Example of the severity of the Old Testament Law

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...

 

Numbers 15

 

32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

 

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

 

34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.

 

35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

 

36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. 

 

This may seem a shocking story to us.

 

But it demonstrates that the word of God is to be obeyed.

 

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The New Testament sabbath is different from the laws of the Old Testament sabbath.

 

We offer ourselves daily to the Lord in the NT church.

 

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

 

And the primary sabbath offering of the New Testament church is to cease from our own works and to rest in God's works and in God's word daily.

 

Hebrews 3

 

6 But Christ as a son over HIS own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

 

7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted ME, proved ME, and saw MY works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known MY ways. 11 So I sware in MY wrath, They shall not enter into MY rest.)

 

12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

 

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

 

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

 

15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

 

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

 

17 But with whom was HE grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

 

18 And to whom sware HE that they should not enter into HIS rest, but to them that believed not?

 

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

 

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Hebrews 4

 

1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into HIS rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

 

2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

 

3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as HE said, As I have sworn in MY wrath, if they shall enter into MY rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

 

4 For HE spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all HIS works.

 

5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into MY rest.

 

6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

 

7 Again, HE limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts.

 

8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would HE not afterward have spoken of another day.

 

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

 

10 For HE that is entered into HIS rest, HE also hath ceased from HIS own works, as God did from HIS.

 

11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

 

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in HIS sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do.

 

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The New Testament is founded on "better" promises.

 

Hebrews 8

 

6 But now hath HE (Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also HE is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

 

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

 

8 For finding fault with them, HE saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

 

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in MY covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

 

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to ME a people:

 

In the New Covenant the laws of God are written by God in our minds and in our hearts.

 

Thus the laws of God are in us by the Holy Spirit who is in us today and leads us and guides us.  And we rest in that word given to us by God and trust in that word. 

 

But some, ignorant of the laws of God today, try to put upon us partial laws pertaining to the Old Testament and by doing such they end up following in part laws of God from both the Old and New Testaments and fail to fulfill either, for they do not know what it is they say.

 

Today we have the New Testament which pertains to the way of God for today's New Testament Church.

 

We cease from our own works and do HIS works and rest in HIM, in HIS Word.

 

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