A Rest for the People of God
“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:7-19)
Our God, the One who never changes and always keeps his promises, has a rest for his people. This rest is dependent on the belief that God will care for them in this life and follow the path that our Savior walked. This rest is not part of the world but a spiritual rest in Christ’s finished work on the cross.
Remember Joshua and Caleb. After coming back from spying out the land of promise, they believed God would deliver His People from the giants of the land. Still, the others were in unbelief and persuaded the people to fear. As a result, God refused to allow His people to enter the promised land. This land was one of milk and honey, a good land where God’s people could serve their LORD free from Egyptian bondage. Here they were to worship God according to God’s statutes and precepts. As long as they obeyed, they would have rest from their enemies as well as from the harsh plagues that Egypt suffered. But God’s people refused to believe and were turned away to wander in a wilderness for 40 years until that generation died, except for two men, Joshua and Caleb, who received their inheritance and enjoyed seeing their children and grandchildren eat the milk and honey in their day.
This is a very valuable lesson for God’s people today to understand. The Promised Land is not a picture of heaven but a of the church Jesus Christ built that the gates of hell shall not prevail against. God’s people who died in the wilderness did not go to hell because of their unbelief but they were not allowed to enjoy the milk and honey of God to his people. There is a place in this world that is not of the world. It is a place where God’s spirit meets with those who believe that God is a successful savior and can feed his people with the milk and honey of the gospel of Christ. Who believe that we are not able to save ourselves but are dependent on God for our timely and eternal salvation. This place is the only place where God’s children can hear the truth of their salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are tired of wandering in the world’s wilderness and are thirsty for the truth of your salvation, come to visit us at Harmony Primitive Baptist in Donaldson Arkansas. If you live too far from us, seek out a Primitive Baptist in your area.
Brother Sonny Bonner