Entering God’s Rest (9)
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62 KJ2000)
25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30, NKJV)
God hid many mysteries in his letters to believers. One of these is the mystery of entering God’s rest. Hebrews 3-4 indicate that believers can live in this rest always. Hebrews 4:11 and my observations and personal experience show me that so long as we live in this flesh we must always “strive to enter that rest.” This means that we must play an active, ongoing part in entering into rest. We see, then, that entering God’s rest is not a once for all state of being that only certain people come into. It is a way of life.
Jesus thanked his Father that he hid his Kingdom mysteries from the “wise and prudent,” that is, the self-satisfied leaders of this world, but that he reveals them to “babes,” to those who acknowledge their sin and dependency upon him. To these Jesus says, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And then he tells us how he will give us this rest. We must take his yoke upon us and learn from him.
This picture means little to people in the world today because most are far removed from ancient farming techniques. But, before the era of machines and tractors men plowed their ground with teams of oxen. A man would yoke two oxen together, attach them to a plow, and then plow his field. Jesus thus portrays himself as gentle ox willing to be yoked with us so that we can plow the ground of existence together. In order to plow ground, though, the oxen must move the same way. If one of the oxen, you or me, turns around and looks back at the world we came from, back to Egypt, we cannot move on with Jesus. We can no longer learn from him and immediately we become unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven. But if we continue with Jesus, looking where he looks, turning left when we turns left and right when he goes right, then we will succeed in plowing up the worthless, fallow ground of our earth, our souls.
This plowing of our fallow ground is represented by the “sword” of the Spirit of Hebrews 4:12. Jesus is the Word of God whose action in our lives, so long as we are willing, will divide our soul and spirit and reveal and judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Men fear yoking themselves to Jesus. We often fear the intrusion into our secret places such a yoking would allow. Like Adam we prefer to hide our sin from God and cover ourselves in fig leaves, the hypocrisy of self-righteousness. But, Jesus assures us, saying, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12 KJ2000)
LORD, gives us grace to take your yoke upon us, and walk with you toward your Kingdom. Amen.
