Heb. 3:15-19 – While it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
This passage talks of a great tragedy for the children of Israel who left Egypt by faith but were not able to finish their journey into the promised land. They came out of their old world but never fully entered the new world, somehow they were stuck between two kingdoms. How many Christians find themselves in that same position, they have left the world and its lifestyle of sin but have not entered into the rest and enjoyment of the kingdom of God? If you think about it, there is really not a more miserable life, you have left the pleasures of this world found in living a full out ungodly lifestyle, but have not entered into the rest of God and the pleasures found there. Only full surrender to Him and His plan can bring you to the place of full enjoyment of all that the Lord has made available to us today in His life behind the veil. Here is how Andrew Murray describes this passage.
“What mean all the warnings in our Epistle, specially dedicated to the unfolding of the heavenly life and power, the complete salvation of our great High Priest? it means this, that no teaching of what Christ is can profit, unless our hearts are longing and ready to follow Him fully. The Epistle will sum up all its teachings in its call to enter into the Holiest of All, into the rest of God. But it wants us to feel deeply that there can be no entering in, except in the path of faith and full obedience, except with a heart that is ready to forsake all its own will, to follow Him who bore the cross, a heart that will be content with nothing less than all that God is willing to give.”
This life of rest is given to us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The life of the Spirit is ours because of the death of Christ and His exaltation to the Father’s right hand. This was typified by the shekinah glory behind the veil in the temple. Today this life is ours, we leave behind our earthly distractions and embrace Jesus. This is the rest of God, this is a taste of our heavenly inheritance.
