#DailyDevotion Jesus Of Nazareth Is Your Sabbath
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
In Genesis 2 we can note unlike the 6 previous days, the seventh day has no end as there is no mention of evening and morning following it like the previous days. Gen 2:2-3”And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. (3) So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
It is this rest that God has promised to his people. This rest is reached through trusting the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Israelites who perished in the wilderness did not enter that rest. They did not unite faith to the promise the Lord had made them. For that reason the Lord said, “they will not enter my rest.” Oh the horror of being so close yet being so far. It was theirs to grasp but they would not believe God’s promise.
Now the Lord has appointed a new day for you to enter his rest. That day is Today! “Today if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts.” That today is today. Today the Lord offers to you the gift of entering his rest, his Sabbath. Jesus Christ, the Messiah is the Sabbath of the Lord. He who said on the cross, “It is finished.” has become the Sabbath rest of God.
Now how do we enter this Sabbath rest? By trusting the promise of the Lord who said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” As Paul has written, Rom 6:3-4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Since Jesus is the Sabbath of the Lord and the Lord of the Sabbath, when we are baptized into Jesus and believe the promises made here we are joined with Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. His “It is finished” becomes our “finished”! Today as your faith is in Jesus and his works and his promises you get to rest from your work and take rest in his work for you on the cross.
Heavenly Father, you created an eternal rest for those who would trust in your promises, especially the promise of the completed work of your Son Jesus Christ on the cross. Grant us such faith in Jesus that we may enter your rest today and find respite in Jesus our Sabbath. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.