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Hebrews 4:2, Matthew 11:28

Resting in God’s Work

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 21, 2019

Hebrews 4:2 continues the writer’s discussion about God’s rest. He uses the phrase “good news” as a synonym for “God’s rest.” He writes, “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” I believe he’s still talking about the rest promised to the children of Israel when Moses led them out of Egypt into the wilderness. They came to the borders of the Promised Land and sent in the 12 spies. Joshua and Caleb came back with a great report about the quality of the land and confidence that God was going to give it to them. But there were 10 other spies who agreed that the land was most desirable but didn’t trust God to give it to them. Instead of focusing on God’s promises and remembering all His miracles on their behalf, they looked at the enemy and the challenge before them. Even though they were the chosen children of God and had followed Moses out of Egypt, they did not get to enjoy God’s rest in the Promised Land. They simply did not trust God’s work on their behalf. They looked at themselves only and missed the joy of God’s rest in the land of milk and honey.

Now, the same “good news” was preached to us according to this verse. We call this “good news” the “Gospel.” It’s referred to throughout the New Testament as “God’s Word” as well. It’s the message of God’s love demonstrated for us on Calvary. God’s love for us, expressed on the cross, was God doing for us something we could never do for ourselves. God Himself, in the perfect humanity of His only begotten Son, became the perfect sacrifice for our sins in order to destroy our enemy and acquire “God’s rest” for us who believe. In Genesis, God finished all His work and He “rested.” The seventh day, the Sabbath, was God’s rest that the fourth commandment calls us to remember as well. We should not work on that day because the work has all been accomplished by God.

Just as God completed all His work in Genesis and said on the seventh day, “It’s finished.” So too did Jesus accomplish all the work necessary for salvation saying “It is finished.” The most important work of God was done through the frailty of His son. The law which condemns us all has been satisfied by His perfection. But like many in Caleb and Joshua’s day, we don’t reap the benefit of God’s work on our behalf because we’re still focused on ourselves. We’re grasshoppers! The sad thing is, we like to be reminded that we’re grasshoppers. It feels good to be convicted of our failures. We like to be told we’re missing the mark so we can try harder. We’re Christians alright but in our flesh we listen to all the voices around us reminding us of how we should try harder and become more dedicated and do more for Jesus. Jesus did not say, “come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I’ll give you something else to do!” No. He said “come to me and I will give you rest.” Don’t listen to the plethora of voices reminding you that you’re grasshoppers! Hear, listen to, and keep your hearts focused on the good news of God’s love for you once and for all demonstrated on Calvary.

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Numbers 13-14, Hebrews 4:1, Psalm 95, Matthew 11:28

Enter His Rest!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 21, 2019

The author of Hebrews goes on with his comparison of the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea and the Christians of his day (and our day). All the Israelites in the wilderness were called out of Egypt. They heard Moses’ call from God, packed their goods, gathered their children, and followed Moses through the Red Sea and into the Sinai Peninsula. Yet they did not enter into God’s rest. When quoting Psalm 95, the writer states that it’s unbelief that prevented them from “entering My Rest.” It is God’s rest that is being discussed. His rest, God’s rest, is the subject of this passage and what follows. The handbook for translators says, “The key word in this new stage in the interpretation of Psalm 95:7–11 is rest, found in the last line of the quotation. This line is quoted in 3:11, repeated for emphasis in 4:3, 5, and linked in 4:4 with Genesis 2:2, which also speaks of God’s rest.”[1]

The Hebrews author wants his readers to know that this promise of God’s rest is still real. He writes, “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” The reference in Genesis 2 is speaking of God’s Sabbath rest after creation. The 10 commandments makes the seventh day a “holy” day because God finished all His work and rested. We too can enjoy that rest when we cease from our own striving and just trust God’s promises. Jesus calls us into His rest in Matthew 11:28 saying, “Come to me all of you who are over-burdened and burned out on religion and I will give you my rest.” God does all the necessary work. He promised Israel He would do the work at Kadesh Barnea but they didn’t believe Him. He promises us now that just as it was all finished by the seventh day, so too was the work necessary for us to enter into God’s rest accomplished thousands of years later when Jesus said on the Cross “it is finished.”

Many Christians, true believers in Jesus, are not enjoying God’s rest offered through Jesus Christ because they are still afraid of not living up to God’s standards of the Law. Preachers don’t often help that situation by continually hanging heavy loads and religious obligations over the heads of the congregation instead of feeding them with the Good News of Christ’s complete sufficiency. God calls each of us today to not only believe in Christ but to rest confidently in His finished work on the cross on our behalf.

[1] Paul Ellingworth and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Letter to the Hebrews, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), 71.

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Numbers 13:28, Hebrews 3:16-19, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 5:8

Unbelief is Disobedience!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 21, 2019

Those who lost out on rest in the Promised Land, according to the author of the book of Hebrews, were those Israelites who failed to trust God to deliver on His promises. He promised them a physical land that was flowing with milk and honey and when the 10 spies saw this land they certainly agreed that it flowed with milk and honey and some of the largest fruit they’d ever seen. There was one word that followed their acknowledgement of the desirability of that land. That one word is “but.” That’s found in Numbers 13:28. They give a favorable report of the land and then say “But the people who dwell there are strong…” They were looking only at their own abilities and resources and ended up saying in effect, “God can’t keep His promises.” We know our own limitations and don’t believe that God can or that God won’t bring about His own His promises to give us rest in this wonderful land. The “disobedience” referred to by Hebrews is not breaking any of the laws of Moses, disobedience is their failure (and ours) to trust in God’s good intentions toward us.

Hebrews 3:16-19 makes that very clear. It says, “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”  Notice the first part, they heard God’s Word, His promise, but yet couldn’t believe it!

This unbelief is tantamount to an unbelief in God’s pure love for mankind. The Bible, Old Testament and New, speak to us of God’s “steadfast” or “everlasting” love frequently. From the earliest times in Genesis through the final thoughts of Malachi, it’s recorded that it’s God love for man that moves Him to promise and fulfill those promises. All creation speaks to us of God’s love. Even the destruction of evil speaks to us of God’s love for all mankind. He has good intentions for them and for us. But we, like the 10 spies at Kadesh Barnea, sometimes see physical evidence that contradicts this fact. Faith is not believing that God exists. Even the Devil does that. Faith is believing that God loves me and has good plans for me and my future. Jeremiah exhorts his people in the midst of great trials with God’s words, “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord; plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” To receive God’s love is to receive Jesus Christ because Paul wrote another “but.” He said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this; while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Failure to trust God’s love is disobedience.

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Hebrews 3:12-15, Isaiah 64:6, Psalm 23:1, 2 Corinthians 12:9

Jesus is Sufficient

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 7, 2019

The author of the book of Hebrews is so grieved by the possibility of even true believers falling away from the joys of their salvation through Christ alone, he continues exhorting them against having hard hearts to the free gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ. The truth is we are so easily beguiled by legalists, even today, that this warning and exhortation is still relevant. In verses 12-15 he repeats the warning with even stronger emphasis. He writes, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’”

I know it sounds too good to be true, but salvation by grace through faith alone is the promise of Christ. Unbelieving hearts are “evil” because if Christ’s righteousness is dismissed we only have our own works of righteousness to trust in and they are as “filthy rags” to God (Isaiah 64:6). We have deserted the rest that comes with Christ and have reverted to living under the confines of the law which continually condemns us of our sinfulness. Even true believers can do that as we see again in the beginning phrase which addresses his readers as “brothers.” Sin is the most deceitful thing! It convinces us of our worthlessness and abandons us to our own resources which are totally inadequate. But Jesus filled the bill and meets our needs.

Regular, daily, exhortation is needed by us all because it’s our lot in life to want to fall back into the religion of self-justification. We grew up with the idea of sowing and reaping and we know that it’s too good to be true that we sowed sin but Jesus reaped the consequences for us on the Cross. I need to try harder! I need to do more! I need, I need, I need! Unfortunately most pulpits continue to exhort people to try harder instead of exhorting people to stand firm and hold on strong to the truth that my needs have been met in Christ. The Lord is my shepherd. He is the great shepherd and “I do not want.” The full sufficiency of Christ is at stake. His person and work on the cross is enough to set the record straight with God or it isn’t.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” It still is!

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Hebrews 3:7, Mark 16:14, Matthew 13:15,2 Corinthians 3:14, Galatians 2:21

What is a Hard Heart?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 26, 2019

In Hebrews 3:7, the author says that the Israelites failed to enter the rest across the Jordan because they had “hard hearts.” It seems that the Bible uses the idea of a hard heart when it refers to those who reject God’s Word for whatever reason. The Israelites referred to in Psalm 95 as quoted by the author of Hebrews failed to believe God’s promise of rest beyond the Jordan because of fear of those who already occupied the land. They truly liked what they saw regarding the land itself. Their report included the fact that the grapes and fruits were better than anything they had ever seen. But to them it was too good to be true. Coming from a history of around 400 years of slavery, they could not believe that God intended such a wonderful thing for them and that it was theirs simply for the taking. They wouldn’t believe that because their hearts were hard.

Jesus frequently called those who rejected His wonderful message of saving grace apart from the confines of the law hardhearted. He wants to save them and us from slavery under a system that we could never live up to and from which we could never be free on our own. All of us, under the law, are sin-sick and cannot help ourselves. Jesus said, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:15). Even believers sometimes fall into the trap of unbelief because Jesus’ message is just too good to be true. Even Jesus’ disciples had trouble with this. “Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen” (Mark 16:14).

What’s too good to be true? What’s so hard to believe? Righteousness is ours apart from the law. Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law on our behalf. The only righteousness available to us today is free! It’s the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s too good to be true. Jesus declared that the Old Testament was about Himself and that Moses testified to this truth. But legalists cannot hear that. The Amplified Bible translates 2 Corinthians 3:14 this way, “In fact, their minds were grown hard and calloused [they had become dull and had lost the power of understanding]; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies [on their hearts], not being lifted [to reveal] that in Christ it is made void and done away.” When we focus on what we do, rather than on what Christ did for us we will lose out on God’s rest. Paul says in Galatians 2:21 “if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

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Matthew 11:28-29, Hebrews 3:7-11, Psalm 95

What Matters Most

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 25, 2019

In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus calls His listeners to “‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’” The heavy burdens Jesus is referring to are those demands laid upon them by the religious leaders. They demand strict adherence to Moses to such an extent no one could ever live up to their expectations. But the Law is even heavier than the religious leaders thought. Jesus told them that the command against adultery included the idea of lusting. He told them that the command against murder dealt with hatred as well (see Matthew 5:27). The law of Moses as properly understood is a burden impossible for us to carry. Its intent, as Paul explains, is the make us conscious of our sinfulness. He makes it clear that any righteousness that we might attain through the law is insufficient. He says in Galatians 2:21 “if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

There is no rest in the law for anyone, but there is plenty of rest in Jesus! If we put our confidence and hope in Christ alone there is rest indeed. But even believers can miss out on this rest when they drift back into the system of law in which they must earn God’s acceptance and love. There are always those around who will warn us and exhort us and nag us and cajole us of the importance of keeping God’s laws! Even professing Christians slip from God’s grace into the trap of law keeping and what happens to the rest we enjoy in Christ? It is gone! Hebrews 3:7-11 is a quote from Psalm 95 about the loss of God’s rest by the children of Israel. It says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, they always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.”

There was no rest for that generation because they failed to trust God’s promise to give them rest across the Jordan. They lost confidence in God’s provision and forfeited His rest. The generation that came out of Egypt remained God’s household even though they didn’t enjoy the rest He promised them. The loss of enjoying Jesus’ rest is still a possibility for true believers today. Tanner observes, “This warning is directed to God’s people (genuine believers) indicating that believers are capable of hardening their hearts against God and experiencing His judgment. To suggest that all those who died in the wilderness were unbelievers (and eventually went to hell) is simply not sustainable.”[1] If we step out of the wonderful rest Jesus gives us from the impossible demands and burdens of the law, we will miss out on what matters most in life.

[1] J. Paul Tanner, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 1043.

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Hebrews 3:1-6

Jesus is my hope!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 24, 2019

In his discussion about Jesus’ superiority to Moses, the author of Hebrews says that Moses was a faithful servant in “God’s house” and as a part of God’s house, but Jesus was the builder of that house and therefore is deserving of more honor. He means we should pay very close attention to what Jesus has to say because, “Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” Moses was a “servant” in the house of God while Jesus is the son, heir, over God’s house of which Moses is a part.  The writer made a big deal out of Jesus being superior to all the angels in chapter 1 because God never refers to one of them as His son. He says instead that angels are, as the Contemporary English Version says, “Angels are merely spirits sent to serve people who are going to be saved.” Just as the angels are mere servants, so too is Moses. But Jesus is the begotten heir of the Father and is “over” the house of God.

The house of God is not referring to the tabernacle or the temple as some commentators suggest, rather it is referring to the people of God as verse 6 says, “we (the people) are His house.” The people of Israel made up the household of God in the Old Testament but in these days believers in Jesus make up the household of God in the church age. However, according to the last phrase in this verse there is something one must do to “remain” in the house of God. We must “hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The most important thing to notice is that whatever this means it’s addressed to people, the author includes himself, who are already referred to as “brothers” who “share in the hope of heaven.”

They are believers in Jesus but they must persevere and, as Tanner points out, “Their status as genuine believers does not guarantee this. In their earthly pilgrimage to the Son’s kingdom, they must be sure to ’hold fast.’” [1] I’m arguing that what we must “hold fast” to is the all sufficiency of Christ! His righteousness satisfies God’s requirements for us. It is only this that gives God’s children rest from their labors as the writer will explain shortly. If we let the Law, Moses, have the prominent place in our daily living, there is no rest. We still labor to earn God’s love and acceptance in His house.  But that place has been purchased and paid for completely by Christ. He’s the builder of this house and we are part of that. We must hold fast to that truth and not let the focus on the law lure us from the peace we have as God’s children. My “confidence” is not in myself to keep Moses’ laws! I’ve already failed miserably in so many ways! My confidence is in His righteousness on my behalf. I have nothing to boast about in myself. The only boasting I have is in Christ alone. He is my hope! What’s your hope?

[1] J. Paul Tanner, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed.
Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 1042–1043.

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Hebrews 3:5, Deuteronomy 18:18-19, John 1:1, John 5:45-46

Moses’ Testimony

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 23, 2019

In comparing Jesus with Moses, the author of Hebrews says that both Jesus and Moses were faithful to their calling. But Jesus deserves more honor just as the builder has more honor than the building. He then adds, “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.” Moses was a prophet and made some interesting predictions about the future, most significant of which comes at the end of his five books in Deuteronomy. In chapter 31 and verse 29, Moses says that he knows they will disobey the laws that he brought to them from God. Although they spread out across two mountains and shouted “we will obey” back and forth, Moses knew they would fail. This is probably part of what the writer of Hebrews was referring to, but I’d argue there was something more.

When confronted by the religious leaders for healing a lame man on the Sabbath, Jesus rebuked them by saying, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). Further in that discussion Jesus explains that there will be a witness against them for rejecting Him. He won’t have to testify against them, for their own prophet, Moses, will convict them. Jesus says in John 5:45-46, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” What did Moses say about Jesus? When the nation refused to hear from God on the mountain out of fear, Moses tells them that God will raise up a prophet from amongst themselves to speak to them. He says in Deuteronomy 18:18-19, “I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.  I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.”

Jesus is that Prophet! Moses’ testimony stands as a witness to the future proclamations of Jesus. Moses was the greatest of Israels prophets. Whoever wrote the postscript to Moses’ life (Maybe Joshua) said of Moses, “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” John writes something similar in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.”  The Greek phrase we translate “with God” is “pros ton theon.” Lenski suggests the phrase means that Jesus was “in the presence of God and turned in loving, inseparable communion toward God, and God turned equally toward him.”[1] According to another commentator, “The word was used to describe being ‘face to face’ with another.” I believe John is clearly identifying Jesus as the prophet that Moses prophesied about. So even Moses tells us, “Jesus is greater! Listen to Him!”

[1] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 32–33.

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