“He took away the first, that He might establish the second.” Everything about the work of Christ was to show Him the Creator God. He would leave “no stone unturned,” no priesthood intact, nor no command unchanged. In His day, the end of the Mosaic Age had come, the changing over from the powers that had reigned for previous worlds (ages) and new powers (authority), the new order under was the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Christ had come to finish what had been left undone in the Garden of Eden, the seventh day of creation was at hand!!
In Hebrews 4:1-10, the apostle declares the greater benefit we have under the covenant of Christ than the Jew had under the law of Moses or the Gentile had under the Patriarchal dispensation. We have a promise left us of entering into the rest of Christ, the Creator, to which they were never invited. This is the rest of the soul, the eternal part of our being which many do not ever think has been in conflict or battle. It would be a covenant-related dispensation with the Father and no man of any previous age could have so entered. This promise of spiritual rest which the covenant of Christ brings has no equal in any other covenant. Not only has Christ promised us “rest,” He proposed to allow each of us in this new covenant order to live the rest of our allotted existence with Him in the presence of His fellow deities and their companies of angels. This promise and proposal IS proclaimed in the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. It was NEVER conceived to become a reality with man under other covenants. God was not finished in the first week of time with what and why He had created man. There was truly a promise and proposal for something greater to come!! This was truly “something that had not entered into the heart of man.” When the fellowship with God was cut off in the Garden of Eden, no hint was ever given that one day fellowship with God could be restored. There was a HINT that sin might be forgiven, this was seen in the gospel preached in the Old Covenant by the sacrifice of the perfect lambs, but NEVER that man could re-enter that precious abode of fellowship with They of this superior nature. With heightened wonder and fellowship Adam and Eve could have never conceived this to be true. It NOW is possible. It is now Our business and this we must understand and realize, so we will NEVER LOOSE THIS GOAL. We must intend to lay claim on the promise and proposal offered us in this new covenant, not allowing anyone or anything to stop it from being our reality. Satan and our fleshly desires, by which man is kept under the domain and slavery of sin, deprive us of the soul rest we were intended to have. We stay in a battle some do not even know they are in. We all understand that when man rest, physically speaking, he does so because of extensive labor, but the soul is never considered as being “tired” of the war with which it has been engaged from its inception. In the New Testament Covenant, we can enter that rest! To think that one day we might have perfect agreement with the Creator and They of His nature, having been set free from the yoke of bondage, the promise that is introduced to us of spending eternity in heaven is not such a far fetched dream!!
There are three rest mentioned in this passage; the rest of the sabbath, the rest given when the Jew came out of Egypt, and the rest when Joshua brought them into the land of promise. He did not speak of the first rest, it having happened so long ago, or of the rest of Joshua when they had received the promised land, He is speaking of the rest “awaiting the children of God” in the new and heavenly kingdom of Christ. This was the end of man God had in mind for man when He created man. This is the image shown in the sabbath when He had created man. The argument from the future of rest is not so clear as that history from the past when God had rescued man from the throng of Egyptian soldiers who was in their very midst; but the Jew of the past was not allowed entry into the rest of God because of unbelief. They sent 12 spies, disbelieved the report of the two faithful spies, and failed to recognize what God had done among the Egyptians He was able even to so do, now. Christ was angered and so swore in His wrath that “they shall not enter into My rest.” See what lack of faith will do!! God could not bless the faithless, because they showed contempt for His word and did not believe. We, who are their children if we do not continue, are along that same trail of unbelief when we give up on Christ along the trail of life and fail to continue.
