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Make Every Effort to Enter God’s Rest
(Ge2:1-2; He4:1-11)

God is the Lord of rest.
Rest is in Him and comes from Him.
He lets those who combine the word they heard with faith enter His rest (He4:2).

Faith is believing this and longing for God’s eternal, perfect rest, and
The life of this faith is in order to enter His rest, making every effort to obey His word (He3:18-19, 4:6).

While everyone seeks rest there is no true rest in the universe for it is where God Himself worked.
By the seventh day He finished the work of creating all things in six days entered rest (Ge2:2-3) and
The universe is Sheol, Hades that is:
Fallen from the spiritual heaven, the grave, the depths of the pit (1Sa2:6; Is14:15);
Where the dead are (Pr9:18);
Where agony and pain is (Lk16:22-24); “where the smoke of torment rises for ever and ever (Rev14:11);
Where one cannot leave on his own (Lk16:26); and
The place that will become the eternal lake of fire, hell (2Pe3:7-12; Rev10:14).

Even in the Garden of Eden there was no perfect rest for it is where
The serpent incited Adam and Eve to sin and (Ge2:17, 3:4) and thus
All men became destined to toil (Ge3:16-18) and finally follow the devil to hell (Mt25:41).

The Israelites who had been slaves for 400 years left Egypt overnight
Since the pharaoh who heard the message to let them go increased their toils (Ex3:6-10, 5:3-23).
Yet even greater toil awaited them in the wilderness, which was
The commandments, especially those regarding the Sabbath (Ex20:8-10):
Remember the Sabbath — Jehovah is the Creator who made all things in six days — rested on the seventh;

Keep the Sabbath day holy — set it apart from six days — do no work (Ex20:10),
Do not speak idle words, do not do as you please (Is58:13-14).
Anyone breaking it was to be put to death (Ex31:15).

But the sanctuary was an exterritorial space where
The priests served Jehovah day and night (Lev26:9; 1Ch9:32; 2Ch2:4).
It reminded them that He was their God and they were His people and
They were to keep the Sabbath as a sign of the covenant for rest (Jer31:2).
While they were to observe the Sabbath and have reverence for the sanctuary (Lev19:30), however,
They broke the Sabbath and desecrated the temple (Eze20:21), for which they faced repeated curse.

Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19),
He would end the rest Jehovah commanded Israel and
He Himself would give His rest to the souls of all nations (Mt11:28-30), and
By keeping not the Sabbath day but another day (He4:8),
He would give not physical rest in the land of Canaan but eternal rest in the Father’s house (Jn14:2).
However, He was accused by the Pharisees and passed over to death for doing
What was unlawful on the Sabbath, healing the sick (Mk3:2-4; Lk13:12-16; Jn5:5-17, 9:14-16).
But He is greater than the temple, the Lord of the Sabbath (Mt12:1-6; Mk2:28).

As He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1) Ended the toils of His flesh, the incarnate Word from the beginning (Jn1:1, 14), and
committed His soul to the Father the Lord of rest (Ps49:15, 116:3-4; Lk23:46);
2) Judged the devil who disrupted the resting environment (Ge2:17, 3:4-6; Is14:12-15); and
3) In place of all men carried the burden of their sins and shed His blood to give them rest (Ps68:19; Is53:4-5; 1Pe2:24).

Yeshua resurrected on the day after the Sabbath day, the eighth day,
Another day, the Lord’s Day (Ac20:7, 1Co16:2; He4:8; Rev1:10), and ascended to heaven:
The seventh day — the Creator finished His work — entered His rest;
The eight day/another day — the Redeemer finished His work — entered His rest.

The Holy Spirit comes to those who received the promise of entering God’s eternal rest and
On the Lord’s day gathers them in the name Yeshua as
Members of His body the church (Eph1:22; Col1:18) and lets them worship.

The Christian is he who knows that
All his burdens have been carried by Yeshua and has been set free in His name (Rm8:1-2).
Therefore he obeys the word he heard (He4:11) by
Praying (Col4:2), gathering (He10:25), preaching the word (2Ti4:2), serving (1Th4:10),
Carrying each other’s burdens (2Co4:10; Gal5:2) and doing the Lord’s work (2Co11:23-28).
He makes every effort lest he fails to enter that rest.

O Lord,
Being yoked with Yeshua we love is not hard or heavy. Rather it is easy and light!
Let us make greater effort to do Your work and
On the day we leave this world let us all enter eternal rest!
Oh I wanna go, oh I wanna go home~
Amen.