Exactly what did God mean when he said “they will never enter into my rest”?
Listen: 113.6
The Lord spoke these words about the Israelites that He had rescued from bondage in Egypt. Let’s read Psalms 95:10-11, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” Because of their unbelief, most of those who left Egypt were not permitted into the land of rest, Canaan. In fact, of all those who left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered the promised rest. Let’s read Numbers 14:28-32, “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.”
The Lord used this story of the unbelieving Israelites to warn those who profess to be saved in Hebrews 3:8-12, “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Hebrews 3:18-19 then clarifies why these people were not allowed to enter Canaan, or to enter God’s rest. That says, “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.” It is unbelief that will prevent many from entering into God’s rest.
Hebrews 4:9 tells us that, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” It is only those who truly have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior that are promised an eternal rest. What about you; will you enter into that rest? Have you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ? Just as unbelief prevented those Israelites from entering into God’s rest; unbelief will also prevent you from entering into Heaven, the place of God’s rest. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The Lord Jesus has promised us in John 6:37, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (113.6)