The Enemy of Rest
Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
It’s interesting when you think about the generation of Israelites that God brought up out of Egypt with a promise to do them good.
They had lived under bondage to slavery for four hundred years and yet once they crossed the Red Sea the slightest little inconvenience could send them into a deep dark spiral of complaint and doubt.
Their sin was unbelief in what God had promised to them and how He had revealed Himself to them as their faithful God and rescuer and desired to care for them. But they allowed anything and everything to bring that into question or to outright allow it to insinuate that God had somehow lied or misled them. Of course they sought to blame Moses as opposed to outright blaming God but God knows the real truth.
They had become so suspect of God that when they reached the border of the promised land they refused to go over. God brought them to the destination He had promised them for an inheritance and they could not cross because of unbelief. Their perspective of God was inaccurate due to their unbelief. As a result they could possess what they had been promised by God at the start.
They had been witnesses to amazing miracles in which they were freed from Egypt with and then cared for during the journey with. They were not strangers to the supernatural power of God intervening in important and critical moments. I would argue that that generation saw more and greater miracles than most professing Christians in modern times. But for all the supernatural displays they still managed to lack faith towards God according to Who He was revealing Himself to be to them. They still could not take Him at His word. Because they could not take Him at His word they could not enter into His rest.
They awakened everyday fearful of what He might do if they did not do. They lived as though they must earn and yet somehow knew they did not measure up and therefore their claim of faith was actually a faith in themselves.
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 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.
Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Until a person has ceased from faith in their own works to merit His favor and acceptance they remain in a place of unbelief. They cannot and have not come into the rest God has promised. For one to cease from heir own works for assurance and confidence they must become convinced of God’s goodness and His desire to love them and care for them as a Father. There’s an orphan spirit at work int he church today because there’s been such a mixture of law and grace preached so often. You’ve been invited to grace that favor of God that you did nothing to merit. It is a gift it is not of works lest someone would be able to boast. It is truly a gift given by a gracious loving God and it is yours for the receiving. I pray you will take time to relish that precious gift and make your boast in Jesus making it available to you freely.
