^“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains then a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9 NIV).

‍

What’s the most tired you have ever been? Was it pulling an all-nighter during finals week in college to write a paper? Or a few days with a teething baby who wasn’t sleeping? What about driving through the night to get to a cross-country destination or day three of hiking Crow’s Pass here in Alaska? I also like to distinguish between body tired and emotional tired because sometimes sitting all day with a loved one who is in a hospital bed wears you out more than two back-to-back ultra-marathons.  

‍

During these exhausting times, I think what we all long for is rest. Sometimes this rest looks like 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and sometimes it looks like a break in the crisis long enough for us to catch our breath and grab on to a shred of hope. When jobs are demanding more and more of our time or a relative has surgery and then needs round-the-clock help, we can enter a season where we lay aside our own rest to help others. Now, this isn’t bad, but it isn’t sustainable long-term. God designed us to work and to rest. We see this pattern at the beginning of the world in Genesis when God rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:2).

‍

During the time of Moses, the Israelites were waiting for a different time of rest. They had been promised a land of their own, and they were eager to enter this land for safety and prosperity. But the Israelites disobeyed God. You can read this story in Numbers 14. They had to wander the desert for 40 years until the next generation would be allowed to enter the Promised Land, along with two men who were faithful, Caleb and Joshua.  

‍

Our Scripture today refers to the end of the story, when at long last the Israelites entered into Caanan, the land God had promised, and could finally rest: “The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers (Josh. 21:44). They had a place to live and safety from their enemies. But this rest was not a true and final rest, according to the writer of Hebrews. The writer references Psalm 95 in verse 7, when God said through the psalmist, David, that there was a current opportunity to obtain the rest that only God can give, hundreds of years after the Israelites entered Canaan.

‍

The author of Hebrews understood that there is a rest available to believers that is beyond physical rest and far greater than a safe location or absence of turmoil with others. The Israelites thought that if they could just get to Canaan, they could finally rest. In some sense that was probably true, but we see in the Bible there were still challenges once they got to the Promised Land.  

‍

We tell ourselves the same story today about finally arriving at a place of rest – if we can just get to summer, or the end of the semester, or the promotion, or the baby sleeps through the night… There’s a false belief that good rest is just around the corner. Thankfully, in the midst of whatever chaos we are facing, God offers us true rest while we are still on earth. The Sabbath-rest that is referred to in verse 9 is both something we can achieve weekly as we rest from work and focus on the Lord and also something we have not yet experienced – our heavenly home where we will enjoy eternal rest. Trusting in Christ is how we arrive at the rest we so desperately seek.

When I feel like I have come to the end of myself, is it Jesus I turn to for refreshment and strength? Am I going to earthly things to find rest, like social media or endless options on Netflix? These things aren’t inherently bad, but they won’t satisfy our need for true rest. Just as the Israelites didn’t find true rest with Joshua, so too, we need to focus on the spiritual rest that can be found in obeying God and resting in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

‍

Jesus, the rest you offer is so much greater than what we can find on our own here on earth. We spend so much of our time racing through life, always busy, always striving, sometimes forgetting to pause long enough to hear from you. Help us, we pray, to fix our eyes on heavenly things so we may have the true rest found only in you. We thank you for your sacrifice that opened the door of Heaven for us. In your mighty name, we pray, Amen.