The Rest of God

Today, we will consider the issue of finding rest in God. Looking at the progression of creation, we see that it was on the seventh day that God created men. He had created everything else at this point and Adam came to the scene to hear the words, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). It was after this that we read that “God rested” (Genesis 2:2). He did not need to do anything else further at this point because everything He created had the inherent ability to procreate after its own kind, He need not come back and create another because the seed within the first would ensure the multiplication that would fill the earth. This is what it means for God to rest, He was not tired or depleted – He was simply finished because He does His work to completion! Everything He had intended to do was done and there was nothing left remaining; this is why we read passages like, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), and “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelations 13:8). God has already done it all, He is not waiting to bless or redeem you, it was done before the foundation of the world – we are just now walking into it! God does not have a yesterday or a tomorrow, He lives in eternity outside of the bounds of time. We then later read in the book of Hebrews, “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). The writer cautions the church of the possibility of not entering into this rest, the finished works of Christ – this caution is shared because we do not enter into this rest automatically. Consider, all through Scripture, we see different foreshadows of rest, the grace, and the blessing;  but it is also clear that we are the ones who are tasked with entering into the rest of God.

The writer continues, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (v.2) – speaking of our fathers who journeyed from Egypt. They heard the word of deliverance, which in their time was the coming out of Egypt into the land of milk and honey, but they did not receive the word with faith; they did not do the word but instead rebelled and subsequently, died. The word of God has always been for doers, and we see that even while in the city of Goshen, they were saved by their obedience to the instruction of slaughtering a lamb and splashing their doors with its blood (Exodus 12:13-28) – it was not because they were good people, they were just people who did what God said. This is what we have to understand, that the Lord prepared rest for His people from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3), and ours is to now appropriate this by use of the principles He has given us as keys to the different graces available. This is why many of us are discouraged, because we have not yet understood that God has done it all. Before we even stepped into the scene and started making many mistakes, God was already done and the completeness of His works has never been dependent on us and anything we have ever done. But we will always live defeated lives if we think it is our good behaviour that pushes God to bless us – this is why the writer says, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (v. 10).

This is how we experience the blessing, by investing in building our conviction in the completeness of God’s work and the removal of ourselves from the picture – this is the labour we ought to do (v.11). We do not work to attain the blessing, we labour to accept it! The writer immediately shows us how we labour into this reality, saying, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (v.12); because it is the Word that reveals to you what the Lord has done and gives you the right mentality and wisdom to appropriate it on this side of life. Our knowledge of the Word creates a conviction in who God is and what He has done, that we come to a place where our actions mirror this same knowledge with speed! We need to be people with strong convictions, fully convinced that the Lord is who He says He is and that He has done what He says He has done. This is how we move with speed in the direction of His grace; this is how we win, church! Glory to God.

Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your word, that teaches us of You and everything You have made available for us Your children before the foundations of the world. We pray Father, that You may fill our hearts with light and open the eyes of our understanding, that we may come to the full comprehension of your goodness and our position in you, leading us to live the lives you intended for us from the very beginning. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen!