Hebrews 4:1-13

Hebrews 4:1-13

God is almighty and all-powerful. He created the universe out of nothing, without effort or strain. So why did He rest? Why was Israel commanded to keep the Sabbath day as a day of rest to commemorate God's resting after creation? Clearly there is something more to this that just rest and recovering from fatigue after effort. Israel failed at the border of the Promised Land because of their lack of faith to enter, and instead they spent forty years in the wilderness. Joshua later led Israel into the Promised Land. But even then they didn't completely enter into rest. About 500 years later the psalmist wrote in Psalm 95 about Israel still having not entered their rest. So what is “rest”? God resting on the Sabbath, the keeping of the Sabbath by the Jews, and the entry into the Promised Land are all pictures or symbols of what God has in store.

We are all restless, wanting rest. We work long and hard so we can retire. We began work on Monday morning looking forward to a restful weekend. We often start the day with eager anticipation of going home at the end of the day. But few, if any, of us can ever say that we are truly at rest. Even while we are off and at “rest,” there is a looming specter of work. We frequently find rest unfulfilling. There is a longing for rest we can never satisfy, an itch that can never be scratched, or if scratched is only inflamed. Rest is more than cessation of labor but the wholeness of spirit and being that is truly content and at peace. It is possible only in relationship to and in the company of the Father. This rest is the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. We enter it when we become disciples and have the down payment now, and we will fully enter it at the culmination of all things.

But the author of Hebrews offers a grave and serious warning. As Sabbath is a picture for us to understand entering God's rest, so Israel’s failure to enter the Promised Land is a warning for us. This is so important that the author warns us that we ought to be afraid of not entering that rest (v1). What are we to be afraid of? That having heard the good news that it would be unprofitable or unfulfilled because the information is not united with faith. Faith is not merely intellectual assent, but the mind and the action joined together. The failure to pursue the life of discipleship gives opportunity for our hearts to harden till we refuse to hear what the Lord commands and enter His rest.

“Lord, keep me tender toward You always seeking the rest that is in You. AMEN”