When God made man, he made him that he might enter into and enjoy God’s rest, eternal rest. However, this could only be done by man making a personal choice. Therefore, God placed him on a season of probation, and in this probationary time God prepared for and gave to man the Sabbath of rest. This was the very beginning of eternal rest. This probationary time afforded the man the opportunity to choose and enjoy God’s rest. In that he failed, the world plunged into unrest. When the mind cannot discern the future, worry normally begins and peace of mind is broken.
When God’s rest was prepared for man at the foundation of the world, it was established in the seventh-day Sabbath. For the seventh day is the Sabbath, the rest of the Lord thy God, and the Sabbath was made for man. (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 16:22-23; Mark 2:27-28)
The seventh day therefore, being the Sabbath, which is God’s rest, and which was made for man at the foundation of the world, remained the only avenue to find rest.
Scripture makes this clear, for, speaking of Israel, God said: “I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not 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, they shall not enter into my rest.” (Hebrews 4:3-5)
That is to say, the works were finished from the foundation of the world. When the works were finished, the rest was prepared; for then “God did rest. . . from all his works.” This rest was prepared in the seventh day; for “God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” But through unbelief the man failed to enter into God’s rest. He did not abide in God’s work, and so he could not enter into God’s rest. Therefore, unbelief brings unrest.
Nothing unsettles the mind of man more than the uncertainty of tomorrow. Nearly all decisions that are made, are made in light of what may happen tomorrow.
The present war in Ukraine is about tomorrow. While Putin may not see NATO as a present threat, his worry is about the future; hence, he is trying to have tomorrow’s reality today.
The Lord Jesus Christ addresses this problem in Matthew chapter six.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.
(Matthew 6:34 [KJV])
Like Putin, many of the failures of God’s people concern tomorrow.
Worry is blind, and cannot discern the future; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. In every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief. Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet. {Desire of Ages (DA) 330.1}
If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow. He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view, are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent. {Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing (MB) 100.1}
Christ has given us no promise of help in bearing today the burdens of tomorrow. He has said, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9); but, like the manna given in the wilderness, His grace is bestowed daily, for the day’s need. Like the hosts of Israel in their pilgrim life, we may find morning by morning the bread of heaven for the day’s supply. {MB 101.1}
One day alone is ours, and during this day we are to live for God.
Genesis fifteen showed Abraham’s mind after returning from the battle. “Abraham gladly returned to his tents and his flocks, but his mind was disturbed by harassing thoughts. He had been a man of peace, so far as possible shunning enmity and strife; and with horror he recalled the scene of carnage he had witnessed. But the nations whose forces he had defeated would doubtless renew the invasion of Canaan, and make him the special object of their vengeance. Becoming thus involved in national quarrels, the peaceful quiet of his life would be broken. Furthermore, he had not entered upon the possession of Canaan, nor could he now hope for an heir, to whom the promise might be fulfilled. {Patriarchs and Prophets (PP) 136.2}
“In a vision of the night the divine Voice was again heard. “Fear not, Abram,” were the words of the Prince of princes; “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” {PP 136.3} His fear for the future caused him to not fully grasp the promise until many years later.
Exodus sixteen shows the same fore-boding. “From Marah the people journeyed to Elim, where they found “twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees.” Here they remained several days before entering the wilderness of Sin. When they had been a month absent from Egypt, they made their first encampment in the wilderness. Their store of provisions had now begun to fail. There was scanty herbage in the wilderness, and their flocks were diminishing. How was food to be supplied for these vast multitudes? Doubts filled their hearts, and again they murmured. Even the rulers and elders of the people joined in complaining against the leaders of God’s appointment: “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” {PP 292.1}
They had not as yet suffered from hunger; their present wants were supplied, but they feared for the future. They could not understand how these vast multitudes were to subsist in their travels through the wilderness, and in imagination they saw their children famishing.”
In 1 Kings 19 we read,
1 “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do [to me], and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. 3 And when he saw [that], he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which [belongeth] to Judah, and left his servant there.”
God has wrought wonderful works by Elijah, but instead of standing in his lot that day he succumbed to the threat of tomorrow, therefore, he no longer had rest.
One of the greatest blunders seen in the life of God’s people is the experience of David recorded in 1 Samuel 27.
“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: [there is] nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.” (1 Samuel 27:1 [KJV])
God had repeatedly protected David from Saul’s malice. After a wonderful victory over Saul (see 1 Samuel 26), David had no reason to come to this conclusion. He was already anointed king and no power on earth could prevent him from being king. Yet in looking at tomorrow, he fell today. So will everyone who is inclined to carry tomorrow’s burden today.
Today we have a world that is troubled, Christ prophesied that “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. “(Luke 21:26 [KJV])
Unrest will be everywhere. Where then can rest be found? It will be found where it has always been.
Israel failed to enter into God’s rest, that rest did not fail: it still remains, and waits for men to enter it. Though Israel and the world failed to discern in the seventh day God’s rest, and so missed it, that rest, that Sabbath, of the seventh day did not vanish away; it still, even today, “remaineth,” and waits for man to enter into it. For “seeing. . . 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, Today, after so long a time; . . . today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God;” (Hebrews 4:5-7 &9)
Will your tomorrow eclipse the rest of today?
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