#DailyDevotions What Will Keep You From Entering God’s Rest?

Heb. 3 ³We who have believed go to a rest, since He has said: “So I swore in My anger they will never come to My place of rest.” And yet God finished His work when He made the world, ⁴because in one place He said about the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all He had done.” ⁵And here, too, He says: “They will never come to My place of rest.” ⁶Now, it is still true that some will go to His rest, and those who once heard the good news didn’t go to it because they disobeyed;

When he says those who have believed go to a rest, it follows from what he said in verse 2, “the message they heard didn’t help them because those who heard it didn’t hear it with faith.” No faith, no rest. So he continues that argument in verse three here, those who acted in unbelief would not enter God’s rest. Now what rest is that? Verse four tells us the seventh day, i.e. the Sabbath rest of God. Now some argue that in Genesis 2 it says, “³And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on that day He stopped from all the work He did in creating the world,” that since it does not mention “evening and morning the x day,” that this Sabbath rest of God never ended. It is the place we are called to participate in when we hear His Word and receive His gifts, namely the Word, Sacraments and the Holy Spirit. God rested from all His works on that day yet those He delivered from Egypt didn’t enter that rest because they did not believe.

But some did enter that rest he says in verse 6. That is to say that there were those in the Old Testament who heard the promises of the LORD and believed. Jesus tells us in Matt. 22, “³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He’s not the God of the dead but of the living.” We can say here that these three patriarchs made it to God’s rest. Moses, Joshua, and Caleb did as well. I think we can say David made it. Of course the Bible doesn’t mention everyone who believed the promises of God.

Now he brings up those who entered into the Promised Land with Joshua. The Promised Land is not the rest he is speaking about nor is it the Sabbath the LORD wants to give to His people. He tells us those who heard the Good News from Moses did not enter His rest because they disobeyed. Not all of them for sure. There is always a remnant of those who believe. We know the land from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River is not the land of rest God wants to give to His people because we see in Hebrews 11 it says, “¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country – I mean heaven.”

Jesus promises us in John 14, “Don’t be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in Me. ²In My Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. ³And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I’ll come again and take you home with Me so you’ll be where I am…” Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you, a place of rest, His rest for all who would believe in Him. Will you believe and obey the Gospel or will you disobey the Good News and not believe it. Does it seem too wonderful and too easy for you to trust His promise? It is wonderful and faith is given with this Good News along with the Holy Spirit to believe it. Don’t fight against it and live in unbelief. Surrender to this Good News and find your rest in it.

Merciful and Gracious Father, You sent Jesus that we may see Your love and believe the Good News of the invitation into Your rest. Give us grace to believe it and persevere in this faith so we enter Your eternal rest. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.