The reason we have a High Priest is to enable us to “enter God’s rest.” Entering God’s rest was what the Israelites in the Old Testament could have done too, but “they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief,” Hebrews 3:19.
Fortunately, “the promise of entering his rest still stands,” Hebrews 4:1, because God provided the solution – “a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (14). But what is this “rest,” and how does Jesus being our high priest enable us to enter it?
Hebrews describes the “rest” as the rest God himself entered on the seventh day of creation (4, 10). His job of creating was done; he rested. In human terms he could sit back in total confidence that everything would work out exactly as he’d planned. For us to enter his rest, then, we share the same total confidence in his plan that he has – not only in what the plan is, but also in its successful completion.
So, what is God’s plan, and how do we have complete confidence in it too? The book of Hebrews answers both questions. It asks God in Hebrews 2:6, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” – or – “Why on earth – in the vastness of this staggering universe – did you come up with the idea of us tiny little creatures, and care for us so much too?”
The answer in verse 7, given many years previously in Psalm 8, is that “God made us just a tad less than himself,” modelled in his very own image (Genesis 1:27). And the reason God made us into such a near copy of himself was to “crown us with glory and honour, putting everything under our feet,” Hebrews 2:7-8. So when God sat back on the seventh day of creation, this was the plan he had total confidence in, that humans would be handed the reins of the entire universe and successfully run it.
But how is that even remotely possible? We’re stuck in physical bodies that wear out and die, and with minds that are never at rest, because we still have no idea – on just this tiny planet – how to successfully take care of everyone’s needs. How, then, can we ever “enter God’s rest” by having total confidence in what seems like an impossible plan?
Fortunately, Hebrews answers this question too, in verse 9, starting with four simple words: “But we see Jesus”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 