COV LIFE BLOG

Joshua 5:1-12 – God’s Grace to Give Us Rest Ultimately in Christ

Joshua’s rest was not the ultimate rest. Even though Joshua brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, that was not the ultimate rest which God had prepared for His people. Israel had a tendency toward satisfaction once they were in the land. They were satisfied with the land, and they took it in some cases as the ultimate expression of God’s rest. Canaan was not the ultimate rest for the people of God. Canaan, the land of conquest, was a type.  It was a foreshadowing, it was an anticipation of a future, a greater, a new covenant rest that the people of God were going to experience.
 
Our very celebration of the Lord’s Day reminds us that there is an ultimate day of rest that we have not yet entered into. Is that our focus?  Are we still desirous of entering into that rest? Do our priorities show that our ultimate goal is earthly rest, or do we want the heavenly rest? Christ’s rest is the final spiritual rest. That is our motivation to persevere because we want to enter into that rest. That is the land of Canaan that we want to experience.
 
There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. It’s only for those united to Christ. It’s only for those who trust in Christ. Press towards the rest. Don’t be satisfied with something short of the rest. Don’t give up on the rest. That’s our goal. That’s where we’re headed.  Malcolm Muggeridge once said, and this is such a poignant phrase: “The only ultimate tragedy is that a man makes this earth his home.”
 
You see the problem is not that we want too much. It’s that we’re satisfied with too little.  We’re satisfied with the token rest and satisfaction and temporal contentments of this world, which always have diminishing returns and always disappoint, instead of pressing towards that ultimate rest that God has prepared for us. Are we really pressing towards that rest?  Don’t fall short of that rest. That’s important for us even today.

Ligon Duncan

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Joshua 5:1-12 and consider all God’s great grace to his people. How was this intended to point the people towards their ultimate rest in Christ? So, how would you evaluate your life? Where are you striving for the rest that comes from the world over the rest that comes from God?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
The Lord Our God by Kristian Stanfill