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Please explain Heb. 4: 1-12. It is stated that that chapter proves a change of the day, as Jesus in the 8th verse means Joshua, and he did not give the people of God rest, so Jesus gave them another day. A. B.
The point of the passage in Hebrews is not the matter of a change of the Sabbath. Reading from chapter 3 the one thing which the writer is impressing upon them is that God’s children had not yet entered into their rest. He wanted to bring them in in the days of Joshua, it is true, and give them rest from all their enemies, and make their days as the days of heaven upon earth; but thru unbelief they fell; they did not enter into that rest. It was not because God was not ready, but they were not ready; and God’s pledge that He was ready is that His works for man were finished from the foundation of the world; and He rested on the seventh day from all His works. The very Sabbath itself was proof that the Lord had in waiting an eternal rest for man. Man sinned in the beginning; but God gave His children the privilege of entering into that rest at the time of the Exodus, and told them that their days would be as the days of heaven upon earth, yet they would not do it. Now if Joshua had given them rest in his day the Lord would not have offered another time thru David. The term “day” there has no reference whatever to days of the week, but to the special time and opportunity which God gave them of entering into His rest. When they refused those special times, then the Lord fixed no other time until the whole of sin’s career shall be closed and all His children shall be gathered home; so that from that time forward it is “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” The rest still awaits, spiritual rest to all those who will truly give themselves to Christ, and eternal rest when they enter into that eternal inheritance which God has for His children, and which was there from the foundation of the world. So when that time comes, Christ shall say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matt. 25:34. That rest we enter now, spiritually, when we cease from our own works of sin and accept of Jesus Christ. The pledge of that rest is the Sabbath, and so also the symbol of eternal rest will be the ever-recurring Sabbath of Jehovah. Isa. 66:22, 23.
The statement that is made to you that in Exodus is given a Sabbath regulated by the Passover has no foundation in truth at all. Men have attempted to juggle expressions in endeavoring to make out a yearly schedule for the Sabbath of the Lord, but they have utterly failed.
2356.—J. B.; and Mary Hohnvall.—Shambles, 1 Cor. 10: 25.
The word “Shambles” comes from a word which in the original means market, a place where flesh foods of various kinds were sold. The point in 1 Corinthians 10 is not as to the kind of meats or animals from which the meat comes, but the question is as to whether it has been offered to idols. Much of the food that was sold in the shambles kept by the heathen had been killed as sacrifices to some of their gods. Only a small portion, however, was given for religious purposes to the heathen priests, and the rest was sold in the markets. The apostle of course takes for granted that this is fit for food, proper food to eat. Some with a very tender conscience who had been worshiping idols before could not take it lest they themselves should honor the idol to which the beast had been dedicated. Therefore the apostle instructs all that they were not to bother themselves over this, or question about it. If the meat was proper for food, if it was that which would glorify God, buy it without any reference to the idols at all, because the idols were nothing. And again in the 27th verse, if one is asked to a feast where he meets the same conditions, eat the food, saying nothing; but if some one should say, This food has been offered to idols, for the sake of one’s conscience do not eat it. This has little bearing upon the meat question at the present time. There are reasons why vegetarianism is best. There were certain flesh foods which the Bible allowed and called clean. There are reasons now which did not obtain then why some of these foods should be discarded. This we hope to discuss at greater length in a future issue.
2357.—The 144,000.
Of whom are the 144,000 made up?
All that we can reply to our inquirer is that they are made up of characters which are described in Rev. 14:1-5, and which we are told in the seventh chapter are “servants of our God.” Ezekiel 9 speaks of them as those that sigh and that cry for the abominations that are wrought around them. Just how many that will include we do not know; a few perhaps of those who have died in the fulness of the knowledge of God’s last message may be among them, taken from the dead by special resurrection, according to Dan. 12:1, 2. But evidently these are but few; for the 144,000 have special experiences, as indicated in Rev. 14:1-5; 15:2, 3. Whether this reckoning includes all persons, male and female, we do not know. In computing the number of Israel of old only the males were counted; women and children were accepted with them, but only the male members were reckoned. It seems to be the Bible method of reckoning; the five thousand and the four thousand which were fed on two different occasions were men, besides women and children. Upon these questions the Bible does not give particular light. The one question which ought to be uppermost in our minds is, Are we meeting God’s requirement? If we do, and are worthy to be among that special band, it shall be well; we will glorify God thruout all eternity. If in His infinite wisdom we are not among the 144,000, yet still are given a part in His glorious kingdom, we will still receive more of His kingdom than we deserve, and will have reason for praising Him in all the ages to come. The great object of our lives should be to live so as to please Him, and leave with Him as to who shall make up the number of that special company.
The passage is not difficult if we will only remember the adverbs of time. In simple words this is the teaching of the text: “Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God,” this, of course, when He died upon the cross. He was “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” that is, when He was raised from the dead; “in which [that is, by which Spirit] also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” When did He do this?—“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The man who is in sin is in bondage. He is a prisoner, because of sin “kept under the law, shut up.” Gal. 3:22, 23. When Jesus came, He came for the purpose of preaching deliverance to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isa. 61: 1, 2; Luke 4:18. Those who lived in the days of Noah were in the prison-house of sin; they were shut up, to a period of time of which God forewarned them, and the Lord Christ by His Spirit thru Noah preached to those who were in sin at that time. Heb. 11:7; also 2 Peter 2:5, in which Noah is said to be “a preacher of righteousness.” And He did that “when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” He also tells us in the 21st verse that the ark was a figure of baptism. Those who accept of Christ are in a sense overwhelmed and brought thru the flood; but He would have us understand also that baptism does not mean the mere putting away of the filth of the flesh; it must be the answer of a good conscience and mean a new life of the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven, seated on the right hand of God, to save His people and bring them home.
2359.—Service of Christ.
When was the true tabernacle pitched? Heb. 8:2. Did this tabernacle have a service before Christ entered it? If so, who performed the service? When did Christ enter upon His priestly service? G. W. B.
The whole intent of the epistle to the Hebrews indicates that the way into the holy places in heaven was not made manifest while as yet the tabernacle was standing. When that tabernacle was made or prepared, we do not know. Heb. 9:8. Evidently it was a living tabernacle composed of the angels of God. The time when Jesus began His ministry as priest is indicated in Ephesians 1 and Heb. 8:1, when He ascended on high and took His seat at the right hand of the Father. He was not made a priest until He went thru the suffering and experience that fitted Him for that, for He was made a priest by an oath, “after the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 7:17, 21. And we are expressly told in the 28th verse of the seventh chapter, “For the law appointeth men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointeth a Son, perfected forevermore.”
has absolutely no reference whatever to the day of the Sabbath. The first part of that chapter tells us who the foundation of our faith is, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ; but Jesus kept all the commandments of God, including the seventh day, and died, and rose again in order that our sins might be forgiven and that we might be made followers of Him in the keeping of those commandments. Verse 13 tells us that we should be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. And that is true in all those things that pertain to earthly governments; but it is not for the Lord’s sake that we disobey Him. It is only for the Lord’s sake and for His truth’s sake when we obey Him. In every right ordinance it is our duty to obey, but where duty to God comes in contact with what governments require of us, in the language of Peter in another place (Acts 5:29), “We must obey God rather than men.” Again Peter tells us “Whether it is right in the sight of God to harken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye.”
We have not space in this department to give an exposition of Rev. 14:10, 11. If you will obtain the tract, published by the Pacific Press, entitled, “Tormented Forever and Ever,” it will give you a complete explanation of this striking passage.
2361.—The Antitypical Scapegoat.
What is the “fit” man that the scapegoat is sent by into the wilderness in this dispensation? S. F. P.
The antitype of the sending of the scapegoat into the wilderness of Leviticus 16 is in Rev. 20: 1-3. It is an angel sent from God, who lays hold upon the antitypical scapegoat, Satan, and casts him into the abyss for a thousand years.
These verses tell us where Abraham came from. The “flood” there mentioned refers to the Euphrates River. The American Standard Revision has “Beyond the River.” There Abraham’s ancestors worshiped false gods. From that condition God called him, and Abraham responded by faith.