photo #8563258

THERE REMAINETH A REST Hebrews chapter four has a bit to say about God’s coming rest. Notice some of the verses that place an emphasis on the rest that God has planned for His people: Verse 1: Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Verse 3: For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Verse 4: For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Verse 5: And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Verse 8: For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. Verse 9: There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Verse 10: For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Verse 11: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. I realize that much of this refers to the spiritual rest that the believer enjoys by fully trusting Christ and resting in the abundant life that only Jesus can offer (Mat. 11:28; John 10:10), but much of it also refers to the coming millennial rest for the earth and its worthy inhabitants. After all, Paul tells us that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom. 8:22), which means that the creation has not yet entered into the rest that the Scriptures mandate (Isa. 14:7; 44:21-23; 49:13; 55:12). Isaiah 14:7 makes the point very clear: “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.” This has happened at no time since the garden of Eden, and it certainly isn’t happening now. It will happen only after the Antichrist and his followers have been destroyed, Israel has been delivered, and Christ’s throne of righteousness has been established in Jerusalem. Being a time of “rest,” it makes perfect sense that God would correspond it to the seventh day rest of Genesis 2:2, and since the Bible plainly states that Christ’s earthly kingdom will last one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7), it also makes perfect sense that this one thousand year kingdom should be the seventh thousand year period, or seventh millennium, of human history. This makes Christ’s kingdom the Sabbath "day" of the earth and human history, since one day is as a thousand years (II Pet. 3:8)