Hebrews 4: 1-13 The Promised Rest
Memory Verse Hebrews 4:1
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
This is a continuation of yesterday’s study. We learnt that Jesus is greater than Moses and we were warned against hardening our hearts and we also saw the consequences of unbelief and rebellion. Today, we will study about the promise of God’s rest. As we study this book of Hebrews may God grant us the grace to continually fix our thoughts on Jesus so that we may abide in his rest forever. Amen
Rest doesn't mean a life of inactivity for the people of God. It is something more meaningful and hopeful. The rest of satisfaction and pleasure with our lives or work as God did after creation.
We will be looking at the promise of God’s rest and the three types of rest in our passage.
· Sabbath-day/Creation Rest
· Promised Land/Canaan Rest
· Promised/Eternal Rest
Sabbath-day Rest
We know from the creation story in Genesis Chapter 1&2 that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and when he saw that everything was good, he rested on the seventh day. (Genesis 2:1-3).
God intention for man was to have a glorious relationship with him without work or labour. Man was given dominion over the garden. While Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he didn't do any labour, but Adam’s disobedience soon ended that rest. He was driven from the Garden and he began to labour for his upkeep.
Adam deprived us from getting that Sabbath rest but Jesus came to offer the Sabbath Rest to all believers. (Matthew 11:28) “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest.” Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and anyone who comes to him will receive that rest.
Promised Land Rest
After the fall of man, he began to labour and toil moving from one place to another without a permanent resting place. When God called Abraham (Genesis 12), He told Abraham to leave his kindred to a land that he (God) will show him and that through his offsprings a nation will be born. The nation Israel was born through the sons of Jacob (Israel). During the great famine the Israelites settled in Egypt (Genesis 46&47). God appeared to Israel and promised to make him a great nation in Egypt but God told him that wasn’t the Promised Land.
Although the Israelites flourished in Egypt, that wasn’t the rest God promised them. He led them through Moses out of Egypt (Gen 13:17-22) and through Joshua they were able to enter into the Promised Land Rest.
Promised/Eternal Rest
Christians have assurance of the Promised Rest. Hebrews 4:1 tells us that the Promised Rest still exist and we should be careful not to fall short of it, Rev 14:13 also talks about the Promised Rest. From Yesterday’s passage we saw that Unbelief and Rebellion can hinder us from entering God’s rest.
God Promised to bring the Israelites to the Promised Land but when they saw their enemies they doubted God, they were looking at the size of their enemies and problems instead of trusting God. Their lack of Faith made them rebel against God.
You may say “I am not like the wilderness generation, I have accepted Jesus and my heart isn’t hardened” but do you really trust him when you are faced with a challenging situation? We sometimes doubt God. I am guilty of this. There have been times in my life I focused more on my problems instead of focusing on the creator of the whole world.
It is very important to combine faith with the word of God. The foundation of our Christianity is Faith and the foundation of our Faith is God.
Combining the word of God with faith is important. I like to do combinations a lot; I like to match my shoes to my clothes or my handbags. So, when I buy a purple pair of shoes, I will immediately start looking for a purple top or bag to go with it or when we eat food, we need water to make it digest properly.
Likewise when we hear the word of God, we should combine it with a matching item and that item is Faith. We take in faith to allow the word of God digest in us. Hebrews 11:1 gives us a definition of faith.
Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt but couldn’t lead them into the Promised Land; Joshua led them into the Promised Land but couldn’t give them rest. Now that we have an open invitation (Matthew 11:28), let us do our best possible to ensure we enter into his rest. We shouldn’t make the same mistake the wilderness Israelites made. We are even blessed to have the gospel being preached everywhere and we have access to the bible. Vs. 12-13 identify the importance of the word of God in the life of a believer. The word of God is able to penetrate our harden hearts and make it soft. The bible should be a mirror to check our lives. We have a lot of good examples to emulate in the bible.
Faith in Jesus, our high priest, allows us to enter God’s rest. Accept Jesus today, make no delay. Vs7 God has set a day calling it Today, not Tomorrow. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.
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