Reading: Hebrews 3-4, Psalm 26

What does it look like to “rest?” Is it the chance to kick your feet up and watch a TV show? To take an afternoon nap? To go for a long meandering walk in the woods? For some people (I will never understand this) it is an early morning run. For others, lying in a hammock on the beach, watching the sunset. It is not just that different people like different things. Sometimes, one person will do all these things and call it a “restful” day. Why are all these things “rest?” How can they be so different, at times even opposites, and yet all be “rest?”

I think “rest” is completion. The fulfillment of purpose. To have functioned correctly. The author of Hebrews is going to use the concept of “rest” quite a bit, so I think it important to figure out what he is talking about. He talks not just of rest, but of God’s rest, which he roots in the seventh day of creation from the book of Genesis. God rests on the seventh day at the conclusion of his great work of creation. Rest was a condition of fulfillment. Contrast this with the mere sleep. One can sleep from exhaustion without having done anything in particular. One may feel tired and decide to spend all day lying down without completing anything or fulfilling any purpose. That is not the rest we are talking about here. This is rest that follows activity.

Ok, let’s talk about Moses, promises, and Joshua. Seem like a left turn? It really isn’t, but remember that we are not the cultural audience. We don’t have the Hebrew Scriptures written into our souls. Moses was the most important figure in the history of Israel, and he still routinely shows up in lists of the most influential humans to ever walk the planet. Receiving the law, the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the promised land transformed Israel from a wandering slave people into a nation. Moses’ declaration of dependence shows he understood Israel’s identity as the people of God. He’s a pretty important guy.

Jesus is better. What Moses received and passed on was the ability for God’s people to come before God’s throne and plead for mercy. Well, one of them anyway. Once a year. If all the right conditions are met. And he might die in the process if he doesn’t get it just right. And a lot of things have to die. And it was really just a means of delaying the issue. Jesus received and passed on something much, much better. We need to be reminded of the kingdom model, which poses such problems for us moderns. Moses was a servant. Jesus is the son. These are in no way equal states. We tend to balk at the idea that one person is categorically superior to any other. But this is what the author of Hebrews is saying. He has already said Jesus is categorically better than angels. Now he is saying he is categorically better than Moses. We will have to wait a couple of chapters to see the implications of this, but for now we get a warning.

Jesus is better than Moses. The people of God rebelled against Moses, and the consequence was banishment from God’s rest. They would not see the completion. The fulfillment. Instead, they were exiled. Jesus is greater than Moses, and the author of Hebrews is issuing a warning: rebellion against him will merit appropriately greater consequences. If the people of Israel lost the ability to enter God’s rest in the desert, what will the humans who reject Christ lose? Let’s just say it is not a good look.

But there is a rest for God’s people. Those who believed Moses’ message and were obedient did enter the “rest” God had promised. Namely, two guys named Caleb and Joshua. Joshua in particular gets called out as the leader of God’s people when they experienced the fulfillment of the promise of the land. Some did not enter, but some did. There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. In a similar way, those who believe in Jesus will receive a greater fulfillment than Joshua did. The fulfillment of the promise for the land was the purview of Joshua. But there is a deeper promise, a bigger promise, a promise to make all things new. For that, someone greater than Joshua has to carry the people of God into a new land.