The Glorious Rest

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 11:10 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."

 

Isaiah shifts gears here and speaks of the first coming of the Messiah. (There shall be a Root of Jesse) This root (the Messiah) will “stand as a banner to the people” A banner is a rallying point, a pennant raised on a pole, and I believe here a picture of the cross. The cross is the rallying point for all of Christendom.

 

Jesus said this about Him being lifted up as a banner in  Joh 12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."  33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

 

The cross then is what we preach, and it this message that will draw the Gentiles to find Jesus! 1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,  24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

 

Those who receive Jesus enter into His glorious rest. No more striving to work your way into paradise, but rather resting in Jesus and His finished work on the cross!

Heb 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";

 5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest."

 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,

 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts."

 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.

 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

 

Striving for your salvation in your own strength? Look to the cross and see the Root of Jesse paying the price of your sins. Receive the risen Lord and enter into His glorious rest!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.