Heb.4:8-10 – For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
Why all the drama about the sabbath in the Bible. It seems like the religious leaders in Israel at the time of Jesus were upset about supposed sabbath breaking behavior by the Lord more than anything else. When He healed a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath the Pharisees were furious. Then there was the woman bent over by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years that Jesus also healed on the sabbath; again the Pharisees were beside themselves with anger. Obviously keeping the sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments, why was it so important? As always the answer lies in the types and shadows. The sabbath was a picture of the true rest we are called to enjoy. This rest is the intimacy that comes from our union and fellowship with the Lord. Sabbath keeping was not the solution; it only pointed to the solution. Christ was calling all of us to relationship which is the rest of God. Here is how Vine’s Word Book describes this.
“Rest sabbatismos, “a Sabbath-keeping,” is used in Heb. 4:9, RV, “a sabbath rest,” KJV marg., “a keeping of a sabbath” (akin to sabbatizo, “to keep the Sabbath,” used in Exod. 16:30; here the sabbath-keeping is the perpetual sabbath “rest” to be enjoyed uninterruptedly by believers in their fellowship with the Father and the Son, in contrast to the weekly Sabbath under the Law. Because this sabbath “rest” is the “rest” of God Himself, its full fruition is yet future, though believers now enter into it. In whatever way they enter into divine “rest,” that which they enjoy is involved in an indissoluble relation with God.”
This is one of the beautiful benefits we enjoy from being filled with the Holy Spirit. Learning to be filled and saturate in His presence brings us to a place to enjoy the rest of God. Nothing in this life compares to resting in His presence. Every time we experience this blessing a hungering for the fulfillment of this rest in heaven increases in us. The great day is drawing near – I can’t wait!!!
