The unexpected truth about God's rest

Hebrews 4:1-11 teaches us about entering God’s rest. Two questions are significant: what is the rest, and how do we enter it? The second question is answered easily: we enter it by faith, by receiving forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and by becoming part of God’s people. Where Israel failed in its own efforts, we succeed through Christ’s.

The first question-- what is the rest? -- requires more explanation, and to answer it we must go back to the garden. Our mistaken concept is that rest equates to inactivity, to leisure, to doing nothing because God has done everything. But even as that is a misunderstanding of grace, so also is it a misunderstanding of rest. Rest is what God did when he finished his work of creation. Did God retire once his creative work was finished? By no means. That was the very point he began to exercise authority over what he had just created. That gives us an initial clue of what God’s rest is. Not only that, the verb used to describe how God “put” Adam into the garden (Genesis 2:15) is the word usually translated as “rest,” so that the best translation would be “God put Adam into the Garden to rest”. Yet Genesis clearly also says that God put Adam into the garden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2:15). That brings us to this unexpected conclusion: Adam exercised the government of God over the garden, yet this activity of ruling and reigning, of working and keeping, is described as rest! Then of course came the sad end to the story. Adam lost this place of government and authority when he disobeyed God, and he was ejected from his place of rest.

Here is another interesting fact. There are some astounding links between the garden, the tabernacle and the temple. When we examine Scripture, we find that the building of the tabernacle under Moses, and later the building of the temple under Solomon, were both patterned on God’s creation of the universe. Seven times from Genesis 1:3 through 1:26, the phrase “And God said” occurs, each of which marks a stage of the creation process. At the end of the sixth day, it says that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). After this, God rested (Genesis 2:1).

The building of the tabernacle was likewise fashioned around seven creative words of God, “And the Lord said” (Exodus 25:1, 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12). At the end of the tabernacle creation process, it says, “Moses saw all the work” the people had done according to the command of the Lord, and he blessed them for it. Then when the tabernacle was finished, God’s presence entered into it and his glory filled it so that Moses was not able to enter (Exodus 40:34-35). What was happening in this process? God was taking up his rest.

The same parallel is present when we look to the building of the temple. Here we find -- and it cannot be a coincidence -- that Solomon took seven years to build it (1 Kings 6:38), he dedicated it on the seventh month during the feast of booths, which lasted seven days (1 Kings 8), and his speech of dedication was built around seven prayers (1 Kings 8:31-55)? And then -- and this is the critical point -- just as God rested on the seventh day from his work of creation, so when the temple was finished, God took up a resting place. How do we know this? The psalmist tells us: “Arise, O Lord, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength... For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:8, 13-14).

So now we understand that the resting place of God is the very place where God begins his rule. In each case -- creation, tabernacle and temple -- God first subdued disorder, then began to rule over what he had created. At the beginning of creation, the earth was “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). Once he had brought order from chaos and nothingness, and thus finished his creative work, he began to rule over what he had created. Not only that, he shared his place of rulership and rest with Adam, who then tragically lost it.

Now look how the pattern repeats itself. God subdued the chaos the Egyptians had created by bringing Israel out of Egypt and destroying the armies of Pharaoh. Then he established his presence in the tabernacle, took up his place of rest and began to rule over the people he had brought out of chaos into freedom. And again much later, after he subdued Israel’s enemies through King David and had the temple built by Solomon, he took up his place of rest in the temple and began to rule over the people he had once again restored. In each case, first God acts in power to establish order out of chaos,then he takes up his rest and begins to rule over what he has brought order to.  But each time -- whether with Adam, Moses or Solomon -- he shares his authority with the people he has given rest to.

The bottom line in all this? We are to enter his rest and begin to reign with him!

Entering God's rest

Hebrews 4:3: "For we who have believed enter that rest." God's rest is not what you may have thought it to be, and that is something we will look at in the next couple of posts. But there is no doubt it is the place you want to be. It is the place of being right in the middle of God's plan and God's will for your life. The word of God had come to previous generations, verse 2 has told us, but because it was not received with faith it did them no good. But for us it is different: we are to enter God's rest. The sin of the Israelites was their refusal to believe the unproven word of God. They were looking for physical evidence to back up what God was telling them to do, but God was requiring them to obey his Word without such evidence -- obey it, in fact, even if the evidence was to the contrary. But an attitude of faith obeys the Word of God even when it has not been outwardly verified by circumstances.

Why? Because the Word of God itself is the only evidence that faith requires. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). The heroes of faith whose stories are unfolded in chapter 11 are men and women who defied everything in the natural world around them, all the evidence of their senses, and came to a place of simply believing what God had said to them and told them to do. That is why faith and obedience cannot be separated. Faith is an action. It is a lifestyle. You cannot truly believe God without doing what He tells you to do.

This becomes clear in this statement: “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?” (Heb. 3:18). The next sentence continues, “And so we see that they were unable to enter because of...” -- and here we expect the word “disobedience,” but instead we get the word “unbelief”. They were disobedient, but they could not enter because of unbelief. In other words, “disobedience” and “unbelief” are one and the same thing. Unbelief leads inevitably to disobedience as much as faith results unswervingly in obedience.

God's rest is presented here as something very desirable to take hold of.  It can be entered only one way: by faith. The verb "enter" in verse 3 is in the present tense. It is something in front of us right now. We know that what we have now is only a foretaste of our future inheritance in heaven. Yet this verse tells us we can enter God’s rest, and enter it right away.

Recently I went swimming in the freezing waters of the North Sea off the coast of north-eastern England. The friend I was with was braver than me. He just shouted to me, "Don't think about it - just run in." That's faith!  You know where you want to go and you know there's only way to get there.  You can't stand around rationalizing it or waiting until the circumstances improve.  If God has called you to something, just do it. Through God's grace, you faith will impel you to a place of obedience. You'll begin to do things you never thought you could do.

I did survive the freezing swim, even though I couldn't feel my toes for half an hour after. But I'd done it. And so can you.

The day Jesus was surprised

Jesus was “astonished” at the faith of the Roman centurion who came to Him seeking healing for his sick servant (Matthew 8:10). The same word is used in Mark 6:6 to describe how Jesus was "astonished" at the unbelief of the people in his home town. These are the only times this verb occurs in the entire New Testament with reference to Jesus. Jesus was rarely surprised by anything, but those two situations caught him off guard. It astonished Jesus that, in spite of all the miracles, his townsfolk could see no further than the boy they had grown up with. It equally astonished Him that this centurion, entirely foreign to Israel and the covenant promises of God, could so easily grasp hold of who Jesus was in relation to his Father. The townsfolk of Nazareth saw only Jesus’ earthly father, the centurion saw only his heavenly Father. The townsfolk limited Jesus to what his earthly father could give him, the centurion saw that Jesus could have anything his heavenly Father gave him. In one sense, therefore, the two stories are all about how different people understood Jesus and how they received him.

The centurion, by receiving Jesus as the Son of God and giving him due honour, placed himself in the middle of God’s chain of authority. The centurion was the link in the chain between Jesus and the sick servant. The centurion, by placing himself under Jesus’ authority, tapped into that authority and became the channel by which that authority flowed to the servant. Even though the centurion himself had no direct physical role in the healing, he was the human channel by which it occurred. It was by his faith that the servant was healed (Matt. 8:13). If he had not come to Jesus, if he had not recognized Jesus’ authority, if he had not come under that authority, the power of God would not have been released to heal the servant.

Jesus said that he had not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. The centurion’s faith was not great because he believed that Jesus could heal by long distance. The centurion’s faith was great because, as a Gentile raised completely outside the knowledge of God, he had, in a way even the disciples had not yet seen, penetrated into the secret of Jesus’ authority. He had seen that Jesus himself was the Son of God, and because he stood directly under his Father’s authority, he had power even over sickness. The centurion understood exactly where Jesus’ authority came from and how it operated. And he did all this without being raised in the Scriptures or in the knowledge of God. But he did possess one thing, and that one thing was enough: an understanding of authority which was so acute it led him to the one with authority over all.

Moving by faith to enter into God's chain of authority does not give us the ability to do anything outside of God's will. But failure to exercise faith is equally failure to recognize Jesus for who he truly is, and that failure will mean God will not use us to do what he otherwise could have done through us. God being God, he will find another way of bringing his kingdom on earth, but what a tragedy when we fail to understand who Jesus is, fail to understand the nature of his authority, fail to enter into a totally submitted relationship with him which releases that authority, and in the end fail to enter into the destiny for which God created us.

I doubt Jesus is astonished at anything from his seat beside the Father's throne, but if he is, I would rather he be astonished at my faith than at my unbelief. How about you?

"Just say the word..."

“‘Just say the word’”, the Roman centurion said to Jesus, “‘and my servant will be healed, for I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes, and to another, “Come” and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this!” and he does it’”   (Matthew 13:9). This is the kind of man Jesus described in the first of the Beatitudes as being poor in spirit.  He knew that he had nothing to commend himself to God, and could only throw himself on God’s mercy.  He was a man of power, yet had no power in the thing that really mattered – the life of his beloved servant.  Yet he knew that there was a greater power he could access if he came to it the right way, in the acknowledgment of his total powerlessness and worthlessness.

The reward given to those poor in spirit, according to Jesus, is this: “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).  Those who know they are nothing in themselves are those to whom the power of the kingdom will be given. Centurions were the backbone of the Roman army and the Roman empire. All authority in the empire was vested in one man, Caesar. Although centurions carried no authority in their own right, they did carry the delegated authority of Caesar himself. If you disobeyed them, you disobeyed Caesar - and you received the consequences. The centurion understood by instinct and training the profound Biblical truth that a person will only exercise as much authority as they are submitted to. He saw Jesus as the carrier of a power greater than Caesar's, and he determined to plug into it.

Someone pointed out that there is a critical connection between each of the Beatitudes and the promises attached to them – and the connection is Jesus. Without Jesus, none of the promises will come. But with him, those who are poor in spirit will surely receive the kingdom of heaven.  Those who mourn will be comforted.  Those who are meek will inherit the earth.  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.  With a right attitude and heart, we can go to Jesus and receive the promises.

The centurion met the connecting point that day in the person of Jesus.  He plugged his empty battery into the greatest power source in the universe.  Because of Jesus, this man who was poor in spirit received the power of God’s kingdom.  The centurion believed that Jesus’ word alone was sufficient to heal his servant, and through his faith – the child-like trust of one poor in spirit – the miracle occurred: “And Jesus said to the centurion, “‘Go your way; let it be done to you as you believed.’  And the servant was healed that very hour” (verse 13).

Notice the words, “Let it be done to you as you believed” (or “according to your faith”). These words are significant. Jesus held all the power in the universe, yet he enlisted the centurion as a critical co-labourer. It was the centurion’s faith which released the power of Jesus to heal, and if the centurion had not exercised that faith, the servant would not have been made well.

In actual fact, we don't need a lot of faith to see miracles happen - faith the size of a mustard seed is enough, Jesus said (Luke 17:6). But we do need some faith. Why? Because Jesus requires something to work with for the miracle to happen. He does not need us because he is less than God, but because in his divinity he has chosen to work alongside us, his brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, in expanding the family business, the kingdom of God.

Today we need an army of centurions to carry on this work, and see God glorified on earth. You can be one of them!

At war!

We are at war!  Jesus warned us about it: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a). The question is not whether the attack will come, but when and how. The answer, when the attack does come, is to focus not on the attack or on the enemy, but on the Lord. Isn’t it encouraging that Jesus brought his statement to a triumphant conclusion: “But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b)? A while ago a merchant in Toronto got so tired of shoplifters he took the law into his own hands, apprehended a thief and held him until the police arrived -- then got charged for assault! Fortunately the judge saw things differently and acquitted him. The enemy comes continually into our lives to shoplift -- and worse. We don’t have to wait until the police arrive. We have a hotline to the Lord. This does not mean that everything will always run smoothly for us, but it does mean that we can avoid a lot of unnecessary grief if we learn to follow God’s directions for conducting this war.

We need to learn two things: what the tactics of the enemy are, and how to counteract them. In any warfare, this two-pronged approach is critical to success on the battlefield. It is no different on the spiritual battlefield. And let me underline this: these are not strategies to put in place the moment the attack comes. A successful army has discerned the strategies of the enemy long before any attack and put measures into place to counteract them. What coach goes into a game against an opposing team without studying that team’s strengths and weaknesses and devising a strategy to beat them? We can turn and cry out to God at the last minute, and he will hear us, but we will be much more effective in overcoming the enemy’s attacks if we have prepared our defence -- and our offence -- first.

Let me give you a useful tip how to do this. Paul begins his famous exhortation on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 with the word "finally." This is very significant. The advice on how to conduct spiritual warfare in the following verses is only the last part of a much longer section.  Beginning at Ephesians 4:1, Paul gives a total (on my count) of 31 commands on how to live our life for God. Those 31 commands are the foundation for the successful warfare he describes in 6:10-17. If we have put our lives in order, we can be confident of success when the time of battle comes.

And don't be discouraged by the fact you're at war. The enemy only targets those who are a threat to his authority. The thief comes to rob, kill and destroy, but in the midst of the attack Jesus comes with his gift of abundant life.