Hebrews 4:4-11
"There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the children of God."
God's sabbath-rest is about more than relieving exhaustion. We rest because we're tired. Why did God rest? Was He tired after creating the universe?
I certainly hope not!
Back in Genesis, it says that God created stuff each day, and that He looked at His work and said that it was good. On the sixth day (God worked 6 days a week, doncha know), God created mankind and He said his work was very good. On the seventh day, He rested--and why? In Genesis 2:2-3, it tells us: "By the seventh day God had finished all the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." God rested because He was finished with His work!
It's a good reason to rest, isn't it? Maybe if He'd been a little slower we'd have to work an extra day before our weekend, yes?
And so God's sabbath-rest is not about getting a break from work--it's about God finishing His work. When we choose to celebrate the sabbath in our lives, we're not celebrating being worn out after a hard week--are we? No! We're celebrating the work that God accomplished when He created the world.
Look at the quote from Psalm 95: "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." David is talking about worshiping God--in verse 6, he writes: "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Then he writes his exhortation, quoted in Hebrews, and then goes on to recount the wandering in the wilderness and concludes in verse 11 with: "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter My rest.' "
If I said to you, "Let's worship God. Don't harden your heart as our fathers did, when God said, Because of their disobedience, they're never going to enter My rest," what would you get out of my statement?
The author of Hebrews concludes that the sabbath-rest is not something that is past--that the sabbath-rest is something that is ongoing, that children of God continue to gain or to lose, even today. "For if Joshua had given them rest," he writes in verse 8, "God would not have spoken about another day." He continues: "There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. " (v. 9-10)
Notice that when the people of God keep this rest, they're doing it to become more like God: "just as God did from His." The sabbath-keeper is joining in God's activity (we might say following His example) to honor Him. In doing the same thing that God did, the child of God gets to be more like God.
Imagine a father at his workbench. The father works with his tools while his child looks on. When the father finishes with the tool, what does his child do? Doesn't the son or daughter try to grab the tool so that he can do the same thing his or her father was doing? Doesn't the child try to do the same things that his father does?
That's what we're like, as children of God--or rather, that's what we should be like. We try to do the things that our Father does, to be the way our Father is. We try to become like Him. And why? It's not because we admire Him or love Him or adore Him--and it is all those things. It's because He's our father, and we want to be just like Him!
Now look at verse 11. Not content to follow his point to conclusion, the author of Hebrews has to go on and to show us what his message means for our lives. Look! "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following in their example of disobedience."
Draw whatever you need to out of this verse, but whatever else you find, draw this: we need to strive to be like God. It's what this verse is all about. We need to yearn to become like God--and what negative example does the author present? The people in the wilderness that didn't believe God.
What's the "example of disobedience" the author talks about in verse 11? Isn't it the same example he's been talking about all along? In verse 2, he said "...the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith." In 3, he says: "Now we who have believed enter that rest..." The quote in verse 7 is "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." The context of the quote in Psalm 95 is worshipping God!
And so, the author of Hebrews exhorts us: "Do not follow their example! Do not give up your faith! Believe God! Worship Him as God! Put your trust in God, and He will show you His rest!"
We are not those that refuse to believe in God's promise, are we? We are not those that grumble and complain that life in the world was so much better than life with God. We may have doubts sometimes, and we often have fears, and we sometimes fail in our faith. But we do love God, and we do strive for the rest God promises, and we do cry out, like the father of the demon-possessed cried to Jesus: "I do believe, Lord! Help me in my unbelief!"
And He is faithful.
Worship Him.
God's sabbath-rest is about more than relieving exhaustion. We rest because we're tired. Why did God rest? Was He tired after creating the universe?
I certainly hope not!
Back in Genesis, it says that God created stuff each day, and that He looked at His work and said that it was good. On the sixth day (God worked 6 days a week, doncha know), God created mankind and He said his work was very good. On the seventh day, He rested--and why? In Genesis 2:2-3, it tells us: "By the seventh day God had finished all the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." God rested because He was finished with His work!
It's a good reason to rest, isn't it? Maybe if He'd been a little slower we'd have to work an extra day before our weekend, yes?
And so God's sabbath-rest is not about getting a break from work--it's about God finishing His work. When we choose to celebrate the sabbath in our lives, we're not celebrating being worn out after a hard week--are we? No! We're celebrating the work that God accomplished when He created the world.
Look at the quote from Psalm 95: "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." David is talking about worshiping God--in verse 6, he writes: "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Then he writes his exhortation, quoted in Hebrews, and then goes on to recount the wandering in the wilderness and concludes in verse 11 with: "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter My rest.' "
If I said to you, "Let's worship God. Don't harden your heart as our fathers did, when God said, Because of their disobedience, they're never going to enter My rest," what would you get out of my statement?
The author of Hebrews concludes that the sabbath-rest is not something that is past--that the sabbath-rest is something that is ongoing, that children of God continue to gain or to lose, even today. "For if Joshua had given them rest," he writes in verse 8, "God would not have spoken about another day." He continues: "There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. " (v. 9-10)
Notice that when the people of God keep this rest, they're doing it to become more like God: "just as God did from His." The sabbath-keeper is joining in God's activity (we might say following His example) to honor Him. In doing the same thing that God did, the child of God gets to be more like God.
Imagine a father at his workbench. The father works with his tools while his child looks on. When the father finishes with the tool, what does his child do? Doesn't the son or daughter try to grab the tool so that he can do the same thing his or her father was doing? Doesn't the child try to do the same things that his father does?
That's what we're like, as children of God--or rather, that's what we should be like. We try to do the things that our Father does, to be the way our Father is. We try to become like Him. And why? It's not because we admire Him or love Him or adore Him--and it is all those things. It's because He's our father, and we want to be just like Him!
Now look at verse 11. Not content to follow his point to conclusion, the author of Hebrews has to go on and to show us what his message means for our lives. Look! "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following in their example of disobedience."
Draw whatever you need to out of this verse, but whatever else you find, draw this: we need to strive to be like God. It's what this verse is all about. We need to yearn to become like God--and what negative example does the author present? The people in the wilderness that didn't believe God.
What's the "example of disobedience" the author talks about in verse 11? Isn't it the same example he's been talking about all along? In verse 2, he said "...the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith." In 3, he says: "Now we who have believed enter that rest..." The quote in verse 7 is "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." The context of the quote in Psalm 95 is worshipping God!
And so, the author of Hebrews exhorts us: "Do not follow their example! Do not give up your faith! Believe God! Worship Him as God! Put your trust in God, and He will show you His rest!"
We are not those that refuse to believe in God's promise, are we? We are not those that grumble and complain that life in the world was so much better than life with God. We may have doubts sometimes, and we often have fears, and we sometimes fail in our faith. But we do love God, and we do strive for the rest God promises, and we do cry out, like the father of the demon-possessed cried to Jesus: "I do believe, Lord! Help me in my unbelief!"
And He is faithful.
Worship Him.
posted by ionathas78 at 10:37 AM
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