The Rest 

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. 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. 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. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Hebrews 4: 1 to 5) 

As stated, the reason that men couldn't enter God's rest is because they were not united by faith with those who listened. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Eve as below. 

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3: 4 5) 

After listening to the serpent, Eve persuaded Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil with her against God’s command. So, God cursed them as below. 

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3: 16 to 19) 

Since Adam and Eve united with the knowledge of good and evil to rely on their own knowledge of good and evil instead of faith to rely on God alone, God took away His rest from them. That's why men are living in such hardship. However, after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God restored His rest to men and women through His Ten Commandments to Moses as below. 

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20: 8 to 11) 

Indeed, Israelis kept the Sabbath command to an extent well. There were many jokes mocking Jews for how they observed the Sabbath, such as, in New York, they couldn’t press the elevator buttons so that the elevator would stop at every floor on Sabbath. Or, in Israel, a flight couldn’t fly over a cemetery so that it needed to divert the route on Sabbath, etc. However, why did God still swear in His wrath that “They shall not enter my rest.”? That’s because they observed Sabbath as a bunch of rules. That’s why God made it clear to them as described below. 

to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isaiah 28: 12 13) 

So, if we observed the words of the Bible with our own rationale and wisdom, in other words, the knowledge of good and evil, then we would not enjoy the rest but feel the burden. It would be hard for Israelis to grasp but it would be easy for us to grasp through Jesus as God promised as below. 

therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” (Isaiah 28: 16 17) 

As we all know that Jesus is the tested stone, a precious cornerstone. The Bible told us not only to believe in him but also be built upon him. So, if we could live our life not by our own knowledge of good and evil but by faith in Jesus Christ then we will not be in haste but be resting in God’s rest. This is promised by God and can only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. That’s why for Israelis, it looks impossible but for us believers, it’s a reality. Emmanuel. 

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