Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

and even destruction. (See Exodus 20:3.) No one can adopt a more foolish course, for no abiding peace or rest is to be found in it. Therefore those who follow this pattern cannot experience God’s blessed Sabbath rest.

Human Inclination

When Joshua came to the end of his life’s journey, the work of eradicating every evil nation from the land had not been ful ly accomplished. God’s instructions to the people were that they must not rest until they had totally cleansed the country. But the Israelites did not see the wisdom of God’s way. They did not accept the fact that although the plans God gave them were, in their view, quite illogical or unnecessarily urgent, they had to be obeyed without question, in the conscious and intel ligent faith that they were the only plans which would bring the desired results. There was no safety in trusting any other procedure. Those who survived Joshua, did not have that faith to fulfill God’s plans. After all they had been through, they still had not learned the lessons. God’s instructions, which involved their be ing engaged in long hard struggles with the enemy, while their farms, orchards, vineyards, animals, and families were being neglected, were unpleasant and unwelcome. They looked at their own strength compared with the weakness of the enemy and confidently decided that there was no urgency to eradicate these tribes. Human inclination dictated a course contrary to God’s orders. They judged it would be much wiser and more profitable to re main at home, develop their properties, enjoy the love and com panionship of their wives and children, and imagined that, by these means, they would enter into God’s rest. Those, who had gained the land by faithful adherence to God’s general and spe cific orders, now thought they could retain it by preferring their own devisings to God’s. This was another reversion. They, not God, had become the plan makers! At first their plans appeared to work very well. They were re lieved of the hardships of war, they enjoyed building up their