Hebrews 4
This life offers no rest at all; Christ has promised us afflictions, suffering, persecutions there, and not rest. When after labour, one waits for blessing and peace in this world, one finds devastation and war. The Holy Spirit, possessed by the Christian, produces activity in us instead of giving us rest in this world. Christ has not known rest here below; His apostles have been proved by all kinds of suffering; can we expect better? God gives us a rest above this world full of sin, and bondage, full of corruption; and Jesus has gone to prepare a place of rest for us, and to receive us there. Delivered from Egypt, the Israelites were not brought into the rest, but into the wilderness and into conflict with the enemy.
It is hard to find unending conflict around us, and that must always be appreciated as to the Hebrews, accustomed to hope for an earthly Messiah, and little used to the idea of a Christ hid in God. They did not find anything here below that they looked for, from the moment when they became Christians, for Christians leave the world without being yet in possession of heaven.
The effect of redemption is to put us in the wilderness, and there we find the proving of our flesh and of our hearts. We are subjected as men to the former by suffering. Our heart is proved to show us that we have nothing here below. We have only to expect the wilderness here and it is the only thing of which we will always be assured. If we wait for something else, we will either come to want to abide there or find tiredness and weariness. In the wilderness, we can only count on God.
The rest which is promised us is that of God. God has not yet entered His rest as to His creatures. He rested after the creation, because all was good, but sin has spoiled everything, and the rest of God as far as the creature is concerned has been interrupted. The Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17.
In resurrection, Christ rests in His work of redemption. He is seated now at the right hand of God and, as to our redemption, has nothing more to do; but it is only when God will gather all His people, that we enter into rest.
In Deut 8: 2-6, we are shown that God has brought us into the wilderness to humble us and to make us entirely dependent upon Him. Moses, speaking of Israel, noticed this humbling fact which they constantly rebelled against; but God reached His end. He said, by the mouth of Balaam, that He had not seen iniquity in Jacob, Num 23: 21. After forty years, their clothes were not worn out, or their feet weary, Deut 29: 5. Perhaps, the daily effect of the love of God had been little felt, but at the end of the journey, the good He had done to His people was admirable. He had given them the manna, the water; the cloud to show them the way. The wilderness makes us feel our troubles more - the wilderness is hard for each of us, according to our character, and lays bare the object of our desires about the rest, about ambition, and so on. The wilderness shows that God is occupying Himself with all the details of our life; it is only the flesh which hinders our joy in the immediate presence of God.
The word of God and the priesthood of Christ (v 12-16) are given us to sustain us during the journey in the wilderness. The word is the principal instrument which God uses for our good; it gives us the knowledge of God and of ourselves. The natural man does not understand spiritual things. God uses what He finds in our hearts to make us know ourselves, and to reveal to us what we are - to penetrate into us and shine His light which manifests our troubles and our darkness. Natural affections become bad when they are not towards God; they are of the soul and not of the Spirit. The word penetrates to the division of soul and Spirit. The new man has nothing here below as an object; God is his sole Object. The Christian judges in his heart everything which does not accord with God; and the same Spirit which brings him to this judgment makes him understand that he will not have to be subjected to the judgement of God. The patience, support, tenderness of God cannot be known in heaven; it is only in the wilderness that we are able to know God in these different aspects. God ploughs our hearts to sow there the seed of His love. He is a Friend that we have learned in our troubles and in our afflictions; and who we will find again in heaven with a joy ever more living.
As to verse 14, we have a compassionate High Priest who has had experience of all our needs and who pleads our cause before God. He has been our Companion on the journey through the wilderness. This is why we are able to go before the throne of grace, which is no more a throne of judgement. The Holy Spirit is in our hearts to judge them, and the Father chastises us betimes; but He does not judge us any more.
May afflictions and the word of God have their full effect in our hearts, so that patience has its perfect work. Let us not prefer consolation. If God proves us, it is to put in us a state to enjoy His love better. Wisdom for man is to submit himself with confidence; not with pride or insensitivity.
Translated from “Le Messager Evangélique”