No Rest, No Sleep, No Hope—Forever!

I'm not a night owl. I have zero appreciation for those of you who love to stay up into the wee hours of the morning. My eyes begin to droop around 10 p.m. I want my bed. I need my rest and I want it to start long before midnight. Then when 6:30 a.m. comes I'm rested and ready to roll out to begin the new day. I've had my eight and I'm on the way.

Whether you're a lark like me or an owl, one of the huge problems of our day is getting enough sleep. Tons of products promise to put you to sleep. Some work for some. Many don't and they droop along through the day, fighting to keep going. Stress, anxiety and tension follow and soon sickness of one sort or another sets in. Can't sleep, can't work, not gonna make it.

That's what happened to the thousands who were rescued from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses and the saving Hand of the LORD. They didn't make it. It's all recorded in the Biblical Book of Exodus. They made it out, but the foreboding wilderness of Sinai stood between them and the Promised Land. And when they came up to the very borders with orders to march, they caved in. They believed the reports of most of the spies. Those guys are as big as giants; its hopeless, they said. And so Israel turned back in doubt and rebellion toward the heat and horror of the desert. Hebrews puts it this way:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" - Hebrews 3:7-11 ESV

No rest for the wicked. And the most wicked thing you can do is to doubt the promises of the loving and forgiving Savior. That's what the Children of Israel did. They gave it up. They threw in their towels. They lost hope and turned to other gods. They didn't, they wouldn't believe in the LORD who brought them out and set them on the path leading to freedom and security. So they invited the anger of the LORD upon themselves.

I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest." Hebrews 3:11 ESV

And the LORD's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.' And the LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone. - Num 32:10-13 ESV 

No rest, no sleep, no hope. That's today's warning for all who once claimed to be members of the household of God in Christ Jesus, but threw it all away in unbelief and rebellion.

Take care, brothers (and sisters), lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. - Hbr 3:12 ESV

It's hell not to be able to sleep in the darkness, plagued by fear, guilt and remorse. It's hell to wander through the house, staring out at the night while everyone around you is quietly and happily taking deep breaths in sleep. No rest, no sleep, no hope. That's your future if you throw away all that is freely given to you in Jesus. No rest, no sleep, no hope—forever!