Hebrews 4:1-10

the Rest That Joshua Could Not Give

Hebrews 4:1

The good news of Canaan's rest was preached to Israel but availed nothing, because the hearers were destitute of faith. They said, Can God ? instead of, God can! They thought of their enemies as giants and themselves as grasshoppers, because they left God out of account. Take God into account -and we are giants and our enemies grasshoppers.

To all of us Christ offers rest, not in the other life only, but in this. See Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:11. Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety and foreboding. The rest that arrives from handing all worries over to Christ, and receiving from Christ all we need. Have we entered into that experience? In Hebrews 4:6; Hebrews 4:11, where a.v. reads, “unbelief,” r.v., reads, “disobedience.” If we disobey, we cannot believe; but when we believe we are sure to obey. In Hebrews 4:10 we are directed to our risen Lord, who has finished the work of Redemption and rests, as God did when He pronounced Creation to be “very good.” When we understand what He meant by “It is finished,” we, too, shall rest.