Reading: Psalm 139
Text: 4:9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. … 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Last time we looked at Hebrews 3 and 4 and the story of the Jews at Kadesh Barnea and applied them to non-Christians in whose hearts God is working. Today I want us to look at the same passages again and see the lessons that apply to those of us who are Christians.
Think of the children of Israel as they stood victorious on the shores of the Red Sea. The power of the tyrant had been broken by a series of marvellous miracles. The Promised Land and a settled home, all lay within two or three months’ easy march. But only two of all those men were destined to see the land flowing with milk and honey; and these not for forty weary years. The others all died in the wilderness.
Their wilderness wanderings are a frightening picture of a restless, aimless, and unsatisfied life.
• Restless – because the tents were constantly being struck and re-erected in much the same spot.
• Aimless – because they wandered around in the wilderness achieving nothing – just killing time until the 40 years were done and all but Joshua and Caleb were dead and gone.
• Unsatisfied – because they were always moving, but never getting anywhere, never achieving anything.
Is this not typical of the lives of many Christians? Are we really satisfied – spiritually speaking? Or are we too stuck somewhere between Egypt and the Promised Land. We can’t go back to the World for we have been saved and are no longer fully at home there. But neither have we entered into the fullness of joy and rest that God has prepared for us.
Are we, like the Jews in the wilderness the victims of murmuring and discontent; or bitten by the serpents of jealousy and passion, sometimes even of hatred and ill-will? Is our experience a matter of broken promises and blighted hopes, of purposeless wanderings, of a continued failure?
In his book on Hebrews FB Meyer said: "Perhaps the majority of Christians live and die in the third chapter, to their infinite loss. Comparatively few pass over into the fourth. Yet why should you not pass the boundary line today, and leave behind forever the bitter, unsatisfactory experiences which have become the normal rule of your existence? Come up out of the wilderness, in which you have wandered so long. Your sojourn there has been due, not to any desire on the part of God … The exact opposite to your hitherto dreary experiences is Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ; to be made a partaker of Christ: for Christ is the Promised Land that flows with milk and honey, in which we eat bread without scarceness, and gather the grapes and pomegranates and olives of rare spiritual blessedness."
Partakers
Brothers and sisters this should not be so for we have become partakers of Christ Heb 3:14. This means that we are His partners and that we share our lives and our destiny with Him and in Him. He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15). His life-force should be flowing through us causing us to grow and bear fruit. We can take comfort in the assurance that there remains therefore a rest for the people of God 4:9. This means that we don’t have to live weary, aimless lives.
In Jesus, and in Him alone, we found salvation. So too the cure for our failure and aimless wanderings is to be found only in Him. He is comfort for our sorrow; rest for our weariness; strength for our weakness; purity for our sinful failure; an ever-present help that is more than sufficient for our every need. Oh, that we might learn to enjoy Him fully, for ever!
Verses 10 and 11 give us the two sides of this amazing coin. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. We need to recognize that we cannot make ourselves spiritual successes, any more than we could save ourselves. To enter this rest we must cease from our works. As Paul puts it in Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? The apparent contradiction is that we must both let go and let God, and, at the same time, be diligent to enter that rest. I am still struggling with this, but I am certainly not content as I am.
Fear and unbelief
What held the Jews back from entering the Promised Land? We saw this lat time that it was fear and unbelief. They saw the giants and the fortifications and they rightly judged that they could not conquer them. Is it not the same with us today? Do we not see giants ahead – both within our own hearts and in the world around us? Then, seeing them, do we not conclude that there is no point trying to knock the walls down with our feeble pea-shooters?
Unbelief raises a barrier which shuts out blessing. Christ could not save us unless we put our faith in Him – though of course even that faith was His precious gifts. Preaching will not touch our hearts unless we listen with faith, as v 2 reminds us. As when we were saved, we need God to touch our hearts for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Phil 2:13 Do you want a deeper experience of Christ? That in itself is evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work within your heart.
If we don’t enjoy His rest it is principally because we are looking for fulfilment in the wrong place. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns–broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jer 2:13 Are we neglecting fellowship with God, particularly through prayer and study of His word. Unbelief cannot survive in the sunlight of fellowship with God.
If we allow it, God’s Word is more like a scalpel in the hand of a skilled surgeon than a sword in the hands of a warrior. (4v12) It can cut away an infected appendix or tumour. Of course that is painful, but the long term benefits completely outweigh the pain. If we resist, however, the Word is equally powerful in judgment. It may be that we will die quickly like the 10 spies or that we will wear out in the wilderness like the majority. Either way it is a tragic waste.
The Jews failed to learn the lessons of the past. I’m sure that did not deny what God had done. They would no doubt have told you, with flashing eyes, the wonderful story of their deliverance. But His past goodness did not give them assurance for the future. They did not truly understand that He who delivered them from Pharaoh could shield them from Amalek; He who parted the Red Sea could take them safely across the Jordan.
As we pass through life we should remind ourselves of God’s great goodness. Has He saved us only to leave us to be snatched away by the evil one? Has He redeemed us from hell, to let us fall short of heaven? Rom 5:10 "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Or see Rom 8:31-39.
His love in time past
forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last
in trouble to sink;
each sweet Ebenezer
I have in review
confirms His good pleasure
to help me quite through. John Newton,
Do you remember the story of Peter, when He walked towards Jesus on the water?
Mt. 14:29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
It was fear and unbelief that made Peter sink, caused by taking his eyes off Jesus and looking down at the waves. What was the remedy? He cried out “Lord, save me!” If taking his eyes off Jesus was the cause, turning his eyes upon Jesus was the solution. May we learn to do the same when we feel that we are sinking! Then, truly, we shall find that the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
Hard hearts
These chapters warn us about unbelief and the danger of hard hearts. Hard hearts are unbelieving, but the hardest hearts were once soft. The soft earth of our gardens or a field gradually becomes hard if we walk across it time and time again. It does not usually happen quickly or intentionally, but through the deceitfulness of sin Heb 3:13.
We harden our hearts when we constantly hear and understand the truth, but refuse to act on it – to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin - James 4:17. We also harden our hearts when we say: “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Now is God’s time. “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts 3:15. Every delay is dangerous and, each time we delay, it becomes easier.
If God is speaking about something then we need to deal with it today, before we become hardened to the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12
Today, we can leave the wilderness forever, and by faith enter the Land of Promise. Tomorrow may well be too late.
Hypocrisy
It is so easy to make grand promises when the Word touches our hearts, but we are not so good at delivering on them. The Word of God is a mirror to show us our hearts, if we use it wisely, but as we have seen it is also an instrument of cleansing and judgement.
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The God of the Word watches us. There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. v13 He sees everything that we do and all that we think. He sees our deeds and words of kindness. He hears when we pray from the heart silently or behind closed doors. But as surely as He sees our private good deeds He also sees our secret sins; the envy or animosity; the unbelief, the hypocrisy which behaves one way in public, but another in private. We may deceive people or even ourselves about such things; but not God. We cannot hide anything from Him; all insincerity, unbelief, hypocrisy are open to Him. The LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1Sa 16:7
The following poem is found in Lubeck Cathedral, possibly taken from the walls of a medieval castle:
You call me Master and obey me not,
You call me light and see me not,
You call me Way and Walk me not.
You call me Life and Desire me not.
You call me wise and follow me not,
You call me fair and love me not,
You call me rich and ask me not,
You call me eternal and seek me not
You call me Gracious and Trust me not.
If I condemn you, blame me not.
His Word of truth is adapted to reveal our real feelings, and to show us exactly what we are like. It doesn’t matter whether this truth is preached, read, or communicated in a conversation. As long as it is impressed upon our heart by the Holy Spirit, there is no escape from its penetrating, searching power. In some way it will reveal our hearts.
This is really scary, but what is so marvellous is that he who knows so much about me and my sinful heart loves me still! The Saviour known us inside and out, He knows when we sit down and when we stand up (Ps139:2) He knows our secret vices, the waywardness and depravity of our hearts; and yet he loves us, and will always love us. The wonderful words which follow: Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession provide the explanation. He has a priest’s heart. His scrutiny is not one of morbid or idle curiosity, but like that of a surgeon, who cuts only to eradicate the disease as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
What shall we do then brothers and sisters? Shall we waste our lives in the wilderness of fear and unbelief or shall we go forth to face the giants? Not that we can conquer, but like Peter let us cry to Him to save us from our fear and unbelief. Walking with Him, we shall know His fellowship, guidance and protection for “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us – Numbers 13:8
May our heartfelt prayer be: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. Ps139:23
