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Paternal Rest - part 2
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For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." (Hebrews 4:4-7) The writer of Hebrews is saying, ‘Hey, just because you faithfully practice the Sabbath Rest, a day of physical rest, don’t be fooled into thinking that you are experiencing All The Rest. That is the same mistake the ancient Israelites made. Verse 4 says that the ancient Israelites practiced the seventh day of rest, the Sabbath Rest, a weekly physical rest, a vitally important component of All The Rest, yet Psalm 95:11 was still spoken of them. The only way for Psalm 95:11 to be true, the only way for God to not be a liar or terribly mistaken, is if rest has more than one component. The ancient Israelites mistakenly assumed that if they kept the fourth commandment then they had all the rest God intended. They may have been great sleepers on Saturday but All The Rest is His promise, His expectation, His command, may it be our reality…"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Discover the rest of relationship with Him, His Paternal Rest. It is not to displace other rests, but become the foundation of the other three we should come to know, understand, and experience. Now, let’s skip ahead just for a moment to verse ten as we conclude our conversation on Paternal Rest.
I like how The Way translation, which is akin to the Living Bible, renders this verse. The One here is referring to Jesus. Jesus has created a new way for us to enter into this Paternal Rest. The old way of the Mosaic Law is now closed. Formerly, the teachings of Moses were the way to the rest that comes through a life defining relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Jesus is now that way. In the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses six and seven we find,
Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.
Do you know Him? Have you seen Him?
It is disturbing to me that so many churches are permissive of a compartmentalized Christianity. That is not to say that we must be perfect, make no mistakes before we can be confident of our salvation. On the contrary, we will never attain perfection. But let us not forget one of the great commands of Jesus found in Matthew 5:48, "be ye therefore perfect." (it just sounds better for commands to quoted in the King James translation of the Bible, doesn’t it?). A life striving for continual transformation is a sign of the life Jesus within!
Consider the illustration of the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. It boasts more than 138 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include over 23 million books and other print materials, 2.9 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 5.5 million pieces of sheet music, and 61 million manuscripts. What a picture of you and I. Think of all your life experiences, your life roles, your passions, your interests, your dreams for your future…we’re quite large! The question however is whether you see your devotion to Jesus, your Christianity as part of you or that which houses all of you? De-compartmentalize your devotion to Jesus. It needs to be the library of your being, not collection within, among the other part of who you are. When that happens, we experience something deeply and almost indescribably restful, the rest that comes from know that God is my best and closest friend, that my relationship with Him is life defining, transcending all else, encompassing all else, the universe of my being.
Back to verse ten, my imagination is captured by the imagery of creation that is introduced in this portion of the text. Take a moment and think of all the words that come to mind when you dream of Eden, the perfect beginning of this world we find wonderfully described in the opening of Genesis…fresh, pure, enamoring, passion, beauty, the physical presence of God, shameless nakedness of humanity, satisfying…wow, a real place, a place when contemplated, we appreciate John Milton’s perfectly chosen title, A Paradise Lost, for his poetic work.
The allusion to creation by the writer of Hebrews under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is brilliant. God is saying that just as He created the universe in all its glory, all its grandeur, all its vastness, all its beauty, so too Jesus has created something wondrous. In fact, what Jesus has created, if you put your faith in Him, will be like a return to Eden, a life of walking with God in the garden of His creation in the cool of the day. Knowing God as a Father is what ultimately made Eden a perfectly restful place.
Even now, just the thought of it, you feel something, you feel peace, you feel rest, it’s indescribably wonderful isn’t it?! Live there, don’t just visit. Paternal Rest, embrace it, let it embrace you, but know this, it’s just the beginning, there’s more, exceeding abundantly above more…All The Rest.
Pastor Fred
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