Every week, Sunday has become a special time for me. After church, I make sure my family has some lunch, but it’s nothing fancy. We either eat out or have something simple at home. I may be breaking with American church tradition but Sunday isn’t the day for fine roast beef or elegant roasted chicken. After we eat, I do nothing. I’m off duty the rest of the day. I might watch tv, take a nap, read a book, or play games. I don’t work on the blog or housecleaning. I avoid outside activities at all cost. In short, Sunday is a day of rest. Without it, I couldn’t get through the week. I can’t help but think about that routine as I’ve studied through Hebrews 4:1-13 for our current study through Hebrews.
We read Hebrews 3:7-19 in the last section. In it, God spoke to us about the importance of believing Him. It doesn’t matter who you are, believing Him is a prerequisite to the blessing of His rest. To believe otherwise looks God in the face and calls Him a liar. We combat unbelief by being a constant voice of sincere encouragement. Encouragement also helps us hold onto our belief when the world fights so hard to pull it away from us. And let me repeat the key point, we must believe to enter God’s rest.
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Enter His Rest
The last lesson revealed that God’s rest is still available for those who believe. This coming lesson will help us see what that means – both individually and for mankind over all.
However, before we go there, let’s remind ourselves to whom the letter of Hebrews was written. We may not know its author, but we know it was intended primarily for the Jews of the first century who had accepted that Jesus was their promised Messiah. The author wrote it to encourage them to hold fast to their faith; he didn’t want them to corrupt their belief by adding to it or doubting it. You may be Jewish; you may not. Either way, if you accept and believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah and living Son of God, then the book of Hebrews is for you as well.
I think it’s important as we progress through this study to remember the intended audience. For those who don’t know Jesus, I absolutely believe the truth of Hebrews can lead you to salvation. All of God’s Word has that power, as we’ll look at later in this section. But, the original audience was those who already knew Him. As we talk about things like believing God and entering His rest, it’s easier to understand if we remember this is as part of the believer’s sanctifying growth in Him, a process that began when we trusted Him for salvation.
Ok, now, let’s proceed with what this passage teaches us about God’s rest…
The promise of His rest still remains. Don’t miss it! (Hebrews 4:1-5)
The opportunity to enter God’s rest has been available for all people but only those who accept it by faith receive the benefit. For the Israelite people under Moses, they didn’t have the faith to believe God would defeat the Canaanites as they entered the Promised Land. In response, they spent the rest of their lives – forty years for the collective group – wandering in a literal desert. Perhaps this helps us understand why we also sometimes feel like we’re wandering without purpose for much of our lives. We’ve refused to believe God and enter the rest He has available for us. We’re still striving and struggling to enter His Promised Land when all it took was a step of faith and we would have enjoyed it long ago.
God set the example of resting when the work was complete on the seventh day of creation. He did so to show us to rest one day of the week but also because He had finished His work. He had created the stars and planets, land and waters, plants and animals, and Adam and Eve.
- Individually, the opportunity still remains to enter His rest. All we need is the faith to believe.
- For all humanity, God’s rest at creation reveals a final rest is available for all of us on the seventh day.
If the opportunity still remains, do it today (Hebrews 4:6-8)
Yes, the Israelites messed up by not believing God to deliver them into their Promised Land. That doesn’t mean the opportunity is gone forever, though. The opportunity didn’t disappear with the Israelites under Moses and even Joshua didn’t deliver their final rest. If either of those scenarios were true, then David wouldn’t have written about 500 years later, “Today, if you hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah…” (Psalm 95:7-8).
In fact, the Bible gives us many stories of people who messed up believing God. Still the opportunity remains. The opportunity to believe God initiated when He completed His work that last day in the Garden of Eden.
- It remained for the people under Moses even though they wandered in the desert for 40 years.
- It was still there centuries later when David reigned in Israel for 40 years. David had shed too much blood and God prohibited him from building and entering the temple of the Lord. The opportunity went to his son, King Solomon.
- About 1,000 years after David, the opportunity still remained for the first-century Jews. They were witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and still had a hard time believing. After 40 years, God allowed the destruction of their temple and the people were scattered.
- Now, it’s about 2,000 years after the writing of Hebrews. We’ve all messed up in our walks with God; faith and belief aren’t the easiest areas to implement. Because of God’s eternal love and unending grace, the opportunity still waits for you today. You still may believe He can do what He says He will do and enter His rest.
Eventually, that opportunity will be gone, though. The idea of “today” will no longer exist. As long as it is called today, we may still place our faith in Him; what about when “today” is gone?
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Jewish tradition tells that the earth will exist for 7,000 years; each 1,000 year time segment correlates with the corresponding day of creation. Without getting into details, for this article I’ll only mention the correlation between the seventh day of creation when God rested and the seventh millennial day of the earth when Jesus will reign over His kingdom on earth. This passage supports the idea of a 7,000 year plan for Earth as it links Jesus’ future millennial reign with God’s rest on the seventh day of creation.
Here’s the significance of that idea – when Jesus’ millennial reign ends then the idea of “today” will be over. The earth will be destroyed; all people will either enter the lake of fire prepared for Satan and his angels or they will enter eternity in the glory of God’s presence. No other chance will be available when that time comes. “Today” will be over.
- Individually, you can still enter His rest. You didn’t miss the opportunity in the past and you don’t have to wait until you have your act together in the future. You can do it today.
- For all humanity, the offer remains as long as it is called “today.” The concept of time ends when the Millennium ends, and therefore, so does humanity’s opportunity to enter God’s rest.
Our rest is a Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9-10)
I mentioned in my opening story that I rest on Sundays. In the early days of Christianity, the leaders of the church switched our day of worship from Saturday, when the Jews honor the Sabbath, to Sunday. I won’t get into the politics of why they did so or if it was a wise decision. For our study, when we read that our rest comes on the Sabbath, know that the author meant the Jewish Sabbath on the last day of the week.
I believe David wrote a prophetic description of our Sabbath rest in Psalm 95 just prior to “Today, if you hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95:7-8). Verses 1-7 of that same chapter set a context of worship and adoration as we kneel before the Lord. David describes it as a time when we realize He is “the rock of our salvation,” not the rocks in Meribah and Massah. It’s a time when we might “enter His presence with thanksgiving.” It’s a time when we “worship and bow down” and “kneel before the Lord our Maker.” It’s a time when God is our Good Shepherd (see John 10) and we “are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care.” (All quotes taken from Psalm 95:1-7.) This prophetic description can’t refer to eternity in His presence as David mentions that the Lord reigns over even the sea. The sea won’t exist in eternity (Revelation 21:1). This time of worship in the Lord’s presence when He reigns over all the earth must refer to Jesus’ millennial reign.
- Individually, we can rest on the day we enter God’s presence. We cease striving and struggling. We recognize God completed the work; we no longer think we must work to attain our salvation.
- For all humanity, a time is coming when we can enter His rest and literally kneel in His presence here on earth. The work of salvation will be fully realized as Jesus will have returned a second time in glorious victory.
Make every effort to enter His rest (Hebrews 4:11)
We’ve seen it throughout the last section and this one – our opportunity to enter His rest comes through faith and belief. It has nothing to do with the work we do. We base our salvation and the continuing process of growth on our belief that God can do what He says He will do.
However, as this point reveals, we must be diligent to grow in Him. The original Greek word even has a connotation of haste to it; we shouldn’t put it off until another day. We don’t know what awaits us in His promised rest; we can’t comprehend the blessings of an abundant life lived believing Him until we have experienced it. We can’t experience it until we are diligent to know Him, believe Him, and grow in our love for Him.
Many people trust God for salvation but never move past that point. They have their “fire insurance” so they think all is well; nothing more is required. But, in all honesty, how can you not give yourself to living for the one who died for you? How can you not desire to know Him more intimately, to serve Him more devotedly, and love Him more passionately considering all He has done and desires to do for you?
Failing to do so doesn’t only deny you the blessings of a life lived for Him. It denies it to other people as well. When we fail to believe and grow – when we wander around in our desert of unbelief – then other people look at our lives and say, “Why should I try Christianity? It’s not doing much for them. They’re as hopeless as I am. Maybe I’ll try this other option over here…” Our poor example leads them “to fall into the same pattern of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11) and they likewise wander around in a desert of spiritual unbelief.
- Individually, we must be diligent and expedient to grow in our faith and belief. Otherwise, not only do we miss out, but so do those in our circle of influence.
- For all humanity, exert the faith needed so the pattern doesn’t repeat itself. Eventually we will all enter His rest as the cycle of unbelief is broken.
Why is it important to believe and enter His rest?
Here’s the point. Here’s the reason we must truly believe. Here’s the why that gives significance to all the rest.
Why is it important? Because the word of God is living and active. With surgical precision, the word of God will pierce into you to separate that which merely lives from that which is active.
The word of God divides joints from marrow. In the human body, joints allow movement. They make it possible but they can’t actually move the body. Marrow is the spongy tissue inside bones which produces blood cells. “The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement” (Leviticus 17:11). When the Word of God penetrates you to divide joint from marrow, it divides that which merely provides movement from that which provides physical and spiritual life.
The word of God divides soul from spirit. Many people use these two terms interchangeably as they both refer to the part of a person that relates with God as opposed to the body that relates with the world and the mind that relates with other people. However, they have a small but significant difference. All people have a soul – a part of them that longs for a spiritual relationship and has an eternal destiny. As Scripture makes clear, their eternal destiny is either heaven or hell. Sorry, but no other option exists. The spirit refers to who we are after we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. When the Word of God penetrates you to divide soul from spirit, it divides that which is merely eternal from that which has an active, blessed future with Jesus for eternity.
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The Word of God – again, with surgical precision – separates what lives from what is active. It separates movement from life and growth. It divides what’s eternal from that which is eternally blessed. That’s some laser-like precision.
Here’s the most important part of all this. He does it for everyone. No one can hide, no one is exempt. He sees all, knows all, and will accurately divide out His own unto Himself. Will you be one of them?
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