Hebrews 11:7a
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not see as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark…"
Hebrews 11:8
"By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed: and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
And all the way up through this chapter, he comes up through the whole hallmark of fame in the Old Testament. Do you see that? And they all operated under this one word we call faith. "Without Faith it’s impossible to please God." Now lets go back to Hebrews 4, and now verse 3.
Hebrews 4:3a
"For we which have (been baptized? Have repented? Have done this or that or any other thing? For we who have what?) believed (see how simple it is. For we who have believed) do enter into rest…."
Now remember the Canaan rest, the rest of the Promised Land is not a picture of heaven. We just rebel at that. This was never a picture of heaven. It was a picture of a repose that could have come about because of their obedience of faith. God had said it, they responded to it, they could have entered in and they could have a rest. No war, no famine, it would have just been the result of a living faith. It’s not a picture of heaven, but it is a picture for us of our salvation rest. That when we enter in by trusting His faithfulness, when we enter in because of the shed blood, what can we do? Rest in it. Oh, don’t try to somehow enhance it. But we believe it and we rest. Now that doesn’t mean we won’t work. We're not talking about that, but so far as salvation is concerned, we settle in and we rest in what God has done on our behalf, Grace. He's: redeemed, sanctified, justified, and made us righteous all in Christ. The beginning of His working of our future salvation from this evil world order. Now let’s read some more of verse 3.
Hebrews 4:3b-4
"…as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, (going back again to Kadesh) if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation (or the very creation) of the world." (now we’ve got to go into verse 4) For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest on the seventh day from all his works."
Now why in the world does the Holy Spirit prompt the apostle to bring in the creation account of Genesis? Well, let’s go back and look at it. Come back to Genesis chapter 1 the last verse. It’s an interesting verse, in light of what we’re going to see in chapter 2. Genesis 1 verse 31. All of creation is now finished. The animal kingdom, the birds, the fish, man. Everything is done.
Genesis 1:31a
"And God saw every thing that he had made, (or created) and, behold, it was (what?) very good."
Now the Hebrew, we think, implies even more than what we can put on, that very good. It was what? Perfect. We don’t think we can even begin to imagine the beauty of that newly created Garden of Eden and the planet over which Adam was given dominion. We don’t think we can begin to comprehend it. He saw that it was very good, all was in harmony and in perfect balance or order. Why? Because when the Light (1:1-3) came through the chaos and darkness where there was no life in a sterile environment the Light brought order and life to an empty lifeless world. Now let’s jump up into chapter 2 verse 1.
Genesis 2:1-2a
"Thus the heavens and the earth were (what?) finished, (mark that word finished, and don’t run over it casually) and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;…" (Or energizing the system, it was finished now remember. And so on the seventh day he what?)
Genesis 2:2b
"…and he rested…"
Why? There wasn’t anything more to do. He couldn’t improve on that particular aspect, He couldn’t make that any more beautiful, He couldn’t embellish this any better. Everything that needed to be done was done, and so what did He do? He rested from His creations work. Now normally, when we have been real active and I guess the older we get the more we're aware of it, but we're not the only one as we advance in our years. After we’ve been working a few hours, what’s the first thing we really want to do? Sit down. Our old hips start to get tired and we're ready to sit down. Well, what’s the purpose? Rest. Are you with me? And so when God finished the glorious work of creation He literally sat down. He was all done. That does not mean He up and just quite working as His works had just begun but in a different direction or order.
Now let’s go to another one. All the way up to John’s gospel. In John chapter 19 and we find Christ on the cross; these are the accounts of His final hours of the crucifixion. And then it says in verse 30.
John 19:30a
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, (what?) It is finished:"
What does it mean? Just what it says. There wasn’t one more iota of anything that He could do to embellish that redemption and salvation that He had just accomplished. Just as surely as the universe and the Garden of Eden and everything in it was perfect and God rested, so also when He finished that work of the cross and returned to His place in Glory He what rested, or has He. You see He took on a different form of work or a different line of occupation if you will. He sent us the Holy Spirit to now infill man, where before He with few exceptions only rested upon men. He now indwells men then doing His works inside of re-birthed men. Doing what infusing the Father of spirits nature back into our being. He removed Satan's hold on our humanity by His humanity dieing in mans flesh and spilling blood, as the life is in the blood, as the son of man.(Exodus 17:11) His Last Supper meal is a Covenant meal of greater magnitude than most get hold of. For its the beginning of the New Covenant of promise found in the Old Testament and revealed in shadows and types. From Genesis chapter 3 all the way through to Acts chapter 11 and then Paul's letter of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and the Epistle of Hebrews with bites and pieces in his other Epistles.
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