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Articles 2018-2020
Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
How is it possible that God would make promises to His people that some would then fail to apprehend? Obviously, the problem lies not with Him. The writer to the Hebrews informs us that one cause of potential failure lies in how we hear His word.
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
This verse is translated variously in different English translations of the Bible. According to the NKJV, the word the people heard was not mixed with faith in them. They heard but did not have faith in what He said. So, His words did not profit them. Excellent translation. But in the NASB above, the word they heard was not united by faith in them. As they listened, what they heard was fragmented because of their lack of faith in Him. One could say it was a “pick-and-choose” approach, buffet style. Similarly, many today are proclaiming a great variety of theological perspectives and interpretations of scripture among God’s people. And those hearing a fragmented word have become a fragmented people. Clearly, where we are cannot be where we are going. There must be a way forward.
Quite simply, for those who have ears to hear, the Lord will be bringing His voice among us into greater clarity in the coming years. And His word will be increasingly united by faith in His Church. The end result will be a united people. Since the Lord is not confused about how to interpret the Bible, our goal must be to see Him come into greater clarity in our midst. Accompanying this, all of us who teach the Scriptures must embrace a greater degree of humility. And then as He continues sending numerous outpourings of the Holy Spirit, our Lord will also raise up genuine New Testament apostles and prophets to make Himself known foundationally among His people (Ephesians 2:20). As a result, God will see the success of His project to build the individual and corporate life of His Church upon and around His own living presence. And as we hear, believe, and respond to Him, we will more fully enter into His colonizing project among men (see our recent article – Colonizing the Creation).
For we who have believed enter that rest (Greek, KATAPAUSIS – from a word meaning to colonize, to settle down), just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished (Greek, GINOMAI – came into being) from the foundation of the world.
The act of entering His rest is as simple as believing in Him. Whenever we stumble in some way and then immediately turn to Him in repentance and believe in the sufficiency of His sacrificial death, He instantaneously forgives us and receives us into His colonizing work. Again, here is His goal in human history – that people would participate with Him in bringing heaven’s culture into the earth. All His past works leading up to today have come into being as the outworking of His initial act of relational intimacy with man, i.e., from the foundation of the world. Everything He has done – His choice of Abraham, His giving of the Law, His coming in the incarnation to pay our incalculable debt of sin – all of these can be traced back and rooted in His desire, as He fellowshipped with Adam, to fill the earth with His character, His glory, His priorities.
But when man sinned, the Lord did not start a second project, a plan B. His colonizing work continued. And the reason that He will ultimately succeed in His quest is because He knew exactly how much grace He would need to release among men in order to finish what He started. In other words, He counted the cost before He laid the foundation for what He is building among us (Luke 14:28 - 30). But we must choose every day to listen, to believe in Him, and to enter into the emerging expression of heaven’s culture among men.
For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”
When God finished His creation work, He rested. He settled down to build a lasting relationship with man. Heaven’s colonizing of the creation had begun. But when Adam sinned, all of mankind fell as well. And over the course of many generations God continued to call His people to turn from their ways and to come into intimacy with Him. King David was one who heard that call. And so, one day while writing a song that challenged Israel to hear God’s present voice and not to harden their hearts, he began to prophesy. The Lord was calling His people to remember the great loss that had come to the generation that died in the wilderness. Key to spiritual success was that the present day was the day set aside to hear His voice. Not the next day. Not the next week (Psalm 95).
The day to enter Heaven’s invasion among men is today. Oh Lord, that you would grant us an increased sensitivity to Your voice, so that we might know You and live in harmony with You. Surely, every day is the day of entering.
When Israel took possession of the Promised Land, it was among other things a foreshadowing of an even greater spiritual victory unfolding in our day. Right now, heaven’s army continues its ongoing assault on the strongholds of darkness plaguing the minds of the multitudes who do not know God. But this great spiritual war cannot be rooted in our strength, in human striving; it must be waged by ceasing from our own initiatives and entering into our Commander’s rest, by bowing our knees to His sovereignty, His rule, His timing, His wisdom. The culture of heaven will not be produced and enacted by us. Rather, we must first receive it as children so that we can then enter it ourselves (Luke 18:17).
For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.
As great as the victory was that Israel achieved in Joshua’s day, Heaven’s far greater victory is still unfolding across the earth. At the root of God’s success will be His grace which will produce a people who cease from trusting in themselves and turn to Him with a whole heart.
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
How are we to succeed where Israel’s wilderness generation failed? It goes back to how we receive His word. The word they heard was not mixed with faith nor united by faith in their hearts. But He has never been deterred; He will continue to faithfully speak His word in power among His people. And He will triumph.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12 ESV)
The Bible is not just any book; it was authored by life. God breathed the breath of life on men as they wrote. And by His Spirit and through His written word, He continues to breathe upon us and empower us to discover Him as we read and then share with others from what they wrote. In that discovery, we will also discern ourselves – what is from the realm of man’s soul as over against what is from the realm of spirit – where God resides down in the depths of our being. We cannot have God–discovery and yet somehow escape self–discovery. In seeing just how much has been rooted in man’s soul/man’s strength and initiative in Christianity, we will need to embrace new depths of humility as He increases the revelation of Himself in our midst.
The word will also pierce to the division of joints. A joint is what exists between members of a body; it speaks of connected relationship in Christ. On the other hand, marrow speaks of the health/the life of those relationships. From marrow in our physical bones come the red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body, the white blood cells to fight disease, and the platelets that enable the blood’s clotting ability to heal what has been wounded. But when something is “off” in someone’s spiritual marrow, they can actually promote spiritual disease in Christ’s body. They may have an agenda to push. They may seek to control others, or to promote themselves, or to propagate some teaching that draws people’s attention away from Christ. Or they may speak divisively in order to tear others down. In such cases where there is not repentance, God will send His word to pierce even to the division of joints. Relational separation can sometimes be necessary for corporate spiritual health. The purpose at such times is to protect the flock from the unhealthy spiritual marrow in the lives of proud people. At such times, God’s heart desire is to see relationships ultimately restored. But not without humility and repentance.
Let us be thankful that our God has given us and also continues to release among us His living word. Let us have faith in Him and then also watch Him unify that word in our hearts in the coming days/years. And let us realize that He knows exactly where each of us is coming from when we speak in His house.
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Our confidence is not in ourselves but in the One who intercedes for us knowing full well who we are to the depths of our being. Not only does He know the job He has signed on for, He is up to the task.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need
Donald Rumble – May 2020
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