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Work Hard at Rest

 


I love oxymorons. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms, like small crowd, jumbo shrimp, original copy, and old news. We use oxymorons when we call a painting pretty ugly, or a comedian seriously funny. Even the word oxymoron is a combination of the prefix meaning “keen” and the word for foolish.

 

Oxymorons are funny and make things easier to remember. The author of Hebrews employed a clever oxymoron in 4:11 when he wrote, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

 

Strive, of course, means to work hard. Work hard at resting. Those two concepts would typically cancel each other out, but the author instructs us to work at rest. 

 

What does he mean by entering rest? In the previous passage he looked back at the exodus when the ancient Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Joshua 21:44 says the Lord gave them rest as they were able to settle down and live in peace in a land flowing with milk and honey. That was the Jewish idea of rest. 

 

But the author of Hebrews expands that idea, saying Jesus gives a better rest than Joshua. The rest available in Christ is a rest from trying to earn our place in heaven and earning God’s favor. It is why Jesus would say in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This is not a rest that sits in a recliner and ceases from all strenuous activity, but a rest that is sure of one’s eternal destiny and position in God’s family. This is rest from worry, a rest from the stress that wonders if they are good enough, that hopes they are saved, that worries if they have lost their salvation. 

 

The rest promised by Jesus is an invitation to rest in Christ, being confident that we who put our trust in Him are permanent children of the God of Heaven. Some of us struggle with this, thinking we have to do more. It can’t be that easy, we tell ourselves. But the author of Hebrews tells us to work hard at rest. Put your mental energy into not using it. Just inhale, then exhale, and know you are a child of God. 

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