As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God made a promise to them he would surely go before them into the Promised Land. He would always care for them, come to defeat their enemies, and they would live securely. They would finally enter into their rest in the Promised Land. He also said to them that after they had settled into the Promised Land, they must observe the Sabbath. They must keep it holy, and rest from their labors. And so, generation after generation, week after week, they would work for six days, and rest from their labor on the seventh day, only to return to the same cycle again.
But even before the Israelites had reached the Promised Land, they had already failed to trust in God and in his promises. Worse, they grumbled and murmured against him. At one point, they even said they longed to go back to Egypt. Which is another way to say they preferred bondage. Because of Israel’s lack of faith in God, they refused to obey him, and God couldn’t possibly let them enter into the Promised Land. In the end, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, all the Israelites of that generation died in the wilderness. They only saw the Promised Land from a distance.
Deuteronomy 1.34–36 “Then the LORD heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the LORD fully.’
Fast forward many years later into the New Testament, the author of Hebrews wrote this in Hebrews 3 and 4.
Hebrews 3.7–4.11
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE, I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’” Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So, we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just 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 said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; and again, in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
1. The Promised Land was not “the rest”. Quoting from Psalm 95, the author of Hebrews said that even though the Psalmist used the word, “rest”, to refer to the Promised Land, it was not “the rest”. “The rest” cannot refer to the rest of entering the Promised Land because Joshua had led the second generation of Israelites into the Promised Land some hundreds of years before this, and yet the Psalmist warned the contemporary readers of his time not to harden their hearts, as the Israelites’ forefathers did in the wilderness, and consequently missed “the rest”. All to say, even though the second generation of Israelites successfully made it to and lived in the Promised Land, there was still an outstanding rest.
2. God did not create another day called “the rest” because the Israelites had failed to enter into the Promised Land. God’s rest came into existence as early as in Genesis 2.2 when God said he rested on the seventh day from all his work in creation. “The rest” had been there all along, long before the Israelites.
3. The Promised Land was only a picture of “the rest”. Entrance into the Promised Land only pointed towards “the rest”. We may also think of this rest as “God’s rest” or the “Sabbath rest”. After God created everything there was to be created, he rested on the seventh day, and entered into his rest. God’s desire is for all his people to enter into the Sabbath rest that he himself entered.
4. God says the reason the Israelites failed to enter into the Promised Land was because they lacked faith in him. Some of you might think, “Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Nonsense. Unbelief is a big deal to our God. They saw there was much uncertainty once they entered into the Promised Land, and they wouldn’t trust him. Even though the Israelites saw, with their own eyes, God’s miracles for forty years, they still didn’t believe him. They insisted on returning to Egypt and be in bondage all over again. They preferred the certainty in Egypt over the uncertainty in the Promised Land. So, God declared they would not enter his rest.
5. God did not prevent future generations from entering into the Promised Land. God prevented the generation that left Egypt to enter into the Promised Land because of their unbelief. But it did not mean that God therefore did not allow anyone to enter the Promised Land. Because he did. He allowed the second generation of Israelites to enter into the Promised Land. This was an act of grace from God. Don’t miss this.
And now, I have the best news of all – God’s rest is open to us today. The author of Hebrews wrote, “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” The Psalmist penned Psalm 95 many centuries ago. He seized upon the term “Today” to apply it to the readers of his time. Fast forward to the 21st century, God has fixed a day called “Today” for us, the same “Today” as was offered in Psalm 95. In other words, the opportunity to enter God’s rest is still available to us as it was available in the days of Psalm 95. It is not too late. It is not true the door to enter God’s rest is shut because it is Today.
Lastly, there is no promise of a more final rest than God’s rest. The Bible does not seem to say there is yet another rest beyond the Sabbath rest. The rest God has prepared for you and me was already there since the first week of creation, and that rest is the final rest for you and for me. In the same way after God finished his work in creation, he rested from all his work, and entered into his rest, we shall one day rest from our works, and enter into God’s rest, the same rest that he himself entered. Let us encourage one another Today to unite what we have heard with complete trust, living not by sight and entering into God’s rest.