Enter His Rest

February 17

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did (the Israelites who did not enter the Promised Land); but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

And yet His works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” And again in the passage above He says, “They shall never enter My rest.”

Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This He did when a long time later He spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:1-7

Our God is beyond our ability to fathom. We read of His righteousness, of His holiness, of His perfection, and we have no frame of reference for these concepts. He knows we are finite while He is infinite, so He doesn’t judge us harshly for our lack of complete understanding.

He does, however, fully expect us to grasp that we are bound to earth while He is “high and lifted up and His train fills the temple,” Isaiah 6:1. When the prophet saw the Holy One, he said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King ...” Isaiah 6:5.

Unlike Isaiah who saw the King, we dwell among a people who refuse to see the Lofty One. We deny Him in our mad race to aggrandize our ‘self.’ We have become our own gods and we have turned our backs on the idea of our having any need of a Savior.

We cannot enter His rest because we refuse to know Him, just as the Israelites in the desert were unable to see that their lostness was a result of disobedience to the God who had rescued them from bondage.

If we refuse to abandon our headlong pursuit of sin and self, we will discover to our eternal dismay that we, too, will be denied entrance to His promised rest. If we choose the world and its temporary pleasures over Christ and His eternal salvation, we will languish in our depravity in time and we will wail in our misery through endless ages of our damnation.

Wake up, precious ones! Receive the Savior! Enter His rest! Dwell in His love forever!