If you were to read the surrounding verses, it would make the point of those verses quite clear:-
7 For this reason, just as the holy spirit says: ?Today if YOU people listen to his own voice, 8 do not harden YOUR hearts as on the occasion of causing bitter anger, as in the day of making the test in the wilderness, 9 in which YOUR forefathers made a test of me with a trial, and yet they had seen my works for forty years. 10 For this reason I became disgusted with this generation and said, ?They always go astray in their hearts, and they themselves have not come to know my ways.? 11 So I swore in my anger, ?They shall not enter into my rest.??
12 Beware, brothers, for fear there should ever develop in any one of YOU a wicked heart lacking faith by drawing away from the living God; 13 but keep on exhorting one another EACH DAY, as long as it may be called ?Today,? for fear any one of YOU should become hardened by the deceptive power of sin. 14 For we actually become partakers of the Christ only if we make fast our hold on the confidence we had at the beginning firm to the end, 15 while it is being said: ?Today if YOU people listen to his own voice, do not harden YOUR hearts as on the occasion of causing bitter anger.?
16 For who were they that heard and yet provoked to bitter anger? Did not, in fact, all do so who went out of Egypt under Moses? 17 Moreover, with whom did [God] become disgusted for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? 18 But to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest except to those who acted disobediently? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of lack of faith.
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For in one place he has said of the seventh day as follows: ?And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,? 5 and again in this place: ?They shall not enter into my rest.?
6 Since, therefore, it remains for some to enter into it, and those to whom the good news was first declared did not enter in because of disobedience, 7 he again marks of a certain day by saying after so long a time in David?s [psalm] ?Today?; just as it has been said above: ?Today if YOU people listen to his own voice, do not harden YOUR hearts.? 8 For if Joshua had led them into a place of rest, [God] would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 So there remains a sabbath resting for the people of God. 10 For the man that has entered into [God?s] rest has also himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.
11 Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest, for fear anyone should fall in the same pattern of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and [their] marrow, and [is] able to discern thoughts and intentions of [the] heart. 13 And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.
As we all know, Jesus' sacrifice put an end to the Mosaic Law... but not to law. * This means that we are not legally bound to the Mosaic Law and Sabbath, but we are bound to Christ's law of love and the Christian sabbath. This law of love (love for God and for our neighbour) guides our Bible-trained conscience. It consists of principles and guidelines instead of laws and statutes** of the "thou-shalt-not" type. Reason it out this way, why have a law which says "Thou shalt not muderder!" when the law "Love thy neighbour" will cover that law and the rest of the 10 commandments? The only law that wasn't covered by Christ's law of love though, was the Sabbath. But it was replaced by a greater sabbath just as the other laws were replaced by greater versions. This is where the Christian Sabbath comes in. But, what is the Christian sabbath?
God's rest "day" as we know, was not literally one day. Each of the creative days could have lasted thousands of years*** (if the term "years" means anything in the spiritual realm). In fact God is still in his rest day. Thats why the talks about us entering his rest-day or his sabbath and this is the day that he has "marked off". Being in God's rest-day depends on us applying the law of love and serving him wholesouled all the time, not just only on one special specific day as many of the hypocrites do, going to church on saturday or on sunday but forgetting the Lord at all other times. They "have a form of godly devotion but prove false to its power". (2 Timothy 3:5) Also in Mark 2:28, Jesus is given the title "Lord of the Sabbath". Does this mean that he is only our Lord on Saturday? Well, obviously no!
A key to understanding the purpose of the Christian sabbath, is to consider the purpose of the original sabbath given to Moses. It was a time for reflecting on what Jehovah/Yahweh had done for them in Egypt and in the wilderness. Likewise for Christians, the sabbath is a time for appreciating both God's and Jesus' self-sacrifice in providing the Ransom for us.
In summery, Christians do have a sabbath, but it is not a legalistic one. We rest from our "own works" and take up the works of our God (believe it or not, this is resting). The reason why Jesus' critisised the Pharisees, was that they obeyed God's Law to the letter, but forgot love for God and neighbour. By following the "law of love" and celebrating the Christian sabbath every day, we will be able to enter God's sabbath, which has been every day since creation, and which is a permanent reminder for us. Anytime the sabbath is mentioned in the Christian scriptures, it refers to the permantent Christian sabbath which should permeate our lives. This sabbath is the identifying mark of God's worshippers... It is a product of Christ's law of love. When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well he said to her : "Believe me, woman, The hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you people worship the Father... Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is NOW, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him. (John 4:21 and 23) Likewise, if i may audaciously extend the application of the principle of this scripture, the time has NOW come when neither on Friday nor on Saturday nor on Sunday will we worship the Father. The time is NOW when we should be worshipping the Father in spirit and truth, everyday!!!
* This is why Romans 10:4 and Mathhew 5:17 do not contradict one another. "Christ is the end of the Law." ... "Do not think i came to destroy the Law" ... Galations 3:19 says " Why, then, the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made"
** Matthew 23:23,24 "
Woe to YOU, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because YOU give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cumin, but YOU have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things it was binding to do, yet not to disregard the other things. 24 Blind guides, who strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel!" (Jesus condemned those who follow the Law to the letter, but forget the principles behind the law, as hypocrites. May we never fall under the same definition.)
*** Genesis 2:4 " This is a history of the heavens and the earth in the time of their being created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." (All six "days" were condensed into one "day". This indicates the symbolic nature of the word "day". eg. Back in my grandfather's day.. etc..)
n.b If I have said anything unscriptural or unreasonable, please point it out so that I can be humbly corrected and readjusted in my thinking. All quotes are from the New World Translation
