Rest

Rest in biblical theology encompasses both physical cessation from labor and the deep theological concept of God's sabbath rest and the eschatological rest promised to his people. The divine rest on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:2–3) established the pattern for the sabbath commandment (Exodus 20:11) and for Israel's land-sabbath every seventh year. The promised rest for Israel was the land of Canaan — a place of settled security in God's presence after the wilderness wandering (Deuteronomy 12:9–10; Joshua 21:44).

The letter to the Hebrews develops the theology of rest most fully (chapters 3–4). Drawing on Psalm 95:11 (They shall not enter my rest), the writer argues that the wilderness generation failed to enter the rest through unbelief; that Joshua's entry into Canaan was not the final rest (for David still spoke of it as future in Psalm 95); and that therefore a sabbath rest (sabbatismos) remains for the people of God — entered now by faith and consummated in the age to come (Hebrews 4:1–11). Jesus's invitation — Come to me... and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28–29) — identifies himself as the rest of God.