“The promise of entering into His rest still stands.”
“For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good that you may do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
“Entering into Rest” is a thought set in things we plan to accomplish or take out from our daily chores; it gives us a sense of “time-out” or repose. We think in terms of relief from daily hassles that pressure our image in community or often, perhaps, whom we see, looking at our own self.
The writer to the Hebrews uses this term in this sense of calm and relief but also it is used in a larger sense. Several Greek words are in play here; one uses a prefix for “against,” suggesting the relief we just mentioned. Another uses a prefix for “up” suggesting “again and again” referring to resting in the process of completing something without the exertion of personal effort. A third word refers to entering into a sabbath rest, that is, entering into God’s Rest as He did after completing our earthly creation of time and space, including us and our temporal awareness. We are being invited to embody all the above by entering into God’s Rest, but there is more!
It is a Rest including not only relaxation and a reprieve from obligation, it is a life style of faith; it is entering into a love relationship where God is not only our Rock but our Living Water flowing out of The Rock. It is possessing peace in God since we already have peace with God. It is moving from standing in the grace of His righteousness to consuming grace in His living water.
This Rest is provided to Israel leaving the slavery of Egypt into desert testing and onward toward the promise land of Zion. But they did not honor the word of their Savior even though they had the stone tablets of His righteousness and the Tabernacle of His presence; they had the visible cloud, the pillar of fire and daily manna. Still they rebelled and turned to the feelings of earthly desire rejecting the Rest of God.
The writer of Hebrews draws our attention to the life of Israel, a nation chosen by God to be His elect people. Israel was not only the people set apart for showing nations God’s character of righteous love but He was their safe place, their sanctuary. This too is God’s Rest.
But the people of Israel did not obey or submit to the holiness of God. Instead, they continued turning to other gods, choosing to follow their own desires, falling away from their true Love Who continued to woo them, giving them covenants of promise and their own kings.
It was King Solomon who built David’s Temple for God but after his death Israel separated into two separate nations. “Israel” became the northern kingdom consisting of 10 tribes and Judah became the southern kingdom including the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. Israel, to the north, continued falling away worshiping gods made by human hands. God delivered them into the hands of the Assyrians in about 722 BC having ruled for about 300 years and Judah ruled over 400 years and was conquered by the Babylonians in about 605 BC and then again in about 587 BC.
During the reign of young King Josiah with the friendship of a young Jeremiah, Judah destroyed the idols in the land and came back to their living and true Jehovah. But upon the death of King Josiah, they immediately went back into idolatry and Jeremiah was there to witness, once again, another falling away. But this time judgment was going to be imposed and Jeremiah is called by God to announce doom to the people and rulers of Judah themselves.
God literally shows this to Jeremiah by sending him into a potter’s shop to watch the potter form a vessel, such is Judah in God’s hands. The potter was forming a vessel on his wheel when it became flawed in the potter’s hand. The potter changed the shape of the vessel when it failed to perform to its intended use. The potter changed the vessel to match the clay.
The clay did not perform the way the potter intended so he changed its shape. God is righteous; it is His nature. We have to be righteous too if we are to enjoy His fellowship. An impossible task, if it were up to us!
But in Christ, we are righteous and as long as we submit, Jesus will strengthen us to be shaped into His own image. But we must be willing.
The people of Judah ridiculed Jeremiah’s words of judgment making him the weeping prophet. They would not listen, rejecting God’s word through Jeremiah who was faithful to His calling.
Israel and Judah fell short by their disobedience and were set aside. God formed a new vessel out of Gentile clay and made a new covenant. The potter has the perfect right to reject and judge the clay because it is His vessel, for His use. The same righteous standard is also applied to Gentile clay, it is in the nature of the potter. Our Gentile potter is God Himself, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We have now the grace to be in His hand and shaped for His use!
This letter to the Hebrew Christians is written to born again Jews who came into God’s Rest through the Gentile door. They were made out of Gentile new covenant clay. But God is still the righteous potter requiring clay meeting His standard; He provided Jesus so we could enter into God’s Rest through His living way in resurrection power with grace provided in God’s love. This is God’s standard in us.
Our writer of Hebrews brings this all back into our view. The characteristic Hebrew behavior of “falling away” is common not just to Israel; it is a human trait we recognize in personal behavior. “Falling away” means we are guilty, not being faithful to the relationship God established.
In the Old Testament, it meant being faithful to the law and the ordinances of the law. But these New Testament Christian Jews have accepted Jesus as their messiah King. They do not have a written New Testament but what they do have is persecution and rejection as a people because they are born again, redeemed believers accepting Jesus as their resurrected Messiah.
Herod’s Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Lacking any references to Temple activity, this Hebrew letter is likely written after the destruction of the Temple. The Christians may have taken to the hills on the west side of the Dead Sea where the Dead Sea Scrolls where discovered. Because of persecution, speculation suggests a migration of Christians out of Jerusalem into these caves. Some believers may have identified with sect believers in these Qumran caves. The believers were certainly being courted by explanations why King Jesus had not yet arrived to set up His earthly Kingdom. The argument inherent within our Hebrew letter is that Jesus, who created the world itself, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. This message of Jesus is a much higher order than angels whom they knew and believed. He is better than Moses; He is not only High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, which we see in the next chapters, He is God’s Son sent as our redeemer. This argument is against sect believers who settled in these caves.
Hebrews 4 directs our attention to God who is merciful; He desires His chosen ones return to Him, entering into His Rest. Those who do not accept His grace will not enter into His Rest. But the Potter is still forming clay vessels and Jesus is making intercession as High Priest for us, His people. “The promise of entering into His rest still stands.”
Chapter 4 is a plea to those who have not entered into God’s rest and to those “falling away,” to come back to the truth looking to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, being seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
In our churches are many tares in communion with the wheat. Many church members know the language of the Bible with a head knowledge of scripture without regeneration of God’s new birth in their heart and soul. There are believers who are Spiritual babes and there are pharisees who know the law but not the grace of our heavenly Father. The author of Hebrews elegantly makes the case for Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith for both those who know the Lord as well as those who are religious attendees.
We need to consume the heavenly grace our Father provides to grow in the fulness of Jesus’ resurrection power making Him visible in our mortal flesh. The point is, we need the righteousness that comes from God by faith to be seen by all. The Christian Hebrews needed it and so do we! Let us glorify our Lord God and be who we are intended to be!
The interesting thing is, we also are closing into another judgment season. Ill not make the case, we all know it is fast approaching. But this is the big one! This is the final judgment not just for a Judah and Israel, this is “Noah 2.” The whole earth is under judgment and it won’t be water covering the earth like Noah 1, it is beyond our ability to imagine, just read Revelation 4 to the end!
Recently a friend shared the urgency she felt to know the Word. Soon the wheat will be removed and the tares will know the reality Jeremiah and all of Judah experienced but to enter into this holocaust will literally be out of this world! They will see judgment this world has never known. It will be so horrific, it will be so ghastly, it will give horrific a new meaning! Huge numbers will come into Christ’s Kingdom during this seven year sin drenched judgment on planet earth. The Rest of God will become a sanctuary for new believers but the church will be gone. These believers will enter a new age!
We are now in the last era before the second coming of the King who will set up His earthly Kingdom. We seem to be on the glide path just before the final touch down. He will come in judgment as did Assyrian and Babylonian forces against Israel and Judah. This time it will be the King Himself and the persecution and devastation visiting the land of David will be incomparable to the havoc of Jerusalem’s destruction. The whole earth will reap this coming torment and wreckage. The season is here, the time is ripe. We need to turn to our Savior Lord while grace is still available to enter and grow into His Rest. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up!
Take time to consider Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in time of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
He utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come, behold the works of God,
How he has brought desolation on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
This Hebrew letter is very broad in scope, while at the same time, totally focused on the person of Jesus Christ. IT IS ABOUT HIM, appointed by God to enter into our suffering, to provide you and me a new and living way to enter into His Rest. It’s about replacing the Old Covenant sacrifice of law with a new and living grace. Its about life in His name! Its about love and forgiveness, righteousness and His Rest.
An eternal covenant does not mean we do away with the old principle of righteousness. This seeming paradox is very easy to misunderstand. What is being said about the law is also eternal.
Jesus did not do away with the law, He fulfills the law! Grace provides us with Christ’s resurrection power to overcome selfness in and thru Jesus Himself. Grace does not contradict the law; grace enables us to fulfill the law. It is about fulfilling within us the law; instead of using our own effort, we use grace. This is why it is all about Jesus; this is why we enter into His Rest! Rest is the law fulfilled and about being righteous.
Review the 6 Hebrews verses that prologue this brief dialogue. First, there is Hebrews 4:1, the door is still open for us to enter more fully into His grace. Second, Hebrews 2:18, Jesus entered into our human flesh so that He could bring grace into each one of our individual lives. Third, Hebrews 4:16, we are given absolute access to Him and His resurrection power to help in our meager circumstance. Fourth, Hebrews 8:10, God Himself has put within our own human heart His own righteousness and committed Himself to us, to be our own personal God! Fifth, Hebrews 10:14. Not only has God Himself birthed us by a new creation, He has set us apart, sanctified us eternally so that we are complete in Him. Sixth, Hebrews 13:20. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ has provided an eternal Shepherd who equips us eternally righteous glorifying Himself and the Father forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen!
Entering into God’s rest was and is a sanctuary. It is a place of protection and security as well as sustenance and everlasting love. This is our everlasting state, to be in Him and be occupied with His Business!
“And we know that the son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”