Right now through our news screens, we are confronted with deeply moving scenes of human beings fleeing to find safety and rest. No doubt all of us are asking what we can do to help and many reading these words are going to extreme lengths to alleviate the suffering of others, yet in the knowledge that anything we can do (and there are things we can do!) will only ever be temporary.
The situation reminds us of the Bible’s description that human beings are always ultimately searching for REST. Everything else we do is only ever an attempt to achieve that. In the end true rest is something that only the Lord Jesus can give.
He said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)
Unlike what we can do, the rest that He offers really will last forever – but to ‘enter into’ that rest, as the writer to the Hebrews describes it in Chapter 4 of his letter, involves taking what the Lord says seriously.
We saw last Sunday morning from Nehemiah chapter 6, that’s what Nehemiah was doing: faced with opposition, much of it very personal, Nehemiah determined to honour God above Himself and continued to work towards the ultimate hope of rest despite the risks to his life and reputation.
As we bear witness to God’s grace in our lives through the Lord Jesus in the many different situations in which He has placed us, we too are aiming for that promise of rest. As the last book of the Bible describes it so well:
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21:4)
Spencer Shaw