Rested and Refreshed

The context of this passage is found in Chapter 3 and is regarding God’s promise to Abraham that his descendents would live in the land of Canaan forever.

This land, then became known as the Promised Land.

The Promised Land was also connected to God’s promise of giving rest to Israel from their slavery and trials. It was to be a permanent time of blessing and peace.

However, those to whom this promise was originally made failed to take up the promise of entering the Promised Land after 10 of the 12 spies that Moses sent out came back with a discouraging report of the giants in the land.

And God’s anger flared up because vs 7 - they heard His voice and hardened their hearts.

Numbers 14:11 (NASB95)

The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?

Numbers 14:22–23 (NASB95)

“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.

Numbers 14:33–34 NASB95

‘Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. ‘According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.

vs 7 - Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. What did God tell them? What had they heard?

Numbers 13:2 (NASB95)

“Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.”

Joshua and Caleb, though, listened and believed.

Numbers 14:8–9 NASB95

“If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. “Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

But the people wouldn’t listen. And so they wandered and all those 20 years old and older except Joshua and Caleb died in the wilderness never entering the Promised Land.

Promises are tied to His commands. Go and enter the land.

Just hearing God’s word profits you nothing.

You have to have faith in His word, and in this context, faith means some kind of action based on what you heard. Obedience.

When God says, “Go.” We say, “Where?”

And the specific emphasis is on the first part of Psalm 95 - Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart!

Today, God is going to speak to us through His word. Today God wants us to accept it and embrace it. And Today God wants us to apply it.

And what is that word today? Well the second main theme in this text is the rest of God.

God wants us to enter into His rest, today!

There Remains A Sabbath Rest For The People Of God. Enter It.

There is a remaining promise of entering His rest. (vs 1)

God says, “I have a rest for you I want you to enjoy. I want you to be refreshed.”

Don’t come up short of it.

Be diligent to enter that rest.

What is His rest?

The rest God gives

Exodus 23:12 (NASB95)

“Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.

(5117) - rest

To repose, to pause for rest after laboring

Freedom, respite from one’s enemies

vs 2 - Good News - This is the beginning of the re-framing by the author of linking the historical event with the foreshadowing of Heaven.

The Good News for them was God was going to give them rest in the promised land of Caanan; God’s promise - You shall inherit the land. Go in and possess it.

The Good News for us is that God is going to give us rest in the promised land of Heaven.

But that Good News for us also includes the Good News of Jesus. Because there is no heaven without Jesus.

To be with Christ is to be in Heaven and to be in Heaven is to be with Christ.

And that rest God gives through Jesus Christ is a rest from our labor of trying to get ourselves out of slavery on our own, by our own works.

It is freedom from sin, freedom from the eternal consequences of sin, and freedom from our enemy - Satan.

And that Good News preached to us has to be believed in faith

Again hearing this Good News does us no good, if we don’t believe it and act on it.

(vs 9) There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Wait. If we already enter that rest through Jesus and we will someday gain eternal rest, what rest still remains?

Sabbatismos (vs 9)

Sabbath Rest - The term is only used in biblical literature with the effect of focusing on the experience of sabbathing rather than merely on the day itself.

Jewish tradition - Sabbath was not simply a time of quiet inactivity, but of festive praise, thanksgiving, and celebration directed toward God.

But this word is also about conditions, that are often described as joyous or festive repose.

There remains an experience of Sabbathing for the people of God.

A foretaste, then, of the eschatological sabbath festivity may be actualized in the worship of the community.

We are to experience tastes, glimmers, glimpses of Heaven, now.

This ties into the second aspect of what the rest of God is.

The rest God enjoys

Exodus 31:17 (NASB95)

“It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

(5314) - napash, verb

To refresh, to rest - active

It refers to the renewal of energy in mind and body

from the parent noun nepesh (5315) - life, breath, soul

The word in its related languages can refer to appetite. And can refer to one’s spiritual appetite and the connection in this text being an appetite for God’s presence.

Psalm 42:1–2 NASB95

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?

It is also connected with the emotional states of joy and bliss.

Psalm 86:4 LEB

Make glad the soul of your servant, because I desire you, O Lord.

How was God refreshed? It’s not like He needed to be refreshed?

I believe it was:

Genesis 1:31 NASB95

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The rest that God enjoys is the renewal of energy in mind and body. It is the giving of life, breath, and soul to man. It is a satisfaction of our soul’s appetite for Him. It is emotional joy and bliss.

Enter that rest: Actively finding rest in God (vs 3)

When we believe, when we listen to God, we enter that rest.

The verbs in vs. 10-11 are all in the aorist - past tense.

in general an event that happened in the past that has lingering effects into the present.

There is a definite moment of beginning. Moment of being saved. This is when we find our rest in the finished work of Jesus.

But the lingering effects into the present means we are continuing to be saved.

vs. 3a - But then he says, “For we who have believed enter that rest.”

The author is alluding to Christians who have already put their faith in Christ and have already entered that rest. That would be the rest that God gives.

And in vs 6-9 - His argument is simply, if Joshua had brought them the eternal rest promised by God, David would not have spoken of another day after that. And then by the writer of Hebrews bringing this forward to his day, He is saying that the final eternal rest of God has not yet come.

So, he must be referencing another rest here since we are not in the final resting place, Heaven.

And here’s another of his points. Sometimes we are so caught up with what will be and how wonderful it will be, that we don’t enter into God’s rest today.

On the flip side, sometimes we say, “Oh, I can find rest in God tomorrow.” No, God says, “Find rest in me TODAY!”

That word “Today” is mentioned several times in chapters 3 and 4 and is the focal point of this exhortation.

There are things we are to do Today, and not hold out and wait for later, or wait to experience in Heaven. It would be equivalent to my emphasis last week on God is the God of the Now.

Prior to salvation we are outside the house, outside the family of God. Once we believe in Jesus Christ we are now inside the house and a part of the family of God, but once inside we are also given full privileges to all the contents inside the house.

And when we don’t actively enter in, we are choosing not to take advantage of all the contents inside the house.

And we end up missing out on the realization of the promises of God’s goodness and blessing that He has for us, now.

This all ties into the rest that God enjoys presently.

When we actively find our rest in God, we gain life, breath, quenched thirst of the soul, joy and bliss.

Every time we enter God’s rest we are being saved.

stress, anxiety, worry,

fear, anger, self-loathing

bondage, baggage, bitterness

When God says, “Enter in.” We should say, “When?”

Psalm 42:2 NASB95

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?

vs 4-6 - The author links God’s Sabbath Rest at the time of creation with the rest that the Israelites missed in the desert.

The challenge for us is to not miss entering into the rest of God through disobedience and lack of faith and lack of diligent effort.

That Sabbath Rest Is For Today. Sunday.

(vs 10) We can enter into the rest of God any day of the week, but there is something unique and special when we enter in on the day that God has appointed as special.

Genesis 2:2–3 NASB95

By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Sabbatismos (vs 9)

Sabbath Rest - The term is only used in biblical literature with the effect of focusing on the experience of sabbathing rather than merely on the day itself.

But, you can’t read through this passage without seeing all the connections to the actual Sabbath Day.

Exodus 20:8–11 NASB95

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

A foretaste, then, of the eschatological sabbath festivity may be actualized in the worship of the community.

Here’s the question. Where is God? Where He is, you will find rest.

While it is true that God is everywhere and many people connect with God in nature, and many people find rest with God in creation, the emphasis of this word connects it to a common local dwelling place of God.

Psalm 46:4–5 NASB95

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

Psalm 132:14 NASB95

“This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

Tabernacle, Temple, Zion, Church.

All throughout Scripture, God chooses to locate Himself in a physical, local place.

And whether it was on the actual Sabbath - Friday night to Saturday - or the first day of the week - Sunday, He also chooses to meet with His people on a specific day of the week.

Now this doesn’t mean He won’t meet with us outside of the church or on Monday thru Friday.

But God has set aside and told us what day He wants set aside so we can come to Him and find our rest in Him.

Closing Summary:

Rest: Entry into God’s presence through Jesus Christ. take a breather; bring life back to your mind, body and soul by resting in God’s finished work and worshipping Him.

I long, yearn for rest in your presence. I find my life’s breath in You. Holy Spirit fill me afresh and show me Your glory.

Don’t come short of finding the rest that’s available, Today.

Closing Song:

House of The Lord - David Crowder

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