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; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:8-10
Our lives are full of comparisons. If you have any doubts about this, just watch any commercial. There’s always, always, always comparisons. There’s our headache before taking the pill and then there’s the headache free afterwards. There’s the daily, boring life and then there’s the exciting and active time on vacation.
But comparisons go deeper than commercials. Just think about the last time you went out to eat. I’d bet my bottom dollar that someone said something about how the food compared to some other meal. Or how the service compared with somebody else.
Just this week, I had lunch with some men at a local barbeque place. My friend ordered what he always orders: a quarter pound of sliced pork without anything else. No bread. No side dishes. No sauce.
In just a few minutes, they quickly delivered his sliced pork just the way he likes it. He doctored it the way he always does with a combination of salt and pepper. He also makes up a combination of sweet and hot barbecue sauce on the side to dip his pork into.
Everything was fine until he got this funny look on his face. I saw him stick some fingers into his mouth. You could see him working hard with his teeth, tongue, and fingers, but I didn’t have a clue what was going on.
After a little while, he lowered his hand and there was this piece of plastic wrap pinched between a couple of fingers. We all stared at the plastic while our mouths all hung open. My friend looked at it, shrugged, put it on the side of his plate and just kept on eating.
What do you say when this happens? Well, we started talking about other bad meals that we’ve had at restaurants. There was this instant comparison between what had just happened with other memories and experiences. We could laugh at the memories of the past, but it’s harder to giggle when it just happened to you.
The writer of this letter writes a comparison for the Hebrews to think about. That comparison is between two very different kinds of rest. The first rest is the kind that we try and make for ourselves. The rest that we think we’ve earned and deserved. The rest that we plan and then take.
But there’s a second kind of rest. It’s the rest that God gives. A rest that he’s created. A rest that he thinks is best. A rest that will renew and refresh like nothing else we can even imagine.
Our rest is more of a knee-jerk reaction to something that’s hit us in the face. Something happens that we didn’t plan on. Something we didn’t hope for. It came up suddenly and now we’re face-to-face with some kind or problem or pain that we’re just not ready for.
It’s at times like this that we need to turn towards God himself and his kind of rest. His rest is nothing like our definition of rest. The kind of rest we want is for the pain to stop immediately and for us to be taken to a place where everything’s perfect and peaceful. But there are times when God’s kind of rest is just the opposite.
Sometimes we’re to just pick up our cross and follow Jesus – Matthew 16:24
Sometimes we’re to let it create perseverance and maturity – James 1:2-4
Sometimes we to let it make us into a living sacrifice – Romans 12:1
Sometimes we’re to be transformed by it – Romans 12:2
Sometimes we’re to share in his glory through it – Romans 8:17,18
Sometimes we’re to learn the secret of contentment – Philippians 4:12,13
Sometimes we’re to let God work for the good – Romans 8:28
The list could go on and on. There’s no lack of power when it comes to God changing our circumstances. Remember, he can do anything that will bring glory to himself. But his goals and purposes can be wildly different than what we want.
What do we want? We want pain to stop. We want all relationships to instantly be made whole. We want all cancers to disappear. We want all disabilities to be erased and replaced with complete healing. We want brokenness to be mended and put back together again without leaving any scars.
We want the easy way out. We want a smooth road. We want to walk through life and find $100 bills on the ground just to be picked up. We want to walk into a convenience store, buy a lottery ticket, and then have it instantly pay off.
But God’s kind of rest in this life isn’t like that. God’s rest is where we come to him with our tiredness. We come to him with the heavy burdens we’re carrying. And his promise is that he will give us rest[1]. So, our part is to come to him. That sounds simple enough, but it’s against our wanting to run our own lives. So, who’s rest will we reach out for?
Noodling Questions
Why are we always wanting to compare things?
List three dangers of comparing ourselves with others.
How were we made for God’s rest? Name four benefits.
[1] Matthew 11:28
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