How did God rest?, What were His works?
Hebrews 4:5 speaks of
God's rest, even as it is written,
"...my rest." It is this rest we are to enter into.
And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. Hebrews 4:5
Paul picks up
Psalms 95, speaking of Israel [the peoples] experience in the wilderness, wherein they failed because of lack of faith in the Gospel preached unto them
["...they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:" Hebrews 4:6] that God would deliver then, bring them into the goodly land and cause them to keep the commandments of God, including the fourth, the 7th Day Sabbath, and because of failure to believe this promise of God [which is the New/Everlasting Covenant, even righteousness by faith], that whole adult generation [except two, Joshua [type of Christ] and Caleb [faithful remnant]] perished in the wilderness, even as it is written in
Ezekiel 20:12,13,16,20,21,24... "...cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:" [Ezekiel 20:4] and
"In the day [that] I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands:" [Ezekiel 20:6] and
"...But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me:..." [Ezekiel 20:8] and
"But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness..." [Ezekiel 20:13], and so in what ways did Israel rebel? What was one of the primary reasons listed over and over again in
Ezekiel 20? Again,
"Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me..." [Ezekiel 20:21], but how so, what is specifically listed in the very same verse?
The Holy 7th Day
Sabbath of the LORD thy God.
Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 20:36
Psalms 95 itself is the 7th Day Sabbath of the Lord thy God Psalm, speaking of both the Creator [God rested the 7th Day] and Saviour [Jesus rested the 7th Day], notice its language:
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Psalms 95:1
Who is that Rock, and where was it?
It was in the wilderness with them, and that Rock was Christ ["And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:4].
Notice that word
"salvation" in the first verse, and we see parallels to it in
Exodus 20:2.
Now please notice the Creator part of the
Psalms 95, which hearken right back unto
Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Exodus 31:17, etc
"For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods." [Psalms 95:3]
"In his hand [are] the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills [is] his also." [Psalms 95:4]
"The sea [is] his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry [land]." [Psalms 95:5]
"O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." [Psalms 95:6]
This language is speaking of the very same things we find in
Exodus 20:11, wherein it is written:
For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:11
And again in
Revelation 14:7, amidst the Everlasting Gospel
[Revelation 14:6], "Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." [Revelation 14:7], again see the same in
"And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:" [Revelation 10:6], which is directly quoting from
Nehemiah: "Thou, [even] thou, [art]
LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee." [Nehemiah 9:6], and both Peter and Paul, call every man, Jew/Gentile back unto God in repentance, to the Creator God of the Sabbath, the 7th Day, in
Acts 4:24 and
Acts 14:15 [both passages which are directly citing
Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:11, etc].
For Psalms 95 continues, for why Israel did not enter...
"For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice," [Psalms 95:7]
"Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, [and] as [in] the day of temptation in the wilderness:" [Psalms 95:8]
"When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work." [Psalms 95:9]
"Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:" [Psalms 95:10]
"Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." [Psalms 95:11]
... for 40 long years God was grieved with that generation, and as we have seen in
Ezekiel 20:12,13,16,20,21,24, we have seen why.
In
Numbers we even see a specific example of what
Ezekiel mentions:
"And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day." [Numbers 15:32]
What was the judgment? By example, ensample, the wages for sin was?
"Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity [shall be] upon him." [Numbers 15:31]
Again, as it is written in
Nehemiah:
"But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments," [Nehemiah 9:16]
"And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion..." [Nehemiah 9:17]
...and even when the children entered in, they did not continue...
"Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations." [Nehemiah 9:26],
and
Nehemiah continues in the judgments and respites of Israel. Never truly having rest.
They too had the 7th Day, knowing of it, but never really entering into it, and so it did not profit them, because they lacked faith.
Hebrews 4:8 Jesus through Joshua [Oshea, the son of Nun] was to lead them into the promised land [Canaan], which was the type to Heaven, but they did not truly obtain the rest, seeing how they lacked faith in God to accomplish in them what was promised.
Therefore the rest of God remains [the same rest, which they could have entered], we may also enter through the same Gospel, the Same Christ, and the same Day [the 7th Day Sabbath of the Lord thy God].
For notice,
There remaineth therefore a rest [sabbatismos, literal true sabbath-keeping] to the people of God. Hebrews 4:9
"For he that is entered into his [God's] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his." Hebrews 4:10
...to be continued...