Jesus Today . . .

JESUS IS OUR SABBATH REST

There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.—Heb. 4:9

One helpful rule of Biblical interpretation is when you come to a therefore, stop and ask what it is there for. The therefore in the above passage goes back to Heb. 3:16 and the verses following, where the writer refers to the promise of rest given to those who had been slaves in Egypt. Through their disobedience they forfeited the promise and came under God’s judgment: “They will never enter the land where I had given them rest” (verse 18). He goes on to say that they did not enter into Canaan “because they did not believe.”

Then he says in Heb. 4:1 that the promise has been offered to Christians and urges: “Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest.” In the next verse he states again that while the Israelites heard the message “they did not accept it with faith,” and in verse 3 he says it is the true believers today that will receive the promised rest. It is as if he could not say enough about the peril of disbelief, for in verse 6 he says it still again: “Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are others, then, who are allowed to receive it.”

Then comes the line with the therefore in verse 9: “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” This is to say that even if those that fell in the wilderness because of their disobedience did not enter the promised land of rest, there is nonetheless the promise that God will make good. There is a rest that remains.

The writer is referring primarily to heaven, as the following verses indicate. Verse 10 says that the believer that enters into that rest (a heavenly rest) “will rest from his own work, just as God rested from his,” while verse 11 urges us to “be diligent to enter that rest,” lest we follow the example of the fallen Israelites and fail the promise.

But the believer has a Sabbath rest now, and he does not wait until death to enter into it. It is like eternal life, which we have both now and in the world to come, for eternal life is a quality of life, life in the Spirit. We likewise have rest now, a fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, as well as in the next world. In a very real sense Jesus is our Sabbath rest. That glorious promise that “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” applies, therefore, to the now as well as to God’s tomorrow. In Jesus Christ we can enjoy the Sabbath rest that God has promised.

The only thing that can deny us of a Sabbath rest in Jesus is that which denied the Israelites of their promise of rest, disbelief Their problem is our problem, for we are slow of heart to believe, really believe, the promises that Christ has given. Such as Eph. 3:20: “To him who by means of his power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for or even think of.” When that “rest” is ours, a power will be at work within us that can and will do more than we can even imagine! Ah, but to believe it.

Rest is what we all long for but few of us ever experience. Even religion is sometimes a hindrance. It was to religious people, battered by the legalisms of the Pharisees, that Jesus spoke of his rest: “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:29). Religion is often terribly frustrating to sincere people in that it makes impossible demands, or it assumes to make people righteous by making them “Good.” The rest that Jesus offers is a life surrendered to God’s grace. It is the peace that the world cannot give because it knows no such peace. It is the assurance that all is well with our soul, not because of what we have done but because of what He has done for us.

There is that blessed rest that awaits us, as indicated in Rev. 14:13: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’‘’ But that promise begins in this world, for His rest frees us from the anxieties of a religion that makes us fearful rather than fearless, fretful rather than fulfilled.

That the rest is for us now is indicated in 2 Thess. 1:6-7, where we have two assurances: God will bring suffering upon those who make us suffer, and he will give rest to those of us who suffer. That rest is to be at home with Jesus; it is communion with the Holy Spirit.

To think of Jesus as our Sabbath rest is to recall what the Sabbath meant in the economy of God. The God of heaven made it the “sign” of the covenant between him and Israel, and Ezek. 20:12 shows that the Sabbath reminded the people of their holy calling. When Moses first spoke of the Sabbath, well before it was made part of the Ten Commandments, he introduced it with: “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord’” (Ex. 16:23). To violate it meant extirpation, as Ex. 31:15 indicates: “Whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.” It was the one commandment that God himself had observed, for on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

The Sabbath was more significant than even circumcision, for circumcision was imposed on a child because of his descent, while the keeping of the Sabbath, often in the face of persecution or the temptations of worldly interests, was evidence of a strong religious faith. At the outbreak of the Maccabean revolt the Jewish army would not so much as defend itself on the Sabbath, though it was eventually compelled to reverse this practice. The faithful Jews did not barter on that day, a day devoted to instruction and edification, and one closely linked to the three great feasts of the Jews — Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The Sabbath was at the heart of these feasts.

As we think of Jesus as our Sabbath rest, there are some interesting parallels with the Sabbath of the Jews.

1. Both were ordained of God as a sign between Him and His people. Matt. 1:22f interprets a prophecy in Isaiah as pointing to Jesus as the “sign” that God is with us.

2. Each is unique to religion. While other nations had circumcision, feasts, and ritual similar to Israel, the Sabbath was unique. Jesus is also unique, for there is nothing like him in all the religions of the world.

3. Both are eternal covenants. The Jewish Sabbath has perpetual significance (Ex. 31:16), and Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant that has cosmic implications.

4. The heavenly Father is personally involved in both. God calls the Jewish Sabbath my Sabbath, and He was the first to observe it. He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19).

5. Each is bosomed in the rest of God. God gave the Jews the Sabbath because he loved them and wanted them to have a day of rest. He gives us Jesus so that we might know the depths of the rest of God.

6. Each is often hidden by man’s proclivity to be rebellious and legalistic. Complaining of the behavior of the priests, Ezek. 22:26 says “they have hid their eyes from my sabbaths.” Jesus passed a similar judgment: “For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:38).

While the Sabbath was given out of God’s tender loving care that his people might have rest, it was institutionalized and legalized into a boring and burdensome experience. At my side is one of the most interesting books in my library, The Mishnah, which is a collection of the rabbinical interpretations of the law of Moses. There are almost 800 pages of minutiae, elaborate details that deal with how the various laws were to be observed, according to the rabbis. One-fourth of the book deals with uncleanness. For example, a stove was rendered unclean if a drop of milk from a woman’s breast (who was unclean) fell on it. In fact the stove was rendered unclean if the woman merely burnt herself while cooking and put her finger in her mouth! It then took all sorts of ritual to “purify” the stove.

It was this sort of thing that Jesus was referring to when he said, “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger” (Matt. 23:4).

This book reveals how the rabbis sought to anticipate every possible contingency in Sabbath keeping. Some of the rules they came up with strike us as amusing, but it was serious business with them. Would tying a knot on the Sabbath be work? Not if one can tie the knot with one hand! Suppose one needs to spit on the Sabbath? He may do so if he spits on a smooth surface, but not on a rough surface since this would cause nature to work in absorbing the spittal. Even if a man plucked a hair from his head or his beard on the Sabbath he would be culpable.

It was this kind of legalistic logic that infuriated Jesus: “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath’” (Matt. 23:16). He went on to charge them with majoring in minors while neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith.

Legalism and rebellion will also turn our Sabbath rest in Jesus into a religion of fear and oppression. If the Jews lost the beauty of their Sabbath rest in superficial, legalistic details, we can lose our Sabbath rest in Jesus in the emptiness and superficialities of our own isms, which have little or nothing to do with “the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” I will give you rest! is his promise to us, which we do not find in programs, budgets, projects, or even in being busy, busy, busy in religion. We can even have a head filled with Scripture and yet a heart empty of the peace that Christ gives.

To his own followers Jesus could say, “You do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind” (Rev. 3:17). And these were “faithful” Christians who presumed to be rich and in need of nothing! Their problem was that they had religion without rest. Note how the Lord advised hem: “Buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich.” Jesus is asking to be their Sabbath rest.

He says that he stands at the door, knocking, asking for entrance into our hearts. If any of us will open the door, “I will come into his house and eat with him” (Rev. 3:20). This is the rest and peace that too few of us know.

There have been those all along who have given the Sabbath its proper place in their hearts rather than losing it in rules and regulations. Psalms 92 was composed in praise of the Sabbath and its meaning. The poet cries out, “How good it is to proclaim your constant love every morning and your faithfulness every night.” This is what the Sabbath rest was all about, a recognition of God’s constant love and his continuing faithfulness.

This is what we see in its perfection in Jesus Christ our Lord, our Sabbath rest. He is the ultimate sign of the Father’s constant love and continuing faithfulness.—the Editor