Entering Into God’s Rest

Entering Into God’s Rest

Psalm 95 is the great invi­ta­to­ry.  Many Chris­tians pray this prayer at the break of the day.  It invites us to praise the Lord, begin­ning with joy, praise, and thanks­giv­ing. At the end of the psalm, we see the sober truth; God’s anger against the unfaith­ful, and many do not enter into God’s rest.

Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joy­ful noise to the rock of our sal­va­tion! Let us come into his pres­ence with thanks­giv­ing; let us make a joy­ful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the moun­tains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

O come, let us wor­ship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Mak­er! For he is our God, and we are the peo­ple of his pas­ture, and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would lis­ten to his voice! Do not hard­en your hearts, as at Merib­ah, as on the day at Mas­sah in the wilder­ness, when your ances­tors test­ed me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that gen­er­a­tion and said, “They are a peo­ple whose hearts go astray,  and they do not regard my ways.” There­fore in my anger I swore,  “They shall not enter my rest.” ^{Psalm 95:1–11}

What is the Rest of the Lord?  Some see this as an illu­sion to the promised land.  But the Rest of the Lord is so much more. 

My Soul Shall Not Rest Until I Rest In You

Mon­i­ca was a devout Chris­t­ian and prayed every day for her son’s con­ver­sion.  St. Augus­tine, her son, was a play­boy in his younger years with a moth­er named Mon­i­ca.  At last, Augus­tine respond­ed to the grace of God.  He repent­ed of his sins, accept­ed God in his life, and count­ed all else as rub­bish.  The fol­low­ing state­ment of Augustine’s con­fes­sions express­es the pro­found truth. 

“You have made us for your­self, O Lord, and our hearts are rest­less until they rest in You.”    ^{[Saint Augus­tine 354 ‑430, Confessions]}

On the seventh day, the Lord rested

The cre­ation account record­ed in Gen­e­sis chap­ters 1–3 pro­vides insight into our ori­gins. As a bonus it shows us a pat­tern of work and rest.  One can see the progress of cre­ation mov­ing from the heav­ens and earth all the way to the cre­ation of mankind in his own image. It moves from “good” to “very good” to “per­fect”. 

The num­ber six is the num­ber for mankind as we were cre­at­ed on the sixth day.  Sev­en is the num­ber for divine per­fec­tion and the num­ber for the day of rest. God fol­lows all the steps from day one to day six, doing the work of the cre­ation before he enters into solemn rest on the sev­enth day. 

Day One:  The account of Cre­ation of Gen­e­sis shows God cre­at­ing the heav­ens, the earth light, and sep­a­rat­ing the same from the dark­ness. He saw that the light was good and God sep­a­rat­ed the light from the darkness.

Day Two: He forms the dry land and sep­a­rates from the water and the heav­ens above the earth.

Day Three: He adds plant-yield­ing seeds, veg­e­ta­tion, and trees bear­ing fruit and God saw that it was good.

Day Four: God sprin­kles stars and plan­ets in the heav­ens. Using stars for light­ing. We get the light of the Sun by day and the moon by night. Again this is good.

Day Five: God adds all man­ner of fish and aquat­ic life expand­ing on the seas.  And adds all mat­ter of birds to bridge the land and the heav­ens. Be fruit­ful and mul­ti­ply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds mul­ti­ply on the earth. Again this is good.

Day Six: This the day of the cre­ation of man and woman in God’s own image.  God declared it “very good”.

Day Sev­en: God rest­ed on the sev­enth day hav­ing com­plet­ed the work of cre­ation.  Rest is per­fec­tion as it is time with God where we let go of every­thing else. One could say that the sev­enth day is perfect.

^{[Adapt­ed from Gen­e­sis chap­ter 1–3]}

Sabbath Healings

Jesus worked many mir­a­cles ful­fill­ing the mes­sian­ic prophe­cies on the day of rest. For Jesus it was a day where he healed the lep­ers, gave sight to the blind, restored the par­a­lyt­ic, and raised the dead. 

Rest­ing in the Lord is about restor­ing us mind, body, and soul. Jesus had a rhythm of with­draw­ing to lone­ly places to pray. Jesus used the sto­ry of Martha and Mary to illus­trate the impor­tance of Rest in the Lord. Enter­ing into the rest of the Lord is the bet­ter por­tion.  It moves us beyond the prayer of words into a prayer of silent love. 

Martha, Martha, you are wor­ried and dis­tract­ed by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has cho­sen the bet­ter part, which will not be tak­en away from her. ^{Luke 10: 41–42}

Jesus teach­es about the King­dom of God and offers the gift of Peace.  The Promised Land, Rest in the Lord, King­dom of God, the Peace of Jesus, and Heav­en have one thing in com­mon. All are promised to those who repent and believe and are faith­ful in fol­low­ing God’s com­mand­ments.  Where­as the promised land was focused on the geopo­lit­i­cal realm of earth, the king­dom of God is about enter­ing a state of grace. All rep­re­sent a rad­i­cal promise for those who choose the path of God, who sep­a­rate them­selves from this world so as to attach them­selves to Christ and the Church.

In the Old Tes­ta­ment, the first Passover Lamb, pre­fig­ured Christ.    By Jesus’ blood we have the grace to enter into the King­dom of God, The Peace of Jesus Christ, and the Rest of the Lord. 

Complacency and Hardness of Heart

Many Chris­tians, like the Israelites, start well and end poor­ly.  The doc­trine of “eter­nal secu­ri­ty”, “once saved, always saved”, when mis­in­ter­pret­ed, can fos­ter a com­pla­cen­cy with a bad end.  The same can be said for Chris­tians of any denom­i­na­tion whose devo­tion ends at the doors of the church, or the end of their devo­tion­al on TV,  as they have allowed the cul­ture to cor­rupt their dai­ly habits and prac­tices. We are called to accept Jesus as Lord, be bap­tized and repent.  We are called to make God our first and only pri­or­i­ty the rest of our lives, day by day and moment by moment.

There were many fac­tors that blocked the Israelites from enter­ing the Promised Land. 

1. They were infect­ed by the pagan cul­ture and gave in to idol­a­try. The Israelites quar­reled with Moses over a lack of food and God pro­vid­ed Mana in the wilder­ness.  They quar­reled over the lack of water at Mas­sah and Merib­ah and God pro­vid­ed water from the rock.
2. They did not obey the com­mand­ments of God. Hard­ness of heart is the prin­ci­pal rea­son for not enter­ing the rest of the Lord.  It is the rea­son pharaoh resist­ed God and it is the rea­son Israelites resist­ed God.  And it is the rea­son many “so called” Chris­tians risk the fires of hell.
3. After wit­ness­ing many bless­ings, they allow their eyes and ears to be dulled, they allow their speech to be unguarded. 

Ezekiel, Jere­mi­ah, and Isa­iah describe hard­ness of heart.

“You dwell in the midst of a rebel­lious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not; for they are a rebel­lious house”.  ^{Ezekiel 12:1–3}

“Hear this, O fool­ish and sense­less peo­ple, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.  ^{Jere­mi­ah 5:21}

Make the heart of this peo­ple fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and under­stand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.  ^{Isa­iah 6:10}

A lost soul is one who has lost his sens­es.  This is what hard­ness of heart does. It blinds us to the truth, blocks our abil­i­ty to lis­ten to the truth, to smell that which is true, to touch that which is true, and to speak that which is true.

Enter­ing the rest of the Lord is not guar­an­teed, rather it requires par­tic­i­pa­tion on our part.

“Enter by the nar­row gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruc­tion, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is nar­row and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. ^{Matthew7:13–14}

Remember the Blessings God Has Done For Us or Perish

God deliv­ered Israel from slav­ery in Egypt by signs and won­ders.  Moses was God’s cho­sen instru­ment. The peo­ple of God saw the ten plagues vis­it­ed upon Egypt and the hard-heart­ed pharaoh. On the first Passover the peo­ple of Israel had God’s atten­tion and they were obe­di­ent mark­ing their hous­es by the blood of an unblem­ished lamb.

 The blood shall be a sign for you on the hous­es where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.  ^{Exo­dus 12:13}

After Pharaoh released the peo­ple of Israel, they wit­nessed anoth­er mir­a­cle as the waters of the Nile part­ed so that the peo­ple of Israel could pass over dry land.   Mean­while the forces of their ene­my were destroyed by the engulf­ing waters.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divid­ed. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters form­ing a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyp­tians pur­sued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s hors­es, char­i­ots, and char­i­ot dri­vers.   ^{Exo­dus 14:21–23}

Hav­ing expe­ri­enced deliv­er­ance, the peo­ple of Israel mur­mured against Moses because they had no food. God mirac­u­lous­ly pro­vid­ed quail and mana (bread from heaven).

“When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morn­ing, because the Lord has heard the com­plain­ing that you utter against him—what are we? Your com­plain­ing is not against us but against the Lord.”   ^{Exo­dus 16:8}

Again, the peo­ple of Israel mur­mured because they had no water. 

Moses and Aaron gath­ered the assem­bly togeth­er before the rock, and he said to them, “Lis­ten, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lift­ed up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abun­dant­ly, and the con­gre­ga­tion and their live­stock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holi­ness before the eyes of the Israelites, there­fore you shall not bring this assem­bly into the land that I have giv­en them.” These are the waters of Merib­ah, where the peo­ple of Israel quar­reled with the Lord, and by which he showed his holi­ness. ^{Num­bers 20:10–13}

Finishing Well

It is clear that these Israelites start­ed well.  They came to believe in God the deliv­er­er, hav­ing seen the signs and won­ders of God. But only a rem­nant would enter into the promised land.  Why would so many peo­ple begin so well and end so poor­ly.  Of the peo­ple who were set free from Egypt only Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land.  Not even Moses was per­mit­ted to enter the promise land because of his dis­obe­di­ence at the waters of Meribah. 

If God can dis­qual­i­fy the mega pas­tor Moses from enter­ing the promised land, then we should be care­ful when we con­sid­er how God meets out judgement. 

The promised land was a place flow­ing with milk and hon­ey, a place with live­stock and flow­ers, an abun­dance of veg­eta­bles and fruit. The promised land is the place where God pro­vides for his peo­ple.  It was the inher­i­tance of faith­ful rem­nant who expe­ri­enced God’s mighty hand deliv­er­ing them from every evil, pro­vid­ing for their every need and pro­tect­ing them from all adversaries.

Moses sent spies to recon­noi­ter the promised land.

The Lord said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giv­ing to the Israelites; from each of their ances­tral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilder­ness of Paran, accord­ing to the com­mand of the Lord, all of them lead­ing men among the Israelites. ^{Num­bers 13:1–3}

They came back with their report. Ten of the orig­i­nal twelve gave into fear and anx­i­ety to the point where they for­got the signs and won­ders of God.

And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and hon­ey, and this is its fruit.  Yet the peo­ple who live in the land are strong, and the towns are for­ti­fied and very large; and besides, we saw the descen­dants of Anak there. ^{Num­bers 13:27–28}

Joshua and Caleb Learn the Lessons and Enters Into God’s Rest

Only Caleb came back with the right per­spec­tive. The land is flow­ing with hon­ey and what’s more with God we can take the land. To Joshua and Caleb’s way of think­ing, no mat­ter what giants stand in our path, we can take the land, not by our own pow­er, but by the mighty hand of God.

Caleb qui­et­ed the peo­ple before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occu­py it, for we are well able to over­come it.”  ^{Num­bers 13:30}

But the crowd lis­tened to the ten who gave the evil report and cried out against God and Moses, yield­ing to their great­est fears while for­get­ting all that God had done on their behalf.

God pro­vid­ed rules of war­fare for tak­ing the land.

 When you go out to war against your ene­mies, and see hors­es and char­i­ots, an army larg­er than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Before you engage in bat­tle, the priest shall come for­ward and speak to the troops,  and shall say to them: “Hear, O Israel! Today you are draw­ing near to do bat­tle against your ene­mies. Do not lose heart, or be afraid, or pan­ic, or be in dread of them;  for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you against your ene­mies, to give you vic­to­ry. ^{Deuteron­o­my 20:1–4}

Joshua was now poised to fit the bat­tle of Jeri­cho.  This time learn­ing is les­son from expe­ri­ence, he sent only two spies to recon­noi­ter the land.

The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have hand­ed Jeri­cho over to you, along with its king and sol­diers.  You shall march around the city, all the war­riors cir­cling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days,  with sev­en priests bear­ing sev­en trum­pets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the sev­enth day you shall march around the city sev­en times, the priests blow­ing the trum­pets.  When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trum­pet, then all the peo­ple shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the peo­ple shall charge straight ahead.”  ^{Joshua 6:2–5}

God gave Joshua his plan for beat­ing an unbeat­able ene­my.  For six days they are to march, with the ark of the covenant and the priests and on the sev­enth day march sev­en times, blow the trum­pet and with a great shout the walls will fall down.

On the sev­enth day they rose ear­ly, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same man­ner sev­en times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city sev­en times.  And at the sev­enth time, when the priests had blown the trum­pets, Joshua said to the peo­ple, “Shout! For the Lord has giv­en you the city. Joshua 6:15–16

 So the peo­ple shout­ed, and the trum­pets were blown. As soon as the peo­ple heard the sound of the trum­pets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the peo­ple charged straight ahead into the city and cap­tured it. Joshua 6:20

Takeaways

1. While many began the jour­ney of the great exo­dus only a few would enter the promised land.
2. Hard­ness of heart is the block­er that pre­vent­ed Pharaoh from giv­ing in to God’s plan and it was the block­er that pre­vent­ed many Israelites from enter­ing the promised land.
3. We can­not assume we will be saved.  Rather we are encour­aged to learn the les­son we we can over­come every obsta­cle and enter into God’s rest.