Jesus, The Seed of Abraham
Psalm 8
“1O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
In Exodus God expresses His desire to dwell in our midst – in the midst of His people. His desire is, and has always been, and will always be, to restore us to that perfect relationship with Him. To restore us in righteousness, for we are His beloved. He loves us so much with a love ever enduring and all-encompassing.
It’s all about love. God wants to draw near to us, He wants to envelope us in His love, He wants to be our rock, our refuge, our salvation! He wants to be our healer!
For this reason Christ took the seed of Abraham upon Him (He is in every way the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham – Gal 3:1-18, Matt 1:1, John 3:16, 2 Cor 1:20), took all our burdens and the wages from sin – destroying every contract and oath recognized by the authorities and principalities of darkness – tearing asunder the bondage of death and sin and restoring us, renewing us in righteousness and giving us the true prosperity which is the shalom of and with God.
Isaiah 53:3-6:
“3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Jesus, Superior to Moses
When we read about Jewish culture we find that one of their greatest leaders, historically speaking, was Moses – the one who had acted as an agent of God – a prophet speaking by the LORD’s unction. We find great importance attached to him, and we see his legacy running through to the New Testament as well, where the Jews were still clinging to his laws and ways, his writings.
The author of Hebrews however comes, writing to the Christian Jews, teaching that the man who builds the house has more glory than the house – that the One who established Moses as an important figure, the One who established Moses as a man of greatness, is greater!
In Hebrews 3:3-6: we read –
“3For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. 4For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Moses was a servant in the house of the Lord, but Christ acts as a son over His OWN house. That is to say – He has authority over His house.
It is also important that we take note of that last part in the above mentioned passage – we are His house if we hold fast the confidence and hope we have in Him.
From verse 7 onwards the Holy Spirit urges all who read not to harden their hearts as in the provocation – where the Israelites tempted God and were denied entry into the Promised Land. They tested Him and He swore in His wrath that they would not enter into His rest. He was grieved with them because they knew not His ways, because they erred in their hearts.
One of the goals of the office of Christ was so that we could know God, so that He could reveal Himself to us, so that we could draw near to Him.
He wants to lead us into His rest – He came to do just that, and that is one of the areas where Moses had failed, for He could not move the people into God’s rest, which brings us to Joshua.
Jesus, Superior to Joshua
Hebrews 4:9-11:
“9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
Rest is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as:
A state of quiet or repose; a cessation from motion or labor; tranquillity; as, rest from mental exertion; rest of body or mind.1
In Psalm 95 David speaks regarding the day of provocation in which Israel tempted God and saw His works for 40 years – and he also states – ‘if you hear His voice today, do not harden your hearts’, and this is an indication that there is hope. We can move into the rest of God – the rest of God being a cessation (an end) of our own works, of our own will, a state of quiet and response to the will of God.
Joshua, as Israel’s Commander in Chief during the conquest of Canaan, led the Israelites into the Promised Land, into God’s promise, but not into the total rest we have in Him.
Christ comes and calls us to move into the promise of restoration and salvation – the promise of a new life with God – He invites us into His rest and gives us His Spirit, our guide, our comforter and our teacher, so that we can find our rest, in His.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary states that this rest of God isn’t a Sabbath like rest, but rather a state of blessedness, and this corresponds with verse 11 where the author states – let us labor to enter into that rest!
Let us work to attain that state of blessed dependence upon God, let us work and strive for righteousness, hunger and thirst for His ways so that we can move into His rest!
Hebrews 4:11:
“16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Let us seek God with all boldness, just as He commanded Joshua – without fear.