Really Resting

Here is real medicine for our souls. We are restless people living in a restless world. And here in God’s word we find the offer of rest. Our hearts yearn for real rest. But we experience life as a hurried, frantic rush from one thing to the next. Even times we want to be restful get crowded with stress.

Today’s passage speaks to us about real rest. It describes to us the rest of God. And the rest of God is not the restless rest of contemporary society. It is genuine rest to satisfy the deep longing of our hearts.

As we turn our thoughts to this passage today, I invite restless souls to pay attention to what this passage says to us about the rest God offers.

1.Rest is possible.

This passage repeatedly points to the possibility of God’s people entering his rest. It is stated first in verse 1:

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands...” (Heb. 4:1) Notice, it says that the promise of entering God’s rest still stands. In the previous chapter the author of the letter has told us that the Israelites failed to enter God’s rest. But their failure didn’t end God’s promise of rest. It still stands. Rest is possible.

“Since therefore it remains for some to enter it...” (Heb. 4:6)

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” (Heb. 4:9) The key word in these two verses is “remains.” The Greek word used refers to something that has has been left behind. In context it means that the Israelites who failed to enter God’s rest left it behind. But the fact that they left it behind means it is available for us to take for ourselves. It remains.

What good news this is. Rest is available for God’s people. And the rest available is not just pie in the sky by and by. It isn’t only that we will rest when Christ returns and we join him in glory forever. That will be the culmination of rest. But it is something that can impact our lives now. It is possible for us to begin to experience real rest in the present.

2.Rest is not easily attained.

As much as this passage tells us that it is possible to enter the rest of God, it also makes it abundantly clear that entering is not an automatic thing. For example:

“…let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” (Heb. 4:1) In this clause the Biblical author tells us that there is reason to fear that we might miss out on the rest that is available.

“And again in this passage he said, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (Heb. 4:5)

“…those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience...” (Heb. 4:6) In these verses he reflected back on the Israelites experience in the wilderness and points out that, though God had promised them rest, they failed to attain it because of their disobedience. The promise of rest was not an unconditional promise - something God would do for them, whether they entered it or not. Their failure to do what was necessary prevented them from attaining what was available. As we’ve seen, their failure didn’t abolish the promise of rest for those who came after them. But their experience is a warning that the availability of rest isn’t a guarantee of experiencing it.

“For if Joshua had given them rest...” (Heb. 4:8) This statement adds to our understanding of the difficulty of rest. Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land. But the author of Hebrews implies here that, even though Joshua’s generation gained entry and took possession of the physical territory God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that physical reality did not capture everything God intended through the promise of rest. He says, “If Joshua had achieved all that was intended by the rest of God, it would not have been necessary for God to inspire the psalmist, centuries later, to write a warning against hardening hearts as the Israelites did in the rebellion.”

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest...” (Heb. 4:11) This is the main exhortation of this passage. Pay attention to the paradox of this instruction - “strive to rest.” The word strive has the sense of urgent action - being diligent to do something with haste. So this verse says, in effect, “Work hard to rest.”

That sounds like a contradiction. We think of rest as an absence of activity. This describes a rest that is a product of activity. We must strive to rest.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that you can be inactive but not resting. Think about how you reacted to the lockdown earlier this year. Suddenly, there were many activities that were not permitted. We all had a larger portion of our time that we were inactive. But my observation is that inactivity produced restlessness rather than rest. The loss of activity caused restlessness.

All of this merely tells us that real rest isn’t as easy to come by as we might assume. We won’t be rested by taking a vacation or rigidly observing a day off from normal activities. Something more than just “doing nothing” is needed before we experience God’s rest.

3.Rest is faith in God.

The author of Hebrews makes a connection between God’s rest at the conclusion of creation and the rest available to us:

“For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’” (Heb. 4:4)

“...for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Heb. 4:10)

The lesson is that the rest God offers us is patterned after God’s rest when he finished his work of creation..

Why did God rest on the 7th day? We rest because we are finite beings with limited strength. Our weakness is the main reason for our rest. But God is not a finite being. His strength is not limited. He didn’t sit down on day seven of creation and say, “Wow, I’m beat. I’d better rest.” He had a different reason for resting. Look how it is described in the Genesis account:

Genesis 1:31–2:2 ESV

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

God evaluated his work. It was very good. It was finished. Nothing more was needed. He wasn’t tired. He was satisfied. God rested because God was satisfied with what God had done.

Our rest is to be patterned after God’s own rest. We enter the rest of God when we are satisfied with what God has done. The reason we experience the problem of restless rest is that we practice inactivity without complete satisfaction with what God has done. We stop the physical work. But the heart remains in turmoil. We take a day of rest. But the “rest” only reminds us of how much we have to do because we’re dissatisfied with what we have and think the improvement depends on us.

The clinching statement of what is necessary for us to enter into real rest is found at the beginning of verse 3: “For we who have believed enter that rest...” (Heb. 4:3) The word translated “believed” means much more than mere intellectual agreement with an idea. Louw and Nida’s dictionary of the Greek language provides this definition:

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 31.85 πιστεύω; πίστις, εως

to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance—‘to believe in, to have confidence in, to have faith in, to trust, faith, trust.’

We enter the rest of God by complete trust and reliance upon Him and what He has provided. When we trust entirely in God’s provision, our hearts experience real rest. The internal agitation ends when we are able to say, “God is good. I trust him.”

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Faith in Christ is the title deed to real rest. Jesus himself told us so. He said:

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

To enter the rest he offers is to trust completely in him and his completed work. It is to say, “Christ has done everything needed for my eternal wellbeing. The work of saving me is all finished. He has done it all. And I can rest in what he has done.”

You will never have anything but restless rest until your confidence is fully in him.

What has God done?

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That’s enough. Rest in that. And you will find rest for your soul. Amen.