When the Scripture said God rested on the seventh day after the completion of all creations and was refreshed, it doesn't mean that the all powerful, almighty, the inexhaustible fountain of strength, got tired and weary after six days of work. We have to remember that the whole bible is God's message to us. He conveys His thought through spoken words, He expresses His will through the life of His people whose story were written in the Holy Scripture. His actions tells us of what He has in mind.
Just like in Eden after the fall, God asked, "where art thou Adam?". Does it mean that the all knowing God didn't know where Adam was? And again before the flood He repented that He created man. Does it mean it was a mistake that He created Adam? I believe that all these things that God did, He was acting out what He had in mind. That if we could just see and read between the lines, we will be able to know what He really means.
When God ceased from all His works and rested the seventh day, He was commanding us through His action that we should ceased from our own dead works and enter His Sabbath. When God looked for Adam, it was to tell us that in our fallen state, it was Him who find us. We did not chose Him but He had chosen us. When He repented before the flood, it was to tell us that we must have a changing of mind before baptism. For to repent is to have a change of mind.
God commanded Israel through Moses that they honor the seventh day which was called the sabbath day. For forty years in the wilderness they've had many sabbath days and still God was grieved with many of them and had sworn that they should not enter into His rest. Therefore there is a rest that God was speaking of apart from the literal sabbath. We may think that entering the promised land was that rest, for those who fell in disbelief did not enter therein. But it had been a long time since they were in the promised land and still David spoke that when we hear His voice let us not harden our heart as in the day of Israel's provocation, that we, not as they were, could enter His rest.
Thus we can say that it is not the literal day of rest neither entering the promised land that we are commanded to enter. Those are just the shadow of the true rest that God promised His people. It was said that the gospel was also preached to them in the form of the Law and they did not believe. Unto us also is the gospel preached and we believed. And after we believed we were baptized by the Holy Spirit of promise. The baptism of the Spirit brings us into Christ. For by one Spirit we are baptized into one body which is the body of our Lord. We believed and so we enter into Christ who is God's Sabbath. As it was written, "come and I will give rest to your souls".
To enter into God's rest is not without a work to do. It is to cease from our own work and enter into the work Jesus will give us. For He in one account said, "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light". And again, "this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom God has sent".
Let us therefore labor, as we had been admonished, to enter into His rest. Let us have our faith towards Him, and that without hypocrisy. For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Penetrating even unto the innermost part of our being and exposing the desires of the spirit and of the flesh, and that if our heart is lusting for them. But on the positive side, the Word also can discern the sickness of the body even to the marrows and the disease of our soul. But praise be to God, we have a High Priest that has passed into heavens and has preeminence over all things. A High Priest that can be touch by the feeling of our infirmities for He Himself suffered at all points and yet without sin. Let all our cares be made known unto Him through prayers and supplications with thanksgiving. And if we will just confessed our sins before Him, He is just and faithful to forgive us.
By: Bro. Alberto Espinosa
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