God has a promise of rest for the Christian that is presently experienced in part yet that will only be fully consummated in the life that is to come.
In Hebrews 4, the author continues their comparison of the Exodus generation and Christians. Yet now the focus is on this idea of rest. The Israelites failed to fully experience God’s promised rest because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:19) and also because of their disobedience (Heb. 4:6).
For centuries, Israel was enslaved. Egyptian overlords ran their lives. They had no opportunity to rest. To them, God gave the gift of Sabbath (Ex. 16:29). As Jesus would later echo, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27).
The Sabbath rest was a gift for God’s people. The Hebrew root šbt underlying the word for Sabbath actually means to rest or to cease.[1] To properly observe the Sabbath would be to cease.
After God delivered Israel, He brought them to the borders of the promised land where they would truly find rest, but they failed to take the land for they did not trust in the Promiser. As such, while they had a weekly break from labor, their journeying did not cease until the wilderness generation all died and their children took the land.
These things in mind, the author of Hebrews admonishes Christians to persevere in the faith as we pursue our heavenly promised land and eternal rest—a final ceasing from our labors.
Rest is one of the great blessings of God to us. Many people find rest burdensome, as if it is wasted time. Yet, rest is a kindness of our God we should take advantage of. It is built into the rhythm of life. We must rest daily, and we should rest weekly. Again, to Sabbath is to cease. If rest is a gift from God, something He himself partook of, why would we neglect it in this life?
Beyond this, the Christian has an added blessing: we also can rest from striving. That is, if we have trusted in Christ our acceptance before God is rooted in Him. God will not accept me more, love me more, bless me more because of what I do for Him. My position is in Christ. Everything that I am is in Christ.
So, while genuine Christian faith is indeed proven by good works (see Titus 3:4-8; James 2:17,26) works are not the root, merely the fruit of our salvation. They are not meritorious and no matter how much I do I will not be more accepted than I already am.
Today, we can rest from striving. Jesus said to come to Him and He will give rest, for His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt. 11:28-30). Yet all these things merely foreshadow a final, eternal rest in a new creation wherein righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13).
With the greatest rest yet to come, let us persevere, trusting in Christ our high priest, as we journey towards our heavenly Promised Land and one day enter that rest.
[1] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 1407.
Amen, very well written, encouraging and challenging. So thankful that "there remains a Sabbath rest" and "all who believe enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:3). All believers are Sabbath keepers because "we have ceased from our own works" and trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ.