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In order
to better understand the two scriptures read this morning,
we need to understand the relationship between Hebrews 4
and Psalm 95. Hebrews 4 makes direct references to Psalm
95. However, the relationship between these two passages
becomes even clearer when we include a story.
Once
upon a time, there was a race of people known as the Israelites.
Long before our story begins, God had decided that the Israelites
were his "chosen" people. Anyway, their ancestor,
Jacob, and his sons, had moved to Egypt. In part, they wanted
to escape the famine gripping their homeland. They also
wanted to reunite Jacob with his son, Joseph, who was living
in Egypt. Things were good for Jacob and sons in Egypt,
because Joseph was the king's right-hand man.
Well,
a couple hundred years and several kings later, the lot
of the Israelites had changed dramatically. Now, this king
feared the Israelites. Their population had greatly increased
since Jacob and sons. The king wanted to keep them from
trying to take over Egypt, so he made the Israelites his
slaves. But, God didn't forget His chosen people. God told
Moses, who was both an Israelite and an adopted relative
of the king, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God wanted
Moses to take them to Canaan, the "Promised Land."
So, after several dramatic confrontations between Moses
and the king, 10 plagues God sent on the Egyptians, and
a walk through the Red Sea, Moses and the Israelites began
their journey.
Now,
along the way, the Israelites seemed to forget what God
had done for them in getting them out of Egypt. They started
complaining. "There's no water." The Israelites
quarreled with Moses. They tested God. God eventually told
Moses how to get them water, but the incident wasn't forgotten.
The place where it happened was named "Massah and Meribah,"
meaning "testing and quarreling."
As they
reached what should have been the end of their journey,
God instructed Moses to send 12 spies into Canaan to get
a "feel for the land." Two of the spies had faith
that, if God told them to, Israel could conquer Canaan.
However, the Israelites didn't listen to those two because
10 of the spies came back and convinced the Israelites they'd
never be able to win. For their disobedience and doubting,
a relatively short trip from Egypt to Canaan became much
longer. God punished the doubting Israelites by not allowing
them to enter Canaan. Instead, God forced them to wander
in the wilderness for 40 years. The land promised to the
Israelites was given to their children. Under the leadership
of Joshua, one of the two faithful spies, the Israelite's
children did take possession of the "Promised Land,"
finally finding rest from their travels.
Many
years later, these two events, the one with the water, and
the 40-year trip, were commemorated in Psalm 95. They weren't
remembered fondly, but served as a warning. "Today,
if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts as you
did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had
seen what I did. For 40 years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.' So, I declared an oath
in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'"
This warning was picked up hundreds of years later by the
author of Hebrews, and the meaning of "rest" expanded.
When
the author of Hebrews talks about "rest," he's
talking about more than relaxing after a long trip. It's
more than a vacation. This is a "Sabbath rest."
It recalls the beginning of creation. In Genesis we learn,
"By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had
been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all work.
And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because
on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had
done." As Walter Bruggeman points out, it's as if God
said, "I'm not going in to the office tomorrow. I've
put in long hours every day all week and tomorrow I'm putting
my feet up and enjoying what I've accomplished." Creation
is good and God takes the time to enjoy it. God doesn't
try to tweak it or make it better. Sabbath rest is a celebration
of work well done. It's a time of peace, restoration, and
liberation from work. Sabbath is blessed because God rested
and we find blessing in receiving rest.
The
rest mentioned in Hebrews 4 is thought to refer to the promise
of eternal rest. Someday our work will end, just as God's
did. We will share in the rest of God forever. As I studied
this scripture, I discovered three important facts about
this rest.
The
first is that the rest described in Hebrews 4 is available
through Jesus. The rest Joshua gave the Israelites wasn't
God's Sabbath rest. As the author of Hebrews points out,
Joshua didn't bring the Israelites real rest, only the end
of their travels. If he had, David wouldn't have mentioned
the continued possibility of rest in his Psalm.
Furthermore,
its important to note that everything in Hebrews points
to Jesus. The author spends a lot of time explaining how
Jesus is superior to even the greatest heroes of the faith.
And while Hebrews doesn't directly connect Jesus to this
rest, I believe the book of Matthew does. In Matthew 12,
Jesus calls himself the "Lord of the Sabbath."
In Matthew 11, Jesus says "Come to me, all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I also
learned that God's Sabbath rest is available to all believers.
When people respond in faith to the promises of God, they
receive rest. Hebrews 4 offers believers assurance of this
rest. God has met his end of the bargain. His work has been
finished since the beginning of creation. It's up to us
to accept God's promises. Hebrews 4 warns us to be responsive
to God's word. We shouldn't follow the example of the Israelites,
or we'll lose our rest.
Because,
the disobedient forfeit their rest. The Israelites were
disobedient. They quarreled with Moses and tested God (remember
"Meribah and Massah"). They didn't respond in
faith to God's word and made God angry. God responded by,
‘declaring an oath in his anger; that group of Israelites
would never find his rest.' The author of Hebrews maintains
that these Israelites heard the good news preached, but
weren't given rest because they didn't obey.
The
third thing I learned is that God's rest is open to believers
now. It has been available since the beginning of time when
God first rested from the work of creation. We see this,
in part, because the promises were offered to Israel so
long ago. However, it is available Today, when God speaks
to us. That's why we're warned not to harden hearts if we
hear God's voice. At any moment, we might be asked to accept
or refuse God's promises.
I believe
the great thing about Jesus' rest is that it's available
now. Not only "accept it now and get it sometime in
the future," but now. Today. Eternal rest begins today.
First Corinthians 13 tells us, "Now we see but a poor
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face."
We can't know true rest in its fullness now, only a poor
reflection. But we still have access to it. As I mentioned
before, we have the assurance of a future rest, but we taste
it presently. Our first hymn this morning says it best:
"Now is the kingdom. Now is the day."
Let's
face it, we're a society in need of real rest. We're a society
addicted to work. We work longer hours than the people who
came before us. We feel rushed. Stressed. Stress related
diseases and disorders ( you know, things like high blood
pressure, stomach problems, depression, exhaustion) have
flourished in our work-polluted bodies. Our need to be busy,
over-scheduling work and play, infects not only individuals,
but corporations, schools, and churches. We experience even
more stress and anxiety because we leave ourselves less
time for meaningful relationships that would help us cope
with stress.
Did
you ever stop to think about how poor our attempts often
are at finding rest? We buy gadgets to help us relax. Then,
we pay for those gadgets, and their maintenance, by working
more and resting less. We take vacations. But, we stress
out in the planning, stress out in the traveling, and come
home to stress out about what we missed while we're gone.
We may relax a bit along the way, but vacations aren't often
the trip to paradise we make them out to be. And, as a culture,
we're even enjoying our food less. Cecile Andrews explains:
"Food
is probably one of the best symbols of our American way
of life. Food is meant to nourish us, but it is also meant
to be enjoyed. And the only way you can enjoy it is to
pay attention to your eating. But we never do that. Our
contribution to world cuisine is fast food . . . We have
invented food that can be eaten with one hand while we're
doing something else. . . We're not tasting the food;
we're not getting any real pleasure or nourishment out
of it. And with all of the chemicals and [oil] involved
in our food production, our way of eating is destroying
the planet as well. In other words, we're trashing the
planet for something we are not even enjoying."
I've
witnessed the effects of too much stress and too little
rest within my own body. Throughout last school year and
last summer, I would periodically suffer from bad tension
headaches at the back of my neck. All I could do was sit
and try not to move. Tylenol didn't always help, and neither
did sleep. I was very busy, working and worrying about work.
I didn't allow myself to really rest because of the many
projects I felt were looming over me. I realized that life
was not meant to be lived that way, though. Something needed
to change. And then, I discovered Sabbath-keeping in a book
I read for a class at Bethany.
Sabbath-keeping
centers around rest. As Zach and I try to keep the Sabbath.
We rest from sun- down Saturday to sun-down Sunday. We rest
from commerce. Zach and I try not to buy anything on the
Sabbath. We rest from work. Anything resembling work isn't
allowed. We've also chosen to rest from technology. From
Saturday evening to Sunday evening, we turn off the computer,
tv, and stereo. Most importantly for me, we try to rest
from worry. That one's probably the toughest, because it
means letting go of things which often clutch at my attention.
Only with prayer am I ever able to lay aside worry for any
amount of time.
Zach
and I rest from these things to give our bodies and spirits
a break. We've found that when we do this, we are able to
give more attention to God. Ultimately that's what keeping
Sabbath is about. It is more than a vacation or a day off.
That day's focus, more than any other belongs on God and
the relationships God gives. For us, this has meant taking
walks, reading, cooking together, playing games together,
and attending worship. For other people, it may look a bit
different.
We aren't
consistent about keeping the Sabbath yet. We're still learning
that if an infinite God rests, we, as finite human beings,
shouldn't think we can go without. We're realizing the wisdom
in God's commandment to "Remember the Sabbath day and
keep it holy." Six days a week are enough for work.
At least one day can belong fully to God. We're also learning
that rest is not complete without Jesus.
I believe
that we find rest only when we come to Jesus, both true
rest now, and even truer rest in eternity. But it involves
surrendering our will to Jesus. It involves admitting we're
not capable of finding rest on our own, no matter how hard
we try. True rest, God's peace, comes when we acknowledge
that Jesus died for us, so that our sins might be forgiven.
I don't understand exactly how it works, but I know it does.
We can find rest only when we confess and live out the promises
that 1. Jesus saves us and 2. that He is the true ruler
of this world. And this rest gives us life as it was meant
to be lived.
‘Come
to Jesus, all you who are weary and burdened, and He will
give you rest. Take His yoke upon you and learn from him,
for Jesus is gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. For the yoke of Jesus is easy and his
burden is light.' Come, taste the sweetness of promised
rest for the first time. Find new life in Jesus Christ.
Or, come and taste that rest once again. Release your burdens
to Jesus and carry his. His burdens don't weigh you down,
but give life. Amen
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