God's Exceptional Choice
Out of Slavery - Into Nationhood
Song of Moses
Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5)
Hebrews 4:1-11 The Voice4 That's why, as long as that promise of entering God's rest remains open to us, we should be careful that none of us seem to fall short ourselves. 2 Those people in the wilderness heard God's good news, just as w e have heard it, but the message they heard didn't do them any good since it wasn't combined with faith. 3 We who believe are entering into salvation's rest, as He said, That is why I swore in anger
they would never enter salvation's rest,[a] even though God's works were finished from the very creation of the world. 4 (For didn't God say that on the seventh day of creation, He rested from all His works?[b]5 And doesn't God say in the psalm that they would never enter into salvation's rest? [c]) There is much discussion of "rest" in what we are calling the First Testament of Scripture. God rests on the seventh day after creation. In the Ten Commandments, God commands His people to remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, and do no work. By letting go of daily work, they declared their absolute dependence on God to meet their needs. We do not live by the work of our hands but by the bread and Word that God supplies. But a greater rest is yet to come when we will be released from all suffering and when we will inherit the earth. Jesus embodies this greater rest that still awaits the people of God, a people fashioned through obedience and faith. If some of us fail to enter that rest, it I,s because we fail to answer the call. 6 So if God prepared a place of rest, and those who were given the good news didn't enter because they chose disobedience over faith, then it remains open for us to enter. 7 Once again, God has fixed a day; and that day is "today," as David said so much later when he wrote in the psalm quoted earlier: Today, if you listen to his voice,
Don't harden your hearts.[d] 8 Now if Joshua had been able to lead those who followed him into God's rest, would God then have spoken this way? 9 There still remains a place of rest, a true Sabbath, for the people of God 10 because those who enter into salvation's rest lay down their labors in the same way that God entered into a Sabbath rest from His. 11 So let us move forward to enter this rest, so that none of us fall into the kind of faithless disobedience that prevented them from entering.
For Reflection
All of humankind are yearning for relief from the pressures of everyday living. We desire a time when we are not pressured by others or ourselves to "work it all out." We desire a time when we do not feel responsible for everything. We desire a time when we can truly relax. "Stop the World; I Want to Get Off" kind of rest.
God has prepared a plan of rest for us, and we don't have to die to enter it. Complete and utter faith in God's intention for us to live in peace and joy even in the face of chaos is not a pipe dream offer. The day you will feel the calming influence of the Holy Spirit is the day you will find enduring rest. It is the day you place your life in God's hands is the day that your life pressures will pale compared to the new attitudes of contentment and peace.
Color your life in bright colors. Hopelessness will turn into sustaining hope. Impatience will be displaced by patience. Ignoring the spiritual dimensions of life will be shifted by participation in the community of the faithful. PrayPray so that you can find peace in faithful obedience to the call of God.
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