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THE REST AWAITING WEARY WANDERERS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1
Joshua 5:1-12

Hebrews 3:12-19

 

Jesus says

“Come...and I will give you rest.”

 

THE REST AWAITING WEARY WANDERERS
 
(Today, we begin a month of readings adapted from Charles Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening.”)
 
Israel’s weary wanderings were over: no more moving tents, fiery serpents, howling wilderness and enemies along the way. After forty long years, they had entered the Land of milk and honey, the promised rest. Perhaps this year some beloved reader will be admitted into His rest. This is every believer’s joyful prospect, by faith in our almighty Saviour. To be with the Lord in the rest reserved for God’s people is surely our lively and blessed hope.
 
But between us and the Land of Bliss lies the Jordan, the final hurdle to be cleared. Does that worry you? Why, has not our Lord helped us conquer more ills than death? Let us banish every faithless thought and rejoice with exceeding great joy at the prospect that once across the Jordan, like the vale of shadow, we shall be for ever with the Lord. Then we may gladly say goodbye to the woes and weariness of earth.
 
For most readers, our lot is to tarry on earth to do service for the Lord. But even as we serve, we are given a foretaste of the heavenly rest. “For we which have believed do enter into rest…” (Heb 4:3). Here we have a “first instalment,” as it were, of our rest to come: the Holy Spirit Himself is the earnest of our inheritance. He gives us “glory begun below” (Watts). Even now we have a savour of Heaven’s blessings.
 
In Heaven, the departed saints are forever secure: so are we in Christ. There they enjoy eternal victory with Christ, on earth we have victory always in the Lord; there they commune in person with Him: here the Lord walks with us from day to day. He is ever true to His promise (Matt 28:20). “The fellowship of kindred minds, is like to that above” (Fawcett). In Heaven they are forever praising the Saviour. Should we on earth do less? It will make our wilderness wanderings less wearisome!
 
THOUGHT: Man did eat angels’ food of old, and why not now?

PRAYER: Father, grant me grace to feed daily on Jesus, the bread of life.

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