Rest - Part 1: Who? (A Reflection from Heb 3 and 4)
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Rest.
A word that has eluded me for a long time.
Years ago, I set out to find out what God has to say about rest in the Bible. And I found myself repeatedly drawn back to this topic or truth ever since.
To say that I have felt as though I had been playing hide and seek with 'rest' would not be an understatement. Each time I felt like I had found her, I doubted if it really was 'rest' that I had found. And most of the time, I would lose her again not long after.
It wasn't so much that rest was hiding from me, rather it was that I didn't recognise her. Or didn't know how to keep/ retain her. Do you, perhaps, feel that way too sometime?
In the OT, a lot of time, when the Bible speaks of rest, it speaks about a place, a time or a state/condition of rest.
Usually signifying an absence of turmoil or adversary. Most of the time, the Hebrew word translated as rest were nuah, menuha, manoah, which means to rest, repose (verb) or resting place, state, condition of rest (noun).
A good example is Ex 33:14. And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
As I was reading Heb 3 and 4 in the past weeks, a revelation dawned on me.
I realised that what I had been looking for and had been pursuing was a state, a feeling or an experience of rest.
But 'rest' is not a space, not a time, not a state, not an emotion. Not even an experience.
(No wonder I had felt like rest was so far, so out of reach, so hard to find, so hard to keep. I was looking for wrong thing at the wrong place.)
What is rest then, you ask?
I like how my pastor described/ defined rest.
"God’s rest is a place of contentment, peace and joy that one enters into through faith in Jesus Christ. It is independent of the circumstances of life and is characterized by deep tranquility, the cessation of “works” (trying or struggling to earn our salvation) and the absence of fear and anxiety. It is the rest that comes from faith, the rest that comes from having been redeemed and the rest that comes from confidence in Christ."
It aptly describes God's rest.
But if you want a short answer to the question, my answer would simply be that 'Rest is a Person.'
That 'rest', mentioned in Hebrews 3 and 4, so beautiful so mysterious, is a person, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Heb 4:8-9 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
Now let's find out what this "if Joshua had given them rest" was about? As we know, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. The summary of the account are found in Josh 21:43-45 and in Josh 22:3-5.
Josh 21:43-45 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
Josh 22:4 And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren, as He promised them; now therefore, return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
Pay attention to the key words 'the Lord gave them rest all around' and "given rest to your brethren".
Canaan was a type of rest for God's people. For Israel who came out of Egypt, it was a place of rest from oppression, struggle, slavery, ill-treatment, hard labour, and being ruled over by Pharaoh.
We knew from the Bible that there was a generation who did not enter Canaan, but as we read in Josh 21 and 22, there were also those who did enter with Joshua.
Yet the author to Hebrews tells us that there remains another rest for the people of God. A rest that Joshua couldn't give.
Thankfully for us, by the grace of God, we know now what that rest is.
Or more accurately, Who that rest is.
With this knowledge, we are in a much better position (having better chances) of entering this 'rest'. Hallelujah!
Beloved in Christ, the world has taught us that rest is a state of not working. It is sleeping, is winding down, is chilling and relaxing.
Oxford Dictionary defines rest as 'cease work or movement in order to relax, sleep or recover strength'.
Yet, the biblical rest that God has promised us is not just a season or time of inaction. Not just a state of being at peace or at rest. Not just an absence of turmoil and strife. Not just a sense of tranquility and serenity.
God promises us a rest in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest! (Heb 4:11)