Author: Kristen Kansiewicz, LMHC

“So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

‘Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts.’

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.”

After Moses led the Israelites in the desert and failed to enter the Promised Land, his successor Joshua took over. It was Joshua that finally led them into the land God had promised to their forefather Abraham after they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. I would imagine that after 40 years of wandering around hungry and thirsty in a desert, the Promised Land seemed like the fulfillment of everything God had for his people.

If the Promised Land had been all there was, then God’s promise of rest would have been fulfilled right then and there. But God has much more in store. Anyone whose heart is turned toward God will enter this eternal rest. Let’s not forget that the author of Hebrews has taken great pains to explain that Jesus is God himself. Therefore, accepting Jesus’ divine status is central to entering God’s rest.

In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way. He is the path that leads to this rest that God is talking about. The Israelites wandered around in the desert for 40 long years. They rebelled against God at many points and their hearts kept hardening. They needed to stay soft, trust God, and follow his lead. Today, we have a path that God has laid out for us: Jesus. Believing in Jesus and seeking him is how we will find God’s rest.

“God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

‘In my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’

even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: ‘On the seventh day God rested from all his work.’ But in the other passage God said, ‘They will never enter my place of rest.'”

Today’s passage references Psalm 95 in which God cautions his people to remember the story of Moses and not harden their hearts. God has created a place of rest and his desire is to share it with us. Entering his rest was significant all the way back to the creation of the world. But if we harden our hearts and turn from God, how can we enter it? He’s not going to force us to be with him.

In Romans 5 the Bible says that we are “friends of God.” But as in any relationship, if we take that friendship status for granted we might very well lose it. Moses thought that he and God were on good terms and nothing could change that. In the end, a serious wrong move kept him from entering God’s rest. When we focus only on God calling us “friend,” we sometimes lose a healthy level of fear. Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true knowledge. If you are really smart you will maintain an awareness that God is not to be taken lightly.

The good news — the heart of the Gospel — is that God has prepared rest for you and he has invited you to join him in it. I don’t believe that we have to wait for heaven to enter that place with him. We can access it in glimpses and pieces here on earth. In fact, the church’s mission is to usher in the kingdom of God and help prepare the new heaven and new earth. We create Heaven moments right now when we participate with God in the peace he has for us. God’s prescription for our time on earth is to follow his example — 1/7th of our time is set aside for rest. Don’t miss out!

“And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.”

One of my biggest beefs with God is the fact that Moses never made it into the Promised Land. If you are not familiar with the story, you can find it in Numbers 20. On a few occasions during the Israelites’ journey through the desert, the people had no water and God told Moses to hit a rock to obtain water. Moses would hit the rock with his special staff and water would flow from the rock. In Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to the rock instead. In front of all the people in quite a display, Moses struck the rock. Water still came gushing out, but God was not pleased. Moses’ act was one of distrust — he did what was safe and familiar instead of listening to exactly what God said. As today’s passage says, Moses was not able to enter God’s rest because he had unbelief.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Moses had led the people through the desert for 40 years and had obeyed God so much, yet he misses out on the Promised Land after all that? To me that has always felt harsh, but I trust in the goodness of God and he certainly has a better sense of justice than I do. Ultimately, God doesn’t weigh our good versus bad and see if we come out on top. Distrust and disobedience always carry us farther from God and prevent us from entering true rest with him.

The Christian life is a radical one. This entire chapter is a warning about what happens when we fall away from God. Plenty of people start the spiritual journey in a sprint, but they don’t make it the distance. What’s going to get you through all of life’s challenges? What is going to hold you firm in trusting God no matter what your circumstances tell you? Faith. Unswerving, unshakable faith in the goodness of God. Hold tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still ‘today,’ so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says:

‘Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts
    as Israel did when they rebelled.'”

In yesterday’s post we were reminded to keep our hearts soft and open to Jesus. Today’s passage continues that theme, and specifically tells us to make sure our own hearts are not evil and unbelieving. How do we each do that? What does it mean to make sure my heart is not evil? One clue: evil and unbelieving hearts turn away from God.

If you ever wondered if you could successfully follow Jesus by yourself, the answer is a big “NO!” Our hearts are prone to wander away from God, and we need to remind each other every day who Jesus is. The author uses the word “warn” here. This requires a certain level of commitment and willingness to say hard things and hear hard things from each other. When we position ourselves in this way, we just might make it to the end where we will share in all that belongs to Christ (which is everything!).

It’s really hard to be faithful. It means you’ve got to hang in there through good times and bad. It means you have to remember why you got into this whole Jesus thing in the first place. It means you cannot forget who he is, what he has done for you, and what is coming to those who believe in him. If you don’t have people in your life who regularly remind you about these things, find them! You need people to keep you in check or you run the risk of forgetting. Moses forgot and didn’t enter the Promised Land. Don’t let pride tell you that you can overcome evil by yourself. You can’t.

“Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

That is why the Holy Spirit says,

‘Today when you hear his voice don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled,
    when they tested me in the wilderness.
There your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
    even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
    They refuse to do what I tell them.’
So in my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest.'”

The author of Hebrews includes a large passage from Psalm 95 today to emphasize how following Jesus is following the heart of God that had been familiar to the Jewish people for generations. We are still differentiating between Jesus and Moses. What is the difference between the servant and the Master of the house? One performs a service (and there can be many) and the other owns the place. Where do we fit in? Together as the church we are the house where God dwells.

What I find interesting here is that in Psalm 95, the passage reads, “the Lord says…” You may notice that in the Bible the letter in “Lord” are written in small caps. This indicates that the name “Yahweh” is used there to show that God himself is speaking. In this passage, “the Holy Spirit” is used interchangeably with what had been “Yahweh,” and prior to this Jesus was referred to as Lord as well. These types of passages in the Bible are not accidental, and they point us to the doctrine of the Trinity: three persons in one God. It is certainly a challenge to wrap our minds around, but the Bible specifically calls the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit “God” on many occasions.

In addition to the underlying theology about the nature of God, the point of today’s passage is that our hearts should be open to Jesus. Many Jews at this time were closed to Jesus — they saw him as a heretic. The author is taking great care to explain Jesus’ role in Israel’s history, his presence in the Old Testament, and his unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Those who harden their hearts to Jesus can never enter the true place of rest — the ultimate Promised Land. Jewish readers who were just prompted to think about Moses would be stirred by this, as Moses himself was denied entrance to the Promised Land after he disobeyed God. How’s the condition of your heart today? Follow the voice of the Holy Spirit and trust where he is taking you.