We ended chapter three by discussing that the author of Hebrews is teaching (or trying to teach) the Jewish believers in Jerusalem about the dangers of spiritually following in the physical footsteps of Israel under Moses. That generation didn’t believe God. They had been delivered from Egypt (from physical and spiritual bondage). However, they didn’t trust that God could continue delivering them. They didn’t believe he could sustain them or defeat the giants in the land of Canaan. They wanted to go back to Egypt.

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However, as we said, God killed them rather than allow them to go back to bondage. Once we have been redeemed, we can never return to the same place of bondage. We can definitely sin and struggle, but we are never again slaves without a means of escape. Over the next few chapters, he is going to extend these analogies of the nation of Israel and the believers in Jerusalem – from Joshua in ch. 4 to Aaron in ch. 5. The spiritual application of the very real stories these people would have been so familiar with is rich. I’m sure as the people were walking through those moments, especially Moses with some of the craziness he had to deal with, didn’t know their stories would be used like this. However, God knew. He redeemed even the bad to help a group of believers in 68ish AD grow and make wise choices. Unlike Israel in the OT, this group of believers believed, and they obeyed.

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Fear – We associate this word with negative emotions. Especially in macho western culture, we tend to try and conquer fear or at least not show fear. However, this word has the idea of awe/reverence tied up with the actual fear and trembling. This is a command to be in holy reverence of our Savior. God is not a disposable resource waiting to be called at our convenience. He has given instructions and made demands on our time/hearts. He is God – not us. Yes, as we are going to discuss later this chapter, we can approach him boldly. However, we do not approach him demanding our rights and our way. We approach him in awe of his character and in an attitude of humble surrender. It is no mistake that almost every time someone encounters Christ in the OT or the full revelation of his glory in the New, they fall on their faces. Isaiah’s comment, of “Woe is me” is appropriate. However, in the New, with our understanding of forgiveness, we can also claim the promises that we are blessed and loved – not by our own merits, but by his grace and provision.

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Promise – This is a pledge – especially associated with a divine pledge. God has offered us rest – it is still there for us to experience. However, it is important that we understand he has offered it all throughout Scripture. Every time he made a promise to do something, it was an invitation for the people to rest while he accomplished his plan. When he told Gideon to take 300 men and take on an army of thousands – that was an invitation for it to not be about what Gideon or those 300 men could do, but what God could accomplish. When he told Abraham he would provide him a son – that was an invitation for Abraham to rest – to obey yes, but not to make the task happen on their own. When he told Joshua to march around the walls and they would fall down, that was an invitation for them to see God work and experience his rest. When Elijah prayed to God and trusted that he would send fire – that was an invitation for Elijah to rest while God worked through him. The list could go on, David and Goliath, Hezekiah and the Assyrian army, Elisha and the army of the Lord…

We are blessed because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables us to rest in ways that the OT believers might not have been able to experience. However, I think we do the HS (and OT believers) a disservice if we think that rest and grace are entirely NT concepts. I believe we can define rest as:

1. Trust that he will keep his promises

2. Trust that his plans and timing are best

3. An attitude of open-handed surrender to whatever he has for us

4. Walking in step with the Spirit wherever he leads us – even through spiritual battles

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Note also that this is His Rest. This is not our rest or a repose of our own design. He gets to dictate the terms. I doubt that an outside observer would think that Paul’s life was restful. However, he was probably the most content person on the planet (Phil. 4:11-13). Jesus was constantly bombarded with needy people – yet he rested perfectly (This is the prayer in the garden – “Nevertheless, not my will” – Luke 22:42). It isn’t about an activity level, it is about where our abode is located (this word, especially if you trace it down to the root, has the idea of repose, our abode, to settle, to stop our own efforts). Stop our own self-effort to solve our problems and surrender to what he has for us.

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Come short – this is just the idea that we don’t rest. We come short of what we are offered. Everything that is not God’s rest is less than what he intended for us. The world tries to get us to be busier and do more to prove we are successful. On a personal level, we want to negotiate rest on our own terms. However, this is his rest – don’t settle for the world’s definition of rest or just what we want. He only gives grace for his rest so that he can do the work he has called us to, through us. If we are off on our own agenda, no matter how wonderful, we will not rest because we will not be empowered by him. That might actually be a good barometer of ministry effectiveness – are we resting or are we pushing things through in our own efforts? These Jerusalem believers wanted to rest. They wanted to avoid persecution (seems like a good goal). They wanted rest from their trials. The children of Israel didn’t want to face battles. They wanted to rest. However, God was using the very thing they were going through to make them leave their comfort zone. He wanted them to abandon their current abode to take up residence in him – to trust that his plan was best. He wanted them to leave Jerusalem and they never would have done so if things had not become too uncomfortable to remain. Sometimes our boats have to get uncomfortable enough that the crashing waves look more appealing.

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V. 2 – Good news – the gospel (both of salvation and sanctification) is the idea here. We sometimes think of the Gospel as a NT concept. However, Revelation 14:6 calls it the “eternal gospel.” It started back in Genesis 3:15 and has been proclaimed in every generation. The truth regarding the path to salvation, the good news, has not changed. The method of delivery is still the inspired words of God. OT believers occasionally heard them directly via audible voice. We have them written down in Scripture, but the source and authority have not changed over the years. God’s plan for salvation has not changed. I would also argue that (to a certain extent) God’s plan for sanctification has also not changed. We now have the indwelling Holy Spirit which should make it easier for us to be sanctified. However, even in the OT, sanctification (what I would define as our behavior being conformed to God’s will) was still about surrender and obedience to whatever God revealed. Just because the Holy Spirit didn’t permanently indwell them doesn’t mean that sanctification wasn’t happening. The OT Israelites didn’t benefit from what they heard because they didn’t believe that God would do what he promised.

 

They had not placed their faith in the proper object. They were relying on their own understanding and strength. There was no way they could defeat giants or tear down wall on their own – obviously. Yet God could. Their belief/trust (faith) was placed in themselves instead of the one who made the promise. This reminds me of the verse where it says that Abraham “believed” God and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6, Romans 4:3, Gal. 3:6, and Hebrews 11:8). This principle of belief/trust/placing our faith in something/someone is addressed frequently in Scripture. I think you could even argue that unbelief or pride are the root causes of all other sins and the original sins. Pride was Lucifer’s and unbelief was Adam and Eve’s.

The word “faith” here is the word pistis in Greek. This is the root word of the one used in Rom. 4:3, and Gal. 3:6 when it says that Abraham “believed” = pisteuo. While Abraham’s belief was not perfect, it did result in fruit and ultimately in obedience (conformation/sanctification). He heard the call and obeyed. The OT Israelites heard the call and consistently refused to obey God’s commands/believe his promises. The verse specifically says that they listened or heard. There was no excuse. They received the message, but they did not obey. It was a deliberate choice.

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V. 3 – For we (collective saints – not a mixed audience) who have believed (pisteuo) – we get to enter this rest. Unlike the original generation that came out of Egypt and did not get to enter the promised land we can still experience God’s rest – if we trust his promises and surrender. If we place our faith in the proper object, then we can fully experience God’s blessings. We may experience man’s wrath (what the Jerusalem Christians were trying to avoid). However, that is temporary. We can actually rest in the midst of trials. I want us to think about this, when we are saved and receive our new nature – our new nature is to rest. Jesus did nothing of himself (John 5:19) yet there were constant demands on his time. He was the most in demand person of his generation and yet he rested. As he walked hundreds of miles, healed sick people, dealt with the Pharisees, he claimed that in all of that – he was not the one working – he was at rest. If his nature is to rest, and that is the nature that now lives in us, then why is it so hard to do? I would argue that one, it is a lie of the enemy that rest is not what is best for us. It is the world that encourages us to rush everywhere. The power of sin whispers that we can still control the outcome if we work hard enough. It is even the church that sometimes has the attitude that you get saved and go to “work” for God to prove you are thankful for his work on your behalf. Stop and really think about our attitude towards rest. Is there trust? Is there openness or are we clinging to our way? Is there obedience or is there fretting? It is a constant process. It is sometimes asking that our Ishmael’s (self-efforts to achieve God’s plans) can live before God – and then to surrender to the fact that God has something different and better.

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Works were finished – Interestingly, Jewish Rabis taught that since there was no evening mentioned in Genesis 2:1-2, it is indicative of God continuing to rest. His rest is eternal. The one who is at rest, lives in us. We cannot live the Christian life on our own. Only the one who has ceased from his work and is eternally never in need of doing anything can live his life through us. God’s work – be it creation, redemption…it is finished. He doesn’t do anything part way. While he certainly sustains and even directly intervenes at times, his originary work was completed in Genesis. Too, there is nothing new that he had not already planned for or introduced. Redemption’s plan was introduced at the beginning (I think that is why you hear God say, let us make man in our own image – there was a collective acknowledgement of the cost of what they were getting ready to do. Nothing else required a consultation before creation). Everything was already in motion.

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V. 4 – For he has somewhere spoken – we talked about this several weeks ago. It is a rhetorical style/argument meant to reinforce the common knowledge of this passage. For those who may not know, you could still probably guess, it is from Genesis 2:2. Even people who were bad at Torah school and couldn’t manage to memorize the first 5 books of the Bible should have known this one 😊

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V. 5 – He constantly goes back to this verse. These people were desperate for rest. That was their whole objective – avoid persecution, find peace instead of constant threats around every corner. The author is repeating himself so frequently because he wants them to understand that rest is only found in Christ. The children of Israel chose not to believe. They chose to hear and not obey. They missed the full rest that he intended for them. They didn’t go into the promised land. Self-effort and man’s manipulations will not accomplish the rest they desire – the rest that God has offered since the end of creation.  

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We cannot enter it on our terms. In case you were still wondering – they didn’t enter his rest. They rebelled and God had a hard line on what he would allow them to do/where they could go.

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V. 6 – Some have not yet entered it. For some it is still outstanding, but it is available. Those who did not enter, failed to do so because of disobedience. That is ultimately what a lack of faith/trust is. We do not believe God will keep his promises, so we decide to go our own way and make our own plans. We can sometimes achieve temporary success, but we can never experience true abiding rest (Sabbath rest). Remember, these OT Israelites had been delivered from Egypt (salvation). However, they wandered around the wilderness for years because they didn’t believe God. They didn’t obey what he commanded them to do.

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V. 7 – He has appointed today – undelayed obedience. I struggle with this one. I want to obey, but on my own terms and timeline. I’ll stop worrying, but not now. I’ll stop doing “x,” but not now. He calls for immediate change and surrender. So today – think about that generation. They refused to go to the Promised Land. Moses gave specific instructions – Numbers 13:17-20. They came back and shared more than what Moses asked for, 13:27-29. They offered their own opinions on the matter – failing to trust God. 30-33, not only did they not trust God, but they influenced others to not believe.

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There was a counter testimony – 14:5-9. Joshua and Caleb begged the people to believe and trust. God wanted to destroy the nation – v. 12. He made Moses an offer that would be difficult to refuse. However, Moses was more concerned about God’s glory than his own convenience. The judgment – v. 28-33. First judgment was against those who brought the report – v. 37. When the people heard the judgment, when they realized, they were going to have to wander around the desert waiting for thousands of people to die, they decided to try on their own – v. 40. They were ready to obey, not today, but tomorrow. They went up, without leadership or blessing and died – v. 43-45. Now, God is gracious and merciful (Num. 14:8-19). The consequences of not obeying “today” are not always so clear and obvious. But still, the call is for immediate obedience

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V 8 – So he’s been talking about Moses and the original generation that came out of Egypt. Now, he is going to address the generation that followed that were led by Joshua. He has already established that the generation under Moses did not experience rest. They didn’t enter the promised land. However, this verse teaches that while the generation under Joshua experienced more rest than those under Moses, there was still more that remained for the taking. However, we know they went into the Promised Land and received the promises of God. They conquered the land and their enemies, so what is the rest that they failed to experience?

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V. 9 – He introduces the concept of “Sabbath Rest” that neither generation of OT Israelites experienced. What is Sabbath Rest? He’s going to tell us 😊          

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V 10 – Whoever has entered God’s rest – When we trust him, when we believe him for his promises, we stop fretting and instead rest in the assurance that he will do what he said, then we stop doing our own work on our own agenda, on our own time. We stop trying to be the origin point of creation or change. We take off the “creator” hat (that doesn’t belong to us anyway) and instead we stop striving. Again, the life of the Son that is in us did nothing of his own volition. He allowed the Father to work through him (John 5:19). That is the life and power that now resides in us. At least he is capable of creation and change – we are not. It reminds me of the picture of the little kid who is “driving” with his parent. They may be straining for the gas or holding tight to the wheel, but they are not in charge. They have a false sense or even stress of control and sovereignty. Yet God is still in charge. Our Heavenly Father longs to give us rest, but we must be willing to surrender.

However, beyond the stages of surrender and trust, I want us to also see this paralleled in the realm of spiritual maturity and spiritual warfare.

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Turn to 1 John 2:12-14. These are some of my favorite verses on the topic of spiritual maturity and warfare.

He starts by talking about little children. They are forgiven and they know the Father – what beautiful truths! We need to know we have been set free. We need to know we are no longer under bondage. We are no longer slaves to sin. However, are kids always happy joyful creatures that bring nothing but sunshine to our lives? No, 😊 Notice also hat he doesn’t say they know they are forgiven. Rather, he is writing because this is their new state. It’s almost like he is writing them because they need to know. Whether they feel forgiven and loved or regardless of if they know the full extent of their deliverance – he is going to speak truth to them because of who they are in Christ.

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You could argue that this is a picture of immature believers, but it is also a picture of the first generation that came out of Egypt. They were delivered. However, they whined and fussed. They didn’t want to move on to warfare. They didn’t embrace the promises of God as if they were true. They refused to progress. They were happy knowing they were free (although they sometimes didn’t act that way). We have a whole lot of believers who are thankful they are forgiven and have no interest or understanding of how to move beyond that phase. We should never lose sight of that amazing truth, but we shouldn’t stay there at that baseline intimacy level. It does say they know the Father.

 

This is such a beautiful thought. They may not know all the facts about God. They may not have a deep abiding relationship with him yet, but they know they are loved. There is such potential here for spiritual growth and maturity if they will be obedient. I think some Jerusalem believers found themselves in this boat. They knew the Father. They knew him as Abba, they knew of his love, but not necessarily a full revelation of his character and plans for their maturity. Concepts of holiness and sovereignty were maybe lagging a little. In the next chapter, the author of Hebrews is getting ready to rebuke them for not moving on to spiritual maturity. It is wonderful to know the Father.  I would argue it is essential for a full understanding of God’s eternal plan. However, that can’t be the only picture we have of him. That is where so much of the world is today. They want a benevolent God who is indulgent of their whims/desires. They want a father without accountability. That isn’t a bad place to start, but we cannot stay at that knowledge level and expect to mature

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The next group we’re going to discuss are the young men. They have overcome the evil one and they are strong – and the Word abides in them. This is a picture of spiritual warfare. This is the generation under Joshua (sometimes called Canaan rest). They experienced deliverance from their enemies. We don’t defeat the evil one and temptation by passively surrendering to every thought that invades our mind. Ironically, in order to rest, we actually sometimes have to fight. We have to surrender to the life of Christ that will fight on our behalf. Those under Joshua’s leadership were fighting. However, it is important to understand a disclaimer here – they were fighting, but all they were actually doing was claiming what was already theirs. I think this is such an essential truth related to spiritual maturity and rest. We are not fighting against the forces of darkness in our own strength. We are not entering the battle on our own. We will only rest during spiritual warfare if we understand the victory is already ours.

 

Jesus has given us the victory. His death and resurrection have transformed the truth of who we are and where we are. We have been translated into the kingdom of his dear Son (Col. 1:13-14). In the present, he has seated us in heavenly places (Eph. 2:5-6). When was Christ made alive? When were we made alive – tied to salvation. Raised us up with him and seated – a done deal. Ye are – a second person, plural present – ye are, you belong to – not will be (the will be comes shortly in the ages to come), but right now we are with him. I don’t know about you, but I do not live in that truth on a daily basis. In the presence of God, in his sufficiency and glory, do you think we would be running around saying, “but I?” I must do these things, I must fix these things, I must create – no, he is with us, we must rest.

 

We must surrender. We must make choices (that sometimes feel like battle) to take our thoughts captive and to be obedient – but it should always be moving forward in confident anticipation of victory because we are following where he has called us. We are simply claiming the truth, the proverbial land, the victory we have already been given. If that is speaking truth to our fear and anxiety as it was for these Hebrew believers or speaking truth to temptation. We can only do this if we are saturated in his Word – in his truth. It is going to take study and time. It is not a light glossing over of Scripture. It is digging through challenging doctrine so we know how to use truth. It is understanding the various aspects of God’s character so that we aren’t surprised when hard things happen. It is finding our source of encouragement and joy in those pages. Know his revealed word and the truth of who we are presently (not one day in the future when we finally get to heaven) leads us to the final phase which is tied to Sabbath rest.

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Fathers – know him who is from the beginning. This is the only group that has the same statement is repeated twice. There is nothing else to say. They know, understand, perceive, grasp, can speak to, the one who is eternal. The one who is the principal, the power, the first, he one who was before all things and began all other things, the one who rules. They have arrived at fellowship. They are resting in the throne room. They are believing God’s promises. It isn’t a matter of their lives being easy. John, who wrote this, went through tremendous persecution. While being boiled in oil or abandoned on a snake infested island, I don’t think he felt much like he was seated in heavenly places. However, he was so intimately aware of his need for the Christ life. Those who arrive at spiritual maturity do so because they understand their need for Christ and surrender to whatever he wants from and for them. They recognize their complete insufficiency. They stop trying to fill in the gaps because they will never be able to compare to the one who is eternal. Can you imagine trying to substitute our wisdom for his? This is Sabbath rest – this is spiritual maturity and fellowship with our brother, father, leader, the one who has given us and continues to give us the victory.

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And just to be encouraging here for a moment, spiritual maturity is not an arrival – I am now a father situation. Rather, it is a journey of conformation to his will. It is a process of choosing to surrender. It is a choice to acknowledge that I am dead to that sin – no matter how alive it feels – and that I can walk in the Spirit – that the Spirit of Christ in me actually wants to walk in obedience. We don’t necessarily arrive at spiritual maturity and then check out – no, it is always a process of growing, knowing him better, loving him more. The revelations of God are unending. There will always be something new to understand. There may be a new sin or temptation that we have to surrender to Christ. There may be a new enemy to defeat. When you’re 20 and single you ‘re not necessarily fighting the spiritual battle over trusting God with your children. That is something that comes along later. However, if we want to experience rest, we need to get to know God on a deep level that has an understanding that he alone is eternal, sovereign, and wise. We are not in control – and because of that we have a choice. We can fret and stress for no reason other than a sense of trying to feel we are in control or we can worship and let God work.

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