Entering God’s rest – sounds good, doesn’t it? But what is that rest, and how can we gain access to it?

Well, the author of this letter explains largely by giving us a negative example. He points once again to Psalm 95, is a meditation on the rebellion of God’s people against Him, which is recorded in Exodus 17. On that occasion, even though the people had seen God deliver them over and over again, and even though God was providing miraculous food from Heaven for them every day, they complained because they had no water to drink. In fact, they accused Moses of bringing them into the desert only so that they could die of thirst (Exodus 17:3). And by saying that it was Moses who had brought them out of Egypt, they were making it clear that they thought God had abandoned them, or worse yet, that God hadn’t been responsible for their miraculous deliverance from Egypt at all.

Exodus 17 thus makes it clear that the people of Israel were not trusting in God’s sovereign grace. Instead, because God had not met all their material needs, they gave themselves over to discouragement and even to despair. Their lack of faith made them miserable, but it didn’t slake their thirst – only God could do that, by performing yet another miracle. As the writer of this letter points out, they could not benefit from the message of God’s saving grace, because they had no faith in Him (Hebrews 4:2). They would thus be prevented from entering the heavenly rest of God because they were determined instead to disobey Him (Hebrews 4:6).

So, how can we enter God’s rest? We can allow God’s Word to illuminate and challenge the sin and rebellion that hides in the deepest parts of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12). And instead of insisting that God give us everything we want exactly when we want it, we can turn away from sin and self, putting our trust completely in Him, not just to save our souls from Hell, but to provide everything we need today.

And it is such complete trust in God that will allow us to rest, not just in anticipation of heavenly rewards, but in the certainty of God’s daily providence. It is such confidence in God’s power and God’s love that will allow us to enjoy the rest of God today, in spite of the most difficult challenges that we will be called to face.

So, will we trust in Him? Will we rest in Him?

Hebrews 4:1-13 (ESV)

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,'” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.
9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.