Right from the start God made us and this planet his home – because as soon as “the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array” in Genesis 2:1, this is where “he rested” (2) – even setting aside a day on the weekly cycle he’d created for Planet Earth to rest on – to get the point across that on this planet and with us humans is where he delights to be.
He then continued to get that point across by creating the nation of Israel and having the Israelites rest on the same day he rested to take their minds back to the amazing realization that it’s here with us that God chooses to be. This is his resting place, his home, and his greatest wish for the Israelites was for them to “enter his rest” (as it’s phrased in Hebrew 3:18) – meaning join him in his home and experience his delight in it with him.
Unfortunately, Hebrews 3:19, “they were not able to enter (his rest) because of their unbelief” – unbelief, that is, in what God was aiming at for them, and what was needed to get them there.
Fortunately, however, “the promise of entering his rest still stands” (4:1), and “there remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (9). So the call is still out for us humans to grasp what his sabbath rest at creation pictured. And the key to that is given in Hebrew 3:1, that to those who wish to “share in the heavenly calling” of entering God’s rest and sharing in the delight he experiences in us and this planet being his home – then “fix your thoughts on Jesus.”
For one very important reason, verse 6: that Jesus “is faithful as a son over God’s house.” God has given Jesus full charge of his home, just like Joseph was given full charge over Potiphar’s house (Genesis 39:4), and then over the prison (22), and then over the whole of Egypt (41:39-40), all of which he did incredibly successfully (39:3) as the perfect parallel with Jesus being totally successful in the job God’s given him to do of “bringing many sons to glory,” Hebrews 2:10 – the same glory he and the Father experience together, because this is Jesus’ greatest wish for us too (John 17:24).
To Jesus, then, “we are his house,” Hebrews 3:6, the ones he’s been given full charge of to make sure we successfully “enter God’s rest,” but also because “Family is how Jesus sees us” too….(next blog)
