Sitting Down

One of the most important issues relating to the Lord’s rest, as opposed to our rest, is that His rest is a dynamic rest. One passage that illustrates this in a most humorous way is “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” (1 Kings 18: 27) Elijah had challenged the prophets of Baal to call upon their god, who was, incidentally, the god of fire, to bring fire from heaven to burn their sacrifice but they were unable to do that. Elijah mocked them because their god was not doing what they asked him. “After all,” he said, “he is a god and there are many things that could distract him.” However, the very second that Elijah called out to the Lord fire came down from heaven because our God is not distracted by anything. We have a dynamic relationship with the Lord and His ear is always ready to hear our cry. We will never face a situation when we call out to our God and He says, “What did you say? I wasn’t listening.” There is an old saying, “Sometimes I sit and think but sometimes I just sit.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews had been encouraging Christian Jews to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ rather than to return to their old religion even though the other Jews of their time were encouraging them to be faithful to their own people. He reminded these Christians that the Lord Jesus Christ was the only One Who could actually offer real rest unlike Moses or any of the other great heroes of the OT.

From the first verses of this letter we see that the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied every promise that the Lord had made to Israel in the OT. Even though there were many prophets over the centuries no one was sufficient to give true rest but the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel offered many sacrifices in the Temple but these sacrifices were not sufficient because they had to be offered on a daily basis. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice once and then He sat down. This leads us to the fact that one of the current works of the Lord Jesus Christ is “sitting down”.

The question we have to ask concerning “sitting down” is, “Why does it matter that the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting down now?” In the past the Lord Jesus Christ was not sitting down as there was still work to do. In the future, the Lord Jesus Christ will stand up again and even mount His warhorse to fight the last great battle but, today, He is sitting down. This leads us to three great issues: The Warrior, the Weapon and the Word.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest warrior in the history of creation, including the history that is yet to be witnessed. This concept was apparent when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross as Isaiah said, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Is 53: 7) As the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, the greatest Warrior in history carried the greatest weapon in history, His word, but He refused to use that weapon because He had come to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19: 10)

The first time that we read about the great weapon, the Word of God, is in Gen 1 where we read, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen 1: 3) It is hard to underestimate the power that is shown in that statement. Science cannot adequately explain the creation of light without resorting to a vast multitude of chance occurrences that are so remote as to be actually impossible. But, light is easy to create; all you have to do is turn the switch on and you get it. Or, perhaps, you just have to light a fire. All of that light ultimately comes from the sun and where does the sun get its light?

The sun is a huge thermonuclear device where billions of hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium atoms every micro second. Each time this happens a small parcel of light energy is released into space. How did that start? If you believe in the “Big Bang” there are many questions that you have to answer. “Where did the hydrogen come from, immediately after that moment?” Scientists believe that they have recently found a particle they call the “god particle” today in the hope that they will be able to explain how all those sub microscopic particles managed to join together to form the hydrogen atoms in the first place. However, that discovery has just led to many other questions. The sun isn’t the only source of light as there are billions of stars as well. How did the thermonuclear explosion first start, as an enormous amount of energy is required to begin that kind of explosion?

On the other hand, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” There is more power in that statement than can ever be imagined by the entire collective imagination of all of mankind in all of history. If the Word of God can control all that power, and it is all controlled, then what can be more powerful than the Word of God?

Now that we have shown the greatness of the Lord’s power it is instructive to see what He was able to do on the earth: When Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt the army of the greatest super power on the earth at that time chased them and Pharaoh was determined to destroy them completely. What happened? This episode can be summarised by Ex 15: 21, “And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” That entire army was destroyed in a few moments when the Lord caused the sea to flood over them. This was after, “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” (Ex 14: 13) Israel did nothing to defeat the army of the greatest super power on earth but the Lord did everything.

In the future there will be a time when the Lord Jesus Christ confronts the greatest army that is every mustered in the history of the earth. We know that this is the greatest army because all the world will be united under one general called “the beast” and this has never happened before. At that time the Lord Jesus Christ will slay all that army with the sword that comes out of His mouth, the Word of God. (Rev 19: 19-21) This feat is even more substantial than the other great victory that we looked at before. The size of the army is much larger and the capacity of the army to wage war is much greater as well. There is no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest Warrior in history and that His weapon, the Word of God is far more powerful than any person can actually imagine.

If the Lord Jesus Christ is such a great Warrior then why does it matter that He has sat down? Warriors don’t sit down while there are still battles to be fought. It is true that there are other great battles to be fought in the future but there are no battles to fight in the present. That is what the two passages from Hebrews tell us. After the Lord Jesus Christ finished His work He sat down. Just before He died on the cross He said, “It is finished!” (John 19: 30) He made it abundantly clear by His words and His actions that, as far as saving the lost is concerned, there is nothing left to do. The very fact that He is sitting down is a constant reminder in heaven that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and He is entirely sufficient for that task.

But there is still another issue that flows from the fact that He is sitting down. This issue follows from, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” (Jude 9) and “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Rev 12: 7-9) If we take these passages together we can see that Michael was able to defeat Satan, the devil, by the power of the Lord’s Name, (compare “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” Prov 18: 10)

The Lord Jesus Christ emphasised the power of His name many times while He was with His disciples on the earth. We can only look at a few of these. (John 14: 13, 14, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” and Matt 18: 20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”)

When the Lord called the prophet Jeremiah He said, “...for I will hasten my word to perform it.” (Jer 1: 12) The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting down in heaven tells us that there is nothing left to do, for the present, but it also reminds us that He there to guarantee the power of His Name. He has made promises and now He is sitting down and hastening to perform His word.

The Lord Jesus Christ may be at rest from the work of salvation but He is in a state of dynamic rest. He is a constant reminder before the throne of grace that we have unrestricted access, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4: 16) He is a constant reminder that His great work is entirely sufficient and He is constantly watching over the power of His Name. He will never be distracted.