Working for Rest

The Daily Grind

Each day you wake up. You go through your morning routine. And then you get stuck into the jobs you have for the day. If you’re lucky, they might be pleasant enough tasks. Maybe it’s a paid job. Maybe you’re in retirement but you still have all those jobs in front of you. Regardless of your situation, it seems almost inevitable that sooner or later, those daily tasks you have to do are going to find a some complicating factor. Your day now feels like harder… perhaps it feels like this hard strain through a swamp. Every step is a struggle. You get through though. Maybe a few bruises. But you’re okay. Evening comes. You collapse on the couch. Eventually get to bed. Sleep through. Then you do it all again the next day. Perhaps your biggest hope is that this next day can be slightly better than the last one. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. You do it all again, just to wake up and hope - will today be slightly better than the last one.

Now, maybe that pictures a little bleak, and you might be one of these people that just loves life and all that it has to offer. I suspect for many of you, however, to some extent life is this daily grind, where you just put your head down and get through it.

And the question we all ask ourselves is: when are things going to let up?

Perhaps it’s the upcoming holiday you have planned? But then again, with the amount of planning and preparation before the holiday, and with how much you jam pack in during the holiday, and with the mountain of work left after your holiday, you wonder if it was worth it.

Is there any let up?

We keep on promising ourselves - it will get easier once we finish that particularly big project... Or it will get better once we’re over this health problem... Or perhaps once this debt has been paid off...

But that’s just the thing… it’s not long before the next big twist comes.

Is there any hope for things to get better?

The answer… well, on one level, that daily grind will continue in one form or another while ever we are in this age. But...

There is a rest to be found, and when we find it, it is actually better than what we likely looking for.

In fact the passage we read earlier spoke of a rest - so let’s start by trying to figure out what this rest is all about.

Rest

The passage started with a quote from Psalm 95.

Now the great thing about the Psalms is that they are able to frame events and feelings in evocative ways that can give great insight.

In this example, the Psalmist is picturing the Israelites on their way into the Promised Land.

Now, here’s the thing - and its the thing that the author of Hebrews is really going to pick up on - the Psalmist frames this entry into the Promised Land as an attempt to find rest.

In fact, this is part of a larger theme that we see running throughout the Old Testament, so let’s have a look at how it is developed.

Creation rest

We can actually go back to the very opening of the entire Bible - the account of creation.

Even the author of Hebrews takes us back there as well - you just need to look at chapter 4 verse 4.

So let’s go back to Genesis 1 ourselves.

In verse 2, just after we’ve had the opening that God began all things by creating the heavens and the earth, we’re told that the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep.

Well, we then get the six day of creation. Order and beauty and life are masterfully brought together.

By the end of chapter 1, it is all made. But then as we move into the first few verses of chapter 2, something incredible happens. God rests from his work.

Now, let’s make something clear straight up. When God rests here, it is not because he is so exhausted he just needs a break. He’s not just trying to get his breath back.

Rather he rests because it is complete.

And this is perhaps one of the first clues we need to pay attention to with regards to understanding this concept of rest.

There is a sense in which rest happens when all is as it should be. When there is order and it is complete. Often I use the Hebrew word Shalom - the word that is usually translated as peace. Well, it is this idea of all things being whole and complete which starts to give us the understanding of shalom. And there is a direct connection with the concept of rest, and shalom.

But let’s keep on looking to reveal a deeper picture of rest.

Well, the shalom did not last as it should.

Sin entered the world. And things got worse and worse.

Any concept of rest was now out the window.

Abraham chosen

But God had a plan.

He chose a man called Abram - a man we better know by the name Abraham.

He gave him a promise that he and his offspring will be blessed… but more than that, that all nations will be blessed through him.

Now, we don’t get the word ‘rest’ at this point in the narrative, but it quickly becomes apparent that that is what is in picture.

God is promising a reversal of curse - a curse that saw the breakdown of shalom.

God wants to bring humanity back to the place where they can know the peace that was always intended.

So God brings Abraham to a land - a land in which they will find rest.

But if you read the story, you’ll very quickly notice that rest is not found - not by a long shot.

Will they ever find rest?

But let me fast forward the story. Because a few generations passes… Abraham has Isaac… Isaac has Jacob… Jacob has twelve son… these son have a bunch of other children… and then they find themselves in Egypt as slaves. About 400 years pass. What was once a large family is now a nation… but they have no rest.

Quite the opposite. Slaves who are not treated well.

400 years is a long time. Will they ever find rest?

Something remarkable happens. God raises up Moses. It must have felt really drawn out, but this new formed nation of Israel are set free.

Freedom at last. Have they found their rest?

Well, no. Not by a long shot.

They’re chased by the enemy. Face starvation. Face a lack of fresh water. Although, with each of these obstacles, God always miraculously provides.

A lack of faith sees them spend 40 years wandering the wilderness. Their faithlessness seems to get in the way of them finding rest. This is a point we’ll come back to.

Will they ever find rest?

But after such a long time, it finally comes. The moment they can finally enter the Promised Land.

Last year I did a whole series on the book of Joshua.

There are a whole bunch of hiccups along the way - mostly due to their own sinfulness, but by the end of the book, you might just think that they’ve finally achieved their rest.

They have their peace. They have their land. Things are as they should be.

Just don’t open up the next book, which is the book of Judges. Because this describes what happens next. We’ve been going through this book in our Wednesday night study group, and let me tell you, they did not find their rest.

Will they ever find their rest?

Well, I could keep going with a walk through the history of Israel, but let me just give a few highlights.

The biggest highlight is when David is king. He subdues the nations around him, and when he dies and Solomon is made king, it once again seems, they finally have their rest.

But relatively speaking, they don’t. Things quickly go down hill and fastforward a few generations, and we’re at a real low point in their history. Rest is far off.

Fast forward even more time, and Israel find themselves in exile - shalom is gone. Rest is far off now.

They are allowed to return, and perhaps rest of sorts is found, but it’s far from what was ever intended.

Now, when we look at what they were seeking, the rest they are seeking is not an absence of work. It shalom. It’s peace. It’s things being as they should be.

That being said, what I haven’t spoken about is the weekly pattern that God implemented. Every seven days, there is to be a Sabbath rest.

Interestingly, if you look at all of the ancient near eastern cultures, and for that matter, I believe the other ancient cultures around the world, it was only the Israelites that had this weekly pattern.

On one day a week, the rest was also to include a day with no work. This day of no work was to be a reminder for them of how things should be. They do no work to remind themselves that there is a bigger picture of a saving God who is in the business of restoring shalom.

Rest in our context

So, with all this in mind - how should we understand rest today?

Well, I think we should understand rest in terms of seeking after shalom.

Now, I’m going to develope this idea further as we go through what the author off Hebrews has to say, but I’ll stand by what I said before… that is, this side of the return of Christ, crises will continue to happen, and we’ll constantly be going through struggles and hardships. However, the rest that we can find, is a rest where we can actually see shalom start to form in our lives.

But keep that in mind, because I’ll come back to it.

No guarantee

You see, I’ve given the backstory of the people of Israel trying to find rest, but let’s see what the author of Hebrews has to say about it.

Now, last week, I went through Hebrews 2, and the big idea was that we can have assurance that our salvation is secure. And the first six verses of chapter 3, which I’m effectively skipping over in this series, just continues this idea - your salvation is rock solid.

But from chapter 3 verse 7 comes a big warning. Don’t take it for granted.

You see, this is why the author uses the example of Psalm 95 and the Israelites quest to find rest.

Just because you have experienced the blessing of God does not guarantee that you will enter the rest.

Now let me say that again just in case you missed it: just because you have experienced the blessing of God does not guarantee that you will enter the rest.

And the author of Hebrews is very clear why they didn’t enter the rest - it’s because they rebelled and sinned.

It can be so easy to get excited by the message of Gospel. We can have fun thinking about what heaven will be like. But before you get too excited - have you taken hold of it?

Because look what Hebrews tells us… verse 12 “see to it… that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart”

Verse 13: “…that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness”

Verses 16 to 19 make it clear, the reason that the Israelites did not enter find the rest they desired, was because they rebelled and sinned.

Promise still stands

But, the promise of rest still stands - just look at the first verse of chapter 4.

The promise still stands, but look at verse 11 - it says: “make every effort to enter that rest”

The rest is there, but we need to make an effort.

Now let’s just think about that a moment, because when you think about it, it sounds a bit strange.

You see, we want rest because we want things easy. We want rest because life is this big struggle. So why do we have to make an effort to find rest?

It’s when we realise that rest is not just an absence of work, but of finding shalom.

But there’s another question which is begging to be asked - particularly if you’re well aware of the Christian teaching that is really at the core of what we believe - that is, don’t we teach grace? Don’t we teach that it is a free gift and not based on our works? If so, what is all of this about making every effort?

Well the answer is that it is a free gift, but it is a free gift whereby the Holy Spirit comes to us and transforms us.

So where does the effort come in? Well, we have to work with the Holy Spirit to work towards holiness. We’re not saved by this work - we’re only saved by grace - but by working with the Holy Spirit, we can start to see shalom form today.

That’s right, this idea of finding shalom is not just about when we get to heaven. It can happen now. But there is some correlation between how much we experience it, and how much we work towards it.

Now I do want to be a little careful here. I am not saying that if you work hard, that you will have an easy life. You will find some Christians who work very hard and yet go through many struggles, and others who seem to take a very lax attitude towards holiness who have an easy life. So don’t think that just because you’re going through struggles that you are necessarily not trying hard enough.

But while acknowledging these exceptions, I will still maintain that we can make every effort to enter the rest that God has put there for us.

It’s just that the rest might look a bit different for each of us.

Application

So, what does it look like for us to make this effort.

Read your bible

Firstly, I believe it means we become active partners with God in seeing what he wants for us.

And what does God want from us? Well, starting with God’s Word is a good start. Just look at verse 12: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”.

As we read God’s Word, the Bible, and meditate on it and wrestle with it, we realise how much it will reveal about ourselves.

Let it shape you.

But more than just shape you, as you spend time in God’s Word, your perspective will also change. You’ll start to realise that your struggles are not the end. Your struggles actually draw you to God.

No one likes struggles. Jesus wanted the cup to be taken from him before he was arrested.

Paul wanted the thorn from his side moved.

But both realised how necessary their affliction was.

Time in God’s Word helps us to see something bigger. And as we do, we can actually see a form of shalom in our lives, even while we are in the midst of a crisis.

Encourage one another

There’s something else that our passage brings out as well - and that is that we make effort not just as an individual, but in community.

Back in chapter 3, verse 13, it says: “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness”.

Encourage one another.

Shalom is created in community.

When church is done as it should be done, it is inside the church community that you will get the best view of shalom.

But we need to encourage one another to keep living the way God wants us to live.

I want to add something to this as well. Remember the children as well.

It is great seeing some more children in our church lately. Are you talking with them?

When they come back from Sunday Kids, have you asked them what they learnt about when they were out there?

Interact with them. Let them know you care. Because as you do, you just might be the encouragement that is going to allow that child to firmly plant their faith down deep and become the start of really knowing what shalom is about.

But whether its kids or adults we are talking to, each of us are all so prone to getting hardened hearts. Yes we are going to be entirely reliant on the Holy Spirit, but God has placed us within a community for a reason - we are to help each other grow and in the process, we’ll see the best form of shalom.

Conclusion

Life is hard. It will continue to have struggles. But yet a rest is to be found.

It might not always be the rest we thought we wanted. But yet, even in the midst of struggles, we can know a rest.

And we can know it today.

However, while shalom will always be somewhat tainted, a day is coming when we will know shalom perfectly. A day is coming when we will have perfect rest, because we’ll be in a loving arms of a Father who will take away all suffering.

When Jesus returns, all will be made right.

To finally enter that rest, you’ll need to free gift of Jesus. The gift that Jesus gave us when he died on the cross for our sin.

Rest is to be found. A rest today, in knowing the shalom that God provides. And a perfect rest when Jesus returns.

Let me pray...