The Day of the Lord

(Hebrews 3:7-11 – The Day of the Lord

When is the Day of the Lord? You may think it will be the Day of His second coming. Or perhaps the Judgement Day. Or maybe it was in the past, say perhaps the day of His birth, or the day of His resurrection.

But the truth of it is that although all of these could be the day of the Lord, there is one more day that is more important. There is one day of the Lord that is important to every Christian.

The scripture I am looking at today speaks of this day, and there are other references to it elsewhere. The most important day of the Lord is…today.

What this verse says about the day of the Lord

Before continuing on to look at the day of the Lord, this is what the scripture says.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (Hebrews 3:7-11)

As we look at this verse there are a number of time periods or days referenced. We will look at those, but first we must understand a key point about this life we live.

When do you live?

This may seem like an odd question, but it is important.

We live NOW. We live in the here and now, not in the past, although some people seem to try to or want to, and we cannot live in the future because we are not there yet. Instead, we live now.

Every moment of our life is simply an ongoing collect of “nows” that are strung together to make a life. And the only time when you can do something is right now.

You may have plans for the future, but there is no guarantee that they will ever come to pass. A plan is good to have, as are goals for your life. But all of these can only be achieved by doing what is necessary right now.

That is why today is the day of the Lord. Every decision a person can make must be carried out today. And if someone seeks to know the Lord and to follow Jesus, it must begin and be done today.

Now is the day of the Lord

The scripture also makes this point that NOW is the acceptable time. Now is the day of the Lord as we note in these words.

For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

It is right now that we shall be saved because now is the day of salvation, and now is the day of the Lord.

There is no other time that we can choose to come to Christ. We can’t say, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is a fantasy and a dream yet to unfold and it may not include the things you planned today. Sure, you can plan anything and everything you want. But it doesn’t mean they will happen, especially if those things are not in the Lord’s will.

A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

We don’t know what the plans of the Lord are for us tomorrow. We know that when we seek God His plans and designs will be for our good, but we don’t know what they are until they happen. That is, we will find out when “today” and “now” arrive because “Now is the day of the Lord.”

A future promise from the Lord

Although we have no control over our future, God does. His plans are immovable and what He says WILL come to pass. There is no questions and no doubt that the plans of God will not change.

He speaks of the Israelite people in Hebrews 3:7-11 and shows how their actions of the past will prevent them receiving the blessings of the future. Because they rejected God when He led them out of Egypt and did not repent, they would not enter His rest.

Here is a warning for all of us. If we want to enter His rest, then we must seek Him today and follow Jesus today, because today is the day of the Lord. It is only in the here and now that we can decide to follow or to reject God. If we seek salvation, than as Paul said, “Now is the day of salvation.”

The time of God’s rest is in the future. When Christ returns and all of the prophecies in the scripture have been fulfilled, when all is completed and all is done, then God will rest from all of His works. Those who have believed and followed Christ and the ways of God will then enter His rest with Christ and with God the Father. That is the promise and hope of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

The only way we can get there is to make the right decisions today and every day. We live in the now. Now is the day of salvation because it is only now that we can effect the right changes to seek and find the way of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Whatever happened in your past is gone. It cannot be changed and it must not lead you to condemn yourself. Christ died to remove your sins and to take away all of your condemnation. He does not condemn you and when you repent of the things in your past, they are forgotten.

You are a new creation in Jesus Christ, a member of the family of God. So, make the decision today to walk in the ways of God and accept Christ because today is the day of the Lord and it is the only time you or I have to seek Him, to worship Him and to praise the Lord for His blessings, mercy, and grace.

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