THE CHILDREN'S REST

The believer on the Lord Jesus Christ has the great and precious privilege of resting on the atoning work of the Saviour. It was after He said "It is finished" that He bowed the head and delivered up His spirit. The psalmist speaks in a prophetic way of the time when He will lift up the head in the day when evil is banished from the world. His earthly people will be glad then to offer praise and to rest in His sway over the whole world.

There can be no rest without righteousness. We can of course understand a mother forgiving with a quieting word and a kiss a naughty child who has said 'Sorry, mother'. It is right that she should do so. God too must have a righteous reason for remitting sins. Before He could print the kiss of forgiveness on the brow of a single sinner the mighty work of Calvary was a necessity. Old Testament saints had the benefit of it beforehand. Scripture speaks of Jesus as having "found an eternal redemption". Thus the work of Christ has met all God's claims as regards sin, has shown His abhorrence of it and freed Him from any charge of tolerating it in His universe. What a joy it is to the sinner who rests on that finished work and learns the value that God attaches to it! The rising from among the dead of Jesus is the great proof and our souls rest where God Himself rests.

The name Noah means 'repose'. Every time his name was used there was a prophetic reminder in a restless, wicked world that rest would be known in his lifetime. The fulfilment was in the burnt-offering made by him on a cleansed earth and which God smelled as a "sweet odour" or, more exactly, an 'odour of rest'. The many details given in Scripture concerning Noah and the ark are of great interest. For instance, the word "pitch" used in connection with its protection - as also of the river cradle of the babe Moses - means 'atonement'. Also the day of the year on which the ark rested is the equivalent day of the resurrection of Jesus, allowing for the fact that the seventh month became the first or Passover month. Does your soul rest on a risen Christ?

J.C.Evershed