The Rest That Remains by William Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 26, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 20.

The Rest That Remains

By William Covert

Ancient Israel as a Nation Did Not Receive It—Individuals Had It Then, and May Have It Now

By WILLIAM COVERT

THERE is some discussion about the rest that is considered in Heb. 4:1-11. But why should a Christian stumble at its meaning? It surely refers to the settled experience of the one who abides by faith in Christ.

The Hebrews as a body of people did not obtain this rest by their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, because their souls were held under control by a power stronger than the rulers in Egypt who enslaved their bodies. Satan, through his subtle cunning, held their minds in captivity, even while they followed Moses over the Red Sea to escape from the awful thralldom of Pharaoh and his people. Therefore crossing over the Red Sea did not give them rest, because the real foe that had enslaved them abode still in their souls while they journeyed from the land where Pharaoh had compelled them to make brick without straw.

They had been pleading for physical respite, hence Moses came and delivered them from the lash of their cruel taskmasters; and yet they were not made free from the awful power that made Egypt so bad. Therefore when they followed Moses, whom God sent to lead them out of bondage, they murmured as they went, and showed their displeasure at what had been done, all the days that Moses lived. We dare not say that they then had rest.

And when their children followed Joshua into the land of Canaan, they, in a large measure, failed to comprehend what God was desiring to do for them. And the chronicle tells of a selfish, restless, and dissatisfied people. Not during all the decades of their judges and the centuries of their kings can be found any time of united, peaceful, satisfied "rest" narrated of that people.

Indeed, the rest described in the Hebrew letter should not be considered as a national, a dispensational, nor yet as a local affair. It can not be found by crossing over a line, nor by trusting in things that we have done. It is enjoyed only by the individual who fully believes the gospel of Christ and surrenders his whole being into the hands of God.

It is the rest that comes to the believer who accepts Christ as his Saviour, and who commits his entire interest to Him forever. To such Christ says: "I will give you rest. . . . Ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. 11:28-30.

In giving a description of this rest and its results, the prophet said, "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." Isa. 32:17.

This is the rest that the prophets have foretold. It is the legacy given to the children of God, which is of more value than all the

perishable commodities that are listed in the vast estates of worldly rich and great men. The Saviour gives it, and the power that upholds all things preserves it. This rest has in it the true riches, which man can not give, nor courts take away.

Now, while all true believers in Christ do enter into this rest, the Sabbath of the Lord is designed to serve as an emblem of that rest; for said the Lord to His people, "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it [the keeping of the Sabbath] is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31:13.

God sanctified the Sabbath by putting His own presence in it, so that His people might always have in mind a day of sacred rest as a memorial of what God is to them. Therefore one who truly keeps the Sabbath with an understanding heart can never forget the God who sanctifies him. The God who made the heavens and the earth gave to man, in the weekly recurrence of the sanctified day, a sacred reminder of Himself, to be found at the close of each week, as long as the heavens and the earth shall stand or days shall measure time.