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But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Heb3:17-19 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise. God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Heb4:4 The story of the wilderness experience is of such importance to St. Paul that we can not leave it untouched. The flight from Egypt for the Jewish people represented freedom from the bondage of sin and evil. They left behind the toil of work to move into the desert of faith. They moved from oppression and personal hardship to liberty and Godly provision. This experience is akin to a sinner receiving salvation through faith. The born again believer moves from being in bondage to a sin nature to the liberty of the Spirit. For both the Jewish people leaving Egypt and the sinner leaving behind his sin nature, there awaits a desert experience where through faith they can enter a rest similar to God in Genesis. In Genesis God worked six days in the forming of the heavens and the earth and he rested on the seventh day. The work God performed was speaking by faith through the Spirit saying, "Let there be light and there was light." God, in working, was restoring a world in chaos into one of beauty and order. That he had to work was the result of the devil causing "chaos over the deep." But having worked for six days he rested. This experience of God is similar to the experience the born again Christian should experience in the desert. By speaking the word by faith in the Spirit, the Christian takes a life in chaos and "creates" one of beauty and order and then rests from that work to restoring others to the freedom and beauty God intended for those in bondage to sin and the evil of the devil. The Jewish people in the desert did not want to live a life of faith, but rather through unbelief disobeyed God and sinned. Complaining, fornicating, and idolatry were the sin of those people who would not live by faith but wished to satisfy their flesh. Similarly, once born again, the ChristianÕs work is to crucify the flesh by speaking to the seed of the Spirit planted in them by rebirth to form a holy person. The wilderness experience is one of temptation and trial until the life of Christ is formed by faith. It is the work of standing on the promises of God, embracing them, and confessing them. Now in Hebrews it is quite clear that we are not alone in this enterprise. We have a high priest who is able to intercede for us and who is the author and finisher of our faith. It is through faith in this high priest and the blood he shed for us and the Spirit we have access to by his cross that we are able to move from sinner to saint. The path to holiness is the path of doing the works of God, speaking to our chaos in the Spirit and by faith and patience inheriting the promises. The letter to the Hebrews is exhorting the born again Christian to live by faith and the works of God to enter into rest, a life of beauty and order where the focus then becomes one of bringing others into the freedom of God. Hebrews is quite emphatic. There is a rest for the people of God and it is accomplished through faith and the Spirit, the works of God, rather than the works of the flesh and of the law. Amen |