The True Eternal Sabbath of God's People

Zathrus · Little Guppy Joined: 05 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

Let me start by quoting a passage from Hebrews 4:
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
"So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.' "
4And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."
5And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."
6It 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.
7Therefore 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."
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Let me just point out that this rest that the church was to enter into was the Sabbath rest. This is mentioned in verses 4 and 9. The new testament does not introduce new ideas, in this case a new kind of rest. It chronicles the true spiritual fulfillment of ideas that were presented in the old testament.

This passage deals with the true Sabbath of God's people.

Note that it's also compared with Israel entering into the promised land. This rest is the end, or ultimate goal aimed at.

Note that in verse 10, there is mention of resting from one's own work.

Some passages to help us understand and identify exactly what is being talked about in this passage:
Heb 3:18, 19
18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed (disbelieved)?
19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Now the passage above is talking about the children of Israel, but the point being made is that it is faith in Jesus Christ, not observance of laws, that will bring the writer's audience into this true Sabbath rest.

I think the answer to identifying this rest lies in understanding the main point of the entire book of Hebrews: that the new covenant, in which man is right with God through faith in Christ, had been established, and that what remained of the old covenant, in which Israel strived unsuccessfully to be right with God through the works of the law, was soon to come to an end. Bear in mind that at the time of this book's writing, the temple and the Levitical priesthood, and the old testament sacrifices still existed, and the writer's intended audience was believers who were considering going back to this system after becoming believers in Christ. His point was:
That system of relating to God won't be around much longer! And when it passed away, the Hebrew believers would enter into this rest the writer spoke of.

The writer said that system was to be shaken (ch 12:26-28) so that only God's everlasting kingdom would remain. He wrote:
"By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. " (ch8:13).

And soon, it did.

So back to chapt. 4, the reference to the sabbath rest was a reference to our day! A day in which the obsolete old covanent order of working for righteousness has long disappeared, and we, God's people, have entered into our true spiritual promised land, have been made righteous before God, and as the writer said, "rest from our own work"!