“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Hebrews 4:11)
What a strange combination of thoughts – to labor and to rest! We associate resting with the ceasing of labor. At the end of our work day we lay down our tools, shut down the machines and clock out. This begins (in our minds) the start of our resting period – to eat, to spend time with out loved ones, to sleep. Ahhh, but the author here speaks of laboring to enter into rest. Like it’s hard, like there will be opposition to resting. And so our thought process begins to unravel.
I have been a blue-collar worker all my life. Whether it was working in a factory, enforcing the law, serving in the military, or whatever I found myself doing – it was all blue-collar. I earned my wages by the sweat of my brow. Although my bosses would have liked me to work 24/7, they and I both knew it wasn’t possible. There is a time for everything, and to everything there is a season. So wrote the wise sage of old. There is a time for labor and there is a time for ceasing to labor. If that is the case, how, then, can this author to the Hebrews talk of laboring to enter into rest?
First we must look at this word labour. The word used in the original Greek was a word that meant to “apply oneself, to be diligent, to fully expend one’s strength, and to study.” Yep. That sounds like labor to me! As Christians, we are to study and be diligent in our efforts of entering in to the promises of God for our lives. We are to, in the words of Paul to Timothy, study to show ourselves approved. We must expend our efforts and apply ourselves to the study of the Word of God. Not for head knowledge, not just for information’s sake, but to know the will and the ways of God. We must KNOW Him in all His glory. We must learn how He thinks. We must learn what He sees and how He sees it. We must learn what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. And so we study. We don’t just read a few verses and mark off our checklist that we read the Bible that day. We study it, we dig into it, we pray for God’s revelation about it, then we apply it in our lives. That, my friend, is labor.
Having been in combat I know that there is an end to the struggle. In hand-to-hand combat, for example, one of the two parties eventually ceases to struggle. The stronger of the two prevails – either by submission (surrender) or be destruction (death). There can be no other end. Good versus evil. Light versus darkness. Medicine versus poison. God versus Satan. You and I versus our flesh. And therein is the struggle. Never have I had a more formidable opponent than my own flesh. Whether it is a medical issue or a mental issue, my flesh is persistent and wildly competitve. The seeming needs of my body – its desires, its actual needs (food, sleep, etc), or its impulses – war against my spirit. As Paul wrote in Romans, he struggled constantly with his flesh. We read in Romans 7:24, “...who shall deliver me from this body of death?” I can see him wanting to give up and throw his hands in the air, can’t you? I know the feeling, brother Paul. I know the feeling.
About the time we get our physical being under some sort of control, along comes our mind. It wants to put in its own two-cents’ worth. “Well, if I can’t smoke, then I’ll take up cussing.” Or, “OK, I’ll let you quit drinking, but now you will crave pot.” Our minds are impressively creative and our flesh, being merely a servant to our minds, is only too willing to go along. That is why we are told to take every thought captive to the knowledge of Christ. I don’t know about you, but my mind is on fire all the time. I can go from praying for someone to wanting to drive a stake through another person’s heart in a second! One minute you can be sitting in church raising your hands in worship, then the next minute having the most lurid thoughts about a woman across the aisle. It is both amazing and frustrating how quickly we flip in our thoughts!
Our eyes betray us all the time. We can be having a perfectly normal day, not thinking about anything in particular, then BAM! Out of nowhere along comes a stray visual in our heads – and off we go again! That is why the Bible tells us we are to renew our minds with the mind of Christ. Women (or men, for that matter) are not pieces of meat for us to ogle over, people are not our enemies to be conquered, and if it feels good we don’t HAVE to do it! What a crazy life this Christian life is! It challenges us every moment of every day. And as if that weren’t enough, sometimes we can’t even escape the struggle when we sleep! How many times have you had dreams that shook you to the core? You dreamed about being in a strange place surrounded by strange people, you dreamed about an old enemy, you dreamed about that person you saw on the bus, on and on it goes. It seems our bodies never give up.
The author of this book to the Hebrews seemed to fully understand the struggle and that’s why he included this passage in the book. He spoke of the Israelites leaving Egypt in conquest of their promised land. God had already given it to them on paper (we would say), yet they had to physically go to it, enter into it, and overcome those who were presently occupying it. Sounds like work to me! In reading the scriptures describing the conquest of Canaan we see our struggles. We, too, have strongholds (much like Jericho) to bring down. We, too, have internal struggles about what is “ours” and “theirs”. We, too, encounter things that seem to tower over us (like the sons of the Anakim) – that make our strength appear as grasshoppers in our own sight. On and on the comparisons go. So you see, it truly is a struggle, it is a constant battle to enter into our rest – our own private promised land that flows with milk and honey.
We must not quit. We must be vigilent. We must fully apply ourselves. We must expend our fully attention and energies to this pursuit, lest we find ourselves dying in the desert much like the Israelites who wanted to return to Egypt. It is much, much easier sometimes to go back to the “good old days” when we didn’t have all these battles, when we were blissfully ignorant in our walk with God. However, we have been called to a higher place, we have been commissioned to a higher calling, and only those who fight to the finish get to enter in.
My friend, we all have these battles. Mine are different from yours, but don’t think for a moment mine are easier. There is nothing, we read, that has come upon us that is not common to all mankind. But don’t lose hope. We have a great High Priest Who was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin. As long as we stay in Him, as long as we cry out to Him, as long as we recognize we can’t do it on our own and fall into His arms of grace, we shall be crowned the victors. As Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.” That’s my prayer for you, my friend – that God will continue to give you strength for the battle as you remain in Him. And may you, at the end of your journey, hear those precious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into rest.”
Be blessed.
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