest." Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "Today if you hear His voice,”

He is not talking about the unsaved Israelites in the wilderness that lost their rest. He is talking about the SAVED Israelites in the wilderness who, through disobedience and grumbling, outright rebellious sinful actions, and deeds before the eyes of God lost the opportunity to enter the Promised Land, conditionally promised to them. Even Moses who was SAVED lost that opportunity.

1 Corinthians 10:4-12;

“and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play." Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

That Sabbath "rest" here in Hebrews 1:4-7, refers to that period of time when Israel will experience the great "rest" period in the Millennial Kingdom,… and we with them! We have a job to do NOW.

1 Corinthians 3:8;

"... each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. "

1 Corinthians 3:9;

"For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Luke 10:2;

“And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Being saved is wonderful, but that does not end the Christian's life. The Chris­tian now has a JOB to do: to work diligently for God in evangelizing the lost, witnessing, good deeds, giving, helping, laboring for God and with God's help, to build His Kingdom and to share the gift of eternal life with other people as a lifetime testimony. God desires to have His own heavenly family, and for His Son to have a heavenly Bride, spotless and clean.

Revelation 19:7-9;

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, Write, `Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, These are true words of God."

But for God to attain HIS goals, WE must obey and be cooperative in providing the gospel and the gospel witness to those lost souls seeking entrance into a re­lationship with God, and His reconciliation with them. THAT'S OUR JOB! If you do your lifelong Christian JOB, you will attain to the "rest". If you are disobedient and do not behave or work as a Christian, you will NOT attain to the "rest". That is why in Verse 1 of Hebrews, the writer says,

"Let us FEAR ....";

The writer includes himself, and he is obviously SAVED. Therefore, he is addressing this chapter to BELIEVERS, and not unbelievers.

James warns us in 2:26 that,

"... faith without works is dead."

That is, a Christian, one who is truly SAVED, but chooses NOT to behave and WORK as a Chris­tian exercising his faith through good deeds, has a dead, unfruitful faith. He's saved, but beyond that he has nothing. Thus, our good deeds done AFTER we have been saved, follow us into eternity as "rewards" and "rest”. The time to be doing good deeds is "TODAY".

In other words, we are to exercise faith in God's Holy Word and WORK for our "Promised Land”, so to speak, but NOT our salvation. Just as the Hebrews of old were promised their "Promised Land", but DID NOT DO the deeds and obedience required of them, they failed to obtain their "rest."

Even after Joshua took them into Canaan, the Hebrews goofed up again. Even there they didn’t find their "rest". Had they found their rest, they wouldn't have been driven out of Israel, and driven into the nations. Israel's "Sabbath rest" is still future, and so is the church’s.

Christians: We ought not to be artificially "resting" in our materialism and technological conveniences as a cheap substitute for our future Sabbath rest while ignoring the great commission to which we have been called.

Matthew 28:19, 20;

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Rather we should heed Ephesians 4:14, 15;

“Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead.... and…. "therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise. "

So the "Sabbath rest", in no way, has anything to do with Sabbath-keep­ing. It is NOT keeping the 10 commandments that gets us to heaven and to Kingdom rest. For it is written:

Romans 3:20, 21, 24, 28;

"... by the works of the Law no flesh will be JUSTIFIED in His sight:

for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But NOW apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested ... being justi­fied as a GIFT by His GRACE through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ... for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. " ­

Righteousness is therefore a GIFT of God, not a WORK of man, and therefore the keeping of any Law, commandment, or any ceremonial or ritual deed to gain salvation, cannot justify us before God.

Because no human works CAN attain to heaven, after we get saved through God's gift, why do we work?

We work out of thankfulness and gratitude for His gift of salvation, and out of obedience to PLEASE God and to be His coworkers and co-laborers in His plan of redemption. Now we look to the reward and "rest" to come AFTER our labors.

Many Christians today aren't laboring for Christ. They are only laboring for themselves, and whatever earthly riches they can attain to. Many are afraid to share the gospel for fear of being made fun of, rejected, or reproached. But to be a laborer of God, one must identify with His Christ, and not be afraid of man.

Proverbs 29:25;

“The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.”

To please God one must, at times, choose to endure ill-treatment and to consider that the re­proach of Christ and the "rest" of God that is yet to come, are greater riches than the treasures of the world and better than the very best man can give.

He who is saved and not working in the harvest with God for His Kingdom, is working against God. He who does not gather is scattering, and therefore will NOT receive the reward or “rest”. It is very unwise to be a Christian who is a "do nothing." Such a person, like the Hebrews in the wilderness, will not receive either the reward or the "rest."

There were two kinds of saved He­brews who were wandering in the wilderness: those that were disobedient and grumbled about the "reproach" of the desert, and those that were obedient and humbly accepted their lot. They realized that the pillar of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night was the living God watching and "weighing" them for their value and service to see if they were worthy to receive His promise and to enter the Promised Land and it’s rest. So, likewise, there is a parallel to those Hebrew behaviors in the church today.

The same situation of testing will occur once again throughout this church age as God is NOW seeking and searching for those who truly love Him and are WILLING to do whatever He wants to assign to them.

2 Chronicles 16:9;

"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is COMPLETELY His."

Conclusion

He is not looking for Christians who desire to remain as incomplete Christians. He wants Christians whose desire is to be COMPLETELY His in word AND in deed. To the COMPLETED Christian, the Promised Kingdom and its "Sabbath rest" is assured!

Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose again on the third day for YOUR sins. He was your substitute sin-bearer and paid for ALL your sins for ALL time. The sin debt that YOU owe to God is now PAID IN FULL because of the sacrifice of His life and His precious blood. He truly is the sacrificial Lamb of God, spotless and unblemished.

If you have not accepted the free gift of eternal life through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I encourage you to trust in Jesus as your personal Savior and God today!

If you have ALREADY done that, then become a COMPLETE Christian by doing the deeds He wants and has determined for you to do from before the foundation of the world. The choice is yours. You can be laid low in the wilder­ness like the Hebrews of old…

I Corinthians 10:5;

“Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.”

Or… you can become the Bride of Christ in His great Kingdom to come, and have the eternal rest that will result from your right choice now. I urge you to work for the Lord and look forward to the reward.