THE REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Part 39

Joshua 11:23

Morning Meditation 12/11/16

Verse 23 says, “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.”

It has been a long time from the promise to its fulfillment. The Lord had waited until the land was ripe for judgment and Israel was ready to exercise the obedience of faith. Israel turned back the first time because of unbelief. Israel was not ready for God to manifest His mighty power in delivering the land into their hands. Jesus did not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. The Lord works through those who believe Him.

What does faith do? I believe Joshua 11:15 gives us the answer: “As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” Faith acts on God’s revealed Word literally and leaves no loose ends. Any disobedience is the substitution one’s own personal opinion into the situation. For the highly opinionated, this is a difficult job. There must be self imposed discipline not to spare the flesh (our own thoughts).

Joshua will now divide the land among the tribes of Israel. They will have for the first time possession of the land that God had promised. Here we learn a great lesson. It is possible to own the land and not possess it. The Jews that died in the desert owned this land also. The Lord definitely gave them the land and they were on their way to possess it when they stopped short because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:18 says, “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.” The REST mention in this text is the REST of Joshua 11:23. They had to fight for this rest so it is not a type of heaven. It was a fight won before the battle was begun but they had to fight nevertheless. These battles would be times when any disobedience or unbelief would be brought out as in the case of Achan. When you are going up against an enemy and you are no match for him, you must have God’s help or lose. If you lose, you know something is wrong somewhere. So you start the examination process until you find what is wrong and correct it. When the wrong is corrected, you go back against the same enemy and enjoy a God given victory.

Jesus Himself is our Joshua. Joshua is a type of Christ and translators slipped in Hebrews 3:8 and translated Joshua as Jesus: “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.” Now this verse definitely teaches that Joshua did not give them the ultimate rest of which the LORD promises. So, the Canaan rest is only a TYPE of the REST that the LORD had in store for them. And Hebrews teaches that we HAVE THAT REST IN CHRIST if we enter by faith. It is a GIVEN REST. It is obtained by faith.

Now let’s look at the verse that brings this out so we have a Scriptural foundation for the application of this Old Testament lesson to us as believers in our day.

Hebrews 3:12-14 says, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.”

First of all the author of Hebrews is addressing “brethren.” This is not “brethren” of the same human parents, or the same ancestral parents. It is “brethren” of the same HEAVENLY PARENT. Some have erred here trying to protect their pet theological doctrine of the DIVINE PERSEVERATION OF THE SAINTS. Sorry about that. That doctrine sometimes justifies harsh judgment upon the disobedient Child of God by saying he was never saved or he would have persevered. What about Lot, and all the Jews that got out of Egypt and not into Canaan. Are we going to say all of them were lost because they did not persevere? I think not. When a backslider (a Christian out of fellowship with the Lord) dies, you don’t know if a saved man or a lost man died. Only God knows that. We can only see the outward expression of his faith. If the outward expression of his faith is not seen, any assurance assumed is not Biblical.

The words “take heed” is a present active imperative verb. The present tense means that it was a warning at the time the Hebrews received this epistle. It is a warning to us in our present tense experience of salvation. This verb is also imperative mood which means it is a command and expresses urgency. The command is a strong exhortation. The urgency is that the purpose for which we are saved, and left on earth after salvation, will be neutralized if we do not enter HIS REST. Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Note what it says. It is a REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

The words, “ . . . lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” means that it is possible for the believer today to depart just like Israel departed and wandered in the wilderness for forty years. It does not mean that one is not saved. It means that the attempts to consecrate your life to Him will be in vain. There are battles against strongholds in our minds and flesh that only the Lord can give us power to overcome. He will not help us in our determination to be holy apart from confession of the sin that stands between us and His power. He will not aid an unbelieving believer. If the Achan in us has taken the “goodly Babylonish garment” (some worldly thing) or “a wedge of gold” (that was consecrated to the LORD), it must go. The Achan in us must be put to death (Romans six) before the blessings of the resurrection life of our Lord brings us through to victory

The words “For we are made partakers of Christ (SHARE IN HIS RESURRECTION LIFE NOW), if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” is instructing SAINTS. It is not telling anyone how to be saved. It is not a warning against the loss of salvation. These “brethren” are already partakers of Christ in the sense of salvation. But to “partake of Christ” in the sense he is talking about here is an on going thing that should be a daily experience of the believer. The NEW BIRTH is the beginning not the end to which we are saved. The Lord didn’t save us just to get us to heaven. That will happen to every saved person and it is our sure hope in Christ. But the purpose of our salvation is to conform us to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). This happens as we continually feed off the life of Christ by faith. Colossians 2:6 says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” How did we receive Christ? We received Him by faith like the faith of a little child. We are to walk by that same faith.. Paul registered his concern for the Christians in Corinth in the words found in Second Corinthians 11:3: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” This is holding our confidence steadfast to the end. It is the simple faith that Jesus is the answer for our lives from now on. Jesus is not a fire escape from hell. He gives and is the Life that is called eternal (1 John 5:12). We are to live by Him (John 6:57). Paul said, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” Doesn’t Paul know Him? He is talking about knowing Him better. It is “living by Him” that Paul is talking about.

This is the life of REST that Canaan typifies. This life is entered through a struggle. But the outcome of the struggle is assured in advance. It is a REST called HIS REST (Heb. 4:9-11). Have you entered HIS REST?

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White