Enter that Rest

The Doctrine of Haste and the Sabbath of Christ - Part 1

Caught Up in the Moment

A man who runs from silence runs toward his death. The man who hurries cannot repent. He is moving too fast to stop. He is calculating, justifying, adjusting, reacting — anything but trusting.

He thinks he is alive because he is in motion, but the truth is clearer: he is afraid. The rushing man believes he must save himself. And this is unbelief.

Rest is not the absence of activity. It is the presence of peace with God. And peace does not enter through striving. It enters through surrender. The man who cannot stop is the man who still thinks it depends on him.

“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Hebrews 3:11)

This is not merely a statement of judgment. It is an X-ray of the soul: the one who will not wait, will not enter. Because he cannot trust.

The Text

Hebrews is not complex. It is severe.

The Holy Spirit says three times, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” This is not advice. This is command.

The Israelites saw God act. They heard His voice. They walked through the Red Sea and ate bread from heaven. But when the time came to enter the Promised Land — they feared the future more than they trusted the Word.

They believed their enemies were stronger than their God. They believed time would not deliver them what God had promised. So they chose to act — on their own terms.

Being Hasty

It is not speed that is the problem, but the refusal to wait for God’s pace. And here’s the rub: when hurry takes the lead, bitterness is sure to follow.

Bitterness says, “God did not give me what I needed.” Haste is already excited, “So I will get it myself.”

The two become an endless circuit: the faster you run, the more bitter you become; the more bitter you become, the faster you run.

“They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.” (Hebrews 3:10)

Rest Remains

The Bible promises: there remains a rest. This is not a metaphor. It is not “only in heaven.” It is an active spiritual state, available now, entered by those who believe through faith alone.

“We who have believed do enter that rest…” (Hebrews 4:3)

To enter the rest is to stop justifying yourself. To stop excusing your pace. To stop explaining your hurry. To stop defending your bitterness. To stop treating unrest like righteousness. And to begin to say:

“I trust Christ more than I trust my plan.”

“I trust Christ more than I trust my timeline.”

“I trust Christ more than I trust my fear.”

That is peace. Peace is rest. And it is entered only one way: diligence.

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…” (Hebrews 4:11)

Paradox?

Work to enter rest?

But the only labor allowed here is the labor of surrender. Of stopping. Of not doing.

This is a double-edged entry. Not passive. A sword: patience in action.

The Word of God cuts harder than your knife. Your soul and your spirit ache. The joints and the marrow wrestle. Motive and reason come under deep and abiding judgment. Lies and fears meet face to face in your heart.

“For the word of God is living and powerful… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

This is not poetry. This is surgery.

No man enters rest who has not been pierced. No man finds peace without first confessing the sin of what he is trying to prove. Nobody learns to wait on the Lord until he lets go of what he is trying to escape, stop, or defeat, or save.

Only the raw Word can show you that. Only the Spirit can search the inward parts.

Only the Father can say to you, “Thus far, and no further.”

High Priest of “Take God’s Time”

The final truth in Hebrews 5 is this: Christ is not in a hurry to sanctify you.

He has entered His rest. “Come to me, ye weary.”

Jesus waited. Thirty years to begin. Forty days in the desert. Three days in the grave. He learned obedience, not in haste, but in hunger, silence, delay.

“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8)

Now He stands at God’s Right Hand on High, High Priest of your confidence, not pushing but calling you back: to the still, quiet voice of His calming Way.

“Let him who has ears!” Be pierced. Be emptied. Be made new. Rest.

Practicing Entering

This is not theory. This is blood and breath. So, do not harden your heart. Instead, pause. Lay it down. Burn the rush. Name the fear. Face the struggle. Read the Word.

Read it again.

Slowly.

Not for information. For severance.

Let silence be the act. Let the beauty be in the waiting.

Let it break you.

Stop trying to get something. Be someone.

“For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” (Hebrews 4:10)

There is a Rest

It is not earned. It is entered. It is not achieved. It is received. And it cannot be shared by those who still believe that hurry will save them.

The man who rests in Christ does not stop moving. But he no longer flees. His pace is governed by trust. His delay is not shame, but worship. His slowness is not failure, but faith. He is not driven. He is led.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.”

Enter that rest. Before you calcify. Before your haste becomes a name. Before your bitterness becomes your only truth. See Christ as All in All. Now. Peace.

The Hebron Collegium: