The Rest of the Lord

                In Hebrews 3: 11, Paul mentions that the people in the days of Moses, who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, not entering into the rest of the lord.  They lost this privilege because they hardened their hearts and did not understand the ways of the lord.  They could not enter because of their unbelief.  Although they had seen miracles in the wilderness they still were laxed in following the Lord.  Paul repeatedly warned the saints to not harden their hearts, warning them that if they did they would not hear the voice of the Lord nor enter into his rest.  This can apply to us today because we can harden our hearts by not listening to the words of the modern prophet.  The Modern Prophet is the voice of the Lord today and if our hearts are hardened we will not hear the voice of the Lord and we won’t understand his ways.

                Doctrine and Covenants 84: 23-24 describes the rest of the Lord as a fullness of the God’s glory.  God’s work and his glory is the immortality and eternal life of man (see Moses 1: 39) so the rest of the lord described here is Eternal Life in the presence of God.  To enter into this rest, Paul counsels us to labor and eagerly work to enter the Lord’s rest.  He notes that not laboring is a sign of unbelief (see Hebrews 4: 11).  Paul also said the “word” needs to be “mixed with faith.”  James taught that we need to be “doers of the word and not hearers only” (James 1: 22).  Paul mentions the work of the creation and how on the seventh day God rested.  It is understood that God created the earth by the word of his power, which is Christ (see Moses 1: 32, Jacob 4: 9).  We need to not only confess Christ as our savior, but we need to do the works of Christ so that on our seventh day we will be able to rest.  Further, John 7: 17 and Matthew 21-23 state how important it is to do the will of the Father in all things in order to understand the doctrine (the word) and to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (eternal life) which is the rest of the Lord.