Rest

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest”  Hebrews 4:11

Rest – On a day like this, I need rest.  Life gets overwhelming even when we are trying our best to live every moment in His presence.  Then I read this verse and I get even more perplexed.  This is an emphatic exhortation to do something in order to find rest.  The last thing I want when I need rest is to have to work harder to get it.  So, what in the world can this mean?

The author of Hebrews is recalling an Old Testament image.  In Hebrews 4:3, he recalls Psalm 95:11 in order to give us the context for this word for rest.  The Hebrew word is a form of nuach (sound like nu-ak).  It implies a settled security.  It is used to describe the ark “resting” on the mountain.  It describes God “resting” Adam in the Garden (putting him in place).  It is used to describe the Sabbath “rest”.  It’s more than ceasing from labor.  It’s the place where God’s very presence comforts and secures us.  Ultimately, this rest is the rest of heaven.  It is the “rest” of salvation in the presence of God.

Remember Noah.  The name Noah most likely comes from this same root.  Noah’s name means security and rest.  He is a man who grew to become what he was.  That’s the kind of man I want to be – to become what God named me to be.

So, what does it mean to say that I have to be diligent to enter this rest?  Back to Psalm 95.  God is describing the Israelites in the forty-year period in the wilderness.  He says that they will never enter His rest because they hardened their hearts, tested Him, continued to be disobedient and refused to know His ways.  Therefore, He withheld rest. 

I long for the safety and security, the peace and rest of God.  But I don’t have to work harder to get it.  I have to do what the Israelites didn’t do:  depend entirely on Him.  I need to let Him be my God, let Him provide for me, let Him show His glory and magnify and worship Who He is.  I need to know His ways and follow them.  That’s not work.  It’s life.

Want rest.  Live life God’s way.  You’ll get to practice resting before you get to heaven where rest is the order of the day.