GOD'S REST by E. W. Webster

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 51.

GOD'S REST.

By E. W. Webster

THERE remaineth therefore a rest ["a keeping of a Sabbath," margin] to the people of God." Heb. 4:9. God's rest is to be enjoyed some day, by some one, in some place. It still remains. Who will have it? Who will come short of it?

What is God's rest? What or when is the day? Where is the place? Who are the people that will enjoy it?

The rest is God's rest; for He says, "If they shall enter into My rest." Heb. 4:5. His "works were finished from the foundation of the world," and His rest prepared at the end of creation week; for "God did rest the seventh day from all His works." Heb. 4:3, 4. It is something that was given to man in the beginning, was lost in the fall through unbelief, and is secured again by faith. "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" Isa. 40:28. He was not exhausted from labor; therefore—

God's Rest

must have been the delight, the pleasure, the joy, He had in viewing and admiring all that He had made, when it was finished, and He had pronounced it "very good." "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed [delighted]." Ex. 31:17. In this rest God set an example for His creatures to follow in enjoying that which "was made for man." Mark 2:27.

The rest day was the seventh day of creation week; "for He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." Heb. 4:4.

The Place

of His rest was the earth, beautiful and glorious and new, just from His almighty hand. His work was not completed till the close of the seventh day, for the Sabbath was made by His resting.

And here let me suggest a thought concerning the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ: He could not make a Sabbath by such works as rising from the dead and other things He did on that day, but by resting. When His work on earth was ended, and He said, "It is finished," He rested on the same seventh day that He did in the beginning; and in what some people delight to call "the new creation," He rose and began work on the first day, as in the first creation.

After man had lost this rest,—this joy and innocence in the presence of God, delighting himself in all the beautiful things that God had made,—it was promised to him again; and this promise was called the Gospel. Compare Gen. 3:15; Gal. 3:16, 8; Eph. 3:9. Adam, Abel, Abraham, and all the faithful accepted; but the unbelieving did not. Hebrews 11.

This rest, in its three phases, was promised to the children of Israel as they came out of Egypt; but "they could not enter in because of unbelief." Heb. 3:19. This promise of entering into God's rest was made to them, as well as to us, by the Gospel: "For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Heb. 4:2.

Then this rest now is the joy and peace and innocence we get through the Gospel of the Son of God,—the forgiveness of sins, and all its attendant blessings,—as Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28.

To see that this is so, we have but to read the third verse of Hebrews 4, "For we which have believed do enter into rest," and the second verse, quoted above. All who have believed have enjoyed the rest, tho many have not enjoyed the rest day; and none have yet enjoyed the place of the rest,—the new earth. I say this because some who have enjoyed the blessings and benefits of the Gospel in the forgiveness of sins, have not kept the day on which God rested, but Sunday instead. These did it ignorantly, and so enjoyed the rest, while losing the blessings and benefits of the rest day.

The earth now "waxeth old;" but soon it will be renewed, restored to its Edenic beauty, when man will again be in the place where there will be neither strife nor turmoil to mar the rest nor to desecrate the day of rest: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23. Then shall the glory of the Lord cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2:14. In sin is not our rest. That will destroy us. Micah 2:7-10. When sin, with all its evils, is removed, and the earth restored, new once more, then "His rest shall be glorious." Isa. 11:9, 10.

Because Israel entered not into this rest, by believing the Gospel, they soon turned from the rest day, and finally lost the place God had temporarily given them in which to enjoy it. Jer. 17:20-27.

"They to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief;" "therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein." Heb. 4:6. God's promises can not fail, nor the object of creation be thwarted. "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it: He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited." Isa. 45:18. And when His purpose is carried out, which for the time being has been marred by man, it will be inhabited by a righteous people, who will enjoy the fulness of His rest.

Joshua did not give the children of Israel rest; so God spoke of giving them rest another day. Acts 7:5; Heb. 4:8. It is not said that God spoke of giving another day of rest, but of giving rest some other day. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."

The wicked "can not rest. . . . There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. 57:20, 21. No one but "the people of God," really true Christians, can enjoy this rest. In them dwells that spirit that will heed the injunction of the Word which says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and, knowing the peace and rest of the Gospel, they will gladly keep God's rest day as soon as they come to a knowledge of it; and they will rejoice in the "blessed hope" of the soon coming of the Saviour to renew the earth, and to usher in the fulness of rest in the place of His glorious rest, of which the rest in the holy Sabbath we now have is but a foretaste. Who can imagine what that will be? Who can afford to "come short" and lose that? Read Heb. 11:8-16, 39, 40; 2 Peter 3:11-14; Isa. 66:22, 23.

Jesus came preaching the Gospel, and giving rest to all who would believe; and they kept the rest day, the seventh day, too, as many New Testament scriptures show. But they, with all the faithful, looked forward to the resurrection as the time when all would receive the place of rest together. Acts 24:15; 26:6-8; 2 Tim. 4:7, 8; Heb. 11:39, 40; 2 Peter 3:5-14; Revelation 21.

But unbelief and sin came into the church again, as the Lord foretold in Acts 20:28-30 and 2 Thess. 2:1-7. They lost the rest in Jesus, and soon, very soon, lost the rest day, putting another day in its stead, for altogether another reason, to be kept for another purpose entirely. And because of all this, the true people of God are still deprived of the place of His glorious rest, because it has thus been delayed so long in coming.

And now, according to Isaiah 56 and 58 and Revelation 14, and in fulfilment of these prophecies, the rest is returning to God's people again, the rest day is being restored to the church, and soon, O, so soon! will the earth be made new, and the place of His rest "shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." Isa. 11:9, 10; 66:22, 23; Dan. 7:27. Reader, do you not want a part and a place in this "rest that remains"? "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Heb. 4:1. Let us, by faith, make our calling and election sure.

E. W. WEBSTER.

Flagstaff, Arizona.