What is the Rest (Part 2)

Hebrews 4:11 (NKJV)  Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV)  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

As we follow Israel in their journey from Egyptian bondage to freedom and destiny in the promised land of Canaan, we have seen that to get there at all they had to be willing to follow the leading of the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire.  We find that for us to reach our “land of promises” and our destiny in God, we must follow two pillars as well. 

One is the direction that comes from the written Word of God and the other is the interaction of the believer with the indwelling Holy Spirit.  We do not have a physical manifestation of the guiding ministry of the Spirit like Israel did.  However, what we do  have is far more sure and powerful.  We have the Holy Spirit within that will guide us into both the truth of the Word and in life itself.

John 14:17 (NKJV)  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

In the Old Testament it speaks of the Spirit of God being with people and upon people.  What Jesus tells us is that the church is going to have something new available to them.  The Holy Spirit shall be in us not just with us or upon us.  Since he is in us, we have his guiding hand available at all times and no matter where we may be. 

As we look at Hebrews 4 we find that Israel was supposed to enter something called the rest, but they never did.  Under Joshua they did enter the promised land, but they never fully entered the rest that God wanted for them.  They were supposed to occupy the land and the land itself was supposed to provide for them.  They would no longer need Manna from heaven or water from a Rock.  If they had obeyed God and driven out all the people that dwelt there, I do not believe they would have fallen to the point where they were taken into captivity.  However, since they allowed the influence of the world to bring compromise, Israels history is one of strife and struggle.  That was not what God wanted.

The good news is that someone is going to enter what God provided.  It is still available to those who will believe God.  The rest is the heritage of the Church of Jesus Christ, but many never enter fully into it.  They enter salvation, but there is so much more for us here on earth as well as eternity with God.  We can enter a rest that Israel never did.  The two questions we must answer are, “What is this rest?” and “How do we get there?”

We have seen that the nature of the rest is the ceasing from our own works as God did from his.  That means we do not try to do things in our own ability and that we make his work the priority of our lives (Matthew 633-34.)  We have also touched on Galatians 5 which highlights the difference between walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh.  I want to look a little more closely at this “rest” today.

First we need to look at what the word rest in Hebrews 4 means.  The specific Greek word in this verse means a reposing down or a putting to rest.  This word also means “abode.”  I think this is very important in understanding what this rest is.  The writer says it is the same as the rest God entered when he finished the work of creation.  Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 are tying this to what Israel was supposed to experience in the promised land.  In both cases the rest is a manifestation of a relationship.

Some commentators say that this is a type of the rest of heaven.  We labor here on earth so that we can rest in heaven.  Multiple commentators made statements that “rest is much sweeter when we have labored and are tired.”  That is true in the natural and a poetic statement, but let us look at the rest God entered into after creation.  Did he stop being God?  Was he no longer involved in the affairs of his children?  Did he stop doing miracles?  Even before the fall of man, did God somehow retire?  I do not believe he did.

When Israel came to the promised land, were they to stop working?  Initially they would live in houses they did not build and reap harvests they did not plant but what about the next year?  What about when the houses they had not built wore out.  Did they simply sit back and expect God to plant and build for them.  I do not believe they did.  They planted their fields as time went on.  They sowed the vines for the grapes and they built new houses when the old ones were no longer usable.  They also had to drive out the inhabitants of the land even after they crossed the Jordan river.  There was always more to be done, so what was the rest?

I believe there is one thing that defined the rest more than anything else in terms of man and God.  That is relationship.  God created the heavens and the earth.  He put everything in place and crowned his creation with the race of man, his children.  They he rested, but not from being God.  He rested from building the place of relationship.  The rest was living, working and interaction in that relationship once the creation of it was finished. 

Israel was to be the nation from which the messiah would come.  God delivered them from captivity and built them into a nation as they progressed through the wilderness.  In the wilderness they never stayed and one place.  They continued to wander until God had worked in them to the point that they could enter the promised land.  The idea was that once they were in the land they would come into relationship with God through the covenant and the law.  The law was not separate from grace, it was grace.  It Gave Israel things that they could do that would enable them to stay in relationship with God until the messiah came. 

Unfortunately in both cases relationship was disrupted and broken by sin.  In the Garden of Eden the nature of man changed and the relationship God intended was no longer possible.  In Canann, Israel simply refused to “walk in God’s ways, follow his commandments and heed his voice.”  Since this was the basis for the best relationship they could have without Christ, they never really enjoyed the fellowship of that relationship.  As a result they could not rest.

There is a related word that gives more insight into what this rest is.  It means a cessation or refreshing.  It was used of soldiers when there was a pause in battle.  However, Vines Expository Dictionary gives more information.  He says, “Christ’s “rest” is not a “rest” from work, but in work, “not the rest of inactivity but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and affections, of will, heart, imagination, conscience, because each has found in God the ideal sphere for its satisfaction and development.”

Putting these Ideas together we can say that the rest spoken of in Hebrews 4 is first of all a rest of relationship.  It is the rest we feel when we are able to abide in a place.  We see this in a healthy home.  It is good to travel, but there comes a time when we want to come home and “rest.”  In the case of the biblical rest it is the relationship between God and man in Christ. 

It is also the rest of harmony.  It is the place where all parts of our being are flowing together in balance; our spirit, our soul and our body fulfilling the role God created each to fill.  It is also the harmony between God and man.  Paul simply calls it walking in the spirit which is living our lives with the inner man in control and not the soul or the body.  We must labor to the point of entering that rest and then we will walk into the place of our destiny in God.

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