I didn't think I would be so overcome with emotion in today's study. Standing on the edge of Heaven stirs my heart every time I dare to stand at the gate to peer in. The video begins with a response to one of the questions posed in our Week 1 Session, Rest to Ransom. What is the significance of no night recorded on the 7th day of creation when God rested? While I’m certain there are various perspectives illuminating this, I share my thoughts by reviewing a few passages of scripture. (And beware of the opening blooper. That one's for you, Mom!)
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God’s glory is brilliance, that which distinguishes Himself as God. Revelation 21:25 says, "In the daytime (for there shall be no night there), it's gates shall never close. How wonderful God's illuminated glory will be! However, it is also a consuming fire. We see this contrast in the wilderness as God is preparing His people to enter into the Promised Land.
Remember with me in Exodus 32 and 33, Moses is enveloped in God’s complete glory and then he takes a hike down the mountain to discover the Israelites worshipping the calf. God smote the people for their sin and further claimed He would not go with the Israelites “lest He destroy them along the way.”
What does Isaiah 33:11-12 say about the breath of God?
It is for this very reason that the chosen people of God could not enter into the Promised Land. Their sin kept them from entering God’s rest.
ENTER THY REST
Read Hebrews 4:1-13 to establish a context about entering God’s rest as I unpack a couple scriptures.
Underneath the sin was an underlying issue that kept an entire generation of Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Keeping them on the edge of Canaan, incapable of entering in God’s rest or gaining the inheritance promised to them.
Read Hebrews 3:7-12 to see what kept God’s chosen people from entering His rest.
Unbelief.
It was not God’s will for his people to stay in the wilderness but their unbelief and doubt delayed their promise of God. They went backwards in unbelief, rather than forward in faith. Ultimately they died in the wilderness and it was a new generation, led by Joshua, which possessed the land and entered in.
DOUBT IN THE WILDNERNESS
Don’t you think it is the same for us? We can wander aimlessly in circles by living in restless unbelief. We doubt God, which leads to not trusting Him, which leads to not obeying His Word. Remember Eve?
We can all have moments of doubt. For me, it comes with impatience over trials not being “resolved.” Oh, how I can get frustrated at God for allowing a harsh circumstance or taking something away from me, when it’s the very chastisement God is using to draw me to closer, more intimate fellowship with Him. So I will trust Him more.
Instead, I fight and raise a stubborn fist in my heart. My frustration level increases. My inner temperature rises. Anger ensues. Complaints are proclaimed. All of which diminish my prayer life, relationships and reduce my faith to a mere flicker, ready to fade out.
Simply because I failed to believe God allowed the trials and circumstance for my own good.
And while a lament is a form of worship, it is not to become part our daily talk. Laments always end in praise and trust that God will prevail. Complaints end with unmet expectations and presumptions that God is punishing us.
What areas of your life are infected by doubt and unbelief?
If doubt is creeping in, step out into your proverbial Canaan and claim the inheritance of faith promised to you by the author and perfecter of your faith.
The rest God has for us today is a greater rest than what Joshua could give. Hebrews 4:11 tells us to be diligent to enter God’s rest. If unbelief leading to disobedience kept the Israelites out of the rest of Canaan, we reap the same consequence.
Remember when Jesus said He will give us rest? He says Come. Take. Learn.
The Greek word for learn is manthano and has a threefold meaning: To increase in knowledge, to be informed by hearing and to learn by use and practice.
Be diligent to hear His voice.
Be diligent to read the Word.
Be diligent to exercise faith.
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
THE REST OF SUBMISSION
When the unbelieving generation stood at the edge of wilderness, they said, “We are not able.”
But Joshua confidently said, “God is able.” He knew God’s word was true.
When we, like Joshua, have faith the ultimate result is submission to the authority and ability of God.
When I loosen the grip of my own clenched fist, and open my hands to receive from Him, I find there is rest in submission.
REST TO REJOICING
In our passage of study, God speaks of us entering His rest. The spiritual rest we have today does not compare to what is waiting for us. Doesn’t even come close.
There is an in describable rest for the future. A rest that if we truly knew what it was like, would cast off any stray bullets of doubt that dared to wound our faith.
Just as the Israelites stood on the edge of Canaan, we are going to stand on the edge of Heaven to see what this rest is about.
AT HEAVEN’S GATES
Read Hebrews 4:9 again. This is the only occurrence of the greek word, Sabbatismos. It is a continual Sabbath. An uninterrupted Sabbath. A perpetual rest with Jesus and God the Father.
Read Revelation 14:13. The fullness of this sabbatismos is set in the future.
It gives me great JOY to know that one day there will no longer be this war, battle against my own spirit and flesh. We will be in total and complete rest and fellowship with the One who breathed life into us.
The future rest that is to come is going to be magnificent and brilliant beyond all human comprehension. While we can only stand on the edge of Heavens gates, peaking in to catch a few glimpses, God says it needs to be the very desire of our hearts.
“How blessed is the (wo)man whose strength is in Thee; In whose heart is set on pilgrimage….for better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere…How blessed is the (wo)man who trusts in thee!” Psalm 84:5, 10, 12
Is your heart set on pilgrimage? How often do you allow your mind to drift past the gates of Heaven? How does the hope of Heaven impact your daily walk in Christ?
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us God has set eternity in our hearts and all things will be made beautiful in His time. There is a whisper in our heartbeat, calling us to a home not set in the temporal.
Read Revelation 21:3-6
God will make all things new again.
We rejoice in the days when God will wipe our tears.
We rejoice in the day there so be no death.
No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain.
Here’s how the Lord spoke to Isaiah about the Divine Rest found on the Holy Highway.
“They will see the glory of the Lord, the Majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, Take courage, fear not….He will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a dear, And the tongue will shout for joy…And a highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. But the redeemed will walk there, And the ransom of the Lord will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
Isaiah 35:2-10
There will be a full and complete rest of rejoicing and He will allow us entrance in His rest with the beautiful words, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
REST is a 4-week Bible study series, this being our final week. View an overview of the entire series, Begin Week 1: Rest to Ransom, Begin Week 2: Rest to Reflection, Begin Week 3: Rest to Restoration or Subscribe now to receive posts via email or rss feeder.
Join us for tomorrow's guest writer, my friend, Michelle Lanksbury, who recounts her incredible story of resting in God with the life of her son and by hosting a "WINGS" Psalm 91 necklace giveaway for our readers.
