As we've been tracking the theme of rest this week we've seen that the storyline of the Bible can be thought of through the lens of a return to the Eden ideal of the seventh day rest from Genesis 2 where there is no morning or evening and the creation continues in this state of harmony indefinitely. The people of Israel were given this hope of rest when they entered the promised land. Their weekly and yearly calendar rhythm expressed this hope as well. Then Jesus comes on the scene and proclaims that he is the one to make this hope a reality.
The apostles understood the fullness of God's rest to be a future reality yet to be attained as well as a present reality that the believer partakes in. The author of Hebrews writes after quoting Psalm 95:
Hebrews 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest
Hebrews 4:6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
Hebrews 4:8–11
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. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Here he is looking back to the Israelite's failure to enter God's rest by sinning in the wilderness and using that as an example for the church to take note of. He calls them not to harden their hearts as the people of Israel did and to strive to enter that rest. In making sense of all this, when we believe, we come to Jesus and enter his rest (Matt. 11:28-30), but that rest is not fully realized—there is a greater rest for the people of God yet to be revealed. The believer must continue in obedience, not hardening their hearts as the Israelites did in the wilderness and they will attain that full rest.
In the last pages of the Bible we see John's vision of the fullness of this rest coming to earth:
Revelation 21:1–4
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
God's dwelling place being with man particularly harkens back to the creation account of God walking in the garden with them and God conversing openly with them. The imagery of v. 4 also harkens back to the ideal state of Eden, the only time in history when that sort of harmony existed.
So, to summarize the week, when we rest we are practicing the rest that God instituted on the seventh day of creation. We are experiencing the reality of the rest that Jesus has finally achieved for all of creation. This after centuries of humanity only partially attaining rest only to be forfeited by sin. We are modeling what it will be like to live fully in the 7th day Sabbath rest of the new creation. To be clear this won't be an eternal absence of activity leading to endless boredom. Instead, the accounts of Eden and Revelation indicate that we will be worshiping God and working to rule and care for creation in the best sense of work, without the toil and burdens of working to sustain life and without the fear of wild animals or the harvest failing to come in.
I hope you've come to realize this week that stopping and resting is a theologically loaded practice that will benefit your soul.