The hope of Israel was/is Christ. Not real estate in the Middle East.
Hebrews 3:14-4:1 says, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 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.”
Let us pause for a moment and note what happened here to God’s people and see what God is saying in this passage. They “came out of Egypt” which is a picture of the world. But that is not where it was supposed to finish. They were to then enter into “his rest.” Of course, in the Old Testament the physical Promised Land was the goal. Canaan was always viewed as the Promised Land, the earthly place of rest of the people of God in the Old Testament; however, it was not viewed as the eternal rest.
When we consider the restoration promises God gave Israel by way of the Old Testament prophets, we must do so through the lens of the person and work of Christ.
Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall 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, If they shall enter into my rest Seeing therefore it remaineth 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, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
The place of rest is “a promise” (Hebrews 4:1) and a provision of God for the people of God. That rest is not an abstract thing – it is Christ. The writer of Hebrews presents the Israelites failure to literally enter into their rest (the Promised Land), because of their disobedience and lack of faith, as a warning to New Testament professing believers against not entering their rest in Christ through faith. That land can only be entered by faith or “with faith” (Hebrews 4:2), thus proving we are looking at the great salvation that Christ offers. When a man enters into that place of rest (salvation in Christ) he ceases “from his own works” (Hebrews 4:10). One can never gain favor with God through “good works” – this is a repeated truth throughout Scripture.
The writer to the Hebrews here relates entering into rest under the new covenant as entering into Christ in salvation. This is the inheritance for every saint of God (Jew or Gentile) in our day. He is everything. It is a spiritual condition that brings peace to the soul, not a troubled geographical location in the Middle East. It is simply described in this reading as “his rest” – Christ’s rest. Moreover, that rest comes through simple faith in the Savior.
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