Hebrews 4:16 –
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
The majority of this chapter talks about rest and the importance of it. It implies we can only really rest when our faith in God is solid. One thing I can say with 100% certainty, a day of rest is very important. I know there are “sects” of the Jewish faith that go so far as not even turn on a light on their day of rest. This I think is extreme, but the idea of rest needs to be honored. Our idea on this day is get to church then hit the trails, or the beach or do something else that although is not “work” takes a tremendous amount of energy. I don’t know if that really qualifies as “rest” and may actually do more harm than good.
The last verse in this chapter is a great promise for hope in God. The writer relates God to a king, because at that time most of the cultures of the time were monarchies and this analogy worked in explaining God’s position in our lives. To receive mercy from the king was above all other authority, so it was final. If Jesus were to speak today to our nation would God be described as the President or the Supreme Court? We need to think more of the analogies in the Bible today since we have a distributed form of government and are more manufacturing/technology, not the monarchies over an agrarian society.
The big key is putting God and Jesus first in our lives. We need to let their rule and accord guide us in our daily walk. If we do follow God this way, the promise is clear that we will get help when we need it most. I know it’s difficult especially in today’s economy to have faith in this promise. We are told we will never have to deal with more than we can handle, yet I joke that God must think I can handle a bunch. I think the key is taking this up a level and looking at life eternally. We all tend to focus on the here and now, which clouds our eternal view. What is your view of when you need God the most?