God's Rest

Biblical Rest

Christianity Oasis provides this Biblical Rest - God's Rest in the Bible study on the Rest of God or Christian Rest bringing forth truth, understanding and peace.


Daily Bread Devotional Bible Study
The Epistle to the Hebrews
Chapter 4


Biblical Rest - God's Rest in the Bible

Rest of God - Christian Rest

Welcome to our Christianity Oasis Daily Bread study program. This is our very blessed and hope filled Biblical Rest and God's Rest in the Bible study on the Rest of God and what is known as the Christian Rest. The absolutely awesome God's Rest and Biblical Rest promise will truly bring a smile to the lips and heart and shine the LIGHT of Truth upon your be-YOU-tiful Christian walk path.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Truth
Rest of God & Christian Rest Quest

It's a lovely day for some Daily Bread! When we left off in our study, Paul was talking about entering into God's Rest. What is God's Rest? Let's take a look all the way back to the second chapter of the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 2:3

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

So, God's rest is the Sabbath. Most people think of the Sabbath as Sunday, because the beginning of their work week is on Monday, however, if you look at a calendar, the first day of the week is Sunday. The Jewish people celebrate the Sabbath from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. So Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. Sunday ... Is the Lord's Day, the day Jesus was resurrected. See this Sabbath Versus The Lord's Day study to learn more. Just a little Daily Bread stick for you.

We have a study called Feast Shadows that will help you to completely understand how God used past events to predict the future. This study is in depth Scripture based teaching about how the Holy Days (Jewish Holidays) are shadows of events to come. Colossians 2:16-17

An excellent example of this foreshadowing concept is that the Sabbath Day is really a shadow of God's rest, which is also called the Millennium. To further explain this, we will share our extremely intricate and thought provoking Bible study program known as the End Times.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Plan
Rest of God & Christian Rest Path

Work Six Days, Rest on the Seventh

  • Genesis, Chapter 1 - The Bible says that God worked 6 days, and on the 7th day, He rested.
  • Genesis 2:2 - God also made this law apply to His people. They were to work 6 days and rest on the 7th.
  • Exodus 20:9-10 - And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shall gather in the fruits thereof.
  • Exodus 23:10 - If His people had a servant or slave, they were to work 6 years and be set free the 7th year. God's people were also to sow in the land and gather fruits for 6 years but not on the 7th.
  • Mark 15:25, 34-37 - Even Jesus, when He was put on the Cross, hung there 6 hours, and died at the beginning of the 7th hour.

We see a pattern created by God. There are six time periods of work and one time period of rest. The number seven is God's number symbolizing completion.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Facts
Rest of God & Christian Rest Promise

Day of Rest

The Bible says that after the End Times, there is a one thousand year period of time, known as the "Millennium" in which Satan is imprisoned and there is a time of peace and rest for mankind (Revelation 20:3-4).

1000 years = One day to God

In 2 Peter 3:8, it says that one day to God is one thousand years to mankind. Again, in Psalms 90:4, it says that a thousand years in God's sight are as but a day, as a "watch" in the night.

Now, let us do a little simple math:

If God says that ... Mankind shall work six days and rest on the seventh, And one thousand years to man is but one day to God, And there is a one thousand year time period known as the Millennium, Then mankind must "work" for six days or six thousand years and rest for one thousand years.

So, this Holy Day called Sabbath is a Shadow of the event known as the Millennium, which is also God's rest. Again ... There are many of these "shadows" in the Bible. You can study more about them at the Feast Shadows page.

God's Rest Lesson With God's Rest Explanation
Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Proof
Rest of God & Christian Rest to Come

Rest, is such a comforting thing. For every moment of life that we expend on work, on study, on worry, on planning, on cleaning, on playing, even on just hearing and seeing ... We are using energy, and rest is required to keep us going, to start it all over again. Our physical selves need rest. Now, what about our spiritual selves?

Our spiritual selves are harder to refresh than our physical selves. Some facets of our spiritual health get tired, and remain at a state of unrest for our entire mortal lives. Perhaps that is one way of looking at the rest that God has waiting for us. And we can enjoy certain aspects of that today, with faith.

Paul tells us ... Don't miss out on this amazing promise that God is offering you. The children of Israel in the wilderness could not enter into the Promised Land and rest from their enemies because of unbelief. Even Moses didn't enter into the physical rest in Canaan that God had waiting for them.

Let's not forget that it was nearly 1500 years from the time of the provocation, (When Israel provoked God in the Wilderness) until Paul's epistle was written to the Hebrews. If you were Jewish and grew up believing in the law, and believing that adhering to the Old Testament beliefs would bring you the promised Salvation, there may be a lot of pressure from unbelieving Jews of your family and friends to ignore this "New Testament" ideology since abiding to the Old Testament traditions was practiced so closely by them. Remember that Paul warned them in the last chapter not to harden their hearts like they (the children of Israel) did back then.

Another thing to remember is that Moses did prophecy about the coming of Jesus as the Messiah:

Deuteronomy 18:15

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken;

So Paul, fearing that the new Christian Hebrews would revert back to Judaism (which is based on Old Covenant laws and customs as compared to the New Covenant) uses Scripture to open their eyes about God's rest. He wants to make it clear that the ancestors did not enter into the Promised Land (that entire generation died in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb), but God's rest still awaits those who have faith in Jesus. That Scripture which Paul uses is written by King David:

Psalms 95:6-11

6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. To day if ye will hear His voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Evidence
Rest of God & Christian Rest Quest for You

Although God was angry with those who were faithless in the wilderness, there were those of the following generation which had remained faithful, and they did enter into the Promised Land.

So hundreds of years after the provocation, God speaks through King David, which Paul reminds us of in Psalm 95 above. God said this, even though His work was finished after the sixth day of Creation, so we know that God's rest remains (it is yet to happen). The provocation is the example God used to reveal that we lose the opportunity of sharing in His rest if we do not remain faithful.

If it happens "today," that you hear the voice of the Lord ... Believe! If you will listen "today," and hear Him, don't turn your heart away, as those in the wilderness did. "Today" ... God uses the words "to day," do it now, don't wait until tomorrow. It is urgent. No procrastination, you don't know what a day may bring.

When you believe in the New Testament, you are released from the law of the Old Testament because the law is written in your heart, and you desire to follow God's Will. You are free of the fear of not being able to obey every letter of the Old Testament law, as no human being ever, other than Christ Himself has ever been able to do that. This doesn't mean you are free to sin, it means you don't want to sin. That is how, by belief, you are reborn into a new person with the Spirit of God living in you, and that is one aspect of God's rest that you may enjoy while on Earth.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible in Love
Rest of God & Christian Rest Adventure

A point that Paul makes is that The Promised land that the children of Israel were brought into by God, is not the final rest, or else He would not have spoken of another day in Verse 7 of Psalm 95. Paul also reminds us of this Scripture:

Revelation 14:13

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth [from this point on]: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

So we see, that God's rest has not come and gone ... It is yet to be. How do we know this?

Hebrews 4:11

Let us labour [work and desire] therefore to enter into that rest, [salvation by faith] lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Concluding this chapter, Paul uses these beautiful words to remind us that we cannot hide from the Word of God [Jesus].

Hebrews 4:12

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

He knows us inside and out, and lucky for us that He does because He understands everything about us, not one thought can be hidden from Him. And having been human Himself, He understands our weaknesses. He is our High Priest, and with His life made atonement for our sins. He is now in God's rest, and if we hold firmly to our faith, we will one day join Him.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Timing
Rest of God & Christian Rest is Near

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need.

Biblical Rest & God's Rest in the Bible Summary
Rest of God & Christian Rest Conclusion

Do you love that last verse?! That's what it's all about. Whether you're Jewish or Gentile, or polka dotted, God's Grace is really the answer to everything. Hope you'll hurry back, so we can share more truth together with Paul, right here at Daily Bread.

Click the links below to learn more of God's rest: