Rest Complete

13 min readOct 5, 2023

Photo by Smitha Basil George: ‘Backyard captures — God’s art’

Authored by Smitha Basil George under the complete direction and guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, dated October 5, 2023.

Abstract

‘Rest Complete’ explains the blessedness of entering into God’s rest, taking Him at His Word, while we venture through our life that is given as a gift to us and that unfolds before us moment by moment. In this article series, we will try to understand what it means to be in a state of rest, how human beings were originally in the state of rest after their creation, how they transitioned out from rest to a state of anxious toil for their living, God’s redemptive plan to turn the matter around, and how to enter back to the state of original rest by entering into a strong relationship with Him — by trusting in His faithfulness, honoring His worthiness, being good stewards of His provisions, having a heart to give Him joy, and letting Him take the lead.

Scripture references [1] : Genesis 1–3; The book of Exodus; Numbers 11, 13, 14; Deuteronomy 1: 22–23, 11, 29: 5–6; Psalms 22: 1–18, 127: 1–2; Isaiah 9: 6–7; 53; Luke 2: 26–38, 23, 24: 1- 44; John 1, 3, 15, 16; Acts 2: 24; Romans 6: 23; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5: 17–21; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 -18; Hebrews 3, 4; Revelation 20

Original state of human rest

Scriptures for this section [1]: Genesis 1–2

Rest is a state where an object is comfortably situated at a location, without working strenuously or expending a lot of energy to accomplish something. This also could be a state when it has stopped doing a particular action, for the purpose of relaxing or being recharged. In order to maintain its position at rest, the object may sometimes need to lean on a support system, to hold it in its position. Another facet of restfulness can be understood from the illustration of an electron in an atom being in its ‘ground state’. The ground state, also called the resting state, is the lowest energy state of an electron. It will still be moving with a kinetic energy, but its positional potential energy is the lowest, being its closest to the nucleus of the atom. When it absorbs enough energy from another source, like a photon, it will jump to the next potential energy orbital of the atom, and will be in an excited state, from which it always tries to move back to its ground state by emitting the extra energy out. Also, atoms prefer to have / keep 8 electrons (octet state) in their outermost shell (valence shell) to be in their most stable state. They try to achieve this stable state by sharing electrons with or transferring electrons to other atoms in bonds, resulting in molecular formations. From these, we can see how even the building blocks of matter try to maintain a stable restful state for the continued sustenance of the matter that they make up.

From a higher level, every functional and sustainable system’s design aims towards letting the components that make up the system to remain in a state of restfulness, spending just the amount of energy, which is rightfully required to be functional. Any component that finds itself in a situation to work more and spend more energy than what it has, will eventually wear itself out, leading to the gradual collapse of the whole system. For every component to remain in the state of its restfulness, every other component should be performing as expected within the system. To ensure this, a set of component specific rules and constraints, to be followed by each of those, is defined within the design.

When God created the whole world, as explained in the two articles titled ‘Jesus the Christ, the Atonement for Human Sin’, and ‘God’s Pattern of Sevens’, He created everything in the right order and set them in their rightful places with assigned functions. He set natural physical laws to be followed by each of these creations, and provided additional moral laws to be followed by human beings, who are made in His image with an advanced body, a soul constituted by will, emotions & intellect and a spirit holding the conscience. After the creation, He found everything to be good. He enjoyed a very close relationship with human beings, as evidenced by Him coming down to walk with them in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3: 8) where they were living. Human beings, who were created on the 6th day of creation, could see and enjoy the next day of rest with the Lord, when He rested from all His work (7th day after the creation).

Transition from rest to toil and the redemptive plan

Scriptures for this section [1]:

Genesis 3
Psalm 22: 1–18
Isaiah 9: 6–7; 53
Luke 2: 26–38, 23, 24: 1- 44
John 1, 3
Acts 2: 24
Romans 6: 23
1 Corinthians 15
2 Corinthians 5: 17–21
1 Thessalonians 4: 13 -18
Revelation 20

Being fully connected to God and executing His plan, in close relationship with Him, made human lives very easy and enjoyable for them. However, when human beings sinned by disobeying God and by eating the fruit having the knowledge of good and evil at Satan’s temptation, they became spiritually dead (separated from the most Holy God) with their conscience going inactive, and forfeited their relationship with God, in whose presence, evil or holders of evil cannot stand. Genesis 3 gives a detailed account of human sin and its repercussions. Their sin made human beings to be out of the state of restfulness and to a state of anxious toil to obtain their bread for their living.

They had to be sent out from the garden of Eden to prevent them from eating from the tree of life, and thus from becoming immortal with their sinfulness. And the ground also became cursed on account of human sinfulness, where it takes a lot of hard work for it to produce food for human beings. Not only that, but along with food, it would also produce briers and thorns. The ease with which human beings obtained food became a story of the past. In their latter state of being away from God, they had (and have) to toil very hard to get the ground to produce their food / earn their food, and eventually one day, their hard-pressed body would stop functioning and they would return to the ground. In addition to this, bringing forth and raising the next generation would become a tedious undertaking, with the woman’s sorrow increasing in general, and in particular, in child-rearing.

For bringing human beings back into a relationship with Him, God’s Word, the begotten Son of God (who was one with God and came from within God) came down in flesh as the Son of Man (human being with the Word transformed to human DNA and matter), conceived by God’s Holy Spirit in a virgin human mother (Mary), as God prophesied to Satan in Genesis 3: 15. He took upon Himself the sinfulness of the whole mankind and gave Himself up to be tortured and finally be crucified to death as the punishment of mankind’s sin (Psalm 22: 1–18, Isaiah 53, Luke 23), taking that whole sinfulness to death during the process. He then came back to life since He was perfectly sinless and death could not hold onto Him (Romans 6: 23, Acts 2: 24). He was Jesus, the Christ, who thus became the atonement for all mankind’s sin. Everyone who is willing to accept this fact by repenting of their sins and giving them over to Jesus’ atonement would have themselves cleansed of their sins, and could then be born again, with a reborn spirit and awakened conscience, into a relationship for eternity with our creator, the most Holy God (John 3: 1–21, 1 Corinthians 15: 1–8, 20–26, 2 Corinthians 5: 17–21).

Jesus was God’s plan for redeeming mankind from their separation from God, and no other human action could rescue their spirits from being separated from God. Even human physical death will not help the human spirit in this regard, because the death (separation from God) will be accounted for the multitudes of sins (even unhealthy and sinful thoughts) the person accumulated over his/her life, and death will maintain that status, preventing the human spirit from getting out of its hold, keeping the human spirit separated from God. For those who die physically after giving their sins over to Jesus and accepting His salvation from sin, will be brought back to life when Jesus comes back to establish His Kingdom on earth as He promised, and will be with Him forever because their sins are destroyed (1 Corinthians 15: 50 — 58, 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 — 18), while others, after being brought back to life just before the Great White Throne Judgment of God will have to stay separated from God for eternity for their own undestroyed sins (otherwise known as hell or not having God available to satisfy any need — Revelation 20).

Relationship with God — Source of human rest

Scriptures for this section [1]:

The book of Exodus
Numbers 11, 13, 14
Deuteronomy 1: 22–23, 11, 29: 5–6
Psalm 127: 1–2
John 15, 16
Hebrews 3, 4

Entering into a relationship with God and trusting upon His faithfulness to provide for and to take care of us is very crucial in ensuring our restfulness. As explained in the article ‘God’s Pattern of Sevens’, remembering to keep the Sabbath day holy to rest in God (giving rest to ourselves, those in our employment, our animals and to the land / resources on the 7th day after 6 days of work), is set as a commandment by God to acknowledge our trust upon Him for our continued provision rather than on our own labor. It is God who brought us into existence from nothing, and provided us with our sustenance through our family & community, opportunities, abilities and health during each moment of our lives. He who sees into the future already has set good things in store for us when we walk according to His perfect and the most well-intentioned design. It is important to not be lazy, but to put all the talents God gave us to good use to take care of our loved ones, to uplift our community and to provide for those who are in need. However, when we put all our trust upon our own abilities (or on the other hand, fear the lack of abilities) and work, based on what we see at a given point of time, and forget to acknowledge God’s faithfulness, our peace will start to erode and we will get back into the vicious cycle of anxious toil (Psalm 127: 1–2).

Forfeited promised land

The author of Hebrews explains in chapter 3 and 4, the incident which prevented a generation of Israelites from entering into a restful promised land, flowing with milk and honey, watched and rained over by God Himself, due to their lack of trust in God’s faithfulness and worthiness. The backstory for this is provided in the book of Exodus and Numbers 13–14. Israelites were delivered, under the leadership of Moses, by God from extreme slavery in Egypt, through a series of miracles God performed to persuade the Egyptian Pharaoh to set the Israelite slaves free and let them go. On their way to the land promised by God to their Patriarch Abraham for his descendants, God went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud showing the way during the day, and in a pillar of fire in the night to give them light.

While they were approaching the Red Sea, they saw Pharaoh and his large army closing in on them and got terrified finding no way to escape, and contemptuously questioned Moses. At this time, the pillar of cloud moved to the back between Israelites and Pharaoh’s army, darkening the Egyptian side, and lightening the Israelite side, and preventing the army from reaching any closer to the Israelites. Then, when Moses stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, it parted before the Israelites, so that they could walk across the sea on dry land with the water forming walls on either side. The Egyptians who pursued them into the sea were prevented from catching onto the Israelites, because God fought against them by taking off their chariot wheels. Once all the Israelites crossed over, He let the water come back to its original state, drowning the whole Egyptian army (Exodus 14). Along with all the miracles that the Israelites saw during the process of their deliverance from Egypt and on their way to their promised land, they got to see God fighting for and defending them very earnestly in this incident. They could escape a mighty army through a way made through a sea, despite the fact that they questioned Moses and God’s leading, who was going above and beyond to rescue them from their extreme slavery. One would think God could prove His love and faithfulness to them through this incident.

When they got very close to the promised land, they approached Moses with a desire to send spies out into the promised land. Moses consulted God and agreed to send out 12 spies, one from each Israelite tribe (Deuteronomy 1: 22–23, Numbers 11). However, when they came back, 10 of the spies praised the fertility of the land, but provided a bad report regarding the size of the inhabitants of the land and sowed fears in the hearers’ heart that they will not be able to conquer them, despite disagreement from Joshua and Caleb. Thinking back on how wonderfully God delivered the Israelites from slavery, the Egyptian army, the Red Sea, and how He provided them with Manna everyday despite all the complaints about food, they had the chance to trust upon Him to deliver them from the hands of the giants, or any potential harm that they could face from the inhabitants of the land that they were given as a possession by God Himself. Instead, they chose to speak very contemptuously against God, Moses and Aaron. They were trying to choose a leader to turn back to Egypt despite Moses’ and Aaron’s desperate plea. They even tried to stone Joshua and Caleb when they tried to speak them out of it.

This is when God decided to put an end to this rebellion and send a pestilence to them. But Moses stood again in the gap and pleaded for Israelites, according to God’s mercy to forgive them, which God heeded. But He let them know that the generation who rebelled against him, 20 years or older, except Joshua and Caleb, would not enter the promised land, because they treated God in a very demeaning manner despite all His efforts to rescue and sustain them. They were made to turn back to the wilderness, where they would spend another 40 years, one year for each day that they spied on the promised land. God in His grace, still provided them with Manna everyday for their sustenance. Also, none of their clothes or sandals got worn off during their entire 40 year journey through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29: 5–6).

Promised land — promised rest

Hebrews 3 and 4 reiterate this story and encourage us to trust in God’s faithfulness, and not to rebel against God as Israelites did in the wilderness. The heart of unbelief — stemming from fear of the circumstances and thinking that we don’t have the ability or resources to deal with them, and disregarding God’s ability and faithfulness to bring forth a solution — when practiced repeatedly, causes our hearts to be hardened, and depart from having a healthy relationship and dependency on God. This will lead to a rebellious over-exertion and over-dependence on ourselves, leading to forfeiting our restfulness that God promised.

Once we repent & hand over our sins to Jesus, receive rebirth of our spirit and God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us to live as a new creation following Christ’s ways, commandments and character, we surrender ourselves to His leading and His will. If we walk in His ways, then we are, for sure, promised our restful inheritance with Him in His Coming Kingdom. Not just that, even when we are on this current earthly system, our land (provision) will be cared for, rained over and watched over by God Himself all the time as explained in Deuteronomy 11: 8–15. The Egyptian land, where the Israelites were enslaved and cultivated before, needed to be watered foot by foot. This represents the hard work that we need to do when we are working on our own strength. But the land that God promises is rained over by Him, representing the limitless and bountiful provision that God can supply. God cares for that land in such a permanent way that His eyes are always on it from the beginning till the very end of the year. This is God’s will for everyone who is walking in accordance with His character, commands, plans and purpose, and working with Him for the betterment of His creations. This is also highlighted in John 15 when Jesus is encouraging His disciples, to remain in Him and in His love, that His joy will be in us and that our joy may be complete. When we remain in Him, as a branch connected to its vine, we will bear much fruit that will last, so that whatever we ask in His name according to His will, God the Father will give that to us.

This does not mean that we will never face any troubles or struggles in our life here in our current fallen and sinful earthly system. In John 15 verses 18–25, He reminds us that the sinful world hated and persecuted Him, and we can expect the same as well in our life here. But the advantage that we have is that He has overcome the world, and with Him, we will be able to do so as well, while enjoying complete peace in Him (John 16: 33). It is again mentioned in Hebrews 4: 14–16 to boldly approach His throne of grace, that we would obtain mercy (for sins done in weaknesses) and grace to find help in our time of need. He already went through all the trials and temptations that mankind could face in this fallen world, overcame everything perfectly without sin, and is now serving as our great High Priest, our Advocate, pleading before the justice of God the Father, and obtaining forgiveness for all our sins because of the price He paid for us with His life and blood (He endured death, or paid with His life, to put our sins to death). Therefore, He would clearly know and would help us with the comfort, strength, wisdom, instructions and resources needed to face any struggle this world offers us, so that we can enjoy a peaceful walk with Him irrespective of our circumstances.

The subsequent articles explore in detail, each of the facets of entering into His restfulness by:

References

The Holy Bible, https://www.biblegateway.com/, New King James Version.