The Sabbath Rest
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also had the gospel preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest Hebrews 4:1-3
By Jesus’ times on earth, the principle of a seventh day rest had lost all sense of its original purpose. The parts of the Law of Moses dealing with the Sabbath had become enmeshed with “extras” – bits and pieces like distances allowed to be walked and what could and couldn’t be carried. God simply wanted His people to have a day of rest, a day that copied His resting after six days of creation.
The writer of Hebrews then introduces a second aspect to this “rest.” After Moses’ death, Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land (4:8). The people could finally stop wandering and enjoy their new period of settled life in Canaan. This was the ‘Promised Land’ rest. But quoting Psalm 95:2, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest’ (Hebrews 4:3), he says they failed to experience all that God’s rest promised.
‘There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God’ (4:8). But if the children of Israel failed to experience it, how can we? ‘For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his’ (4:10). The writer is anxious that his readers might miss out on the final rest. It doesn’t come from ‘works’ but from ‘faith.’ On the seventh day, God stopped what He had been doing. The children of Israel failed to rest in faith. They failed to trust.
What about you? Are you anxious or are you trusting? Faith creates a ‘rest.’ Do you have a rest in your heart as you face life’s decisions?
Without belittling what you might be facing, are you coming at it from a place of rest, or are you anxiety-driven? Are you trusting God regardless of any and every other thing?
‘Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest’ (4:11)
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