Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²² These are the commands that the Lord spoke to you. You were all there together at the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the middle of a great fire. There was a cloud and it was very dark. He gave only those commands. Then he wrote them on two flat stones and he gave them to me.

²³ The mountain was burning with fire and you heard God's voice speak from the darkness. Then the leaders and older men of your tribes came to speak to me. ²⁴ They said, ‘The Lord our God has shown us how great and how powerful he is. We have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. We have learned this: People can continue to live, even after God has spoken to them. ²⁵ But now we think that this great fire will kill us. We do not want to die! If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, we will surely die. ²⁶ The God who lives for ever has spoken to us from the middle of the fire. Has anyone ever heard him speak like that and then continued to live? ²⁷ We ask you to go near to the Lord our God. Listen to everything that he says. Then you should tell us what he says to you. We will listen carefully and we will obey him.’

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me. He said to me, ‘I have heard what these people have said to you. What they said is right. ²⁹ I really want them to respect me with fear. I want them to obey my commands in the future! If they do that, everything will be well for them and for their descendants for ever. ³⁰ Now tell them to return to their tents. ³¹ But you should stay here with me. I will tell you all the commands, rules and laws that you must teach to the people. Then they can obey them in the land that I will give them to live in.’

³² So you must be careful to do everything that the Lord your God has commanded you to do. You must not refuse to obey any of his laws. ³³ Live in the way that he has commanded you. If you do that, you will be happy in the land where you are going. You will live for a long time in the land that will be your home.

God's special place of rest

4 God promised his people that they could go to his special place of rest. That promise is still true for us today. So we must be very careful. Do not fail to arrive in that place. We certainly do not want that to happen. ² We have heard God's good news, just like God's people in the wilderness heard his message. But that message did not help them, because they did not believe it. They did not trust God, like those who obeyed him. ³ But those of us who trust God do enjoy his special place of rest. This is what God said:

God said that, even though he had finished his work when he made the world. ⁴ In the Bible God has spoken about the seventh day like this:

⁵ As we have already seen, God said something later about his rest:

⁶ So we see that there is still a chance for people to go to God's place of rest. But those people who first heard God's message in the wilderness refused to obey him. As a result, they did not arrive in his special place of rest. ⁷ So God chose another time for people to go to his place of rest. He called it ‘Today’. A long time after Moses, David spoke God's message. As we have already seen, he said:

⁸ This shows that Joshua did not bring God's people to the place where they could rest. Later, God had to speak again about another day of rest. ⁹ So we see this: God still has a place ready for his people, where they can rest. They will rest as God rested on the seventh day. ¹⁰ When God made the world and everything, he rested after he had finished his work. It is the same for everyone who goes to God's place of rest. They too will rest. They will no longer need to work.^[c]

¹¹ So we must do everything possible to arrive in God's special place of rest. God's people in the wilderness did not obey him. We must not be like them. If we do not obey God, we also will fail to arrive in that place.