The Rest that Remaineth: The Works of Wisdom, and Her Children.
By PHILIP MARROW
Many
hundred years after the Provocation in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit inspired
the utterance of the Ninety-fifth Psalm. It begins with a note of praise “to the Rock of our Salvation.” Then it speaks of the Lord as a great God and
a great King. It brings to mind the
works of His Hands, making mention of the deep places of the earth, the
strength of the hills, the sea, and the dry land. Then follows an invitation to come and worship
before Him; and then they to whom this invitation is given are called “the people of His pasture and the sheep of His Hand.” The parallel between these verses and the
contents of Hebrews is obvious.
The
second part of the Psalm consists of the warning quoted in full in Hebrews ch. 3.; and it should be carefully noted
that the warning, “To-day, if ye will hear His Voice,
harden not your hearts as in the provocation” is addressed to “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His Hand”;
and it should be further noted that the subject spoken of, regarding which they
are urged to hear His Voice, has to do with “salvation” and with the material creation - the sea and the dry
land.
This
Psalm is beyond all doubt prophetic. It belongs to a series (93-100.) which speak in glowing language of the salvation to be manifested in the age
to come, when “the Lord reigneth,” when the
heavens shall rejoice and the earth be glad, the field be joyful, and all the
trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, “for He
cometh to judge the earth.” We
cannot comment extensively upon these Psalms, but would advise the reader to
study them carefully.
The
Epistle to the Hebrews fixes definitely the period of the fulfilment of these
prophetic Psalms. It tells us that “the rest” which God offered to the Israelites was but
a shadow. Joshua did not, in fact, give
them rest, “For if Joshua had given them rest, then would He (God) not afterward have spoken of another (rest) day” (Heb. 4: 8). And it tells us quite plainly that the people
of His pasture, to whom the warning “Harden not your
heart” is addressed, are the
redeemed people of this age, the “Hebrews,” those who are passengers through the wilderness of this world, and
who have the privilege of coming into
His Presence to “worship.”
The
application of the warning is made for us with a, definiteness that leaves
little room for misunderstanding. The
point of the matter is that we should “fear,
lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us
should seem to come short of it,” (Heb. 4: 1);
and that we ought to “give diligence to. enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example: of disobedience”: (Heb. 4: 11).
By
reference to Scriptures which speak of the Rest of God, we may obtain light
whereby many and exceedingly precious details of this subject can be perceived.
In
the fourth chapter of Hebrews, two “rests”
are spoken of, namely, the rest of the old creation (verse
4), and that of the new creation (verses 5,
9, 10, 11). In Genesis 2 God spoke “of
the seventh day on this wise, and
God did REST the seventh day from
all His works” (verse 4). Then subsequently, “in
this place again”, He spoke of a rest, saying, “If
they shall enter into My rest” (verse 5). Having spoken in Gen.
2. of a certain day of rest (which rest was broken by the entrance of
sin into the world) God again, after so long a time, limited a certain day (of
rest), saying in David “To-day, etc.” And by
this He could not have meant the rest of
This
is the conclusion of the argument beginning at verse
3, the sense of which appears to be this: Although the works of God were
completed from the foundation of the world (for the Seventh day is specifically
named as the period when God rested from all His works) nevertheless, at a much
later time, God speaks again of “My
rest,” and speaks of it as
something [still]
in the future. What does this
mean? What are the works from and in
which God will rest, and into which He is now bidding some men to enter? The explanation appears in verse 10, pointing to the rest that will ensue
from the works which Christ finished on the Cross, where He Who is the
Beginning, made peace through the Blood of His Cross, to reconcile ALL THINGS unto Himself (Col. 1: 18, 20).
“For He (Christ) that
is entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His Own Works, as God did
from His.” This is the rest into
which we should labour to enter. It is a
rest far more glorious than that ensuing upon the works of the six days of Gen. 1., for it will be based upon the mighty work
of Redemption, accomplished upon the Cross of Calvary, where the Incarnate Son
of God put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself, and through death destroyed
him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil.
By
“God’s rest” is not meant recuperation from the
fatigue of labour, for we cannot think of God as being fatigued by His
labours. It means the satisfaction and enjoyment which God takes in the finished
and perfected works of His Hands, the productions of His creative wisdom and
power. “Rest,” therefore, is associated with
God’s “works.”
When God had set the world in order by the work of the six days recorded
in Gen. 1., and had filled it with living
creatures, and had “blessed” them, and had seen
that all was “very good;” He then rested on the seventh day. That
rest was broken by sin. The world was
again thrown into confusion, being filled with corruption and violence. God could not rest in such an evil state of
things; so He took up another and a mightier work, that of redemption, looking
to a new creation based upon reconciliation, and to an eternal [age-lasting] and
glorious rest therein.
The
works of God, wherein He finds rest or satisfaction, are the products of His
WISDOM, as it is written: “O Lord how manifold are Thy
works! IN WISDOM hast Thou made them
all. The earth is full of Thy riches; so
is this great and wide sea” (Psa. 104: 24,
25). “To
Him that BY WISDOM made the heavens” (Psa.
136: 5). “The Lord BY WISDOM hath founded the earth” (Prov. 3: 19). “WISDOM hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven
pillars” (Prov. 9: 1).
These
passages, and others which refer to the wisdom of God, have an important
bearing upon our subject, as we shall endeavour to show; for the supreme works
of Christ, Who is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1: 24), will come into display, for the
enjoyment and satisfaction of God, and of those who enter thereinto, in the age to come.
Hence
we find in the Scriptures many foreshadowings of “that rest.”
Particularly would we direct attention to Prov.
8., where Wisdom is represented as crying, standing in the top of the
high places, crying at the gates, and at the doors. Wisdom’s call is addressed not unto angels,
but unto men: “Unto you, O MEN, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.” To them she cries, “Hear,
for I will speak of excellent things” (ver.1-6). She speaks of fruit better than gold, and of
revenue better than choice silver, and declares that her purpose is to lead in
the way of righteousness, “That I may cause those. that
love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures” (19-21).
Then comes the announcement: “The Lord possessed
me, the BEGINNING of His way, before
His works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, ere ever the earth was” (22, 23).
Then the creation is brought into view.
God here speaks with delight, as He ever does, of the works of His
Hands, the earth, the fountains of waters, the mountains, the hills, the
fields, the clouds, and the seas. Thus
speaks the Wisdom of God: “When He gave to the sea His
decree ... When He appointed the foundations of
the earth. Then I was by Him, as one
brought up (or as another translation renders it His Artificer), and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,
rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the
SONS OF MEN” (29-31). “For not unto angels hath He put in subjection the habitable earth to come, whereof we
speak.”
There
is, at the present time, a teaching which finds much acceptance, to the effect
that the blessings of the Church are wholly of a “spiritual”
nature, and are confined to “heavenly places,” having
nothing to do with the habitable earth to come.
It is regarded as “unspiritual” to
anticipate material blessings, which are (according to this teaching) assigned
to
Let
us, then, listen to these words, which are intended for our ears: “Now, therefore, hearken unto Me, O YE CHILDREN, for blessed
are they that keep My ways.”
Surely this is addressed by Christ to the children that God has given
Him; and of whom also He speaks in Matt. 11:19,
“Wisdom is justified of her children.” Let us therefore prove ourselves to be the
children of Wisdom by hearkening to these things; for at that very time “Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of
Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes!”
And then He tells how, by bearing His yoke and learning of Him, they may
find rest unto their SOULS (Matt. 11: 25‑30).
To this important saying of the Lord - another instance where He began
to speak of that salvation so-great, the coming “rest”
- we will return later on.
In
these Scriptures we see the Christ of God, Who is the Power of God and the
Wisdom of God, by Whom all the works of God are wrought, looking forward to the time when He will rejoice in the habitable part
of His earth, and have His delights with the sons of men. That was the joy set before Him when He
endured the Cross.
In
this connection, we would commend to our readers the study of that remarkable
passage (1 Cor. 1: 17 to 2: 16) wherein the Apostle Paul contrasts the
wisdom and power of God with the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness
with God, and which has been confounded and brought to nothing by the Cross of
Christ. We can but indicate a few of the
leading points. Paul’s ministry among
the Corinthians was to preach the “foolishness”
of the Cross, by means of which it pleases God to save them that believe (Cor. 1: 17-23). Among them he had determined to know nothing
else (2: 2).
“However,” he says, “we do speak WISDOM among them that are perfect,” that
is, full-grown. This relates the passage to Hebrews, where
the sons of God are urged to go on to perfection (full-growth). But the wisdom which the Apostle speaks to
the mature saints is not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age,
who are coming to nought. He speaks the
wisdom of God, the wisdom that was hidden in mystery, that is to say, kept
secret, the wisdom that God predetermined before the ages for OUR GLORY (2:
6, 7). This is the purpose of
God, predetermined before the ages, and which is referred to in Hebrews,
namely, “bringing many
[not all] sons unto GLORY.”
This wisdom, no one of the rulers of this age has known, for had they
known it they would not have crucified the Lord of THE GLORY. The One Whom the
rulers of this age - the leaders of the thought of this age and the
representatives of its wisdom - put to shame upon the Cross, is the Lord of
that GLORY, into which God, during this very age, is bringing His many
sons. That wisdom, hidden from the
wise and prudent (comp. Matt. 11: 25 and 1 Cor. 1: 19) is now declared to be what the
prophet speaks of in Isa. 64: 4 - a wisdom
not understood by the learned men of this world, “But
as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man THE THINGS which God
hath prepared for them that love Him” (2: 8,
9). These “things” prepared by the Wisdom of God, things which
pertain to the glory of the sons of God, were not disclosed to the Corinthians,
and the Apostle’s reasons for not
revealing them to the saints at Corinth was not because they were too
spiritual, but for the very different reason that they were “babes,” being “carnal”;
and the evidence of their spiritual immaturity and carnality is pointed out in chap. 3: 3. “For ye are
yet carnal: For whereas there is among
you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”
(i.e., as men in the flesh, for they were “babes in
Christ.”) Let it then be
carefully noted that chief among the
things that hinder spiritual growth are envying, strife, and divisions. “Wherefore,”
says the apostle Peter, “laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new born
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2: 1, 2).
Paul goes on to say that God had revealed those things to him (or to “us,” Paul and Sosthenes) by His Spirit, Who searches
all things, they having received, not the spirit of the world which knows
nothing of those things, but the Spirit that is of God, in order that they
might know the things that are freely given to us of God (ver. 10-12).
Those, “things that are freely given to us of
God,” are the same “things which God has
prepared for them that love Him.”
Still speaking of the same things Paul tells how he communicates them to
others. Even as, in preaching the Cross,
he used not excellency of speech or enticing words of man’s wisdom (verses 1 and 4),
so in communicating these deep things of God, he spoke not in the words
which man’s wisdom teacheth, but in the words which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, communicating SPIRITUAL THINGS
by means of SPIRITUAL (WORDS). (We think
there can be no doubt that the substantive to be supplied after “spiritual” at the end of verse
13 is “words.” The grammatical
construction indicates it, and the sense of the passage demands it.) We thus learn that the things prepared by God
for the coming age, which are “for our glory,” are “spiritual
things,” notwithstanding that they are the material works of His
creative wisdom. And not only are they
spiritual things, but they are communicated by means of “spiritual words”; and they must be “spiritually discerned” (ver.
14).
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