Hebrews Chapter Four, Resting Or Working

 

We are told that God speaks of another day even after the settlement of Canaan’s conquest. This appeal to enter God’s rest ironically (or providentially) came at the time of Israel’s zenith when David reigned over the kingdom.

This golden era lasted for 80 years between David and his son, Solomon when the Jews were most truly at peace, being under a godly leader that compelled the people to pursue God not in pretense, but in truth. Both men set a good example in their lives by relying on God to provide for them, trusting not in their own strength or wisdom, but in God’s providential care of His people. As the fervor for true worship waxed hot in Israel under godly kings, so did God’s blessing and protection abound. But when the godless took the throne the people quickly turned out of the way and apostasy on their part gave way to malediction on God’s part. No one man, king, priest or otherwise, can have faith on another’s behalf. The people who were zealous for the Lord in Solomon’s day rebelled and apostatized in Rehoboam’s time, going so far as to worship the golden calves that Jeroboam crafted to replace Yahweh’s worship in Jerusalem.

 

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, David penned these words in a time of prosperity, when Israel was really becoming the glory of the nations surrounding her. Yet God commends His people to enter His rest. In verse 9 the rest is referred to collectively, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” But in verse 10 the Holy Spirit wants the readership to understand that this rest cannot be entered nationally. One’s genealogical pedigree does not secure blessing, or make one right with the Lord. “He who has entered His rest,” is what we read. One by one every person under Heaven must individually determine whether or not to enter the rest God offers. For the Jewish mindset this was problematic. The Gentiles were without the promises of Israel, and the Law, the prophets, and the blessings. But Israel, by birthright into the family of Abraham, felt secure in their standing. This led to what Paul defined as “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness.” Yet were this true, we could also conclude that other peoples of Semitic descent that hailed from Esau or Ishmael (Isaac and Abraham’s children respectively) also possessed a biological meal ticket into God’s rest.

 

In the height of Israel’s glory when the golden days of their rule neared its apex, God called out that if the Jews were to “today” hear His voice, not to harden their hearts as their forebears did. There remains a rest, beyond the transitory and changeable peace Joshua accorded them; a genuine rest, not physical from the labors of conquest, but spiritual, from the bondage of sin. The writer tells us that the individual who enters God’s rest has himself ceased from his works. Our long war with God ends with faith. When we believe what God testifies of His Son, and through faith receive the grace and pardon that is in Jesus Christ, we have ceased from our works. The Jew can lay down the Law in its manifold efforts to produce righteousness it is not capable of giving. The Gentile may cease from the labors our God-given conscience smites us with. We can at last cease from religion, and manufactured piety, and comparing ourselves with others to see if we are indeed a “good enough person” to make the cut by virtue of our own flawed authority.

 

The rendering of verse 9 in the RSV reminds us that the concept of the Sabbath rest is still in view. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” God commanded that His people refrain from work; but with that injunction also promised, and without condition, He would provide for them. Manna fell from Heaven to feed them in their wanderings. The day prior to the Sabbath twice as much would fall to provide for what the Jews needed to be properly fed on that day. God would give it without condition. If the Jews believed Him, they would collect what they needed in obedience and find that God was true. If they did not believe they would not obey. We find then that a number of the Jews collected too much and it spoiled, or went out on the Sabbath to work (collecting manna) and found none, though they were already told none would be found. The individual who genuinely enters the rest God offers ceases from a spirit of rebellion and disobedience, and submits to the righteousness of God.

 

The author couches these ideas in terminology that his Jewish readers would quickly perceive and understand. Judaism in its ceremonial obedience to the Law of Moses could not supply the vitality that would only be found in Christ, who fulfilled the requirement of the Law for them. Christ is our Sabbath: a place of rest where we cease from our works, and may take comfort in experiencing the promises and blessings God has given to those who obey Him. Faithful obedience to Him, not the resultant works we produce, is our peace. We trust that He accomplished what we cannot; and permit Him to perform in us works befitting the salvation He has clothed us in, so the glory is His, and we, His ransomed children, are vessels of the mercy He freely offers to every soul that wants to cease from work and receive rest, 2 Corinthians 5:20, 21.