In Hebrews, the author notes that if Joshua had given people complete rest, God wouldn’t have spoken of another day of rest. (Hebrews 4:8)
This reveals that the rest Israel experienced upon entering the Promised Land was incomplete — enemies remained, along with sin and death.
True rest isn’t merely taking a break; it’s complete security.
God promised His people security from surrounding enemies in the land, yet reality fell short of expectations. This pointed to the need for a greater Joshua to come.
Joshua (whose name shares the Hebrew root of “Jesus” — meaning “Yahweh’s salvation”) led Israel into the Promised Land after Moses couldn’t enter.
Similarly, Jesus leads His people by faith into the eternal Promised Land.
We still await that perfect day of rest.
We face enemies around and within us, living in the seven-day cycle of this world. Yet through Christ, we’ve been placed into an eighth day — a new creation day.
This is why many baptismal fonts have eight sides, symbolizing this new reality.
We live in two realities: the seven-day world with its struggles, and by faith in the new day of rest Christ gives us.
When Jesus completed His salvation work and rested in the tomb on the seventh day, He fulfilled the Sabbath.
Rising on the eighth day, He transformed the grave from having only an entrance to having an exit.
Through Christ, the grave is no longer a dead end but opens into God’s eternal rest.
We await that day’s fulfillment — our resurrection into new creation life.
Though surrounded by enemies, we live in hope, having entered this rest by faith.
We anticipate the day when enemies will vanish, and we’ll experience complete security and freedom from sin, death, and the devil — the full eighth day that Christ has promised.
Contributor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at University Lutheran Church in Bloomington, IN.
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