Reading:
Deut. 1:2-3, 8:2; Heb. 3:19, 4:1.
We
have been thinking of the distance of difference between
Christ and ourselves. In virtue of the shed and sprinkled
blood, Israel had been brought out of Egypt and made the
people of God; they were the Lord’s redeemed ones.
But even so a fact existed which could not be overlooked,
ignored or made light of, a fact which had to be
recognised, and fully so. That fact was, and is, that
even when we are the Lord’s, in ourselves there is a
vast distance of difference between ourselves as
ourselves and Himself. Eleven days and forty years —
not a fixed period, a period fixed by God; that is, not
of necessity forty years. The distance is determined, not
by geography or time, but entirely by the appropriation
of faith.
Entering into God’s Rest
What
is the end of the journey, the goal? What is it all unto?
God calls it “My rest”. Rest, God’s rest,
that is the end of the journey, and how soon we reach the
end of the journey entirely depends upon our apprehension
of the meaning of rest, our faith’s apprehension of
the meaning of rest. You can be out of Egypt and into the
end of the journey in no time where faith is large enough
for it. But “we see that they could not enter in
because of unbelief”. The end of the journey is
always immediately present to faith. It is not distant.
It is nearer or farther according to faith.
Faith’s Foundation for
Entering into God’s Rest
But we
want to understand what the basis of this faith is, and
therefore what the meaning of God’s rest is. We have
said that it is the apprehending of Christ. This letter
to the Hebrews, which brings the journey and its end so
much into view, is entirely given up to laying the
foundation of faith unto God’s rest. Chapter by
chapter or stage by stage, it presents us with that
foundation, or those foundations. We might just look at
one or two of them, but we begin with the all-inclusive
and comprehensive one, the presentation of Christ at the
beginning of the letter. There the whole background of
all the rest is presented to us, the foundation of all
that follows.
a) God given to us in Sonship
It is
that Christ is God given to us in Sonship: “the
express image”, “the effulgence”; to use
the words of the prophet, “unto us a son is
given” (Is. 9:6). Not only “a child is
born”, but “a son is given.” It is God
manifest in the flesh, Christ is God. Again, referring to
the prophet’s words, “His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Father of
Eternity” or Everlasting Father. This Son is called
that, the Father of Eternity.
What
is the value of that for rest, for faith unto rest? Oh,
surely it must appeal to our hearts as being of supreme
and infinite significance. You see what the apostle is
saying here. In the past the great revelations of God
Himself were mediated through angels. What mighty and
marvellous things were done through angels! The greatest
things in that dispensation were done through angels. God
came to men through angels. God communicated Himself
through angels, revealed His mind through angels, and
exercised His power through angels. The angels of God
were constantly ascending and descending in that
dispensation, to carry on the purpose of God amongst men.
The highest form of God’s manifestation was through
angels.
But
here the apostle says: not unto angels, not through
angels, but better than angels, higher than angels,
Son-wise. God has given Himself in terms of Sonship. It
is a great word of the prophet, “Jehovah has become
my salvation” (Is. 12:2). Yes, the Name, the highest
Name of all, Jehovah, the Lord Jehovah has become my
salvation. Not a representative of the Lord, not even an
angelic representative, but Jehovah Himself has become my
salvation. The Lord Himself has come forth in this matter
of our salvation, and if that is true, well, we must
believe, our faith must go the whole way and believe
either that Jehovah can fail or that He cannot, that
Jehovah can do His work or He cannot, Jehovah can see
this through or He cannot. If Jehovah cannot, it cannot
be seen through. It is ultimate, final. It is no less
than the Lord Himself.
That
is the significance bound up with this first presentation
in the letter to the Hebrews — the effulgence of His
glory, the express image of His Person. God in Christ in
terms of Sonship (the significance of which we shall note
again in a moment) has come forth. That is the foundation
of everything. The Lord personally, directly, immediately
and absolutely, has taken this thing in hand. He has not
committed it to the hands of angels or men, but has said,
I Myself will accomplish this thing, I will go down and
do it! “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). That is the full foundation
for faith that can lead us into rest, and immediately the
journey is shorter or longer according to our
apprehension of that; whether we are able to stand
alongside of the apostle, even when the gale is blowing,
the storm is as a blast, and say, I believe God! (Acts
27:25). I say the journey to rest is shorter or longer
according to our ability to take that position. If Israel
in the wilderness had taken that position, it would not
have been forty years; but they did not believe God.
b) God in Christ our Kinsman
Then
you pass on in this letter and you find that is broken
up, expressed in different forms. In the next place, God
is revealed in Christ as having come to us in kinship.
Passing into chapter 2 from verse 10, you know that
sublime section about “I and the children whom God
hath given me”; I and the brethren — “I
will declare thy name unto my brethren”. Or again,
“Since then the children are sharers in flesh and
blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the
same.” And then about the sons — “bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the author of their
salvation perfect through sufferings.” Children,
brethren, sons: God has come forth in terms of sonship to
bring about a kinship, to be the redeeming kinsman
Himself. It is God Who is redeeming in Christ. Heirship
— “joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17),
and so on. He is redeeming the lost inheritance, He is
the redeeming kinsman. If redemption is to be at all, it
must be by somebody Who Himself has a right to redeem
because He is in the family, and Who Himself can and will
make the family’s condition His responsibility.
The
family has lost its inheritance, has lost its all.
Somebody has to take responsibility for recovering, and
God in Christ has come down to take responsibility for
our lost heritage, to recover it all in terms of kinship.
The Father through the Son has done it. The point that I
want specially to emphasize is that it is God Who has
assumed this form of a kinsman to redeem, and if it is
God Who has taken responsibility for it — and He has
— that is the basis of faith unto rest.
You
see how impossible it would be, because of the utterness
of the situation, for anyone to enter into rest and deny
God. You cannot enter into rest if you deny God. We are
not dealing with truth, we are not dealing with doctrine,
we are not dealing with things, we are not dealing even
with angels, great as they are. We are dealing with God,
and here He is coming to us in and through His Son in
terms of kinship, so that in Christ He is to us our
brother, our brother to redeem, taking responsibility.
Usually even in earthly families, the elder brother is
looked up to and trusted. So often he is the most
wonderful person in the family for the rest of the
family. There is nothing he cannot do. It is not always
so, but so often it is. That is the idea brought in here.
It is a family of sons that God has constituted, with the
eldest Son, Who was able and willing to take full
responsibility for the family’s title, the
family’s heritage, the family’s destiny, the
family’s honour, and to secure it all in Himself.
That is what is being said here. He has done that. What
could we do? Nothing! But He has done it, and faith
apprehending that can enter into rest, God’s rest.
c) God in Christ His own Priest
But
then we pass on and find the next phase, God in Christ
becoming His own priest. Priests have failed, failed to
carry things through to finality. They all failed, they
made nothing perfect — that is the argument here. So
God Himself became His own priest. It is God in Christ in
priestly activity carrying out all the functions of
priesthood, and the functions of priesthood are just to
satisfy God in all His requirements. This is where the
subtle fascination and attraction and power of Rome
lurks. The Roman system is built upon the idea of
priesthood. The priest stands between you and God, and
stands for you, and all you have to do is to pass
everything over to him and take no responsibility
yourself; you need not take any responsibility, the
priest will take all responsibility for you. That, of
course, has degenerated into this kind of saying: Do as
you like, pay the priest and he will clear it up with
God. But behind that there is this fact that man craves
to have the responsibility God-ward taken off himself by
somebody, to be freed from that responsibility for
himself, and to come to that absolute rest where the
responsibility is not his at all. The Roman system has
provided a false answer to that craving of man and put
man in a false position. But the craving remains. You and
I have it. Our deepest longing and need is for a priest,
somebody to take responsibility for us, so that we do not
have to take that responsibility. Oh, that I might be
free from an evil conscience, may be perfectly at rest
because someone all the time is standing and answering to
God for me. And here it is: God has said, I will answer
to Myself for you, I will be My own priest to satisfy
Myself on your behalf.
We
find it such a difficult lesson to learn, just what the
High Priestly function and ministry of our Lord Jesus is.
“Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
us” (Heb. 7:25). You notice what the apostle says
about His being able to sympathize because He Himself has
been here, been where we are, been along our road, knows
all about it, been tempted in all points as we are,
although without sin. He has been here and He is a
sympathetic High Priest, He understands it all. He is not
a stranger, and He ever liveth to make intercession in
perfect sympathy, and He is there taking responsibility
for us before God. Is not that a ground of rest? Ought we
not to be at the journey’s end much more quickly if
only faith could grasp that. Apart from faith, we shall
all the time be trying to put ourselves right with God
and be stuck on the road, going round in the wilderness.
Progress waits upon faith’s apprehension of this
thing. Cast the responsibility for your salvation and
sanctification upon the One Who has taken that
responsibility.
Listen
again to words in this letter about being saved from an
evil conscience. How? Through faith (Heb. 10:22). Not
cleansing our own consciences, but by faith in Him. God
has come in the Person of His Son to be the priest that
He requires, that is, to satisfy Himself.
d) God in Christ His own sacrifice
What
is true of the priesthood is next shown to be true of the
sacrifice. “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body didst thou prepare for me; in whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I am come” (Heb. 10:5-7). God in
Christ has come to be His own sacrifice. You notice a
whole section is given up to pointing out the futility
and weakness and failure of the sacrifices of the Jewish
system, how they broke down and came short, and how it
was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sin. But then, after the millions and
millions of sacrifices offered on Jewish altars, one
sacrifice, one for ever, did the work, and God provided
Himself the sacrifice. In His Son He became His own
sacrifice; and what more perfect than that? That is final
surely; one offering for ever. This is the basis of rest,
His own sacrifice once for all.
The Journey Longer or Shorter
According to Faith’s Appropriation
We
cannot take all the aspects of this revelation, of this
unfolding of the ground of rest, but what I want you to
see is this, that this was all present in type in the
wilderness for forty years. It was all there in type, and
yet they went on for forty years. It was there very early
in their wilderness history, and if only faith had
grasped the significance of what was present at that
moment, the forty years would have been cut down to
perhaps eleven days; eleven days’ straight journey
if faith had grasped what was present all the time.
What I
want to emphasize is this, that you and I are not of
necessity bound to make a long journey and go over years
in this matter. It entirely depends upon our
appropriation of what is here today whether we enter into
rest. The end of the journey is here now. It was there
all the time. Those types that they had of Christ were
the end of the journey in spiritual essence and value.
There is nothing more at the end of the forty years. When
they go over into the land there was nothing more, it was
still the same basis. God has not to do anything further,
has not to do anything; it is all there right at the
beginning. We can come into rest now if we take hold of
what God has given us now.
The Power of a People in Rest
But
oh, how important it is that you and I should seek to
exercise this faith; because you can see quite well that
it was not just a matter of entering into a spiritual
state of blessing and enjoyment for themselves. Their
very vocation hung upon their being in rest. The object
of their calling and election was at stake. All
God’s purposes in them were bound up with their
entering into rest. They were ineffective and unfruitful
until they were in rest. They were defeated and weak
until they were in rest, but when they went over into
what typified God’s rest, they were mightily
effective. You see what can happen by a people in rest.
See Jericho’s mighty walls going down by a people in
rest. They march round the wall, just going round once,
and that is the day’s work; and again tomorrow; not
very hard work. I do not know how long it took them to
march round; a good healthy walk, quietly walking round
once a day for a week. It was more strenuous on the
seventh day, seven times round. And how much energy it
takes to shout, I do not know. That was the way; a people
in rest in type, and down came Jericho. And as they went
on the seven nations mightier than they came down one
after another because typically they were a people in
rest.
And do
you know that one of the great strategies of the devil,
in order to hold his own against us, is to get us into
unrest. One of the great triumphs of Satan against the
church is to get it robbed of its rest, its quiet
assurance. Satan can do little against a people in
assurance, in rest. He can do anything with people who
are not sure, not certain, distracted, restless, fretful,
anxious, questioning, doubting. You have no power against
him when you are like that, always in the unrest of
uncertainty of a tomorrow that never comes, a future that
never arrives to keep us from rest today. I do feel that
you and I must seek very much to enter every day with a
very fervent prayer that that day in itself shall be in
the rest of God, so far as our hearts are concerned.
Whatever it may hold, whatever storms, in our hearts we
are quietly at rest with God, being still and knowing
that He is God. There is a tremendous power in that.
There is no power in a fretful life, there is no strength
where there is doubt, but there is a mighty power where
there is a quiet confidence in God; and that is the
point. Satan would postpone that and keep us going round
in this everlasting circle, a wilderness state, because
it is to his gain, and to our loss; it is to the defeat
of the Lord in His purpose. “They could not enter in
because of unbelief.”
Now
may the Lord at least lay emphasis in our hearts upon the
necessity for giving diligence to enter His rest for
every purpose of His glory. Above all things may we seek
the rest of faith, because of its tremendous potency
against the enemy and in the realization of God’s
purpose.