Working For God

Hebrews 3:18-19 says, “And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.”
        The children of Israel were unable to enter into God’s rest because of their unbelief; but what was it they were unable to believe? Oswald Chambers said, “The root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good”.
        Hebrews says that Israel had been deceived by sin and their hearts had become hard. They stopped believing the best about God. They tested Him—resisting Him all along the way. They complained about their deliverance out of Egypt saying—“if only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt”. They whined about their thirst, grumbled about manna, and then rebelled against Moses and the Promised Land.
        But we’re not so different; we can find ourselves resisting God all along the way. We pray for help and then complain when it does not come fast enough. We whine if it’s not the kind of help we wanted. We accuse God of not caring.
        Then we find ourselves worn out. We are tired. We can’t get enough rest. There is too much to do and never enough time to do it.
        But that is what the writer of Hebrews is saying. We can’t enter God’s rest if we resist Him; we can’t rest if we don’t believe He is good and is committed to our care and well being. Rebellion against God will leave us weak and tired—unable to get the nourishment we need to live. The work God wants from us is to believe in the one He has sent.
-Pastor Dino Griffin