"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."
By Editor
This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply. 3211.— The Rest That Remains
The rest is the eternal inheritance of God's children of which the Sabbath is a pledge, for God rested from His works from the foundation of the world. That is, He made this earth for the home of man, a home of eternal peace was God's design, and that Sabbath stood as a pledge of God's love and power and fatherhood of all His children; but man sinned and wandered from God and found no rest in his wanderings. Then the Lord proposed to take a nation out from bondage and give them rest, and that is what He declared to Moses and to Joshua that He would do. Moses sinned, consequently He could not lead the children of Israel through to the promised land. Joshua was chosen, and yet because of the sins of the people Joshua did not give them rest, as Heb. 4:8 declares. See the Revised Version. The word "Jesus" in Greek, and "Joshua" in Hebrew, are the same. It does not mean Jesus the Saviour, but Joshua the typical saviour. Joshua did not give them rest, therefore the Lord spoke of another day; but that other day was now. "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." God will give rest to every soul now and here, whatever our surroundings may be, if we will but accept His promise, and cast off our own works of sin, and let Him invest us with righteousness, His own righteousness. That rest, that spiritual rest, is also a pledge of His eternal rest, and to the soul who thus accepts the Lord Jesus Christ the Sabbath becomes a pledge of the future inheritance. As it is a token of remembrance of God's works (Ex. 20:8-11), so to the soul that finds the Lord Jesus Christ it becomes also a sign of redemption. Ex. 31:17; Eze. 20:12, 20. There is no reference to any other day as the Sabbath save the seventh day. The eighth verse does not refer to the keeping of a weekly day, but to a time when God would give rest to His children. The seventh day is brought in as a pledge of that eternal rest, and the ninth verse declares, "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God;" but we may have, as before remarked, that Sabbath rest now by giving up our own way and yielding ourselves to God and keeping His commandments, including the Sabbath precept. God's only Sabbath becomes a pledge to us of His eternal rest in the earth made new. See Isa. 66:22, 23.