The word "rest" appears 13 times in Chapters 3 and 4 and I'd like to divide it into two categories - the Moses rest and the Joshua rest both of which were actually unsuccessful rests but point to rests that are attainable for us.
Moses was to lead the people into the promised land but was unsuccessful because the spies gave a bad report and even though the Israelites had daily supernatural proof of the power of God, they thought the people of the land were too big to defeat. He never crossed the river Jordan with them. Now if you have ever been to a geriatric church service, you understand the significance and symbolism of crossing the River Jordan - this is entering Heaven, our eternal rest. If we combine belief with faith we can be saved and attain this eternal rest - the rest that Moses, symbolizing the law, could never give them. The Law does not save. The Law points to our need for a savior and in effect so many of the laws point to and were fulfilled by Christ who came not to destroy the law but fulfill it. 1John 5 states that we can know we have this eternal life and this life is through faith in Jesus Christ. Have you attained this rest through faith in Jesus' blood shed for you?
Joshua did lead them into the promised land so he gave them rest, right? Hebrews 4:8 says an emphatic "no". Why not? Because the people lacked faith. When they got into Caanan they were to drive the inhabitants out or else they would continue to be thorns in their sides from internal and external attacks but the 12 tribes did not do what they were instructed to do because of various excuses like "they have iron chariots", "they are determined to live in the land", "they make good slaves", etc. After having the walls of Jericho fall down by marching around them, passing through a divided river on dry river bed, after seeing one person defeating 1000, after going through wars without one person being injured, they lacked faith to cleanse the land and therefore never had rest. The rest I call this is soul rest the kind of rest Jesus talks about when He says come unto me and you will have rest for your souls. We all have areas of our life where we don't have rest. It could be a lawsuit, an outstanding debt, a sickness, looming unemployment, marital or family issues and the list goes on.
How many of these were self inflicted - we didn't trust God enough to obey his word and be obedient in every area of our life and we are reaping the lack of rest that comes along with this?I call this the Morton Salt girl phenomenon.
