Hebrews 4:9-10 (ICB)

Appetiser

Do you like rest? Maybe you’ve been sitting in lessons all day, and you just want to go home and chill. Or you’ve been hard at work at your desk, or on the fields, or at a building site, or saw one too many dishwashers to install and mend: and you just want to go home and rest.

The people who the writer here is referring to were certainly looking forward to a good old rest. They used to be slaves, making bricks for free, and had to be happy if their lives were spared. But God sent a man called Moses to rescue them from the land of their slavery, and take them to a good land. Flowing with milk and honey. And there God would live with them in peace. That was the promise—and we can see ourselves in them to a large degree.

Main Course

Life is hard

The first man was created to live with and work with God, Genesis 2:15

Genesis 2:15 (ICB)

The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it.

This was a beautiful garden, rich in food and delight; paradise! A bit like the land the Jews were marching towards, only better.

God and man would live in harmony: God as God, man as man, Genesis 2:16-17

Genesis 2:16–17 (ICB)

The Lord God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden. But you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!”

There is no hint that life with God this way would be anything other than pure bliss.

All is as it should be; all is “very good” (Genesis 1:31). In six days, God made all hints so, and gave this world over to the man and his wife to rule over it and enjoy it.

The seventh day, Genesis 2:1-3

Genesis 2:1–3 (ICB)

So the sky, the earth and all that filled them were finished. By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day. He made it holy because on that day he rested. He rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.

This is “the seventh day rest” in our passage.

Life became “painful toil” when the man decided to live apart from God

The enemy of God and man came with a false promise: “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). You can live independently and happily without Him, becoming His equal.

Adam believed the lie. Not only is it not possible for us to live without God, attempting to do so is the very definition of sin. It is to bite the hand that feeds and cares for you; it is to turn against your loving Father Who raised you.

Adam sinned. And God made good on His promise: “you will surely die”. Death would come in two parts: a frustrated life, and then death itself, Genesis 3:19

Genesis 3:19 (ICB)

You will sweat and work hard

for your food.

Later you will return to the ground.

This is because you were taken from the ground.

You are dust.

And when you die, you will return to the dust.

God’s rest

The satisfaction of everything being “very good”

All is complete, as it should be, God has finished His work:

that’s what the 7th day was set apart to commemorate.

that’s what mankind was to share with God.

We cannot achieve this state of affairs: I can’t get no satisfaction by the Rolling Stones is a testimony to that.

No matter how much fun you’re having, it’ll end. You’ll get bored of it.

Doing homework is… not fun. It’s tiring, often boring. And let’s not even mention tidying your room—why does it get messy?

We fight with our brothers and sisters. We disobey our Mum and Dad. Not because we don’t love them—it’s just so hard to stay in good terms with people sometimes. And it’s not always their fault.

But the worse thing: we’re dying and are powerless against it.

But God is not at all like that. In a very real sense, unlike us, God is at rest. Let me explain.

Though the world is not as He originally created it, God is not frustrated. Because God is God, and therefore nothing ever is outside of His control. Job 42:2: “I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be ruined.” It’s not as if God is just disinterestedly playing a video game, starting over when things go wrong. It is better than that: even when things go wrong it is somehow part of His plan. Can you imagine what it must be like? Always, everything going to plan, and working to make what you want ultimately succeed?

Neither can I. You see, we are still human, and nothing is ultimately in our control—and this is why we find it hard to rest. We cannot live as God lives. We are not made like that. Only God can live as God lives. We can only truly rest when we live with God. Satan lied to us, and he is lying to you if you think you can live without God.

I have good news: the invitation to enter God’s rest still stands. We are reminded of this every seven days. You can enjoy God’s rest.

The seventh day of the first week preaches to us

God is going to bring the world back into His rest. He is going to save the world, cleanse it from frustration and death, and make it “very good” again. The day of God’s rest is there to remind us of that.

We can enter God’s rest! Though we have sinned against God—for as Adam’s offspring, we are born sinners, and sin every day—, nevertheless God reminds us today: “the seventh-day rest for God’s people is still coming.” How can we enter this rest?

Entering God’s rest

Our relationship needs to be restored to God—and this is only possible through Jesus Christ

The punishment for our sins God cannot overlook, because He is good, He is righteous. You see, God wanted to lead His people into a good land, to give them a bit of a taste of the rest that He enjoys, but they were rebellious, they were sinful (Hebrews 3:7-11), and of course that’s the problem—we can’t enter God’s rest like that! Hebrews 3:11! We must learn from their mistake.

But Jesus Christ, the sinless Man, God in the flesh, lived the life Adam, Eve, and all of us should live: a life of perfect obedience to God. And He offered His life as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of all who would repent of their sin and turn to God: “God’s people”. God punished Him, so we can be reconciled to Him. He then rose from the grave, and entered into God’s rest Himself.

So this is what we need to do, folks. We must confess our sins to God, ask His forgiveness, and then trust ourselves onto Jesus to save us and take us into God’s rest. That is what it is to be “God’s people”.

We can rest even in a messy world

From the moment we return to God through Jesus, our life is restored. However many days we live on earth, we are no longer “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12, NIV) Life may still be hard, but we no longer take it on alone.

We can rest forever

Rest in death: “Today you will be with me in paradise!” (Luke 23:43) Life may still be hard, but we now have an assurance that when we put our tools down, we go home to God to rest.

Rest in the new world, Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain. All the old ways are gone.”

Pudding

And so, hear and heed the invitation from Christ in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads. I will give you rest.”