Rebellion
Rebellion: an act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler; the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? Hebrews 3:17-18
The Israelites always seem to find a way to rebel against God. It seems as if when God said “Don’t do it” they always would do it. Many times when I am reading the Bible I have often wonder why they did not just follow God’s instructions after all He had done for them. Even as I was thinking the thought, God brought to my mind how rebellious I was as a teen. If my parents told me not to do something, that seemed to be my license to go ahead and do it. I would always suffer the consequence for the behavior and I knew I would, but I did it anyway.
The scripture above makes it real clear that rebellion and disobedience will not bring us God’s rest or peace. God swore that they would not enter His rest! I wanted to know exactly what God meant when He said they would not enter His rest, so I looked up the word “rest” in the Greek. The word “rest” in this scripture means: in general statement, applicable to God and man. God’s rest is entered when the believer is confidently assured within and outwardly lives peaceable in the assurance of God’s daily provisions. God’s rest is His daily provisions, and eternal life Wow! But what does that look like? When we look around physically it seems that we have His provision. But when we look internally in our relationship with Him we will find ourselves in a desolate place. Obedience puts our spirit in a place of wholeness and peace.
I don’t think we realize how important it is to follow God’s commands. For many, it is truly not until something devastating happens in our lives that we take time to hear God’s instructions. God gives us simple commands, like love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). He tells us to trust in him with all our heart and to lean not on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him and he will direct our path (Proverbs 3:5-8).
See, because we don’t follow God’s instructions we walk in rebellion and we miss the rest of God. We miss all that God has ordained to give us. Grace and mercy still follows us everyday but the provisions that God had ordained especially for us we will forfeit because of our own behavior. I know many times as a teen because of my rebellion I had more chores which left me with less opportunities to enjoy the blessings of the day God had ordained for me.
Although we are born in sin and that is a part of our DNA, God has given us a way out so we can live in His rest. We can have that peace that passes all understanding and receive all He has ordained for us. His rest is always waiting for us to change, for scripture says …the promise of entering his rest still stands…(Hebrews 4:1).
Father,
It is not our desire to be rebellious or disobedient. We want to live in all that you have ordained for us. We repent of our sins and we praise you for the opportunity to enter into your rest. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
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