Rest
“Rest, resting place, quiet”
Summary
Rest in Scripture encompasses physical cessation from labor, the promised inheritance in Canaan, spiritual peace in Christ, and the eternal sabbath rest awaiting believers in heaven.
☩God's Rest and the Sabbath
The first biblical allusion to rest is God's cessation from His works of creation on the seventh day. This divine rest involves not merely cessation from labor but also complacency in the completed work. The Sabbath was instituted to commemorate God's rest and to provide His people opportunity to share in it. From Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4, it is clear that God intended for His people to enter into His rest, though Israel failed to do so because of unbelief.
☩Rest in Christ
Jesus extended the great invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This rest is both received and found: received when we come to Christ, and found when we take His yoke and learn of Him. The soul thus has, outside of circumstances, a portion that satisfies all its longings. This spiritual rest is a present possession for believers, available through faith in Christ who is meek and lowly of heart.
☩The Eternal Sabbath Rest
Hebrews 4:9 declares that "there remaineth a sabbath rest for the people of God." The Greek word sabbatismos, used only here in the New Testament, links the believer's future rest with God's original sabbath rest after creation. This eternal rest combines cessation from weariness, sorrow, and sin with the completion of God's new creation. The Triune God shall rejoice in the work of His hands, and nothing will break the sabbath of eternity. Until then, believers labor to enter that rest, resting from their works as God did from His.
Related Verses86 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Rest, Or Repose," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VIII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Hastings (ed.), "Rest," in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. II (T. & T. Clark, 1906–1908).
- 3.George Morrish, "Rest," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.James Hastings (ed.), "Rest," in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. II (T. & T. Clark, 1915–1918).
- 5.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Rest," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).