The Saints’ Inheritance

6: THE REST THAT REMAINS FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

“THERE remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9. SAIN 38.1

PAUL, when reasoning with the Hebrews concerning the promised rest, did not talk as though the promises concerning the land had already been verified, but gave them clearly to understand that these promises refer to a state of things which is yet to come. He says: “While it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke; howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? and to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” ¹ SAIN 38.2

Again he says: “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. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, ² 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. 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. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief; again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus [Joshua, margin] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” ³ SAIN 38.3

In the above language the apostle clearly shows that the rest contemplated by the promise made to Abraham, was not received when Joshua led the children of Israel into the land of Canaan; neither had it been received down to the days of David; and even when Paul wrote his epistle to the Hebrews, it was still the rest which remained for the people of God. SAIN 39.1

When Israel sojourned in the land of Canaan, it was only a temporal possession, typical of the final possession of the earth. When they corrupted themselves with their idols, and sinned against the Lord, their enemies prevailed against them, overran the land, and dispossessed them of their cities. Temporal judgments were thus brought upon them. This proved to them that they must be obedient to God if they would “inherit” the earth. If they would be Abraham’s children, according to Christ’s rule, they must walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham, thus manifesting in their lives “the works of Abraham.” SAIN 39.2

While Israel remained in the land and carried out strictly the yearly services of the Jewish sanctuary, they would have a yearly purging out of the rebels. Every one who, in the day of atonement, would afflict his soul, would find mercy; but those who would not do it, must be cut off from Israel. With such a fact before us how could we claim that the promises to that people are simply national, or even individual blessings,, except they repent, receive Christ, and obey the truth of God? Paul states concerning the literal descendants of Abraham, that to now be partakers of even the “fatness” of their own olive tree, they must be “grafted” into Christ, and stand by faith. ⁴ SAIN 39.3

The possession of the land of Canaan by the natural descendants of Abraham, as before claimed, was a type of the future possession promised to God’s people. For this reason there was strict propriety in separating the profane from among the true Israel, that they might be kept a holy seed, and their possession of the land typify truly that inheritance which none but righteous ones can receive. SAIN 40.1

This the Lord notified them he would do to them if they did cease to follow him, and this he did to them. We read one prediction concerning it as follows: “If ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a by-word among all nations.” ⁵ SAIN 40.2

We read how this was mostly strictly accomplished in the record of their being led away into captivity: “They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. SAIN 40.3

And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.” ⁶ SAIN 41.1

Tracing the history of the Israelites to the time of Zedekiah, under whose reign the above prediction was fulfilled, we find that they had so far corrupted themselves by disobeying the commandments of the Lord that the scepter was entirely taken away from them, and passed into the hands of the wicked kings of the earth. The testimony of the Lord to Hezekiah, by his prophet Ezekiel, just before the carrying away, is very striking: “And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more till he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” ⁷ SAIN 41.2

The one “whose right it is” is Christ. He is the seed “to whom the promise is made.” In the above text we learn that after the scepter had passed from God’s people, it was to be three times overturned before it passed into the hands of him “whose right it is.” When Zedekiah, the high prince, was “abased,” the low prince of Babylon was exalted to the high position of ruling over God’s people. When the king of Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians, and Israel became tributary to them, the scepter was overturned once. Again, when the Medes and Persians were conquered by Alexander, and the Grecian kingdom was established, the Lord’s word was again fulfilled, and “it” (the scepter) was overturned the second time. And when, B.C. 31, the celebrated battle of Actium brought Rome to her position of “mistress of the world,” the scepter had been three times overturned, and so far as the prediction made against Zedekiah was concerned, he whose right it was might come and take possession of the kingdom. The people at the time of Christ’s first advent, “instantly serving God day and night,” did “hope to come” ⁸ to the fulfillment of those promises which God made concerning righteousness, eternal life, and the inheritance. They certainly must have looked upon the saints’ rest as yet future. SAIN 41.3