Called to Be Restless and The Sabbath of the Soul

Called to Be Restless and The Sabbath of the Soul 

September 11, 2021

 Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

 

We live in a time of anxiety, a time of unrest.  Every wind of doctrine (religious and political) is blowing in the wind. One headline on the Internet reads: “The Covid Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…and Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation.”  In the Washington Post is this headline: “On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith.”  It then says, “In an insular world on the social media app TikTok, young Christians act out biblically inspired scenes in which they are forced to take a vaccine for the coronavirus, only to end up splattered in fake blood and on the brink of death.”

 

But the spread of disease is only one trauma facing us today. Other countries are concerned too.  One headline stated: “Deutsche Bank Warns of Inflation”

 

Of course, 20 years ago today the US was attacked in New York and at the Pentagon and likely a fourth plane was headed for the Capital building. That single day changed the world as we knew it.  Change now is a constant and it is happening fast. The recent events in Afghanistan suggest that terrorism may have been given a new life.

 

All of this leaves us with the more critical question: How can there be “rest” in a turbulent world?  You will see that I’ve suggested a title for our study, “Called to Be Restless and The Sabbath of the Soul.” Are we really being called to be more restless? What is our sense of restlessness telling us?

 

 

To begin, let’s review three Bible passages as a backdrop to our study for the day:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. – Ecc. 3:11

And . . . 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Eph. 6:12

Finally, 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39.

Neither the word “rest” nor “restlessness” is found in these verses.  As a collection of verses, what do they have to say about “restlessness”? Has God left us to fend for ourselves? 

 

For a moment, let’s reflect on just these passages and the impact they have on our thinking, on our emotions, on our strength to face whatever is around the corner?

 

·      What is restlessness?

·      Is restlessness a good or bad thing?

·      The official title for today’s lesson is 
“Longing for more . . .” 

o   Longing for what?

o   Who or what causes that longing?

·      Does this longing have anything to do with the mission of the church? Why or why not?

 

[The official mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is:

 

The Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who live as His loving witnesses and proclaim to all people the everlasting gospel of the Three Angels’ Messages in preparation for His soon return (Matt 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Rev 14:6-12).]

 

By the time we finish I hope we can answer two questions that may appear to be contradictory:

 

1.    Are we called to be restless, and if so, restless about what?  (See the 3 opening Bible passages)

2.    What is rest and how is rest “the sabbath of the soul?”

 

 

A Sabbath Rest for the People of God

Hebrews 4

 

[Read Hebrews 4:1-11]

Two Critical Keys to Understanding Chapter 4

 

1.    The First Key: The General Flow Leading up to Hebrews 4:

 

Chapter 1 –Jesus has the most important message, one we must hear – a message greater than the prophets and greater than the angels.

 

Chapter 2—Jesus is qualified to be a merciful and faithful high priest. Keep in mind that the audience to whom Hebrews was originally writing believed that their heroes in times of trouble were Moses and Joshua as they led them to the Promised Land.

 

Chapter 3—Jesus is superior to Moses. We can have confidence in Him. Israel failed.  The delay to enter God’s Canaan rest was because of unbelief.

 

Chapter 4—In this chapter, the promise of rest in chapter 3 is continued.  It urges the readers of Hebrews to enter the true rest of God. The chapter closes with confidence in what Jesus does.  During times of uncertainty, there is hope, there is a kind of rest that God promised from the very beginning. Such confidence brought then to those going through a dramatic and historical change, and for us, today, (1)a “help in time of need” (4:16). (2) a fresh meaning behind the meaning that Jesus is our high priest, and that He is the better sacrifice, and, therefore, (3) He offers the better hope!

 

In our age when so much change is taking place, a time when the world remembers what happened 20 years ago, the attention of Christians is drawn not only to the cross but also to our own beginning in the Garden of Eden. We do have an anchor. That will keep us strong during times of storm.  We can have rest, “The Sabbath Rest of the Soul.”

 

2.    The Second Key for Understanding Hebrews Chapter 4 Is The Meaning of the Word “Rest”

 

Hebrews 4 takes us on a journey with three stops for reflection:

 

A.    The Rest of God at the Completion of Creation Week (Heb. 4:4 and Gen. 2:2)

 

B.    The Rest Found in the Settlement in Canaan by Joshua (Heb. 4:3,5,8)

 

C.    The Ultimate Rest in Christ That Awaits Us at the End of Time as Compared with the Sabbath Rest of God (Heb. 4:8-10 and Genesis 2:2)

 

 

Key Insights Related to “Rest”

 

Hebrews 4:1,2

1.     While rest may be an inheritance from God, it is not automatic.  The hearing of the gospel by itself does not ensure salvation. It must be incorporated by faith.

For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. (Heb. 4:2)

Hebrews 4:3-5

2.    Those who accepted the saving message by faith are then able to enter the “rest” of God as intended.  The “rest” that God promises to His people is a share in that rest which He Himself enjoys.  The seventh-day Sabbath points us to a deeper kind of rest that awaits those who place their confidence in God and the purpose He has designed for each of us.

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” (Hebrews 4:3,4)

Psalm 95:11 affirms that disobedience will lead to a denial of the promised “rest.”  The writer does this by relating the promised rest to the rest described in Genesis 2:2, “rested on the seventh day from all his work.”  

 

God’s rest has remained open to His people since the work of creation was finished.  The promised rest by God, the kind that He Himself enjoyed, will be forfeited by disobedience—this happens when greater trust is put in the headlines of the day than in Him. It was not because the “rest” was not yet available that the wilderness generation of Israelites failed to enter it.  It was available as they struggled in their own wilderness journey.  They could not see it or experience it because their faith was based on what they or others can do.

 

Hebrew 4:6-11

The same promised rest was and is still open for the people of God. 

Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest. . . God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts.”(Heb. 4:6,7)

 

Those who heard the message of David in Psalm 95:11 were already in the Promised Land of Canaan yet they were in danger of losing the “promised” rest.  The danger rested in their own stubbornness of heart. Verse 8 continues,

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. (Heb. 4:8-11)

 

The reader of the Greek Bible had an advantage.  For them “Joshua” and “Jesus” are not two different names but one. The parallel was clear.  Jesus who led His followers into the earthly Canaan, and Jesus the Son of God, who leads the heirs of the new covenant into their heavenly inheritance is the same Person.

 

This rest which is reserved for the people of God is properly called a “sabbath rest” because it is their participation in God’s own rest.  We must not lose sight of this Sabbath-keeping principle.  To keep the Sabbath, we rest in God’s rest, not in our own.  While we certainly need the physical blessing of rest, the ultimate rest is when we become identified with God by resting in Him and with Him. 

 

Concluding Thoughts

For Hebrews the gateway to God’s rest is listening to Jesus and accepting Him and His work for us by faith. The alternative is to drift (2:1). On the one hand is the fate of the wilderness wanderers. On the other is the heavenly Sabbath-like rest in Christ.” (George Knight in Exploring Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary, p.76)

Ellen White summarized well what the promised rest is,

What is the “rest” promised?—It is the consciousness that God is true, that He never disappoints the one who comes to Him. His pardon is full and free, and His acceptance means rest to the soul, rest in His love. -- The Review and Herald, April 25, 1899. (Our High Calling, p.97)

Paul’s counsel is so relevant for the challenges of today,

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-8)

Yes, we have been called to be restless . . . restless for the Jesus to come. Eternity has been placed in our hearts. During the interim, we can find the Sabbath rest in our trust, confidence, and faith by “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” (See Hebrews 12:2,3)