Posted: 9/13/06
Explore the Bible Series for September 24
Heed God’s word through obedience
• Hebrews 3:16-4:7, 9-13
By Howard Anderson
Diversified Spiritual Associates, San Antonio
God offers to humankind the blessings of a life far beyond what we can live without him. We must be willing to stake our lives on his promises.
In any realm of life, success depends on obedience to the word of the expert. God is the expert in life, and real happiness depends on obedience to him. While there is yet time, while we still can speak of today, give God the obedience he must have.
Example of disobedience (Hebrews 3:16-19)
What was it that caused the Israelites to disobey? Observe the three-fold movement of this calamity. First, there was the evil—unbelieving heart, faithlessness, and forgetting or ignoring the mighty power of God.
Second, there was fear, brought on by that lack of faith. Rather than obey God’s command, they asked to choose a captain who would lead them back to Egypt. They whined and murmured against Moses for bringing them out into the wilderness. They were willing to go back into slavery in order to have the luscious foods they could grow in the delta of the Nile. Their minds were on their comfort, and they feared the rigors of desert life that would toughen them and make them ready for conquest.
Third, the result is a hardened heart—a will no longer stimulated by the desires of God. A hard-hearted person will stand before the people of God and declare, “I do not care what the Bible says because I am going to do it my way.” Let God or the pastor approach the hardened heart with a challenge, and that one will revolt in ridicule.
At this point, God comes down with the anger of his judgment and says, “And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who did not believe” (Hebrews 3:18). Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23). The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
It is shocking how many churches are missing ministry opportunities because of hardened hearts. No one who disobeys God ever can enter his rest.
Concern for obedience (Hebrews 4:1-7)
The term “rest of God” appears multifaceted. It is the place of God’s design. God took the initiative and promised the people a good land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8). It is a spiritual principle that we always are to be in a responding mode to God’s initiative. His design is not a delightful take-it-or-leave-it option, but rather a mandate for acquisition. God’s design is the fulfillment of our highest identity and development. It is not negotiable. To respond in faith and obedience is to step into or enter that design and know all the sufficiency and peace implied in the term of “milk and honey.”
God matched the design for his family with his gracious design of rest. God is designer and builder of the house and the one who places a family in the house by the grace of Jesus Christ. So, rest is the abiding in an ultimate design for each of us—an abiding gained by a faith-response to the will of God. In the condition of rest, the faithful Christian experiences the exhilaration of creativity and productivity; stress and anxiety are minimized; joy lifts the spirit above the waves of normal frustration, and a holy purpose stimulates a vitality not overwhelmed by difficulties. Serenity and laughter are the marks of being in the place of rest. The rest of God is not cessation from activity—but a peace within the toil.
The opportunity to enter God’s rest remains open (“a promise” in v. 1). It is not too late. God offered rest to his people in Moses’ time and continued to offer it in David’s time. He still is patiently inviting his people to enter his rest (Romans 10:21).
Obedience is better than sacrifice and will lead to peace and rest in the midst of life’s continuation for the people of God. The blend of the themes of urgency and obedience are a clear invitation to the people of God (vv. 6-7).
Exhortation about obedience (Hebrews 4:8-13)
God’s true rest did not come through Joshua or Moses, but through Jesus Christ, who is greater than either one. Joshua led the nation of Israel into the land of their promised rest (Joshua 21:43-45); however, that was merely the earthly rest that was but the shadow of what was involved in the heavenly rest. The very fact that according to Psalm 95, God still was offering his rest in the time of David meant the rest offered was spiritual and superior to that which Joshua obtained. The attacks of enemies and the daily cycle of work was Israel’s earthly rest. The fullness of heavenly promise (Ephesians 1:3) and the absence of any labor to obtain it characterize the heavenly rest.
The word of God is comforting and nourishing to those who believe, and it is a tool of judgment and execution for those who have not committed themselves to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some of the Hebrews merely were going through the motions of belonging to Christ. Intellectually, they were at least partly persuaded, but inside they were not committed to him. God’s word would expose their shallow beliefs and even their false intentions (1 Peter 4:5).
The word of God (John 12:48) and God himself are our judges. We are accountable to the living, written word (John 6:63, 68) and to the living God who is its author.
Discussion questions
• How do you know when you are residing in the rest that God offers?
• What would prevent you from entering into that rest?
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