10-4-26_The Rest Already Given

Joshua 1:1-9/ Pr. John Kim, LLC

There was once a rich man. He loved his wealth more than anything. So, he prayed, earnestly. And at last God gave him permission to bring one suitcase of his fortune into heaven. He filled it to the brim with solid gold bars and arrived at the gates of heaven. Peter opened the suitcase. He looked inside. And he asked, in astonishment, “You were given that rare permission… and this is what you brought? Paving stones?”

Revelation tells us the street of the heavenly city is “pure gold, transparent as glass.” What the rich man spent his whole life collecting was the pavement under everyone’s feet.

Maybe the things we treat as most important in this world will mean nothing at all in the world beyond death. Or maybe, as our last days draw near, we will look back and regret how tightly we held on to such small things.

So, what do we truly need? I believe it is rest. The peace we find in God, in his love. Not just my own private peace, but a heart and a world where everyone can feel safe and finally breathe. And yet we forget. Our society keeps us from rest. And so do we.

The World of Pharaoh

Israel’s story begins in Egypt. And Egypt was the opposite of rest. As Pharaoh’s slaves, the Israelites made bricks without end. Even when the straw was taken away, the quota never went down.

It was never only about bricks. It was about power. Control. Oppression. God called it evil. And God’s will was clear: Stop. Rest. So, God brought them out of Egypt and led them toward the Promised Land.

The Promised Land was a symbol of rest. The book of Hebrews says a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. But rest does not begin only after we die. What the Promised Land points to is not a place. It is God himself. Wherever he is with us, that is rest.

God was with them in the wilderness. And God is with them now, at the edge of the Jordan. Still, Joshua was afraid.

But even in his fear, God did not leave him.

The First Rest: Rest Within

Why was Joshua afraid? Moses was dead, the man he had followed for forty years. Now Joshua had to lead a whole nation. Alone. In front of him, the Jordan River. Beyond it, war. How could he not be afraid?

What about us? A child who never seems to change. A conflict that never gets resolved. Having no place to call home. Financial strain that never lets up. A long illness that wears you down, until you begin to feel like a burden to the very family caring for you. Confusion and anxiety that just don’t go away. In moments like these, we do not fully live in the rest God has given us.

That is when God speaks to Joshua: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” And only after that does he say, “Be strong and courageous.”

The promise comes first. Courage is not the condition. It is the result.

“Be strong and courageous” appears three times in this short passage. Joshua must have been afraid enough to need to hear it three times. And God did not scold the one who was afraid. Again and again, gently, he said, “I am with you.” That gentleness itself is grace.

And God gives him one more word: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you.” Not “I will give.” “I have given.” Joshua has not even crossed the river yet. But for God, it is already done. Before the first battle, the rest was already prepared.

Rest is not the absence of fear. Rest is God with us in the middle of our fear. That was true for Joshua. And it is true for us. Even now.

So how do we live in that rest? The same way Joshua did, in the middle of his fear. We hold on to God’s promise. Verse 8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night.”

The Hebrew word for “meditate” is hagah. It means to murmur, to speak in a low voice. The same word is used for a lion growling over its prey. Meditation is not just reading words on a page. It is keeping God’s Word in your mouth, and refusing to let it go. In other words, it is staying with God.

Our hearts are always murmuring something. “I need to earn more.” “It’s still not enough.” “I can’t fall behind.” Fear. Regret. Worry. If those voices speak to us day and night, then God’s Word must speak to us day and night too.

I know those voices. My teenage years were full of unrest. My heart was always anxious. Restless. Low. Nothing was going right, and nothing was going wrong either. I was just… stuck. And my greatest comfort was the Word of God. Especially the Psalms.

My circumstances didn’t change. But as I read the Psalms and prayed, something began to fill me. The promise of peace. And the hope that I could come to know God more deeply. That Word is still the nourishment of my soul. It is God who gives our hearts steadiness and peace. And for that grace, I give thanks.

But rest does not stop inside my own heart. We are one body. The rest God desires is the rest of a whole community.

The Second Rest: Rest Among Us

Second, rest is God’s will being done here on earth.

God rested on the seventh day. We were made for rest. And yet this world does not know rest. The poor. The hungry. The powerless. They go without comfort.

In Deuteronomy 5, when God gives the Sabbath commandment, he adds this: Let your servants rest. And your ox. And the stranger within your gates. And he gives the reason: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.”

A God who wants even the ox to rest. He does not want anyone to collapse from exhaustion. Rest means letting the person beside me rest too. When we give rest to our neighbor, we become more like the heart of God. That is why rest can never be separated from holiness and justice.

Look at our society today. Endless competition. Work without rest. Consumption that never stops. People become parts. In the name of efficiency, human lives become tools. Pharaoh’s brick factory has not disappeared. It has only changed its shape.

But hear this. When God says “Rest,” it is a command. And it is also a promise. It is God’s will. So, God himself will bring it to pass. In Christ, it has already been won. We are not building it on our own. We are simply walking it out in faith. Just like Joshua, stepping onto land that has already been given.

Those who hold on to God’s promise create spaces of rest in this world. In our homes. In our workplaces. And in this church. Letting someone rest. Sharing a table instead of competing. Valuing people more than gold.

Conclusion: What Will You Carry?

Think again of that rich man. The gold he held on to until the very end was pavement in the kingdom of God. So, what can we carry with us?

I remember a woman I met in hospice. Her body was too weak to stand, let alone dance. Her husband, the man she had loved all her life, had already passed away. But when she talked about the days they used to dance together, her face lit up. And she told me she wanted to dance with him again in heaven.

What she held at the end was not gold. It was love.

And in that love, we find true peace. True rest.

Jesus says, “If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” God with us. And us with him. That is the rest we have been looking for.

And until that day, there is something that holds us. The promise of God.

God has given each of you a promise. For some of you, it is a single verse you held on to in a hard season. For me, it was the Psalms in my teenage years. For others, it is a word pressed into your heart in prayer.

Remember that promise. And hold on to it. To the end. When your circumstances stay the same. When fear comes back again. Whoever holds on to the promise lives in the rest that has already been given.

And if no promise comes to mind, remember this. Every promise in Scripture is God’s word to you today, through the Holy Spirit. And faith receives it as your own. So, receive this word today: “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

This week, keep that promise in your mouth.

The land has already been given. Rest has already been given. Now we go out into the world, holding on to his promise.

Prayer

Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for your love and your peace, and for the rest you give us through them. You invite us into your love, and there we find our rest.

Lord, let all of us rest, according to your will. First, let us know your presence in our own hearts, through your Word.

And we pray for our city, Seattle. Make it what you desire it to be: a place of justice and mercy, where all can find rest, a safe place, a land of promise.

We cannot accomplish all of this ourselves. But we hold in our hearts your Word, your covenant, and the promise you gave to Joshua. Make us your workers, who pray for your kingdom to come here, and who live it out.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.