Thoughts on Hebrews: God's Rest, Part 12

In the last post I submitted God’s rest begins with Him—and the personal revelation of Himself. Let’s keep going with that.

To do that, turn to Exodus 3 when God called Moses. We have the angel of the Lord, fire, and burning, un-burning bush, and God using words Moses can hear and understand. Then, He commands Moses in connection with His holiness to remove his sandals. But in the midst of all that, He says something very personal: I am the God of your father; I am your father’s God.

This striking juxtaposition of a demonstration of His holiness with something as personal as “I know your father. Your father knew me.”

And then this, with the same sentiment:

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you . . .”

And He instructs Moses to convey a personal communication:

Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land . . . a land flowing with milk and honey.

That’s deeply personal. “I have seen what’s going on. I know what they are doing to you. I know all about it. And I promise I am going to take care of it . . . and I am going to take care of you.” What a comfort! What good news!

After the extra burden was placed on brickmaking and after the Jews chided with Moses and Aaron, God wants Moses to tell Israel to trust Him. Say therefore to the people of Israel,

‘I am the Lord, and

I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and

I will deliver you from slavery to them, and

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

I will take you to be my people, and

I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

I will give it to you for a possession.

I am the Lord.’

Between the two “I am the Lord’s” and in the middle of the deliverance and the land, we hear "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” Or, “I am yours, and you are mine.”

Okay. Let’s leap forward in time to the Song of Solomon to compare a couple of verses from this love song:

I am my beloved’s and he is mine . . . 2:16

I am my beloved’s and he is mine . . . 6:3

Oh, how life would have been different for Israel if she had responded to Him like the Beloved in the Song did in 1:4. (“Take me away with you—let us hurry!”)

Alright. Let’s go to the Book of Ruth because you will see there what this reference to the Song of Songs has to do with God’s rest. AS you may remember Naomi, her husband, and two sons left Bethlehem for Moab because of a famine. Naomi lost her husband and two adult sons in Moab. Bereft, she determines to return to Bethlehem because “she heard that the LORD had attended to His people by providing them with food.”

Picking up after Naomi heard, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave Moab:

Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.”

So, Naomi offers them a rest that comes from relationship, from the love, protection, provision, and care a husband would provide her daughters-in-law. Orpah goes back, but Ruth clings to Naomi. Where Ruth seeks rest which has a similar intimacy, but a deeper well I would propose:

Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

You will of course remember the “chance” meeting of Ruth and Boaz when she found herself gleaning barley for Naomi and herself. Naomi guides her daughter-in-law to find rest for her, and Naomi lies at Boaz’s feet at the threshing floor. When she returns in the early morning hours, and tells Naomi everything that had happened and what Boaz had said about the nearer kinsman redeemer, Naomi says something quite interesting:

“Wait, my daughter,” said Naomi, “until you find out how things go, for he will not rest unless he has resolved the matter today.”

You know how the story ends. Boaz redeemed the property, married Ruth, and fathered Obed, the grandfather of King David.

Ruth gives us a few clues about entering God’s rest. Rest comes from an intimate relationship with God our redeemer, found by a heartfelt desire to be His.

Image courtesy of Unsplash and Daniel Ortiz Photography @daniel_ortiz