David Bahn – Reflections

Hebrews 4:1 (See 4:1-10 below)

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Cozy, bored, discouraged, or fully alive: which would you rather be? Better yet, what does God want for you? These words from Hebrews 4 express the desire of God that we not only hear the invitation and promise of entering his rest, but that we engage ourselves in living it out by faith. To do that requires more than acknowledging God’s gift – nodding our head so to speak in agreement of the fact. Living it out by faith means embracing the promise and letting that promise shape our decisions and actions.

God is teaching us here that it is clearly possible to be part of the people of God, to hear the promises (perhaps even acknowledging that they are true and good), but fail to benefit from those promises. For the promises of God’s rest are beyond the fleeting experiences of God’s goodness in this life. We may experience a great personal victory: landing a job we’ve been praying for, hearing the report from the doctor that the disease is cured, or seeing a child succeed in life. All these are good gifts from God. But they are the foretaste of an even better blessing that God has in store for us.

The invitation is to believe that God is good, and that there is an eternal blessing in store for those who believe. The challenge is to hold to that belief and let it shape our hearts and dreams when life here and now becomes difficult. The Hebrew believers were in the throes of persecution. Heaven seemed a distant and faint hope. There were other answers vying for their hearts. They were among people who distracted them from Christ and the reality of his reign. Their challenge was to hold fast to Christ and the Christian hope in the face of distraction, hardship, persecution, and discouragement.

We think that a life of ease is the answer to our struggles: if only life would get better! But a life of no troubles is a cozy existence that too easily dulls our minds to the better hope of eternal salvation. We are called to believe the promises of God for eternity as we seek God’s Kingdom here and now. That’s invitation and challenge.

Hebrews 4:1-10

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ² For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵ And again in this passage he said,

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, “Today”, saying through David so long afterwards, in the words already quoted,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.