Give Thanks for His Rest!

Hebrews 4:3-4 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;

As God worked on creation for six days and rested on the seventh day, so our seven day week is established on that pattern. If, as the scripture declares, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as a day, then the seven-day cycle also finds expression in a great historical “week”. As we approach the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah, this “millennium” as it is called, (described in some detail in Revelation chapter 20), is clearly understood as a time of global rest, peace, and righteousness throughout the Earth.

This “millennial” rest could never come but for its foundation in Yeshua’s cross which was established at the foundation of the world [Revelation 13:8], although it was historically accomplished about 2000 years ago. Our own regular week, itself, with its 7th day of rest gives perpetual testimony to our Lord’s provision for all mankind. This provision is both natural and spiritual; present and future.

Yeshua’s “work” on the cross was the greatest and most difficult labor in history. And He declared it finished, shortly before the Jewish Sabbath began that week, His followers hurrying to remove Him from the cross and bury Him in the tomb before Shabbat began. The Lord’s agonizing work of suffering and death has given rest to all who have believed in Him.

Your weekly day of rest serves a powerful reminder aside from being a day of delight, refreshment, and renewal. You are resting in Yeshua’s finished work, utterly incapable of laboring for your own righteousness, sins forgiven by the shedding of His blood. You also are resting in the hope of the world, the return of the Messiah to establish His peaceable kingdom of righteousness. So this weekend, leave the struggles — the labors — the toil of the week behind you – and enter into His rest, His peace. This is His good will for us who believe.

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When Moses sent out the 12 spies to report on the condition of the land of “milk and honey”, ten of the spies brought back a bad report. They focused on the giants, and the great obstacles in their way. They walked with eyes set on the physical realm and said within themselves, “We are but grasshoppers in the sight of these giants!

Living in Israel all these years, I often encounter amazing stories of God’s deliverance and grow increasingly fond of listening to the fascinating ways He shows His power. During our tour in England recently, we met a man whose family experienced a great miracle during WW1. He tells this incredible story…

In this world we will face all kinds of obstacles, trials and tribulations and we should be wary of any doctrines or teachings that say we shouldn’t have to face these things. Why? Because the Lord said we will have tribulations. So the encouragement He is giving is simply this: You’re going to face trials, but GOD is greater than any problem you will face in this world!

When the prophet Jonah entered Nineveh, he gave a message of hopelessness — in 40 days your city will be destroyed! He did not say, Nineveh will be destroyed “unless”, but emphatically prophesied destruction to the people of the city — seeming to say their situation was hopeless. Yet hearing this message …

If you were to visit Paris, you could see the statues of two men, both named Louis.

The first is of Louis XIV, France’s absolute monarch. He represents one of the supreme achievements of greatness through power. His philosophy of life was that the whole nation and the world, should serve him.

Knowing He was about to depart, Yeshua (Jesus) left His disciples with a final command: stay in Jerusalem, and wait…for the promise. Of the thousands who had witnessed His miraculous ministry and heard His amazing teaching, and the hundreds that had actually seen Him after the resurrection, we read in Acts that only 120 stayed and tarried until the promise arrived. But these 120 were steadfast. They waited the full term…

I don’t know about you, but it seems that the tests we’re going through are getting harder and harder. Do you remember when you took tests in high school? At the time they may have seemed hard. But imagine if you had to take an elementary school test when you were in high school. You’d probably think – oh this is so simple.