Thoughts on Christian Living Book #2 by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

REST WITH US

Much is written in the Bible about rest. Initially, the word describes the state of the LORD in cessation of creative acts. Genesis 2:2-3. Presently, some six thousand years later the nations are crying out for rest, particularly the peace of rest. It eludes them, mainly because they are looking in all the wrong places for it.

It is interesting to note that Noah, whose name means “Rest” was so named because it was revealed that he would give the antediluvian world “Comfort” “Rest” from their toils in a cursed ground. Gen. 5:29. The generation of Noah did indeed find rest from their toil, but it was the rest of death because of their unbelief.

Later, the Hebrews, enslaved in Egypt, besought the Lord for rest from their cruel existence there, and God moved to bring them into the land of promise with its longed-for rest. Again, they could not enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:11,18-19.

During the ministry of Jesus, He invited his disciples to come aside for a little while to rest. Mark 6:31. It was necessary for them to have a time of relaxation, mental and spiritual peace from public calls for their attention. Such rest symbolized the greater rest provided by the Lord through faith in Him and His Word.

However, just as in the exodus there were great numbers of His people who failed to achieve rest, and were condemned to die in the wilderness because of it, so there remains today large numbers of His people who fail to enter into His marvelous, still provided rest. The writer of Hebrews devotes many lines to it in Hebrews 3&4. Chapter Four begins with a warning: “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.” Then there is the admonition in verse eleven, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

So, the emphasis is profoundly simple. Disciples of Jesus are called upon to trust Him and His word explicitly and implicitly. It is in this knowledgeable trust that Hebrews 4:10 is explained, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his.”

Therefore, Jesus made and makes the great appeal, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matt. 11:28-29.

The world offers the illusion of peace and rest, but its substance is nothing more than perpetual turmoil. Isaiah penned it well in Isa. 57:20-21, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, (rest) saith my God, to the wicked.”

If the world has any of God’s children twisted out of shape by its

175