Jesus and the Rest
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
When Joshua led the Hebrews into the promised land, it was a great breakthrough and time of rest for them. Think about it: they were as small as 100ish people when they were the household of Jacob. They came to Egypt under the protection of Joseph. They grew for 400 years and were a slave-class of Pharaoh.
That means they were as far removed from Joseph as we are from Christopher Columbus or Leonardo da Vinci. Yes. We are as far removed from da Vinci today as the parting of the Red Sea was after Jacob seeing Joseph and weeping over him still being alive!
Becoming their own nation and having their own land was way overdue for a God who promised Abraham that they’d be a people and bless the whole world.
Be a nation? We’re all slaves in Egypt.
Through you all nations will be blessed? We’re all slaves in Egypt!
Descendants as vast as the stars in the sky? Pharaoh makes us throw our sons into the river as soon as they are born! We’re all slaves in Egypt!
So you can see that entering the Promised Land was a big deal.
But it wasn’t THE BIG DEAL. It wasn’t even the full rest that God had to offer His people.
When God talked about “His rest,” the context made everyone think it was the Promised Land. But the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the provision through the wilderness for 40 years, and the entrance into the Promised Land were all real events acting as symbols for our salvation given to us by Jesus.
How can we defeat sin when we continually do what we don’t want to do? We’re slaves to sin!
How can we have any hope for anything good when our bodies are all getting older, weaker, and sicker? We’re slaves to death!
How can we have any hope for becoming Holy like God when we are all sinful and full of doubts and unbelief?
And to all of that, Jesus says,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
Jesus is the REST that all of the events of Moses and Joshua point to. He is the good news of someone giving us the salvation that we couldn’t reach ourselves. Receive His deliverance and salvation and you’ll see it work out.
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