Labor to Enter God’s Rest – The Exodus – Part 1

Ironically, believers must labor to enter God’s rest.  We cannot fold our hands and sit back because removing unbelief and trusting God takes constant effort.  So the labor we have is learning to trust God, and disregard unbelief.  We will be using the Exodus as our example to learn from.

Hebrews 3: 7-17:   ⁷ That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, ⁸ don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.  ⁹ There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.  ¹⁰ So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me.   They refuse to do what I tell them.’  ¹¹ So in my anger I took an oath:  ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” ¹² Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.  Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. ¹³ You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. ¹⁴ For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. ¹⁵ Remember what it says:

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”  ¹⁶ And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷ And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? ¹⁹ So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.   ^NLT

Exodus 14: 10-14:   ¹⁰ When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people  of Israel cried out to the LORD. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” ¹³ And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. ¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”     ^ESV

Exodus 15: 22- 26:  ²² So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur.  And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. ²³ Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.  ²⁴ And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”  ²⁵ So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree.  When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.  There He (God) made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He(God) tested them, ²⁶ and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes.  I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians, For I am the Lord who heals you.”   ^NKJ

Exodus 15:27; Exodus 16: 1-4; 12, 13, 18:   ²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.  ¹ Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. ² The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the  LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”   ⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.  ¹² “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”  ¹³ So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁸ When they measured it with an omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat.  ^{ESV NAS}

Exodus 17: 1-6:   ¹ Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. ² Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” ³ But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” ⁴ So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” ⁵ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”  ^NAS