believing, obeying, rest

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Deut. 9:23-10:5; Heb: 4:1-10; John 3:16-21

Believing, obeying, rest

This whole section of Hebrews keys on these verses from Psalm 95:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

The the continual dual refrain from Ps. 95 to which the writer returns over and over is
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts... 'they shall not enter my rest.'"

I am coming out of a time of rest. I have recognized some of the ways I do not truly rest. From striving, from anxiety, from my value being tied to my work, and yes, from resisting the Spirit of God.

This is one of those places in the New Testament that seems to emphasize the connection between believing and obedience. And it adds another to God's ordering of things. Rest.

Rest flows out of trusting. Trusting that God has not delivered us from bondage in order to destroy us in the wilderness. Trusting that he will provide all we need. Trusting enough to follow and obey. Jesus promises rest to those who yoke themselves to him (Matthew 11), who take his yoke on them and learn from him. Actually he is promising to personally give the rest of God (Ex. 33:14; Jer. 6:16).

Rest is also the command, which on one level we cannot do without obedient trust...

There's so much here. I've been meditating on it for a few days. A couple of resources: The God of Rest: Restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath, by Mark Buchanan; Freedom of Simplicity, by Richard Foster; The Way of the Heart, by Henri Nouwen.

God bless your meditation. Now, I've got to get to work...