Have they received their reward?
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” - Hebrews 3:7-11
The above passage was used by Pastor Jess of the Mississauga Filipino Adventist Church in a sermon he preached today. This passage caught my attention and made me ask the question, “Have they receive their reward?”
Let me explain.
After their exodus from captivity in Egypt, the Israelite nation wandered around in the Sinai peninsula for forty years. During these forty years, the people frequently complained and rebelled against Moses saying, “why have you taken us out of Egypt to suffer die in this wilderness?” Due to the rebellious spirit of the people, only two out of all the Israelites that left Egypt made it into the Promised Land. The rest of them died in the wildreness.
Adventists believe that the final judgement when God will separate the wicked from the righteous will happen close to the second advent. However, according to this passage in Hebrews, it seems that these people have already had their judgement. Was this God’s final judgement on the people of the Exodus? Will they still be judged at the end of time? What does this mean to the Adventist belief that the judgement is yet to come? If these people have indeed received their final judgement, is it possible that God will perform mini-judgements like this in our time? If so, are you ready for such a final judgement?
