Study Notes David Anderson
Hebrews
Jesus’ Rest is Better
(Hebrews 4:1-11)
“For the one who enters God's rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.” (Heb 4:10)
We are first introduced to this concept of “rest” in Genesis 2:2, By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. Right after the golden calf judgment, Yahweh tells Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Moses’ emphatic response, "If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here.” (Exodus 33:14-15). In Deuteronomy 5:14-15 describes what this Sabbath rest will look like on the seventh day and how it is an important time to remember God’s strength, power, and deliverance from Egypt.
In Deuteronomy 5, Yahweh explains the Sabbath principle and explains that as His people celebrate the Sabbath they need to recall the redemption from slavery from Egypt by Yahweh’s strength and power. Later in Deuteronomy (28:65), Moses predicts the dispersion of the tribes and explains there will be no rest among the nations and no peaceful rest for your feet. To these dispersed tribes, Jeremiah says, “You are standing at the crossroads...” choose wisely. One ancient, reliable path will bless you with rest for your soul (Jer. 6:16).
As Ed talked about last Sunday, the wilderness generation spent 40 years in the desert, exhausted, defeated and longing for spiritual, emotional, and physical rest. As we study their history it was a painful cycle of unbelief, disobedience, and hardened hearts. Almost at every turn, the Israelites choose to trust their own resources and sensibility than what God was offering them. “Rest” was their final destination in the Land that God had promised and symbolized the ultimate trust in Him as provider. This was the Land that flowed with milk and honey and where God was offering them peace from their enemies.
In Numbers 13, the Israelites get to the border of the promised rest and they send 12 spies, one from each tribe. They quickly discover that the land was all that was promised (flowing with milk and honey) but there was a huge problem. What was the problem? The 10 spies said, “There are giants in the land and large fortified cities…They are stronger than us!...We are like grasshoppers compared to them!” But Caleb silenced the people and said, “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.” Israelites fearfully disagreed with Caleb and refused to enter into God’s rest.
As a result, this rebellious generation (20 years and up) were not permitted to experience the land, only Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:22-24, 29-35; There were 603,550 men of war. Of these men of war, 603,548 died in the wilderness). It should have been an 11 day journey from Sinai to Canaan, instead it was 38 more years of wandering in the wilderness.
We come to the Book of Hebrews and Yahweh continues to offer Rest. He offers another generation of wilderness wanderers the same type of Rest. The message to them:
Make every effort to enter Jesus’ rest; Exchange your yoke for His!
Just as the writer of Hebrews did in 3:7-19, he preaches from Psalm 95 and also includes the famous Genesis 2:2 verse. As we look at this passage, here are some observations:
- Just as the “rest” was available to the Wilderness Israelites of the 1400’s and the Israelites during the Davidic reign in Psalm 95 (1000’s), it is also available to this house church of Jewish Christian in the Roman Empire. The promise of entering His rest remains open to us as well (4:1, 6-11).
- The “rest” comes through faith and obedience. The Wilderness generation failed to enter the rest because of unbelief, disobedience, and hardened hearts. The writer of Hebrews, “doesn’t want anyone to come short of it….thus we must make every effort to enter the rest” (4:1,11).
- It is a “rest” that somehow involves the cessation of works. Somehow or someway the rest involved is a resting from work/labor or a certain kind of work/labor (4:9-10).
Scripture
Old Testament
(Numbers 13-14)
Psalm 95
3 views of what “entering that Rest”
in Hebrews 3:7-4:11 may mean:
What is the “Rest”?
Inheritance of Canaan
Spiritual and physical rest in the Lord & His coming kingdom
1)Justification
2) Future inheritance & reigning with Christ in the Millennium.
3) Resting in the full experience of eternal life with Christ. Both here and in the future (Heb. 1-3).
1) Christ’s sacrifice (2:9, etc.)
2) Christ’s power over our sin (2:14-15, etc).
3) Our reign with Christ (1:8-13, 2:9-10).
Who is the warning to?
Heb. 3:7-19 regenerate Israel
wilderness generation
BC 1400s
Psalm 95
regenerate Israel
Davidic reign
BC 1000s
Heb. 3:12-14, 4:1,11 for
non-Christians
AD 60’s
Heb. 3:12-14, 4:1,11
for Christians who are tempted to return to Judaism & their former life AD 60’s
What prevents
the Rest?
Hardened, disobedient, unbelieving heart
Hebrews 3:7-12, 15-18, 4:2-3, 6, 11; Psalm 95:7-11
What is the rest we must not come short of? What is the rest that we need to make every effort to enter?
- Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that “rest” isn’t: the 8000 square miles of Canaan, favorable circumstances or the absence of enemies, it isn’t the Mosaic Law or the blood of bulls and goats.
- The great revelation for every Jewish Christian is that rest is found in a Person now! Hebrews is not calling us to the Law or sacrificial system. Hebrews isn’t calling us angels or to Moses. Hebrews is calling us to the Superior and Sufficient Lord Jesus Christ!
- Rest is the full experience of eternal life with Him! It involves reigning with Christ as Hebrews 1:8-13 describes and the full restoration of our glory and inheritance (Heb. 2-3) but it also involves our experience with Him today and the ceasing from fruitless and faithless fear and effort.
Jesus describes the “rest” as an exchange of yokes: In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.
Our missionary Becca McDougall wrote recently: Apparently when a farmer (in Tanzania) wants to train a younger animal, he hitches the plow to one that is older and more experienced. If the novice simply follows the lead of the experienced animal, he also becomes good at plowing. The older ox does the hard part of the job…he carries the heavy end of the yoke, the responsibility of deciding where to go, the tension of the younger ox pulling this way and that before he gets used to the pace and direction. The more quickly the trainee adjusts to the leader, the easier it is for him. No longer does he have to guide himself, nor carry the load by himself. He simply has to keep in step, and this brings him rest, even if at the end of the day he is weary. In time, they become a matched team.
Why is Jesus’ yoke easier? Why will we find rest? Our weary, burdensome, and exhausting yoke we have been attempting to carry around is too much. We simply do not have God’s power, strength and omniscient wisdom to try to carry that yoke anymore. Jesus is gentle and humble and you will find rest for your souls. His yoke is easy to bear and not hard to carry. Why is His yoke easier? Why will we find rest? Because we are yoked with Him!
“Resting” isn’t ceasing all of our work and labor, but depending completely on God in our labor. Rest demonstrates what God and His resources can accomplish in the life of a Believer. We experience rest, peace, & security when we cease to look to anything else for strength and life.