Work Hard To Rest

Hebrews 4:6-11

The author continues his inductive study on Psalm 95:7-11 but specifically looking at verses 7-8 and 11. He is specifically studying the Sabbath rest of God. His line of reasoning goes as follows: God's promise is that humans can enter his Sabbath rest if they believe and obey his word. Since the Israelites did not enter his rest because they were disobedient, God's promise is still open and has not been fulfilled yet. Psalm 95:11 makes it clear that the promise has been extended to a period of time called "Today". If the Promised Land was the Promised Rest, then God's promise would have been fulfilled when Joshua led the people into the land. However, Psalm 95:11 was spoken through David and David comes after Joshua. The warning is written to the people alive in David's day. The author extends that warning to the present day since, according to the author, we are all still living in the time period called "Today". The promise of God, according to the author, is therefore still not completely fulfilled and there remains a Sabbath rest available to all those who do not harden their hearts when they hear the voice of God.
The application is that the author's audience should work hard to make sure that they enter into the Sabbath rest of God and avoid following the example of the ancestors of Israel. The application for me is the same: what am I hearing from God's word that I need to start obeying. By not obeying I am questioning the word of God (did God really mean that?) and the character of God (can God be trusted?). It is not enough to hear the word of God or even to agree with the word of God, I must act on it! I must not just believe it, it must become a conviction!
The other application for me is that there is a rest available to me that is experienced at some level today and more fully in eternity. It doesn't mean that I stop working but that the goal of my work is to experience the rest of God. So much of what I do is busy work. I don't want to appear lazy so I make sure I am busy - often for the sake of just doing something. This has become a badge of honour in our society. Do a test. If you ask someone how they are doing or how their summer/fall/weekend/week was, I bet that the next most common response, after some variation of "good", will be a variation of "busy". I want there to be, at the core of my being and presence, a sense of rest and refreshment because I have tasted and, to at least a small degree, live in the Sabbath rest of God. I want to work hard to experience that rest.